Walt Disney’s Enchanted Tiki Room Officially Returns August 15th

WDWNT on August 2, 2011


LAKE BUENA VISTA, Fla. – The Sunshine Pavilion, featuring a show variously known as “Tropical Serenade” and “The Enchanted Tiki Birds,” debuted on Oct. 1, 1971, in Magic Kingdom. In 1998, following substantial refurbishment, it re-launched as The Enchanted Tiki Room-Under New Management, with two famous Disney birds – Iago from Aladdin and Zazu from The Lion King – taking control and trying to spruce up the show.

Now the “new management” has been let go and the future of the Adventureland landmark is in the wings and wit of José, Fritz, Michael and Pierre – four crooning parrot hosts who have been entertaining guests at California’s Disneyland since 1963 in The Enchanted Tiki Room. Walt Disney’s Enchanted Tiki Room, as the Magic Kingdom attraction now will be called, is being prepared for the premiere (tentatively on Aug. 15, 2011) of a show that will pay tribute to the Disneyland original – notable in theme park history for ushering in sophisticated Audio-Animatronics technology.

Prior to 1963, Walt Disney’s creative team had produced movable figures, but none had the sophistication of the bird-brained cast of the Tiki Room. José, Fritz, Michael and Pierre produce movements when solenoid coils hidden inside receive signals recorded onto magnetic tape and are regarded as the first “true” Audio-Animatronics figures.

They introduce a musical presentation by more than 200 birds, flowers and tikis. Even the audience gets into the act, joining in during the musical ditty “Let’s All Sing Like the Birdies Sing.”

While the show is steeped in tradition and maintains the original intent created by Walt Disney and his original team of Imagineers, Walt Disney’s Enchanted Tiki Room will feature the latest in technology – a state of the art show-control system, remastered audio, and a new versatile and energy efficient lighting system.

The attraction has shows throughout Magic Kingdom operating hours.

Kabuki Cafe Opens in the Japan Pavilion

WDWNT on July 31, 2011

From Pam Brandon on the Disney Parks Blog:

On a hot afternoon, nothing is better than a shaved ice, or kakigori, from the little cart in front of the Japan pavilion at Epcot. A brain freeze is inevitable as we slurp the icy, sweet treat.

Now the cart, just reopened this week, has as new name – Kabuki Cafe – and new tastes, the kind of satisfying nibbles you can eat and still stroll.

Delicious salty-sweet tastes for munching and strolling World Showcase Lagoon.The shaved ice still is there, but now the menu includes edamame (steamed soybeans in the pod) and meal-in-a-bowl miso soup, plus sweet plum wine and sake. And smoothie and ice cream cups join the sweet line-up.

More 2011 Epcot Food and Wine Festival Info

WDWNT on July 27, 2011

Disney has released a ton of information on this year’s Epcot International Flower, including the booth menus:

LAKE BUENA VISTA, Fla. – Walt Disney World guests can sip great wines, savor new tastes and enjoy live entertainment all day long as the 16th Epcot International Food & Wine Festival offers a “Passport to a World of Flavors” Sept. 30-Nov. 13.

The 45-day outdoor festival at Disney’s Epcot theme park serves up authentic cuisine; wine, beer and inventive new cocktails; entertainment; and cultural exhibits of more than 25 international regions.  Exotic marketplaces from Hawaii to Portugal offer exciting taste treats.  The festival is believed to be the largest food and wine event of its kind in the world, beginning at the Festival Welcome Center in Future World and fanning around the promenade encircling World Showcase Lagoon.

Here are some facts about the 16th annual event:

  • More than 300 national and international wines
  • 45 fabulous days long
  • More than 76 kinds of international foods, each appetizer-sized portion priced $3-$8
  • 160 of America’s most celebrated chefs and Walt Disney World chefs
  • Over 300 wine and beer seminars
  • More than 1,200 fireworks rockets exploding each night over World Showcase Lagoon in   “IllumiNations: Reflections of Earth”         grand finale to the festival
  • 135 Eat to the Beat! concerts performed
  • 33,000 bottles of wine and champagne
  • 289,000 servings of beer
  • 900,000 sumptuous samplings
  • 338,000 wine glasses
  • 100,000 desserts including freshly baked waffles with berry compote and whipped cream (Belgium marketplace), white chocolate macadamia mousse with dark chocolate pearls (Desserts & Champagne marketplace) and chocolate cannoli (Italy marketplace).
  • 4,000 pounds of lobster for Linda Bean’s Perfect Maine Lobster Rolls and Linda Bean’s Lobster Claw Cuddlers at the Hops & Barley marketplace plus Lobster and Scallop Fisherman’s Pie at the Ireland marketplace.

