WDWNT Reporter Brandon Struve took a trip around the World on Friday and has a ton of newsworthy pictures to share with us, so let’s take a look at what’s new and notable:
Welcome to the Magic Kingdom, where Halloween is in full swing
With so many refurbishments underway or starting soon at the Walt Disney World Resort, I though we should take a few moments to go over some important notes regarding a few of them:
-The Tomorrowland Transit Authority (TTA) in the Magic Kingdom is still scheduled to open on August 25th. Space Mountain is also on schedule to officially open November 22nd.
-The refurbishment of Donald’s Boat in Mickey’s Toontown Fair during September has been shortened by 3 days, now taking place between September 7th and 13th.
-As mentioned in a previous report, the un-announced refurbishment of the Living with the Land boat ride at Epcot began on August 2nd and will last until October 31st. If you would like to see a video of the attraction taken on August 1st, be sure to visit this link.
-The Flights of Wonder show at Disney’s Animal Kingdom theme park will not be performing from September 13th until October 23rd. We do not know the reason for this closure at this time.
As always, you can keep track of all Walt Disney World refurbishments and upcoming events by visiting our Attractions Updates page or Walt Disney World Events Calendar.
WDWNT Reporter Brandon Struve took a short trip to the Walt Disney World Resort on Thursday afternoon and has taken a plethora of newsworthy photos to share, so let’s take a look:
Work on the Hall of Champions facade on Main Street U.S.A. at the Magic Kingdom continues
WDWNT Reporter Brandon Struve made a late evening trip to the Magic Kingdom last night and has a few photos to share of some on-going projects in Tomorrowland:
Beautiful views of Cinderella Castle from the entrance of…
Read More about Brandon Struve’s 7/23/09 Tomorrowland Report
Two new additions have been added to the Disneyland Resort’s Halloween Time line-up according to our good friends over at the LA Times Travel Blog:
Disneyland will add a “haunted” overlay to Space Mountain and a fireworks “spooktacular” for the Halloween season, theme park officials said.
The “Halloween Time” event, which runs from Sept. 25 through Nov. 1, is included in the price of admission to the Anaheim theme park.
The “Ghost Galaxy” Space Mountain overlay, which originally premiered at Hong Kong Disneyland in 2007, features a new soundtrack and ghostly and ghoulish projections inside the darkened roller coaster building, according to Screamscape.
The Halloween-themed fireworks show, hosted by “Master of Scaremonies” Jack Skellington of “Nightmare Before Christmas” fame, will include nods to Disney villains.
Many of those villains — Cruella de Vil (”101 Dalmatians”), Captain Hook (”Peter Pan”) and Queen of Hearts (”Alice in Wonderland”) — will also be wandering the theme park, signing autographs and passing out treats.
Across the way at Disney’s California Adventure, “Mickey’s Trick-or-Treat Party” will run on Oct. 2, 8, 9, 15, 16, 21, 22, 23 and 28-31. The separate-admission event — which includes games, music and a Disney character parade — lets costumed children trick-or-treat throughout the park.
Matt Paul has just returned from two day’s of fun at the Walt Disney World Resort and has a plethora of photos to share with us from his journeys, so let’s take a look:
“Celebrate Today!” over and over and over again
As reported by the Orlando Sentinel:
Walt Disney World is now more than a month into the seven-month rehab of Space Mountain, and details are trickling out about the changes in store for the venerable roller coaster.
The resort last week filed a construction notice thought to be tied to the Magic Kingdom’s indoor coaster; it calls for the installation of an “interactive queue” and audio-visual upgrades. The notice has touched off speculation that Space Mountain could be in line for an electronic-game-filled queue similar to the one Disney installed at Epcot’s Soarin’ in 2007.
Disney officials, who have been relatively tight-lipped about the Space Mountain changes, previously had said only that the 34-year-old attraction would get a new queue enclosure. They also have said the renovations will include new track — though the layout will remain the same — and a new ceiling.
The Reedy Creek Improvement District puts the rehab’s value at $12.3 million. The ride is scheduled to reopen Nov. 21.
While the interactive exhibits in the queue come as a bit of a surprise, it is has been rumored for sometime that the end of the queue where the attraction loads will be enclosed to make the overall on-ride experience much darker. While the Orlando Sentinel article doesn’t have many details, inside sources have suggested that there will be few other special “surprises” in the queue, ride, and even the exit portion when the attraction returns this winter. Stay tuned to WDW News Today as we get more information on the ongoing refurbishment of Space Mountain.
UPDATE: D23 just posted the following:
New track, a new ceiling and audio-visual upgrades will be in store when Space Mountain re-opens on November 21 after a planned refurbishment.
Our good friend Robert Ashburn of Figmentsmedia.net has provided us with a few photos from his latest trip to the World, so let’s see what’s new and exciting at the Magic Kingdom:
“They’re ripping the top off of Space Mountain!!!” More on that later…
Some Main Street U.S.A. facades are under refurbishment
Read More about Robert Ashburn’s 5/13/09 Magic Kingdom Photo Report
Finally, here is our very last Walt Disney world photo report (we promise) from last week. This report is from WDWNT Owner Tom Corless and is quite lengthy, so let’s get started:
Starting at the Magic Kingdom on April 27th…
WDWNT’s own Jose Castillo is back from the Walt Disney World Resort and has plenty of photos to share with us, so let’s take a look:
Jose arrived at Disney’s Hollywood Studios Wednesday evening to enjoy Fantasmic!
Park hours were expanded and a Fantasmic! was added at 10:00 PM
