Put your hard hats on! The Four Seasons Resort Orlando at Walt Disney World Resort is giving us a tour of the first non-Disney luxury hotel to be built on property. The Four Seasons is the standard in luxury and it looks like they’re making… Read More »Hard Hat Tour of Four Seasons Resort Orlando at Walt Disney World Resort
The annual Walt Disney World Marathon Weekend is finally upon us, and there’s plenty of new merchandise and memorabilia to stock up on while you’re there, including t-shirts, designer bags, Vinylmation figurines, and brand new New Balance shoes.
First up are the t-shirts, which are a yearly favorite. This year’s selection will include “I Did It” tees with a course map on the back, as well as a “Coast to Coast Challenge” variety.
Walt Disney World has a long history of celebrating both professional and amateur athletes who perform at a high level of excellence. This year they’ll be honoring the local University of Central Florida UCF Knight’s football team. The Knights defeated the Baylor Bears in this… Read More »UCF Knights, Fiesta Bowl Winners, Get Disney Parade
This year Disney’s resolution is to get more families to spend time together, and what better way to do so than to give out free vacation packages? Yes, you read that correctly. Every day until January 31st Disney will be giving out a vacation-a-day to… Read More »Still Need a New Year’s Resolution? How About Planning a Free Disney Vacation?
Normally at this time of year, I write a retrospective piece looking back at the year in Disney, but for personal reasons, I’ve decided now is the time to look forward, not back. Instead of recollections, I’m writing prescriptions.These are the things I believe will help Walt Disney World continue to compete for the hearts and wallets of their fans while fending off challenges from other entertainment options both near (Universal Orlando) and far (changing TV viewing habits at home, for instance)
I’ll try and limit myself to one or two recommendations each and something that can at least get started in 2014. I don’t intend each prescription to solve every woe, but it will at least make a significant difference in one or two major problem areas.
Magic Kingdom
The oldest theme park in Central Florida is showing its age more and more and suffers from serious stagnation in both attractions and entertainment (translation: a serious capacity issue). There is something they can do quickly to make a dent. As part of an overall project to update Tomorrowland, I prescribe for the park an indoor air-conditioned high-capacity theater capable of hosting shows similar to the Hyperion Theater at California Adventure. With multiple shows a day, this adds a lot of capacity, gives guests a place to cool off in the heat and humidity, and allows for a showcase for Disney’s latest animated musicals (Rapunzel Stage show anyone?). This is also something that could be accomplished quickly and with minimal in park disruption by setting the theater outside the berm. Additional revenue can be raised by hosting events in the space, something the Magic Kingdom is currently lacking.
EPCOT
This park has the highest capacity of all four parks. It has two wonderful festivals and an enjoyable Christmas overlay. These are wonderful for what they do to attract guests. However, the mission and vision of EPCOT has been ignored for too long, and many areas of the park are in serious need of rejuvenation. Let’s tackle the two sections of the park separately.Read More »Dr. John’s 2014 Prescriptions for Walt Disney World
Editors Note: Disney has never said or implied that Fastpass+ and MagicBands would only be available to on-site guests only. As it stands, that is the current state of the program however. This is an interesting speculation if Disney decides to limit the service. One… Read More »Staying Off Site? How The New Fastpass+ May Change That.
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Disney is currently trying out a “tiered” Fastpass+ system at Epcot. The idea behind it is simple, in that you’re limited as to how many major attractions you can choose a Fastpass for. It works like this:
Choose one Fastpass from the following:
And then two Fastpasses from the rest:
This is clearly a response to guests choosing all “e-ticket” rides for their three Fastpass selections and none being available for off-site guests. It’s rumored (key word) that it will be implemented resort-wide during Christmas week, at the very least. The good news is that if you already have Fastpasses chosen, you won’t be effected by this new change, at least during this initial period of testing.
Construction on the last attraction remaining to be completed for the New Fantasyland expansion at the Magic Kingdom has taken some exciting leaps since we last checked in. Although they weren’t testing on the day I was there, as you can see above, a complete train has been added to the tracks of the Seven Dwarfs Mine Train roller coaster. That’s an exciting bit of progress, but the attraction still is set to open sometime in 2014 with no official date yet announced.
Here’s more video from around the mountain and through the peek windows. Sadly the windows are getting progressively dirtier, but you can still make out most of the detail. I’m most excited about how the buildings that will house the entrance and exit queue are coming along. Notice the steel construction, gotta be hurricane proof in Orlando.
Thanks for watching. I’ve added a few photos below the jump if you can’t watch the video:
Read More »Seven Dwarfs Mine Train Construction Update from Disney World