Fantasyland Character Shuffle Moves Rapunzel Out and Merida In

WDWNT on September 8, 2012

As announced on the Disney Parks Blog earlier today, Merida from Disney-PIXAR’s Brave is going to be taking over Rapunzel’s current home in Fairytale Gardens in Fantasyland at the Magic Kingdom.

Merida’s Fairytale Garden meet and greet will be a a setting inspired by her Scottish Highlands home, where young guests will be invited to engage in archery lessons and other activities until it’s their turn to meet her. Joining Merida will be the three bear cubs from the film, who will no doubt be up to plenty of mischief.

To prepare for Merida’s arrival, Rapunzel will be moving from Fairytale Garden April 15, to a new spot at the outskirts of Adventureland where she will continue to do meet and greets, possibly along with Flynn Rider once again.

With the Tangled characters remaining so popular, it is apparent that the move to Adventureland won’t be permanent and that the rumors we reported a few months back of the Fantasyland Skyway replacement including a new meet and greet experience are true. When work is done, we expect to see a new Tangled meet and greet, complete with Rapunzel’s tower from the movie, open in Fantasyland later this year.

Stay tuned for more information on this story as it becomes available.

Adam Roth’s 12/10/12 WDW Photo Report

WDWNT on May 31, 2012

WDWNT Reporter Adam Roth visited the Magic Kingdom and Downtown Disney yesterday and took plenty of newsworthy photos, so let’s take a look at what’s new:

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It appears some of the elements for the Adventureland interactive game have been installed

This icon should help guests locate the game area

Not sure what this will do

A different icon near this cannon

You can see the cannon aiming at something behind this tarp

Another game area

Looks like there is a skeleton under the water where the Junior Jungle Boats used to be

Another game area being set-up

The Crow’s Nest is still behind walls

We expect this is where the game will begin for guests

Golden Oak Outpost is closed again…

The tower from Tangled visible from Frontierland

Kind of strange…

Work is speeding along on the restrooms on the former Skyway site, rumors still indicate we will see guest charging stations for electronics in this area as well

The tower was installed recently

The Royal Majesty Makers out and about in Fantasyland

Seven Dwarfs’ Mine Train construction continues

The construction walls were updated with the Dwarfs now mimicking the areas they are in

This scene is near Enchanted Tales with Belle

The small Lumiere on the signage now swings his arms back and forth

Looks like another device built by Maurice

More new Mine Train walls

Some new concept art shows off the interactive queue

Looks like fun

The finale scene

Everyone has clocked in, meaning they are working hard on the new attraction

Another look at Mine Train

Some more walls came down revealing a small section of the bridge

A look from the other side

100 minutes for Mermaid… yeah, Fantasyland is a total failure 😉

All of the screen-based wait times signs in the park were themed recently, all of them now match the physical signage now

The back side of Mine Train

Triton’s Treasures is being built and is coming along quickly

Wait for Ariel’s Grotto

Some cool walls you can look through were put up as well

Let’s take a look inside

A lot of work still to be done

This wall is near Winnie-The-Pooh

Near the Mad Tea Party

Another look through the walls

Moving to Downtown Disney, the volcano at Rainforest Cafe is coming along nicely

Splitsville opens December 19th

Curl is also moving to some small space next door to Splitsville

Looks like there is space for another store as well

There’s an outside bar as well

Adam Roth’s 12/17/12 WDW Photo Report

WDWNT on May 31, 2012

WDWNT Reporter Adam Roth visited the Magic Kingdom and Downtown Disney on Monday and has some newsworthy photos to share with us from his trip, so let’s take a look:

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RFID turnstiles are installed and being used at the Magic Kingdom

Looks permanent this time

More track has been installed for the Seven Dwarfs Mine Train

Looks like WDW Resort Hotel carpet on the roof so workers don’t slip

A lift hill now installed

A lot of dirt…

More rockwork is about to appear

Something interesting happened to all the new screen-based wait times signs

Yep, that’s there…

Instead of being a generic font with a black background, all of them are themed and match in color now

The Pete cut-out at Silly Sideshow now tips his hat

TA-DA!

Guests were getting confused, so Pete got an added uvula that is a sign…

WAIT! Is that a Maelstrom reference? IT IS! “… seek peril and adventure, but more often find beauty and charm.”

