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DISNEYLAND Resort
Anaheim, California
Walt Disney Theme Parks
---- THE LATEST BUZZ ----
(12/8/2025) Disneyland Resort Sets A Number of Important Dates in 2026
(12/5/2025) Disneyland Resort to Replace One AP Tier With A New More Expensive Tier
(10/30/2025) Disneyland Resort Lays Off 100 Positions This Week
(10/11/2025) A British Gastropub Is Coming to Disneyland's Downtown Disney
(10/8/2025) Disney Increases Ticket Prices at Disneyland
(8/20/2025) Disneyland Resort To End Long Time Perk For Hotel Guests in 2026
 General Resort News - (12/8/2025) Disneyland announced a number of important event dates for 2026. This includes the fact that the Disneyland 70th Anniversary celebration will run through to Aug. 9, 2026.
Other big dates in 2026 include the launch of the Bluey’s Best Day Ever show in the Fantasyland Theater on March 22, the Food & Wine Festival at DCA will be from March 6 to April 27, Halloween Time from Aug. 21 to Oct. 31, Hyperpace Mountain returns for a limited run on April 28th, the new Millennium Falcon: Smuggler’s Run missions featuring The Mandalorian and Grogu begin May 22, and Soarin’ Across America launches on July 2. You can also expect to see a lot of construction taking place in Disney California Adventure as work continues in Avengers Campus for the new attractions, as well as work starting on the new Coco and Avatar attractions as well next year.
(10/30/2025) Just as the Disneyland parks are heading straight for the busy winter holiday weeks, it seems that the Disneyland Resort has chosen to lay-off about 100 cast members this week. According to reports there were said to be “a limited number of salaried positions”.
(8/20/2025) A long time perk for on-site hotel guests will come to an end in 2026 at Disneyland will discontinue the “early entry” perk. As of Jan. 5th, the 30 minutes of early access will no longer be offered, but instead on-site hotel guests will gain a one-time free Lightning Lane access to an attraction.
(4/12/2025) According to this social media post, Disneyland has filed for demolition permits to take down the former La Brea Bakery building in Downtown Disney, which is currently home to the second Earl of Sandwich location. The building lies between the entrance to the World of Disney Store and the entrance to the Disney California Adventure park itself, and it is said that the building will be coming down along with the closest pair of ticket booths in order to make room for a new Portos Bakery location. Since Earl of Sandwich remains to be a popular eatery, I’d look for them to set up shop again somewhere else in Downtown Disney, possibly over in the new area under construction that is replacing the former AMC Theater building.
 Ticket Pricing - (12/5/2025) Things are going to get more expensive for Disneyland Resort annual passholders. As hard as it is to get and keep an annual pass, and deal with the reservation system, things will be getting a little more complicated as Disney plays the name-game. From my understanding of things, Disneyland is preparing to retire the “Enchant Key” pass tier with a more expensive “Explore Key” tier that will provide some additional access days during the summer season.
Look for the new Explore Key tier to go on sale starting January 13, 2026 for $999, a $25 increase over the Enchant Key price that will no longer be offered starting on this same day. I’m told that the SoCal resident restricted tier, “Imagine Key” is also set to go on sale again on the same day for $599.
Beyond that you’ll have the Believe Key tier for $1474 and the Inspire Key for $1899 a year.
(10/8/2025) Disney has raised ticket prices at Disneyland and Walt Disney World this week. The parks play the “tier” game by keeping prices for the few calendar days on the lowest tier about the same as before while increasing the price to get in on the other tiers. The low price tier at Disneyland will be $104 for a one day admission, but if you drop in on a busy day, the top tier price will have increased up to $224, an increase of $18.
Prices in Orlando’s Walt Disney World will range between $119 and $209, depending on which park you want to visit as well as how busy it will be on the day you want to visit.
If you’re wondering, annual pass and parking prices have also increased. WDW parking is $35 for standard and $50 for preferred parking and over in California it will cost you $40 or $60 to park at the Disneyland Resort.
(2/7/19) When it comes to the price of admission, how much is too much? Surprisingly, despite what your initial take is, when you get down to it, this really is more of an individual choice question. Doubly so when it comes to Disney fans and the price of admission into Disney theme parks which have steadily been on the rise each year for the past several decades. This week I decided to take a look at past price increase trends from Disney and even predict where the price is going between now and 2030, based on past increases, all in my latest article for BlooLoop.
