President Obama Visits Walt Disney World
President Obama took to the Magic Kingdom in Walt Disney World to tackle some of the changes that American tourism is facing. In the speech he encourages people to visit places such as Disney World as they are all part of what has become an American Institution!
See below for the video of his speech where I am sure you will agree on some of the things he is saying about tourism, specifically in Walt Disney World.
First Opening Phase Of New Fantasyland On March 12th?
There have been a lot of rumours circulating the web over the last couple of weeks to suggest that the first section of the new Fantasyland will be opening on March 12th of 2012. How true are these rumours and just what can be expect to see open in this very first phase?
New Dumbo Pushed Back
The biggest reason why a lot of people assume that part of the new Fantasyland will be open on March 12th is simply because the new Dumbo ride has had it’s opening date pushed back to the same date. If Disney physically want to let guests on the attraction then they are going to have to open up a walkway to the new attraction at the very least!
What Will Be Open?
Disney are very unlikely to open very much in the first half of 2012 and if they open anything at all it is expected to be Storybook Circus as this is where the new Dumbo attraction is housed. It is also the area that is looking the most complete at this point in time. Do not expect to be dining with Beauty and the Beast just yet.
So are any of these rumours true? Only time will tell!
New Dumbo Attraction Has A Test Flight
It’s exciting times for everyone that is awaiting the opening of at least some of the new attractions in the new areas of Fantasyland in the Magic Kingdom as one of the new Dumbo attractions has had its very first test flight, so what does this mean?
New Dumbo Opens Soon!
According to Disney the old Dumbo ride is closing on January 9th and the new attraction will be open on February 18th! This means that not only will guests get to ride a brand new attraction but it also means that storybook circus will be open to the public, at lease part of it anyway!
There is still no word on when the rest of Fantasyland will be opening but rumors are that there will be more openings before the end of 2012!
Leap Year Brings An Extra Day To Two Of The Disney Parks!
Happy New Year everyone! As I mentioned in a post the other day, Disney had something big to announce last night and although it wasn’t as big as I had hoped, it is still a fairly decent announcement.
24 Hour Opening
This year both the Magic Kingdom and Disneyland Park will be open for a full 24 hours! On 6 a.m., February 29 to 6 a.m., March 1, 2012 (local times) both of the parks will be open for everyone to enjoy!
This is a very clever way for Disney to help make extra money this year, incredible marketing!
More Giveaways
On top of this Disney have revealed that they will be giving away vacations, gifts and all kinds of other things to guests running up to this event. Although details have yet to be revealed fully on this, I am guessing it is going to be similar to the Year of a million dreams but on a smaller basis.
I would love to hear if you are going to be there for a full 24 hours on these dates!
3 Of The Top Baked Goods From The Main Street Bakery
The Main Street Bakery is a place that I often visit first thing in the morning or some point during the afternoon after the parade has finished it’s run (partly because these are the points where I am in Main Street). I still speak to a lot of people that have been to Disney World several times and never visited the bakery, reasons for this include not knowing it was there, having too many other places to go and (my personal favourite) “oh it’s just a bakery”. The Main Street Bakery is far more than a simple bakery and with this in mind, here are the three favourite items on sale in the bakery!
Cookie and Ice-Cream Sandwich
Ice-Cream Sandwich
When the girlfriend and I were getting a bit peckish around mid-afternoon earlier this year we thought a trip to the bakery was in order, what I didn’t realise is that we would be eating an item that would have us full long into the night.
This amazing product is essentially two massive fresh baked cookies with a centre of ice cold vanilla ice-cream. The mistake might have been that we had one each but hey, you are in Disney right?
Gourmet Sandwiches
There aren’t many locations in Disney World (certainly within the Magic Kingdom) where you can sit down and not find a burger on the menu. The bakery may have some pretty big cakes and treats but they also offer out some wonderfully put together sandwiches with all kinds of fillings. In typical Disney fashion they are big sandwiches but they would certainly cover off dinner for most people on a vacation that are not used to big food all of the time!
