We’ve heard the rumors for months, and plans were filed last year that indicated changes were coming, but nothing was official until today when Disney announced changes coming to Soarin’ in EPCOT’s Land Pavilion. The number of theaters will be expanded to three while all… Read More »EPCOT’s Soarin’ to add third theater and upgrades
The Seven Dwarfs Mine Train standby queue features three interactive games you can play while passing the time. Projects like these are considered part of the Next-Gen technology that’s being introduced with MyMagic+.effectiveffe The first element is a trough game where you sort gems by… Read More »Seven Dwarfs Mine Train Interactive Queue at Night
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
Test Track, with its new sponsorship from Chevrolet, officially opens on Thursday. Cast member previews have been under way for a few days and photos have been slowly leaking out along with short reviews like “Amazing!” “Awesome” and “Lots of Fun.” I was able to… Read More »Inside the new Test Track at EPCOT, Non-Spoilery
With Cars Land at DCA now open, all eyes turn toward the Magic Kingdom and the Fantasyland Expansion which will be the next big project from Walt Disney Imagineering to open. Behind the walls, sections near Storytime with Belle look practically ready to open right… Read More »Magic Kingdom Update – We’re getting closer
The other day I was at the Magic Kingdom and it started raining cats and dogs. I was just finishing lunch at Pecos Bill and didn’t want to run through the rain, but I remembered you can actually walk from Pecos Bill all the way to Pirates of the Caribbean under cover. Even better, with everyone else holed up waiting for the torrential down pour to stop, I pretty much had Pirates to myself.
There’s a good reason to check out Pirates these days as the queue has been getting some upgrades done to it. There is a popular rumor of an interactive game called “Pirates Adventure: Jewels of the Seven Seas” that will let you use an RFID device to interact with elements in and around Pirates. Construction walls have been up in the queue for over a month.
When walking through the queue this time, I noticed that Disney has unveiled the first of the new theme elements. It looks like the idealic Caribbean castle the queue winds through is under attack. Cannon ball impacts have added new damage to the walls, there are even a few spots whee the cannon balls are still stuck within the wall.
While the project isn’t complete, I can get on board with this sort of plussing the story. I can’t wait to see what else is unveiled in this makeover and if the interactive game elements are added as well.
A couple more photos below the jump:
Read More »Pirates of the Caribbean Queue at Magic Kingdom Gets Makeover
We visited the Magic Kingdom yesterday morning and were fortunate enough to get an opportunity to explore the new interior queue portion of Dumbo The Flying Elephant. When you approach Dumbo the left side is now the Fastpass Queue and the the right side is now the Standby. Fastpass machines are currently located over at Mickey’s Philharmagic, so plan for that as you head toward Dumbo. But keep in mind that Fastpass does not include access to the new indoor play area.
The queue was short when we entered the standby side, so we were given the option of just heading right on to the spinner or taking a break in the play area. We choose the play area and were given a restaurant style beeper at the podium. The cast member there has a control that says how many are in the play area at once (looked like a limit of 150 when we were there) and lets them monitor the average amount of wait time.
When you enter the queue there are circus style benches for adults to sit on while the kids run around and play. The center ring is for toddlers (2-5) and the outer play structures are for older kids (4 – 8). Many of the elements generate sound effects and the background music is periodically interrupted by announcements from Timothy Mouse.
We were in there for about 5 minutes when our beeper went off. As you might expect many parents were having trouble rounding up the kids to head out and get on the spinner. My son enjoyed the play area so much that after we got off Dumbo he wanted to go back and play some more.