PHOTOS: Maelstrom Attraction Currently Being Gutted, FROZEN Ride at Epcot Is More Than An Overlay

WDWNT on December 30, 2014

If you had your doubts about the budget or just how extensive the work on the new Frozen attraction at Epcot might be, you may want to look at this…

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Photos from @JohnCFSS on twitter

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Photos from @JohnCFSS on twitter

The photos above were taken under the door at the attraction’s entrance, the former lobby of the Maelstrom ride in Norway of Epcot’s World Showcase. The word demolition comes to mind as it looks like they have in many places ripped walls out or at least stripped them down to the structural steel.

Since the announcement of the ride earlier this year, there has been much debate about the budget and how extensive the attraction update might be. These photos are the first real proof that at least the entrance and exit of the ride will be vastly different from Maelstrom. It is still unknown if the boat flume will remain, but some sources have claimed that the ride will be entirely new, and these photos may make that easier to believe. However, it is still possible that a boat ride is behind these walls. Only time will tell.

Photos from @JohnCFSS on twitter.

“Taste of Hollywood” Returns to Hollywood Studios for the Holidays

WDWNT on December 30, 2014

This Christmas season, Taste of Hollywood to Go at Disney’s Hollywood Studios returns with a delicious meal-to-go and a reserved seat for Fantasmic! From December 24 to 31, the popular Taste of Hollywood To Go option will be returning with a few new entrees, all of which include a reserved seat for Fantasmic!.

The adult menu features a choice of a vegetable sandwich served with ginger-marinated tomatoes and cucumbers, quinoa salad and chocolate cake; shrimp salad served with pita, ginger-marinated tomatoes and cucumbers and mandarin orange cheesecake; golden fried chicken served with roasted garlic mashed potatoes, sweet corn and carrots and warm apple crisp; cold-cut roast beef sandwich with creamy horseradish served with classic potato salad, grilled asparagus and chocolate cake; or California sushi tuna roll served with avocado, orange and tomato salad, ginger-marinated tomatoes and cucumbers and spicy pecan-chocolate cluster.

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Kids’ choices include a power pack with strawberry yogurt, apple wedges, carrot sticks with ranch dip, fish crackers, an organic apple cinnamon and oatmeal snack-size sandwich bar or a turkey and American cheese wrap with strawberry yogurt, apple wedges, carrots with ranch dip and a seven-layer cookie bar.

Reservations are now open, and can be made by calling 407-WDW-D407-WDW-DINE up to 24 hours in advance. If you do not have a reservation, you can check the day you are in the park for availability. Meals can be picked up from Min & Bill’s Dockside Diner from 11:00a.m. to 8:00p.m. Choice of Fantasmic! showtime is based on availability, with the number of seats based on the number of meals purchased.

2014 Disney Parks Christmas Day Special To Get a Frozen Makeover

WDWNT on December 30, 2014

Frozen has not only found its way into many aspects of Walt Disney World Resort, but this Christmas, Disney will put a Frozen twist on its 31st annual Christmas Day telecast, appropriately renamed the Disney Parks Frozen Christmas Celebration airing December 25, 2014, on ABC-TV.

Disney Parks Frozen Christmas Celebration Logo

Robin Roberts of ABC’s Good Morning America will host the reimagined television special inspired by the blockbuster hit’s message of uniting family and loved ones. Roberts will lead the telecast from Walt Disney World Resort in Florida with support from ESPN and SEC Network personality Tim Tebow.

ÒGood Morning AmericaÓ Anchor Robin Roberts Hosts the 2014 Disney Parks Frozen Christmas Celebration TV Special

ABC’s Robin Roberts hosts this year’s Disney Parks Frozen Christmas Celebration.

They will be joined by Rob Marciano, senior meteorologist of ABC’s Good Morning America from the “The Happiest Place on Earth” at Disneyland Resort. Sarah Hyland, star of ABC’s Emmy award-winning show Modern Family, joins the fun from Aulani, a Disney Resort & Spa in Ko Olina, Hawai‛i.

