So this has been a busy 24 hours of announcements for WDW. I mean, why announce one thing when you can announce loads. Here's a rundown...
Magic Kingdom is going to be open for 24 hours on May 24th. Bit of a repeat of February 29th from last year and once again I won't be there to enjoy the fun. Would I spend the full 24 hours in a Disney Park? Probably not. If money was no concern I'd probably book a room at the Contemporary or the Polynesian, be at MK for park opening and stay until after lunch, then hit the hotel for a nap and head back into the park for dinner and stay until park closing.
Star Wars Day - May the 4th Be With You. It's like a teaser for Star Wars Weekends which begins later in the month. Actually I always wondered why they didn't schedule SWW to coincide with May 4th so I think it's kinda cool that they're doing this. Plus the idea of getting to ride Star Tours with the Disney characters is amazing. It would be like re-enacting the safety video from the original.
Disney Festival of Fantasy Parade. FINALLY MK gets a new parade. It feels like Celebrate a Dream Come True has been around forever so it'll be great to have a refresh. It's not going to arrive until Spring 2014 but still...NEW PARADE!!! Now we need a new evening parade and some new fireworks and it will be sorted!
Disney Magic Refurb. The Disney Magic is getting some love and the Marvel Superheroes are going to be visiting. Speaking of Marvel Superheroes, this week the rights to Daredevil (one of my favs) passed back to Marvel opening up the possibility of a movie refresh which would be AMAZING.
Disney Princess Half Marathon Weekend adds 10K and Glass Slipper Challenge. Obviously my athletic self is excited about this....errr...not really but I'm sure there are people that are and if I was going to do a 10K Disney would be the place I'd want to do it.
FastPass testing for MK Parades. The viewing area is apparently going to be in the centre of Town Square, which makes sense. It's the easiest place to block off without disrupting traffic flow. As for being able to get FPs for parades I'm not sure.
Other recent news includes the Monsterail, DAK's 15th Birthday, Joffrey's Coffee replacing Nescafe (sadface because I love the Nescafe Hot Chocolate), a new restaurant over in Morocco, Conewiches arriving at DTD, and Disney Springs.
New videos will be coming just as soon as I find some time to edit them together.
Friday, 26 April 2013
Tuesday, 26 March 2013
Friday, 1 March 2013
Another way to get in touch
This is just a very quick update to say that there's now a whole new way of getting in contact with Suzie's Disney Adventure...via email! The address is SDAdventure@icloud.com so if you have any questions, comments or suggestions about what you'd like to see on here then let me know!
Thursday, 17 January 2013
New Developments
Hello wonderful readers, I hope you all had a wonderful holiday season, a good new year and that 2013 has been treating you well so far.
In the wake of various announcements and happenings around the world, I thought I'd take this opportunity to write another post.
During my last trip to WDW there were three official openings that were all crammed into one day. Deciding that opening day was not the time to visit all three I took the opportunity to experience them in previews to avoid too much craziness and for reasons that I shall reveal shortly that was probably the best decision all round.
So let's kick off with New Fantasyland, because honestly, that was by far the thing I was most excited about. While I was there they were filming segments for the Disney Parks Christmas Parade featuring the kids from Modern Family.
I can't say I watch the show, in fact at the time I thought it was just the one kid but I've since found out there were three. So while people were taking photos of people with cameras we headed into Belle's Cottage for what is, by far, the most elaborate character meet and greet that I've ever experienced. Now I'm not going to spoil any magic (although there are plenty of youtube videos online if you really want to see what happens) but the interior of the cottage completely blew my mind. The level of detail and storytelling is truly astounding and it was so nice to get to learn a little more about Belle's background and upbringing. Case in point.. the following painting which I loved.
Next up Gaston's Tavern, home to pork shanks, cinnamon buns and LeFou's Brew.
I'm told the cinnamon bun was delicious and for me LeFou's Brew was so much more enjoyable than butterbeer. This isn't a Disney bias, it's an apple juice bias. The frozen apple juice with a hint of marshmallow and topped with mango foam is certainly special, and the souvenir cup, while somewhat plasticky does feature a hidden mickey.
I much prefer the taste of an apple juice based drink to a cream soda one, although while I'm talking about it frozen butterbeer DEFINITELY tastes better than the unfrozen kind. I didn't try a pork shank although they smelt pretty good. It's the downside to visiting at 10am, you've already had breakfast but it's way to early for lunch!
Once again lots of lovely detail, the imagineers have definitely excelled themselves with the design of New Fantasyland. The Tavern genuinely feels like it's been lifted straight out of the movie.
For any of you hoping to hear about the Be Our Guest Restaurant, I'm afraid that this post will disappoint you. There was so much going on that I feel I'll have to dedicate an entire post to it so look for that soon. In the meantime here's the castle in all it's loveliness (and close up!).
Let's move on to the other castle that is new to the Magic Kingdom: Prince Eric's. Now I'm a big fan of The Little Mermaid, so I was really excited to see the new ride and the exteriors certainly didn't disappoint.
In fact they are quite breathtaking, and the exit queue even features one of the most elaborate hidden Mickey's I have ever seen in my life. I haven't uploaded the photo yet but believe me, when you see it your mind will be blown!
After walking through such wonderful exteriors and rock work, the ride proved to be a little on the disappointing side. It was good, and certainly Ursula was quite something in person, but there were things about it that just left me sad. it almost looked unfinished. My friend, who had never been to WDW before was genuinely surprised when I told her that technically the ride hadn't even opened yet. She thought it was from the 1970s. It seems like such a shame to spend so much time on some parts and then leave other sections feeling so backwards.
Opening Day featured many a Disney celebrity, including Jodi Benson (voice of Ariel), Paige O'Hara, Jordin Sparks (who I'm told helped dedicate a cruise ship) and everyone's favourite Once Upon a Time star Ginnifer Goodwin.
I've got to say I love how the powers that be keep inviting Ms Goodwin to events because she always comes across as a huge fan of the parks, to the point where she apparently tried to negotiate a membership to Club 33 as part of her OUAT contract.
Confession time. Despite owning an "I was there" opening day T-shirt I wasn't there. I spent 9 months planning to be there and then the morning of work up with the most horrendous stomach flu. I'm told that at some point I was crawling along on my hands and knees, waving a camera at my friend, telling her to go on without me. So off she went to buy merchandise and take photos and if you ask me she did a pretty good job.
The other two new attractions, I'm afraid, are without photos. Test Track has been significantly reimagined although continues to use the same track. The only way I can describe it is that the whole thing has been Tronified. The queue is a huge improvement over what was there before and I really liked the interactivity of designing your own car. I think a bit more cast member guidance would have been helpful because it wasn't always obvious what was going on, and the ride unfortunately didn't interact with our design, but we still got to play around with it in the post show which was pretty cool.
When we went to the new Captain Jack Sparrow attraction I was expecting it to be more like it's Narnian predecessors, it was similar in that it was a walkthrough attraction but it was much better than them. In fact it was probably one of the best uses of technology in an attraction that I've seen for a while. No spoilers but if you're a fan of Mr Depp then I'd head over there.
Before I go I'll just finish by talking about something that isn't new, in fact it is original, but it's been so long since I was able to see it all up close that I stopped and took some pictures. If you've never walked through Cinderella Castle and get the opportunity then I highly recommend it because it features some beautiful mosaics that feature Cinderella's transformation from cinder girl to princess. I'll let the photos do the talking. Look out for more posts about New Fantasyland and Mickey's Very Merry Christmas Party soon!
Oh and if anyone from Imagineering or New Fantasyland is reading this, please, please, PLEASE can someone remove the ridiculous portrait of Phil Holmes from the new merchandise location. It's not even funny to the few who know who he is. Please, invite an original proprietor for the store, have Cogsworth run it or something.
In the wake of various announcements and happenings around the world, I thought I'd take this opportunity to write another post.
