Theme Park Bits: New FastPass Attractions At Disneyland, Tokyo's New Monorail, And More

In this edition of Theme Park Bits:

At Disneyland, FastPass works in a much different way than it does at Walt Disney World. Once you're on property, you can sign up for MaxPass and get your FastPasses right through your smartphone. But there's less planning involved. However, you might want to start putting your planning cap on, because two current attractions at the Anaheim resort are getting FastPass, per the Disney Park Blogs. Specifically, Autopia in Tomorrowland and Monsters, Inc.: Mike and Sulley to the Rescue in Disney California Adventure are getting the FastPass option (as well as MaxPass) "soon". (Scroll to the bottom of that article for the details. The DPB folks were sneaky and hid it at the end.) Frankly, I'm not entirely sure these attractions need FastPass, though Monsters, Inc. tends to be a bit busier and choked with crowds after the latest live Frozen performance lets out. The real question is how the standby vs. FastPass crowds will be handled moving forward. So, like I said: get your planning cap on.

When it comes to Disney's U.S. theme parks, though, there's little doubt that our good friend Bob Iger (dedicated reader of the column, doncha know) is living large. In the recent quarterly earnings call, Iger revealed that attendance at the American theme parks rebounded in the last few months of 2019. That's no doubt thanks to a) the holidays and b) the arrival of Rise of the Resistance over in Disney's Hollywood Studios as well as eventually Disneyland. The downside is that, due to the continued outbreak of coronavirus around the world, it's likely that parks such as Hong Kong Disneyland may be closed for two months (if not more). So hopefully the American parks can pick up the slack.

Over in Tokyo Disneyland, they're preparing for a new arrival. But that new arrival isn't a new ride or a new land. It's a brand-new monorail, set to be unveiled on May 21. The Type C monorail series will have more space on the inside thanks to a spiffy redesign, and a slick, multi-color stripe on the outside. You can take a look here at the concept art, revealed by the Oriental Land Company. Admittedly, the Mickey-heavy art here is...shall we say, laying it on a bit thick, but a larger interior to a monorail is impossible to ignore.

You know the old saying: you learn something new every day. To that end, did you know that Ferrari World in Abu Dhabi is going to have some new attractions arriving in November, to commemorate its 10th anniversary? Or, like me, did you...not know that such a place existed or that it is nearly a decade old? No matter: next month, Ferrari World is getting a Family Zone with kid-friendly versions of its thrill rides, and later on this year, guests can scale the red roof of the theme park with a special Roof Walk. And now we all know (or at least I know) that Ferrari World is...well, a thing.

As we've discussed in past Theme Park Bits columns, Universal Studios Orlando is building a whole new theme park dubbed Universal's Epic Universe. We've talked about the Nintendo area and one themed to How to Train Your Dragon, but how about we go back a bit further this time with some of their classic monster characters? You can take a look at some of the proposed site plans, which show off (likely) a spot for a major attraction as well as at least one more attraction or show. It's early days yet, but with classic monsters driving this section, I sincerely hope this area harkens back to the early days of Universal Pictures. Not...y'know, the Dark Universe. (Remember? When Tom Cruise was in The Mummy? The Dark Universe? No?)