Disney This Week - 5 January 2014

This Week – On the Main Street Gazette

The Magic Kingdom and Cinnamon Rolls, no finer way to start a holiday!

We found a memo from The Ten Commandments production at Backlot Express.

Silent Saturday enjoyed a meal at 50's Prime Time Cafe.

This Week – Around the Disney Blogosphere 

AJ Wolfe is all over the turkey leg hullabaloo at The Disney Food Blog.

We are reminded that it is people who truly matter in the Disney community in a look back at 2013 from Estelle Hallick on This Happy Place Blog.

Nicole Siscaretti has New Year’s Eve at Disney’s Hollywood Studios covered for Sparkly Ever After.

Imagineering Disney has some great Then and Now aerial perspectives of the parks.

Like, zoinks, looks like old man George Taylor has solved a Liberty Square mystery at Imaginerding.

Adam and Andrew give the Yak Attack a whirl with not-so-pleasant results at the Disney Hipster Blog.

Passport to Dreams Old & New and FoxxFur explore the illusion of life through light in the parks.

Meeting Anna and Elsa can be a feat, but Disney On Wheels and Melissa Knight Coulter embraced the challenge.

This Week – World News Roundtable

Roundtable Contributors: Blake Taylor (BlakeOnline.com).

Out With the Old

Blake Taylor (BlakeOnline.com)

Saturday, January 4, marked the final operating days for two WDW entertainment mainstays. One is gone for good, while another will return with unspecified upgrades.

Celebrate a Dream Come True Parade danced through the Magic Kingdom's streets for over 12 years, since its debut as part of the 100 Years of Magic promotion on October 1, 2001. It's gone through several iterations involving slight changes to floats, music, and names over the years, but as a whole it's remained the same procession. Many fans became tired of seeing the same old floats, but this parade is actually my favorite of any Disney has put on. Yes, its floats and choreography may have been subdued in comparison to other Disney parades, but that meant its focus was instead turned to character interaction. I like to think of the Magic Kingdom as the quintessential Disney experience, where childhood heroes materialize before our eyes and lifelong dreams of having an encounter with those heroes come true. That's what this parade did so well: By including nearly every classic Disney character imaginable and turning its attention to how those characters interact with guests along the parade route, it made for special memories that other parades with a performance focus can never achieve. I look forward to the Festival of Fantasy Parade debuting later this spring, but I admit I'll miss Celebrate.

Over at Animal Kingdom, Festival of the Lion King had its final performance in its Camp Minnie-Mickey location. The show will re-open in about six months in a new building in the Africa area of the park. There hasn't been any word on if the show is simply being moved verbatim and the theater will be the only element to receive an overhaul, or if the show's content itself will be seeing some alterations. I really do enjoy Festival of the Lion King (it's my favorite attraction at Animal Kingdom), but I'd love to see a few content changes here and there to keep things fresh.