During my last trip to WDW there were three official openings that were all crammed into one day. Deciding that opening day was not the time to visit all three I took the opportunity to experience them in previews to avoid too much craziness and for reasons that I shall reveal shortly that was probably the best decision all round.
So let's kick off with New Fantasyland, because honestly, that was by far the thing I was most excited about. While I was there they were filming segments for the Disney Parks Christmas Parade featuring the kids from Modern Family.
I can't say I watch the show, in fact at the time I thought it was just the one kid but I've since found out there were three. So while people were taking photos of people with cameras we headed into Belle's Cottage for what is, by far, the most elaborate character meet and greet that I've ever experienced. Now I'm not going to spoil any magic (although there are plenty of youtube videos online if you really want to see what happens) but the interior of the cottage completely blew my mind. The level of detail and storytelling is truly astounding and it was so nice to get to learn a little more about Belle's background and upbringing. Case in point.. the following painting which I loved.
Next up Gaston's Tavern, home to pork shanks, cinnamon buns and LeFou's Brew.
I'm told the cinnamon bun was delicious and for me LeFou's Brew was so much more enjoyable than butterbeer. This isn't a Disney bias, it's an apple juice bias. The frozen apple juice with a hint of marshmallow and topped with mango foam is certainly special, and the souvenir cup, while somewhat plasticky does feature a hidden mickey.
I much prefer the taste of an apple juice based drink to a cream soda one, although while I'm talking about it frozen butterbeer DEFINITELY tastes better than the unfrozen kind. I didn't try a pork shank although they smelt pretty good. It's the downside to visiting at 10am, you've already had breakfast but it's way to early for lunch!
Once again lots of lovely detail, the imagineers have definitely excelled themselves with the design of New Fantasyland. The Tavern genuinely feels like it's been lifted straight out of the movie.
For any of you hoping to hear about the Be Our Guest Restaurant, I'm afraid that this post will disappoint you. There was so much going on that I feel I'll have to dedicate an entire post to it so look for that soon. In the meantime here's the castle in all it's loveliness (and close up!).
Let's move on to the other castle that is new to the Magic Kingdom: Prince Eric's. Now I'm a big fan of The Little Mermaid, so I was really excited to see the new ride and the exteriors certainly didn't disappoint.
In fact they are quite breathtaking, and the exit queue even features one of the most elaborate hidden Mickey's I have ever seen in my life. I haven't uploaded the photo yet but believe me, when you see it your mind will be blown!
After walking through such wonderful exteriors and rock work, the ride proved to be a little on the disappointing side. It was good, and certainly Ursula was quite something in person, but there were things about it that just left me sad. it almost looked unfinished. My friend, who had never been to WDW before was genuinely surprised when I told her that technically the ride hadn't even opened yet. She thought it was from the 1970s. It seems like such a shame to spend so much time on some parts and then leave other sections feeling so backwards.
Opening Day featured many a Disney celebrity, including Jodi Benson (voice of Ariel), Paige O'Hara, Jordin Sparks (who I'm told helped dedicate a cruise ship) and everyone's favourite Once Upon a Time star Ginnifer Goodwin.
I've got to say I love how the powers that be keep inviting Ms Goodwin to events because she always comes across as a huge fan of the parks, to the point where she apparently tried to negotiate a membership to Club 33 as part of her OUAT contract.
Confession time. Despite owning an "I was there" opening day T-shirt I wasn't there. I spent 9 months planning to be there and then the morning of work up with the most horrendous stomach flu. I'm told that at some point I was crawling along on my hands and knees, waving a camera at my friend, telling her to go on without me. So off she went to buy merchandise and take photos and if you ask me she did a pretty good job.
The other two new attractions, I'm afraid, are without photos. Test Track has been significantly reimagined although continues to use the same track. The only way I can describe it is that the whole thing has been Tronified. The queue is a huge improvement over what was there before and I really liked the interactivity of designing your own car. I think a bit more cast member guidance would have been helpful because it wasn't always obvious what was going on, and the ride unfortunately didn't interact with our design, but we still got to play around with it in the post show which was pretty cool.
