The Main Street Gazette’s World News segment started as a
new segment during this year. In November it combined with the Gazette
Roundtable concept to become the World News Roundtable. Here a broad range of
writers who share a passion for all things Disney come together weekly to find
a bit of news that they are passionate about and share their thoughts on the
topic. Not all the headlines will radiate out from Walt Disney World, but that
is the place we call home.
This is the first edition of the World News Roundtable, and
while the news may not be up to date, it shows off what this talented group of
writers can really do!
Ahoy there! Hopefully most of you escaped Hurricane Sandy’s wrath
unscathed over the past couple of days. (Things remain pretty chaotic up here
in New York.) It seems a magical vacation aboard the gorgeous Disney Fantasy
couldn’t escape the stormy weather either. Various videos (1, 2 + 3) have been uploaded online showing damaged
windows and stores/eateries rocked by the extra large waves no guest signed up
for. Others on a 3-day voyage on the Dream experienced horrible seasickness and
boredom due to lack of activities and sunny weather. They were dismayed to
learn that Disney would only offer a 25% discount off their new cruise for the
inconvenient weather.
Knowing firsthand how diligent the cruise line’s magical maintenance
crew works, I’m not surprised things were swept up on the Fantasy before the
next cruise was underway. It is unfortunate that some routes had to be altered
because of the storm, including the scheduled stop to gorgeous Castaway Cay
(Disney’s private island) in the Bahamas. No word yet if the island suffered any damage,
although Disney did elect to have some of the full-time staff jump on board
during the storm.
But it seems the passengers from the Dream are popping up all over DisneyCruiseBlog.com, and
claiming Disney didn’t do well by their guests. Did Disney Cruise Line PR offer
up their own fantastical claims that the Captain and members did all they could
do? Guests are rallying to bring their unfortunate experiences to the
forefront. (One guest even started a Facebook group.)
It’s astonishing to read some of the guest accounts from this
weekend’s voyages on the Dream and the Fantasy. But, folks need to know that
hurricane season runs from June to November and, unfortunately, this could mean
having to battle some miserable weather conditions. Future cruisers need to
take caution and remain aware of the weather and the possible risks. On the
other hand, I’d hate to think that a trusted crew made some unsafe decisions
just to follow a strict cruising schedule.
One thing we know for sure: all guests returned safely.
The doors of the Adventurers Club and the Comedy Warehouse may remain
firmly closed, but the entertainment has moved out onto the streets of Pleasure
Island with the introduction of Living Statues. These lively artists
alternately stand perfectly still and interact with delighted(?) guests from
their pedestals, springing to life and posing for photos. While I love Downtown
Disney—especially at night—I personally hope I never run into the creepy mimes
on my way to Cookes of Dublin.
One
of the most underrated festivals will soon be returning to Downtown
Disney, in Walt Disney World. The Festival of the Masters will be at
Downtown Disney from November 9-11, and is a great time to visit the
area, if you can. The Festival celebrates all kinds of art and design,
from painting, to live music, sculpture to photography. Whenever I have
been in WDW during this time of year, I always make an effort to spend
some time taking in the Festival. For this first time this year, there
will also be what is described as an Emerging Masters area, where
up-and-coming artists can showcase and compete. In my opinion this
sounds like a fantastic idea – what a great place for those starting out
to make a mark, and to gain some well-deserved publicity. It can only
benefit the Festival of the Masters in the long-run.
The Wreck It Ralph meet and greet opened a few days ago at Hoolywood
Studios, and though this isnt the largest news of the week (im lookin at you
Lucas!) it does mark a deccidedly unique change for the company.
Meet and greets character spots of the past have been supplied with
little or no forethought, just a place to appease children with somewhat bland
theming.
Riding a wave of commercial and artistic success ( Bolt, Princess and
The Frog, Tangled...) the company has again renewed its core fans faith in its
magical capabilities. In doing so, Disney has started investing money and
precious design time into its meet and greets.
Besides the wonderful costumes and sugary sweet backdrop, the Wreck It
Ralph meet and greet also has a fabulous melange of music playing in the background
pulled from classic video games. Go
check this out while it lasts...
Wreck-It Ralph and Vanellope von Schweetz from the new Disney
Animation film Wreck-It Ralph now have a character meet & greet at Disney’s
Hollywood Studios. The duo began
visiting with Guests on Sunday inside the Magic of Disney Animation building,
as is the tradition for almost every new movie from Disney or Pixar Animation. Pooh was wrecked off the scene (that must
have been traumatic), though Sorcerer Mickey and the Incredibles remain.
