For those of you who are fans of the Three Fairies Crystal Shop in Sleeping Beauty Castle, that closed this past Saturday for conversion into the disabled room for the Sleeping Beauty Castle Walk-through, don’t dread. For the store will be moving in some form or another to the shuttered Gepetto Holiday Shop next to the Village Haus.
While this isn’t confirmed yet, I see no reason for it not to happen. Stay tuned to Disneyland News Today to find out the “final verdict”.
We’ve heard from various sources that the Court of Angels in New Orleans Square (which is located near the exit of Pirates of the Caribbean) will soon be home to New Orleans Square’s Christmas Shop. The current Christmas store is located right next door to the Court of Angels, & this would be an expansion of that store. A canopy will be put up, with Christmas merchandise hanging everywhere, & of course cash registers will be added.
There’s no word one if this will be seasonal or year round just yet, & if this even will be happening, but be sure to stay tuned to Disneyland News Today for the latest updates!
As August has arrived, that means November is now available on Disneyland.com’s Calender, so it’s once again time for some changes to the attractions refurbishments list.
First up, the It’s a Small World refurbishment has long been rumored to end on November 28th, & we finally have official confirmation from Disneyland.com’s Calender that It’s a Small World will indeed re-open on November 29th.
Fantasmic! will have a 2 month long refurbishment beginning on September 2nd, & ending November 6th, due to the yearly maintenance for the Sailing Ship Columbia (which will be closed from September 2nd to October 25th), as well as more upgrades to the show itself.
The planned refurbishment for Gadget’s Go-Coaster that was to of started on October 20th seems to of been completely removed from the list.
Finally, the Pirates of the Caribbean refurbishment that starts on October 13th will last all the way through November 14th, re-opened just in time for Christmas.
Stay tuned to Disneyland News Today for updates on all attraction refurbishments. And for up-to-the-minute information on the various refurbishments, be sure to check our Attraction Refurbishments page!
Days before heading to Bejing for the Olympic Games, members of the USA volleyball team tested their competitive skills at Toy Story Mania! — a new attraction at Disney’s California Adventure, in Anaheim.
Teammates Ryan Millar, a BYU graduate from Palmdale, CA., and Scott Touzinsky, from Long Beach State and St. Louis, Mo., rode the attraction on July 29, racking up points with their spring action shooters. They each surpassed 135,000 points, but Touzinsky outscored Millar in a close contest.
Team USA, which trains at the American Sports Centers in Anaheim, CA., aims to score many more points as they shoot for a medal at the 2008 Summer Olympic Games, which begin Aug. 8. The U.S. men won their first FIVB World League title this summer, defeating Serbia in the gold-medal match in Rio de Janeiro.
We are hearing that Walt Disney World ticket prices may once again rise on Sunday, August 3. While we’re not hearing that the increase will be more than a few dollars, this change should be met with the usual resentment from guests.
In other pricing updates, 2009 Walt Disney World vacation packages should be available soon and rumors already indicate that this year will show one of the smallest single-year increases in Disney history. Again, it appears that Disney is expecting lower crowd levels throughout the year in 2009.
We can also expect changes once again in the Disney Dining Plan, with the addition of a quick-service dining plan and more changes in the infrastructure of the pre-existing plans.
Stay tuned to WDW News Today for more information on these headlines as it becomes available.
As the central Florida temperature approaches 90 degrees outside, Cecil Gordon of Walt Disney World Holiday Services touches up the face of a six-foot-tall angel tree-topper July 30, 2008 inside one of the resort’s holiday warehouses in Lake Buena Vista, Fla. The angel will be placed on the top of the giant Christmas tree at the Epcot theme park during the holiday season later this year. Gordon and his colleagues are currently on round-the-clock schedules behind-the-scenes at Walt Disney World Resort, decorating more than 1,500 Christmas trees, unpacking more than 15 miles of garland, testing dozens of snow machines and repainting hundreds of animated and static holiday scenes that will be seen by guests all across the 40-square-mile resort. Gordon, from St. Mary, Jamaica, has worked for Walt Disney World for 19 years. (Garth Vaughan, photographer)
Reported by the Orlando Sentinel:
Walt Disney World has unveiled a rendering and a few details of some retheming and renovations in the works for Disney’s Caribbean Beach Resort — theming it after the hugely-popular Pirates of the Caribbeanride/movies/games franchise.
Clients who book through Walt Disney Travel Co. also will receive a new benefit — 30 minute play-cards for Disney’s resort hotel video arcades.
