After 4-months of waiting, the pair of Sumatran Tiger Cubs born at Animal Kingdom finally made their public debut this morning.
The cubs and their mom can be seen daily in the Maharajah Jungle Trek exhibit (provided they are well acclimated to their new home).
Enjoy some video we captured today of the pair playing and discovering their new home:
Today, Disney shared an image from inside of the Millenium Falcon attraction coming to Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge at Disneyland and Disney’s Hollywood Studios.
The image appears to be the loading area, just before guests enter the cockpit of the Falcon and begin their adventure controlling the classic ship.
Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge is set to open in 2019 at both resorts.
Having been on a seasonal operating schedule for quite a while now, Stitch’s Great Escape at the Magic Kingdom will be open again December 23, 2017 through January 6th, 2018. However, it will never open again following that.
Disney is expected to make the announcement shortly, but the final day of operation for the Tomorrowland attraction will be January 6th, 2018. The closure will make way for a new, yet-to-be-announced attraction.
Stitch’s Great Escape replaced the ExtraTERRORestrial Alien Encounter in 2004, becoming one of the most poorly received attractions in the park’s history.
Coming summer 2018, Pixar Pier will transform the southern shore of Paradise Bay at Disney California Adventure park with whimsical neighborhoods filled with characters from Pixar stories. Today, Disney is sharing a first look at this transformation through photos of a working model now in use at Walt Disney Imagineering.
Featuring newly themed attractions, foods and merchandise, this area will introduce new neighborhoods representing beloved Pixar stories. The neighborhood inspired by “The Incredibles” will be anchored by the Incredicoaster, which will feature a new mid-century-modern-style loading area inspired by the Parr family home as seen in the upcoming “Incredibles 2.” In the artwork behind the model above, we get an early glimpse at a Toy Story themed attraction with Jessie serving as the marquee, a fast food stand themed to the chicken restaurant from the Toy Story Toons series, Bing Bong inside of his new candy store, and an additional fast food stand (which we couldn’t figure out).
Another of the neighborhoods will be a celebration of many of your favorite Pixar stories. In this neighborhood, each of the 24 gondolas on what is now Mickey’s Fun Wheel will feature different pairs of Pixar pals, and at the Games of the Boardwalk, all of the midway games will be inspired by characters from films such as “a bug’s life,” “WALL·E” and the Pixar short “La Luna.”
Pixar Pier will open summer 2018, during the first-ever Pixar Fest celebration, which begins April 13.
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Star Wars – Secrets of the Empire opened today at Disney Springs at Walt Disney World, and we of course were there as early as possible to check it out.
In case you aren’t familiar with what this experience is, here’s a recap of what we knew going in:
Star Wars: Secrets of the Empire transports guests deep into the Star Wars universe, walking freely and untethered throughout the multisensory experience with friends and family. In groups of four, teams go undercover as stormtroopers to capture Imperial intelligence vital to the budding rebellion’s survival.
In basic, non-PR language, this is a very advanced virtual realty (VR) experience with characters from Rogue One present.
How was it? In short, amazing. I legitimately experienced that “wow” moment that I had felt visiting some of the most impressive theme park attractions my first time, all throughout the 13 minutes we spent running around this virtual playground. Secrets of the Empire is a reason to visit Disney Springs if you don’t already have one, especially if you are a Star wars fans. Even if you aren’t the biggest Star Wars nerd, the technology and experience is still enough of a novelty that I think just about anyone could have a good time with it. If you didn’t believe VR was the wave of the future before seeing this, you will after.
I have done other VR experiences over the last few years, and this was better in every way. The helmet and the vest were far more comfortable than any other I have ever worn (even over eyeglasses), everything worked fairly well, and the experience was seamless.
After a short preview and set-up following check in, guests are equipped with the VR equipment they will need to wear. The vest and helmet (seen above) weigh somewhere between 10-15 pounds, which could be a lot of some guests with physical restrictions, but most guests will be able to comfortable get through the 13 minutes of the VR portion of the experience without much discomfort. Guests who have done other VR experiences and have been made a little nauseous by those stated that Secrets of the Empire left them with no weird feeling afterwards.
Participants must be 10 years or older and over 48 inches in height to participate. Wheelchair access is available via transfer, and all guests sign a liability waiver as you might have guessed. Photography, videography, and recording of any kind is not allowed inside of the attraction, as you might have guessed since you are strapped to a bunch of VR equipment and wearing a headset. From check-in to exit, it should take you around 30 minutes to complete your time inside of Secrets of the Empire. In order to go through, guests will have to leave some belongings that could be in the way of the experience behind.
Guests are sent through in groups of four, so if you have more than 4 people in your party, you will be broken up, and as you might guess, you will be paired with other guests if you don’t have a full party size. Some may find this challenging as getting through the experience does require a lot of communication between teammates carrying out the mission.
The set-up inside the experience is so that every wall and item you see with the headset on (that is within reach) is really there for you to reach out and touch. Even the droids in the room with you are physically there. This makes the experience feel as real as possible, unlike VR experiences you can have in your own home. The graphics inside the game are stunning, making it feel like you are actually living a Star Wars movie thanks to the work of ILM, and the presence of actual actors from Rogue One makes the experience all the more authentic. Much like Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge promises, you are living your own Star Wars adventure here, with real consequences based on choices you make while playing through the many scenes of Secrets of the Empire.
All of this is complemented by fantastic elemental effects, such as changes in temperature, smells, air blasts, rumbling floors, and more. I hate to use the Disney-PR buzz word, but it is truly immersive. If you love to smell Rome burning in Spaceship Earth at Epcot, you’re going to love a lot of the stuff they have going on in here.
Oh, and you get to pick up blasters and shoot stormtroopers, so who wouldn’t love that? You’ll feel the gun recoil and do other things as well as you go through different portions of the story. It’s fairly cool and will allow many a fan to live out some childhood dreams of being a Rebel hero. Now we just need a chance to play the bad guys…
The story guests are thrown into is fun and easy to understand, and even has a payoff for the more hardcore of Star Wars fans towards the end. It is tremendous fan service, but accessible for everyone. There’s also a reason to come back and do this again since, as we stated above, different actions have different consequences and cause different events to take place in the attraction.
Again, I can not stress how enjoyable our experience was, from myself as a Star Wars fan, to others in my party who I would claim are more casual fans, everyone had a fantastic time and was simply blow away by the technology at play here. Get tickets now to make sure you get to see this the next time you are at Disney Springs.
Star Wars – Secrets of the Empire is now open at Disney Springs, located just behind the Once Upon A Toy store, next door to the Bibbidi Bobbidi Boutique in the Marketplace section. Tickets are $30 per person and appointments are available in 15 minute intervals (and highly recommended since this is sold out for the next few weeks already. You can find ticket information and more on Star Wars: Secrets of the Empire now at www.thevoid.com.
The experience will also open in Downtown Disney at the Disneyland Resort on January 5, 2018.
The LittleMissMatched store at Disney Springs will close at the end of the day on December 31st, 2017.
The store is one of the few in the Marketplace section of Disney Springs that is not owned-and-operated by Disney, so it has always been a bit of a mystery as to why it was placed there. Regardless, it will close at the end of the year to make way for a yet-to-be-named replacement. There has been no word as of yet if the store will relocate to another part of Disney Springs.
In the wake of the immensely popular rose gold mouse ears, Disney announced that rose gold spirit jerseys will be coming later this month to select stores in Disneyland and Walt Disney World, as well as Shop Disney Parks.
Disney has been offering the spirit jersey style in a number of other colors; the new rose gold jerseys will feature a light gold glitter print. The Disney Style video below shows more of the new shirts.
https://www.facebook.com/disneystyle/videos/2005124996376289/
Based on the number of views of Disney’s video – over 1.2 million in the first 6 hours alone – it’s likely that these jerseys will be quite popular.
Will you be picking up one of these to match your rose gold mouse ears?
Following the success of the added guest relations location in Tomorrowland at the exit of Space Mountain, the service has now moved into a permanent home in Liberty Square at the Magic Kingdom.
Located in the space formerly known as the Heritage House, the Ticket Office can help guests with ticketing questions, upgrades, and sales. They also have the ability to offer a number of other guest relations-type services upon request.
Inside is a single help desk to accommodate guests, but otherwise the space is empty.
The Liberty Square Ticket Office is now open at the Magic Kingdom.
Disney has just released a new preview video featuring an in-depth look at the IncrediCoaster, opening this summer at Pixar Pier in Disney California Adventure.
Effective December 15, 2017, ticket prices for Hong Kong Disneyland have increased between 4% to 9%, according to the South China Morning Post. It’s the fifth annual price increase at the resort.
Prices for one-day admission are now HK$619 (US $79.24) for adults and HK$458 (US $58.63) for children, up from HK$589 (US $75.40) and HK$419 (US $53.64), respectively.
The regular two-day admission price has increased to HK$799/HK$589 (US $102.26/$75.38), from HK$759/HK$539 (US $97.14/$68.96). (U.S. dollar rates are based on current exchange rates.)
Guests visiting through the end of this year can take advantage of special discounts, however. The resort is currently offering a special “Play and Shop 1-Day Ticket Offer” for the old prices (HK$589/HK$419) that includes a HK$50 (US $6.40) merchandise gift voucher and a buy-one get-one popcorn voucher. According to the Hong Kong Disneyland website, tourists visiting Hong Kong, excluding residents of Mainland China and Macau, are eligible for the special offer. There’s also a special “Discounted ‘2-Day Fun’ Ticket” for HK$649/HK$461 (US $83.06/$59.00) available through Dec. 31, with no listed restrictions on guest eligibility.
Annual pass prices have increased as well. However, Hong Kong residents who purchase three or more annual passes will receive a 15% discount through April 10, 2018.
The 30% discount for Hong Kong residents with disabilities remains in place. The price for seniors (age 65 and over) remains at HK$100 (US $12.80) for one-day and HK$170 (US $21.76) for two-day admission.
The South China Morning Post also reported that annual passholders who renew early can get a 20% discount, and Hong Kong residents can continue to purchase regular one-day admissions at the previous prices through February 15, 2018. These pricing exceptions are not listed on the Hong Kong Disneyland website.
The price increase comes just two days after Hong Kong Disneyland’s major rival park, Ocean Park, announced it would increase admission by 9% effective January 1, 2018. Both Hong Kong Disneyland and Ocean Park have been operating at deficits.
It also comes just a few weeks after Hong Kong Disneyland announced it would be ending its nightly “Disney in the Stars” fireworks show as of January 1 and beginning a major renovation of its castle beginning in early January. Those changes are part of the resort’s multi-year development plan announced last November, which also includes a new Frozen-themed land and new Marvel attractions.
Shanghai Disneyland also recently announced a price increase effective June 6, 2018. Hong Kong Disneyland’s tickets are the most expensive of the three Disney resorts in Asia.
