Our very own Myrna Litt has returned from a trip to the Disneyland Resort yesterday with an excellent batch of photos. Let’s dive in:
The Fab 5 pumpkins are gone, replaced with the snowflake structures that debuted last year
WDWNT Reporter Banks Lee has taken a few newsworthy photos to share with us from his latest excursion to the Walt Disney World Resort, so without any further delay, here they are:
At Disney’s Hollywood Studios, a special photo opportunity has been set up to promote Disney’s A Christmas Carol
According to D23:
The Main Street Magic Shop has “reappeared” in Disneyland Park with the help of Houdini’s Magic Shop, currently running the classic store. One of the unique features of the new shop are the decorated windows containing a zoetrope (a cylindrical device where viewers see a rapid succession of images producing the illusion of motion), an Andrus Tri Zonal Space Warper, replicas and actual artifacts of Harry Houdini. Visitors and passersby can also be wowed by a magical handkerchief show that runs every 12 minutes and can be viewed through the window. This return and use of detailed storytelling adds to the charm and elegance of Main Street, U.S.A.
Geno Munari, proprietor of Houdini’s Magic Shop, brought in unique pieces to help tell the story of Houdini’s life to our Guests, including a diver’s patent from the U.S. Government and actual handcuffs used by Houdini in his infamous escape acts. “We are excited to be in Disneyland,” Geno says. “When I see adults and kids laughing and smiling, I know we’ve done our job.”
This year’s promotional website for Disneyland’s annual Holidays at the Disneyland Resort festivities has launched, and with it comes some very cool features, along with a new experience this holiday season. The website of course mentions the main attractions for the Christmas season: It’s a Small World Holiday, Haunted Mansion Holiday, A Christmas Fantasy Parade, Believe in Holiday Magic, Sleeping Beauty’s Winter Castle, Santa’s Reindeer Round-up, and Disney’s Electrical Parade. But upon clicking on the image of Mickey’s Fun Wheel on the website (seen in the picture bellow), you’ll discover a new holiday offering this year at Disney’s California Adventure: Santa’s Seaside Pavilion. The description reads:
Beneath a quaint gazebo, on a golden garden bench, sits Santa, dressed in his very best, ready to listen while little ones deliver their holiday wishes by his side. Make sure to stop by this picture-perfect setting, located in Paradise Pier, next to the holiday tree.
Due to construction on Paradise Park, the DCA Christmas tree spot had to be moved this year, and it’s now on the boardwalk in Paradise Pier, by Ariel’s Grotto and Catch-a-Flave. Next to the Christmas tree will be this new holiday experience, Santa’s Seaside Pavilion.
The website also features many games for you to play, fun activities, more information on all your holiday favorites, and this year’s very “small” Holidays at the Disneyland Resort commercial. To view this website, click HERE. Stay tuned to Disneyland News Today for continuing coverage from Holidays at the Disneyland Resort.
Disney has released the following information on the upcoming Magic Kingdom stage show:
Buzz Lightyear & Mike Wazowski help “stitch” together an awesome new Magic Kingdom show
There’s a hot new holiday show experience coming to bring a new sense of “cool” to Mickey’s Very Merry Christmas Party. Outlandish creatures meet strange new worlds. Comedy and music with an up-to-the-minute pop sound collide in A Totally Tomorrowland Christmas.
This unearthly new show adds up, somehow, as 50% live Radio Disney rock concert, 50% Disney Channel comedy and 50% Disney”Pixar Character celebration. Among the chart-topping holiday hits is a sizzling, explosively choreographed staging of “Rockin’ Around the Christmas Tree,” re-creating the hit version heard on Radio Disney.
Our host is interplanetary pop star, Haley Comet (best known to TV fans on the Red Planet as the rockin’ star of The Martian Channel Original Series, “Mona Plutonia”). It is her pleasure and privilege to bring to her Tomorrowland®fans&the one and only Buzz Lightyear!
