Lifestyle
A new Pixar-themed parade is coming to Disneyland
A new Pixar-themed daytime parade and enhancements to the “Star Wars” attraction Star Tours — The Adventures Continue are coming to the Disneyland Resort in 2024. Numerous festivals and celebrations will also dot the theme park calendar for the upcoming year, which was unveiled Monday morning by the resort.
Returning in 2024 is a reimagined Pixar Fest, with offerings that will span Disneyland Park and Disney California Adventure. The latter will host a brand new daytime parade titled Better Together: A Pixar Pals Celebration!. Disney has staged a Pixar parade in the past, as the Pixar Play Parade once ran regularly in California Adventure. The latter was retired in 2018, the last time the resort held a Pixar Fest, which was done in conjunction with the opening of Pixar Pier in California Adventure.
As part of Pixar Fest, which is slated to run from April 26 through Aug. 4, Disney will resurrect the fireworks and projection show Together Forever — A Pixar Nighttime Spectacular for Disneyland Park. Disney is promising new scenes for the evening production. For character fans, Disney will be bringing Ember and Wade from this year’s “Elemental,” as well as the red panda Mei from “Turning Red,” into the parks.
Also on the docket for 2024, running from April 5 to June 2, will be the “Star Wars”-themed event Season of the Force, which will bring with it the debut of previously announced new scenes for Star Tours. While Disney has not offered many specifics about the added segments, at a fan event earlier this year in Florida it was revealed that the character of Ahsoka Tano would be included. An exact date for the premiere of the updated scenes has not yet been released, as a spokesperson says they will debut “during the celebration.”
Also as part of Season of the Force, Disneyland will cement Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge as a fireworks viewing destination with the debut of what it describes as “galactic music” during the evening illuminations. The audio of Galaxy’s Edge is largely peripheral — sounds designed to mimic a working, livable city. The fireworks soundtrack will give the land some more traditional theme park-like trappings. Finally, Season of the Force will also see Space Mountain remade into Hyperspace Mountain for the duration of the event.
Concept art for Tiana’s Bayou Adventure, which is coming to Disneyland in 2024 in the former Splash Mountain space.
(Disney)
The next year will be one of transformation for the parks and their surrounding Downtown Disney District. The highlight will be the makeover of Splash Mountain into Tiana’s Bayou Adventure, which will transform the New Orleans Square and Critter Country areas of the park. Splash Mountain closed in May and construction is ongoing on the renovation. Disney, in releasing its 2024 calendar, did not set an opening date window for Tiana’s Bayou Adventure, but it’s expected to be in the latter half of 2024.
Previously announced, the reimagining of the Paradise Pier Hotel into the Pixar Place Hotel will open on Jan. 30, and the popular Disneyland nighttime show Fantasmic! will return on May 24. The latter has been shuttered since a Maleficent dragon figure went up in flames this past spring, and Disney has teased a reimagined grand finale. New restaurants are coming to Downtown Disney, including dumpling palace Din Tai Fung and Mexican-focused Paseo and its companion outdoor bar/restaurant area Céntrico. Opening date windows for the eateries have not yet been set.
Concept art for a “Turning Red”-themed float for the new Pixar parade, Better Together: A Pixar Pals Celebration!, launching in 2024 at Disney California Adventure.
(Artist concept / Disneyland Resort)
The Disneyland Resort has also set dates for a number of returning fan festivals. Lunar New Year at Disney California Adventure Park will run Jan. 23-Feb. 18; the concert-focused Celebrate Gospel will be staged Feb. 17 and Feb. 24 at Disneyland; the Disney California Food & Wine Festival is set for March 1-April 22; the resort-wide Halloween Time begins even earlier next year, launching Aug. 23 and ending on Halloween; the Día de los Muertos celebration Plaza de la Familia at California Adventure is planned for Aug. 23-Nov. 2; and finally, holidays at the resort with begin on Nov. 15.
Disneyland is continuing a pair of specially ticketed nighttime events. Disneyland After Dark is set to return in early 2024, although the resort hasn’t unveiled themes for the events yet, and the popular Halloween event Oogie Boogie Bash, which typically sells out Disney California Adventure, is also coming back. No announcements were made regarding some fan-favorite shows that ran in 2023, including the Disneyland parade Magic Happens and the nighttime Disneyland show Wondrous Journeys. A spokesperson says details regarding a “return of Magic Happens” will be shared at “a later time.”
The announcements come after Disneyland increased prices in October — and also launched a number of money-saving promotions. In October, Disneyland raised single-day admission prices on its most popular days by nearly 9%, while parking fees rose nearly 17% and the cost of using the ride-jumping Genie+ service went up 20%. Parking at the Disneyland Resort starts at $35 per car.
The lowest-priced ticket for a single-day visit on low-demand days at Disneyland and California Adventure has remained at $104 since 2019. The daily ticket for days when demand is highest, which was $179, recently increased to $194, an 8.4% increase. Prices for other tiers rose between 3.9% and 8.9%. A park-hopper add-on is $65, pushing some single day, multipark tickets to as high as $259 on some days.
