PHOTOS, VIDEO: Port Orleans Mardi Gras Parade 2017 Features Monorail, Peoplemover, & More

Yesterday, the Port Orleans Resort Hotels at Walt Disney World held their annual celebration of Mardi Gras on Fat Tuesday with a parade. The event started at 10AM and winded from Riverside down to French Quarter. Cast members and their invited guests showed off some fantastic cart creations in the parade, including a Monorail, a Walt Disney World Railroad Train, and even a Steamboat with a working paddlewheel! Take a look:

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The theme this year was transportation, offering all sorts of imaginative vehicles.

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The parade ended with a visit from Tiana in a horse-drawn carriage.

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Happy Mardi Gras!

PHOTO REPORT: The Magic Kingdom 2/13/17 (Walls Everywhere, Tomorrowland Overhaul, Beauty and the Beast, ETC.)

Our latest photo report brings us to the Magic Kingdom as many refurbishments and enhancements continue through the less busy weeks of the year.

Welcome to the Magic Kingdom

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Work continues on the Magic Kingdom monorail station (and it remains open thankfully).

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Work continues on the Magic Kingdom train station.

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The Emporium remains open while work is done to the exterior.

Tomorrowland In Progress Today

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Sadly, the new paint scheme on the Tomorrowland rocks is already peeling.

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There are now Toy Story Snuggle Snappers for sale.

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Work continues on the rumored Joffrey’s Coffee location in Tomorrowland.

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Just a few days ago, there was just a foundation behind those walls.

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The Cool Ship has reopened, but the Cool Scanner remains under refurbishment.

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The exterior painting on Space Mountain continues.

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A look down at just the foundation for the coffee stand.

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The Cool Ship is looking good after its short refurbishment.

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Apparently, the guest relations location in Tomorrowland is still a thing, there was just no one working there the last time we visited.

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Some Beauty and the Beast phone case designs can now be found at the D-Tech on Demand kiosks here.

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As you can see, it was open again. I’m guessing they were understaffed the last time we visited.

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The refurbishment of Cosmic Ray’s Starlight Cafe is underway, with the restrooms closed for remodeling.

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This kid asked me why the bathrooms are closed. I responded, “Kid, have you eaten here?”

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I’m not sure if it was done recently, but I noticed the old multicolored covering on the benches was gone and there was a new paint scheme on the walls.

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There is now a FuelRod kiosk inside of Cosmic Ray’s. The convenience continues to grow as you can find many of these in each park now.

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The work on the exterior has many of the windows covered.

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If you couldn’t tell, it is really dark inside right now.

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The work outside is to add more covered seating areas.

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Beauty and the Beast Taking Over

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I found the Beauty and the Beast MagicBand at the Magic Kingdom. It’s not the best one I’ve seen…

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Bonjour Village Gifts is now selling tons of merchandise from the new movie.

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Including the Belle doll which most think looks more like Justin Bieber in a dress…

This and That

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I’m no fan of Pinocchio Village Haus, but closing at 6pm seems a bit early. Even the @WDWToday twitter account tweeted at 6pm the other day that you should go eat here, but it was closed already…


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Inside, the electronic menu boards have been covered for a while, with these static signs placed over them for now.

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There are now candy-filled lightsabers for sale at the parks.

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Filled with off-brand M&M’s…

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You can get blue or red, but clearly the red is more popular.

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A new mug for sale in the Emporium.

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I thought it was neat that it has an emoji of the castle underneath instead of the usual logo.

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Pecos Bill’s has become my favorite quick service lunch spot over the last year. It seems this is where I end up every time there’s not something new to order elsewhere in the park.

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The new kid’s nachos dish is a pretty good value, and you can load it up as much as you want at the fixin’s bar.

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The taller trees on the riverbank were removed to help with the sight-lines for Tiana’s Riverboat Party.

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As you can see, this new, smaller tree was just planted.

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All sorts of emergency walkways and exits around the parks seems to be getting much brighter LED lighting for nighttime.

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Seen here, the stairway at the dock is brighter than the lights on the Riverboat.

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Tomorrowland Tonight

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The nighttime lighting on the Tomorrowland rocks looks great as it reflects off the water and makes a wave effect.

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New lighting was installed on the Progress City model along the Peoplemover and it looks great.

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Just two days later, the entire Joffrey’s Coffee kiosk was there (sorry for the blurry pics, but best I could do).

