Disney Globetrotter

Your Guide to Disney Parks Around the World

Disney California Adventure

Now Closed: Mission Tortilla Factory at Disney California Adventure

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Continuing with the massive renovation and expansion of Disney California Adventure, another landmark from the original park opening is disappearing.  This week, the Mission Tortilla Factory closed its doors permanently.  No more wandering by in hopes of finding it was corn tortilla day — which used to be a rarity at times!

Now closed Mission Tortilla Factory on the left side

Although it was not one of the best attractions in the park, I readily admit to going in nearly every visit for the free tortillas.  Used to always be the same — grab a tortilla and head straight for the margarita stand right nearby!

Unfortunately, I doubt I will be visiting its potential replacement every trip, unless I miraculously learn how to eat sweets without ever gaining a pound.  In the place of the Mission Tortilla Factory, a new Ghirardelli Chocolate Factory will soon emerge.  While delicious, I can only handle one of their ridiculously over-the-top sweet sundaes once every few years as the chocolate still courses through my veins.

Ghirardelli in San Francisco, California

It’s my understanding that Disney was scouting for Ghirardelli sponsorship back when DCA was opening, but failed to entice a bid.  It might’ve been a blessing in disguise after some of the other big names like Mondavi and Wolfgang Puck pulled out when DCA never took off as expected and now Ghirardelli stands to inherit a prime piece of real estate with the Cars Land opening just a year away.

Entrance to Cars Land and Mission Tortilla Factory to the right

In honor of the now defunct Mission Tortilla Factory, here’s a look at a few of the attraction’s highlights.

Mission Tortilla Factory

Duffy the Disney Bear Pins to be Released at DLR on Dec 30

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Since the arrival of Duffy the Disney Bear at the US Parks, we were told they would be releasing additional merchandise which includes a molded popcorn bucket, a special Vinylmation Duffy and of course, Duffy the Disney Bear pins!  Disney announced the Duffy the Disney Bear pins would be released sometime this month.  Details are out — two new pins will be released at the Disneyland Resort on December 30.  These are open edition pins and will feature the US version of a sitting Duffy and one of Mickey holding Duffy in his arms.

Duffy the Disney Bear Pin: $6.95
SKU: 1924211

Duffy the Disney Bear Pin $6.95 Photo: Copyright Disney Parks and Resorts

Mickey Holding Duffy the Disney Bear Pin: $7.95
SKU: 1924235

Mickey Holding Duffy the Disney Bear Pin, $7.95 Photo: Copyright Disney Parks and Resorts

If you are not able to get to the Disneyland Resort to pick up your Duffy pins in person, you can also order them via Walt Disney World® Merchandise Guest Services.  To order your Duffy the Disney Bear pins:

  • Contact Walt Disney World® Merchandise Guest Services at 407-363-6200 or send an e-mail: wdw.mail.order@disneyworld.com to place an order.
  • Please reference the SKU number(s), description of the pin(s) and quantity desired.
  • Open Edition pins available for order after release date.
  • Applicable sales tax plus shipping and handling fees will apply.
  • All pins will be available while supplies last.
  • All Limited Edition pins may not be available for ordering via Walt Disney World® Mail Order 30 days after release date based on availability.
  • All sales are final – no refunds, no returns via Walt Disney World® Mail Order.

Duffy the Disney Bear Debuts at Disney California Adventure

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Thursday, October 14th was the official opening day for Duffy the Disney Bear at both the Walt Disney World and Disneyland Resort.  I had planned to attend the release at both Epcot and Disney California Adventure for my Worldwide Disney Theme Parks column, but sadly had to cancel my brief trip to Florida due to unfortunate family circumstances.

The information release for Duffy’s opening ceremony indicated it would be at 9:45am with the official park opening time at 10am.  I had sent a request for clarification on the official time, however, I never heard anything back.  We arrived at the DL Resort around 9:20am and were surprised to find pretty lengthy lines to get in.  After about 10 minutes, they began letting people in who all went running towards Grizzly Rapids.  My mother figured they were headed to get FastPasses for the World of Color show and I had no idea what they were doing.  I just knew we only had 10 minutes to get to the ceremony.

Lines to get into DCA at 9:20am

After mistakenly trying to go down the straightest route by the Wine Country Trattoria, we were met with a sea of guests and a rope.  A CM told me we could go around by Grizzly Rapids to get back there so off I went with only two minutes to spare!  As I passed the FP area for World of Color, there were probably already 200 or more people in line!

I arrived to find numerous kids in the media area, which ended up working fairly well since I was able to see over them.  The area was pretty packed, but not everyone was there for Duffy.  Paradise Pier itself was blocked off with a rope so the hundreds of people waiting to get back there were now in the middle of the Duffy ceremony about to begin.

