Disney Phineas and Ferb – Agent P’s World Showcase Adventure Coming To Epcot In The Summer!
It seems that after much speculation, Disney have finally announced that Agent P’s World Showcase Adventure will be replacing Kim Possible in 2012. One of the main reasons for this taking place is simply down to the fact that a lot of kids nowadays have no idea who Kim Possible is as the television series came to an end five years ago! Whilst it is a bit of a shame that Disney are replacing it all, (I used to watch Kim Possible) they have made the right decision as kids are far more likely to take the tour with characters that they are familiar with.
The great thing about any World Showcase Adventure is that it keeps the kids occupied in an area of the park that they may otherwise have found a bit dull (speaking from experience) whilst the adults can appreciate all of the work and cultural experiences that have been put into the showcase.
Here is one final salute to the Kim Possible World Showcase Adventure!
EPCOT International Flower & Garden Festival 2012
Last year I was lucky enough to be at EPCOT during the International Flower and Garden Festival. I saw some amazing topiaries across both Future World and World Showcase (photos below). This year I am heading back to Disney during this time of the year which means I will get to experience it all over again!
Take a look at the dates for this years events:
EPCOT International Flower and Garden Festival Dates 2012
This year the events kick off on the 7th March and end on the 20th May, leaving plenty of time to organise your trip!
Flower Power Concert Series 2012 Dates
At the America Gardens Theatre in World Showcase on Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays at 5:15 p.m., 6:30 p.m. and 7:45 p.m. throughout the festival dates
March 9 to 11 – Jose Feliciano (Light My Fire)
March 16 to 18 – Starship Starring Mickey Thomas (We Built This City)
March 23 to 15 – The Guess Who (American Woman)
March 30 to April 1 – The Spinners (Cupid)
April 6 to 8 – Chubby Checker & The Wildcats (The Twist)
April 13 to 15 – Paul Revere & The Raiders (Good Thing)
April 20 to 22 – The Turtles Featuring Flo & Eddie (Happy Together)
April 27 to 29 – NEW! Chuck Negron, Formerly of Three Dog Night (Joy to the World)
May 4 to 6 – NEW! The Orchestra Starring Former Members of ELO (Don’t Bring Me Down)
May 11 to 13 – Herman’s Hermits Starring Peter Noone (I’m Henry VIII, I Am)
May 18 to 20 – TBA
2012 HGTV Celebrity Appearances
ohn Gidding, HGTV’s Curb Appeal: The Block – presenting March 9 – 11
Sabrina Soto, HGTV’s The High/Low Project – presenting March 16 – 18
Jason Cameron, DIY Network’s Desperate Landscapes and Man Caves – presenting March 23 – 25
Camille Styles, HGTV.com Entertainment contributor – presenting March 30 – April 1
Dan Faires, HGTV.com’s DanMade, Fan Favorite HGTV Design Star Season 5 – presenting April 6 – 8
Brandon Johnson, host of HGTV’s My Yard Goes Disney – presenting April 13 – 15
Meg Caswell, HGTV’s Meg’s Great Rooms – presenting April 20 – 22
Monica Pedersen, HGTV Dream Home Tour 2012 and Designed to Sell – presenting April 27 – 29
Antonio Ballatore, HGTV’s The Antonio Treatment – presenting May 4 – 6
To be determined – presenting May 11 – 13
Genevieve Gorder, HGTV’s Dear Genevieve and HGTV Design Star – presenting May 18 – 20
If you are going this year make sure you try and catch some of the great shows and take the time to view everything!
Test Track Getting An Overhaul
There have been a lot of rumours floating about on the forums for quite some time regarding an overhaul of the Test Track attraction at EPCOT and it would seem that Disney are finally going to proceed with this. Its about time something was done to this attraction as it is constantly breaking down and causing hassle to park guests. What exactly are Disney going to be doing to the attraction and how much credit to the TRON rumours have?
