Tom Corless’ 9/30/14 WDW Photo Report (Big Hero 6 Art, Backlot Tour, Rivers of Light, New Frozen Merchandise, ETC.)

WDWNT on October 24, 2014

It was quite the busy weekend at Walt Disney World, so I managed to visit all 4 parks to see what was new and have a ton of newsworthy photos to share with you in today’s report:

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The Studio Backlot Tour closed forever on Saturday

A Big Hero 6 exhibit can now be found at the Magic of Disney Animation

Moving over to Epcot, menu changes have been made a the Electric Umbrella

I decided to try the French Dip burger

It was surprisingly good!

I also tried the Pumpkin Macaroon from the France ice cream parlor and it was amazing.

Over at the Magic Kingdom, this low clearance was added in the bus stop to ensure busses go the right way through the loop

The awning on the boat dock at the entrance was replaced, it’s now red instead of green

The latest progress on the hub at the Magic Kingdom

The Astro Orbiter reopened this weekend, but you can read more about that here

The leave-your-phone charging stations in Tomorrowland have all been closed, the test period came to an end and we’ll now have to wait to see if it was a success and is brought back

New Space Mountain ladies’ shirt

New men’s “I conquered Space Mountain” shirt

This artwork was previously on a black t-shirt and slightly different

Dumbo character sketches are now being sold at Big Top Souvenirs

New Beast plush for sale at Bonjour Village Gifts

Instead of selling generic items, there is a now a Beauty and the Beast shield toy

If you don’t have a FastPass for it, prepare to arrive at Be Our Guest at park opening to get a return time to eat lunch there or you’ll be turned away

Even more of Sir Mickey’s has been taken over by Frozen merchandise, even Ariel merchandise got pushed out

Some new Frozen artwork for sale

A two-sided Olaf ceramic ornament was just released

Queue work continues at Peter Pan’s Flight

We thought it would only be at Disneyland, but the Zero popcorn bucket was released at the Magic Kingdom! It costs over $13 but has a light-up nose feature

Strange new t-shirts…

LOVE this new sweatshirt!

Odd new Magic Kingdom shirt

Simple, but nice

Halloween 2014 Duffy

Some of the Haunted Mansion 45th anniversary lithographs have made it to Florida

An awesome new print by Alex Maher

In preparation for “Move It! Shake It! Dance and Play It!”, video screens are being installed on the floats

Moving over to animal Kingdom, it’s still a mess

At least all of the construction walls are decorated now

The UP meet and greet has seen better days

“it’s tough to be a bug” re-opened this weekend

Most of the nets installed to protect guests from falling particles have finally been removed from the queue

There are still nets by the base of the tree, not sure if these will stay here

work is picking up on the new nighttime show, Rivers of Light

The Everest shrine is behind walls and probably will be until the construction is done in late 2015/early 2016

Since one of the Wilderness Explorers’ answers is behind walls, they made a copy and placed it on the walls

The walls wrap around most of the river

We can peek through and see that the construction vehicles are already in place, ready to start working on the show and viewing area

Some sort of new structure is going up by Flame Tree Barbecue

An Oswald Christmas ornament was released

PHOTOS: In-Depth Look at Every Shelf of the Haunted Mansion Store, “Memento Mori” at Magic Kingdom

WDWNT on October 24, 2014

The Haunted Mansion store in Liberty Square finally opened this week, titled Memento Mori. The store will carry some existing Haunted Mansion merchandise, but mostly the over 100 new items for the attraction arriving now at Walt Disney World. WDWNT reporter Joe Hogarty visited the store on Friday and took a TON of photos, so let’s take a tour of the shop and all of the new items:

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The exterior of what was the Yankee Trader and is now Memento Mori

Yes, you can get a lenticular “dying” portrait of yourself for $20

We begin our look around inside the store… try not to drool…

Art and collectibles first

Statues of the busts in the interactive queue

Statues of the busts in the interactive queue

Statues of the busts in the interactive queue

Jim Shore created pieces

Jim Shore created pieces

Art

Art

Examples of the guest lenticular portraits and the frames for sale

Note the new version of the playing cards available

Constance the Bride plush!!!

