Wishes

Wishes may be a firework show but you still need to be in a central place to appreciate the glory of it, and as there are trees and quite tall buildings dotted around Magic Kingdom this can sometimes prove quite difficult.

The prime place for this show would be the open space just after Main Street, or even Main Street itself, because from there you can see the front of the castle. However, be warned, most people have the same idea and it gets extremely crowded. For this reason make sure you arrive an hour before and do not mover until it is over, because guaranteed as soon as you step away someone else will step into your place. Afterwards, feel free to move, but be warned, getting out of Magic Kingdom after wishes takes probably twice as long as the show itself.

Illuminations

Again, with illuminations you have to arrive early, but as there is a lot more room to spread out, 30-45 minutes should be plenty.

Anywhere around World Showcase is a fantastic viewing point for ‘Illuminations,’ but the prime place is probably right in front of Japan. Just make sure you are not standing behind a tree, or the scaffold on the lakeside of Japan as it will be right in your eye line.

Although it is generally an open space, try to get as near to the fencing as possible for an even better view. Don’t go to Future World as you won’t see anything.
Also if you see a restaurant with spare seats that overlook the lake, grab them if it is possible! However, don’t be surprised if no seats around World Showcase are available as people can get quite possessive when getting prepared for a show.

Fantasmic

Fantasmic is quite a difficult show to prepare for. You gave to make sure you are queuing at least one hour even before the gates open, as this is the most popular show in Disney. It does get frustrating to stand around waiting as it’s hot, you get in everyone’s way in the middle of ‘Sunset Boulevard’, and more people come to queue up, completely invading your personal space! However, completely worth it.

When the gates open you will be led to another standing point for another wait. By this point there are hundreds more people gathering.

When you do finally get to the seating area, you will most likely be instructed on where to go. If you can, and are lucky, try and get into the middle section (which they fill up first), as this is right in front of the stage. However, don’t sit too near the front as you will be less likely to see the laser part of the show. Even if you don’t get to the middle, the show is still a delight to watch.

Those are the biggest shows in Disney, but with the smaller, every hour shows, and parades the trick is to get there early and you will be guaranteed a decent place.

Rules

You could fail at the interview before you have even said a word if you haven’t seen some of the pre-requisites for working at the parks.

One of the biggest rules (has recently been lifted after 55 years) was that employees were not allowed to have big bushy beards or even smaller beards that were deemed as being a bit scruffy!

Other rules include

:
• Sensible glasses must be worn with no fancy design on the frame;
• No false nails, natural and short only;
• Classic hairdos only, no extreme dyeing or bleaching;
• No shaved eyebrows;
• Short moustaches that have to be fully grown and well maintained which means they do not extend over the upper lip and it cannot go beyond the corners of the mouth;
• Basic ear piercings only;
• No visible tattoos;

Some of them may seem a little harsh but at the end of the day Disney are looking at putting family friendly people in their parks, people that don’t stand a chance at scaring children in anyway at all!

Training

No matter what the job is, training is a massive part of the Disney process and everyone has stated that Disney take training incredibly seriously. It doesn’t matter if you need to learn how to sign as one of the characters or are a cleaner, Disney will train until you have perfected the job and you know how to react to any given situation. Although the period of probation at Disney is three months, many employees have stated that Disney continue to make sure that training is put forward after these initial months.

Lowest Employee Turnover Rate

Disney has been reported in excellence as apparently they have the lowest turnover rate in staff in the travel sector in the USA. This means that they are effectively keeping staff as happy as possible resulting in them not having the want or need to even think about leaving the company, fantastic!

Weaknesses

There is a single weakness in working for Disney that has been reported by many people and that is the wages. So many ex-employees have stated that they would have loved to continue to work with Disney but the wages were just so low that it wasn’t possible. It is a shame that Disney don’t pay as much as they should but swings and roundabouts right, you are working for Disney!

If you have worked at WDW or Disney in general please get in touch as I would love to hear about what you have to say about your time working for the company, it doesn’t matter if you were in the theme parks or in a hidden office space, get in touch!

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.

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 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!

Magic Kingdom New Years Eve 2011/2012

Epcot New Years Eve 2011/2012

Happy New Year everyone!!!!

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!

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!

2012 Disney Pins

Those of you that know my spending habits in the park will already know that I spend the majority of my money on pins and have a fair number of them already. With a brand new year coming Disney have decided to go for 2012 New Year themed pins that will be around just for a short time (the generic 2012 pins will be available for most of the year) and as you can see below, there are a number of different pins to choose from. The Chip & Dale one looks like the best of the bunch to me and is nice to see Disney using these underused characters!

Image Source: The Disney Parks Blog

Disney Ears

Although I have personally never gone for any of the ear designs in the past (I was tempted by the limited edition Tron Ears) I can see why people enjoy wearing them and this limited edition design to celebrate a brand new year is well worth look at.

Generic 2012 Merchandise

Of course with 2012 now almost here Disney have also started to release all of the merchandise with 2012 plastered on it and this included t-shirts, cups, pins and vinylmations.

If you aren’t fortunate enough to be heading to Disney before the start of the new year (I am with you on that) then keep an eye out in all the normal Ebay places and I am sure you will start to see all of this appear soon!

A New Year, A New Theme

The thing that Disney are most likely to announce has to be a new theme for the new year across the parks, this year was memories and next year could be something similar (although judging by what Disney ar saying it is going to be bigger) or it could be something huge.

Although not impossible, don’t get your hopes up for a brand new ride that will be opening across every park in the world, it just isn’t fessible for Disney to do something like this, each park has a different audience.

So what will Disney be announcing on New Years Eve? Only 5 days to wait!!