Today, Disneyland announced potential plans for a HUGE expansion.

That may take years to come to fruition, but there’s one new land we know for SURE is coming to Disney California Adventure: Avengers Campus!

Today, while eating corn dogs and hanging out at A Touch of Disney, we spotted a MAJOR part of this exciting new land: the Quinjet!

We’d previously gotten some behind-the-scenes looks at this impressive piece of S.H.I.E.L.D. technology, and while it’s behind quite a few construction walls, we have to say: this thing looks PRETTY cool in person!

I mean, check out that BIG A on the wing!

This new land is expected to open “later this year” in the area formerly taken up by A Bug’s Land at Disney California Adventure and is NOT on the list of things opening up with Disneyland Resort when it reopens on April 30th! However, when we DO know when we can really, TRULY see this beauty up close (and ride WEB Slingers: A Spider-Man Adventure), we’ll let you know!

Closer Look at NEW Spider-Man Attraction Coming to Disney’s Avengers Campus!

Are you excited for Avengers Campus at Disney California Adventure? Let us know in the comments!

The post PHOTOS: We Spotted the QUINJET at Disneyland’s Avengers Campus! first appeared on the disney food blog.

Disneyland theme parks aren’t fully reopening for another month, but we got some HUGE news out of Anaheim today: Disneyland Resort is trying to expand!

It’s dizzying to dissect everything Disneyland has released information about like theme parks, retail, and parking expansions, and to make sense of all these potential future plans, Disney launched a new website, DisneylandForward.

A Disneyland expansion may have you asking many questions, but to help temper all of the crazy rumors, Disney has launched a FAQ on the new website to address all of those burning questions!

As of now, it’s important to know this is all conceptual, and that Disneyland is asking the city of Anaheim to update development approvals from the 1990s to allow for a mixed use of theme parks, retail, dining, and entertainment. Here are the answers we know from Disneyland (for now).

Why is Disneyland trying to get approval for mixed-use expansion now?

Disneyland has been closed for a year due to the global health crisis and has only partially reopened for the A Touch of Disney event and other shopping and dining experiences on Buena Vista Street and at Downtown Disney. So, why announce plans for expansion now? According to DisneylandForward, it’s all about forward movement.

“We realize that in order to invest in a way that makes sense, not just for Disney but our entire community we need to seek out ways to create integrated experiences. In order to do that, we need updated development approvals from the city. The public review and approval process will take time. Starting today this process will allow us to take the first step forward,” the website states.

What’s planned for Disneyland’s expansion?

New lands themed to Zootopia, Tangled, Peter Pan, or Frozen? What’s coming to Disneyland? That’s all POSSIBLE, but the truth is: Disney has not announced any additional details yet.

The post Disney’s Answers to the BIGGEST Disneyland Expansion Questions! first appeared on the disney food blog.

Disney has released A LOT of ears over the last year or so.

Most of the time, they’re pretty straightforward. The pastel rainbow ears are multicolored. The yellow floral ears are yellow and feature flowers. But a NEW pair of ears have us TOTALLY confused.

Make it purple! Make it blue! No need to debate like the fairies in Sleeping Beauty, Disney’s new befuddling ears can do BOTH!

Do you remember the blue and black vs. gold and white dress debacle?!? Well, it looks like we’ve got a new color debate, and it’s splitting the DFB team apart! About half of us see blue, and the other half see purple. A few people agreed it could be somewhere in between, like a periwinkle. But truly, we are fighting about the color of these ears! The reporter who actually saw them in person says that they are purple, but not everyone is convinced.

While our main concern was what color the ears are, the bow is a story of its own! We aren’t exactly sure what the bow is supposed to be, but it certainly is unique! Some of our DFB team thought it was supposed to be flowers, and some thought it looked like it was inspired by an 80s prom dress. It even looks like it could be a couple of scrunchies sewn on to look like a bow!

We found these ears at Five and Dime in Disney’s California Adventure during A Touch of Disney. These ears are not as dark as Disney’s Potion Purple ears from a few years ago, so we still can’t come to an agreement on what color these ears ACTUALLY are!

So, what color do you see? We must settle the debate once and for all so that we can stop fighting about it (we’re not kidding, we had a full argument). We love a good debate (and good Minnie ears!), so when we find more puzzling Disney merch, we’ll let you know where to find it!

We Have NO Idea What This Piece of Disney Merch Is For…But We Bought It!

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So…Are these ears PURPLE or are they BLUE!? Let us know in the comments!

The post What COLOR Are Disney’s New Minnie Ears?! Seriously, Tell Us…We’re Fighting About It! first appeared on the disney food blog.

Well, we’ve gotten QUITE the big news out of Disneyland recently!

Disney has just announced some multi-year plans for expansion of its theme parks, shopping, and parking. “DisneylandForward” is what Disney is calling its planning effort with the city of Anaheim to make some of these changes possible. What exactly is DisneylandForward though and what does it involve? We’re breaking it all down for you here!

The DisneylandForward website describes “DisneylandForward” as “a multiyear public planning effort with the City of Anaheim to update existing development approvals that will allow Disney to meaningfully invest in Anaheim for years to come and meet the future demands in entertainment.” What does that mean?

