Disney This Week - 27 September 2013

This Week – On the Main Street Gazette

Silent Saturday showed off Characters in Flight as a thunderstorm rolled in.

We made a case for Epcot to present a daytime spectacular or parade, and offered up our ideas for what it could look like.

What might have been if Roger Rabbit had been granted his roller coaster at Disney-MGM Studios.

Tambu Lounge's Backscratcher is perfect to scratch that adult beach beverage itch.

Flynn Rider and crew are wanted men in Fantasyland.


This Week – Around the Disney Blogosphere

Disney On Wheels and Melissa Knight Coulter weigh in on the changes coming to the Guest Assistance Card.

AJ Wolfe shows you a new way to try the Grey Stuff on The Disney Food Blog!

Food and Wine has begun at Epcot, but Sarah Holodick was out for Food and Wine previews and offers up her palate’s perspective at Eating WDW.

There was tons of food news this week, and Andy Jackson rounds out the list with a look at some of the recent menu additions all around Walt Disney World on Eating (and Drinking) around the World.

The restrooms of Yak & Yeti Local Foods are explored by Adam and Andrew for the Disney Hipster Blog.

George Taylor has some great shots of the Polynesian, Contemporary and Golf Resort from the 1970s at Imaginerding, but the picture that stopped my heart was the construction of River Country!

This Week – World News Roundtable

Roundtable Contributors: Alan Mize and Blake Taylor (BlakeOnline.com).

The Pool Party's Over

Alan Mize 

If you like to take a late night dip in the pool after a long day at the parks, your time may be running short.  According to a recent rumor, Walt Disney World may be making a move to fence in all resort swimming pools and restrict access during overnight hours.  Even with their room key or Magic Band, they will be unable to enter the pool area.  Previously, guests were allowed to swim at any hour that they wanted.  There were obviously no lifeguards on duty overnight, so it was a “swim at your own risk” situation, but it was allowed.

It’s not necessarily a surprising move to me.  Most hotels have hours where the pool is closed.  Even with a posted sign warning of no lifeguards, I would imagine that there is still a certain liability that the company would have if someone were swimming at night and drowned.  Of course, unless the fence around the pool is 15 feet tall, this technically won’t prevent some people from hopping the fence and swimming anyway.  But perhaps by placing signs with pool hours and fences to make it more difficult, the company is limiting that potential liability.

Minnie in Hollywood

Blake Taylor (BlakeOnline.com) 

Minnie Mouse has a new meet & greet at Disney's Hollywood Studios, inside The Magic of Disney Animation. Guests visit Miss Mouse in her dressing room, where she's preparing for her latest and greatest big production. While they wait, families can enlighten themselves on Minnie's past work (all fictional, but fun) with clever posters filled with nods to Disney history. This meet & greet continues the trend of elaborate indoor characters greetings for A-list characters, following the recent openings of Pete's Silly Sideshow last autumn and Princess Fairytale Hall just last week, among others.

Minnie's new place comes as a surprise, or at least to me it does. I don't recall Disney ever mentioning it, nor do I even see any official recognition of its existence yet by Disney themselves, which is curious considering the company's vast online presence. I love, though, the entire premise behind this character greeting. It is so distinctly vintage Hollywood Studios, something we haven't seen in a while: not a celebration of the newest movie, but a visit to the movie business itself (even if it's a fake one in which a mouse is prepping for films that don't really exist). I understand the park's progression over the years and the different perspective it has today from when it opened in 1989, but that doesn't mean small glimpses of the past aren't welcome. This one's a winner!