Disney World Announces Reopening Dates

Disney World announced dates for post-coronavirus re-opening. 

In no real shock to anyone, Disney World in Orlando, Florida has broken their silence on their reopening. The parks have been closed since mid-March along with most other amusement parks and attractions in the Central Florida area.

News broke today that states Disney World's reopening plan has been approved. The parks will reopen with Magic Kingdom and Animal Kingdom on July 11th, 2020. Epcot and Hollywood Studios will follow four days later, opening on July 15th, 2020.

This date follows the news that both Universal Orlando and several other parks across the country have dropped opening dates for what is left of the 2020 summer travel season. What many aren't considering in the light of this announcement, are the restrictions which will be in place. The gates are just not being thrown open to the 'happiest place on earth'.

Disney has stated both employees and guests will be REQUIRED to wear masks in the parks and also undergo a temperature screening prior to admittance.  Considering how openly flaunted these restrictions have been at Disney Springs (which reopened on May 20th), it doesn't bode well for those who are concerned with safety. Will Disney actually enforce this rule? How will it be enforced? Will those openly violating the rules face consequences? There are no details it be found in regards to how this will be handled.

Park capacity will be 'greatly reduced' and they will offer no parades, night time fireworks shows or other events which cause large gatherings of people. This means that we're likely looking at these parks having a 20-30% capacity in effect, if they follow the model used in the reopening of Shanghai Disneyland. I can tell you already, this will lead to a massive rise in complaints (please be kind to Guest Services, they are trying.) The shows are one of the great draws of the parks, and missing these will lead to a changed experience.

The resort will enable cashless transactions by expanding contactless payments. This is not much in the way of news, but the expansion is a bonus. Over my years of experience both working at theme parks and visiting them, cash transactions have become rare. Most people are using cards or the debit system linked to their Magicbands.

Disney has stated they will increase the number of available hand sanitizing stations.  This is good, but I've heard the argument put that this will 'ruin the immersion'. After a quick poll on Twitter we found that is a 'weak at best, stupid at worst' argument. If a hand sanitizing station ruins your vacation, you probably shouldn't be on vacation.

While this is a good step in the right direction, concerns still arise from the logistics involved, some of which we have mentioned. By no means are these even the tip of the iceberg but Disney, along with Florida as a whole, are pushing hard to get the tourists rolling back in and thus boost the flagging economy during what should be the busy summer season.

There has also been no word in regards to the reopening of the numerous Disney Resort Hotels, Resort Pools, or the Disney Water Parks.

Magic Kingdom- Tron construction update

Magic Kingdom's Tron Construction Update

Yet another big ticket construction item from our trip to Florida- The new TRON coaster, coming to Magic Kingdom at Disney World in 2021.

 While it currently it may not look like much, this is one of the most anticipated rides in Magic Kingdom history. A new roller coaster based off a fan-favorite, TRON will be the 4th roller coaster attraction to come to the park.

While the exact specifications for the ride aren't know, it's widely believe this is an exact copy of the TRON coaster currently operating at Shanghai Disneyland. This will give us the following spec's on the coaster-

Builder: Vekoma
Height:  78 Feet
Speed: 59 MPH
Inversions: 0
Train: 2 Across, 14 Total. With special 'normal' seating in the back for those unable to ride in the 'motorcycle' position.
(Spec's taken from RCDB.com)

 Another interesting bit involving this new construction- It appears as if the Tomorrowland Speedway will once again be closed for an extended period. This happened previously with the Fantasyland Expansion that opened in 2016.

 There is also rumor floating around that the track may once again be shortened, you can see where the track now ends and is being used for the construction on TRON. Although I don't give this rumor much credit as the track was already cut greatly during the previously mentioned construction of the expanded Fantasyland.

Either way, we've got plenty of time to speculate on Tomorrowland Speedway and the new TRON coaster with two years left before opening.


Remember- We Fight for the User.

More updates in the future, we've got plenty of time!