2026 - Gordon Ramsay at The Carnaby - (10/11/2025) According to the Disneyland Resort they are planning to bring a British themed gastropub to Downtown Disney with the help of Gordon Ramsay and the creators at the Earl of Sandwich. The location will be called “Gordon Ramsay at The Carnaby” and it will feature a 60’s British Invasion rock theme and it will be “located atop the new Earl of Sandwich” location. The fun new location will also feature two outdoor terraces to enjoy, or sit at the bar or in one of the many booths. After dark, on select evenings, look for the atmosphere to come alive with live music performances.
DisneylandForward - (6/5/2025) The Disneyland Resort has re-confirmed their intention to build an all new parking structure (6000 spaces) on the other side of Harbor Blvd that will be connected to a new transportation hub along with an elevated pedestrian bridge to move everyone over Harbor Blvd to the Esplanade area that lies between the entrance to Disneyland and Disney California Adventure. Construction is set to begin in Fall 2026.
Meanwhile, more details were also released regarding new attractions on the way to Disney California Adventure, which you can find here.
(6/1/2024) According to a news report, the concept of adding an entire “Peter Pan’s Never Land” onto either Disneyland or Disney California Adventure has been teased as a possible part of the now-approved DisneyForward initiative for the theme park resort. As part of the plan, a small new land entirely themed around the Peter Pan property could be built, where the highlight attraction is expected to be a copy of the new “Peter Pan’s Never Land Adventure” dark ride that just opened at Tokyo DisneySea.
Based on the videos I’ve seen, you could best describe this cutting-edge new attraction as Disney Imagineering’s answer to the technology Universal first used to create their Adventures of Spider-Man (in Orlando) and Transformers: The Ride (Orlando, Hollywood, Singapore and China) themed dark rides. Up until now, perhaps the closest attempt Disney has come to trying to mimic this style of dark ride would perhaps be the Ratatouille dark ride in Paris and Orlando, but that is somewhat different.
Like Universal’s famous Spider-Man attraction, on this new Peter Pan ride guiests are asked to put on 3D glasses and go on an adventure ride through the world of Neverland that heavily features all the action on projection screens blended into the scenery. While both Spider-Man and Transformers use of screens ends with a large-scale virtually all-screen finale, Peter Pan’s use of all screen scenes gets very heavy handed by the mid-point of the journey and rarely lets up.
It is worth mentioning that the land in Tokyo also features a small open-air spinning-car ride through a Fairy Hollow themed landscape called Fair Tinker Bell’s Busy Buggies. I’m adding POV videos of both attractions from Tokyo below so you can better see just what might be possibly under consideration for the California resort.
(5/11/2024) Good news for the Disneyland Resort, as the Anaheim City Council has given their final and unanimous approval for the new “DisneylandForward” master plan. With the new plan allowed to go into effect starting in June, the OC Register wonders what may be the first project out of the gate. I have to agree with their assessment, that before we seen new lands themed to places like Avatar or Wakanda, Disneyland will likely resurrect their stalled plan to build a second massive parking structure across Harbor Blvd, which would connect with the existing resort properly via a pedestrian bridge that crosses Harbor.
The successful build of a new parking structure would allow for the current overflow lots on the other side of the resort property near the hotels to no longer be required, and allow those sites to used for future theme park expansion. As the land was purchased and cleared for this very project many years ago, before it was put on hold, it should be fairly easy to get this project active once again.
(4/17/2024) Things are pushing ahead as expected in Anaheim as the City Council has unanimously approved the Disneyland Resort’s new masterplan proposal, commonly known as “Disneyland Forward”. The $1.9 billion, multi-decade long plan of growth for the resort is now on track for one final vote by the City Council on May 7th.
In addition to granting permission for Disney to pursue the next phase of growth for the company’s original California theme park resort, Disney is also paying the city $40 million to purchase three roads within the resort zone: Magic Way, Hotel Way and a section of Clementine Street.
(3/16/2024) The Anaheim Planning Commission voted 5 to 1 in favor of approving the Disneyland Resort’s “DisneylandForward” master-plan initiative. If given final approval by the city based on the commission’s recommendation, the plan would see Disney spend at least $1.9 billion in improvements to the Anaheim resort complex over the next decade.