Concept art for how rooms may look after Disney’s Paradise Pier Hotel is transformed into Pixar Place Hotel, set to fully open in January.
(Disneyland Resort)
Disneyland is also currently running a lower-priced ticket offer for Southern California locals. Each resident who pays $225 will receive three one-park-per-day tickets to be used on separate visits from Jan. 2 though June 2. This discount works out to $75 for each admission.
The three-ticket package, good for children or adults, means you can choose to visit Disneyland or Disney California Adventure each time. The $225 offer is valid Monday through Thursday, as those taking advantage of the promotion will be blocked out on Fridays and weekends. A Disneyland spokesperson has clarified that those who wish to visit the theme parks on a Friday or a weekend can do so for $275, or about $92 per day.
The deal cannot be combined with other promotions, but can be mixed and matched with other deals, as Disneyland continues to run its Kids’ Special Ticket Offer which allows children between the ages of 3 and 9 to visit for $50. The latter runs from Jan. 8 through March 10.
Lifestyle
‘Wait Wait’ for April 18. 2026: With Not My Job guest Phil Pritchard
Phil Pritchard of the Hockey Hall of Fame works the 2019 NHL Awards at the Mandalay Bay Events Center on June 19, 2019 in Las Vegas, Nevada. (Photo by Bruce Bennett/Getty Images)
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This week’s show was recorded in Chicago with host Peter Sagal, judge and guest scorekeeper Alzo Slade, Not My Job guest Phil Pritchard and panelists Alonzo Bodden, Adam Burke, and Dulcé Sloan. Click the audio link above to hear the whole show.
Who’s Alzo This Time
The Don Vs The Poppa; World’s Worst Doctor; Should We Eat That?
Panel Questions
Big Cheese News!
Bluff The Listener
Our panelists tell three stories about someone missing a huge opportunity in the news, only one of which is true.
Not My Job: Phil Pritchard, the NHL’s Keeper of the Stanley Cup, answers three questions about the other NHL, National Historic Landmarks
Peter talks to Phil Pritchard, the NHL’s Keeper of the Stanley Cup. Phil plays our game called, “Let’s Go Visit The NHL” Three questions about National Historic Landmarks.
Panel Questions
The Trump Dump and Air Traffic Control Becomes Animal Control
Limericks
Alzo Slade reads three news-related limericks: Spice Up Your Spring Cleaning; A Fizzy Meaty Drink; The Right Way to Eat Peeps.
Lightning Fill In The Blank
All the news we couldn’t fit anywhere else
Predictions
Our panelists predict the next big AirBnB story in the news
Lifestyle
How to have the best Sunday in L.A., according to Paul W. Downs
Paul W. Downs can’t help it that even on the weekends, his life intersects with “Hacks,” the HBO comedy he co-created and co-showruns with his wife, Lucia Aniello, and their friend Jen Statsky. (He also appears on the show as Jimmy LuSaque Jr., the besieged manager of its two stars, played by Emmy winners Jean Smart and Hannah Einbinder.) The fifth and final season of “Hacks” premiered last week, but on Downs’ days off, he often finds himself at its previous filming locations or hanging out with cast members who have become like family.
In Sunday Funday, L.A. people give us a play-by-play of their ideal Sunday around town. Find ideas and inspiration on where to go, what to eat and how to enjoy life on the weekends.
Downs moved to Los Angeles in 2011, but soon after, he and Aniello were hired to write (and for him to act) on the über-New York show “Broad City,” keeping them away from the West Coast for years. Now the couple live in Los Feliz, which they enjoy with their young son.
“I love Los Feliz because it’s a real neighborhood with restaurants and bars, but also feels close to nature with Griffith Park,” Downs says. “Also it’s very central to my Eastside friends and Westside agents.”
And if he had to live at a local mall, like the character Ava Daniels did in the third season of “Hacks,” which would he choose?
“It would be the Americana, obviously.”
Here’s how he’d spend a perfect day in L.A.
10 a.m.: A late rise and a li’l barista
I’m sleeping in if I can, which I can’t because I have a toddler, but let’s say I can sleep ’til 10. That would be insane.
Then I’m making coffee at home. I’m making it with my 4-year-old because he likes to make my coffee now. He always wanted to help, now he really wants to do it on his own. I’m still there to supervise, but he does do a lot of it.
I do batch brew. I’m doing Verve Coffee that I’m grinding there, and then I’m brewing four cups because I need my coffee. I had a Moccamaster for a long time, but I recently got a Simply Good Coffee. There’s no plastic — it’s all glass and metal.
11 a.m.: Chocolate croissants for everyone
We’re driving to Pasadena and we’re going to [Artisanal Goods by] CAR, which is the place to get the best chocolate croissant, I think, in the world. I don’t just think in L.A., I think they’re better than Paris. I’m going there with my wife and my kid and I’m having another coffee and some pastry. We’re ordering three [chocolate croissants]. We’re not doubling up.