Disney World- Seven Dwarfs Mine Train OPEN for 24-hour Disney Day

Image from Orlando Sentinel

Seven Dwarfs Mine Train is OPEN for the 24-Hour "Disney Day".

 Just breaking into the new this morning, Disney World has announced that the newest addition to Magic Kingdom WILL be open for today's 24-hour Disney Day.

 While Seven Dwarfs Mine Train isn't set to open to the public until next week, this hasn't stopped testing of the ride. While guests have slowly been allowed to ride during the 'cast member testing' which has been going on this week, this was kept rather quiet until word began spreading though the blogging community.

 It appears the ride opened as a surprised for the 24-hour theme park marathon currently underway. At least according to Orlando Sentinel!

Rumor Alert- Seven Dwarfs Mine Trian Soft Opened Today.

Rumor Alert- Seven Dwarfs Mine Train Soft Opened Today.

 Hey Folks, rumor has reached me direction from Walt Disney World that the Seven Dwarfs Mine Train has quietly soft-opened today to limited entry.

 The ride has been in "cast member only" testing for several days now. 

 Rumor is also going around that the ride will be in 'soft open' again tomorrow. All this before the official opening of the ride which is coming on May 28th. There is NO confirmation on this yet being true but we have a friend of the blog, +Mark Fowle down at Disney World Resort right now who's going to check it out!


 More information and pictures as news comes in! 

Disney World- Opening Date for 'Seven Dwarf's Mine Train' Revealed.

Disney World Announces Opening Date for 'Seven Dwarfs Mine Train'.

 Early Friday Morning Disney World dedicated their newest, if lack-luster, attraction in Magic Kingdom. Along with this ceremony, they've also given the opening date.

 May 28th, 2014 the "Seven Dwarfs Mine Train" will open to the public, finally completing the extensive renovations on Magic Kingdom's FantasyLand area. Under construction for nearly 3 years, the ride is the last and final part of the expansion to open.

 Check out our early review of the attraction and POV footage- POV Footage of 'Seven Dwarfs Mine Train' at Walt Disney World's Magic Kingdom.

POV of Seven Dwarfs Mine Train at Walt Disney World's Magic Kingdom!

It's been no secret that the long awaited Seven Dwarfs Mine Train attraction, part of the Magic Kingdom Fantasy Land expansion, has been testing as of late. They were even shooting a commercial just the other week. However, aside from some video of the trains running where we could see them, we never got a chance to see what the ride was really all about.

Well, the wait is over!

The folks over at Attractions Magazine have gotten their hands on full, uncut, on ride POV video that shows the entire ride with all of it's show elements. The video below has both the front view and back view included in it and it's definitely worth checking out. So, let's take a look at what Disney has taken three years to put together for us, shall we?


There's definitely some interesting elements going on and the ride itself seems more a dark ride/roller coaster hyrbid. Which, is an interesting mix of things to say the least, and the swinging action from the cars is definitely a cool feature too. The theming around the track area and queue looks great too, but something seems off.

"Rock Your Disney Side" with Disney's 2014 24 Hour Event!

Last year Disney opened up the doors to their parks for a full 24 hours in February, giving guests the chance to party and enjoy the park for complete day. Given how successful it was, it's no surprise that they've decided to bring it back in 2014.

This coming Memorial Day Weekend, you'll be able to enjoy either Disneyland or Disney World's Magic Kingdom from 6am-6am, May 23rd-24th.

Best of all, is that like Mickey's not so Scary Halloween, you're invited to dress up to join the revelry. Yep, that's right, another one of those rare occurrences where adults can have some fun in costume at the parks!

The official site for the event has a list of all the rules and restrictions on costumes, but also a bit more information about the events that will be taking place. One really cool thing, the villains will be out and about in the parks, which is always awesome to see. They seriously don't get enough love in the parks these days.

Also, no clue on what "select rides and attractions" will be open just yet, but it's safe to say (and expected) that not everything will be running in the middle of the night. Just what will be? No earthly idea right now.

Given that this is on a holiday weekend, expect the place to be packed and completely insane. Personally, I don't get why they decided to do it Memorial Day, as a slower time of year might be a better fit (like last year). Either way, if you're going or planning to go, just be prepared for lines and big crowds!

