Frozen Gets Fastpass

Frozen Gets FastPass

Management doesn’t want to call it "Fastpass," but that’s pretty much what debuted yesterday at the Frozen meet-and-greet at the cottage next to the Village Haus in Disneyland’s Fantasyland.

Inspired by a previous test at Walt Disney World, the system works like this: A guest walks up to the line for the meet-and-greet. A cast member scans the guest’s admission media and gives them a ticket with a time to return. The guest must return within a 20-miute window as stated on the ticket. If you arrive later than that, you’re out of luck.

On day one, tickets for all slots were distributed in two hours. Ticket distribution started when Magic Morning opened and ended about an hour after the park opened.

Admission tickets are scanned for fear that guests would begin forging the character Fastpass tickets; when you return at your appointed time, you must show both your admission media and corresponding Fastpass, or you won’t be allowed in. The stand-by line has been eliminated.

Yesterday, managers were all over the Frozen location to gauge how the experiment was working out.

Plus side: No more three-hour lines.

Minus side: For those who don’t grab a Fastpass soon after the park opens, they probably won’t get to meet Anna and Elsa, even if they would have been willing to suck up the three-hour line.

Second Life for Innoventions?

Rumors have been floating around for more than a decade that the underutilized Innoventions building would be gutted or leveled to make way for a new attraction. That talk really heated up after Disney acquired Lucasfilm and began dreaming up ways to get more Star Wars into Tomorrowland.

Innoventions, however, may be getting a second life, with word that plans have surfaced that show the building’s first floor undergoing a complete remodel in the near future.

Innoventions can thank Marvel for its reprieve. An Iron Man display, followed by meet-and-greets featuring Thor and Captain America have been hugely popular, and two additional superheroes are supposed to be joining them in the fall.

Disneyland management is also looking for a place to station characters Star-Lord and Gamora from the hit movie Guardians of the Galaxy, who recently appeared at a Villains Unleashed event at Walt Disney World.

Treehouse Down Permanently

Sixteen months ago, Tom & Huck’s Treehouse on Tom Sawyer Island was closed as part of a fall protection overhaul at the park. With its short railings and narrow stairs, the amusement was considered not up to state safety codes.

Now it appears the closure is permanent. “There are no plans to reopen the treehouse,” said one cast member. “It seems that to upgrade it to Cal-OSHA standards would entail completely redesigning and rebuilding the treehouse—something TDA (Team Disney Anaheim) is not interested in doing.”