April 28, 2026. A full ground-level construction and park update covering the facial recognition rollout, Jungle Cruise’s reopening, the Coco construction site acceleration, new developments at Edelweiss Snacks and Indiana Jones, Roger Rabbit and the Monorail reopening dates, and every upcoming closure on the calendar.
A lot is happening at Disneyland Resort this week. Facial recognition is now fully live at both park entrances. Jungle Cruise is back after a two-month closure with some things changed and one notable thing removed entirely. The Coco dark ride site is moving into a new phase with tree removal signaling imminent demolition progress. And the refurbishment calendar has several closures and reopenings coming in the next two weeks. Here is everything worth knowing.
What’s Happening At a Glance
- Facial recognition now fully live at all standard entry lanes at both parks — opt-out lanes available at gates 37, 38, and 39 at Disneyland Park and two lanes on the far right at California Adventure
- Jungle Cruise reopened Friday April 25th — new wood installed in mid-queue, Bertha the elephant more animated, piranhas completely removed
- Toy Story Midway Mania reopened Friday April 25th — no guest-facing changes, 70th Anniversary overlay still in place
- Coco construction site at DCA accelerating — tree removal underway, trench boxes and storm drainage going in, demo expanding toward backstage area
- Edelweiss Snacks steel A-frame structure now clearly visible above construction walls near Matterhorn lagoon
- Indiana Jones Adventure exterior queue fully restored — crates, barrels, and theming elements back in place
- Roger Rabbit’s Cartoon Spin reopening May 1st — spinning will now be controlled by the ride, not guests
- Disneyland Monorail reopening May 1st
- Silly Symphony Swings closing April 27th
- Pirates Lair on Tom Sawyer Island closing April 28th, reopening May 8th
- Pirates of the Caribbean and Blue Bayou closing May 4th — Blue Bayou scheduled to reopen May 21st, no Pirates return date
- Inside Out Emotional Whirlwind still closed at California Adventure — two months in, no return date announced
Facial Recognition Is Now Live at Both Parks
Facial recognition is no longer in test mode. As of this week it is fully operational at the entrance gates to both Disneyland Park and Disney California Adventure during all operating hours.
Here is how it works in practice. When you scan your ticket at a standard entry lane, the system captures your face, converts the image into a unique numerical value, and compares that value against the photo on file with your ticket or Magic Key in approximately one second. If they match, the gate opens. No action is required from you beyond scanning your ticket the way you always have. There is no additional step, no pause, no awareness that anything has changed. The experience from the guest side is genuinely seamless — faster in practice than the previous system where a Cast Member had to visually compare your face to a photo and press a button to open the gate.
The efficiency improvement also changes Cast Member deployment. Under the previous system, each lane required one Cast Member to manage the comparison and button press. With facial recognition handling that automatically, one Cast Member now monitors two lanes, intervening only when a guest needs assistance, opts out, or when a child who does not yet have a photo on file needs manual processing.
For guests who want to opt out, the process is clearly signed. At Disney California Adventure, the two lanes on the far right of the entry plaza are designated non-facial recognition lanes. At Disneyland Park, look for lanes 37, 38, and 39 — these are the opt-out options. The signage is an entrance icon with a face and a line through it. Everything else labeled simply “entrance” is a facial recognition lane. In the opt-out lanes, Cast Members process entry manually the way they always have.
Disney’s published data policy states that the numerical values generated from facial images are stored for no more than 30 days and then wiped from the system.
Jungle Cruise Reopens — What Changed and What Is Missing
Jungle Cruise reopened Friday April 25th after what ended up being approximately two months of closure. Here is the honest assessment of what you will find when you ride it now.
The middle section of the queue received new wood. The first and third sections of the queue appear unchanged. The new wood has a noticeably different color and finish than the surrounding structure — lighter and fresher than the aged wood on either side. It does not currently match the overall look of the queue, though it is possible this is intentional as new wood that will age into the surrounding material over time, or it may receive additional treatment. Either way, the change is visible if you are paying attention to the queue surroundings.
On the ride itself, Bertha the bathing pool elephant is more animated than before. Cast Members specifically flagged this as something to notice. The movement is more pronounced and closer to the level of animation on the equivalent scene at Magic Kingdom in Florida. Squirt also reportedly received some updates, though the difference is subtle enough that it is worth comparing on your next ride if you have recent reference footage.
The piranha scene is gone. Not broken, not underwater, not temporarily removed. The entire apparatus has been taken out. Whether this is permanent or whether the piranhas will be reinstalled later is not confirmed. For now, that section of the ride passes without the scene.
Otherwise, the attraction is the same. The jokes are the same. The backside of water remains the backside of water.