Staging area for the Duffy ceremony

Disneyland Ambassador, Danielle DuBois, and Michael O’Grattan, Senior VP of Entertainment and Imaging led the ceremony where they invited Mickey and Minnie on stage with their own stuffed Duffy Bears dressed in the sailor outfit.   The ceremony finale included a short processional to bring the Duffy the Disney Bear character up on stage, followed by an explosion of streamers.

Minnie Mouse bringing her Duffy on stage
Danielle DuBois and Michael O'Grattan
Danielle DuBois, Duffy, and Michael O'Grattan

Everyone posed for a few media pictures and I made a beeline for the store to see what was merchandise was available.  I was mainly curious to see how many outfits were released and what the store displays looked like.

I was surprised to see Duffy taking up such a small area of Treasures in Paradise.  There was just a corner of the store devoted to Duffy merchandise, but the theming was cute.  They are really capitalizing on the travel aspect of Duffy and the bears were placed in suitcases and trunks that have country stickers all over.  There is a sign that says, “Where will you take him?”  There were six outfits released — sailor, Canada, Mexico, China, a baseball jersey, and a safari outfit.  They brought back the 12 inch “My First Disney Bear” as “My First Duffy Bear” with the classic Tokyo bear style.   There was also a 12 inch Holiday Bear that was quite cute and a keychain that is similar to the ones you find at Tokyo DisneySea.  The 17 inch bears and 12 inch dressed bears retail for $25 each, outfits are $15, $8 for the keychain, and the large size bear retails for $60.  I have since learned that Epcot received quite a bit more merchandise than DCA did — including several different outfits, a WDW 40th Anniversary 12 inch bear, and the zipper pouch and magnet that are popular in Tokyo.

Inside Treasures in Paradise
Shelves of Duffy Bears and the Safari and Mexico outfits
If I could only get one of these cardboard guys for myself!
Lots of keychains, which did not last too long!

There has been a lot of discussion online about the quality of the outfits and bears here versus those you get from TDS.  There are definitely differences and the outfits here seem to be more kid friendly – lacking a lot of separate pieces and adornments.  Many of the designs on the outfits you would probably see done in layers and/or embroidery if they were released at TDS.  As my mom pointed out, the $40 price tag would not work for the Disney Parks here so they needed to be simplified.  I think some of the outfits are quite cute and I like the inclusion of the Mickey heads in select areas (like the material used for the China outfit).

Of course, I had all six of my bears in attendance for the event, while my Mom had her three.  One of my bears was wearing his Halloween costume — the Tim Burton version of the Mad Hatter.  Needless to say, he drew quite a bit of attention from the get go.  I ended up talking with Sarah Tully who writes the awesome blog “Around Disney” for the OC Register and later found her video counterpart cornering me as I was shopping.  LOL.  We also had the opportunity to chat with Monty, who designs the Duffy merchandise for the US Parks, and he was in awe of Chuffy (yes, my Duffy Bears all have individual names that end in “uffy”) in his Mad Hatter outfit.  Chuffy was treated like an absolute celebrity and Mom and I were the lucky recipient of some cool stuff – one CM gave us each a Duffy pin (the mystery ones released previously at WDW), while another went in the back and gave us both one of the Duffy chocolate cups and Rice Krispie treats!

Cuffy aka the Mad Hatter Duffy sitting in the case with the Duffys on display

Duffy's Chocolaty Cup available in the bakeries
Rice Krispie Duffy Treat

After buying one of everything released (sans the sailor outfit, and 17 inch and 28 inch bears since Mom was able to get me a sailor suit bear at the passholder event), we were off to finally have our photo taken with Duffy.  The grand total for everything with the 20% passholder discount was only $115 – about 1/4 of my first purchase at Tokyo DisneySea a few weeks ago for the Halloween merchandise!

We headed out for the Duffy line, which was quite minimal, and found Duffy trying to count how many bears we had in tow (had to bring them all for the official release day!)  After finishing up with Duff,y I went back in to finally get some photos of the merchandise and ran into two girls from Japan.  They spoke very little English, but I managed to find out they flew out from Tokyo just for the event.   After that, I spotted someone else with a Shellie May and turns out, it was the person I was hoping to meet.  Margaret is a member of my Disney Theme Parks Facebook page and we’ve chatted a bit online about Duffy and the event.  It was great to meet her and Norio and find out how much we really have in common.  She’s from Taiwan, which is where I have lived for the past 1 1/2 years, and I hope we will get to meet up when she visits early next year.   We chatted a bit more and managed to draw a few more interesting stares from passersby.  We went back and took a couple photos together with Duffy….and again, no real line.  Oh, if that was only the case in Tokyo whenever I am there!