For more information head on over to Disney's official event page!

Disney World raises Ticket Prices

Image from Clint Gamache of ThrillGeek

Disney World raises Ticket Prices.


 Fans and Friends of Disney World have lost their minds in the last few days with the resorts newest ticket price hike.

 This is the second ticket price raise that Disney World has implemented in the last twelve months, unusual for the resort which normally only raises prices once per twelve months.  The last raise in ticket prices happened in June of 2013, just nine months ago.

 The new price, $99 per single day is a $4 increase in price. This has effected all tickets across the price spectrum. However, this increase only effects the "Magic Kingdom" park so far. It's unknown if this raise in prices will soon go resort wide. The other parks- Epcot Center, Disney Hollywood Studios and Animal Kingdom are still at the old price of $94 dollar per day.

 This new price increase came as a surprise. It wasn't announced nor did Disney warn their guests as they had done in the past, this new move was done quietly in the night only to be leaked by Orlando Sentinel. The Total Orlando Blog has estimated that in the last decade Disney World's admission fees have easily doubled, they also expect that by 2025 price will be over $153 per day if the current yearly (or twice yearly) increases continue.

 Fan have been speculating wildly as to the reasons behind the price raise. Many believe it has to do with the gross overspending on the "My Magic+" system which the Orlando park has been trying to implement in the form of "MagicBands" in the last year. Others believe that it's do to high levels of over spending involving the "New Fantasyland" project which is suspected to be behind schedule. Like most things involving Disney World, we'll likely never know the real reasons behind them breaking the rule of "one price hike on tickets per year".

Breaking News- Fire at Magic Kingdom *UPDATED*

Picture from R.A. Pederson

 BREAKING NEWS- Fire at Disney World's Magic Kingdom Park.

  This hasn't even hit the news media yet!

 A picture posted by R.A. Pederson (@Epcycolpedia) show a fire happening live at Disney World's Magic Kingdom Park.The photo credit appears to belong to R.A. Pederson of Twitter.

The fire is either in or behind the new expansion of Fantasyland. The attraction in question- Under the Sea, Journey of the Little Mermaid. Right now we don't have any answers, but you can clearly see flames in the area of the attraction.

 Current News is that all of Fantasyland has been evacuated for guest safety.  We will update as more information becomes available.



UPDATE-
Video found on Youtube from Epcylopedia



UPDATE-
Sources are saying the fire has been extinguished. Many seem to suspect that the fireworks show "WISHS" could have been the cause. Damage unknown at this time. Orlando Sentinel is reporting the fire was caused by the Magic Kingdom Fireworks, damaging a five foot section of the attraction's roof.

Rumor Alert-Disney World's New Seven Dwarfs may be Running Behind

Rumor Alert- Is the New "Seven Dwarfs Mine Train" completion running behind?!

 According to Screamscape rumors, this could be true.

 Some seem to be suggesting that despite effect's the new "Seven Dwarfs Mine Train" roller coaster attraction set to open soon at Disney World's Magic Kingdom, may be behind schedule. The 'best guess' date has lately been sometime in February but it seems a new rumor suggests that the time frame for soft opening of the ride could be pushed back in to March-April of 2014. 

Disney's Magic Kingdom- Seven Dwarfs Mine Train Testing

New Video- Seven Dwarf's Mine Train Testing        

 After months of quiet construction, it seems Disney World's Magic Kingdom Park is finally moving forward on testing their newest addition to the "Fantasyland Expansion". Set to open in 2014, The Seven Dwarf's Mine Train has been spotted doing ride through tests after months of the track being completed. 

 Slowly but surely, the outside areas of the ride's themeing is coming together. Still no word about what progress is being made to the rides inside themeing though we can guess it's probably coming along nicely at this point. 

 On neat thing about this video, you can spot the 'swaying' of the ride cars.

The Silence is Broken- Mickey Mouse Speaks at Magic Kingdom

 News today from Walt Disney World in Orlando, Florida.