Mine Train track

Triton’s Treasures is coming along nicely

Work continues on Princess Fairytale Hall

Work also continues on the new Tangled area

We think there might be a small counter-service location (more of a cart in terms of size) over here that looks like the “Snuggly Duckling”

As we reported over a year ago, there will also be an area for guests to charge their electronic devices

One wall is done

Yankee Trader came out from behind tarps, this is on the Fantasyland side

You can start to see pathways taking shape

Art on Demand is now selling a ton of Fantasyland concept art under “Realms of Fantasy”

Plenty of New Fantasyland concept art available

Kodak references are still up at Town Square Theater

Should be gone soon

Moving to Gaston’s Tavern, we find a display with pastries

They are also serving Hot Cocoa

So, some names were added to the barrels behind the register

EIGERBOCK? Looks a lot like the Matterhorn too

Staggs Ale… absolutely brilliant

The Gaston’s Tavern steins are available again

I love this shirt…

More Adventureland interactive game props have been revealed

Now there is a treasure chest

And another…

Pirate skeleton under the water

Looks like the lock was busted off by a pirate

You can see the entire mechanism that raises the skeleton… hope they fix that

FastPass+ installed at Magic Carpets of Aladdin

The Grand Floridian DVC wing is coming along nicely

Moving to Downtown Disney, there is now a Wreck-It Ralph area in DisneyQuest

Plenty of Fix-It Felix machines

Adam then attended the Splitsville Parks Blog meet-up

The pizza is surprisingly good

These cheesecake bites were amazing

Let’s take a look at the drink menu

Ooooooo….

The kids balls have Mickey and Minnie on them

A mual downstairs depicts artwork from the old Walt Disney World shopping bags

Spaceship Earth is a bowling ball…

Flynn Rides Out of Tangled Play and Greet

WDWNT on June 30, 2011

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As of July 2nd, Flynn Rider will no longer be available at the Tangled “play and greet” experience in Fantasyland at the Magic Kingdom. Well, I should rephrase that, because the “play” in “play and greet” was removed some time ago. That’s right, the interactive portion of the experience was removed to speed up the line, but apparently it was just not enough. Disney issued the following statement to Magic Kingdom cast members about the change:

At the Walt Disney World Resort, we are continually focused on providing the best possible entertainment experiences for our guests. As part of that effort, the Tangled play & greet will now focus on Rapunzel, who has become a guest favorite. We will also be adding more opportunities each day for guests to meet her in Fairytale Garden.

It’s hard to complain about this change if it is shortening lines and giving guests more time to spend on other Magic Kingdom attractions, especially when this line was reaching extreme wait times of anywhere between 30 minutes and 1 hour. You can relive the experience one last time through a video we published back when the “play and greet” first opened:

The Disney Animation Legacy Gets “Tangled” for Number 50

WDWNT on November 25, 2010

While it doesn’t have much to do with the Disney Parks, we have always featured Disney film releases here on the site since we launched in 2007. We continue that tradition with the 50th Animated feature film, “Tangled”:

Here’s a sneak peek at the new film:

We usually try to keep opinions out of these reports, but I saw “Tangled” earlier today and wanted to leave a review and a bit of a disclaimer. First off, GO SEE IT! It is an incredible movie and a true Disney film. I had a warm fuzzy feeling walking out of the theater knowing this was the 50th film in the animated canon. It lived up to the tradition and might be the closest thing to the great films of the last golden age such as “The Little Mermaid” or “Beauty and the Beast”.  I fully expect Rapunzel to become the favorite princess of many young girls and I even have a few new favorite Disney characters after seeing this one.

I know many fans were worried by the marketing campaign which reminded many of commercials for Shrek or some other Dreamworks animated films. Based on early projections right now, advertising like this might have been a good idea:

The movie was projected to make only $35-40 million over the 5-day holiday weekend, but early reports are claiming the film will make 1.5 to 2 times more over the first 5 days in theaters. If Disney needs to make shoddy ads that play to corny humor to get people to see great films like this, than I’m all for it. I’d hate to see another “Princess and the Frog” debacle, where a great animated film is lost because of lackluster trailers and horrible release dates.

For those deliberating between 2-D and 3-D shows, go for the 3-D if you can. For the first time, I felt like an animated film was made for Digital 3-D. There are actually a few sequences that rival moments from long-standing Disney 3-D attractions.

In summary, go see “Tangled”, it’s your duty as a Disney fan… and you’ll probably have a “hair-raising” good time. Sorry, I couldn’t resist.

Disney Tangled is now in theaters nationwide, in both Disney Digital 3-D and traditional 2-D.