D-Living at Disney Springs has brought out a brand new summer collection. The theme for this season is ‘outdoor summer.’ Here are some photos below to take a look at what is in store when you visit:
This collection is now available at D-Living in the Town Center at Disney Springs.
Many years ago, guests at the then Disney-MGM Studios could enjoy a drink high above a soundstage in the Catwalk Bar, an elevated establishment located above the Soundstage Restaurant. The bar was closed along with the Soundstage Restaurant in the late-1990’s to make way for the various Disney Junior shows that have occupied that space since. Well, the Catwalk Bar might be returning in some form…
The Catwalk Bar at the Disney-MGM Studios
With Club 33 announcing that they would open locations in each Disney World theme park, the Soundstage Restaurant seems like a good location. It’s elevated and relatively private, connected to the kitchen of a signature dining experience in the Brown Derby, and has that cool-factor of being in a beloved, forgotten location.
The former entrance to the Catwalk Bar adjacent to the Brown Derby
If this is the space, it is likely that Disney Junior would have to move elsewhere or close (or maybe become a dance party in a new location, similar to changes made at California Adventure).
The elevator and stairs to the Catwalk Bar, now suddenly boarded-up
This is purely speculation at this point, but the staircase and elevator inside of the Brown Derby which led to the Catwalk Bar are walled-off all of a sudden and some sort of work is clearly happening there.
Beginning August 20th, 2017, the Magic Kingdom will no longer present a 3:00 parade…
The Disney Festival of Fantasy Parade will be presented at 2:00pm daily starting August 20th. This appears to be a permanent change.
No reason for the change has been given, but the Paint the Night Electrical Parade coming to the Magic Kingdom could be the reason. The park would need more time between the entertainment offerings considering how popular Happily Ever After is and how popular the Paint the Night Parade would be (should it be moving, still a rumor at this point).
For only 2 nights, June 2nd and June 3rd, the West Side Neighborhood behind Cirque Du Soleil at Disney Springs will have a wide array of select food trucks from Central Florida for a food truck rally.
Here are the food trucks that will be available:
It has been a while since we have seen any major changes in the Hollywood Studios landscape, but now with the expansion of Disney’s Animal Kingdom complete, it’s full speed ahead to Toy Story Land and the much-anticipated Star Wars themed land.
We have a video of all of the construction to share with you below, but we’ll then share pictures and give you a more in-depth description of the work following that.
We start over by MuppetVision 3-D…
The former Writer’s Stop has been stripped down to its bare steel.
A lot of work now happening in the area the was New York Street.
The barrier of Star Wars Land is just steps away, still rising.
A look from the balcony of PizzeRizzo doesn’t reveal much.
Most of the facade of Walt Disney: One Man’s Dream is covered with tarps, with the image of Walt removed from the marquee.
The backside of the marquee is completely gone.
This area will be the entrance to Toy Story Land, but it remains unclear how this transition will work.
For now, it appears that these original structures from 1989 will survive the demolition.
At the end of PIXAR Place, the walls are now appropriately Star Wars-related, as Toy Story Land is not actually located on this side. The walls also extended right up to the exit of the 3rd track at Toy Story Midway Mania.
The walls feature the artwork for Star Wars Land, but it is strangely not-centered and instead located in an alley behind some trees.
A cast member access pathway is all that is down this alleyway.
As always, stay tuned for more updates on the expansion of Disney’s Hollywood Studios as it progresses.
A bunch of Pandora merchandise just landed at DisneyStore.com, including the Limited Edition ACE-branded MagicBand 2, three Limited Release T-Shirts, and much more!
First is the ACE-branded Magic Band 2, in a Limited Edition of 2000. Retail is $32.99 and is limited to one per person.
A collection of three Limited Release shirts, one for kids, one for women, and one for adults, is also available. The Disney Parks Limited Release Buy One Get One 40% Off promotion is applicable to these shirts. They are only available for two weeks, through June 7, 2017.