Toy Story Midway Mania Is Back — Nothing Changed
Toy Story Midway Mania also reopened Friday April 25th after about six weeks of closure. The short version: nothing guest-facing changed. The 70th Anniversary overlay — special targets and themed content added for Disneyland’s anniversary year — is still fully in place. No Toy Story 5 content has been introduced. The interior and exterior queue look the same. The attraction rides identically to before the closure.
The permits that preceded this closure referenced projector repairs and lighting work. That appears to be exactly what happened. This was a technical fix, not a creative update. The 70th Anniversary overlay is expected to remain through at least the summer, and any Toy Story 5 integration is likely still a year or more away from implementation.
Coco Construction Site: Tree Removal Signals Next Phase
The Coco dark ride site at Disney California Adventure is accelerating and the most significant new development this week is tree removal activity in the construction zone. Workers were observed at the top of a large tree near the Abbey Road area cutting branches — the standard first step before full tree removal. Trees are not removed from a construction site for shade management. They are removed because something is going in where the tree is standing.
This is a meaningful signal. The site has been in a ground preparation and clearing phase for several weeks. The appearance of active tree removal suggests the demo footprint is expanding and that the project is moving into a phase where the ground needs to be cleared to a greater extent than what was required for the initial work. The Abbey Road access corridor adjacent to the site is still open but being monitored — if that closes, it will be an even stronger indicator that the next phase of demo is beginning.
Other visible developments on the Coco site this week include trench boxes going in — infrastructure used for burying storm water drainage or utility conduit — and what appears to be additional clearing of black top toward the backstage area behind the visible site boundary. The rear portion of the site, toward the existing backstage buildings, appears to be expanding in scope.
The working theory on site layout: the parade float building at the front of the site is the most likely candidate for demolition, while the ODB building and one additional backstage structure toward the rear are expected to remain. That arrangement suggests the actual show building for the Coco ride will run parallel to Disneyland Drive in the cleanest rectangular section of the footprint, with queue space potentially occupying the irregular-shaped area where the parade float building currently stands. This is educated speculation based on the current site configuration and is subject to change as demolition continues.
Edelweiss Snacks: A-Frame Structure Now Visible
The mystery structure near the Matterhorn lagoon has gotten clearer this week. What is now visible above the construction walls around Edelweiss Snacks is a definitive A-frame steel structure — not an awning, not a simple shade canopy, but a substantial framed building with clear architectural intent. It is also noticeably detached from Edelweiss Snacks proper, with a significant gap between the existing building and the new structure.
The previously filed City of Anaheim permit described a 518 square foot prefabricated outdoor dining structure and a 168 square foot shade canopy. What is visible now is consistent with the 518 square foot prefabricated structure going up as a standalone dining building near the lagoon rather than an attached extension of the existing snack stand. The Monorail needs to reopen before a proper overhead view of the full structure is possible — that view is expected next week when the Monorail comes back online on May 1st.
Indiana Jones Adventure Queue Fully Restored
The exterior queue theming at Indiana Jones Adventure is back. Crates, barrels, the hanging melons, and the prop elements that make up the queue atmosphere outside the temple entrance have all been reinstalled. The overall look is consistent with how the queue appeared before the recent work, with a few minor differences in exact placement of some items. The tablet that was previously displayed at a 45-degree angle now sits flat, and a barrel of beans that had been hanging is still in place. There are some melons present now that do not appear in older reference footage of the same section, which suggests some additions rather than a straight restoration.
The queue scene represents the kind of show quality attention that often goes unnoticed by guests who walk through it focused on getting to the ride. It is genuinely well done and the restoration work reflects a deliberate effort to get the theming right rather than approximate it.
One unresolved item adjacent to Indiana Jones: the Adventureland Treehouse water feature is still not running despite Jungle Cruise being back online. This was initially suspected to be related to the Jungle Cruise work. That appears not to be the case, making this a separate developing issue with no current resolution date.
Roger Rabbit’s Cartoon Spin: Reopening May 1st With One Big Change
Roger Rabbit’s Cartoon Spin in Toontown reopens May 1st. One significant operational change is coming with the reopening: guests will no longer be able to control the spin of the vehicle. The spinning mechanism is being moved to ride control, meaning the vehicle will spin on its own based on the ride’s programming rather than in response to the steering wheel the guest holds.
Disney’s stated reasoning is to make the attraction more accessible for younger children — specifically to allow lap-sitting and make the ride experience more manageable for small guests. For guests who historically grabbed the wheel and tried to minimize spinning, that option goes away. For guests who wanted more spin than the vehicle was generating on its own, the same. The ride will spin on its terms.
Disneyland Monorail: Reopening May 1st
The Disneyland Monorail reopens May 1st alongside Roger Rabbit. The timing is significant for the Edelweiss Snacks update specifically — the Monorail provides the only elevated view of the lagoon construction area, and the first post-reopening Monorail ride will reveal what the A-frame structure looks like from above for the first time.
California Adventure Updates
Inside Out Emotional Whirlwind remains closed at California Adventure with no announced return date. The attraction has now been down for two months. From the Pixar Pal-Around gondola, the ride is visibly disassembled. This is not related to the Coco construction project — it is a separate mechanical issue with the attraction itself. No timeline for resolution has been communicated.
The Grizzly River Run geysers were not operating during the morning visit. Reports from other guests suggest they may have been running later in the day. This has been an ongoing inconsistency and is worth checking current conditions in the Disneyland app before planning around the geyser experience.
Construction walls remain up at the Avengers Infinity Defense building in Avengers Campus, where significant rooftop activity is visible including what appears to be an HVAC installation crew. The new restroom building being constructed between Cars Land and Avengers Campus has received theming treatment that mirrors the Ancient Sanctum aesthetic — the concrete block pattern visible behind the scrim matches the surrounding environment and should blend well when the walls come down.
Construction scrim and scaffold remain at the Hollywood Backlot entrance building and at the Carthay Circle restaurant entrance, though Carthay Circle itself is still open and operating normally.
Buzz Lightyear Astro Blasters: Still Closed, Getting More Opaque
The scrim around Buzz Lightyear Astro Blasters has been heightened and densified this week. It is now impossible to see through or over from any accessible angle, which is a change from previous weeks when some sight lines were available. This level of screening is typically applied when something visually significant is being done to an exterior that Disney does not want visible before completion. An aggressive repaint of the building’s exterior is the leading expectation. The current white, purple, and green color scheme has been on that building for years and the combination of a closed refurbishment plus heavy screening suggests something more than a refresh may be happening to the exterior design.
Downtown Disney Updates
Earl of Sandwich construction continues in Downtown Disney and appears to be making visible progress. An opening sometime this summer remains the best current estimate based on the pace of work.
The Disneyland Monorail’s Downtown Disney station appears to have completed exterior work — the covering that was in place over recent weeks has been removed and what remains appears to be minor electrical finishing work. The station should be in good shape for the May 1st Monorail reopening.
The Lego Store in Downtown Disney has three placeholder spaces for new Lego installations. An Avengers-themed Lego display has been added, filling one of the three positions.
Refurbishment and Closure Calendar
April 27: Silly Symphony Swings closes at California Adventure.
April 28: Pirates Lair on Tom Sawyer Island closes. Reopens May 8th.
May 1: Roger Rabbit’s Cartoon Spin reopens in Toontown, with vehicle spin now ride-controlled. Disneyland Monorail reopens.
May 4: Pirates of the Caribbean closes. Blue Bayou closes same day.
May 21: Blue Bayou scheduled to reopen. Pirates of the Caribbean return date not yet announced.
Ongoing — no date: Inside Out Emotional Whirlwind at California Adventure, Buzz Lightyear Astro Blasters at Disneyland Park.
Staying up to date on all Disneyland construction and park conditions for 2026? The Enchanted Insider Disneyland Itinerary Guide is updated regularly for both parks. For hotel and ticket packages, check Get Away Today before you book.
FAQ
Yes. As of late April 2026, facial recognition is fully operational at all standard entry lanes at both Disneyland Park and Disney California Adventure. Guests who want to opt out can use gates 37, 38, and 39 at Disneyland Park, or the two lanes on the far right at California Adventure. All other lanes are facial recognition lanes.
Jungle Cruise reopened April 25, 2026 with new wood installed in the middle section of the queue, a more animated Bertha the bathing elephant, and minor updates to the Squirt scene. The most notable change is the complete removal of the piranha apparatus — the entire scene has been taken out of the attraction, not just deactivated.
Roger Rabbit’s Cartoon Spin is reopening May 1, 2026. The biggest change on reopening is that the vehicle spinning will now be controlled by the ride system rather than by guests. The steering wheel guests previously used to spin the vehicle will no longer affect spin rate or direction.
Pirates of the Caribbean closes for refurbishment on May 4, 2026 with no announced return date. Blue Bayou closes the same day and is scheduled to reopen May 21, 2026 — without Pirates of the Caribbean running.
Disney California Adventure is building a new Coco-themed dark ride attraction on the site adjacent to the Pixar Place Hotel. As of late April 2026, the site is in active ground preparation with tree removal underway, trench boxes going in for storm drainage and utilities, and the demo footprint expanding toward the backstage area. The attraction does not have an announced opening date.