There’s even stuff for the kids now…

Smaller items

Hitchhiking Ghost Action Figures

Hitchhiking Ghost Action Figures

There’s so much stuff…

The rather plain GHOST HOST hat is a head scratcher…

Apparel and such

New-ish iPhone cases

The popular ghost hearse die-cast vehicle is back after several years off the shelves, you can get the black one here and a white one at Disneyland

Some of the Haunted Mansion merchandise released last year made it into the store

Madame Leota, before she passed away, has a portrait on the wall of her store

Not that the cast members have specific costumes for the store

It’s scary to think that there is even more of this merchandise on the way…

Wine glasses

The infamous urn… you know someone is actually going to put ashes in that…

I can… ONCE I BUY ALL OF THIS!

The plates with the layout of the Haunted Mansion house… if it were a real house with no show building…

Amazing bookends, note that one book is titled “Tales of a Rat”

Bookends

More plateware

Spider-web shelving for the home-goods

Ladies apparel

iPhone 5 accessories

They sell some treats with a Haunted Mansion theme

Spooky green cotton candy

Green and purple popcorn

The Haunted Mansion “Beautifully Disney” line is now out

More for the ladies

Men’s apparel, including a Hatbox Ghost sweatshirt

There is a tie…

Some shelves feature the same merchandise from other areas of the shop, at least until more items arrive

Decals, magnets and window clings

Hitchhiking Ghost iPhone 5 case

Madame Leota iPhone 5 case

A cast member trying to get guests to enter the photo booth a get a portrait made

Hats…

These are insane…

Somehow, not as bad as these… 😉

The store has been very crowded since opening

Thankfully, some of these older items will be sticking around

The sign on the Fantasyland side

Notice Madame Leota in the center of the sign

The sign on the Liberty Square side appears to follow you

Hopefully a template for future attraction shops, Momento Mori offers unique, non-generic, attraction-specific merchandise. We can only hope sales will be strong enough to push forward more creative merchandise and retail spaces for neglected, headliner attractions like the Haunted Mansion.

So… how much are you going to be spending in this shop on your next visit?

Tom Corless & Dirk Wallen’s 10/17/14 WDW Photo Report (Epcot, Magic Kingdom, & Polynesian Village Resort)

WDWNT on October 24, 2014

Myself and WDWNT Reporter Dirk Wallen visited Epcot and the Magic Kingdom this week and has some newsworthy photos to share with you from our trips, so let’s take a look at what’s new:

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Maelstrom is closed for conversion into a Frozen attraction

The sign is gone

Curtains behind all of the doors and windows

The door where the attraction exited into The Fjording is closed

The old Frozen meet and greet once again went behind walls, so we assume this is being converted into a new permanent home for Anna and Else

The Puffin’s Roost sign did return, but has since been taken down

Some new t-shirts for sale at MouseGear

Selfie?

A shirt of hats…

Guests… guests need pants

An iPhone 5 case was released with the vintage EPCOT Center artwork

The Art of Disney now has plated ticket collectibles: The Haunted Mansion E-Ticket

The Jungle Cruise E-Ticket (which has been out for a while)…

And the Magic Kingdom ticket book… there is also a Transportation Ticket, but it was sold out

New holiday big fig

More signature puzzles have been rolled out

New Star Wars laser cels

Now, Dirk takes us to the Polynesian Village Resort

The DVC bungalows are coming along nicely

The DVC wing should open by March 2015

Our latest look at the work in the hub at the Magic Kingdom

Haunted Mansion Dooney & Bourke bags are now readily available at the park

As are these strange shirts in Frontierland…

Under the Sea: Journey of the Little Mermaid in New Fantasyland to Close in Early 2015 for Ride Enhancements

WDWNT on October 24, 2014

If you are visiting Walt Disney World in early 2015 for the first time since New Fantasyland opened only 2 years ago, we may have some pretty bad news for you…

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The Under the Sea: Journey of the Little Mermaid attraction will be closed February 2nd through March 6th, 2015 for an extensive refurbishment in which changes will be made to the attraction similar to those made at Disney California Adventure back in May.

Among the changes made to the California attraction were:

  • A number of static fish figures were added surrounding the first screen featuring Ariel and as well in the tunnel heading towards the Under the Sea sequence.
  • The Under the Sea sequence received the most major changes as it now relies heavily on black light like a traditional Disney dark ride (for example, Peter Pan’s Flight). This was done to make the scene darker and to hide the very visible lighting rigs that more frequent park visitors have complained about.
  • Several other scenes are now relying on black light as well, though it isn’t as noticeable as in Under the Sea. Again, this was to hide infrastructure visible to guests during the ride.