Four open-edition pins, a lanyard, and a lanyard medal are also available for the pin collectors out there. Sadly there is no Vinylmation…
There is also quite a bit of additional merchandise from the park available online, including shirts, hats, mugs, a beach towel, the woven throw, and the Na’vi translator and translation card packs. In total, 40 items are now available online.
As of the time of writing, these items are not featured on the DisneyStore.com homepage. You actually have to go to the Disney Parks menu item, and under the Collections heading will be the link for Pandora: The World of Avatar.
Amusingly, if you just go to DisneyStore.com and type “Pandora” in the search box, you get no Avatar merchandise, just jewelry and charms.
Even if you type “Pandora The World of Avatar” the first two search results are a charm and a bracelet.
You actually have to type “Pandora World Avatar” to get the parks merchandise without having to wade through expensive beads.
The Windtraders shop in Pandora: The World of AVATAR at Disney’s Animal Kingdom has some rather unique merchandise experiences, one of which is the ability to adopt a “Shoulder Banshee” creature to bring back with you to Earth.
These creatures are available near the front of the shop after you wait in a small queue area for your turn to make an adoption. Interested guests are then brought closer to the perches where dozens of the Ikran sit (Ikran is what the Na’vi call these creatures). Guests are given a few moments to pick out a Banshee that “speaks to them” (you can try a few on and test the controls until you are happy with one), then you can choose to adopt and take a pledge to do so. You can see us go through this entire process in our video below:
Once the oath is taken, guests may purchase (or adopt) the creature, and a display perch at an additional charge. The price to adopt a Banshee is $49.99 and no discounts of any kind are applicable. Perches for the Banshees are $14.95 and can be discounted (annual pass, cast member, etc.). Perches are obviously not a mandatory purchase with any Banshee.
Why are these so cool? As illustrated in the video above, the creatures have three ranges of motion (wing-flap, head turn, and mouth movement) and also have sound effects. On top of that, they are just a really neat thing to wear on your shoulder and certainly garner a lot of attention around the parks (at least during these early days of their existence). Cast Members on Pandora are very receptive to those wearing the creatures, and we saw some really cute interactions during our previews, especially with younger guests.
The Banshee stay attached to you via magnets underneath, with a magnetic pad provided that you can put under the shoulder of your shirt to hold them in place above it. I was worried that they would easily fall off, but they stay on there pretty well. The magnetic pad for under your shirt and a belt clip for the controller are provided upon purchase. The Banshee can also be boxed upon purchase should you decide that you don’t want to wear it just yet (or ever, I suppose).
Magnetic shoulder harness
The motion is all accomplished by a pneumatic control connected via a black wire to the back of the creature. The control is probably my only grievance with the piece, as it can be a bit hard to use at times, especially for children, but it’s not enough to not want to take one of these guys home with you.
I did buy the perch as well (for both of my adoptions), which is really great for home display. The long cord connected to the Banshee is held nicely underneath the stand, and there is even a place to lock in the controller on the back, out of sight. I highly recommend this if you will want to display it at home.
Once Pandora: The World of Pandora opens on May 27th, 2017, don’t be surprised if you start seeing these shoulder Banshees all over the Walt Disney World Resort.
Disney has released some interesting videos amidst the media-blitz for the opening of Pandora: The World of AVATAR.
First up, a video which includes the first ride footage released for AVATAR Flight of Passage:
Second, here’s a look at James Cameron and AVATAR-star Sigourney Weaver riding the Navi River Journey:
Located in the Windtraders shop in Pandora: The World of AVATAR at Disney’s Animal Kingdom, guests have the opportunity to be turned into an action figure in the AVATAR Maker experience.
This large kiosk towards the center of the shop is home to the service, offering two stations back-to-back.
The stations are intriguing and hard to miss, so expect to hear a lot of guests asking what this is every time you visit the store.
