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?
New Sign Appears Outside Of Enchanted Tiki Room
A brand new sign has appeared on the outside of the Enchanted Tiki Room and by the looks of things all of the rumours are right, Disney are taking the show back to its original roots, something that many Disney fans have been asking for.
The attraction is going to be re-opened on August 15th to park guests after the attraction suffered from a small fire earlier in the year.
The question that needs to be asked now is, will Zazu and Iago feature in the “new” attraction at all?
The Haunted Mansion Line- Updates With Photos
Before heading out to my favourite place on earth this year I was naturally keeping a close eye on what was going on not only because I was travelling out soon but also because I wanted to keep you guys updated with what was going on. One of the pieces of new that excited me was the fact that the Haunted Mansion was getting a bit of a makeover, not on the inside (although there have been a couple of changes) but the queue was being made into an interactive one just like they had done with The Many Adventures Of Winnie The Pooh. This certainly came as a welcome relief to me as it is one of the warmest rides to wait for due to the fact that it is all outside.
Whilst Disney haven’t put a structure in place to make it cooler what they have done is added a number of objects that park guests can interact with to make the wait less boring and more importantly, distract them from the heat of the Floridian sun.
You have already seen one of the new additions, the Haunted Organ but I will include this in the post just so you can see an overall collection. There are also a couple of bits I have missed such as the sailor that managed to drown in a bathtub but you will see most of the new additions here in this post.
The Bust Riddle
When Disney say interactive they do not just mean things you can touch and feel and with these busts guests have to solve the riddle on which one killed which. Here are what each individual plaques say, you will only be able to guess if you look at the pictures carefully as each of them has a weapon.
Bertie — Avid hunter and expert shot, in the end that’s what he got.
Aunt Florence — Never did a dishonorable deed. Yet found face down in canary seed.
Uncle Jacob – Greed was the poison he had swallowed. He went first, the others followed. His killer’s face he surely knew, now try to discover who killed who.
The Twins, Wellington & Forsythia — Departed life while in their beds, with identical bumps on identical heads.
Cousin Maude – Our sleeping beauty, who never awoke the night her dreams went up in smoke.
The Haunted Organ
This one you have already seen so just enjoy the photo once more! Of course you are able to play this when you are waiting and it emits smoke and water from the top of it meaning if you are lucky you will get a welcome cooling down from the heat.
The Haunted Bookcase
This bookcase moves all by itself and even if you get several guests to try and push them back in they will end up popping up all over the place. This makes it all very amusing to watch people who are seeing it for the first time and who are trying their very hardest to plug all the books back in.
There are a few other bits that I have missed out here but you can see the detail that Disney have put into this, it is brilliant!
Attractions And Other Things That People Often Miss Out On In Liberty Square
When you mention Liberty Square to most people they will instantly shout Haunted Mansion but ask someone to mention the other big attraction or a place to eat within the area and most people will instantly struggle. With this in mind here are some of the things that people will often miss out on when they are walking around Liberty Square.
The Hall Of Presidents
This show originated from Disney himself (coming from Disney’s Great moments with Mr. Lincoln) and currently has audio-animatronic figures of every single president to this day (including President Bush and Obama). The show has been running since 1971 and has seen some pretty big changes since it first opened however the reasoning behind the show’s existence, to teach and to show that America cannot constantly progress forward without change. I haven’t seen this show in many years (despite going to Disney World at least every other year) and when I return in 2012 it is certainly something I am going to sit and watch once again. The show is fantastic and due to the fact it is slightly altered every time there is a new President it is well worth a watch.
Liberty Square Riverboat
Although it is very hard to miss this old styled boat moving around Liberty Square you will find that very few people will get on-board and take the journey from Liberty to Frontier and back again. Although the ride itself is nothing special it has a nice conversation involving Tom Sawyer on it and of course it is a great attraction for historians to get on to see the great boat that is The Liberty Belle.
Of course on top of this you have a couple of location to eat at such as the Columbia Harbour House and the Liberty Tree Tavern which even has characters at during dinner!
Like the rest of the Magic Kingdom and indeed Disney World, even the smallest of lands and locations has a huge amount of things to see and do.
Captain Blackbeard To Replace Davy Jones In The Mist On Pirates Of The Caribbean
With the newest Pirates movie, On Stranger Tides, now just a couple of weeks away it would seem that Disney are promoting the movie not just on posters and commercials all over the world but also in their theme parks on the Pirates Of The Caribbean attraction.
As Blackbeard is a central character in the next movie it seems fitting to have him included somewhere on the attraction at lease for a short while. With building an animatronic from scratch costing a lot of money and likely resulting in the attraction having to close the easiest solution was to stick him inside the mist right at the start of the ride.
If you are a fan of Davy Jones there is no need to panic as he will be coming back later this year after Disney have finished with the promotion.
It is nice to chance attractions around every now and again and it is great that Disney are doing this, it is a shame that aren’t many more attractions that can be changed in small ways like this without closure.
Attractions And Other Things That People Often Miss Out On In Frontierland
For experienced Disney fans it is very hard indeed to miss out on anything in Frontierland, after all you have two of the biggest rides in the park sitting there, Splash Mountain and Big Thunder Mountain Railroad. Even a newcomer to the park will spot these monsters poking high above the park and will want to ride them. So with this in mind what on earth could people possibly miss out on when in Frontierland?
Tom Sawyer Island
This small island is often seen as just a landmark to stare at when in fact it is a giant outdoor playground to have a bit of fun with the kids at. This isn’t just a place where you can let the kids loose but a place where you can explore together, this is Disney World after all! During your adventure you can expect to come across dense forests, rugged trails, cross wobbly bridges and explore caves. You can even take shelter from the famous Floridian heat in a frontier fort built from unfinished Timber.
If parents just want to relax for half an hour then they get sit on the rocking chairs and sip a cool glass of freshly made lemonade.
The reason this is often missed out on is because the only way to get to the island is to cross on a wooden raft that crosses the gap. If you have never had the chance to look into this before then the next time you go make sure you spend a bit of time here.
Country Bear Jamboree
This attraction is actually pretty well hidden with a collection of stores but is a show that is worth seeing if you haven’t had the time or bothered to see it before. It is performed by a jolly band of 18 bears in Grizzly Hall and features 17 minutes of country music style classics that will keep people of all ages thoroughly entertained.
A little known fact about this attraction is that it is one of the very last that Walt Disney himself personally helped to develop and that it was originally planned for a Disney ski resort in California. As the Ski resort was never built the bears moved into their Floridian home in 1971.
Pecos Bill Tall Inn and Café
Although a lot of guests will have eaten in this fantastic quick service restaurant there are still many Disney goers that have yet to experience the food in this place and to me this is a crime against Disney!
So although you can get all of your usual suspects such as a cheeseburger you can also get a BBQ Pork Sandwich which is delicious as well as a very tasty chicken wrap that is well worth a go. The restaurant also has a salad bar which is free to use with any purchase and includes things such as pickles and hot mushrooms.
There is nothing that “special” about this restaurant but it has always been the Magic Kingdom quick service restaurant of choice for the family and I and I have no doubt that it will continue to do this for a good number of years to come.
Is there anything else you can think of that people could potentially miss out on in Frontierland?
