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EPCOT Food and Wine Festival Report

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Today is my first chance to get out and explore the EPCOT Food & Wine Festival. I’m here as an invited media guest, which means I get access to a few places the day guest isn’t allowed. I’ll be sharing those and updating this post throughout the day with highlights of our excursions.

This the 17th annual International Food and Wine Festival at EPCOT and it includes more than 25 ethnic and regional marketplaces with tantalizing new drinks and flavors to explore around the World Showcase. The culinary event has even been named one of the Best Food and Wine Festivals by Travel Channel.

Foodie will celebrate with these new experiences: a new chocolate tasting, fresh Florida Local flavors, and the first marketplace with vegan cuisine. The festival also introduces its first watermelon patch, brings back the popular cranberry bog experience, and continues the nightly “Eat to the Beat” concert series — this year, featuring acts including Smash Mouth, Blues Traveler, Boyz II Men, and the Pointer Sisters.

Photos continue below :

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Princes Fairytale Hall

New Princess Fairytale Hall Concept Art

In our last Magic Kingdom photo update, we mentioned how we snuck a peek at the construction going on in the old Snow White’s Scary Adventures show building. They’re already building out the little nooks you see in this new concept art released by Disney.… Read More »New Princess Fairytale Hall Concept Art

Magic Kingdom Storybook Circus Update - Marquee

Magic Kingdom Photo Update – Part 1 – Storybook Circus Nears Finish

Workers are all over the Magic Kingdom working on projects large and small. Changes are coming at such a rapid pace these days, it’s hard to keep pace with what’s new. Still, I have to try. Some of these pictures are a few days old, but I think they’re exciting anyway, and if you haven’t seen them, they’re new to you, right?. I’ve got almost 50 photos to share in this week’s photo update. We’ll cover New Fantasyland, Rapunzel’s Village, Tinker bell and more!

Today we’re going to get started with some of the final touches coming to Storybook Circus as the land races closer to opening. Make sure you scroll down to the end for a special treat you won’t want to miss. (Note: you can click on the image to see it larger, but you’ll have to click on the link to the full size image on that page to see it in the largest size I uploaded.)

The new Marquee for Storybook Circus is almost done. Looks nice too. Not quite as elaborate as the original concept art showed, but it fits in well with the rest of the area.

Magic Kingdom Storybook Circus Update - Marquee

Magic Kingdom Storybook Circus Update - Marquee

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“Frankenweenie Weekend” Takes Over Downtown Disney Sept. 28 – 30, 2012

Downtown Disney in Orlando is getting into the spirit of Frankenweenie as it hosts a weekend of special fun for fans of Tim Burton and his films. Experiences inspired by the new movie, “The Nightmare Before Christmas” and “Alice in Wonderland” will take place at… Read More »“Frankenweenie Weekend” Takes Over Downtown Disney Sept. 28 – 30, 2012

Mickey’s Not So Scary Halloween Party Photo Update

We were pleased to be invited to the Magic Kingdom to enjoy an evening at Mickey’s Not So Scary Halloween Party. This event fell on a Friday evening and the crowds were fairly thick for the start of the evening. However, after the fireworks, the park cleared out and the last couple hours of the night was relatively quick access to any attractions or candy stop we wanted to swing by.

For our family, MNSSHP is a chance to see some walk-around characters we don’t see very often, catch one of our favorite parades, see the Halloween fireworks, and collect some candy. We tend to avoid the dance parties and special food offerings. But if that’s your thing, those looked fun this year.

One new item was added to the pre-parade on Main Street – a flash mob. Well not technically a flash mob, but some sort of impromptu line dancing was taking place. To be honest, I was a little underwhelmed by the effort. Sure it was neat to see cast members out in the street instead of at the restaurant counter, but the stage was just a plain black platform and there really weren’t that many guests out in the street. Now, I saw the pre-parade show before the 2nd parade, so the first parade may have had more energy. But frankly, I’d rather they spend this entertainment budget on doing things like adding the Dapper Dans on a ghostly boat tour aboard the Lilly Belle or more atmosphere around the park.

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Magic Kingdom to Serve Adult Drinks Starting This Fall

Magic Kingdom Beer

Snuck in at the bottom of a blog post on the Disney Parks Blog is a huge piece of news. When the Beauty and the Beast themed Be Out Guest restaurant opens as part of the New Fantasyland expansion it will serve beer and wine as part of its dinner menu. Outside of private parties, this will be the first time alcohol has been served at the Magic Kingdom, breaking a tradition that goes back to an edict from Walt Disney himself.

Walt did not want adult beverages served at Disneyland. He didn’t think it belonged in a family theme park. He did allow beer at the Holidayland corporate party pavilion, but it was outside the berm. Even then, the park had repeated issues with guests leaving for lunch and then re-entering a few sheets to the wind. Before Walt died, he did approve alcohol sales at Club 33, but went pretty far to make it a private club where the day guest would not be able to get served a drink.

We know that Walt was still against general sales of alcohol in his parks because of his attempt to build a second theme park. After Disneyland was a success, Walt looked east for a great place to build another park. After a lot of research, Walt settled on St. Louis, but when city founders insisted that Walt allow Annheuser Busch to sell beer in the park, Walt declined to build there. Instead he headed south for a little crossroads he remembered from an earlier trip to Florida – Orlando.

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Enchanted Tales With Belle In Limited Soft Opening

When the original Fantasyland Expansion was announced it was going to have not one, not two, but three next-generation princess encounters. Guests wouldn’t just line up to get a photo with their favorite Disney princess, they would enter their world and participate in the story in some way. When the decision was made to add a coaster to the mix, two of those encounters went away.

The one encounter that’s left is the Enchanted Tales with Belle attraction. It takes place in Maurice’s Cottage, which sits in a lovely wooded setting, just like in Beauty and the Beast. Guests enter Maurice’s cottage and see some special family mementos, then enter the work shop where a magical moment happens. (I don’t want to give too much away. If you want to see it, there are a couple of walk-throughs on YouTube.)

At the end of last week, the Magic Kingdom started offering limited testing of the attraction. Guests are taken behind the construction walls in small groups and then allowed to enter Maurice’s cottage. I have yet to make it myself, but on Sept 8th Duy Truong (friend of The Disney Blog) was invited.

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New Fantasyland Minisite Hides Mystery

Walt Disney World is attempting to drive up a little virtual excitement for New Fantasyland via a new micro-site. The site claims there is a curse preventing all the information about the new land from being revealed and a hero is needed to remove the… Read More »New Fantasyland Minisite Hides Mystery