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Sarah Hyland performs from Aulani.

The festivities will also feature a special appearance by Miss America 2015, Kira Kazantsev, making this year’s Christmas special a magical Frozen celebration not to be missed.

Miss America 2015 Kira Kazanstev Tapes Disney Parks Frozen Christmas Celebration TV Special

Miss America 2015, Kira Kazantsev

Disney Parks will celebrate this Christmas with more than a parade, but with a heartfelt wish for the holiday season, the coming together of loved ones and family. In keeping with the spirit of Frozen where two sisters are united through the power of true love, Disney will bring together three groups of families and friends who have been apart or separated for the holidays, providing the ultimate Christmas gift. The reunions will take place at three magical Disney destinations – Disneyland Resort, Walt Disney World Resort, and Aulani – making these reunions bigger, brighter and merrier.

The joyous occasion will fittingly include a special rendition of the Frozen hit single, Let It Go, as performed by 12-year-old YouTube sensation, Lexi Walker.

YouTube Sensation Lexi Walker Tapes Disney Parks Frozen Christmas Celebration TV Special

Lexi Walker performs Let It Go.

There will also be festive performances from some of today’s top musical talents at each of the various Disney locations:

  • Ariana Grande will regale Walt Disney World Resort guests with her new Christmas single Santa Tell Me and the Christmas tradition Last Christmas
  • Prince Royce adds to the merriment with I Want to Wish You a Merry Christmas/Feliz Navidad
  • The spotlight also will shine on special performances from the X Factor USA third and final season winners Alex and Sierra singing Love is an Open Door from Frozen
  • Yuletide cheer will be brought to the Hawaiian Islands by Gavin DeGraw, performing his latest single Fire and the holiday standard I’ll Be Home for Christmas
  • Laura Marano, of Disney Channel’s Austin & Ally, entertains viewers with her version of Do You Want to Build a Snowman? as posed by Princess Anna in Frozen

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Laura Marano also performs.

  • Trey Songz, Lucy Hale and Train will serenade audiences at Disneyland Resort in California with holiday favorites such as All I Want for Christmas is You, Mistletoe, and Shake Up Christmas

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Train entertains the Christmas Day special in Disneyland.

  • Country music superstar Trisha Yearwood will perform her hit single, Prizefighter, and the holiday classic, Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas

Celebrate the most wonderful time of year with familiar Disney friends and holiday characters as they spread Christmas joy and cheer at Disneyland Park in California and along parade routes at Walt Disney World Resort in Florida:

*characters/floats subject to change

  • The Frozen stars of the parade, Elsa and Anna, return from Arendelle to join the royal court and ring in the holidays on Main Street, U.S.A. at Walt Disney World Resort
  • Olaf, the summer-loving snowman from Frozen, joins hundreds of Dance the Magic youth performers in front of Cinderella Castle for a musical number to In Summer
  • Maleficent from Sleeping Beauty makes her holiday debut as the steampunk-inspired fire-breathing dragon, as featured in the Disney Festival of Fantasy Parade
  • A new Club Penguin float joins the procession highlighting the holiday special, We Wish You a Merry Walrus
  • The superheroes of  Big Hero 6 take a break from saving the world to wish onlookers happy holidays
  • The National Cheerleaders Association and National Dance Alliance Performance Cheer Team, featuring 800 members from 41 states, entertain park guests lining Main Street, U.S.A.
  • Boys and Girls Club National Youth of the Year winner, Maryah Sullivan, appears in the regal coach from the upcoming live action film, Cinderella
  • Traditional Christmas favorites such as Toy Soldiers and Gingerbread Men get their time in the spotlight to make the season merry and bright
  • After a long night of delivering presents, the jolly man in the red suit, Santa Claus, finishes his route on Main Street, U.S.A.