Cinnamon Roll
Baring in mind that all baked goods are made freshly onsite, it is safe to say that anyone that enjoys a classic cinnamon whirl in the UK will be surprised on just how much better these are. Sure you are going to find it packed with a lot more sugar and cinnamon but you will also find it to be soft, warm and drizzling with cinnamon goodness!
Imagineering Insight Into The Mural Behind Journey Of The Little Mermaid
The Imagineering department at Disney always manage to throw a good video together and this time they go into detail on what technology went behind the mural for the upcoming attraction, Journey of the Little Mermaid.
The plan is that this will sit at the load and unload station for the attraction which means it is incredibly important that it looks right. Although the mural was assisted by technology you can see that a lot of manual work has gone into the piece and Disney have done an awesome job at creating a piece that looks just as good as the hand drawn animation seen in the classic movie.
Disney Plan On Trial Run Of Fastpasses For Parades!
This might come as a bit of a surprise but Disney have announced plans to trial the famous Fastpass system for the Magic Kingdom parade, Celebrate A Dream Come True. What does this mean for the people wanting to view the parade and will it really work?
The Idea Behind The Parade FastPass
the system will work in a very similar way to the current system for attractions (including visiting Mickey Mouse) but in this case park guests will get fastpasses in order to get into reserved viewing areas along the parade route. The viewpoint itself has been confirmed for right in front of the castle, a point where people will usually wait for hours just to be in a good viewpoint. The trial started this week and should be running until the middle of November.
Will It Work?
Personally I think that all this is going to do is help the people that usually wait hours just to see the parade. It will be the same kind of people that end up picking up the fastpass tickets and it actually means that they can spend some more time in the parks rather than waiting at least an hour for the parade to begin!
It remains to be seen on whether this will work or not, whilst I was sceptical about the fastpass for Mickey Mouse, I actually hope that this idea works!
The Magic Kingdom 40th Anniversary Ceremony!
On 1st October 2011 The Magic Kingdom held a special ceremony to celebrate 40 years since the park first opened!
The ceremony included a visit from everyone’s favourite Disney characters and an appearance from the President of Disney Parks! Some interesting stats were compared such as gad prices and number of staff in 1971 to 2011. The video is well worth a watch.
Disney Create A 40th Anniversary Addition Of Wishes
Most of you will know that this year Disney are celebrating 40 years of Magic with the Magic Kingdom turning the big 40! They were celebrating when I was in Florida back in May but now they are really getting into the mood by changing Wishes around to suit the birthday. Although if you watch the video you might not notice much of a difference, Disney setup perimeter fireworks to go off at the end of the show which meant that everyone in the park got a really big surprise!
It is very hard to spot in the recent video taken on October 1st by WDW Magic but can you see it?
5 Awesome Things You Might Not Know About The Magic Kingdom
This begins a four post series about some of the awesome things that you might not know about the main four Walt Disney World parks.
Great Design Of The Park
When Walt Disney designed the park he didn’t want it to be like the already existing Disneyland in that guests would see someone that works in Tomorrowland having to walk from Frontierland to get there as he saw it as something that ruined the experience for guests. This is why Magic Kingdom in Florida is built on two levels, the level that guests see and the underground level where cast members can walk from A to B and monitor everything that is happening in the park above.
No Gum?
One of the many things that Magic Kingdom guests point out (in a positive way) is that there is never any gum stuck on the floors or on bins in the park. Well that is because there isn’t a park in Disney World that sells the stuff, it just isn’t worth the money they would make as they would have to clean it up all of the time!
Magic Kingdom Parking Lot
You will notice that within the parking lot there are only six of the seven dwarves that are named as having their own lots, Sleepy, Dopey, Happy, Grumpy, Bashful, and Sneezy, no Doc! This is actually because Walt thought people might get confused between the boat dock and Doc the parking lot!
Human Characters
If you see a human character walk around such as Mary Poppins or Alice from Alice in Wonderland ask them something about their movie, I can guarantee you they are very knowledgeable. According to one Disney insider they got Mary to recite supercali backwards!
I Knew A Man With A Wooden Leg Named Smith
At the Frontierland RR Station, look for a wooden leg named Smith. It is a reference to a joke in Mary Poppins. “I knew a man with a wooden leg named Smith.” “What’s the name of his other leg?
