I’m heading out to the 2014 EPCOT Flower and Garden Festival today to see the floral show in all it’s spring glory. In the meantime, I have a bunch of fun facts to share with you about the festival. I also managed to get this video preview, including a brief interview with festival horticulture chief Eric Darden.
The 21st EPCOT International Flower & Garden Festival blooms March 5-May 18.
Fun facts below the jump:
There are a lot of Hidden Mickeys and even a few Walt Disney tributes. But did you know about a special tribute to Walt’s brother. This lantern at the Japan Pavilion in EPCOT was a gift to Roy O. Disney from Emperor Horihoto. But it… Read More »EPCOT Story: The Gift of Light
Update: added video of how the hashtag was made.
I love this new yearly event of celebrating an entire 24 cycle at Disneyland or the Magic Kingdom. When else can you see the sun rise on a majestic building like Cinderella Castle or take a foggy dawn cruise aboard the Mark Twain? The ‘Disney Day’ events would be great just for those rare opportunities. But Disney being Disney always takes it up a notch.
For this year’s all-night event, everyone is being invited to show their #DisneySide by dressing as their favorite Disney hero or villain. According to Disney both coasts will feature a great lineup of events showcasing the good-vs.-evil of classic Disney stories including character meet-and-greets throughout the parks, special entertainment, event merchandise and special food and beverage offerings.
For the 2014 Disney Day head to Magic Kingdom in Florida and Disneyland park and Disney California Adventure park in California. The event will run from 6 a.m., May 23 to 6 a.m., May 24, 2014, local time.
Lastly, to announce this event, Disney did something really cute with twitter. They created a 140 character hashtag out of Disney characters. Click the photo to head over to Flickr where you can see the full size version of this image and see if your favorite character is included.
Is your favorite character there? See complete list here. Head below the jump to see a new video with footage from Disney showing all 140 characters and how they came together to make this very unique tweet!
Read More »The Next 24 Hour Disney Day Has Been Announced for May 23-24
Disney has just released a concept video showing a short fly-over of a completely re-designed central plaza in the Magic Kingdom. I’d heard the rumors this was coming, but had not heard exactly how extensive the change would be. It’s dramatic. The end result will change the character of the main hub of the park, transitioning from moat to garden, an idea first conceived for Shanghai Disneyland. But Orlando is getting a version of it first.
Watch the video then join us below as we dissect a few key visuals:
The newly remodeled hub will feature several new elements, including fountains, sculpted gardens, additional pathways, expanded restaurant seating and even a special viewing area for fireworks and other performances.
Read More »Major Changes Coming to Magic Kingdom’s Central Plaza (aka the Hub)
The Disney Parks Blog just announced March 9 as the date for the first official appearance of the Disney Festival of Fantasy Parade in the Magic Kingdom. The new parade celebrates Fantasyland with nine floats, an original soundtrack, and costumes designed by Mirena Rada. I’m… Read More »Disney Festival of Fantasy Parade To Debut March 9 at Magic Kingdom
from Instagram Although ostensibly it was to expand the smoking area, the recent upgrade to the old canoes queue and dock looks really nice. They used to do a cute little ‘pan for gold’ activity in this area, these gold nuggets look more permanent, so… Read More »Instapic: There’s gold in them there hills.
I’m always on the lookout for great new merchandise and a new set of coffee mugs for Walt Disney World certainly qualifies. In fact, I used to collect coffee mugs, but they were nothing like these Three of the four park icons are represented in… Read More »New Park Icon Coffee Mugs
Hard to take a bad photo during the festival
The 2014 EPCOT International Flower and Garden Festival is still two weeks away, but already Disney is moving pieces into place. The horticulture team has been busy putting the giant Flower Quilts together and the festival team has been working on booths and displays across the park.
Yesterday I took a nice stroll through the park and captured some of their preparations for a fun look behind the process of assembling a great show for guests.
Can’t watch the video, photos from the walk are below the jump:
Read More »EPCOT 2014 Flower & Garden Festival Prepares for March 5 Opening