The Disney Parks Frozen Christmas Celebration airs December 25, 2014, on ABC-TV at 10:00 a.m. EST.  Other airtimes vary; check local listings in your market.

 

Prime Inspirations: Sleeping Beauty Castle Spire – Viollet-le-Duc Spire at Notre Dame

WDWNT on November 25, 2014

This occasional WDWNT column hopes to highlight the borrowed buildings of the Disney Theme Parks and their direct antecedents. We hope to encourage appreciation and discussion of Park architecture, and to showcase the power of the original buildings and their emulations.

There were big questions to be answered when Disneyland’s Sleeping Beauty Castle was being designed. One was what to call it. It really didn’t have a name. The Fantasyland Castle was as good as it got for awhile. Another big question was: What is Disneyland?

Artist and future Disney Legend Herb Ryman was a traveled man. His approach to the castle design was borrow quite literally from “Mad King Ludwig’s”, famed fairy-tale castle at Neuschwanstein in Bavaria. Others on the team advised against it and at the last moment before Walt was to appear to sign off on the model, Hyman flipped the top of the model around reveling a different view.

“That’ll work.”

A standard was adopted in that moment. Disney theme parks would employ architectural quotation, rather than wholesale imitation.  But apparently Walt had a quote of his own to contribute, from a controversial addition made to a world famous building half a world away.

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Disneyland’s Sleeping Beauty’s Castle became an icon before the first Guest walked up Main Street U.S.A. For a time it was also the very public face, with Walt Disney, and Mickey Mouse, of the growing Walt Disney Productions. The Disneyland and Wonderful World of Color television shows featured literal and fanciful depictions of Disney’s first physical castle in their title sequences.Walt Disney Worlds breathtaking Cinderella Castle, later became the torch bearer.

Ryman also designed Cinderella Castle, a towering tribute to the fallen Pharaoh. A mix of French flourishes and fantasy elements, it can also be seen from far into the resort, reassuring guests in the arrival pattern. The design was so definitive, it was cribbed for Tokyo Disneyland.

The Disneyland castle is a diminutive mix of French and Germanic influences.  Ryman, who joined Disney from Twentieth Century Fox, designed a true product of the Film Art Director’s trade. Elements of “fake depth” are evident in the tower on the right side which is significantly smaller than the forward tower, which visually dictates the scale. The smaller tower, and the “bridge” that runs from it, create depth. Depending on the level of the viewer’s suspension of disbelief, the “bridge” can be perceived as a decorative element, or a full scale bridge carrying the royal inhabitants in the distance. Sleeping Beauty Castle at Disneyland is welcoming. It induces curiosity. The closer you get to it, the smaller it seems to become. The buildings at the end of Main Street U.S.A. cradle the view and offer a forced perspective that makes the building look even grander.

Viollet-le-Duc Replica

On a visit to Disneyland, recounted in Sam Gennawey’s fine book, The Disneyland Story, Author Ray Bradbury saw a familiar spire on the side of the castle. He described it as “a duplicate of the convoluted and beauteous spire Viollet-le-Duc raised atop Notre-Dame 100 years ago.” Bradbury phoned the Dean of Disney Design John Hench and asked, “John, how long has Viollet-le-Duc’s spire been on the side of Sleeping Beauty’s Castle?” Hench replied, “Thirty years.” Bradbury remarked that he had never noticed it before and asked who put it there? Hench said, “Walt.” When asked why, Hench said, “Because he loved it.”

Viollet-le-Duc's Spire

During the early 1830s, Eugène Emmanuel Viollet-le-Duc was at the forefront of popular sentiment in France for the restoration of medieval buildings. Viollet-le-Duc’s restorations at Notre Dame de Paris, brought him national attention. His other main works include Mont Saint-Michel, Carcassonne, and Chatueu de Pierrefonds.

