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Radiator Springs Racers

Disneyland to Close Radiator Springs Racers For Refurbishment in Feb. 2024

Disneyland has announced that the Radiator Springs Racers attraction at Disney California Adventure will be closed for nearly a week for standard refurbishment at the end of February 2024. The Details Radiator Springs Racers, located inside Cars Land, is scheduled to be closed on Monday,… Read More »Disneyland to Close Radiator Springs Racers For Refurbishment in Feb. 2024

Cars Land at Disney California Adventure has new Halloween transformation

Lightning McQueen, Tow Mater, and the residents of Cars Land are part of a new transformation of the town of Radiator Springs into Radiator Screams for Halloween at Disney California Adventure. The Cars are ready to celebrate Halloween, or as they call it “Haul-O-Ween,” and… Read More »Cars Land at Disney California Adventure has new Halloween transformation

High Speed Pixar Trivia at Radiator Springs Racers

How deep is your Pixar knowledge? If you’re reading this blog, probably above average, right? But could you quickly answer Pixar trivia questions while zooming through Radiator Springs Racers at Disney California Adventure at high speeds? That was the challenge set out by Oh My… Read More »High Speed Pixar Trivia at Radiator Springs Racers

Rose Bowl teams visit Disneyland Resort

While the University of Southern California Trojans don’t have far to drive, the Penn State Nittany Lions traveled from the other side of the country to play in the 2017 Rose Bowl Game in Pasadena, CA. Both teams were given a special trip to the… Read More »Rose Bowl teams visit Disneyland Resort

Luigi’s Rollickin’ Roadsters to fill hole in Cars Land lineup

The main drag of Radiator Springs at Disney California Adventure’s popular Cars Land area has had a big hole to fill ever since Luigi’s Flying Tires closed. The space will soon be filled by Luigi’s Rollickin’ Roadsters which will start previews soon, including an Annual… Read More »Luigi’s Rollickin’ Roadsters to fill hole in Cars Land lineup

Weekend Avengers and RunDisney

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My family and I recently participated in the inaugural Avengers Half Marathon Weekend at the Disneyland Resort as guests of RunDisney, and it was just as super as you like your Marvel adventures to be. Yes, it was that powerful. We ran the Avengers 5K… Read More »Weekend Avengers and RunDisney

Return of the Orlando Theme Park Wars?

Concept art for Star Wars mini-park planned for Disneyland Paris

Concept art for Star Wars mini-park planned for Disneyland Paris

Orlando in the 1990’s was bookended by stiff competition between Disney and its rival Universal Studios. When Michael Eisner got wind that Disneyland’s cross-town rival Universal Studios was preparing to open in Orlando as well, he rushed the mouse’s plans for its own studio theme park into production, even opening a whole year ahead of Universal. Universal returned the favor by firing back with Islands of Adventure, which contained rethemed versions of the Beastly Kingdom attractions Disney had cut from its Animal Kingdom project just a year earlier. Universal even hired a lot of the Imagineers Disney had just laid off to help make IOA a quality theme park.

And then things calmed down for nearly a decade. Disney kept churning out new attractions (Expedition Everest, Toy Story Midway Mania to name two) while Universal Studios was the forgotten step-child in a larger corporation that was dealing with ownership and financial problems. Eventually that got all sorted out and two things happened that turned around the fortunes at Universal Orlando Resort.

First, Universal got the theme park rights to use the Kuka robotic arm roller coaster that everyone was excited about at IAAPA in 2004. Second, it was able to convince Harry Potter scribe J.K. Rowling that they would be better caretakers for her story than Disney. The Kuka robocoaster win had something to do with that, but Universal was also willing to give Rowling final approval on nearly every detail. Disney would not.

Read More »Return of the Orlando Theme Park Wars?