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Goodbye…

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The Wishes! poster acts as a decent reminder when you leave that you only have a few weeks left to see this legendary show.

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

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:

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What do you think? A positive change?

John Corigliano's 8/11/14 Magic Kingdom Photo Report (Peoplemover, Hub Construction, ETC.)

WDWNT Reporter John Corigliano visited the Magic Kingdom this weekend and has some newsworthy photos to share with us from his trip, so let’s take a look at what’s new:

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A Stitch photo-op is up on construction walls near Tomorrowland

Alright…

The Peoplemover has returned from refurbishment

Besides some new paint, not much has changed on the Peoplemover, but we still have a video ride-thru to share with you today

This side of the Astro Orbiter elevator shaft has still not been painted

Work continues on the expansion of the Hub

As you can see, an orange and red paint scheme has taken over the entrance and the center of the structure

Some of the painting hasn’t been finished yet

A look at the other side of the Astro Orbiter elevator shaft, painted orange now

Most of the Astro Orbiter is still missing

6/24/14 Walt Disney World Photo Report (Polynesian Resort, Magic Kingdom, & Animal Kingdom)

WDWNT Reporters Joe Hogarty and John Corigliano visited Disney’s Polynesian Resort, the Magic Kingdom, and Disney’s animal kingdom over the last few days and have plenty of exciting pictures to share with us, so let’s take a look:

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Concept art for the changes at the Polynesian are decorating the walls that cover up the work in the lobby

The entrance to what will be the Disney Vacation Club wing

TRADER SAM’S!!!

Another look at the DVC building

The new look lobby in the Great Ceremonial House

Captain Cook’s new look

Seating area by the outside pool bar

More Trader Sam’s

Captain Cook’s is still closed

Work outside the arrival area at the Great Ceremonial House

A look at the bungalows

Moving to the Magic Kingdom, Anna and Elsa now meet on one side of Fairytale Hall alone, they are also no longer posing with each other

Plenty of Frozen merchandise inside Sir Mickey’s

If you’re afraid of your children going deaf from loud music, buy these

This store really needs a name change… Sir Mickey’s has nothing but female character merchandise

A long line to buy Frozen merchandise…

The Astro Orbiter and the TTA are both closed for refurbishment

The entire Astro Orbiter has been dismantled

Work continues on the massive hub overhaul at the Magic Kingdom

The Gaston fountain is starting to look a little funky… not sure if they’ll leave it for the more realistic look

Aurora now greeting guests next door to City Hall

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Moving over to Animal Kingdom, there are walls up all over the park

The KODAK sign is still up…

Walls near Flame Tree Barbecue

The gate along the path from Asia to Africa, has been demolished…

Maybe a new pathway?

Walls up on Discovery Island

Walls up in Africa where the new pathway should lead

The construction area for the path goes very close to the Wildlife Express Train tracks

The path would go around Tamu Tamu Refreshments and the adjacent seating area

Thanks for the report John and Joe!

Maintaining Orbit

In a very interesting turn of events, it seems rumors are floating around saying that the Astro Orbitor will be removed sometime before the summer season arrives. The reasoning for this seems to be maintenance issues, that for some reason the attraction costs too much to maintain (what about Dumbo?). If all goes according to plan, some form of the old Rocket Jets will go back up on top of the PeopleMover station, but we have no idea when or if that will happen.

Let’s just hope they remove those enormous rocks as well…

Updated Tomorrowland Rumors

From Screamscape:

Late 2009 or Early 2010 – Star Tours 2 – Rumor – (4/25/08) Screamscape sources tell us that we should finally expect to see Star Tours shut down by late 2008 or early 2009 in order to begin work on the massive overhaul it will receive for the Star Tours 2 concept rebirth. Apparently we shouldn’t expect to see it reopen for close to a year or more since this is said to be a complete overhaul and not just Disney dropping in a new ride-film.

2010/2011 – PeopleMover v3 / Tomorrowland 2010 – Rumor – (4/25/08) From what I’ve been told, a new future for Tomorrowland is finally on the way. The new Star Tours 2 concept is apparently just the first phase of a larger makeover for Tomorrowland. Once the new version of Star Tours opens the plan is to demolish the old Rocket Jet Tower to make way for an all new tower that will once again house a next generation Peoplemover ride station as well as the base unit to return the Astro-Orbiter back to it’s rightful place high in the sky on top of this new tower.