One other interesting fact about the DisneylandForward plan that has come to light is that it will allow the theme park resort to create up to four towering ‘icons’, standing up to 300 feet tall on the property. For comparison’s sake, this would be just over twice the height of Disneyland’s iconic Matterhorn mountain structure that is 147 feet tall.
(3/10/2024) According to the OC Register, Anaheim city planning officials are set to review and vote on the “DisneylandForward” future development plan for the Disneyland Resort on Monday, March 11th. The proposal would allow for some required zoning changes and the ability to allow both theme parks to expand into sites used as expansion parking lots on the west side of Disneyland Drive (like in the Toy Story lot), and more.
If approved here, the next step would be for the plans to go before the city council at an April 16th meeting, with the city planners recommendation of approval. The new plan would lay down an overall master-plan of growth for the Disneyland Resort to be followed over the next 40 years.
(10/4/2023) Disneyland has revealed more information about the resorts future theme park expansion plans. According to the reports, the plans mention up to 16 new rides to be located in both indoor and outdoor locations, a new outdoor show, and at least six of the projects will be based on Disney owned movie properties: Frozen, Tangled, Peter Pan, Zootopia,, Toy Story and Tron. Of course, no timeline was given, so consider this more of a general long-term plan kind of announcement, which is more of an indication of where management wants to invest in the parks and not an exact map just yet.
(9/22/2023) Remember how Disney apparently mentioned the possible use of new versions of the PeopleMover or a California version of the Disney Skyliner as future transportation methods for the Disneyland Resort? According to an update from the OC Register, tucked away within that same report was an idea of possibly expanding the Disneyland Monorail.
According to the report they mention how it moves guests from “the Hotel District to the Theme Park District” but it also states that “Future connections may also be provided to the Future Expansion Southeast District.” The Southeast District is what is currently known as the Toy Story parking lot, the furthest from the theme park, built just south-east of the intersection of Katella and Harbor, on a site previously used for decades as a large strawberry field before it was sold to Disney. The DisneylandForward plans would like to eventually see this property used for a possible third theme park experience (a small one of some kind) as well as new retail, restaurants and resort hotel concepts.
As the article points out, the most likely path a monorail could take to get here would be through the Anaheim GardenWalk retail property… which is actually not property that Disney currently owns, which would make that concept difficult. Of course, for a many years there have been rumors that Disney has been sniffing around at possibly bidding to purchase the property as it represents a significant piece of land that could easily be added to the rest of the property Disney owns on either side.
(9/16/2023) In an interesting development, would you believe that the Disneyland Resort mentioned possibly bringing back the Skyway and PeopleMover attractions as possible real-world transportation systems to move guests throughout the resort? Apparently the mention of “themed ride systems” can be found buried deep within a 17,000-page Environmental Impact Report from Disney that was released by the city of Anaheim regarding Disney’s “DisneylandForward” expansion proposal. Apparently the document shows pictures of Walt Disney World’s Tomorrowland Transit Authority PeopleMover attraction as well as the more recent addition of the Disney Skyliner aerial gondola tram system that links two of the Disney World theme parks to each other and several hotels. These are listed as possible supplemental or alternate concepts to the building of two pedestrian bridges over Disneyland Drive and three more over Harbor Boulevard that would connect to the long planned second structure. The DisneylandForward project is expected to go before the Anaheim council sometime in 2024.
Given the popularity of the new Disney Skyliner system in Florida, I can see various ways it could be put to use at the Disneyland Resort, especially as I believe systems like this can be installed at a less costly price point than solid rail systems like a PeopleMover or even a Monorail. This is especially true when you consider the ease in which the Skyliner can cross over roads and buildings with a minimal support system. The Florida installation of the Skyliner system also shows how these linear ropeway systems can even be designed to turn corners.
At the same time, I can also see how an entirely ground-based version of the PeopleMover could perhaps be used as an automated replacement for the parking lot trams that currency move guests from the base of the structure to the Downtown Disney area. Rather than wait for Cast Member driven trams, a continuous flow PeopleMover cars could easily flow back and forth between the two points instead.
