The Chili in a Cone Sandwich is a well-themed treat that was first available at Disney California Adventures in the new Cars Land section. It made its first east coast appearance in Downtown Disney with both Chili and Meatball Marinara options. Now the easy to hold food treat is available in Disney’s Hollywood Studios in three new varieties, including the first two cold salad options.
We taste tested two of the selections – The Cajun Shrimp and the Chicken, Bacon & Avocado Salad. Both were made with fresh ingredients and served in large enough portions to be a meal. The Cajun spices weren’t overly hot, but not as mild as theme park food usually is either. The chicken salad was also yummy with a good mix of avocado and bacon. How can you go wrong with bacon? We used a fork to eat both, but it wasn’t strictly required for the Chicken Salad. And then when the salad was gone, you still had the bread cone to eat, which had now soaked up some of the flavor from the salad.
In 1958 legendary Imagineer Bob Gurr pointed out to Walt Disney that his Main Street USA had a Fire Station but didn’t have a fire engine. There’s a great quote from Gurr over on the Disneyland Compendium on how he got permission to build it.… Read More »Disneyland’s Main Street Fire Engine Turns 55
There have been a number of different rumors about the changes coming to Disney’s Hollywood Studios should the company decide to spend a few bucks fixing it up. The photo above and descriptions below are a compilation of what a few sources have told me plus a dose of what seems most likely just based on my experience with Disney World’s expansion history.
First, why would Disney be willing to spend a princely sum on Disney’s Hollywood Studios. They’ve just spent a half-billion dollars on expanding Fantasyland, somewhere north of two billion on the next-gen technology that’s bringing us Fastpass+ and MyMagic+, and have committed to building Avatarland, which might approach a billion dollars before all is said and done there as well (I’m including relocating Festival of the Lion King in that total).
There are a number of things lining up that point to DHS getting some TLC soon.
First Avatar-land has been delayed, so that bucket of money is potentially available to be shifted to DHS.
There is a growing awareness amongst Disney World managers that next-gen won’t be an attendance driver for the parks and resorts.
DHS has had problems keeping guests in the park after mid-afternoon. With Universal Orlando adding even more attractions, Disney is worried about losing one day of the Disney vacation to Universal.
Lastly, since the Lucasfilm addition, Disney has made clear that they’ll be looking to the parks to help capitalize on the new Star Wars properties. The Star Wars Weekends have been huge successes, particularly when it comes to selling merchandise, and Disney wants to attract that crowd all year long.
This Earth Day DisneyNature invites you to visit the incredible world of Bears. It’s the newest film in the tradition of Walt Disney’s True Life Adventure films and possibly their best yet.
Promising an epic story of breathtaking scale, Disneynature’s Bears showcases a year in the life of a bear family as two impressionable young cubs are taught life’s most important lessons. Set against a majestic Alaskan backdrop teeming with life, their journey begins as winter comes to an end and the bears emerge from hibernation to face the bitter cold. The world outside is exciting—but risky—as the cubs’ playful descent down the mountain carries with it a looming threat of avalanches. As the season changes from spring to summer, the brown bears must work hard to find food—ultimately feasting at a plentiful salmon run—while staying safe from rival male bears and predators, including an ever-present wolf pack. “Bears” captures the fast-moving action and suspense of life in one of the planet’s last great wildernesses—Alaska!
If you have a fleet of ships, you really need a Commodore to unite them. For years Tom Forberg has been the defacto maritime head of Disney Cruise Lines. He’s played a key role in the creation of each of the four ships and was… Read More »Disney Cruise Line Becomes A True Fleet
Dropped in on Downtown Disney the other day to check in on construction progress. Turns out not so much. But I did spot some fun new t-shirts with a pocket, a great set of winter sweaters (I know it’s only August, but it will get cooler soon), and more.
I promise to have more from Downtown Disney soon, but in the meantime, here’s the latest Disney-Wear for you to enjoy.
This week crazy-like-a-fox billionaire businessman Elon Musk introduced his latest revolutionary concept, the Hyperloop, and then gave it away to the masses as an open source project. Musk’s previous successes include Paypal (without which much online transactions wouldn’t happen), Tesla (an electric car company that’s profitable for a change), SpaceX (a private company that is helping NASA get payloads into space with an eventual goal of Mars(!)), and SolarCity (affordable solar panels for home and business; It remains to be seen if this will fall into the success category, but it seems likely with a net positive in the profit column last quarter).
Hollywood director Jon Favreau has said he modeled his version of Tony Stark, aka Marvel’s Iron Man, at least in part after Musk. But I think Tony Stark is the wrong model. Musk reminds me more of late period Walt Disney, when Walt had his eye on the future, not just of entertainment and the Disney Company, but of the planet as a whole and improving the lives of those who live on it. His gained steam with Monorails (mass transit), moved onto PeopleMovers (person rapid transit (PRT)), and dabbled in energy efficiency and recycling. Then Walt united all his theories and took on the mother of all urban planning projects – EPCOT, the experimental prototype community of tomorrow. With EPCOT, Walt wanted to build a working community where he could partner with industrial explorers with a similar vision for the future.
That is essentially the same vision as Elon Musk; which is why I think there is a natural partnership between Musk, his companies, and The Walt Disney Company. To get started, create the partnership for the purposes of building a working prototype of the Hyperloop at Walt Disney World. Musk, or his team, would be involved enough to oversee things, but most of the R&D would be left to Walt Disney Imagineering. The resulting prototype would be a great first step to making a full scale Hyperloop a feasible project to get past local and state governments.
Disney’s Imagineers already have much of the expertise needed to build such a system. They have experience with air-bearings (from the Flying Saucers ride in 60s to the revisited version at DCA), mass transit systems (Monorail, PeopleMover, etc.) and for years they used a garbage disposal system at the Magic Kingdom that magically whisked away trash right from the curb side down an air pressure driven pipe. They also have good contacts in the coaster and mass transit construction industries, so finding suppliers would not be difficult. Read More »Bring to Walt Disney World: The Hyperloop