 For a very long time, when kids and adults alike meet Mickey Mouse he's always been silent... until today. The beloved characters which only used to communicate through gestures and motions finally have a voice. Through a new system, Mickey Mouse can now speak and interact with guests who visit him at 'Backstage with Mickey'  where you will find the icon dressed as a magician.  This meet-and-greet is located near the entrance of the Magic Kingdom Park and offers a Fast-Pass option. 

 Mickey, who speaks in a high pitched voice, now interacts verbally with visitors. Not only is the voice there but Mickey's eyes and mouth move in sync along with several phrases.  Some of these are "Well, Hi There" and "Can I sign that for you?".  Orlando Sentential also reports Mickey will engage the audience in longer bits with 'magic tricks'.

 While it's no secret that Mickey Mouse has never been my favorite among the wide range of Disney characters (I'm a strict Donald Girl when it comes to the main  Disney characters), I think this will be a great improvement to characters park wide. Perhaps, in time, Disney will implement this system for their other iconic characters.

 Disney also states this is NOT a 'Limited Time Magic' item and will be a permanent addition to Magic Kingdom. 

Beer and Wine in Magic Kingdom: End of the World or Stupid Over-reaction?

Booze in Magic Kingdom

Mass overreaction or End of the World?

 In the words of the Late and Great Douglas Adams: 

 DON'T PANIC!

Alright, in case your living under a rock or just not up on what happens in the secular kingdom of Disney World let me enlighten you. Several days ago Magic Kingdom made an announcement that inside the 'New Fantasyland' restaurant of "Be Our Guest" they will be service beer and wine only during the dinner hours. 

This apparently sparked the reaction from people of "OMG End of da WORLD! Drunks will abscond with children! Everyone will be drunk all the time! It's not safe!" or some other such bullshit drama. Apparently they didn't bother to actually READ anything that either Orlando Sentinel or Disney Parks Blog said about the matter before they panicked like a bunch of sheep. 

(Seriously, I hate it when people panic like sheep because they don't bother to read!)

If you look at the article even the Sentinel posted (Which you can find Right Here) and read down just a piece, you can easily see this is during 'Dinner Hours Only'. The 'Be Our Guest' restaurant is sit-down, table service during dinner. This means it's a real restaurant, you sit at a table and they bring your order to you.. it's not "Quick Service" or "Counter Service" where you grab your food and find your own table like many of the Magic Kingdom Restaurants. 

So this means while your having your dinner, your allowed to indulge in a drink or three. With Dinner. 

Do you see where I'm going with this yet?

It's not worse then if you went to Olive Garden and had a glass with your Lasagna. It's not the end of the world as we know it, to quote R.E.M. It's normal and damn near every other good restaurant (and some not-so-good ones) offer it. It's not like a roaming band of DRUNKS will be stumbling around Magic Kingdom, Open beer in hand and showing your children adults can have fun too! 

(But I'll tell you what, it'd probably make 'It's a Small World" a hell of a lot more tolerable!)

Frankly letting Mommy and Daddy have a drink or two with dinner will probably make their entire "Disney Experience" at Magic Kingdom a hell of a lot nicer. Who doesn't want a nice cold beer or that relaxing glass of wine after a day (or week) having had your kids have been spazzing out or even crying off and on all day?  Most do and let's face it, many parents probably won't over-indulge in front of their hell-spawn anyway.

Plus there is one more important thing your all forgetting. The Prices.
Have you seen the prices at your local watering hole? $2 drafts and $3 domestic bottles is about the normal for most of the places I've been. However this isn't a local watering hole, it's Disney World. Nothing is cheap at Disney World and neither are the selections 'Be Our Guest' is offering, so if your really out to get drink I doubt your going to do it at the lovely prices of $6.75 (for the cheapest beer) and $9/$39 (for the cheapest glass/bottle of wine). 

For those of you still reading and curious, please follow "THIS LINK" for a .PDF file of the 'Be Our Guest' Restaurant Menu of their Beer and Wine offerings.