All of these changes and possibly more are expected to be made to the Walt Disney World counterpart.

 

You can see video of the changes made to the California version of the ride in our video:

“Glow with the Show” To Become “Made With Magic”, Interactive Wands, Hats, and Gloves Coming Soon to Disney Parks

WDWNT on October 24, 2014

Goodbye Glow with the Show! Starting with the release of some new interactive, light-up items at Disney Parks, all Glow with the Show technology and the use of it with now be referred to as “Made with Magic”. Shows that offer Glow with the Show currently will be referred to as “Made with Magic” enabled entertainment.

“Made With Magic” items will interact just as Glow with the Show ears have with select experiences at the Disney Parks. The original Glow with the Show ear hat first introduced a few years ago will continue to be offered, but there will also be  new items including a Minnie Mouse-inspired headband, a Mickey Mouse glove, and a magical wand before the end of 2014.

The Sorcerer Mickey wand will have multiple light-up functions and will give guests the ability to change the light patterns of other newly-titled “Made With Magic” items. Guests can also place the Made With Magic items in a color-changing demo mode, when they aren’t watching or near a “Made With Magic”-enabled event.

As with the  ear hat, all Made With Magic items will interact with experiences at Disney Parks around the world regardless of where the items were originally purchased. Each item will have a retail of $25.00.

Guests should look for the Minnie Mouse headband to arrive in late October and early November in select merchandise locations at Disneyland Resort and Walt Disney World Resort. The Mickey Mouse glove and the Sorcerer Mickey wand will be introduced in late November to early December at those same locations.

If you haven’t seen the Glow with the Show ear hats in action at the Disney Parks, we have several videos in which you can see them at work:

Glow with the Show (now “Made with Magic”) interacts with the following entertainment (some items offered seasonally):

Disneyland Resort

  • Magical!
  • Remember, Dreams Come True
  • Fantasmic!
  • World of Color
  • Cars Land (Different areas initiate different colors)

Walt Disney World

  • Wishes!
  • Celebrate the Magic
  • Fantasmic!
  • The Osborne Family Spectacle of Dancing Lights
  • Villainy in the Sky (special events)
  • Frozen Fireworks (special events)
  • Happy HalloWishes
  • Holiday Wishes

SaveSave

RUMOR: Is A Jungle Cruise Store Coming to the Magic Kingdom?

WDWNT on October 24, 2014

Early in the Summer of 2014, we began speculating that a Haunted Mansion store would be coming to Liberty Square at the Magic Kingdom. That rumor did in-fact come to fruition as Memento Mori opened just a few weeks ago, but it seems Disney is happy with the merchandise sales for the attraction specific store, enough so to do the same in Adventureland.

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The possible home of the “Jungle Cruise store”

Disney has already announced that the Twilight Zone Tower of Terror is the next attraction to receive its very own merchandise line in early 2015 (titled “Hollywood Tower Hotel Authentic”), but since that attraction already has an exit shop, there won’t be any construction or downtime related to the rollout of that merchandise.

Suspiciously, the Island Supply Co. store in Adventureland closed this week with little-to-no warning. All signs point towards a Jungle Cruise merchandise line being next after Tower of Terror, and this would just be the perfect location to sell the items since it is fairly close to the attraction. Needless to say, the store will probably stock the incredibly popular Adventureland line of housewares from Marketplace Co-Op, but we should see many new Jungle Cruise (and maybe even Enchanted Tiki Room) specific merchandise items when the store comes back into operation.

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The Adventureland housewares at Marketplace Co-Op

No re-opening date for the store has been posted, nor has Disney made any announcement of a Jungle Cruise merchandise line at this time. Our guess would be that the store will re-open before the end of the year, remodeled and carrying the Adventureland housewares, before the Jungle Cruise items are released sometime in mid/late 2015.

Thinking of the Jungle Cruise and many of the amazing sight-gags and one-liners, we can only imagine all of the merchandise opportunities. What do you think?

Dirk Wallen’s 9/8/14 Magic King Photo Report (& Polynesian Village!)

