I made a visit to the Disneyland parks on Friday to check out the new additions to Pirates of the Caribbean, the 2018 Disneyland All-American College Band, and the progress on Pixar Pier.

(Thank you to our friend Jason Dz for some of the photos and video.)

Incredibles 2 has opened, and commemorative buttons were available at the entrance to both theme parks.

We started off at Pirates of the Caribbean. It re-opened a week ago after a lengthy refurbishment. While it will eventually have Fastpass, that’s not currently available. The standby wait time was posted as 40 minutes, but it was more like 30.

After the caverns, where the Davy Jones mist screen used to be, there’s a new scene in the alcove to the left. My favorite part is the octopus – an ancestor of Hank, maybe? 🙂

The biggest change was to the auction scene: instead of buying brides, there is all matter of merchandise for sale. And the woman in red is now a pirate herself – “a pirate who’s just pillaged the town’s rum supply,” according to Disney.

Redd the pirate is a new walkaround character in New Orleans Square. She doesn’t have a fixed schedule or meet and greet area (she is, after all, a pirate), and instead just saunters around greeting guests.

The Tomorrowland Theater currently features a sneak peek of the upcoming Ant-Man and the Wasp movie. The preview is in 3-D, but none of the theater’s special effects (like wind and water) are used. It looks like a lot of fun – a nice break from the latest Avengers movie.

We got a nice look at the Toy Story-themed Monorail Red. Ooooooh….

New to me were these Up balloons. They are $15. In the house on the bottom are Carl and Russell.

We saw a little bit of the Pixar Play Parade. Jack-Jack is flaming again – in the aftermath of the Maleficent float fire, Jack-Jack’s flames were extinguished for a while.

In DCA we checked out the progress on Pixar Pier. With a week to go before the Premiere Party, it looks like there’s still quite a bit to do. The walls are down, and we could see a lot of people working. This is the bandshell.

The Pixar Pal-A-Round looks ready to go, though.

We could see some of the new murals painted on the Incredibles Park arch and Jack-Jack’s Cookie Num Nums kiosk.

The walls outside Knick’s Knacks are down – it’s a nice facade. Note the Pixar ball on top.

Inside the shop there was lots of new Incredibles merchandise.

Some new jewelry, too. While they aren’t anything I would wear, I thought the Slinky dog necklace and bracelet were adorable.

Ghirardelli is offering an Incredible Sundae for a limited time. Hot fudge and vanilla ice cream with layers of pineapple and strawberry. Looks pretty.

These Buzz Lightyear wings are painted on the blue wall in the Hollywood backlot area near the Studio Catering Co. truck. Interesting photo opportunity, that will only be there for a limited time. Guests are invited to tag @DisneyStyle and use the hashtag #HappiestPlace to share their photos.

We went back over to Disneyland to see the 2018 Disneyland All-American College Band. This was only their second day of performances. Their performance times are very different this year – rather than performing during the day and early evening, their first show is the Flag Retreat at 5:00, and their final show is in Town Square at 9:55! I don’t like the new schedule, since I rarely stay that late.

The second show is at 6:45 in the castle forecourt. This was our first chance to really get some sense of how they perform and relate to the audience. They looked great on their second day – very comfortable, loose and having fun.

I enjoyed their Moana medley.

The introductions of the band members. They are from colleges and universities all over the country. So talented.

The band typically performs for nine weeks, so their final performance should be ~August 17.

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