A Bit of History

Well, let’s go through a bit of history. As the DisneylandForward website notes, when Disneyland first opened all the way back in 1955, “no one could have predicted its impact on Anaheim and the world.” Basically, Disney notes how the Anaheim area has now become a MAJOR tourist destination.

After Disneyland reopened, motels, restaurants, and other businesses grew up around Disneyland. Then, in the 1990s, the City of Anaheim approved plans that would help “guide the growth” of Disneyland Resort and the businesses in the area. Those plans created districts or zones that specified what types of developments could be built where. Those plans also had guidelines about sizes of developments, height limits, and more.

Since the 1990s, a lot has changed at Disneyland and the area surrounding it. Disneyland has since opened its second theme park — Disney California Adventure Park — and much more. Disney continues to invest in Disneyland with projects like Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge, Mickey & Minnie’s Runaway Railway, Avengers Campus, and more.

What Disneyland Says It Needs Now

Now, Disney notes that “the addition of more attractions and experiences in the future may be limited under current inflexible planning restrictions unless we remove and replace treasured rides and attractions in our parks today.”

Disney notes that those plans that were approved in the 1990s used a “traditional” district/zone approach. According to Disney, this “traditional” approach doesn’t allow for “the diverse, integrated experiences theme park visitors now seek, severely limiting Disney’s ability to continue investing in Anaheim.”

Basically, DisneylandForward is Disney’s push to work with the city of Anaheim and the community to update the existing plans to allow for more flexibility for their future plans.

According to the Orange County Register, Anaheim spokesman Mike Lyster has explained that under the current plan you might have an area designated as “hotel” while another is designated as “entertainment.” Lyster explained that Disney is now looking for “mixed-use” flexibility so you could have hotel AND entertainment on the same parcel.

To be clear, Disney has noted they are not seeking public funding for DisneylandForward. They’re also not looking to get any additional square footage or physical land beyond what is approved and allowed right now. What they’re trying to do is work with the city to get more flexibility for their future plans. As one Disneyland spokesperson put it, according to the OCR “We’re not changing the size of the toast, we’re just spreading the peanut butter around.”

Disney has noted that without getting more flexibility in terms of what is allowed in each district, or demolishing and replacing beloved theme park attractions, some of their further plans for investment in Disneyland Resort wouldn’t be possible.

Click here to read a statement from Disneyland’s President about DisneylandForward.

The Concept Art and Plans

Here’s a peek at the concept art that’s been released as part of these plans. There’s a whole bunch to unpack there. You can see a new mountain area on the left and more.

And here’s at their “possibilities map” showing some of the expansions to the parks that could be coming down the line, again if they can get the flexibility they’re looking for from the city.

Disney notes, of course, that these are just for illustrative purposes. Things could continue to greatly change.

Click here for a more in-depth break-down of the concept art!

What Could Be

At the moment, Disneyland is NOT officially announcing anything that will be part of their proposed expansions. But, we do have a look at that concept art to give us some ideas of what COULD be.

According to the DisneylandForward website, with more flexibility to build as they’d like to at the Disneyland Resort, “new lands and adventures like those underway at Tokyo DisneySea and Shanghai Disneyland could inspire new experiences here.” The DisneylandForward site then shows images from expansions coming to other Disney parks around the world — like the Frozen, Tangled, and Peter Pan areas coming to Tokyo DisneySea. The website also shows images of the Zootopia area which is coming to Shanghai Disneyland, and more.

Disney also notes that they plan to invest in transportation parking, and more to improve mobility. Part of the plan includes a new parking area at Disneyland and a pedestrian bridge linking certain areas at Disneyland Resort.

Disneyland’s plans for future expansion will have to be approved by Anaheim city leaders. Right now, it’s expected that the back-and-forth planning process about these things will last about 2 years before any decisions are finalized. So, basically while parts of Disneyland could change in the future thanks to increased flexibility in those districts and what not, it’s not going to be a quick process.

And that’s a basic break-down of what DisneylandForward is. There’s a lot that remains to be seen or more than needs to be further explained about Disney’s plans. And a lot is still subject to change or later be determined depending on how their efforts in working with the Anaheim city leaders work out.

We’ll be on the lookout for more updates and let you know what we find.

Are you excited to see how Disneyland might expand some of their areas in the future? Tell us in the comments!

The post What IS DisneylandForward? Here’s What We Know first appeared on the disney food blog.

We bring you a lot of stories every single day. Sometimes it’s hard to keep up. So in case you missed anything from our feed, we have rounded up all our stories in one place to get the news at a glance. Here is your Daily Recap for Thursday, March 25, 2021. Walt Disney World Magic Kingdom Today, the Disney Parks Blog teased a series of ongoing Magic Kingdom enhancements in time for the park’s monumental 50th anniversary celebration beginning […]

The post WDWNT Daily Recap (3/25/21): Disneyland Announces Plans for Theme Park Expansion, Enhancements Set for Magic Kingdom 50th, Main Street Confectionery Refurb Details, FL Residents Over 40 Eligible for COVID-19 Vaccine Monday, and More appeared first on WDW News Today.