Hollywood Studios Update: BaseLine Tap House Construction, Great Movie Ride’s Last Week, Star Wars and Toy Story

Time to check in on Disney’s Hollywood Studios where there’s a whole lot of projects going on right now. The brand new BaseLine Tap House is taking over the old Writer’s Stop location. It’s scheduled to open this fall along with the new Grand Avenue area, created out of the remaining Streets of America structures. Muppet*Vision 3D has received a new marquee sign as part of this new Grand Avenue update. The Grand Avenue will be a new themed “land” featuring an architecture style of Southern California. It will also be the road leading to the main entrance to Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge.

Star Wars construction is going strong and the entrance to the new land is starting to take shape. The massive show building for one of the two rides is also coming along nicely, and we can see the massive AT-ATs inside. Toy Story Land construction is also going quite quickly and demolition of a soundstage to make way for the new land’s main entrance path has begun. Also, this is the final week of operation for The Great Movie Ride. It will be closing forever after August 13th to make way for Mickey and Minnie’s Runaway Railway. Check out the video and extensive photo report below for all the details on these projects and stay tuned for more theme park updates coming soon.

 

Photo Update

Welcome to Disney’s Hollywood Studios!

Welcome to the future home of Grand Avenue, a “new” land at the park

Directly next door to the Sci-Fi Dine In will be BaseLine Tap House

BaseLine Tap House is replacing Writer’s Stop (which itself replaced Buy the Book)

The little building has been given a brick-face makeover with some new windows added

Looks like a new sign will be going here

A new wall has gone up to block the backside of the remaining Streets of America facades

This wall is another step towards enclosing the facades to create a real building

Electrical wiring installed, most likely for exterior lighting

A look at the future entrance to BaseLine, as seen from Star Tours’ exit

This is going to be a much nicer, more inviting entrance than it had before

Some new nicely themed windows

Taking a step back, here’s the whole street again

Originally built to represent New York these buildings have been repainted to give them a Southern CA look

Small decoration and new awnings are being installed

The wall blocking Star Wars can be seen butted right up against this building

All fake window glass has been replaced with real glass and all window dressings and curtains have been removed

Lots of work is going on inside these structures

No word yet on what, but something should be coming to this structure once entirely enclosed

On the right side of the last building on the corner a new chimney is being added

In foreground we can see new structures going up that will somewhat separate Muppets courtyard from Grand Ave

These are part of a new entrance to Muppets from Grand Avenue

The path to Muppets by Star Tours will likely close when Grand Ave opens, and this will block the view of Star Tours from the new land


Muppet*Vision has received a new marquee and banners

The Grand Arts Theatre name will help it fit in with the new land’s narrative

Original sign before

New sign now

New marquee seen from below

Also in the area, new adverts for PizzeRizzo have been plastered about

Speaking of PizzeRizzo, I noticed the street address has been Grand Avenue all along!

Shifting gears, let’s take a look at the new entrance to Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge

It looks to me like this might be themed to look like a California tunnel

A view from further back gives us a better look at it all

The wall to right of tunnel borders up against Grand Ave buildings

Slinky Dog Coaster track can be seen in the distance behind the new entrance

One last look before moving on

Behind Muppet*Vision we can see the massive show building for the battle escape ride

Inside you can make out the heads of the AT-ATs

Backside of the AT-AT seen near Toy Story Mania

New steel is being added every day

One last look at the battle ride building before moving on


The soundstage behind One Man’s Dream is being demolished to make way for entrance to Toy Story Land

One Man’s Dream should not be affected by this demolition and will remain open

This small walkway will soon be much, much bigger

You can see that most of the back of this soundstage has already been gutted

Once this entire building is removed it will feel much more open over here

Love these work walls

Mr. Spell is now missing. Maybe on his way to his new home in Toy Story Land?

You can now get your picture taken with Cruz Ramirez from Cars 3

The Piston Cup is also on display


The projection towers in center of the park are being themed to match the area

And lastly today, The Great Movie Ride will have its last day of operation Sunday, August 13, 2017

This is last opening day attraction left in the park. It will be replaced by Mickey and Minnie’s Runaway Railway

The Chinese Theater facade is expected to remain, only the ride inside will change

I do love the details

And this courtyard is nice

I’m thinking they will keep the facade, courtyard, and of course celebrity handprints… But, just in case I took some photos and video of some of my favorite ones:

What about you? Are you upset about this ride closing and/or are you looking forward to Mickey Mouse’s first full ride at the parks?


That’s all for this construction update. See all of the Hollywood Studios updates here and subscribe to the feed for more continual park updates!

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