Video Walkthrough of Town Square Theater

WDWNT on March 31, 2011

WDWNT Reporter Banks Lee visited Town Square Theater at the Magic Kingdom during it’s soft opening on March 30th and has a video walkthrough of the experience in both the Mickey and Princess meet and greets:

Town Square Theater Soft-Opens to Guests!

WDWNT on March 31, 2011

Town Square Theater on Main Street U.S.A. at the Magic Kingdom held some soft openings yesterday to welcome the very first guests to the new homes of Mickey Mouse and the Disney Princesses. We have a ton of photos from WDWNT Reporters Robert Ashburn and Taylor Martina to share with you. Keep in mind that they both made several trips through the lines at the new location, so these photos are presented in the order they were taken. Basically, you will see that we go in circles from entrance, to meet and greet, to entrance over and over again. We would have attempted to sort all of these photos together in order, but we really wanted to get this information out to you as soon as possible. Without any further ado, here is an in-depth look at Town Square Theater:

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Wait times sign for Mickey inside. Don’t expect to see this wait very often…

Read More about Town Square Theater Soft-Opens to Guests!

Town Square Theater’s Magical Transformation – Inside and Out

WDWNT on March 26, 2011

WDWNT Reporter Banks Lee visited The Magic Kingdom yesterday and took some great pictures of some newly revealed details at Town Square Theater on Main Street U.S.A.:

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Banners for the Princesses and Magician Mickey are now up outside

The sign that was installed a few weeks ago

The Princesses will be living here until at least late 2012

This will be Mickey’s permanent home

Wait time signs await activation

Inside, work is wrapping up

A beautiful tile mural wrapping the new area into the Main Street story has been revealed

Signage directs guests to the three separate venues. The theater entrance is the gateway to the meet and greet experiences

Tony’s Town Square restaurant has reconfigured their waiting area so a line does not flow into the center of the new lobby that will now be pretty busy

This area is Box Office Gifts. There is a sign outside for a “Curtain Call Collectibles”, which we assume is another shop at the exit of the meet and greets

The Town Square Theater is officially opening on April 1st, so stay tuned to WDW News Today as we keep you up-to-date on this exciting project!

Magician Mickey to Appear at Town Square Theater

WDWNT on March 24, 2011

From the Disney Parks Blog:

At the Disney Parks Blog, we’re as excited as you are to learn more about Walt Disney Imagineering’s (WDI) plans for Town Square Theater, the new permanent home for Mickey Mouse at Magic Kingdom Park that’s set to debut in early April.

I’m happy to report that earlier today, WDI gave us an earful – pun intended – on the details planned for this exciting new meet-and-greet area.

In keeping with the small-town theme of Main Street, U.S.A., Town Square Theater will take on the tradition of turn-of-the-Twentieth-century theaters that served as the center of excitement in small towns, offering thrills through vaudeville and other forms of entertainment. At Town Square Theater, families will be able to go backstage to meet Magician Mickey Mouse, who is excited to meet and greet guests in his rehearsal room.

And of course, WDI has designed the entire experience to be magical. Guests will first enter the theater building through a lobby that will serve as a hub for character meet-and-greet queues, the Box Office Gifts merchandise shop and Tony’s Town Square Restaurant.

According to WDI Concept Designer Jason Grandt, the lobby will be decorated in gold and cream colors that were chosen to recreate the feel of a historic theater.

“Upon entering the lobby, guests will be faced with a beautiful tile mosaic featuring the Town Square Theater logo,” Jason said. “The color scheme reflects that of historical theaters with a little inspiration from our master magician, Mickey Mouse.”

Just beyond the lobby, guests will pass through an ornate arch and enter a queue to meet either Magician Mickey Mouse or the Disney princesses. Special interactive posters featuring Mickey’s various magic acts will be in place to enhance the guests’ journey through the queue line, which will take them deep into the backstage corridors of the theater.

“You will recognize the poster style as that of turn-of-the-century magicians such as Houdini,” Jon Georges, WDI director/senior show producer said. “But these posters carry Mickey’s magical touch that can bring them to life and interact with you as you wait.”

WDI is keeping us guessing on what comes next, but did send these mysterious photos for us to share.

 

Two Videos of the Haunted Mansion Interactive Queue

WDWNT on March 22, 2011

We thought we should share two interesting videos of the new interactive queue at the Magic Kingdom’sHaunted Mansion today. The first video was posted on the Disney Parks Blog back on March 15th and features a wonderful behind the scenes look at the project:

The second video is the latest “Tom’s Trips” production from the WDWNTube. Since I was lucky enough to experience the queue, I took some video of myself and Brandon Struve walking through it. The video I took in the queue can be seen in the middle of the video. I warn you it is not the most professional video, but just a little something I captured while winding through this amazing new experience: