Time for another Thursday theme park news round-up. Since we've been taking about New Orleans-inspired food this week, let's start there.
I wrote earlier how Disneyland is leaning into more intense New Orleans flavors with its Tiana's Palace makeover of the former French Market restaurant. But out in Downtown Disney, the former Ralph Brennan's Jazz Kitchen is moving toward more California flavors with its transition into Jazz Kitchen Coastal Grill & Patio.
The restaurant hosted a media event last night to show off some of the new flavors on its menu, and I posted a report to Theme Park Insider's social media: Instagram, Facebook, and TikTok. (Please follow us!)
So if you're looking for more of a mash-up of California and Louisiana flavors, rather than the pure taste of New Orleans, at the Disneyland Resort, Jazz Kitchen is your choice. Jazz Kitchen and its new quick service companion - Beignets Expressed - did offer a flavored beignet that I liked better than the Tiana's Palace lemon bomb, too.
Keeping in Southern California, Thirteenth Floor is back this Halloween with its next iteration of Delusion, at the historic Phillips Mansion in Pomona. Running select nights from September 21 through November 19, Delusion: Nocturnes & Nightmares is an one-hour immersive theater experience that will call back to previous years' stories.
"With eight seasons of this incredible journey we call Delusion, all things have led to this year's story," Creator Jon Braver said. "I gave it much thought and felt an anthology of Delusion stories, woven together like a terrifying tapestry, into an epic live experience would be something both Delusion fans (aka Delusionals) and newcomers alike will revel in."
Tickets start at $89.99 and will go on sale soon via the Delusion website.
Also on the Halloween beat, Universal Orlando has announced that the Death Eaters will make their official Diagon Alley debut at Universal Studios Florida this fall. The followers of the Dark Lord will appear in the land, challenging visitors to join them, on select nights starting September 1 and continuing through November 4.
Back in California, Monterey's Treasure Hunt: The Ride is running a Labor Day weekend sale, with all regular-priced tickets upgraded to an unlimited ride pass for the day. Those tickets start at $17.99 and are available via the ride's website or on site at the ticket desk.
Finally, Destination D23 has announced its schedule for the fan event at the Walt Disney World Resort. At 9:15am Eastern on Saturday, September 9, Disney Parks, Experiences and Products Chairman Josh D’Amaro will get the event going with his "A Celebration of Disney Parks, Experiences and Products: Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow" presentation, which will be live-streamed on the Destination D23 website.
Later that day, at 4:20pm Eastern, EPCOT gets the spotlight with a presentation entitled "EPCOT: Always in a State of Becoming," including details uncovered by the Marty Sklar Archives. The event is sold out and runs September 8-10 at the Contemporary Resort's convention center.
For more theme park news, please sign up for Theme Park Insider's weekly newsletter.
And to help support Theme Park Insider while saving money on discounted theme park tickets, please follow the ticket icon links our Theme Park visitors guides.
$90 a ticket for a one hour theater experience? Must be some experience.
@thecolonel - That seems to be the going rate for a high quality 1-off entertainment experience these days. We recently returned from a trip to Seattle, where we did the Stranger Things Experience, which was a @25-30 minute theater-style experience across multiple rooms (including a finale with a super-HD live-action/video presentation that reminded me of the Bourne Stuntacular minus the stunts). That experience cost between $25 and $50 per person with a VIP ticket running $125 (included a drink from the themed bar after the show, gift bag, and lanyard).
Unless you're getting tickets from TKTS (or other reduced ticketing sources), major theater district tickets are well over $100 for most productions these days. Let's face it, live entertainment is EXPENSIVE right now (check tickets for any major touring band/artist), and it's probably only get more expensive as talent insists on better and more fair wages. Even in Europe, where ticket prices are more heavily controlled/managed (and some industry insiders recommend Americans to travel to in order to see top acts like Beyonce, Springsteen, and other high profile US artists), prices have gone up a lot since the pandemic (we paid over $50/ticket to sit in the very back row for BTTF The Musical at the West End back in April), taking advantage of a YOLO mindset amongst patrons.
This article has been archived and is no longer accepting comments.
FWIW, Deatheaters were supposedly out and about occasionally at Orlando's HHN last year, but we didn't see them during our visit in mid-October. My guess is that they were testing them periodically for what will be a more full-time debut this year.