Walt Disney World also is announcing some changes in its Magic Your Way plan, to include Quick Service Dining beginning Jan. 11. Vacationers can get two quick-service meals and two snacks for each night of their stay in a Disney resort hotel, plus a refillable drink mug for unlimited refills of non-alcoholic beverages at Disney resort hotels.
Beds that look like ships. Dressers that look like old crates. Curtains that look like tattered sails. The attached artist’s rendering shows a few of the details.
Disney is planning the look for 384 rooms in the Trinidad South Village Area, set to be ready sometime next year. The resort has a total of 2,112 rooms.
These Pirate rooms are an addition to the hotel that has been in progress for a few years now, as are the Finding Nemo themed rooms now beginning to debut at the resort. It’s also interesting to note the inclusion of those Arcade Gaming Cards in the vacation booking, something Disney has never done before. As if all that wasn’t enough to swallow, this article even goes on to confirm the addition of the new Quick Service Dining Plan. Stay tuned to WDW News Today as more information becomes available on these major headlines.
David “Darkbeer” Michael visited the Disneyland Resort today, & saw some of the effects of the earthquake, as well as attending a lot of different events & exhibits in Downtown Disney (of which I don’t have a clue what any of them are, but I have my duty to report them!). Let’s dive on in this mega update:
The Disneyland Monorail was closed due to the earthquake
This Anaheim Ducks exhibit of sorts seems to of replaced the very similar High School Musical: Get in the Picture “exhibit”
The “ducks” are still alive?
Think this is something to do with the earthquake?
A signing of some kind… Maybe it wasn’t to do with the earthquake?
Then inside the ESPN Zone, there was something to do with the Anaheim Arsenal (which I’m guessing is a sports team of some kind)
Some kind of presentation in the ESPN Zone, which judging by the background of the picture, has to do with the NBA
Finally going inside the parks to see the effects of the earthquake… Here we see the Abandoned Tiki Room
And a rare site… NO LINE FOR INDY!
By this point, I’m guessing Pirates of the Caribbean had re-opened, unless everyone stayed in the line
Most attractions had re-opened, but apparently Indy was closed all day!
New Century Timepieces is a thing of the past, as previously reported, Fortuosity Shoppe will open up in that space this October
Toy Story Midway Mania re-opened by 12:30PM along with most of DCA… Seems Mr. Potato Head grew back his ear!
Finally, the Maliboomer was closed all day, as it can’t test when the park is open for some reason
Due credit goes to Mr. Darkbeer & his lovely SmugMug page! Be sure to check out his gallery from today, at this link.
According to the Orlando Sentinel:
Walt Disney World is planning to add actresses playing Tinker Bell and her friends from an upcoming series of “Disney Fairies” movies – and might be creating a new attraction based on them.
Disney held auditions last week for actresses to play the Disney Fairies characters in the parks, including Tinker Bell, Silvermist, Rosetta, Iridessa, and Fawn.
In a prepared statement, a Disney spokeswoman explained: “Disney Imagineers are currently creating a special new home for Tink and her friends which promises to immerse guests in the world of Pixie Dust at Walt Disney World.
Spokeswoman Andrea Finger would not elaborate about whether this meant the fairy characters will have their own attraction, nor did she specify which park they might appear in.
Except for Tinker Bell, the characters are based on a new “Disney Fairies” entertainment franchise that the Walt Disney Co. has been developing in recent years through children’s books, Internet Web pages, games, toys, and a series of straight-to-DVD movies that will begin emerging this fall.
This news was first reported here on WDW News Today a few months ago, but it seems larger news-outlets have finally caught up with us. There was even an official confirmation of this project in the August issue of the annual passholder publication, Mickey Monitor. Stay tuned to WDW News Today as more information becomes available on this project.
While it is already official that the 6 remaining Pleasure Island clubs, as well as the Pocahontas and Her Forest Friends show at Disney’s Animal Kingdom, will be closing forever on September 27, that may not be the full list of Walt Disney World attractions and shows departing for yesterland on that day. Rumors are now circulating that two of the Magic Kingdom shows brought to the park for the Year of a Million Dreams celebration may be making their final performances on September 27, 2008. If the rumors we’re hearing are true, this fateful Saturday in September will also be your last chance to catch Woody’s Cowboy Camp and the Main Street Family Fun Day Parade. Be sure to stay tuned to WDW News Today as more information becomes available on these rumors.
For those of you also interested, during the very same weekend that these attractions are saying goodbye, the wonderful group over at WDWCelebrations will be putting on yet-another fantastic event titled “World Wide Weekend”. To get more information on this event and how you can be a part of It, head on over to WDWCelebrations.com. We hope to see you there!!!
