Start your engines and prepare for the ride of your life! This thrilling auto racing competition will send you rocketing through the desert landscape of Ornament Valley. You’ll run into some of your favorite characters from the Disney·Pixar movie Cars in some very familiar locations!
Take a ride on Disney California Adventure® Park’s new attraction, Radiator Springs Racers, with our exclusive Off to Neverland Travel® video. Ka-chow!
Guests visiting Disneyland® Park will notice new venues and shows and some new looks for some of their favorite attractions.
The Matterhorn Bobsleds, a Disneyland® Park landmark since 1959, just reopen following a five-and-a-half month refresh of the attraction. The mountain has new paint and “snow caps” on the outside and some lighting changes inside. A new three-person bobsled will allow guests to be seated individually.
The mountain climbers will also return from their hiatus this summer to thrill guests as they scale the Matterhorn slopes.
The weather will be changing in Pixie Hollow this fall when a new fairy arrives to visit Tinker Bell. Frost fairy Periwinkle, from the upcoming Disney video Tinker Bell: Secret of the Wings joins Pixie Hollow, but not without some changes. Tinker Bell’s snow-making machine will be added to help keep Periwinkle cool.
Additional new faces at Disneyland® Park are Merida, the adventurous heroine of the upcoming Disney•Pixar movie Brave, and her three bear cubs. Hailing from the Scottish Highlands, Merida will be visiting guests in an interactive meet-and-play experience near “it’s a small world®.”
In Frontierland®, the newly premiered Big Thunder Ranch Jamboree brings music, dancing, crafts, pin trading and plenty of Disney characters (in Western wear) to the space previously known as Festival Arena. Guests may join in and kick up their heels with Billy Hill and the Hillbillies at an old-fashioned Cowboy Roundup or gather to enjoy live performances by visiting schools and community groups, presented by the Disney Performing Arts Program.
The west side of Main Street, U.S.A.® Area now features an array of refreshed shops and restaurants. All of their turn-of-the-century interiors are newly redecorated with period signs, lighting fixtures and woodwork.
In the Main Street Opera House, the Voices of Liberty, an a cappella vocal group inspired by the popular Voices of Liberty at The American Adventure attraction in the Walt Disney World® Resort in Florida will perform patriotic songs to entertain guests awaiting the “Great Moments with Mr. Lincoln” presentation.
Lastly, Disneyland® Park fans, dedicated gardeners and admirers of the Resort’s landscape will all want to experience the Cultivating the Magic Tour, which explores Disneyland® Park horticulture. Presented by a Resort Tour Guide, the tour explores landscaping highlights of the park from the “Flower Mickey” at the Main Gate to the spectacular plantings in the Jungle Cruise and Storybook Land.
When guests walk into any Disney theme park, they find themselves in a place apart from the everyday world they leave behind at the turnstiles. At the newly expanded Disney California Adventure® Park, guests begin their journey on Buena Vista Street, a nostalgic look at Los Angeles as it may have appeared to Walt Disney in the 1920s and ’30s when he first arrived in California – a wonderful and inspirational period of his life.
Once on Buena Vista Street, guests may board the Red Car Trolley to take a tour and be transported into Hollywood Land. The tour includes Carthay Circle Theatre, the new and striking Disney California Adventure® Park landmark that stands 89 feet 6 inches tall at the hub of the park. Guests may stroll around the downtown Buena Vista Street area featuring vintage architecture and a dozen shops and restaurants.
Some of Buena Vista Street’s landmarks include:
Buena Vista Street plays home to various shopping and dining opportunities. Upstairs at Carthay Circle Theatre is the Carthay Circle Restaurant, one of the premiere dining locations at the Disneyland® Resort, with a menu of hors d’oeuvres, salads, soups, California specialty entrees and desserts. Downstairs is the Carthay Circle Lounge, which serves appetizers, wine, craft beer and specialty drinks. Guests can also choose from various quick-service locations like Fiddler, Fifer & Practical Café , Clarabelle’s Hand-Scooped Ice Cream, and Mortimer’s Market.On your next visit, be sure to explore Buena Vista Street and take part in the adventure of a young Walt Disney and walk along this boulevard of dreams.