When we went to the new Captain Jack Sparrow attraction I was expecting it to be more like it's Narnian predecessors, it was similar in that it was a walkthrough attraction but it was much better than them. In fact it was probably one of the best uses of technology in an attraction that I've seen for a while. No spoilers but if you're a fan of Mr Depp then I'd head over there.
Before I go I'll just finish by talking about something that isn't new, in fact it is original, but it's been so long since I was able to see it all up close that I stopped and took some pictures. If you've never walked through Cinderella Castle and get the opportunity then I highly recommend it because it features some beautiful mosaics that feature Cinderella's transformation from cinder girl to princess. I'll let the photos do the talking. Look out for more posts about New Fantasyland and Mickey's Very Merry Christmas Party soon!
Oh and if anyone from Imagineering or New Fantasyland is reading this, please, please, PLEASE can someone remove the ridiculous portrait of Phil Holmes from the new merchandise location. It's not even funny to the few who know who he is. Please, invite an original proprietor for the store, have Cogsworth run it or something.
Wednesday, 14 November 2012
'Tis the Season
For all my years visiting WDW I have never seen the Christmas decorations there in person. I've seen them at Disneyland Paris and Disneyland but never at the set of Disney Parks that I visit the most. I blame geography entirely. I feel incredibly fortunate that 2012 has allowed me to see the Halloween decorations already and in a few days time I'll be experiencing the Christmas festivities as well.
Of course the decorations aren't the only things that have been appearing at WDW recently. New Fantasyland has been in previews and it is one of the trio of December 6th attractions (Test Track and Jack Sparrow) opening/reopening. Bit of an odd decision to have things in different parks opening all on the same day but maybe its for crowd control.
So much has been announced recently by both Disney and Universal that I'm beginning to lose track but for me one of the most exciting has been the acquisition of LucasFilm, not least because it makes my Disney/Star Wars phone case look even more awesome. Those who aren't too keen on this merger have clearly never been to Star Wars Weekends at Hollywood Studios. From what I've seen Disney has historically shown a huge amount of respect for the Star Wars Universe. For me, the fact that there is now the potential for A Star Wars theme park to exist is incredible and it would be way more exciting than any other film franchise that has been linked to Disney theme parks, (yes Avatar I am thinking of you). So far the only thing announced has been Episode VII but I can't wait to see how the imagineers run with this.
As during my last trip I shall post trip photos to my flickr page so keep an eye out for those. I don't know exactly what they'll be of yet but expect Mickey's Christmas Party, Candlelight Processional, New Fantasyland and Harry Potter at the very least.
Of course the decorations aren't the only things that have been appearing at WDW recently. New Fantasyland has been in previews and it is one of the trio of December 6th attractions (Test Track and Jack Sparrow) opening/reopening. Bit of an odd decision to have things in different parks opening all on the same day but maybe its for crowd control.
So much has been announced recently by both Disney and Universal that I'm beginning to lose track but for me one of the most exciting has been the acquisition of LucasFilm, not least because it makes my Disney/Star Wars phone case look even more awesome. Those who aren't too keen on this merger have clearly never been to Star Wars Weekends at Hollywood Studios. From what I've seen Disney has historically shown a huge amount of respect for the Star Wars Universe. For me, the fact that there is now the potential for A Star Wars theme park to exist is incredible and it would be way more exciting than any other film franchise that has been linked to Disney theme parks, (yes Avatar I am thinking of you). So far the only thing announced has been Episode VII but I can't wait to see how the imagineers run with this.
As during my last trip I shall post trip photos to my flickr page so keep an eye out for those. I don't know exactly what they'll be of yet but expect Mickey's Christmas Party, Candlelight Processional, New Fantasyland and Harry Potter at the very least.
Monday, 24 September 2012
Saturday, 18 August 2012
Technical Difficulties
Apologies to anyone expecting to see the post I wrote yesterday. For technical reasons it failed to post. I intend to rewrite and repost it shortly.
- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad
- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad
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