The neighbor lady stopped by yesterday to return some chafing dishes she borrowed last weekend. She also arrived with a basket of fresh baked cookies, and it was a lovely fall evening, so I made us a couple of White Russians and we sat on the patio and chatted.
After the scandalous Villa Park gossip was covered, here's the scoop she told me...
The Blue Sky Cellar will continue on lamely, attracting a few dozen lost visitors per day through the Christmas season as a lifeless tribute to Pixar Pier.
Then it closes for a couple weeks in January and will reopen as a new Star Wars Land Preview Center. Expect the usual stuff; a few models under glass, lots of "storyboard" photos of shops and restaurants and pretend Post-It Note comments from fake Imagineers, plus vague overviews of the two big rides so as not to spoil the surprises.
It will also feature a new 10 minute video on the big screen showing the Star Wars design process. The video will be laced with hazy-edged and up-close interviews with Imagineers sitting in their creative looking offices who will lower their voice an octave or two while they talk into the camera about how meaningful and important the Star Wars stories were to them as a child, and how they still share that Star Wars wonder and magic with their own children today, and how they can't wait to share all that emotion and hard work with paying customers at Disneyland this summer. (Yes, we know you are creative and cool, and have emotions like the 7 Billion other humans, just show us the darn rides and stuff!
)
Here's the funny part. WDI has been waiting to do this Star Wars Land Preview for months, and when they reopened the Blue Sky Cellar last April the original timeline had them closing the Pixar Pier exhibit on Labor Day, then moving to a two-part Marvel Land and Star Wars Land exhibit that would rotate out new stuff every few months through 2019. But then the Cold War with Anaheim City Hall turned almost into a Hot War, then cooled into the currently icy yet civil Detente that has the new hotel cancelled and Downtown Disney plans scrambled, and no one in TDA wanting to make another move until after Election Day. So the plan to showcase Marvel Land this fall was shelved, and Star Wars Land took over the whole thing because even the Socialists in City Hall can't stop Star Wars Land from opening at this point.
Except TDA execs don't want to show anything about Star Wars Land until after the Christmas season because... they are afraid too many tourists will delay their return spring visit if they visit the Blue Sky Cellar this November and December and see how cool Star Wars Land is going to be. That seems like a dumb decision to both the Neighbor Lady and myself, because what a perfect time of year to showcase all that is coming to Disneyland in six months to all those tourists, family, and out-of-towners that us locals dutifully escort through a packed Disneyland at Christmastime.
But at least Star Wars Land will get a proper Preview Center this winter in DCA, just as they get ready to send Star Wars Launch Bay to Yesterland. And the upper level of Star Wars Launch Bay is becoming a smarmy DVC Sales Center for 2019, so don't expect any big changes there. Even if a YouTube host spots new trees being planted somewhere, that doesn't mean the monorail is being rerouted and Tomorrowland is getting bulldozed for something new. It will be the sad status quo in Tomorrowland through 2019 and for the foreseeable future, although the Neighbor Lady did say there was a plan... but that's for another cocktail sometime later.
After the scandalous Villa Park gossip was covered, here's the scoop she told me...
The Blue Sky Cellar will continue on lamely, attracting a few dozen lost visitors per day through the Christmas season as a lifeless tribute to Pixar Pier.
Then it closes for a couple weeks in January and will reopen as a new Star Wars Land Preview Center. Expect the usual stuff; a few models under glass, lots of "storyboard" photos of shops and restaurants and pretend Post-It Note comments from fake Imagineers, plus vague overviews of the two big rides so as not to spoil the surprises.
It will also feature a new 10 minute video on the big screen showing the Star Wars design process. The video will be laced with hazy-edged and up-close interviews with Imagineers sitting in their creative looking offices who will lower their voice an octave or two while they talk into the camera about how meaningful and important the Star Wars stories were to them as a child, and how they still share that Star Wars wonder and magic with their own children today, and how they can't wait to share all that emotion and hard work with paying customers at Disneyland this summer. (Yes, we know you are creative and cool, and have emotions like the 7 Billion other humans, just show us the darn rides and stuff!
) Here's the funny part. WDI has been waiting to do this Star Wars Land Preview for months, and when they reopened the Blue Sky Cellar last April the original timeline had them closing the Pixar Pier exhibit on Labor Day, then moving to a two-part Marvel Land and Star Wars Land exhibit that would rotate out new stuff every few months through 2019. But then the Cold War with Anaheim City Hall turned almost into a Hot War, then cooled into the currently icy yet civil Detente that has the new hotel cancelled and Downtown Disney plans scrambled, and no one in TDA wanting to make another move until after Election Day. So the plan to showcase Marvel Land this fall was shelved, and Star Wars Land took over the whole thing because even the Socialists in City Hall can't stop Star Wars Land from opening at this point.
Except TDA execs don't want to show anything about Star Wars Land until after the Christmas season because... they are afraid too many tourists will delay their return spring visit if they visit the Blue Sky Cellar this November and December and see how cool Star Wars Land is going to be. That seems like a dumb decision to both the Neighbor Lady and myself, because what a perfect time of year to showcase all that is coming to Disneyland in six months to all those tourists, family, and out-of-towners that us locals dutifully escort through a packed Disneyland at Christmastime.
But at least Star Wars Land will get a proper Preview Center this winter in DCA, just as they get ready to send Star Wars Launch Bay to Yesterland. And the upper level of Star Wars Launch Bay is becoming a smarmy DVC Sales Center for 2019, so don't expect any big changes there. Even if a YouTube host spots new trees being planted somewhere, that doesn't mean the monorail is being rerouted and Tomorrowland is getting bulldozed for something new. It will be the sad status quo in Tomorrowland through 2019 and for the foreseeable future, although the Neighbor Lady did say there was a plan... but that's for another cocktail sometime later.
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