Theme Park Bits: Craft Beer In Galaxy's Edge, A Nighttime Harry Potter Show, And More

In this edition of Theme Park Bits:

As you know, Star Wars: Galaxy's Edge is now open at Disneyland. It's a very exciting time for anyone who loves the stories of a galaxy far, far away, whether you're able to be there for rope-drop on opening day or not. Once you're there, you'll likely want a frosty cold beverage. Ogg's Cantina may have funky-sounding beer names, but much of the beer will be provided by big-name craft breweries like Sierra Nevada Brewing Co. and Ballast Point. So yes, you might order a White Wampa or a Bad Motivator, but you're drinking something a bit more familiar.

While you're at Disneyland this weekend, you might notice the return of something a bit longer in the tooth. Just walk into the entryway of Adventureland and look up. You'll see the sign above this paragraph, refurbished after an effort to expand the entrance to the land and move crowds through quicker. The sign itself doesn't look quite the same as it used to before being removed, but the major shift is the removal of a column underneath the middle of the sign, meant to siphon crowds through faster. You have to wonder how much difference it'll make this summer, though.

Let's say you're in the California area this summer and you don't want to chance the Galaxy's Edge crowds at Disneyland. Maybe you love the land that honestly inspired Star Wars: Galaxy's Edge into existence: the Wizarding World of Harry Potter. Well, at Universal Studios Hollywood, from June 22 to August 11, you can check out the return of the nighttime show "Dark Arts at Hogwarts Castle". This light-projection experience first was shown off in April, and was met with rousing praise from guests. It's only natural to wonder if these kinds of nighttime shows will be year-round soon enough.

If you've visited the Disney theme parks lately, you no doubt know that you have to go through a metal detector first. The security lines at the parks are typically separated into lines for those guests with and without bags. But now, at least at Walt Disney World, things are going to change. The metal detectors there are being rewired to allow guests to walk through with items like phones, wallets, and keys. No more bins to separate these from your person, though if you still have a bag, you're going to have to stand in the longer line just like most of the rest of us.

Last week in Theme Park Bits, we talked about the expansion coming to Tokyo DisneySea. But it's time now to talk about another Disney theme-park expansion outside of the continental U.S., in Disneyland Paris. The expansion will be, well, full of recognizable IP, with everything from Frozen to Star Wars showing up in an open-air section surrounding a new lake. As the Disneyland Paris PR team notes, the lake will serve as both a gateway to the new area and a place for plenty of nighttime shows. We're a long way from joking about this place as EuroDisneyland.