A Move To Tron
As much as I would like Test Track to have a massive overhaul in that it is turned into a TRON Ride it is just something that doesn’t seem very likely. Sure TRON has now become a massive hit with the younger people of today but it would take a lot of investment from Disney to turn it into something that would look good enough for old and new fans alike. Turning the ride into something out of TRON would be better themed with what EPCOT is all about wouldn’t it? The problem with an overhaul to TRON is that Disney wouldn’t be receiving as many sponsorship funds as they are at the moment and this would be an issue considering this was one of the most expensive attractions ever built at Walt Disney World. A lot of people have written off this option in the forums and although it isn’t likely, I am hoping that something from TRON is put into the new build.
Test Track 2.0
Considering the attraction still breaks down on a regular basis it would make more sense for Disney to completely rip out the system and replace it with the new system that is going into the Radiator Springs attraction in California. This system has a good ten years on the attraction that currently sits in EPCOT and this hopefully means a stronger reliability and less breakdowns, something that every Disney fan would be very grateful for, this also explains the lengthy six months that the attraction is expected to be closed down for.
What’s (almost) Certain?
General Motors have already ceased to sponsor the attraction due to their financial troubles and it is expected that the new sponsor will be Chevrolet. This pretty much puts TRON rumours to an end as it is likely that Chevrolet will want to run with something that is more in line with their industry. It is expected that the attraction will take more of a design and customisation route rather than a testing aspect (although this will still be a part of it) and this means that guests are likely going to be able to choose how their experience pans out, not an easy task on an attraction like this one.
The pre-show experience is rumoured to close around March with the attraction closing down fully for around six months just after the Easter period.
So what is the future of Test Track? All will be revealed by Disney soon!
Epcot Embraces Social Media With Brand New Tip Board
The tip board located in the Innoventions Plaza hasn’t really seen any changes since the Millennium celebration upgrades that were made in the area, and why would it; it is just a tips board! Disney thought it was time for a bit of an upgrade so has installed a new screen. This screen comes with a few pretty cool features!
The New Features Of The Epcot Tip Board
The brand new board is an LCD screen (couldn’t reach out for the LED then Disney?) and has been made up into four different display areas. Two of the screens on the left are being used for wait times whilst at the moment the other two are being used to help promote the food and wine festival showing information about what is going on.
The interesting part of the two right hand screens is that Disney are embracing Twitter with all Tweets about the brilliant food and wine festival flashing up, right there on the screen! I am sure Disney is hiring someone just to monitor what tweets appear and what don’t!
The fantastic guys at WDW Magic have managed to capture the screens in action, enjoy!
5 Awesome Things You Might Not Know About EPCOT
Here are some great things you might not know about EPCOT.
Light Up Floor!
If you ever find yourself in EPCOT at night (you should, as iluminations is awesome) then I urge you to take a look at the ground below you not far from the exit of the park. The floor lights up and look amazing at night! There are also “fireflies” in the trees!
Why Are The Paths Red?
You will notice that right the way round World Showcase that all of the paths you are walking on are red. This is actually to make everything around you seem a lot greener than it is, and it works, right?!?
The Waterfall In Canada
If you like the waterfall in Canada you might be a bit disappointed to hear that the only reason it was put there was to mask a massive generator that is right behind it!
Test Track
The Test Track vehicles have three onboard computers that have more processing power than the space shuttle!!
Mission Space
In Mission Space, if you start flipping all of the switches and turning the dials and stuff “Lt. Dan” comes over your speaker and tells you not to touch them.
Fantastic Stop Motion Project At EPCOT
I spotted this brilliant video when doing my daily searches around the web for Disney stuff and I think you will find that it proves just how fantastic and brilliant Disney fans can be when it comes to visiting the parks.
The video itself is made up from 5,151 photographs that took over 6 hours to shoot and an amazing 12 hours to edit together to make this 10 minute long video tribute to EPCOT.
I think we can all agree that the end result is not only a brilliant way to show off the park but it is also a very humorous one too! I really love some of the background music as well and if you listening carefully you will hear a couple of classics from the park.
So what do you think of this video, would you be able to stand in the Floridian heat for over 6 hours to shoot something like this?
Romance At EPCOT- Valentines 2011
Continuing the trend on having a romantic Valentine’s Day at the theme parks in Florida here is the next one on the list, EPCOT. Now in case you didn’t previously know it is my favourite park and one that I will always speak very highly of and know the most about.
