Skip to content

main street usa

Magic Kingdom Plaza Improvement – November 2014 Construction Update

02-mkhub-crystal-2

The Plaza (or Hub) at the Magic Kingdom is undergoing a major renovation in order to improve guest flow during the busy show and parade times. We’re back with another look at the progress made so far. We had two updates in September, but we actually skipped October. So there’s been quite a bit of progress since we last checked in.

The side closer to Crystal Palace is closer to completion. You can start to see where the viewing area/garden area will take shape as well a the new path that will lead from near Crystal Palace into the hub. The Tomorrowland Terrace side is a bit further behind, and there’s more work to be done as they also have to build a new seating area in front of the Plaza Restaurant.

The end result of this construction will be a wider area leading from Main Street to the Hub. There will be two garden areas that can be used for fireworks viewing parties, expanded outside seating for Casey’s Jr and some much needed seating for the Ice Cream Palace and Starbucks.

Continue the tour below:Read More »Magic Kingdom Plaza Improvement – November 2014 Construction Update

Main Street U.S.A. Music Lesson

Disney theme park historian and analyst Foxxy Hooves of the excellent Passport to Dreams blog is known for her long and very detailed articles on the esoterica of Disney’s theme park design. I always learn something, even on a subject matter I consider myself very… Read More »Main Street U.S.A. Music Lesson

Christmas returns to Main Street USA at the Magic Kingdom

The new look gives you a clear shot of Cinderella Castle from anywhere on Main Street

It’s that most wonderful time of the year again. Christmas has returned to the Magic Kingdom and with it, miles of beautiful holiday decorations, including something new this year.

2014 brought Festival of Fantasy, a new parade, to the Magic Kingdom, with new fantastic floats. A few floats are just too tall to fit underneath the old garland arches that use to drape Main Street every holiday season. So Disney devised a decorative wall-mounted arm as a new look for Main Street USA. It’s still very festive and it has the added bonus of providing a clear view of Cinderella Castle. If you look close you can even spot a hidden mickey.

More photos below the jump:

Read More »Christmas returns to Main Street USA at the Magic Kingdom

Construction Fire at Magic Kingdom Plaza Improvement Project

fire-plaza-magic-kingdom

I had a few free moments this afternoon and my son and I decided to visit the Magic Kingdom to sneak in a few rides and see Seven Dwarfs Mine Train with all the walls finally removed. More on that later this weekend. As we were headed out of Tomorrowland toward the hub, just about 3pm, we saw a small puff of smoke and then fire quickly growing around a generator / water pump near the edge of the Magic Kingdom Plaza Improvement project construction zone (read my recent update of that construction).

In a few moments, it had burnt through most of the fencing directly adjacent to it and looked to be threatening the fern bushes between it and Tomorrowland Terrace. Guests were dining just a few feet away in the restaurant, but quickly took notice of the flames, some moving away, some coming over for a closer look.

I felt that on the Tomorrowland Bridge, I was a safe distance away. I took out my camera and my mobile phone to get some video. It’s hard to film both at the same time and upload to Instagram, so I handed the camera off to a poorly trained monkey nearby. The first part of the video is the footage I could save from his unfocused attempts at documenting the incident.

From when we arrived to when the fire was extinguished took almost exactly 5 minutes.

As it turns out, there was one worker in the construction zone. After standing a few paces away and thinking about the best course of action, he left the scene, traveled under the bridge to the other side of main street, then returned with a bucket full of water. Which did almost nothing to put out the flames. Luckily there was a closer source of water, so he took a few steps down the bank and refilled the bucket then dumped it on the flames again, still with little impact on the fire itself. But I think he did prevent it from spreading any further.Read More »Construction Fire at Magic Kingdom Plaza Improvement Project

Magic Kingdom Central Plaza Construction Update – March 2014

01-plaza-refurb-00

The Central Plaza / Hub area of the Magic Kingdom is scheduled to receive a major improvement to the walk-ability and flow from a guest perspective. We covered that story previously. But here’s a basic recap: a second ring of walkways will be added to the hub, new gardens will replace part of the moat and can be used as fireworks viewing party locations, the food vending and castle show out buildings will get makeovers, and lastly (but not least) Casey’s Corner and the Ice Cream Parlor will get expanded seating areas.

Now we’re back with the first of many updates tracking the progress of this major upgrade. Disney plans to take their time and make changes in small chunks so as not to disturb too much of the park’s central plaza at once, but some stuff just can’t be avoided. We’ll try and highlight how that might affect future visits as we go along.

As a starting point, here’s a short video with a look at how the hub looks as construction gets under way:

The end result will be something new for the Magic Kingdom style parks, but I think it will work. See our gallery of additional images below the jump:
Read More »Magic Kingdom Central Plaza Construction Update – March 2014

MyMagic+ Commercial Gets Bad Photoshop Award

The commercial MyMagic+ I posted last week has been set to private, but Disney has released this new MyMagic+ commercial complete with singing Lumiere to promote the new service. Keep an eye out around the 0:09 second mark for some really bad photoshoppery of Main… Read More »MyMagic+ Commercial Gets Bad Photoshop Award

Main Street Sweets Delight

Do you self a favor next time you visit the Magic Kingdom, stop in at the Main Street Confectionery to watch cast members as they assemble some of the scrumptious sweets available for purchase just a few feet away. With everything arriving pre-packaged at the… Read More »Main Street Sweets Delight

Main Street Trolley Show Gets Summer Update

Part of what makes a trip to the Magic Kingdom so, well, magical is all the little detail that goes into making it a transporting experience. Sure, there were never roaming horse drawn trolleys of signing and dancing folk back in the early 1900s, but… Read More »Main Street Trolley Show Gets Summer Update