Disney trying to get Avengers in the parks

Disney Chairman of Parks and Resorts Tom Staggs has said he intends to bring the Avengers to Disneyland Resort and other parks outside the US. While Disney cannot use Marvel characters in its Orlando parks because of licensing contracts with Universal Studios in Orlando, they have no such restrictions in Anaheim because Universal let their contract expire at its Hollywood park.

Staggs has said recently that not only had Disney been working on getting the Avengers into the parks, but that "work has only intensified given the film's great success."

Imagineers are working on how to get the Marvel characters into the parks. "The setting has to be right, the story has to be right, and that takes a fair amount of time," Staggs said.

Sounds like it will be some time before we see the Stark Expo at Disneyland, but at least it's now been confirmed that they are working on it. The question is: where in Disneyland or even California Adventure does theming based on the Avengers fit? Even if there was an area in Disneyland Park that an Avengers theme could make sense, the park is basically capped out on space. Even if they completely redid the Big Thunder Ranch/Arena area, would super heroes really fit in next to Frontierland and Rivers of America? And in California Adventure, the only real space could be if they swapped out A Bugs Land, which is too small, or maybe the back area of Hollywood Land where Monsters Inc and Muppetvision are, again maybe too small for an adequate representation of the Marvel universe.

So where could they go? Third gate anyone? Rumors have been flying for year about a third park in Anaheim. With the success of the Avengers and Marvel films in general, what better theme to create a third park? And there is plenty of land with the Toy Story parking lot on Harbor Blvd. so once they get their second parking structure build on the parking lot south of Downtown Disney, we hope we can see another of Disney's parking lots turned into a park, this one featuring Iron Man, the Hulk, maybe even Spiderman and the X-Men.

Increased cell coverage at Disneyland Resort

No bars?

With the increase in cellular data usage in recent years, especially with the popularity of Twitter and Facebook, Disneyland has been one of the worst places to try to send a Tweet or text a picture. The networks just couldn't keep up with the huge demand of so many people announcing to the world they just met Mickey or they're riding Big Thunder Mountain.

It appears with the expansion of the Disneyland Resort and the expected increase in park capacity, also presumably with the release of their own Disney Parks App to compete with the many wait time apps, Disney is also attempting to improve the cell coverage in the parks.

According to the OC Register, building permits show the resort replacing or upgrading antennas in Tomorrowland, New Orleans Square, Fantasyland, and Downtown Disney.

It will be nice to be able to use smartphones more while at the Disneyland Resort.

Photo Report: Universal Studios Hollywood 6/6

First stop, of course, is the new Transformers the Ride 3D...3 times!
More on this awesome ride can be found at our Transformers the Ride post

Jurassic Park the Ride

The Mummy the Ride

Terminator 2: 3D, a show featuring a combination of 3D with live action, pretty outdated from the late 90s, but still kinda cool

The World Famous Studio Tour with Jimmy Fallon

Backlot sets

The new King Kong 360 3D... pretty cool, it has screens running the length of the entire tram on both sides, showing a battle between King Kong and T-Rex, including the tram itself rocking around on a moving track to add to the experience

Video from the premier and ride-through video from Inside the Magic

Unfortunately, the new King Kong experience it located in front of the old bridge that would fall apart when the tram drove over it so you no longer get to experience it.

Amity featuring Jaws

Wisteria Lane, from Desperate Housewives, also used in The Munsters, among other things, it was designed to look like a common neighborhood

This house is being prepared as the Munster's house for the new remake 1313 Mockingbird Lane

Whoville from How the Grinch Stole Christmas

The Bates Motel from Psycho

The 747 crash site from War of the Worlds

The Simpsons Ride, a motion simulator ride based on The Simpsons cartoon, a refurbishment from the old Back to the Future ride

Shrek 4D, Presented in Ogrevision, a 3D show with water, light, and smoke effects, as well as seats that move with the action to increase the experience

The Special Effects Stage used to be in the Lower Lot in a Sound Stage next to Backdraft, both of which needed to make room for a bigger attraction you may have heard of, Transformers the Ride 3D. Backdraft is now gone, but this new version of the Special Effects Stage has been moved to the Sound Stage that used to have the Fear Factor show. It has a lot of the same shenanigans as the old show, but it's still cool to see how some special effects are done.

Random movie props

More props

From The Mummy

Waterworld Stunt Spectacular

This is another Universal attraction that really needs an update. The show has not been changed, that I can see, since it replaced the Miami Vice Stunt Show in 1995, right down to the stuntmen squirting people with water as they pass by to their seats.