For the last few years Disney’s Animal Kingdom has slowly making changes to its signature Kilimanjaro Safari attraction. They added more rows to the trucks, changed the spiel slightly, allowed trucks to briefly stop when good photos opportunities present themselves, and made some significant improvements… Read More »Kilimanjaro Safari to end Little Red storyline, add more Zebras, Watering Hole
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.
NFL World Champion New York Giant’s & two-time Super Bowl MVP Eli Manning managed to put in an appearance as scheduled after winning Super Bowl XLVI and recording the world famous “What Are You Going To Do Next?” commercial. Why go to Walt Disney World, of course.
“I’m going to Disney World!” proclaimed Manning Sunday shortly after his team scored a dramatic 21-17 win over the New England Patriots to capture Super Bowl XLVI in Indianapolis. In a gala parade Monday at Magic Kingdom, Manning made good on that promise, waving and smiling alongside Mickey Mouse from a red convertible in the shadow of Cinderella Castle.
Four years ago the scene wasn’t the same as Manning left Pop Warner players to ride the parade route alone after deciding to stay at the Super Bowl scene. Even though Manning still has childish good looks, he has matured and was at the park for a full parade and an interview session.
Fans of the Giants and Manning, including those sporting team jerseys Monday, got to see their hero up-close as he rode the route. New York Giants balloons mixed in with red, white and blue balloons along the parade route, Mickey Mouse was joined by other Disney characters and confetti in the shape of the Lombardi Trophy (awarded to the NFL champion) rained down on the happy scene. Manning was later joined in the Magic Kingdom by NFL Youth football players.
Read More »Eli Manning Visits Walt Disney World as two-time Super Bowl MVP and NFL World Champion
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:
With this latest video I’m continuing my Expressions series. This series is about capturing the details of the parks that help make the magic and provide memories of a lifetime. If you can’t be at the parks today, perhaps watching an Expressions video will at… Read More »Expressions – A Day at the Magic Kingdom
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
Star Wars Weekends returns to Disney’s Hollywood Studios at the Walt Disney World Resort every Friday, Saturday and Sunday from May 18-June 10, 2012, as fans gather to celebrates the Star Wars film saga and the hit animated television series Star Wars: The Clone Wars.… Read More »Star Wars Weekends Returns for 2012 Galactic Fun