According to the latest rumors, Fantasmic will probably not be back until July 4th, NOT June 13th as being announced on the disney website. Here is the the latest from Al Lutz of MiceAge.com:
You probably won't want to trust the official Disneyland sources who still cling to the Fantasmic
return date of "June 13th." Behind closed doors, the realization that the show likely won't return until the 4th of July weekend is gaining acceptance with
Entertainment planners.
Why the push back of the date? Certainly the nearly two week delay in the refurbishment of the River hasn't helped. But you can't simply push that June 13th
date back ten to fourteen days, because the Frontierland/New Orleans Square/Rivers of America area will now be hosting a huge movie premiere that could
effectively paralyze that half of the Park in late June.
Yep, it seems that the Walt Disney Studios folks up in Burbank, who nowadays have little or no familiarity with the operation of the mere "park the Company
has down in Anaheim" want to host a Jerry Bruckheimer extravaganza/celebrity/super-sized Premiere Party (Remember Pearl Harbor anyone?) for the
upcoming release of "Pirates of the Caribbean: Curse of the Black Pearl." The party they want to throw will be so big, and require so much preparation, that
performing Fantasmic before and during the week of the party will very likely be impossible.
Although that "Curse of the Black Pearl" tagline was added recently to try to distance the movie a bit from the actual Disneyland attraction, the Studio still
wants to play up the Park connection in the marketing and "buzz" this movie generates. The plan the Studio marketing gurus are cooking up involves the
world's longest red carpet celebrity arrival, with a crimson path that begins at the Disneyland's main entrance and rolls all the way down Main Street, through
Adventureland and on to the New Orleans Square riverbanks.
Once the red carpet arrivals make that ever-so-long long trek through the Park (minus all those outdoor vending carts I'm sure) they may find large sets of
bleachers set up all along the river in front of Pirates of the Caribbean and in the areas usually used for Fantasmic viewing. The tip of Tom Sawyer's Island will
have a giant movie screen set up on it, a la' a Drive-In movie screens of yesteryear. And the gala premiere of this movie will entail the obligatory lavish food
and drinks in New Orleans Square, VIP/Media receptions in the Blue Bayou and Club 33, a trip through the actual beloved attraction that inspired the film,
and the inevitable "pre-show" on the river using the Sailing Ship Columbia as a "pirate ship" in a specially produced stunt spectacular. Phew! Oh, and of course
there's the movie itself shown on that big screen in Fantasmic surround sound. All of this hoopla will be taking place over the weekend of June 27th thru the 29th. Needless to say it is going to be awfully hard for anyone to walk through
the New Orleans Square area that weekend, let alone have the Park try to put on nightly Fantasmic performances. And so the recent delay in the Rivers of
America refurbishment is probably going to be the straw that broke the camels back for the Entertainment department, and they will have to give up on the
previously published Fantasmic return date of June 13th.
(Before I forget, admission to Disneyland will NOT allow you, the lowly paying customer, to attend. Instead for almost a whole week the visitors who pony up
those ever increasing admission fees will be blocked out, pushed away, or be walled off from all the activities the stars/press/studio and company honchos will
be happily enjoying.)
You probably won't want to trust the official Disneyland sources who still cling to the Fantasmic
return date of "June 13th." Behind closed doors, the realization that the show likely won't return until the 4th of July weekend is gaining acceptance with
Entertainment planners.
Why the push back of the date? Certainly the nearly two week delay in the refurbishment of the River hasn't helped. But you can't simply push that June 13th
date back ten to fourteen days, because the Frontierland/New Orleans Square/Rivers of America area will now be hosting a huge movie premiere that could
effectively paralyze that half of the Park in late June.
Yep, it seems that the Walt Disney Studios folks up in Burbank, who nowadays have little or no familiarity with the operation of the mere "park the Company
has down in Anaheim" want to host a Jerry Bruckheimer extravaganza/celebrity/super-sized Premiere Party (Remember Pearl Harbor anyone?) for the
upcoming release of "Pirates of the Caribbean: Curse of the Black Pearl." The party they want to throw will be so big, and require so much preparation, that
performing Fantasmic before and during the week of the party will very likely be impossible.
Although that "Curse of the Black Pearl" tagline was added recently to try to distance the movie a bit from the actual Disneyland attraction, the Studio still
wants to play up the Park connection in the marketing and "buzz" this movie generates. The plan the Studio marketing gurus are cooking up involves the
world's longest red carpet celebrity arrival, with a crimson path that begins at the Disneyland's main entrance and rolls all the way down Main Street, through
Adventureland and on to the New Orleans Square riverbanks.
Once the red carpet arrivals make that ever-so-long long trek through the Park (minus all those outdoor vending carts I'm sure) they may find large sets of
bleachers set up all along the river in front of Pirates of the Caribbean and in the areas usually used for Fantasmic viewing. The tip of Tom Sawyer's Island will
have a giant movie screen set up on it, a la' a Drive-In movie screens of yesteryear. And the gala premiere of this movie will entail the obligatory lavish food
and drinks in New Orleans Square, VIP/Media receptions in the Blue Bayou and Club 33, a trip through the actual beloved attraction that inspired the film,
and the inevitable "pre-show" on the river using the Sailing Ship Columbia as a "pirate ship" in a specially produced stunt spectacular. Phew! Oh, and of course
there's the movie itself shown on that big screen in Fantasmic surround sound. All of this hoopla will be taking place over the weekend of June 27th thru the 29th. Needless to say it is going to be awfully hard for anyone to walk through
the New Orleans Square area that weekend, let alone have the Park try to put on nightly Fantasmic performances. And so the recent delay in the Rivers of
America refurbishment is probably going to be the straw that broke the camels back for the Entertainment department, and they will have to give up on the
previously published Fantasmic return date of June 13th.
(Before I forget, admission to Disneyland will NOT allow you, the lowly paying customer, to attend. Instead for almost a whole week the visitors who pony up
those ever increasing admission fees will be blocked out, pushed away, or be walled off from all the activities the stars/press/studio and company honchos will
be happily enjoying.)
That sounds like our last three rehab season trips.