(Besides, that's what the bar at the Resort is for!)

So let's all sit down, relax and raise a glass. This is nothing to get your collective panties in a knot over. It's Dinner. 

All the little things..

All those little things...

It happens to everyone, you stumble upon those smaller articles that while really fun and interesting, just don't dictate an entire blog post. Now it you followed me over on Google+ you'd see a lot of these little random pieces of news that I find, but since I know for a fact most of you DON'T someone pointed out I should do somekind of "Round-Up" type piece.  So "All those little things.." is going to be it! Depending on how busy the month is, I'm going to post up many of the little articles I find and post to places like Google+ and Twitter back here on the blog.

So, we'll begin with July/August! 

Virtual Tours of Kennedy Space Center:

NASA and GoogleMaps have teamed up and brought out a fun little thing for folks, if you can't travel to Kennedy Space Center but have always wanted to see or experience a NASA tour.. then this is the link for you!

Kennedy Space Center, NASA Tour

Fan builds full WALL-E Replica: 

One fan, who has built amazing robots in the past (such as a working R2D2) spent 3,800 hours and completed a fully working and WALL-E Robot!

Fan builds WALL-E Robot

Muppets Take Broadway:

Stitch Kingdom brings us an interesting piece. The Muppets may yet take Manhattan, only this time they may take the Broadway stage in their very own show!

Muppets may Take Broadway

Cutbacks may hurt Country Bears:

Well I can't say I'm pleased with stumbling across this piece. Rumor is having it that with the new Fantasyland we may see cuts to a classic Disney World Show, The Country Bears. They show may suffer cut-backs and the removal of an entire classic scene. 

Cutbacks at Magic Kingdom 

Dine with Shamu Returns:

Seaworld has finally managed to complete some of their massive rehab project in attempt the make not only their animals and trainers safer. This has allowed them to finally re-open their "Dine with Shamu" area and the dinner/show. 

Dine with Shamu Finally Returns 

Before Disney, History Time:

Before Disneyland or Disney World showed up. We had smaller amusement parks spread all across America. Most of them haven't survived the invent of modern theme parks but this little history piece takes a look at one small Kiddieland!

KiddieLand Chicago

Magic Kingdom now offers Wifi:

As if amusement parks where not chaotic enough! Magic Kingdom is now offering free WiFi to their daily guests.

WiFi comes to Magic Kingdom

Random News- Things Missed Edition. Part 1.

Good Afternoon,

Well I promised an update of all the crazy things which have been going on, most of which where missed due to the lone staff member here being out of town for the weekend. Well, It took some digging around online and checking of many various websites but I've got it now!

Let's start with Universal Orlando.
-As expected USO has raised their ticket prices, this comes not long after Disney Parks had raised all of their rates across the board. It seems like every two years if one raises prices the other shoe drops not far behind them. USO's new base ticket price is sitting at $89. An increase of $1 to match the old rate of Disney World. Orlando Sentinel- USO Ticket Price Raise

-Also over at USO the new attraction Despicable Me: Minion Mayhem has begin limited "Technical Rehearsals" to limited numbers of guests. This means they are working out the various kinks in the ride and it's not yet open for full operation. Universal stated it will be opening this summer but they have not yet announced a date, you can read the full blub about Minion Mayhem in the Orlando Sentinel!

Epcot Center.
-The new "Brave: Highland Games" attraction is now open over at Epcot Center now threw July 9th.

Orlando Theme Park News has a great photo line up and write up of this new kid-friendly attraction themed off their new Pixar movie Brave.

Magic Kingdom.
-Well Disney Parks Blog posted up a 'Sneak Peek' of the new Dueling Dumbo's snazzy interactive queue line that's hidden within the massive tent directly behind the attraction. This is where the new line will be housed as soon as the effects are completed. Personally, I like the way it looks and it seems like a lot of creativity went into this project. Check out the video below! 

