Disneyland closes 2 restaurants for refurbishment after busy Christmas season
Disneyland will close two restaurants for seasonal refurbishments just days after the busy Christmas holiday season comes to an end and ahead of the popular food festival that draws annual passholders to the Anaheim theme parks.
Blue Bayou and Paradise Garden Grill will temporarily close next week as part of Disneyland’s standard refurbishment schedule.
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The timing of the attraction closures coincides with the end of the Christmas holiday season at Disneyland and Disney California Adventure on Sunday, Jan. 7.
The Blue Bayou restaurant in New Orleans Square will close Jan. 7-19 for refurbishment, according to the Disneyland website.
Blue Bayou underwent a six-week refurbishment in spring 2022 while Pirates of the Caribbean was closed for an extended rehab.
Disneyland bills the Cajun-Creole restaurant set inside the Pirates of the Caribbean as a watery bayou setting where the attraction’s bateaux boats glide past while diners nosh on jambalaya, gumbo and creme brulee. The nighttime ambiance of the perpetual twilight features crickets chirping, frogs croaking and fireflies winking along the banks of the restaurant within a ride.
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Paradise Garden Grill at Disney California Adventure will close Jan. 8-21 for refurbishment, according to the Disneyland website.
“This is the window between the end of the Festival of Holidays and the start of the Lunar New Year, so we assume this refurbishment is also to prepare the kitchen for the new seasonal menu,” according to MousePlanet.
DCA will host the annual Lunar New Year event Jan. 23 through Feb. 18.
The 2023 lineup of six festival marketplace booths included Bamboo Blessings, Wrapped in Love, Lucky 8 Lantern, Red Dragon Spice Traders, Prosperity Bao & Bun and Longevity Noodle Co.
DCA restaurants that offered Lunar New Year menu items in 2023 included Paradise Garden Grill, Lamplight Lounge, Lucky Fortune Cookery, Pacific Wharf Cafe (now Aunt Cass Cafe), Sonoma Terrace, Boardwalk Pizza & Pasta and Magic Key Terrace.
Disney has not yet announced an official lineup of festival marketplace booths, restaurants and menu items for the 2024 festival.
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Downtown Disney will also see a host of restaurant closures and openings in the new year.
The Catal restaurant and adjacent Uva bar are being transformed into the new Paseo restaurant and Centrico bar.
The temporary Earl of Sandwich location in the former La Brea Bakery will soon close so the building can be torn down to make way for a new Porto’s Bakery. Earl of Sandwich is moving to yet another temporary pop-up location near Star Wars Trading Post.
Earl of Sandwich will eventually get a new permanent location alongside a new Din Tai Fung soup dumpling restaurant and an $8 million food hall-style concept with a second-story outdoor bar.
The new Great Maple restaurant has opened and the Sketch Pad Cafe is coming soon at the Paradise Pier Hotel — which becomes Pixar Place Hotel on Jan. 30.
The Disneyland Hotel has opened a lobby lounge in the former Steakhouse 55 location and the Palm Breeze outdoor bar at the Disney Vacation Club Villas.