LAKE BUENA VISTA, Fla. – Seven popular HGTV celebrities will offer the inside scoop on home entertaining at weekend seminars during the 45-day Epcot International Food & Wine Festival running Sept. 30-Nov. 13.  Each Friday, Saturday and Sunday of the festival a top HGTV personality will appear at The Festival Center in Future World to share his or her own secrets to throwing a perfect party.

“Design stars from the network will talk about home entertaining,” said Michael Jenner, festival manager. “Think about the way interior decorators design a room … and imagine that same creative process brought to the dinner table. It’ll be a great way to get ready for all the holidays coming up.”

Here’s the lineup (subject to change):

  • Sept. 30-Oct. 2 – Vern Yip, “HGTV Design Star” and “HGTV Urban Oasis”
  • Oct. 7-9 – Monica Pedersen, “Designed to Sell”
  • Oct. 14-16 – Erin Loechner, “Design Happens”
  • Oct. 21-23 – Taniya Nayak, “Designed to Sell”
  • Oct. 28-30 – Kim Stoegbauer, “On-line Party Inspiration”
  • Nov. 4-6 – Lisa LaPorta, “Designed to Sell”
  • Nov. 11-13 – Emily Henderson, “Secrets From a Stylist” and “HGTV Design Star,” winner Season 5 “Design Star”

The appearances are included with Epcot admission.

LAKE BUENA VISTA, Fla. — Exotic cocktails will pair like a tropical daydream with fresh new tastes from more than one island paradise at the 16th Epcot International Food & Wine Festival Sept. 30-Nov. 13, 2011, at Walt Disney World Resort. The one-of-a-kind 45-day festival serves up international cuisine, culture and entertainment from six continents, with more than 25 international marketplaces featuring tapas-sized portions paired with beer, wine and inventive new cocktails.

Marketplace tasting menus offer variety and adventure for guests on a mission to tantalize their taste buds during a scenic stroll around the 40-acre World Showcase Lagoon. The adventure can take them to the festival’s firstHawaii marketplace, which will cook up Kalua pork sliders and tuna poke with seaweed salad and lotus root chips to team with a refreshing Seven Tiki Mai Tai or a Kona Longboard or Pipeline beer. A new Caribbean Islands marketplace will serve ropa vieja with rice and jerk-spiced chicken with mango salsa. A beverage menu featuring a frozen Dragon Berry Colada and frozen Rock Coconut Mojito is sure to conjure steel-drum fantasies.

With a swing across the Atlantic, guests will be transported to the newPortugal marketplace, where the Portugal Wine Bar will offer best sips to pair with calamari salad with olives and smoked paprika. The Scandinaviamarketplace will return after a hiatus with a fresh new Xante Sunshine cocktail made from Xante pear and cognac liquer. And the Canadamarketplace will introduce a sweet treat: apple ice wine.

Disney and celebrity chefs will team with winemakers and brew masters from around the world to get the party started Sept. 30. During the six-week festival, guests will discover:

  • Three new tasting marketplaces — Hawaii, Caribbean Islands and Portugal — plus new menu offerings at popular returning marketplaces
  • Celebrity chef appearances starring top culinarians like Jeff Henderson, Cat Cora, Alan Wong, Gale Gand, Suvir Saran, Jamie Deen, Rock Harper, Celina Tio, Robert Irvine, Andrew Zimmern, Buddy Valastro, Warren Brown, Art Smith, Keegan Gerhard and more.
  • First-ever HGTV home entertaining seminars each Friday, Saturday and Sunday.
  • The Cranberry Bog display by Craisins telling the story behind the venerable cranberry’s rich agricultural heritage.
  • Daily wine seminars, bottle signings, author events and culinary demonstrations at the Festival Welcome Center.
  • Eat to the Beat! concerts three times nightly at America Gardens Theatre.

New Sips, Fresh Bites

Festival guests can make a day of circumnavigating the World Showcase Promenade, grazing and sipping as they go. Tapas-sized portions of regional specialties run $3 to $8 each, and recommended wines, cocktails and beers make perfect pairings at each marketplace. For quicker marketplace visits, guests can purchase a festival-themed mini-Disney Gift Card that can be worn on a wristband and loaded and reloaded at several park locations.

Live daily entertainment showcases many cultures with music, acrobatics and improv performances along the promenade. Evening Eat to the Beat! concerts at America Gardens Theatre feature acts from many musical genres. Appearing for the first time on the Eat to the Beat! stage are The Pointer Sisters, The Orchestra starring former members of ELO and Gin Blossoms. Fan favorite Taylor Dayne kicks off the festival Sept. 30-Oct. 2, and crowd pleaser Big Bad Voodoo Daddy wraps the event Nov. 11-13.

The festival attracts a diverse audience — from wine connoisseurs and epicures to novices wishing to boost their culinary IQs. Special culinary programs showcase a lineup of renowned winemakers, guest chefs and speakers participating in elegant dinners, luncheons, seminars and wine schools.