DisneyLand.
Well not to leave the West Coast out, Disneyland has finally opened up the new CarsLand area to Special Guests and Annual Pass Member's as a soft opening. Needless to say it didn't take very long to photos and video to hit the interent! I've been trying for months now to get photos of the progress but none of my sources have ever panned out, so I guess we're let to folks with more time and money then me to get these photos and videos!
Theme Park Insider did a nice PhotoTour of the area.
I also found online a full ride-threw video of the big ticket attraction "Radiator Springs Racers" on YouTube! It reminds me a LOT of Test Track but with a new theme and better technology! Check it out below.

Needless to say this isn't all the news floating around in the theme park world right now! However, I'll devote another page to even more news here shortly!

Hope you've enjoyed this little news round-up, keep your eyes open for more coming soon!

Daily Distraction- Thursday 5/31

Thursday 5/31

Today's Distraction is a Double since today we're all saying a fond goodbye to a classic Disney World attraction. Today is the last day of operations for "Snow Whites Scary Adventures" at the Magic Kingdom, if you can I suggest you go today and get your last ride on a classic attraction before it disappears into the halls of history.  Later this week I'll post up some of my own photos and some ride-threw video dedicated to Snow White.

Central Florida News 13 Reports

Today's real distraction comes from a website which focuses on old amusement parks from the past. Defunct Amusement Parks is a great list and picture archive of the parks our parents and grandparents grew up going to. From the small  local jobs to much larger parks which have also disappeared into the halls of history. Places like Palisades Park and Dogpatch USA.  So go and take a look, some of these are sad but beautiful at the same time. One of these days I'll get down to some of these places, the ones that are still standing but not operating to explore them!

Defunct Amusement Parks

Daily Distraction- Wednesday 5/30

Daily Distraction- Wednesday 5/30

Hello Again Internet Land! How is everyone today? Pretty good I hope!

Anyway, Today's Distraction is a brand new site that just launched this week. Retro DisneyWorld is a website and fourm devoted to the DisneyWorld of the past and all it's glorious aspects! Plenty of pictures to take a trip down Memory Lane: Building of Epcot, Magic Kingdom during the early years, Resorts and Waterparks.. Oh My!

Head over and take a peek! Some things are still disorganized but for a newly launched website I've got high hopes for their success.

Retro DisneyWorld

Snow Whites Scary Adventures- Last Day

Well Friends,
It's coming quickly. The very last day for a Disney original dark ride, Snow White's Scary Adventures shall close forever on May 31st, 2012. It's being replaced by what? Yeah, it's nothing good.
Not a new ride. Not even anything most of us honestly care about.

Princess Fairytale Hall is will take the place of Snow White. A Meet and Greet area for the Disney Princesses and "and visiting royalty". While I like the idea of putting all the princesses in one area I don't agree with taking out a classic attraction to facilitate it, even if said princess the ride is themed on is getting a new attraction.

You can read the whole piece on Disney Parks Blog.

Snow White's Scary Adventures Will become park of Magic Kingdom Park History on May 31st.

Daily Distraction- Thursday 5/17

Today's Daily Distraction is one of my favorite places to go on a nostalgia kick, most of the hard-core Disney folks should already know about this but for everyone else...

 

Martin's Videos 

Martin's has an excellent history of the Disney Parks, from concept to building and beyond. Many videos from now defunct attractions like Horizons, World of Motion, Mr. Toads and Beyond! Plenty of history and inside views to make your inner Disney Geek squeal with pleasure! So go, watch many (I recommend the Horizons Tribute and the Pirates/Thunder Mountain Series) and perhaps even learn something you didn't know before.

Daily Distractions. Wednesday 5/16

Greetings Folks!

To kick off my "Summer Series" projects, I'm giving you "Daily Distractions"!
This series will be a giant list of what I call "Time Wasters". The various websites and such I have stumbled across for my various theme park interests! Expect lots of History and Insider Views to be popping up on this one plus a bunch of other fun websites to visit!

To kick things off, I'm offering up on of my favorites.
An indepth look at 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea. All the history, information and pictures your hearts could wish for in regards to one of my favorite defunct attractions from Magic Kingdom.

20,000 Leagues Under the Sea