Inside the space actor’s capsule
Buzz recounts the intense, gripping adventure that is, of course, “Jingle Bells.” Our favorite space ranger brings to this piece a level of gravitas only a starship captain can. Buzz emotes it to the hilt, once again making the holidays safe from evil (but not necessarily from scenery chewing).
Now, what’s the holiday season without the inevitable get-together with that special monster in your life? Mike Wazowski takes the stage with some great material that just killed ’em in the mountain resorts of Monstropolis—a knockout take on“Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer.” The rockin’, rollin’ capers and cut-ups of these frolicsome friends are festooned with intergalactic interactivity.
Well, Stitch, you’ve done it again!.”
All the while, Stitch has been exploring the cosmos to keep track of Santa’s journey. The little alien, who tends to get things a little muddled, doesn’t quite understand the whole “happy holiday” concept. Things get cosmically crazy for a while, but hey—it’s the holiday season and this is a Magic Kingdom® show, so how do you think it all works out? Stitch brings the spirit of friends and family, and it’s a happy holiday “‘Ohana” for all.
All these holiday hijinks and pop music explosions are waiting for you during Mickey’s Very Merry Christmas Party. And while you’re at Mickey’s party, head over to Adventureland®to check out how pirates “arr”-ring in the holidays with the music and comedy of Rusty Cutlass, a swashbuckling band whose yuletide repertoire includes the evergreen “Grandma Ran Away to Be a Pirate.”
A Totally Tomorrowland Christmas starring Buzz Lightyear, Mike Wazowski and Stitch premieres November 10, the first night of Mickey’s Very Merry Christmas Party, magically fun evenings of parades, fireworks, treats and select popular Magic Kingdom attractions.
LAKE BUENA VISTA, Fla. – The 17th annual Epcot International Flower & Garden Festival kicks off March 3 – earlier than ever – and continues for 75 days through May 16, 2010, with bold strokes of seasonal color and brand-new topiary whimsy. Last year’s festival began March 18; now Walt Disney World guests get a head start on the gardening season as they explore exhibits and activities geared toward discovery and outdoor fun.
Even before spring has sprung, Donald Duck and his topiary pals set up camp in full floral color to celebrate the Great Outdoors at the Epcot front entrance. The elaborate topiary with a North American theme, live waterfall and pond features Goofy in a fly-fishing misadventure, Daisy Duck roasting marshmallows over a campfire and Pluto in his “pup tent.” It’s a must-stop photo op for guests as soon as they pass through the park turnstiles.
“The advantage of starting earlier is that we’ll be able to feature more brilliant color than ever, with richly hued petunias, violas, snapdragons and other hardy flowers,” says festival horticulture manager Eric Darden. “By starting earlier and going through mid-May, it allows more guests than ever to experience the festival and to plan ahead for their spring and summer gardening.”
New This Year!
Up to 700 butterflies flutter into an expanded and relocated, futuristic-themed Bambi’s Butterfly House – double the size of previous years’ Minnie’s Magnificent Butterfly Garden. The new butterfly abode in Future World West, at 3,500 square feet, allows hundreds of the winged beauties to flit among the lush foliage of a larger screened enclosure, where guests can wander and watch as multiple butterfly species light on flowers filled with nectar and as caterpillars emerge from their chrysalis in a special discovery exhibit. Bambi joins butterfly floral topiaries to welcome guests to the enclosure.
Special gardens, events and children’s play areas throughout the park offer more reasons to visit the 17th annual festival:
· New Victory Garden – Disney’s “fab five” topiary pals – Mickey, Minnie, Donald, Pluto and Goofy – gather at American Adventure to tend tomatoes, beans, peppers, herbs and other edibles in their first Victory Garden as a salute to the history of World War II gardens, the new White House vegetable garden and the many community gardens being planted across the country.