After saying our goodbyes, Mom and I headed off to Disneyland to nibble on the Halloween treats and meet up with my aunt and cousin who were also visiting the resort.  We ended up coming back to Treasures in Paradise around 4pm and found the shelves were nearly bare.  Only a few 17 inch bears remained, a few 12 inch “My First Duffy” bears, one 28 inch bear was on the shelf, and a few Mexico outfits were spread out to keep the wall hooks from being empty.  That was pretty much it.  One of the CMs said they should get more keychains an hour or so later, but we had World of Color dinner reservations and didn’t have time to go back.

Shelves almost empty at 4pm at Treasures in Paradise

Walking back to Paradise Pier again, we spotted the balloon vendors that had the Duffy balloon.  It is cute — a large Duffy is on one side and the other has Mickey holding Duffy.  I had planned to come back and find out how much they were, but we never saw anyone else selling them again and of course, everything was shut down after World of Color.

One side of the Duffy balloon
Other side of the Duffy balloon

The last Duffy item I spotted was the kid’s menu at the Wine Country Trattoria.  It’s an activity placemat and has different mazes, games, etc., along with Duffy dressed in his various costumes — again focusing on the travel aspect of Duffy.

Kids' menu and activity mat at Wine Country Trattoria
Other side of the activity placemat

All in all, the event was handled well, the ceremony was short, but cute, and Duffy seemed to be well-received by those in attendance.  There was a number of management level and above Disney employees on hand for the event so there is definitely a lot of eyes monitoring how everything went.  I hope Duffy succeeds and people keep an open mind on what a cute and lovable character he is.  Personally, I would’ve preferred he stay exclusive to Tokyo, and I am a bit surprised to see him making his way back to the Parks.  I figured it was inevitable and even predicted it in my earlier Duffy article on Examiner this week, but I learned that Duffy will be coming to Disneyland Paris in December.  I will probably not make it back to Paris for his release however…maybe not until February or March sometime.

I will post separate entries on our foodie experience at the Wine Country Trattoria as well as photos from World of Color.  I just have to end this by saying I managed to talk my Mom into adopting another Duffy Bear so now she has four bears (a Duffy and Shellie May from Tokyo and two from Disney California Adventure).  She bought 5 outfits so she really needed another bear to wear some of them!  Be sure to check out the gallery below for the rest of the event day photos.

Mom's new Duffy Bear

Duffy The Disney Bear: Passholder Event at DCA

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Yesterday, Disneyland passholders were treated to a private presentation revealing details about Duffy The Disney Bear’s upcoming presence at Disney California Adventure.  Although I am actually in the US right now, I could not get down to Disneyland this weekend for the event, so I sent my parents who are both passholders to obtain information for my Disney Theme Parks column.

Thankfully, Mom is great at note taking and obtained pretty detailed information about the entire event.  The following recap is thanks to her!

The event was held at Stage 17 inside DCA, the old building for the Who Wants to be a Millionaire attraction.  Apparently the event was not entirely full as passholders who were not registered came up to inquire what was going on and were told they could join the 2pm presentation if they wanted, however the couple declined as they had a young child with them.

Attendees were given wristbands and vouchers for treats and once inside, they were reminded that no photos and no recording devices were allowed.

The stage was set with director’s chairs, decorative flowers, large screens, and Duffy posters hanging above.  The host of the event was Jason Palmer who appeared on stage carrying his own Duffy Bear that he takes everywhere with him.

Jason recruited a volunteer, Sage, an eight year old boy from Carson, California to come up on stage.  Jason informed the guests that the presentation would be filled with lots of bear puns and and Sage’s job was to keep track of the number of puns and apparently be in charge of sound effects during the presentation.

The story began with Jason explaining that Mickey Mouse set out on a windy day and Minnie was in tears finding out Mickey was going on a trip.  She got out her sewing machine and made a bear to keep Mickey company on his journey.  Mickey shouted with glee and since he came in a duffel bag, Mickey named him Duffy.  They set off on their journey and visited places all over the world like Paris and Mexico (I see the tie in to all the new costumes coming here).

The first guest was Quinn Shurian, Disney Ambassador.  Quinn showed the dressed bears that are coming.   From my mother’s notes, it seems there will be smaller, 12 inch dressed bears for holidays, and then costumes for the 17 inch Duffy Bear.  Some of the holiday Duffy Bears included St. Patty’s Day, Bunny Duffy (Easter) and Holiday Duffy (Christmas).  Some of the costumes shown included Mexico and China.  There is a My 1st Duffy that pretty much looks like the current release bear at the parks now.

