PHOTOS: Disneyland Hotel Monorail Waterslides Surrounded by Scaffolding for Refurbishment

While work nears completion on the nearby Discovery Tower, the Disneyland Hotel’s iconic Monorail waterslides and pool are currently closed for refurbishment.

Scaffolding covers the slides, Monorail figures, and central support structure, including the Disneyland sign.

There’s blue scrim around the pool’s fence while it’s closed for construction work. The hotel’s other pools remain open. Recently, the color of the slides was beginning to fade from constant exposure to the sun — meaning this refurbishment may include a repaint.

Behind the Monorail waterslides is the new Disney Vacation Club villas, Discovery Tower. Its exterior is complete but work is wrapping up indoors before it opens to guests on September 25, 2023.

Some construction work is also happening outside Tangaroa Terrace Tropical Bar & Grill, which remains open. Scrims are up around trees near the grill’s entrance.

We’ve noticed no updates at the former site of Steakhouse 55, which will become a flexible lounge space soon. Steakhouse 55 — with the “55” referencing the 1955 opening of Disneyland — closed in 2020 when it was initially shuttered due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Disney announced the restaurant’s permanent closure in the summer of 2021. In January of this year, construction curtains went up in front of the restaurant. It will be a lounge space that will sometimes operate as an extension of a seasonal bar.

The Disneyland Hotel first opened on October 5, 1955, a few months after Disneyland Park. Walt Disney exhausted his funding when building Disneyland, so he asked Jack Wrather to build the hotel. It was owned and operated by Wrather until his death in 1984.

The Walt Disney Company was then able to purchase the Disneyland Hotel by acquiring the Wrather Corporation in 1987 and 1988. They sold off most of Wrather’s other assets, including the iconic Queen Mary in Long Beach.

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Shannen has been a Disney Parks fan and lover of dogs since childhood, despite Pluto's attempt to eat Shannen's Minnie Mouse doll the first time they met. They've made up now. You can email Shannen at [email protected]

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