Every new character greeting that rolls through the Magic of Disney
Animation is, essentially, there to introduce Guests to these unfamiliar
characters and to sell the movie, and as such the sets are usually quite
elaborate, and the one for Ralph and Vanellope is no different. It depicts Game Central Station, a location
in the film where video game characters can travel to other games. Ralph (he’s huge—we’re talking Sulley-size
huge!) is native to Fix It Felix, Jr., circa 1983, while Vanellope is from a
1997 racing game called Sugar Rush (both being fictional, Disney-created
titles).
Ordinarily Ralph and Vanellope could be expected to stay at Hollywood
Studios until the next Disney or Pixar release.
However, since the next of those is Monsters University this summer and
Mike and Sulley already have a meet & greet elsewhere in Hollywood Studios,
Ralph and Vanellope could stick around at least until next November, when
Disney Animation will release Frozen (and even longer than that if those
characters end up in the Magic Kingdom, with Frozen being a Hans Christian
Anderson fairytale). Wonder what Ralph
would do if you called him the Hulk?
Jambo, everyone! Although I haven't seen a lot of press on it, this
past week brought a very exciting development for me and especially for my
six-year-old son. The much-anticipated integration of zebras into Kilamanjaro
Safaris has finally come to fruition! Last week on Tuesday (October 23), zebras
began to be gradually introduced into their new environment on the safari.
There are a total of twelve zebras that will be integrated into the attraction
from their previous home at the Animal Kingdom Lodge, and when we took an early
morning safari on Wednesday (October 24), we were treated to seeing about eight
of them. They are in a habitat just before the old scene with the trucks and
audioanimatronic baby elephant used to appear. It seems to be a very small
habitat for so many animals, but I am no expert and I'm not sure it's as small
as it seems. Guest services told us there were a total of twelve, but they were
unable to tell us how long the integration process will take or if all twelve
will normally be out on the hillside.
During our morning safari, there were three caretakers in the habitat
obviously monitoring the beautiful animals as safari trucks rumbled past. The
zebras were calmly grazing on the hill and were close enough that my son, who
loves zebras, was beside himself with joy. So much so, that I neglected to take
any photographs. We took the safari again around noon only to find the habitat
empty. But guest services told us that the integration was in full swing, and
if our first experience was any indication, they will make a wonderful addition
to this already fantastic attraction.
It was announced on Sunday that at some point this week, Test Track’s
new exterior will be revealed. Based on the artist rendering found on the
Disney Parks blog the new exterior is presenting a newer, more modern, sleek,
and futuristic attraction, just right for Future World. Look closely and you’ll catch a glimpse of
the old World of Motion logo. Is this a sign of some sort?
The new Test Track will be
a 6 person SimCar where guests are able to design their own ride vehicle. But
how is this going to work? Six people designing one ride vehicle? I know I’m not imagineer material but I can’t
wrap my brain around what this will be like.
Back to that World of
Motion tie-in on the exterior signage.
On the new Test Track guests will exit the ride to look into the future
of transportation. Sound familiar? I
never got to experience World of Motion but from what I have read its finale
tried to predict the future of transportation; will this new finale be similar?
I’m curious to know but we’ll have to wait until December 6th. I’m hoping for
some soft openings during Thanksgiving when I’m there.
Alan Mize
It was September 20, 2011 when Disney announced their partnership with
James Cameron to bring the world of Avatar to Disney's Animal Kingdom. Since then, there has been a lot of silence
coming from Orlando about the details of "Avatarland" and exactly
what this expansion meant for the theme park.
While there is still no official word coming from the Disney powers that
be, purported blueprints surfaced late last week that show potential
attractions for the world of Pandora and the buzz for Avatarland, both positive
and negative, is definitely back. In the
interest of full disclosure, I have not seen Avatar, so I can’t speak to the
merits of the film. Having said that, I
will admit that I was pretty shocked by the announcement and my original
thought was that this decision was a knee jerk reaction to The Wizarding World
of Harry Potter at Universal Studios.
However, I chose to reserve judgment until more information was
released. Now that we appear to have
that additional information, I am cautiously optimistic about the future of
Avatarland.
Based on the information that has surfaced, there are two new
attractions being planned. One will
apparently be a 3D film in the style of Soarin’ and the other will be a boat
ride through Pandora. While neither of
those descriptions is exactly groundbreaking, these blueprints are probably far
from final and there is still a lot of time for these plans to grow. Despite the fact that it would be considered
the smaller of the two attractions, I am most looking forward to the boat ride
attraction. The one common opinion I
have heard regarding Avatar is that it is a visually stunning film and I am
excited about the possibility of riding through a visually stunning land of
Pandora. If there is one thing that
Disney Imagineers know how to do, it is to fully immerse you in an environment
and make you feel like you’re anywhere but central Florida. Add in the fact that James Cameron, who is
known to be a severely detail oriented director, will be working with Joe
Rohde, the mastermind of Disney’s Animal Kingdom, and I can see how Avatarland
could be absolutely breathtaking.
