My my how time flies

It has been almost a year to the day since my last post! I have neglected this blog something awful! Disney is well on its way through the Fantasyland Expansion Project! You can see the Beast's castle peeking out over the construction walls if you visit the Magic Kingdom. They are headed toward the final stage of expansion, which means goodbye original Dumbo ride! Toontown is completely gone, (not that any of us miss it) and Mickey is enjoying his new home in Exposition Hall at the front of the park. I, for one am VERY excited! I think it's going to be fantastic!

Summertastic!

Disney is pulling out all the stops for this summer season. Almost every park (save Animal Kingdom) has something new happening.

Magic Kingdon-They are celebrating summer by bringing back the "Electrical Light Parade", which for those of us who are old enough remember as being WAY better than Spectro Magic (sorry to those who like Spectro, but come on!) and they also have a new summer fireworks show!

Epcot-Watch out MJ lovers! Close to the anniversary of the singer's death, Disney decided to bring back "Captain EO"! Again, I think, a step in the right direction. Will they keep it there? I'm not sure, but I am pretty certain they WON'T bring Honey I Shrunk the Audience back. No official word yet, but we'll keep our ears to the rails.

Hollywood Studios-They are mixing it up with a special daily party under the hat, and they have added a couple of new drop sequences (as well as added effects) to the Twilight Zone: Tower of Terror attraction.

I suggest getting out to the park soon, since most of the things they've added for the summer are currently being listed as a limited time adjustment. Who knows though? They might decide they like it all so much they keep it.

Fantasyland...PHASE ONE

The first phase of the Fantasyland reconstruction is beginning this week. How exciting! The first phase will not affect guests at all. They may not even notice it's happening, since all of the phase one changes will be taking place offstage.

Vinylmations....

Ok, so my husband and I are obsessed with Vinylmations. If you don't know what they are, you can visit http://www.vinylnation.net/. As you can see. They are basically Disney Vinyl toys. My husband got me into collecting vinyl toys long before these came out. When we heard that they were going to be releasing a Disney series, we were like kids in a candy store. The first "Park Series" was modeled after different things in the parks (seen above). They have since released 2 other Park Series, a holiday series, 3 Urban Series and a sleu of other "Special Edition" Vinylmations. They come in 2 sizes 3" and 9". I didn't realize that our collecting had gotten out of hand until we finally put them all in one place. All I can say is...it's a good thing I get a discount :o) They are very fun and there a lot more to come! Check out the website! They are a great collector's item

Tiana's Showboat Jubilee and the new SPACE MOUNTAIN!

Ok, i'll admit...one thing doesn't have much to do with the other...except that I went and saw both over the weekend!

First, Tiana's Showboat Jubilee was mentioned before in an ealier post, but I wanted to expand on it now that I have actually seen the show. It certainly is a very strange format for a Disney show, the performers come out from what appears to be adventureland? They parade to music from the film down through Liberty Square and onto the Riverboat, where it proceeds down the river to a catchy New Orleans style song. It comes to a stop in front of the dock to leave Tom Sawyer's Island (in between Liberty Square and Frontierland) and they perform several other numbers before continuing down the river. If you wait long enough, eventually they will come around the other side and parade back to where they came from. It was cute and fun and energetic and had the whole crowd dancing and boppin around!


The on over to SPACE MOUNTAIN! Anyone who has been on it before won't notice much of a change on the actual ride itself, the changes come inside the queue more than anything! I secured myself a fast pass early in the day, which I would recommend you do regardless of time of the year, since this attraction has always been among the most popular. The first change I noticed was the sign outside. It's a vibrant lime green. Inside the building it was noticeably cleaner (albeit what they probably spent most of their time doing). There is a BIG change on the stand-by side of the line. Recognizing that the people on that side of the line usually stand there on average of 60 minutes, the imagineers added a gaming system much like the one in Soarin' but you each have your own controls. This game takes up most of the line. While I think its cool, I can already see problems with it. When a new game started up. The line stopped moving. Even though they could have continued onto the ride they stopped going because they wanted to play the game.

On the ride itself it is very much the same. It looks like the cars have been painted, but don't let them fool you, they look new, but they aren't. One look at the nasty old pouch where you can keep your stuff would tell you that. There is one major difference for the ride...SMILE! They now take your picture! And you can buy it in the Arcade afterwards. They've also made updates to the exit on the attraction.

Osborne Family Lights

The Osborne Spectacle of Dancing Lights starts today! I am so excited as this is by far my favorite holiday celebration that Disney does. Everyone can join in on this one since it is free with admission. Located in the back of the park in an area called the Streets of America, they have an opening ceremony where one lucky child from the crowd will get to flip the switch (and its a big one) to turn on the huge collection of lights strung by the thousands on every building. Snow is also in the forcast and flurries float down in the streets. The lights "Dance" to Holiday musical numbers every 10 minutes or so. It is a lot of fun for the family, couple or group of friends.

Give a day, Get a day...

Disney recently unveiled their new "celebration" for the next year. The theme is "Give a day, Get a day" the idea behind it is that you volunteer for a day with one of the charities and non-profit organizations that Disney supports and they will give you a free day at the parks. I think this is an amazing, ground-breaking idea for Disney. I think the birthday celebration was good. With the economy doing so badly it was good to help families bring their kids for a lower price. This celebration however, is a horse of a different color (I never did understand that phrase, but I feel like it applies here). It will give people an opportuity to give back, and they will be rewarded. Another plus is with the birthday celebration, Disney was banking on the fact that the whole family would come with the birthday boy or girl and the whole family would have to pay to get in with them. With this, you could potentially get your whole family in for free, just by sacrificing a day of helping someone less fortunate. I applaud Disney's effort to recognize the economic problems we face as a country, but also the trials that many people are experiencing as a result of that.

To apply for the Give a Day. Get a Disney Day. promotion, go here:http://disneyparks.disney.go.com/disneyparks/en_US/WhatWillYouCelebrate/index?name=Give-A-Day-Get-A-Disney-Day (starting January 2010)