Festival highlights include:

  • The Festival Welcome Center, with a Wine Bar, Authentic Taste Seminars, Authors Without Borders weekend conversations and more.
  • More than 270 chefs including Disney chefs and culinary stars from across the country conducting culinary demonstrations and hosting dinners and tasting events.
  • A complimentary Marketplace Discovery Passport to be stamped at each international marketplace visited for the perfect scrapbook souvenir.
  • Popular returning events that include First Bites Opening Reception on Sept. 29; Kitchen Memories (formerly Celebrating Family and Friends in the Kitchen); Mixology Seminar; and “3D” Disney Dessert Discovery.
  • The weekly Party for the Senses grand tasting event beginning Oct. 8 and with a new Saturday evening time of 7:30-10 p.m. featuring tempting bites from eminent chefs, more than 50 wines and beers and live entertainment presented by Cirque du Soleil.

Festival guests can enjoy fresh Epcot experiences including the latest Future World high-tech fun at Innoventions and the celebrated return of “Captain EO,” the classic musical 3-D production starring Michael Jackson in a rare big-screen performance. In World Showcase, new and recently updated restaurants welcome guests at the Italy, Japan, Mexico and China pavilions.

The 2011 event guide, including the offerings at each booth, can be found here. Bon appetite!

ESPN: The Weekend Going Back, Back, Back… GONE!

WDWNT on July 23, 2011

From Darrell Fry on the Disney Parks Blog:

One thing that’s always struck me is our commitment to regularly reviewing the experiences we provide to our guests and challenging ourselves to bring new opportunities to life. Occasionally, this results in something coming to an end, as is the case with what I’m sharing today. In order to focus our efforts on ESPN’s growing year-round presence at Walt Disney World Resort, we have decided to no longer host ESPN The Weekend.

As you may know, the event was first created in 2004 in support of ESPN’s 25th anniversary and, along with ESPN Club, served as ESPN’s first significant presence here. While the event has continued for seven more successful years, our relationship with ESPN has evolved significantly and positively. This has resulted in new branding for the ESPN Wide World of Sports Complex, new opportunities for millions of athletes, coaches and fans, and hundreds of hours of ESPN programming, making our guests part of the show. In addition, the sports complex has become home to the ESPN Innovation Lab, which is the official development hub for ESPN’s 3D network.

Moving forward, our focus will be on creating events like the new ESPN RISE Girls Showcase and the ESPN RISE Games, which provide a stage for tens of thousands of athletes from around the country, and providing opportunities for guests to be part of events they’ve only before watched on television, such as the Home Depot College Football Awards and the Old Spice Classic.

We have just scratched the surface of what Walt Disney World and ESPN can do together and look forward to sharing information about new projects as they progress.

Lightning McQueen Races into “Lights, Motors, Action!”

WDWNT on July 21, 2011

Lightning McQueen from the Disney-PIXAR Cars series finally debuted in the “Lights, Motors, Action!” Extreme Stunt Show at Disney’s Hollywood Studios on Tuesday. WDWNT Reporter Adam roth was on the scene and has video to share of the new scene that replaces the Herbie the Love Bug sequence:

One Man’s Dream Now Provides An In-Depth Look at Fantasyland Expansion

WDWNT on July 20, 2011

WDWNT Reporter Adam Roth visited Disney’s Hollywood Studios yesterday to catch Lightning McQueen’s debut in Lights, Motors, Action!. While he was there, Adam checked out Walt Disney: One Man’s Dream to see if some of the updated exhibits had finally been installed. Well, they finally have:

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The Shaghai Disney Resort is already being previewed

Walt Disney Imagineering is responsible for the new Resort previews

A brief description of the Resort

The concept art we have seen already

Some Fantasyland exhibits were already here

The new exhibit is suspended on the wall above the display case

A compilation of Fantasyland concept art including Enchanted Tales with Belle, The Great Goofini, Gaston’s Tavern, Princess Fairytale Hall, and Dumbo the Flying Elephant

An overall look at the display

A monitor has also been installed which shows an in-depth look at Under the Sea: Journey of the Little Mermaid. Here’s video of the monitor loop:

Concept art for Scuttle’s Scavenger hunt can be found in the new video loop

Looks like guests will de deciphering some kind of code

In this artwork, guests find items washing up on the beach

Here we see a close-up of Scuttle who we assume will be a living character in audio-animatronics form

For the first time, we have a name and another look at the proposed shop across from the Mermaid attraction, Triton’s Treasures. We can also see the Ariel meet and greet area labeled as Ariel’s Grotto.

For more information on the Fantasyland Expansion as it becomes available, stay tuned to WDW News Today and WDWFantasyland.com!