11:45 a.m.: The family business
We’re driving to Fair Oaks in Pasadena. There’s a place called T.L. Gurley. We shot “Hacks” there, actually. Not only in Season 1, but also full circle in Season 5. We’re going to shmay around and look at antiques. My kid is going to want to play a vintage pinball machine. We’re going to find a little piece of art for the house or what have you. It’s not necessarily that I’m on the hunt. It’s to pass the time and to have some fun. If I could do anything and have a leisurely day and take my mind off work, that’s what I’m doing.
People love to interact with my kid when he’s there. We’re really training him to appraise things at a young age. My parents are part-time dealers of antiques. My grandmother bought and sold antiques. It’s kind of a family business.
1:30 pm.: Baguettes and books
We’re driving to Larchmont and we’re getting a sandwich at Larchmont Village Wine, Spirits & Cheese. I’m doing prosciutto-mozzarella-basil on a baguette.
Then we’re going to Chevalier’s Books. What’s sad is that I’m often not looking for leisure material. I’m looking for something that I’m interested in learning more about or writing about, or that they’re turning into a show I want to audition for. But we’re also doing Little Golden Books for my son. He’s obsessed. We’re not huge on screen time, so we really encourage the book-buying.
2:30 p.m.: Cast pool party
We’re having some family fun in the pool and we’re doing that until evening. We invite people over all the time. My sister-in-law is a New Yorker, but she actually wrote last season on “The Rooster” and she’s often writing on shows in L.A., so she’s often here and she’ll have a couple friends come over. I know this sounds like a piece of PR or something, but we’ll really literally have Hannah [Einbinder] and maybe Mark Indelicato from “Hacks” come over to swim. Jen, our co-creator of “Hacks,” will come over.
6:00 p.m.: Family dinner
Sometimes we’ll order Grá to the house, which is a pizza place in Echo Park — excellent sourdough crust pizza. But if we don’t do that, an ideal evening is an early dinner at All Time on Hillhurst in Los Feliz. We’re ordering the ceviche and my son is having all of it and not sharing with anybody at the table.
8:45 p.m.: A thrilling ending to the day
After putting my kid to bed, my wife and I, in an ideal world (full disclosure: we haven’t done this in two years), we’ll watch something together that we’ve been meaning to watch. We have a long list of movies and we either want to revisit or that we haven’t seen that we need to watch.
We don’t watch a lot of comedies. It’s a dream to watch a “Black Bag” or a little espionage thriller. We really like that because it’s so different than the stuff that we’re working on in the day.
Often the things we watch are things that we admire. We like deconstructing it as fans of film and television. We do like talking about the making of it, but it’s less of a critique and more of a listing of the things we appreciated about it.
10:30 p.m.: No work tomorrow
And then it’s lovemaking ’til morning on a perfect Sunday. If it’s a perfect Sunday, there’s also a Monday that’s off.
Lifestyle
Sitting in a jail cell, alone and hopeless, a man’s life is suddenly changed
Jay (not pictured) found himself alone and hopeless in a jail cell when a fellow inmate’s unexpected words of comfort changed his life.
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When Jay was 22 years old, he was a self-described loner. In this story, he is being identified by his nickname to allow himself to speak candidly about the following experience and his mental health. He says the few people he did hang out with at the time had questionable morals.
”I chose my friends poorly, and your friends have a tendency to rub off on you. And so I started making poor decisions,” Jay said.
One evening, when he and his friends were out drinking, someone suggested they should try to break into the chemistry building on his college campus. Most of the group shrugged the suggestion off, deeming it impossible, but Jay was convinced he could pull it off.
“The next night I made a plan of how to do it, and I did it,” Jay remembered. “And I didn’t get caught doing it, [but] I got caught afterwards.”
At around 1 that morning, Jay was placed in the county detention center. Sitting alone in his cell, reality began to sink in.

“I pretty much thought that my life as I knew it was going to be over, and I had decided that the world would be better off without me in it.”
Jay made a plan to end his life. As he prepared himself, he began to cry.
“But just in that moment when I was ready to do it, I heard a voice coming from the top left corner of my cell, from a little vent. And someone called out to me and said, ‘Hey, is this your first time?’”
The man who called out was an inmate in the cell next door.
“I collected myself a little bit, and I said, ‘Yeah.’ And he said, ‘Can I pray for you?’”
Jay had grown up religious, but had stopped going to church years before. In that moment, though, he knew he needed support. He said yes, and listened as the man began to pray.

“I wish I could tell you that I remember the [exact] words that he said to me, but what I remember is that his words landed with me, and instead of wanting my life to be over, suddenly I saw hope,” Jay said.
The interaction happened nearly ten years ago, but it was a pivotal moment in Jay’s life, and one he thinks about all the time.
“[Now], I have a good job. I have a girlfriend who loves me. I have a life. But I have a life because somebody who was in the same situation I was in had the courage to talk to a fellow inmate and be kind.”
Jay says that he wishes he could meet that man again and express his appreciation.
“[I would] shake that guy’s hand, give him a hug, and tell him what his small gesture meant for me, how he changed the course of my life.”
My Unsung Hero is also a podcast — new episodes are released every Tuesday. To share the story of your unsung hero with the Hidden Brain team, record a voice memo on your phone and send it to myunsunghero@hiddenbrain.org.
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