Disneyland Weekly Update! Best Disneyland Restaurant Under Construction, Critter Country and Haunted Mansion Progress, and More

As we are nearing the end of September at Disneyland and getting ready to head into the busy month of October, the Halloween celebration at the resort continues and there is a significant amount of construction happening at the resort.

A couple of weeks ago, we shared a look at what is happening at Disneyland including a new Downtown Disney security entrance opening, Disneyland Halloween merchandise, and more. This week, we have a detailed look at the construction happening for new additions and attraction closures in Disneyland, Disney California Adventure, and Downtown Disney.

Keep reading for a photo update on everything that is currently happening at Disneyland! Our Mickey Visit team is in the parks every week bringing you the latest news and updates.

Downtown Disney Update

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Downtown Disney is in a state of transformation right now as construction continues on new experiences. We just updated our best Downtown Disney restaurants article to include some of our new favorites that recently opened! The Earl of Sandwich pop-up location (seen above) is in operation. Disney has not yet shared word on when the main Earl of Sandwich location will close for its transformation into Porto's Bakery, which will be opening in 2025.

Construction continues on Parkside Market, which is currently covered in scrims. This new location will introduce four culinary concepts: Seoul Sister, Sip & Sonder, GG's Chicken Shop, and an overlook bar. We do not yet have a timeline for when this new addition will be opening, but it looks like it's making good progress.

Don't forget that Pluto's Pumpkin Pursuit is currently running at the Disneyland Resort! You can participate in this fun scavenger hunt to find hand-painted pumpkins inspired by Disney characters and redeem your map for a special prize.

Meanwhile, the old location of Tortilla Jo's is still sitting vacant and construction has not yet begun.

We expect work will start very soon on the transformation of this space into the steakhouse and barbecue eatery by Michelin-starred Chef Joe Isidori.

Construction is in progress for the reimagined and expanded Marceline's Confectionary, which will be renamed the Disney Wonderful World of Sweets.

This location will be offering a variety of favorite treats and opening this winter. See a closer look at the concept art below:

Disneyland Update

Meanwhile, there is a lot of construction going on at the Disneyland main entrance. Disneyland has been working for a bit now to relocate the planters, meaning that what made our favorite Disneyland entrance have a shorter wait is now going away.

Between these construction walls and the work being done on the Main Street Railroad Station, there is a lot of construction currently happening around the front gate.

Main Street Railroad Station was getting some work done in our last update, and now it's completely covered as you can see in the photo below. The Disneyland Railroad is one of the Disneyland attractions that is currently under refurbishment with no opening date listed yet.

Here is a closer look. They have added a depiction of the Disneyland railroad and greenery in its background to cover the construction.

As you are walking towards Main Street, this is what the construction looks like from the other side of the building. There are construction walls covering the main stairs leading up to the station.

On the construction walls, you can see pictures of the other railroad stations from Disney Parks around the world as well as a sign saying visitors can go to the Toontown and Tomorrowland stations to learn more about the Disneyland Railroad.

We are getting ready to head into one of the busiest times of the year at Disneyland as the month of October is approaching. You can see our Disneyland crowd calendar for projected crowd levels each day of the month. We can expect wait times will be getting longer across the board quite soon.

In Fantasyland, construction walls are up around “it's a small world” as the ride is currently closed for refurbishment.

“it's a small world” is closed for much longer than its typical season closure, as it is getting work done in two parts, before and after the holiday celebration.

The ride closed about a week ago in September and is supposed to reopen as “it's a small world” Holiday on November 15, the first day of Christmas at Disneyland. Right now, the signage outside of the attraction says “our musical voyage returns this fall.”

Over in New Orleans Square, the construction of the Haunted Mansion retail shop continues. The new shop will be the “carriage house of the Mansion” belonging to Madame Leota.

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The construction walls outside of the retail shop have some iconic quotes from Madame Leota's dialogue in the seance room as well as the concept art for the finished product.

The expanded queue experience is also coming along as well. We're hoping to hear more about an opening timeline for the new shop and the work on the queue soon. Right now and for the foreseeable future, the attraction is only available via Virtual Queue access.

Closeby, construction on Tiana's Bayou Adventure continues. You can see below where the construction walls transition from a Haunted Mansion to a Princess and the Frog theme. From what we can see above the construction walls, the exterior of the attraction is starting to look very much like the finished product at Magic Kingdom.

Construction on Critter Country and the two new Princess and the Frog retail shops also continues. You can see a glimpse at the top of Ray's Berets (formerly the Briar Patch) below.

Here is a slightly different angle on the Critter Country construction with the Tiana's Bayou Adventure water tower visible.

You can see some water running through this part of the track below. Overall, it looks like the construction on the exterior of the attraction is starting to approach its final stages.

Hungry Bear Restaurant is still closed for its reimagining into Hungry Bear Barbecue Jamboree (see details and the menu in our full guide here). There is no opening date for the restaurant yet.

Disney California Adventure Update

At Disney California Adventure, Pixar Pier currently has some construction going on. Lamplight Lounge is surrounded by construction, but the restaurant is still open. A Cast Member said that new artwork may be going on the pillars.

This isn't quite the ambiance we're used to for this restaurant, which we recently named the best restaurant at Disneyland in our update of our best Disneyland restaurants ranking. You have to walk through a dark tunnel to enter, and then the usually stunning outside view is currently not the same as usual as work on World of Color is ongoing.

The jets for World of Color are currently visible as work is happening for the show. World of Color closed earlier this month and there is no return date listed on the calendar yet, though it's expected to return later this fall.

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