· Newly Expanded Pixie Hollow Fairy Garden – Colorful topiaries of Tinker Bell and friends from Walt Disney Pictures’ latest DVD release “Tinker Bell and the Lost Treasure” will sprinkle pixie dust over this playful, expanded garden for kids. New characters on display with returning fairy favorites are fast-flying, sharp-tongued Vidia and charming Terence, dispenser of pixie dust. Tinker Bell’s Nook has hands-on activities. In a synergistic turn, the “Lost Treasure” DVD includes a bonus feature on “The Making of the Fairy Garden,” featuring Disney cast members who designed and built Pixie Hollow, along with the movie’s producer and director, who helped plan the garden.
· First-Ever American Gothic Mickey Mouse and Minnie Mouse – Topiary experts pull out all the stops to create an American Gothic Mickey and Minnie topiary scene based on the 1930 Grant Wood painting. At World Showcase Plaza.
· Pirates Adventure Zone – Peter Pan, Captain Hook and Croc topiaries will lure young swashbucklers to this interactive space designed for exploration and adventure. Next to the Germany pavilion.
Throughout the festival, more than 70 topiaries plus sweeping floral beds and exhibits will decorate the park landscape and showcase the extraordinary craftsmanship of Disney gardeners. A Fragrance Garden at the France pavilion will tell the “love story” of plants and perfume, and the art of bonsai will “wow” guests at the Japan showcase.
Festival highlights also include:
·Flower Power concerts – Popular bands will rock the open-air America Gardens Theatre every Friday, Saturday and Sunday at 5:15, 6:30 and 7:45 p.m. Jose Feliciano is scheduled to kick off the concert series March 5-7. On subsequent weekends, the lineup is slated to feature pop favorites like Davy Jones, Chubby Checker & The Wildcats, Tony Orlando, former Boston lead singer Fran Cosmo, and other top acts.
· Disney Gardening at Home presentations – Disney horticulturists will share gardening tips and lead guests in a hands-on, take-home activity.
· The Great American Gardeners series – Gardening celebrities and authors from across the country will reveal their gardening secrets. Opening weekend, Robert Bowden, author and director of lush Harry P. Leu Gardens in Orlando, kicks off the series.
· The Garden Town Festival Center – Guests can shop for festival merchandise, attend speaker presentations and demonstrations and ask gardening questions of the experts.
· Special Festival Celebrations – An Art in the Garden celebration of plein air artists is scheduled March 26-28; a Florida Farmer’s Market celebration is April 23-25, and the popular I Dig Bugs event is set for April 30-May 2.
WDWNT Reporter (and campaign manager for PUSH) Banks Lee made a trip to the Magic Kingdom today and has plenty of newsworthy photos to share with us:
The astronauts are missing from the space shuttle inside Space Mountain
Read More about Banks Lee’s 11/1/09 Magic Kingdom Photo Report
Beginning in Los Angeles and traveling to 36 states and making 40 stops across the U.S., the Christmas Carol Train, part of a major promotion by the Walt Disney Studios for its upcoming film Disney’s A Christmas Carol, made its final stop this past weekend in New York City.
Read More about “Last Stop New York, New York” by Chuck Mirarchi
Before you head to the polls on Tuesday, make sure you know the facts about the candidates. PUSH is ready to clean up Tomorrowland and is talking about “sweeping” changes for the community of the tomorrow:
Hope you enjoyed this video created by WDWNT’s own Banks Lee. Needless to say that this video has been getting quite a bit of attention this week.
For regular guests and frequent visitors alike, there is nothing worse than heading down to the Walt Disney WorldResort only to find your favorite attraction or restaurant is closed for refurbishment. For those unfamiliar with the term, a refurbishment is when something is closed for an extended period of time for extensive repairs or remodeling. As always, everything at the resort is subject to a “refurb”, including the water parks, hotels, transportation system, etc.
Probably the two most widely known refurbishments taking place or about to take place are that of Space Mountain in Tomorrowland and the expansion of Fantasyland. There are many more “refurbs” about to begin than just these major projects, so we’re going to try and break it down for you that will not only make your next visit to Walt Disney World pleasant and surprise-free. To make it simple to find what is and isn’t open, we’re going to break this down by months: November, December, and January.
Read More about “Closed for Your Future Enjoyment” by Chuck Mirarchi