EPCOT might not sound like a park that you would spend your Valentine’s Day at but believe it or not there are a number of things that you can do at the park together and the park itself is just as romantic as the previous park on this list, The Magic Kingdom.
The Restaurants
If excellent dining is what you want on your Valentine’s Day then EPCOT is the park for you and this is thanks to the many restarts that the park is home to. World Showcase is the place to be if you want to sit down and explore cultures in a romantic atmosphere. I would thoroughly recommend Bistro de Paris for a quiet atmosphere and a really romantic meal. However you could also choose from the following:
Tutto Italia Ristorante- Italy
San Angel Inn Restaurante – Mexico
Tangierine Cafe- Morocco
World Showcase Walk
If you are spending the day at the park then one thing you simply must do is take a slow walk around the World Showcase with your partner. Holding hands, taking your time do explore every work of art and shop in the area is well worth doing and will take you the whole afternoon if you are doing it the right way. When walking around the showcase you appreciate just how much effort has been put into the creation of it all.
Stopping to watch the shows such as the famous Japanese drumming and the Chinese acrobats really adds to the event.
IllumiNations: Reflections of Earth To Finish Off Your Valentine’s Day
If you have time to stay for the fireworks at the end of the day then make sure you do because they are fantastic and extremely romantic to sit and watch with your partner. Make sure that if you are planning to stick around for the show that you get your spots early because the best places fill up quickly. Aim to get your spot up to two hours before show starts for the best places.
These are just a few of the things to look into for your EPCOT Valentine’s Day, there are many couples that love this park the best and unless you have experienced it with your partner you will not discover why!
Do not forget that rides like Living With The Land and The Mexican Ride are very romantic too!
There is always a moment in Disney where the thought of coming back to those offices to rent comes in but make sure you enjoy yourself and relax!
Why travel the world when it’s all at Epcot?
Im in two minds about Word Showcase.
It is a very big part of Epcot but only has two mediocre rides. The rest of World Showcase is centred around shopping, each part selling merchandise from places around the world; these places including Italy, Japan, China, England, America, Morocco, Mexico and France among others. However, there are decent restaurants selling the food from each country. The last time I went to Epcot, we had reservations at Mexico in the mexican restaurant. The food was absolutely delicious, but for two of us the bill came to nearly $70, if we didn’t have the Disney Dining Plan it would have been too expensive. Another good side to World Showcase is the ‘Funnel Cakes’, these are drizzles of doughnut dough covered in the topping you want, and may I say definitely worth having!
I would say that World Showcase is a lovely place to take a slow romantic walk for the late afternoon and evening, and a nice place to have a meal, however if you are with young children it is probably best to wait until the evening, have a quick walk around and then find a place to watch Illuminations.
Another good way to venture around world showcase, is to have breakfast at a restaurant from one country, lunch at another, and dinner at another, that way tasting food from around the world- can be quite funny as well.
This is just a general opinion of World Showcase, I will write about each country sepreately, in more detail in a different post.
Captain EO Proves To Be A Hit!
You may remember me mentioning that the Michael Jackson show, Captain EO had made its’ return to EPCOT well the verdict from the fans are in and I have to say it is looking very good indeed.
Here are what some of the fans had to say:
” I saw it when I was little, I don’t remember around what age and I all I remember best is Hooter and obviously captain EO, its better now because now I appreciate it”
” So we came out of there and he was crying, admit it, you were crying! I was, I was crying, we really can change the world. The Disney/Jackson partnership again is great, it means Disney really have faith in him again”
Disney Insider
“When we really wanted to keep it exactly the same as it was in the 80s so we brought back the same person that put it together way back in 86″
This is really what Disney World is all about, making people happy and bringing passion into the parks. Although captain EO is not going to be around long it is good to see many of the fans very happy indeed.
Photo Of The Week 4-7-2010
This picture/photo of the week is taken from my favourite Disney park, EPCOT. Now there are many reasons I love EPCOT the most and one of these is thanks to Spaceship Earth. I love this ride and although I am a little disappointed as the update wasn’t what I expected it to be, it is still a fantastic ride and as you can see by the below image, it is massive!