There is still a lot of time before anything is definite, so plans
could change. However, with the names
associated with this expansion and the information that surfaced last week, I
think there is a lot of potential for Avatarland and I look forward to seeing
exactly what Disney does with Pandora.
With a groundbreaking announcement, Leia was transported to a place
affectionately called the Disneyverse; with that she became the newest and most
famous Disney Princess to date. Sorry,
Cinderella.
Mickey, it seems, had a spare $4.05 billion dollars burning a hole in
his famous red trousers. He didn’t buy a
luxury car, or a dream vacation.
Instead, the Mouse made the most important purchase in entertainment history. After signing the check, the House That Walt
Built was the proud owner a shiny new Lucasfilm. It was a purchase that
included I.L.M. and the entire Star Wars Empire.
Twitter suffered a Death Star-like explosion of fan-boys waxing about
the promise of a new Star Wars flick by 2015.
Which, unless they’ve been filming in secret, isn’t likely. The Tatooine
faithful began passing the judgment-saber before the ink on the contract
dried. Even if Disney put forth an
enormous effort, they could not possible dilute the mythology of Star Wars more
than George Lucas already had. In fact,
after less-than-stellar outings in Episode 1, 2, and 3, perhaps the fresh minds
at Disney are exactly what Star Wars needs.
Then there are Disney Parks. Likely, this will be the official
kiss-of-death for Avatarland. Why answer
to the notoriously difficult Jim Cameron when everything Star Wars is now under
your banner? This may also silence the
Carsland at Disney World rumors. With so many characters, stories, and sets to
now work with, it seems redundant to water-down the Disney brand and clone
existing parks.
Disney World’s New Fantasyland – a $400 million project - became an
old memory, overtaken by visions of romping through a galaxy far, far
away. Not a lot of people give Ariel a
second-thought when the chance of strolling through a hyper-themed Star Wars
Land is now a very real possibility.
From a monetary standpoint the move is brilliant. This will certainly attract a new breed to
cruise through the gates of Disney Parks worldwide.
There is a lot to get excited about with Disney in the Millenium
Falcon’s cockpit. New characters, new
stories, new movies, theme parks, and yes, toys. Plenty of toys.
To many fans, Disney is the new Dark Side. And Lucas finally gave in and signed up. I don’t believe it will be hard to get the nay-sayers
to follow suit.
What does Lucasfilm and Disney mean to me? Well, as I told
my wife on Tuesday, “If only they could get their hands on DC Comics and
Batman, I’d be all in!” Yeah, that’s not likely, but anything seems possible
these days. In terms of Walt Disney World, this announcement offered me a
seemingly endless scroll of possibilities and questions. Here are just a few of
my favorites.
Is Princess Leia going to start appearing on stage next to
Cinderella, Aurora, Snow and Belle? It’s unlikely, but the idea is tantalizing.
Adding a shoot blasters first, ask questions later sci-fi princess to the
animated assortment of princess now gives boys a reason to consider venturing
in to princess territory, although I suspect it might be a while before we see
a meet and greet character outside of Star Wars Weekends.
Is Tomorrowland and/or Avatarland set-up for renovation from
far, far away? I don’t suspect that we’ll see massive park revamps in the style
of Star Wars for a while, but it is worth considering, and is probably likely
as time goes by. Remember, The Little Mermaid attraction had been developed,
shelved, and reworked since 1989, before it finally crashed upon the shores of
Fantasyland in 2012.
Why have so few mentioned Indiana Jones?!?! The other side
of the Lucasfilm-Harrison Ford coin is, truly, just as important to Disney now.
A Sorcerers of the Magic Kingdom type game featuring Indiana Jones in Disney’s
Animal Kingdom? You bet! Avatarland becoming a hotbed of Dr. Jones adventures?
Why not! The chance to see more of Henry Jones Jr. in the parks of Walt Disney
World, aside from a stunt show, excites me as much as the possibilities
presented by the Star Wars side of the acquisition.
In short, Lucasfilm opens many, many doors for Disney and
Walt Disney World, but there are also possible pitfalls from moving too quickly
and not holding the brands up to their highest potential. I am as giddy as any
fanboy who has ever whooshed a lightsaber this week, but to borrow a line from
another recent Disney acquisition, with great power comes great responsibility.
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