Robert Ashburn’s 4/19/12 Hollywood Studios Photo Report

WDWNT on December 15, 2012

WDWNT Reporter Robert Ashburn visited Disney’s Hollywood Studios yesterday and has some newsworthy photos to share with us:

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The Sorcerer topiary is still out front

Wait times were fairly average

Temporary lighting structures still up

The temporary stage is gone though, even though it will probably return for Star Wars Weekends in a month…

The studio gate booth is still missing

The DVC logo was updated on this booth

The Hunger Games is being sold at the Writer’s Stop… it’s right above John Carter, just like at the box office…

The logo was updated on this window display as well… the Disneyland attraction posters are a nice touch

Plenty of Phineas and Ferb merchandise in Stage 1

Some fairly new Muppet shirts on sale as well

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Time for something new already…

The sign on the Indiana Jones Epic Stunt Spectacular was replaced a few weeks ago and it looks great!

Time for an emotional stop

A makeshift memorial to Dick Clark forming

His legacy lives on…

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The Legacy Continues section of One Man’s Dream has some new park wall displays

The last Narnia sign is finally gone! YAY!

“The Legend of Jack Sparrow” Opening This Fall at Disney’s Hollywood Studios

WDWNT on December 15, 2012

As mysterious as Jack Sparrow himself, the latest issue of the Mickey Monitor passholder publication includes details and the first formal announcement of what we assume to be the replacement for the Narnia walkthrough experience at Disney’s Hollywood Studios. The most intriguing part is that some passholders have already been mailed this particular issue, but the page with this story was noticeably missing. Regardless, the story is out there now and the Mickey Monitor had plenty to say on the new addition:

Opening this summer at Disney’s Hollywood Studios, The Legend of Captain Jack Sparrow has elicited something of a legend of its own. The word around the Parks is that this mysterious new attractionwill be a first-of-it’s-kind sensory experience in which guests will have a chance to be enveloped by the world of the Pirates of the Caribbeanas seen in the four feature films. Sounds intriguing.

To find out more, we had a chance for a friendly “parley” with Jason Roberts, Walt Disney Imagineering Project Manager and Show Producer for the new attraction. “This is going to be an immersive experience,” Jason told us. “We’ll really delve into the story of Captain Jack Sparrow and put our Guests in the middle of it all in new and exciting ways.

“Story is always the most important thing for us at Walt Disney Imagineering,” Jason continued. “But we’re always looking at new ways to tell the story that our Guests have never seen before. In this attraction, we’ll let you walk in the footsteps of Jack Sparrow. “It’s not ‘the making of’, not ‘behind the scenes’…it is really a firstperson experience.”

Jason wouldn’t divulge any of the state-of-the-art special effect trickery used in the attraction, but he did assure us that the attraction is certain to elicit a “Wow! How’d they do that?” from our Guests. A long-time fan of the Pirates of the Caribbean attraction and films, Jason was delighted at his shot to work on the attraction. “We worked with the archives as well as the filmmakers while they were shooting the last movie,” Jason said. “And as a fan, I just loved sitting through those films again and again, going through all the details and leveraging them for this new experience. It’s really been a blast.”

The most interesting part is that it sounds like this is more than just a simple walkthrough attraction and clip show (unlike the two Narnia attractions before it). A Pirates of the Caribbean attraction where guests can see actual movie props and get their fill of the infamous Jack Sparrow sounds like a home-run to me, but what do you think?

UPDATE: Disney has since confirmed this attraction, but it will open this Fall, not during the course of the Summer.

John Corigliano’s 3/23-25/12 WDW Photo Report

WDWNT on September 8, 2012

WDWNT Reporter John Corigliano visited the Walt Disney World Resort this weekend and has some newsworthy photos to share with us, so let’s take a look:

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MORE CIRCUS PHOTOS!

Can’t get enough of these shirts

New character shirts

The back

On to Disney’s Hollywood Studios, here’s another look at the Brave exhibit at Magic of Disney Animation

Monsters University billboard

Wreck-It Ralph poster

The remodeled Storyroom

Still no Narnia replacement… and I’m fine with that…

Only 90 minutes…

Splash fountain is being refurbished

Cars meet and greet has had short lines recently

Phineas and Ferb has long lines all the time

The Art of Animation sign is in place along the road

Both hands on the wheel John…

Habit Heroes is still closed

Someone is up in that window…

The Honeymooners? WHY?

Awwww…

Tick… tock…

This is one nerdy reptile… we named him fanboy

“Horizons was the greatest thing EVER!”

Land accross from the site of the new Grand Floridian DVC wing is being cleared, probably for parking

1/13/12 WDW Photo Report

WDWNT on July 27, 2012

WDWNT Reporter visited the Magic Kingdom and Disney’s Hollywood Studios on Friday the 13th, so get ready for a not-so-spooky look at what’s new in the parks:

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A new Sorcerers of the Magic Kingdom window has appeared under the Main Street train station

Some new wall art was added to the Town Square Theater queue

Very creative

I think we’re going to see an elephant fly!

There he goes

He seems happy about it

Moving on to Studios

A look at the wait times

The stage is still up in front of the Sorcerers Hat

A pretty long wait for Star Tours

Most of the Muppetvision posters were replaced with posters for  The Muppets

The lenticular Muppets poster was also replaced inside the pre-show area

Osborne Lights are being taken down

Some Narnia props were moved to the Backlot Tour

The Block Party Bash cones are still sitting back here

The old fire truck that used to be located near the exit of Muppetvision 3-D was restored and is now along the Backlot tour route

Some minor changes over at the Magic of Disney Animation

The animation studio theme is being embraced with new signage

There is a campus map as if it were a real studio

Journey Into Narnia….Finally

WDWNT on June 24, 2008

The Journey Into Narnia: Prince Caspian exhibit at Disney’s Hollywood Studios has finally opened for some previews before it opens officially this Friday. Studios Central picked up some great photos of what can now be considered the park’s newest attraction, and you can see them all HERE.

Predicting The Future With a Doctor and a Prince

WDWNT on May 16, 2008

The next two weeks of business at your local box office may be determining the future of your favorite Disney Parks and your future vacations. Disney management will be closely watching the performance of two summer blockbusters over the next two weeks, The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian and Indiana Jones and The Kingdom of the Crystal Skull.

For the Narnia series, everything is riding on this weekend and the latest film’s success. If the film doesn’t perform as well as the Walt Disney Company is hoping, we may have seen the last or next-to-last Narnia film. Whether or not that takes place, a decision will be made soon on the now-in-developement Narnia 3-D attraction being planned for Disney’s Hollywood Studios and Disney’s California Adventure. If the film shows strong results, then expect the new Narnia 3-D show to debut at both parks around Summer 2010.

As far as Dr. Jones is concerned, Disney is dying to know if Indy can still swing some good box office numbers after 19 years of script battles between George Lucas and Steven Spielberg. If Indiana Jones does as well as many are expecting it to do, I would expect a green light for the long in development Indiana Jones Adventure (same name as Disneyland attraction, but extremely different beyond that), an updated Indiana Jones Epic Stunt Spectatular, or both. Be sure to keep an eye on box office results the next two weeks, because the newest attractions at Walt Disney World are riding on it.