At the recent Gay Days at Disneyland, Imagineer Bob Gurr spoke at a special D23 chat titled, “An Intimate Conversation With Disney Legend Bob Gurr.” He also gave an interview to the website Goweho.com where he talked about what it was like to be gay… Read More »Disney Imagineer reveals what it was like to be gay and work for Walt.
Young innovators are wanted to enter the Big Hero 6 xPrize by answering the question “What one problem would you tackle to change the world, and how would you do it?” Use S.T.E.A.M. (Science, technology, engineering, arts, and math) to solve a problem, big or… Read More »Disney’s Big Hero 6 Partners With XPrize to Change the World
Walt Disney Imagineering is famous for their project documentation. The archives are full of great concept art, construction photos, and documentation from most of the major builds over the last 50+ years. But my favorite of these has to be the time-lapse video.
This short time-lapse video shows the construction of most of New Fantasyland, including Seven Dwarfs Mine Train. Definitely worth expanding it to full-screen to view:
Interesting how construction on the coaster itself didn’t actually start until about half-way through the video.
Below the jump, I have an interview with Bruce Vaughn, executive vice president at Walt Disney Imagineering, and Tom Staggs, chairman of Walt Disney Parks and Resorts, as they talk about how Seven Dwarfs Mine Train fits into New Fantasyland and how excited the Imagineers are to finally have it open to the public on May 28th.
Read More »Time-Lapse Video of Seven Dwarfs Mine Train Construction
The following facts and photos were supplied by Walt Disney World press and publicity in the official press kit for Seven Dwarfs Mine Train. Spoilers ahead, you’ve been warned:
Seven Dwarfs Mine Train, in the Enchanted Forest of New Fantasyland (Magic Kingdom), is a family coaster inspired by the film classic “Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs” that takes Walt Disney World Resort guests into the famous mine, glittering with diamonds, rubies, and other precious gems, where the Seven Dwarfs sing happily as they work.
Seven Dwarfs Mine Train is almost completely “on stage.” With its location in the middle of New Fantasyland, guests aboard the rockin’ coaster are afforded amazing views from all angles.
Read More »Seven Dwarfs Mine Train Fun Facts and Official Photos
After years of work, the last piece of New Fantasyland is about to fall into place with the ribbon cutting ceremony for Seven Dwarfs Mine Train roller coaster later this week. Workers are still buzzing around the track taking care of minor details during the… Read More »Seven Dwarfs Mine Train Clearance Rig On Track As Media Event Nears
A few days ago Disney released this preview of one interactive element that will be featured in the Seven Dwarfs Mine Train standby queue. Kinda reminds me of one of the games they added to Space Mountain’s queue a few years ago. We had a… Read More »Interactive Queue Element from Seven Dwarfs Mine Train
All the Walls are Down at Seven Dwarfs Mine Train giving us our best view yet of the queue area, and finally revealing all the exterior track on the roller coaster. Sounds like a good excuse for our third update this April.
There was still quite a bit of finishing and touch up work going on. Among some painting and landscaping, Imagineers were tinkering with the new interactive queue elements and the ubiquitous on-ride photo was being installed while we were there. Cast members are telling guests it will open sometime next month. However, media have been invited for a ribbon cutting ceremony to be held on May 2nd. Everything is subject to change, of course.
There are a few elements around the track that have me worried. It looks like they’ve jury-rigged evacuation lighting around part of the track. They might have to make that more permanent before it can open to guests. But the good news is they have been testing the coaster with people, and even filmed a commercial recently.
Here’s some video taken of newly opened areas:
I hope they’re able to open it soon, it looks amazing. Head below the jump for a huge gallery of photos of the newly exposed areas.
Read More »All the Walls are Down at Seven Dwarfs Mine Train – April Construction Update #3
If you were among the guests invited to the Disney Social Media Moms event out in California, then you were among the first to see this short video from Walt Disney Imagineering highlighting a few of the next-generation audio-animatronics that will populate the Seven Dwarfs… Read More »A First Look at Seven Dwarfs Mine Train Next-Generation Audio-Animatronics Figures