Coming in early March, Fastpass will have new rules that, really, go back to the roots of the Fastpass system. Now, you can enter the Fastpass queue up to 5 minutes before your selected time window and until 15 minutes after your window. I know… Read More »New Fastpass, How Strategies Might Change
Entertainer Paula Abdul spent Valentine’s day enjoying the Disney theme parks. Here she is in Disney’s Hollywood Studios with Minnie Mouse. I wonder if Paula dropped in on the American Idol Experience. That would have been a shocker. Btw, look carefully and you’ll notice that… Read More »Paula Abdul Greets Minnie Mouse for Special Valentine’s Day Photo
Have a long update from our visit to the Magic Kingdom this weekend. So long it’s going to take at least two posts (Update: here’s part two) to get it all in. Nearly every pic has a larger version if you click on it to help you see the detail since some of the photos are taken from a distance due to construction walls and what not.
There are still many tarps and bridges under construction around the park. I didn’t take new photos of Main Street or Adventureland, but there is still work under way in both locations.
Sorcerers of the Magic Kingdom was option for play testing again today. They continue to refine the check-in process. Remember to bring your Sorcerer’s Key along with your deck. You an ask for five cards for every member with a valid admission, but they default to just give you five cards per party. While it’s still only on the ‘easy’ level, if you have a 4-10 year old this is a lot of fun. For older kids (adults too) it’s a great collectible. Addicting, really.
The good news is that the Firefighter patches have been returned to the FireHouse.
Read More »Magic Kingdom Photo Update – making progress to New Fantasyland opening (Part 1)
Golden Oak at Walt Disney World is a private development that gives you a slice of the magic. Now there is a computer generated video that shows not only how close you are to the magic kingdom, but what the community will look like. Looks… Read More »Live at Walt Disney World? You can at Golden Oak Development
Let me start with a full disclosure. I would be perfectly happy if FastPass went away tomorrow. On the whole I think it is a bad thing for the parks. Here’s a short list of FastPass’ problems as I see it: it artificially inflates wait time for rides with high-throughput, creates unhappy guests, and crowds the open spaces of the parks effectively lowering park capacity. It never really drove in-store sales and increased dining revenue the way it was originally intended too either.
What FastPass does do is effectively create an elite class of theme park attendees. Those who know how to maximize their day in the park by efficiently using FastPass have a very different experience in the parks than those who wait in every standby queue. Keep this point in mind. We’ll be coming back to it.
The 2012 EPCOT International Flower & Garden Festival will begin blooming soon. In just over a month the park will roll out its 19th festival and the third with HGTV as a sponsor. I think it’s been a great partnership and look forward to seeing what the combined forces can bring this year.
One of the highlights promises to be the Sorcerer Mickey topiary that’s part of the largest-ever Disney front-entrance topiary. There will be a stellar cast of HGTV design celebrities and a great line up of artists at the Flower Power concert series.
Here’s a sneak peek of this year’s festival news:
The front-entrance floral spectacle will welcome guests to a festival packed with new gardens and displays, featured speakers and hands-on fun for all ages, including daily gardening workshops with take-home projects for all who participate.
Thirty million blooms, 240 floating mini-gardens on two ponds, 700 container gardens of flowers, herbs, plants and vegetables, dozens of Disney character topiaries, 30 “flower towers” of impatiens and sweeping beds of original floral designs create a new tapestry of brilliant color across the 260-acre Epcot landscape. It takes more than one year and 400 Walt Disney World horticulturists to plan and prepare for the 75-day festival.
Halfway through the festival, Disney gardeners remove the cold-hardy blossoms that thrive in March and early April to plant a new crop of flowers that flourish in spring’s warmer temperatures. And throughout the event, dozens of gardening experts meet guests daily with fresh landscape ideas for 2012. Daily workshops at the Festival Center let guests dig into projects they can take home at the end of the day.
Don’t Miss!
Join us below the fold for some topiary trivia:
New 2012 design t-shirt
At the Magic Kingdom, they continue to make shifts in the product line up inside the main street shops (rendering that nice new map and directory they had recently produced obsolete), in fact the Trophy shop finally got its sports related merchandise (and other men’s attire) back after a long run of Tinkerbell and Minnie Mouse related women’s apparel and accessories. I think this is a home run.
More home runs below the jump in our gallery:
Read More »Disney World Merchandise Update – 2012 Collection Has Arrived
The first shoe has dropped in the Kodak bankruptcy case when the company asked a judge to terminate its sponsorship of the Oscars Theater in Hollywood. It’s costing the company a lot of money to have its name up there on the corner of Hollywood… Read More »Kodak seeks to end sponsorship of Hollywood Theater are Disney Parks Next?