Viollet-le-Duc’s “restorations” frequently combined historical fact with creative modification. For example, under his supervision, Notre Dame was not only cleaned and restored but also “updated”, gaining its distinctive flèche (from the French for arrow) that Walt was so enamored with. Also, the legendary stone gargoyles who seemingly guard the cathedral from their lofty perch were added at this time. Viollet-le-Duc’s restorations were thought by many to be overly showy and in some cases not representative of the buildings’ true medieval character. Still, his mark was made on some of France’s most distinctive historical architecture.

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Viollet-le-Duc did the restoration work on the Chateau De Pierrefonds.

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Ray Bradbury also said, “In Disneyland, Walt has proven again that the first function of architecture is to make men over, make them wish to go on living, feed them fresh oxygen, grow them tall, delight their eyes, make them kind.”

Morimoto Asia, BOATHOUSE Dining Experiences Coming to Disney Springs in 2015

WDWNT on November 25, 2014

Posted today on the Disney Parks Blog:

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It was just announced that Chef Masaharu Morimoto, who many of you know from his appearances on Iron Chef America, is opening a one-of-a-kind dining experience in the heart of Disney Springs at the Walt Disney World Resort.

Approved Rendering Morimoto Asia Interior

Morimoto Asia will be the Japanese master chef’s first-ever pan-Asian restaurant featuring flavors from across the continent. This Disney Springs dining destination will include unique exhibition kitchens showcasing traditions like Peking duck carving, and dim sum.

“I’m very excited to bring this new concept to Disney, something I’ve always dreamed of,” said Chef Morimoto. “It’s a wonderful chance to share some of my favorite foods from across the Asian continent.”

The two-story restaurant is scheduled to open in the Summer 2015 at The Landing (formerly Pleasure Island) in Disney Springs. Morimoto Asia will feature waterside seating, terraces, a grand hall and a cocktail lounge.

Approved Rendering THE BOATHOUSE Bar Exterior 3
Also today, another new concept dining experience, The BOATHOUSE, was announced for The Landing in Disney Springs.

The BOATHOUSE will be an upscale, waterfront dining experience that’ll immerse guests both on land and on water with live music, guided tours aboard the Captain’s piloted 40-foot Italian Water Taxi with champagne and chocolate-covered strawberries and guided Amphicar rides that launch from land, enter the water, and take guests on a 20-minute tour of the landmarks of Disney Springs.

“We are very excited that the BOATHOUSE is joining the Walt Disney World family at Disney Springs,” says creator Steven Schussler. “Walt Disney Imagineering has created a wonderful, interactive, culinary and entertainment experience at Disney Springs. We are proud to be part of this magical experience.”

Approved Rendering THE BOATHOUSE Waterfront View 1

The BOATHOUSE will open in the Spring of 2015 in Disney Springs. The restaurant’s gourmet menu (served daily until 2 a.m.) will feature steaks, chops, seafood and a raw bar. The BOATHOUSE is the latest project of Schussler Creative, the creators of Rainforest Cafe, T-Rex and Yak & Yeti at the Walt Disney World Resort.

Disney Springs Parking Structure Opening Date Revealed, Surface Lots to Close

WDWNT on November 25, 2014

The first parking garage at Disney Springs is essentially complete, and will open for “Cast Member previews” beginning on November 2nd, ahead of the “Early 2015” date Disney started to publicize a few months back when the project seemed behind schedule.

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The structure will first open to the public on November 20th. Floors 1 through 4 will be fully open by December 1st. The top floor will open at a later date.

With the opening of the parking structure comes the closure of Downtown Disney surface parking lots A-G on December 1st.

Work will begin on the second parking structure for Disney Springs and the new Town Center district on December 1st as well.

New Main Street U.S.A. Bypass Facade Unveiled at Disneyland Park

WDWNT on November 25, 2014

Over at Disneyland Park, the new Main Street U.S.A. bypass facade (which is themed to look like a Livery Stable) was uncovered today. Below you can see a collection of photos taken by our own Tom Corless who is at Disneyland currently. No word yet on when the bypass will open, but we’ll keep you posted if we hear anything about it.

