It seems like all the recent Disney Parks construction news has been about Star Wars Land, but for this fangirl, all I really want to know is how Toy Story Land is progressing. And it appears that work is finally about to begin in earnest on the toys’ new home at Disney’s Hollywood Studios! It’s only been seven months since the new addition was announced at the 2015 D23 Expo, but the long wait for actual ground-breaking may soon be over – at last, in the past several weeks, there has been some activity in the backstage areas of the park.
While I was at DHS last month, I witnessed the beginnings of Catastrophe Canyon being torn down, on the site of the old Backlot Tour. Although I couldn’t get any decent photos of the demo myself, plenty of updates have been shared on Twitter:
The prevailing thought is that the Backlot – along with Streets of America and the location of the Lights Motors Action stunt show, which all are slated to close on April 2 – will be the staging area for both Toy Story Land and Star Wars Land, providing easy access for both equipment and materials.
Nearby, the Premiere Theater is also in the process of demolition:
This venue was most recently the home of the Frozen Sing Along, but has been sitting idle ever since the show moved to the former American Idol (now Hyperion) theater last year.
Last, but certainly not least, Orlando Theme Park News has reported that the section of the park where the Slinky Dog roller coaster is most likely to be built was officially designated a construction zone as of Tuesday, March 15, 2016.
There are still a lot of structures to be removed from the plot of land where Toy Story Land will be rising – including DHS’s former icon, the “Earffel Tower” – but judging by how quickly Catastrophe Canyon came down, and how rapidly the Premiere Theater demo is now progressing, as long as Disney gets to work on this project in a timely manner (and doesn’t wait another seven months to get started), it shouldn’t be long before ground is cleared and dirt starts to move.
Hopefully we’ll really see things get underway after April 2, once the back corner of the park is closed off completely. And hopefully when I’m back at Walt Disney World in June, I’ll discover a maze of walls and hear heavy machinery at work! Stay tuned, I’ll share updates as I find them. And if you should see any Toy Story Land construction yourself, please comment. It’s going to be fun following along… once they actually get started!
Toy Story Land images © Disney/Pixar.
Toy Story Fangirl 