I don’t know about you, but I take a lot of pictures while in the park. I tend to document every small detail I see, construction in the park, anything that looks new to me, and the fantastic quality of Disney theme park entertainment. I… Read More »Pixelmania 2014 – Fan Led Disney Photography Event
Big news on the intergalactic newswire today. Luke Skywalker, aka actor Mark Hamill, will be making his first ever appearance at a Disney Star Wars Weekends event. He’ll be one of the celebrity guests on June 6-8. Celebrity guests appear daily in the “Legends of… Read More »Luke Skywalker, AKA Mark Hamill, confirmed for Star Wars Weekends June 6-8
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
As we saw in February’s 2nd update, the walls are down around a small section of Snow White Mountain at the Seven Dwarfs Mine Train. It will be the last area to open as part of Magic Kingdom’s New Fantasyland expansion. Since February a lot more landscaping work has been done, to the point where it is practically a forest in some parts. But in other areas there is still a ways to go on just covering the dirt. As we saw in the ride-through POV video, there is also a lot of finished touches on buildings and interior sets.
We still have no word on an official opening date, but some say soft opens could come as soon as late April or early May. We do know that the media event will be the last few days of April. Cast member previews usually start either shortly before media events or shortly after them and then once cast members are done, annual passholders get a chance, and finally soft openings. But sometimes that’s all thrown out the window too. So don’t make any plans until it is official or if you do make plans, have a backup ready in case it isn’t ready. Those coming in June should most likely be able to ride, but nothing is certain. This is a completely unique ride system that Disney had built. Nothing like it exists.
As usual, we have both video and photos from all around Snow White Mountain.
Photos are below the jump:
Read More »Seven Dwarfs Mine Train Construction Update – March 2014
From the moment the first notes played out over the parade route, audiences were in love with the new Disney Festival of Fantasy Parade at the Magic Kingdom. At the very end of the route crowds broke out into spontaneous and sustained applause for both the creators and performers of this fantastic parade. I think they have a real hit on their hands.
Yes. The parade does involve a few ‘recycled’ elements. But that is a long honored tradition among Disney theme parks, something that dates back to the ‘never throw it away’ mentality of Hollywood studios where much of the original creative team for Disneyland were poached. Also, like most of Disney’s recent parades, you could ask for maybe another unit or two of floats. But at nine units and 100 dancers and performers, the parade feels as large as the Magic Kingdom. It really takes multiple viewings to take in everything. So it’s a shame that it only performs once per day.
I hope you will be able to make it to the Magic Kingdom to see it in person yourself. But if that’s not on the agenda, here’s my full video of the parade from its second day.
I also had the opportunity to interview a few of the creative team responsible for Disney Festival of Fantasy. Among the things I learned, two of the floats have special tributes to previous Magic Kingdom parades, each of the floats has a hidden mickey on it, even some of the costumes feature hidden mickeys. Two of the floats were imported from Japan. Tokyo Disneyland’s Jubilation parade donated the Princess Garden unit and the Finale unit.
Below the break, I have more photos, a description of each parade unit, and that interview with the creative team.
Read More »Disney Festival of Fantasy Parade Graces the Magic Kingdom
Like many children, Space Mountain was my first big roller coaster. I remember how nervous I was as I wound my way through the queue at Disneyland. The show in the theater below helped distract me, as did the sneak preview windows in the queue.… Read More »3-2-1 Limited Edition Space Mountain T-shirts Now Available Online
Year after year, Disney VoluntEARS participate in a number of regular events. One of the events they most look forward to is the Junior Achievement Bowl-A-Thon. This past weekend more than 5,000 Cast Members teamed up to bowl for a cause at the annual Junior… Read More »Disney Cast Members Raise $250,000 for Non-Profit in Bowl-A-Thon
Walt Disney World announced they will kick off this year’s Star Wars Weekends with a new merchandise event called Rebel Rendezvous, on Thursday, May 15. The event will take place between 10am and 5pm at Disney’s Hollywood Studios, and will offer ticket holders the following:… Read More »Walt Disney World to Kick off Star Wars Weekends with Rebel Rendezvous Merchandise Event on May 15, 2014