The Opening of Cars Land at Disney California Adventure® Park in Anaheim, CA was a star-studded affair to say the least. This VIP event brought many celebrities to the park to experience the new areas and walk the red carpet. As one would expect, no celebrity was bright enough to outshine the real star of the night, Cars Land!
Many of the celebrities took time to share their thoughts on this new immersive area of Disney California Adventure® Park. Here are some of our favorites:
 Radiator Springs Racers is unbelievable. Cars Land is everything you want it to be. – Country music artist Brad Paisley
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The expansion makes Disneyland even better, if that’s possible. – Actress Ariel Winter, star of ABC’s “Modern Family”
Luigi’s Flying Tires is the most original ride I’ve ever ridden. Cars Land is just amazing. – Actor Nolan Gould, star of ABC’s “Modern Family” |
Mater’s awesome – I loved him when I first saw the cartoon and read the script. – Comedian Larry the Cable Guy |
Cars Land is the place to be this summer. – Actor Rico Rodriguez, from ABC’s “Modern Family” |
Cars Land is fantastic – the setting is quite unique. – Actor Andy Garcia |
I can’t wait to share this with my family. – Tom Staggs, Chairman of Disney Parks & Resorts This is unbelievably exciting. Walt Disney was right – there’s always more we can do. – Bob Iger, Chairman and CEO of The Walt Disney Co. To have a whole land based on the characters we created at Pixar is a dream come true. – John Lasseter, Chief Creative Officer of Walt Disney and Pixar Animation Studio, and Principal Creative Advisor for Walt Disney Imagineering |
Today, the “car-acters” of Disney●Pixar’s animated film Cars will welcome guests to Cars Land and its three new attractions: Radiator Springs Racers, Mater’s Junkyard Jamboree and Luigi’s Flying Tires.
What you thought was a leisurely, scenic tour of Ornament Valley turns into an all-out race for the Piston Cup as guests race side-by-side through the mountain range, around Willy’s Butte and past the plunging waterfall, Radiator Falls – all familiar sights to fans of the movie.
Guests entering the six-passenger convertible will notice their car features a male or female face. The gender of the car is determined by the color of the car – eight in all. The scenic road trip begins through the countryside and town of Radiator Springs. After a stop at Luigi’s Casa Della Tires or Ramone’s House of Body Art, final racing tips will be given by Doc Hudson.
The race begins as the cars are separated onto parallel tracks. Racing nose-to-nose to the finish, the cars will encounter 45 degree turns as they zoom through the desert landscape.
Radiator Springs Racers is a FASTPASS® attraction. Guests must be 40″ high to ride. It is estimated that each vehicle of the attraction will travel approximately 36,000 miles per year – equivalent to more than 14 trips down the original Route 66!
Mater’s Junkyard JamboreeIt’s an old-fashioned “tow-si-do!” Everyone’s favorite tow truck, Mater, has corralled a herd of runaway baby tractors in his junkyard. Step into Mater’s salvage yard and ride trailers hitched to the baby tractors.
As you load into your tractor, you’ll notice that no two tractors are the same. All 22 have different markings, mouths, and eye colors. They also have license plates with letters that represent initials and birthdays of key contributors to the Cars Land project. However they do have one thing in common: They all LOVE to dance!
The minimum height requirement for Mater’s Junkyard Jamboree is 32 inches.
“Uno for the money, due for the show, tre to get ready and quattro to go!” Cars characters Luigi and Guido play host to a “Festival of the Flying Tires” at Luigi’s Casa Della Tires. When the music starts, tires float and dance in the grand tradition of a celebration that first started in Luigi’s hometown of Carsoli, Italy.
Guests board oversized Fettuccini-brand tires, accommodating up to two adults and one child, or one adult and two children. Guests steer by shifting their body weight , bumping into other tires as they float across Luigi’s 8,000-square-foot Italian garden and tire storage yard. For extra fun, try to catch one of the inflatable balls scattered throughout the attraction.