Some of the Duffy Facts relayed (here come the bear puns):

Duffy will debut at Treasures in Bearadise Pier (Treasures in Paradise Pier).  Right now, Duffy is subearvising photo locations in DCA.  They are going to have locations set up where you can photograph Duffy, just like at Tokyo.  Bear necessities will be sold at Treasures.  He added that even though there will be shoes, Duffy prefers to go bearfoot.  (Killing me with the bear puns here!)

Apparently Quinn also shared that his Duffy is going to a soccer game and will be in the Anaheim Fall Festival, riding on a float with Quinn.

The next guest up was Dara Trujillo, Manager of Merchandising, Synergy and Strategy & Overall Domestic and International Brand Management.  She shared that Minnie searched all over the world for the squishiest fabric for Duffy, which is why he is so soft.  She showed all the hidden Mickeys on Duffy, and referred to the one on his behind as a “birthmark”

Dara also shared that Duffy is quite tech savvy, he will have his own Facebook page (both my Duffy and Shellie May already do!) and that Duffy will be tweeting for the Disney Parks.   She also took the opportunity to throw in a bear pun on a  Blackbeary and IPaw’d.

There will be special photo ops in the park and it will show on Facebook where Duffy has been.  There will be photo locations around the park where you can photo your Duffy, just like TDS.  Interesting to see they are giving Duffy a social media presence – sounds as though they are picking up in a lot of ways that Tokyo Disney might not be capitalizing on (at least that I can find in English).

Next, Dara asked the audience if they knew what Duffy’s favorite food was – she said it’s fruit (groan for insertion of more bear puns here) — strawbearries, raspbearries, blackbearries, bluebearries, and so on.

That was the segue into what Duffy foods they will be offering.  So far, there will be the rice krispy treat and a chocolate cake with ganache icing.  Later on, there will be a molded mug and a popcorn bucket (sometime in the fall).  They also plan to bring out a menu activity placemat featuring Duffy.

Attendees were also treated to a sneak peak of other merchandise — in March there will be a special flocked pin, a limited edition ear hat and they plan to change the mold for the Vinylmation figures from Mickey to Duffy.   And apparently, Duffy is going to be in the ABC Christmas Parade on his own float!

When Duffy debuts on October 14, there will be a place to meet Duffy on Paradise Pier.  She said they will be handing out “I just hugged Duffy the Disney Bear” stickers.  Not sure how long that will go on for.

They are bringing some merchandise over from Tokyo — the 28″ Duffy, a magnet, a key chain, and a zipper pouch.  The 12″ pre-dressed Duffy Bears are going to be US exclusives (groan for the pocketbook and the lack of display space at home!)

At the end of the presentation, Jason gave Sage his own Duffy Bear!  They also announced one member of the audience would receive a bear and one seat had an envelope taped to it – a lady just a few rows behind my parents was the lucky winner.

Jason then announced Duffy was at the presentation and then Duffy came out and up on stage.  The presentation then ended with them saying, “Where will you take your Duffy?” which was the last image projected on the screens.

After the presentation, attendees were invited to look at all the merchandise and they were allowed to purchase one Duffy Bear and a sailor outfit.  The bears will retail for $25 it sounds like and the outfits (at least the sailor) was $15.  From the photos she took, I definitely think the quality is not up to TDR par, but given the price difference, I cannot say I am all that surprised.  This will make them more affordable to those who cannot swing the Tokyo prices — I have to admit when I was at TDS last week, I spent quite a chunk on Duffy stuff.  The Halloween outfits retailed for more than Duffy and Shellie May!

My mom took quite a number of photos for me, which I appreciate.  I have asked her to take some close up photos of this Duffy’s tags and storybook, which I will post when I receive.  It appears she had quite a lot of fun with the new Duffy Bears.  She and her best friend each purchased a bear and sailor outfit for themselves, and my Dad purchased one for me as well.  I have not been told which one of the three bears is mine yet!   I think I have created addicts as they took their new bears and wandered on the property taking photos!

I wish I could’ve gone as I heard there was one girl in attendance from Tokyo who brought her naked Duffy along.   Had I been there, I would’ve had all my bears (4 Duffys and 1 Shellie May lol).  I am actually traveling with 7 bears right now — bringing back a Duffy and Shellie May from Tokyo for Mom, so now she will already have 3 full size bears to dress!)

Thanks again to Mom for supplying me with all this info and the pictures!  Still working on editing all the photos I took last week at Disneyland Paris, Tokyo Disney, and Hong Kong Disneyland – hope to have them up later this week, so please check back — starting a new photo heavy blog is definitely time consuming!

Please check out the video from the OC Register’s coverage of the Duffy the Disney Bear presentations yesterday:  OC Register Video on Duffy the Disney Bear