Cars Land “Topping Out” Ceremony

laura%27s%20masthead%20copy2.jpg

On Friday, October 29, I was invited to attend the “Topping Out” ceremony for Cars Land at Disney California Adventure. If you’re not familiar with that term (and I wasn’t), it’s a traditional ceremony for construction workers that usually takes places when the highest piece of steel is installed on a building. The beam is painted white, signed by the workers and adorned with an evergreen before it is lifted into place. In the U.S., an American flag is placed on top.

On Friday the highest piece of steel in Cars Land, which is atop Ornament Valley’s Cadillac Mountain range (behind the Radiator Springs Racers attraction), was put into place.

(Thanks to Lee for editing the video – he took the audio from an earlier part of the ceremony, which talked about the Topping Out tradition, and overlaid that on the video of the placement of the beam.)

(Just a note – though we were permitted into the construction area for Cars Land, we were only allowed to photograph the Radiator Springs Racers area. Though that takes up about half of Cars Land!)

After the ceremony, Mary Niven, Vice President of Disney California Adventure, spoke about the expansion. You can see/hear it in this clip, but one of the things she announced is the addition of the first “encore” to World of Color. The “Tron Legacy” encore was featured as a “sneak peek” to audiences on Friday night – it will be featured nightly starting Sunday, October 31.

Kathy Mangum, executive show producer of Cars Land, and Jim Kearns, Cars Land project manager spoke about some of the things that will be happening in Cars Land. The mountain range is called the “Cadillac Range”, and the different peaks are actually the shape of Cadillac tail fins over the year, with the tallest representing the 1959 Cadillac.

In this clip Kathy gives us a “tour” of Cars Land. By the way, we are standing on the site of the “Court House” that she initially refers to.

There’s more information on the history of the “topping out” ceremony as well as some Fun Facts about Cars Land, in this press release.

Trending Now

Laura Gilbreath is a native of San Diego, CA. She has been making the trek up Interstate 5 to Disneyland since she was a small child and terrified of talking tikis and hitchhiking ghosts. She and her husband Lee enjoy trips to Disneyland and Walt Disney World, as well as sailings on the Disney Cruise Line.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

8 Replies to “Cars Land “Topping Out” Ceremony”

  1. HI We are planning an August 2012 to Disneyland…do you think Cars Land will be open?

    Laura replies: Disney has not announced any sort of date other than “Summer 2012”. I hope that means late June, though!

  2. I’d hate to see it go but, if Cars Land was to come to WDW, Catastrophe Canyon and the majority of the backlot tour in DHS would have to go to make room for Radiator Springs.

  3. We are visiting Disneyland May 18,2012, do you think we may get lucky and be there when Carland is open?

    Laura replies: Disney has only said “Summer 2012”. That probably means June, and maybe late June, so no, I do not think it will be open for your trip in May. 🙁

  4. I cannot wait for Cars Land…..we just saw Cars 2 and it was just as awesome as the first. I am sure that Disney will outdo itself as usual with this amazing addition!

  5. I wish WDW would add a Cars Land. I have 3 boys and wish WDW had more to ofter for the the boys instead all the pirate stuff.

  6. Very much enjoyed this article! Wish I could have been there. Great information and the behind-the-scenes work is very engaging and has me extremely excited for it’s opening. Thanks for posting!

  7. Thanks for the videos — I love seeing the behind-the-construction stuff. I can’t wait for CarsLand to open so we can finally make our first visit to Disneyland
    Resort!

    Laura replies: Thanks, Rae – I’m glad you enjoyed it. It was really a terrific event – it was a privilege to be able to attend something like that.