The Disney Cruise Line can officially call New Orleans home as the first cruise has departed from the new homeport in Louisiana on Feb 7, 2020. Guests on board the Disney Wonder’s first departure from the Crescent City received a celebratory bon voyage from Princess… Read More »Disney Wonder launches inaugural voyage from New Orleans
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I don’t know about selling my soul for a Disney trip, but I am certainly willing to donate some blood. The Blood Center is giving one lucky donor a family trip to Walt Disney World (WDW) this summer. Blood donors in New Orleans (and surrounding… Read More »Donate Blood for a Chance to Win a Trip to Disney World? Here, I Present All My Veins.
In September 2018, Disney announced New Orleans as one of the newest Disney Cruise Line vacation options. It’s hard to believe but Disney has never used New Orleans as a departure point before. Opening the door to the French Quarter and Southern charm of the city to… Read More »What We Know About the First Disney Cruises to Set Sail from New Orleans
The roadtrip to find the next American Idol has officially started with the first mega-audition in New Orleans. In true New Orleans fashion, Grammy- and Emmy-nominated musical artist Katy Perry, country music superstar Luke Bryan and music icon Lionel Richie arrived on a Mardi Gras… Read More »Three American Idol Judges meet hopefuls at auditions in New Orleans
Did you know the Fleur de Lis is the icon of New Orleans? When you follow Princess Tiana’s magic trip through the bayou, you could win a “Princess and the Frog”-inspired trip to the crescent city itself. The friendly folks in NOLA have even created… Read More »Follow The Princess and the Frog to New Orleans in Disney Contest
Have a lot of open tabs with tales dying to be told. So here we go: IAAPA was this week in Las Vegas. I wish I could have been there, but lack the funds. Sometimes it’s tough to find good coverage online, but Themepark Insider… Read More »Around the Hub – Weekend Edition
Princess Tiana appears in a horse drawn carriage fit for an American Princess.
Yesterday marked the official opening of a 15 week run for Tiana’s Showboat Jubilee at Disney World’s Magic Kingdom. As I posted earlier, the show envelopes guests into being part of the show, a great experience for the guests involved, but how would it play for the rest of the park attendees? Turns out, pretty amazing.
For the special ceremony New Orleans dancers led Princess Tiana to the castle.
The Princess and The Frog is an American story at its root and it features the first African American Princess. The park is really excited about promoting the first new princess in 12 years, so they rolled out some big guns for the press event. One of those was Bruce Smith, the lead animator on Dr. Facilier, the main villain of the movie.
Characters representing current inhabitants of the Magic Kingdom welcome Princess Tiana to the fold.
There was also a wonderful display of merchandise that Disney spent the last two years creating. Some of it, like the theme park exclusive Princess Tiana dress, has been for sale in the park for two weeks and is already flying off the shelves.
A royal proclamation is read.
But the focus of the day was the introduction of Princess Tiana to the park and the official debut of Tiana’s Showboat Jubilee. TSJ has three distinct parts, and while it’s possible to catch all three, if you can only pick one, make sure to choose the middle part performed on the Liberty Belle when it stops in front of Splash Mountain.
The regular show will take place three times daily on the Liberty Belle with a procession leading to and from the boat before and after each performance.
The show is currently only scheduled to run through January 3rd, 2010 as a tie-in to the movie’s launch on December 11th. It’s my hope they extend this show at least through the summer. The show was already drawing huge crowds without the benefit of the movie even being in theaters, I imagine it will continue to grow once it’s seen by the public.
Lots more photos below the jump, so come on down