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Dirk Wallen’s 11/3/14 WDW Photo Report (Walls Down at Disney Springs, New Concept Art, Big Hero 6, Christmas Merch, ETC)

WDWNT on November 25, 2014

WDWNT Reporter Dirk Wallen visited Disney Springs, Disney’s Hollywood Studios, Animal Kingdom, and Epcot this week and he has a ton of newsworthy photos to share with us in this HUGE photo report, so let’s get started:

Photo & Video Sharing by SmugMug

Plenty of roadwork still to be done for Disney Springs

A new piece of elevated track is rising on the West Side, between Splitsville and Wolfgang Puck

We now know this large building with be the Boathouse

Disney announced this new restaurant concept last week

They wasted no time in adding ads to the walls for the restaurant

Concept art for the façade of the Boathouse

The small waterside park in The Landing opened this weekend

A nice little area for relaxing and live entertainment

Some of the buildings are out from behind construction walls in The Landing

New concept art for the area now on construction walls

There is a giant inflatable Baymax from Big Hero 6 on the West Side…

These storefronts in The Landing are just about done

The bridge in the Marketplace is also nearing completion

Two small, temporary stores operated by Something Silver opened by Fulton’s recently

The Marketplace bridge with the Rainforest Café façade refurbishment in the background

Shifting gears, Christmas merchandise has invaded the resort

Ornaments

Some Star Wars holiday pins were released

Plenty of Big Hero 6 merchandise is available around the resort

2015 calendars available

New “I Conquered” shirt

Iron Man and Captain America shirts

New Star Wars character glasses

New Darth Vader t-shirt

Some new merchandise was released at the Art of Animation Resort

Over at Epcot, walls finally came down around the area that was closed when a water main was hit after the Flower and Garden Festival

No visible progress at Norway’s Frozen attraction

We tweeted these weeks ago, but if you haven’t seen, some new retro EPCOT Center merchandise has been released

A quick stop at Animal Kingdom reveals work walls near Pangani Forest and Kilimanjaro Safaris

No visible changes at AVATAR, it’s impossible to see from inside the park

Moving to Disney’s Hollywood Studios, work continues on Starbucks and the Trolley Car Café

Nah nah nah nah, nah nah nah nah, hey hey hey…

Big Hero 6 merchandise carts replace the Frozen carts

Banners up in the Animation Courtyard

Work has finally begun on the Big Hero 6 meet and greet inside The Magic of Disney Animation

Big Hero 6 billboard by The Legend of Captain Jack Sparrow

Let’s journey inside the new Wandering Oaken’s

Purchase with purchase Frozen bag available

Jim Shore has released some Frozen statues

Osborne Lights are ready to go

No more Backlot Tour…

Frozen Characters and Jack Skellington as “Sandy Claws” Added to Mickey’s Very Merry Christmas Party 2014

WDWNT on November 25, 2014

There are a few new offerings to Mickey’s Very Merry Christmas Party at the Magic Kingdom this year:

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  • New to “Mickey’s Once Upon a Christmastime Parade” this year, Ralph and Vanellope from “Wreck-It Ralph” and Anna, Elsa, Kristoff, & Olaf (New, walk-around character version) from “Frozen” are all now included.
  • The “Holiday Hootenanny!” will be held in the Diamond Horseshoe in Frontierland, a dance party with the Country Bears, Clarabelle Cow, Horace Horsecollar, and Clara Cluck. Over at Cosmic Ray’s Starlight Café in Tomorrowland, Club Tinsel is hosted by Phineas and Ferb.
  • Storybook Circus will host favorite Disney pals dressed up for the occasion, including Minnie, Daisy, Donald, Scrooge McDuck, and Santa Goofy.
  • You’ll also find Jack Skellington in Storybook Circus – dressed in his finest “Sandy Claws” suit and ready to meet the boys and girls of every age!