On March 19, after closing for refurbishment over a year ago, the highly-anticipated reopening of Mickey’s Toontown at the Disneyland Resort brought thousands of visitors to the tiny land on an overcast, drizzly day. Long seen as a dead area at Disneyland with little to no green spaces, closed attractions like Goofy’s Bounce House taking up valuable real estate, and a temperature that always seems to be 10 degrees hotter than anywhere else in the park during summer months, Mickey’s Toontown has been completely revamped into a child-friendly haven with three playgrounds, multiple green spaces and a reimagining of both Donald and Goofy’s homes.
On opening day, characters roamed the land freely interacting with children, playing, and generally being a welcome change from the long line photo ops that character meet and greets have become in the last couple of decades. In the place of Goofy’s Bounce House is the brand new Goofy’s How-To-Play Yard, an interactive playground for kids. Next door is Donald’s Duck Pond, an aquatic play area that was not yet ready for prime time on opening day and remained closed to visitors, likely due to the rain. The new CenTOONial Park takes over the reimagined entrance with a Wishing Tree that features roots for young children to crawl, walk, hang, or jump on.
Mickey and Minnie’s homes are virtually unchanged, except having a welcoming facelift with all the paint and other interactive elements freshened up, and Gadget’s Go Coaster has been renamed Chip ‘N’ Dale’s GADGET Coaster with figures of the titular chipmunks added to the pint-sized roller coaster. The Toontown downtown area continues to have the fun Gag Factory effects we all know and love and the criminally underrated Roger Rabbit’s Car Toon Spin is re-opened with just a few narrative changes.
Overall, the revamping of this forgotten land seems to be a rousing success, giving visitors to Disneyland a much-needed play area for children tired of waiting in long lines and adults a nice place to sit down and have a perfect picnic.
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