Several pre-made figures are on display around the space.
Nearby, accessories are sold for the figures. These items can be discounted (annual pass, cast member, etc.).
So, how does the process work? Well, you begin by going to the podium outside of the ACE AVATAR Maker kiosk inside of Windtraders. Once you make a reservation (provided they are available), you then get an RFID enabled card and proceed to paying for the service. The price point is $79.99 and no discounts are applicable, similar to the shoulder Banshee experience.
After you pay, just return to the podium when your reservation rolls around and the cast members will take it from there. After scanning, it does take some time for your AVATAR figure to be made, so you will have to return to Windtraders once again.
The process of scanning your face is simple, but the cast members make it a show experience, playing up story elements and the process as creating your own real-life AVATAR, rather than just an action figure. The scanning doesn’t take long at all and is over in seconds, but the process can take a few minutes between the cast member hamming it up and the guest choosing the body type, hair style, eye color, and facial stripe pattern for their AVATAR.
We recorded video of myself going through the entire process, from sign-up, to scanning, to receiving the figure with my face on it. You can watch the entire experience below:
As you can see in the video, the pick-up process is pretty neat and completes the process with a simple yet effective finale. Kids will be blown away by the tech involved in my estimation, but maybe quite a few parents as well. Figures are typically completed 45 minutes to an hour after you sit in the chair, but not could be longer depending on how busy it is on a given day.
The retrieval station in Windtraders draws a lot of attention even when it isn’t in use, so expect a lot of guests to be watching you play with this thing when you pick up your AVATAR.
The figure doesn’t really have much of your likeness honestly, just the basic shape of your face essentially. Otherwise, you are customizing the remainder of the figure. Since the AVATAR’s in the film also only have a facial resemblance to their host, I guess this makes sense.
The figures are of a good quality and come in a rather nice display tube.
We did have some issues in that the hair that came out was not what I picked, but I didn’t want to wait any longer to get it fixed so I decided not to complain about it. Otherwise, everything was as ordered.
Overall, the ACE AVATAR Maker isn’t the best souvenir available on Pandora, but it does offer quite the experience. I could see a younger guest finding the process fun and thinking that an action figure with their face on it is just about thew coolest thing ever. If the cast member is half as into it as the one that helped me through the process, then I think kids would have an experience that they would never forget and a nice souvenir to remember their time on Pandora. While I still think that adopting a Banshee is a somewhat cooler offering and toy, the AVATAR Maker is also quite unique and memorable, another positive evolution in Disney theme park merchandise.
Now when do I get to be a Star Wars action figure? I HAVE TO WAIT UNTIL 2019???
You may remember that we were not enamored with our first visit to the Daily Poutine at Disney Springs, finding many of the offerings to be lackluster. While this first experience doesn’t leave us rushing back, we did once we saw a new offering at this outdoor stand.
Cheeseburger Poutine, The Daily Poutine at Disney Springs
So, you know that we had to try this, so let’s see how it was…
Cheeseburger Poutine, The Daily Poutine at Disney Springs
Crisp fries topped with ground beef, beer cheese sauce, lettuce, tomato, onion, house-made pickles, mayo, mustard, and ketchup. Finished with fried cheese curds.
The cheese curds are fried as compared to the usual melted cheese on the other dishes here. There’s a great tasting beer cheese slathered across the fries before any of the other toppings are applied, so it has time to soak up into the fries before you bit into them.
The beef is ground and mixed with onions, giving a nice hamburger meat flavor (which you might expect with something that has cheeseburger in the name). There’s ketchup and mustard and all of the cheeseburger essentials, so it’s kind-of-like Canadian and American foods had a cheesy baby.
They’re able to accommodate and remove toppings if needed or wanted as well, just in case there’s a few things in here that you may not want.
This is the perfect mix of comfort foods and far-and-away the best option at the Daily Poutine. Give it a try the next time you are looking for a snack at Disney Springs!
