WDWNT Reporter Banks Lee visited the Magic Kingdom on Easter Sunday and has a video of the traditional Easter Pre-parade that has become a staple of the holiday since the Easter Parade went away several years ago. Enjoy:
Looks like Summer Nightastic! is once again returning to the Disneyland Resort for the 2011 summer season.
From Disneyland.com:
Hot summer days blaze into Summer Nightastic! at The Disneyland Resort. With later park hours, you have more time to enjoy favorite nighttime entertainment.
Stay out late with:
- The nighttime water spectacular World of Color.
- Mickey’s epic battle in Fantasmic!
- Magical, where brilliant fireworks burst into vivid colors.
- DJs and live bands at the TLT Dance.
- Pixie Hollow, an enchanting light show with Tinkerbell.
- Disney’s Aladdin — a Musical Spectacular!
Come back in early June 2011 for more details! In the meantime, we have many other Seasonal Events.
| This weekend in Retro Weekend we have some cool photos, a new foreign vinylmation, and several confirmations of pieces and prices. Check it out. | |
| On Friday Nick and MC visited a local “sea themed” park and took some cool pictures of the newly released Sea Creatures set with some friends of theirs. |
 |
 |
The Pirate Mickey was advertised on Japan Disneyland’s website. Coming this week… to Japan. |
| While we were picking up our Sea Creatures we confirmed with D-Street the price of Sushi. $99.95 |
|
|
|
Also released this Friday at D-Street Florida, the 4 Ear Hats that we saw released early in California. |
| A twitter friend got engaged with a custom made vinyl he crafted for the occasion. |  |
 |
And if you missed it we got more pictures of two upcoming sets. |
WDWNT Reporter Robert Ashburn made a visit to Disney’s Animal Kingdom and took a peek at the construction on Disney’s Art of Animation Resort construction on Wednesday, so let’s taker a look at some photos from his trip:
The test of “Truckosaurous” dance party will still going
We took our new Vinylmation Sea Creatures on a trip to Sea World on Friday. They rode Manta a few times, watched the new One World show, and posed for pictures with there fellow water lovers. Check out our Variant Sea Creature Pictures at Facebook.com/DestinationVinylmation.
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
|
 |
 |
 |
 |
Mint Crocodile has footage taken from earlier today of Mickey’s Soundsational Parade out on Main Street USA. Only two floats, the Mickey Float and the The Princess & the Frog Float, were out as Disney was filming the floats for commercial use. In the video, it is confirmed that the main theme is indeed the same used in Hong Kong for Flights of Fantasy with a slight lyric change.
If you would like to see photos of the parade, head over to Mintcrocodile’s blog….
From Merchandise Communications Manager Steven Miller on the Disney Parks Blog:
If I had a nickel for the hours I spent as a child playing with my Star Wars toys, I would be living on a beach in Maui right now. Luckily, my parents saved those toys (thanks Mom and Dad), and my son now spends hours pretending he is in a galaxy far, far away. Soon, he will have a few more toys (among several awesome things) to add to his Star Wars collection, especially with the launch of “Star Tours – The Adventures Continue” on May 20. But wait! I get to photograph and write about merchandise created for Star Tours? Sign me up! After reviewing the more than 40 items we’ve created, I have selected a few of my favorites to share with you.
First up is the incredibly detailed Starspeeder 1000 Spaceliner Collection. This boxed set features die-cast metal vehicles representing six spaceliners that are involved with the new Star Tours story. I spoke with Brad Schoeneberg, Product Developer for Toys and Games, to learn more about the toys.
“We’ve been working on the Star Tours toys for about two years now,” explained Brad. “During the past two years, we have had a great relationship with Walt Disney Imagineering. They provided us with tons of reference material for the Starspeeders and other new characters. That partnership helped us capture wonderful details including the tiny droids seen on top of each of [the Starspeeders].”
This set will retail for $22.95. Brad also shared with me the packaging for the “Ambush at Star Tours” and the “Star Tours Travel Agency” action figure sets (both will retail for $39.95 each). Favorite figures include the Sky Troopers who were created specifically for the attraction. I also loved how the droid who is “fluent in over six million forms of communication,” C-3PO, turned out.
But toys aren’t the only thing I loved seeing (or should I say “playing with?”). We are releasing a variety of shirts for launch. I particularly liked the stylized travel posters shirt, as there is no better way to say “I love space travel” than with that one. How I wish I could visit Bespin and hang out with Lando Calrissian!
There are a few items, however, that neither my son nor I can get – we are not Passholders (unlike many of you and I’m bummed). These Passholder Exclusive items will include a commemorative coin, a limited edition pen (not to be confused with a “pin,” which will also be released), a Darth Vader T-shirt and, what I consider the most awesome drinkware in the galaxy, a 20 oz. tumbler featuring Darth Vader.
I don’t think I can make time pass fast enough until the opening! As mentioned, there are many other items we created for the launch, so keep watching ArtofDisneyParks.com for release dates and additional information.
WDWNT Reporter Adam Roth visited The Magic Kingdom and Epcot yesterday and has a ton of newsworthy photos to share with us from his trip, so let’s take a look:
I think you know where we’re going…
From the Disney Parks Blog:
We’ve taken you behind the scenes to see some of the amazing things the Walt Disney Imagineers are working on for the June 3 debut of The Little Mermaid ~ Ariel’s Undersea Adventure at Disney California Adventure park. We’ve shown you what it’s like to create not only the Ariel Audio-Animatronics figure, but also how to animate her hair.
We’ve given you a glimpse of how impressive Ursula will be when she gets settled into her lair.
And we’ve shown you the beautiful “clam shells” – the vehicles that will take you “under the sea.”
Now we’re inviting you to join us for a very special meet-up, featuring Walt Disney Imagineers Lisa Girolami, Larry Nikolai and Chris Crump from the attraction’s creative team, as well as Walt Disney animators Andreas Deja and Mark Henn who worked on the animated feature film on which the attraction is based. Their tales will also be featured in an article in the May issue of D23 Magazine.
Today through April 28 at 11:59 p.m. (PDT), you can enter for a chance to attend our meet-up.
Those selected will be among an exclusive group at our panel discussion with the Walt Disney Imagineers and animators. The meet-up will be held May 10 at Disney’s Grand Californian Hotel & Spa. The team is still hard at work getting Scuttle, Sebastian and their friends ready to perform, so you will NOT be able to ride or visit the attraction.
Please carefully read the details on the form when you enter. As a reminder: You must be at least 18 years of age to enter, the meet-up does not require theme park admission and you must appear in person with a valid ID and your guest. If you are one of the 150 people randomly selected from our entries, you will be able to bring only one (1) guest. We will notify you by email if you are selected, with check-in details. All elements of this opportunity are subject to change without notice. Click here to register and learn more.
Are you excited to enter The Little Mermaid ~ Ariel’s Undersea Adventure Meet-Up? Good luck and I’ll see you there!
Update: If we look at the picture close enough, it seems to say that it’s a limited edition set of 1000!
We knew it was coming out next Friday, and thought we knew the price. We were right, the price has been confirmed by D-Street at $99.95. How long will this line be?