WDWNT on September 30, 2014

WDWNT Reporter Dirk Wallen visited the Magic Kingdom last week and has some great, newsworthy photos to share with us, so let’s take a look:

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I’m not sure who thought it was a good idea to replace the canopy over the boat dock in the summer…

Halloween party is in full swing already, and the park is decorated for autumn

The furthest edge of the Chapeau façade is being reworked as the corridor behind the building is expected to become a regularly used path every day during parades and fireworks

The re-imagining of the hub at the Magic Kingdom continues

Sweet potato nuggets at Golden Oak are delicious… if it’s actually open

Work continues on the queue at Peter Pan’s Flight

The Seven Dwarfs Mine store is still behind walls

The Astro Orbiter is slowly being put back together and will reopen later this month

The elevator shaft is completely orange

Work continues on the DVC wing and additions at Disney’s Polynesian Village Resort

Guests walking from the TTC will have to take a different path

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Some signs around the resort have the new name and logo

A look at the current progress on the bungalows

Work has begun on the pool area as well

The outdoor Dole Whip service window, Pineapple Lenai opened last week, offering dole whip in a Tiki Room souvenir bowl!

FROZEN Characters (including Olaf) and Castle Lighting Show Coming to Magic Kingdom This Holiday Season

WDWNT on September 30, 2014

Guests visiting the Magic Kingdom during the holiday season in 2014 are going to be in for some Frozen fun…

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Concept Art of Elsa Transforming Cinderella Castle

As we reported a few days ago, Elsa will be “freezing” Cinderella Castle nightly for the lighting show, replacing Cinderella’s Holiday Wish. In addition, Mickey’s Once Upon A Christmastime Parade will see Anna, Elsa, Kristoff, and Olaf added.

Stay tuned for more on this story as it becomes available.

VIDEO: Astro Orbiter Takes New Color-Scheme Out for a Spin at Magic Kingdom

WDWNT on September 30, 2014

ASTRO

The Astro Orbiter has been undergoing a major refurbishment over the last several weeks and is now finally starting to take its very first test spins after being completely ripped down and reassembled. With testing now in full swing, we can get a look at now only the shiny new planets and rings, but also the new teal and red color scheme on the rockets:

These new colors compliment the new color scheme we saw debut at the Peoplemover loading area a few weeks ago when that attraction returned to service.

Here’s what the Astro Orbiter looked like before:

florida_usa_walt_disney_world_894920

What do you think? A positive change?

9/16/14 Walt Disney World Photo Report (Rivers of Light Construction, AVATAR, Polynesian DVC, Magic Kingdom, ETC.)

WDWNT on September 30, 2014

WDWNT Reporters Joe Hogarty and Dirk Wallen have been busy visiting the parks this week and have some great photos from Animal Kingdom and the Magic Kingdom to share with us, so let’s take a look:

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Work continues on the Disney Vacation Club wing at Disney’s Polynesian Village Resort

A look at the current progress on the bungalows

Work is also continuing on the hub project at the Magic Kingdom

The Halloween statues are finally in the hub for this year

Meanwhile, the permanent hub statues have been removed for future construction, but should return next year

Olaf? Kind of looks like Dilbert…

The crane is up behind Cinderella Castle installing Elsa’s magic…

They finally installed a permanent sign telling guests they can see Anna and Elsa in the parade if they don’t want to wait forever

The former Seven Dwarfs Mine shop is still behind walls

The Astro Orbiter wraps up its refurbishment on September 27th

The Disney Vacation Club booth in Tomorrowland is behind walls, hopefully for some fresh paint since bulldozing this would see the removal of the last former ticket booth left inside of the park

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Joe Hogarty visited Animal Kingdom to check out all of the construction happening there

Discovery Island is still quite a mess as they build a new breezeway for easier exiting from the new nighttime show, Rivers of Light

You can see workers out fixing the Tree of Life during the park’s operating hours as they race to meet deadlines

Some of the walls will be up for a few months, so Disney has done their best to make them a good photo-op in some areas

“it’s tough to be a bug” is still closed until September 27th

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Walls up by Flame Tree Barbecue

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Another look at the work on the Tree of Life

Construction has begun on Rivers of Light, the new nighttime show for the park

A large viewing area will be constructed along the section of the Discovery River that separates Dinoland and Asia

It will be at least a good 18 months until you can get those glamor shots of Everest again thanks to the construction walls

But, there’s quality photo-ops like this one…

No Dream Builders signs being used here, “Disney’s animal Kingdom is about to show a whole new side”

There are a lot of walls…

These walls appear along the Theater in the Wild stroller parking path in Dinoland

Another look at the home to Rivers of Light

Shall we peek into AVATAR-land?

Nothing too exciting yet…