Nostalgic Disneyland® Park fans will recognize the attraction as a descendant of the Flying Saucers attraction, which operated in Tomorrowland from 1961 to 1966. 6,714 air vents keep the tires floating approximately two inches above the ground! The minimum height requirement for Luigi’s Flying Tires is 32 inches.
Guests will now enter the newly expanded Disney California Adventure® Park through a completely redesigned entrance. Like never before, the spirit of Walt Disney is present on Buena Vista Street. Immersed in a locale reminiscent of Los Angeles in the 1920s, when Disney first arrived in California, guests encounter the Red Car Trolley, one of four new attractions at Disney California Adventure® Park.
Inspired by Los Angeles’ historic Pacific Electric Red Cars from the 1920s and ’30s, two Red Car Trolley cars operate daily, traveling from Buena Vista Street to the Twilight Zone™ Tower of Terror through Hollywood Land. The trolleys make several stops along the way.
Inside the interiors showcase the soft green and cream colors of the time period. Vintage-looking ads hanging inside highlighting food locations and shops inside the park. The Red Car Trolleys are 26 feet long and seat 20 passengers with an additional space for a wheelchair.
Each of the Red Car Trolleys have a number. The 623 car, with “23″ as a nod to the year 1923 when Walt Disney arrived in California, is based on the 600 series of trolleys built by the St. Louis Car Company in 1922. The 717 car is inspired by the 700-750 series manufactured by the J.G. Brill Company in 1925. 7-17 also refers to the birthday of Disneyland® Park, July 17, 1955.
The trolleys are powered by onboard 12-volt batteries that fully recharge at night. The catenary lines running above the cars are just for authenticity – they provide no actual power. If necessary, the trolleys are able to recharge at one of the stops using inductive power transfer, the same technology used to charge your cell phone!
The Red Car Trolleys are rockin’ when the Red Car News Boys roll into town. Inspired by the spirit and style of Disney’s movie and stage musical Newsies, the group performs tunes authentic for the time period like “California, Here I come” and delivers the news from the Buena Vista Daily Bugle. Of course the show wouldn’t be complete without an appearance from Mickey Mouse, the cartoon star who got his start in that period!
More than just “another attraction” in “another land,” the Red Car Trolleys and Buena Vista Street pay tribute to the optimism and opportunity Walt felt when he first arrived to Los Angeles.
Here are some photos from our VIP preview of Cars Land at Disney California Adventure® Park on Wednesday, June 13th.
Cars Land will open to the public on Friday, June 15th. The only word to describe this new area is: AMAZING! We can’t wait for our guests to visit and enjoy!
The race to Cars Land is on! Both the young and young at heart just can’t wait to experience it!
In 2007 Disneyland® Resort announced a five-year expansion that would introduce us to new amenities, shows and attractions that would bring new Disney magic to the parks for our families to create new memories together.
Five years later, the long anticipated arrival and opening of Cars Land is here! We have seen many amazing changes at Disneyland® Resort over the past five years, but Cars Land has been one of the most anticipated additions at Disney California Adventure® Park.
On Friday, June 15, Disney California Adventure® Park will hold a grand reopening with the addition of two new lands, Cars Land and Buena Vista Street and Carthay Circle Theatre!
Off to Neverland® Travel will have Magic Makers® on the ground for the grand reopening, bringing you exclusive, first hand accounts of the ceremonies as well as photos, information and more over the next two days!
Be sure to follow our website, www.offtoneverland.com, now through the weekend for your exclusive look at Cars Land and other additions at Disneyland® Resort!
Get up to the minute photos, news and more via Off to Neverland® Travel’s Facebook, Twitter and Pinterest feeds!
Off to Neverland® Travel is excited to bring you this first look, and be sure to contact your Magic Maker® to arrange a trip to experience the new expansion first hand!
Even though Cars Land has not opened to the public at Disney California Adventure® Park, the anticipation of the Radiator Springs Racers attraction seems to be creating the most buzz.
In order to give the best guest experience, each ride vehicle has its own on board audio system. Joe Herrington, Principal Media Designer for Walt Disney Imagineering has been riding the attraction since March fine tuning the audio.
Watch this video for a behind the scenes look at the work Joe has been doing on the audio track for Radiator Springs Racers.