(3/28/21) While the concept art Disney posted for the Disneyland Forward initiative is said to just be an example of the kind of upgrade plans that they might create in the future, one interesting item was noticed on the plans. The tweet itself shows off best what appears to possibly be a Blank Panther themed Wakanda area that looks like it would fit into the small parking lot behind the movie theater building at Downtown Disney, which would also be removed. The large panther carving sticks out quite well when you zoom into the overhead layout art.
Is this a guarantee it will get built? Nope, but it’s fun take this as something that Imagineering had in mind at one point, even if it doesn’t get built. But it would great if it did make it into the final design. Wakanda Forever!
(3/27/21) The Disneyland Resort surprised everyone with the announcement of a new future initiative and growth plan called Disneyland Forward. According to Disney, the last time they established the future growth plans of the Disneyland Resort was 25 years ago, back when there was only one theme park at the resort and Disney California Adventure was still just a dream.
Back then the plans they set with the City of Anaheim established various “districts” or zones if you will, that would only allow for the development of various things in specific places. Parking here, shopping there, new hotels way over there, and so on. 25 years later, Disney now feels that they have reached the limit of those plans, which are now restricting future concepts of growth now expected from more current and integrated theme park resort concepts. As such, Disney would like to explore new growth opportunities that could see mixed use concepts arise in all new locations going forward.
As Disney well put it, “Without broadening the uses allowed within each district or demolishing and replacing many beloved theme park attractions, further integrated development and theme park investment are not possible.”
While nothing is set in stone yet, the artwork examples Disney is showing explores the possibility of expanding both Disneyland and Disney California Adventure to plots of land on the other side of Disneyland Drive, to the north and south of the Disneyland hotels that are currently used only for parking. Much like how foot traffic crosses over Disneyland Drive via a massive and well landscaped foot bridge that makes it just look like a regular pathway to the guests. Similar connecting pathways could be constructed to link up the theme parks to these parking lots, likely branching off from the backside of Critter Country inside Disneyland, and from the west side Paradise Pier somewhere between Inside Out Emotional Whirl and Boardwalk Pizza inside California Adventure.
The former parking lots would be transformed into all new theme park lands for each park. Again, no formal plans have been made, but the Disneyland Forward website does mention concepts like adding lands and attractions themed to Frozen, Tangled and Peter Pan to Disneyland (similar to plans now under way at Tokyo Disneysea) and adding other attractions like the new Zootopia land (under construction at Disneyland Shanghai), the TRON coaster (Shanghai and under construction at Walt Disney World) and a Toy Story Land (like the one at Walt Disney World) to Disney California Adventure.
The future plans also include ideas like adding a mini Disney Springs style retail and dining area to the land Disney owns South of the theme parks on Harbor and Katella, but this version would also integrate a brand new Disney Resort hotel into the complex as well. It also looks like DIsneyland is ready to revive their previous plans they put on hold to build another parking structure on the other side of Harbor that would lead guests over Harbor via another large footbridge and directly into the esplanade between the entrances to the two theme parks.
Based on past Disney history, you might think that the Disneyland Resort would be seeking some kind of tax incentive deal from Anaheim for all this future growth, but actually the truth couldn’t be further. Just as we saw Disneyland tell Anaheim that they were requesting the city to cancel two of their existing Tax Subsidies (a 20-year 70% hotel tax rebate and a 45-year exemption to taxes on theme park tickets) because they felt the existing deals from a previous political climate had become increasingly “divisive” and had made for a “difficult working relationship” with the current city of Anaheim.
According to Disney’s own statement, “We are at the very beginning stages of the process. While the project will be refined over time, we hope to explore the creation of integrated experiences featuring new theme park attractions, dining, retail, hotel, and more. Right now, we don’t have any specific projects planned for the future. To be clear, Disney is not seeking any public funding for DisneylandForward, nor are we seeking additional square footage or hotel rooms beyond what is currently approved and allowed. Rather, we are simply asking to update our existing approvals to allow for integrated development to be located and built on Disney properties.”
The timing of this announcement is especially interesting, as the California resort is now preparing to finally reopen to guests at the end of April after being closed due to COVID-19 for just over a year’s time. The fact that Disney is coming forward with these huge growth plans is a great sign that they feel very confident in the future growth potential of their California property, to say nothing of the huge potential for job growth from the planning, construction and staffing of these expansions going forward.
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