Diznews - 8.25.08

Kim Possible at Epcot

Epcot is unfurling a new attraction in World Showcase. Guests wanting to help Kim out will get a “Kimmunicator” where they will be given clues to defeat the villain in each pavilion. You goal to stop the villains and their inventions from destroying the world. The news out of Disney is that the game will follow closely the story lines of the show. Unfortunately, I’m not familiar with this show but if there is anyone out there that wants to write a bit about their experience with this attraction, I’m sure everyone else would love to hear about it.

Disneyland Hotel Offers Character Quarters

Guests booking two room stays at the Disneyland Hotel will be offered the opportunity
to book a “Character Quarters” room, themed to Mickey Mouse or the Princesses. This will be a two fold bonus for guests as they will be guaranteed to have adjoining rooms at the hotel which is great for families that have younger children. They will also have rooms that are themed for children. Laughing Place has some of the concept art.

LA Times Offers Concept Art for Luigi’s Roamin’ Tires

Brady McDonald over at the LA Times Travel and Deal Blog writes about the concept art for Luigi’s Roamin’ Tires which looks suspiciously like the old Flying Saucers Ride at Disneyland. This new ride is part of the overhaul at Disney’s California Adventure. The ride will be part of Cars Land which will open in 2012. You can see the article and art here.

The Munchkin in Future World at Epcot Part II - The Land

The subtitle to this post should be: Kids can Have Fun Anywhere.
With Soarin’ as it’s main attraction, you wouldn’t think that The Land would be much of an attraction for a two year old as she is way too short to ride. We really wanted to experience this attraction again and also allow The Munchkin’s grandparents to enjoy it as well. We were pleasantly surprised that this pavilion actually has quite a bit to offer little ones, as always it isn’t always what is offered but what they find. We rushed there, along with everyone else at Epcot that morning, to make sure that we saw Soarin’ before fast passes ran out. On our way in, and it is a long way up to the building, parking the stroller and then you must snake around the mezzanine and then down the escalator. At the bottom there was a huge line of castmembers, food service workers from Sunshine Seasons, waving, cheering and greeting us. It was a really nice touch and a great beginning of the day. It kind of felt like a parade and people were really getting really excited.

For Soarin’, switching off involved getting a ticket for the parties that weren’t riding so that they could return and ride in the fast pass line. For those of you that don’t know about switching off, you let a castmember know that you want to switch off - so that someone can stay with the short person or persons, they give you a ticket and instructions as to how you can experience the attraction with the rest of your party later with someone else watching the small ones. I took the first shift with the Munchkin while my hubby went with his parents to ride Soarin’. I had a grand plan to take her on Living with the Land, an attraction that I really like. The Munchkin had other ideas. The chairs in the dining area, which was not being used at the time as they were not serving breakfast, needed rearranging. She had as much fun rearranging the chairs (which I later put back so that we didn’t leave a mess) as she did playing on the playgrounds or seeing attractions. While there is no playground in this pavilion there are a ton of open carpeted spaces away from the major traffic paths, for kids to run, scream, play, wrestle and goof off in. By the time that her Papa and Grandparents arrived back she was still amusing herself. Her Opa (granddad) decided that he wanted some Munchkin time so they went off to ride Living with the Land while the rest of us went back to Soarin’. They had a boat to themselves and really enjoyed the ride, so much so that they rode it twice. She got off telling us all about plants and Mickey (as in Mickey pumpkins and Mickey cucumbers). She was really excited and as much as she was able to communicate about it, it seemed that she had actually learned something.

We basically left The Land after this but I wanted to make a few notes for people planning future trips. First, Sunshine Seasons Food Fair is one of the best, and most nutritious counter service eateries in the world (for me it is second only to my favorite and slightly less healthy Pecos Bills in the Magic Kingdom- I can’t get away from the toppings bar - I have issues). There are a ton of nutritious choices here and you can mix and match. When we were here when I was pregnant this was the place to eat healthy counter service. They also will cook something dishes to order. There is also The Circle of Life - An Environmental Fable, a movie featuring Timone, Pumba and Simba of the Lion King about Environmentality. It is pretty entertaining and I really enjoyed it but it just doesn’t stand up to some of the other offerings in Epcot. The theatre is rarely crowded and it is a nice quiet place to breast feed or catch a nap. Next up...Imagination....

The Munchkin in Future World at Epcot Part I - The Seas with Nemo and Friends

Now we are getting to the meat and potatoes of Kid-dom at Disney World.

Epcot....

What???? I know that this post is going to send my esteemed colleague Epcot82 over at Epcot Central through the roof. While I am not a park purist, I do miss the old attractions and I always enjoy reading his posts about the EPCOT that was and how it could be better. We disagree on Epcot not being for kids. The Munchkin...loved Epcot.

When we were planning our trip, as we always do, we started with what is most important to us...Fireworks. So we had planned several evenings at Epcot but we hadn’t really planned on spending as much time during the day here, as on past trips. It is my husband’s favorite park and typically in the past there was one night of Fantasmic and then as many Spectromagics as we could fit in and then the remainder of evenings were reserved for Illuminations. When we were planning this trip we thought most days would be spent at the Magic Kingdom as that was for kids, right? Yeah, its definitely for kids but the Munchkin fell in love with Epcot. So much so that I had only planned two days of posts here for Epcot...once I started writing about it I decided that each of the Future World’s attractions needed some love.

The Seas with Nemo and Friends is Disney World to the Munchkin. While there were several things that she could have done over and over again at The World, "Meemo-Nemo" as she calls him, was where it was at this trip. We spent more time here than any other attraction or activity, much to my Haunted Mansion loving disappointment. I lost track after we went on the ride 7 times.

The Munchkin was mesmerized by the Christmas Ornament like Nemo and Friends sculptures welcoming guests to the area. We had her picture taken here and will on each subsequent trip to mark her growth. She was psyched here and could have played around the sculptures for a while then she heard the sea gulls. A small side note, the Munchkin does not like water at all. She doesn’t like to get wet and hates taking a bath, just one of those weird toddler quirks. She loved the spray that emulated waves hitting the building and the seagulls that shout “Mine, Mine, Mine...” The building is decorated with plain fish, turtle, shark, and ray shaped cut outs, they are not decorated and do not look like the characters but she thought that these were way cool. I would have taken a quick note and kept walking but we spent five minutes talking about the simple fish cutouts.

Once inside, the queue area was lovely and calming. The lights dim as you make the transition from the beach setting to being “under the water”. The Munchkin also really liked the lights that were shaped like fish and darted around the room. There were almost no lines here, so we felt like we could tarry a bit. The Munchkin loved the clam mobiles and called out to “Nemo” throughout the ride. Turtle Talk with Crush was also a hit. Although she didn’t quite get that there was something special about Crush talking to the people, she just liked that there were other kids on the floor with her and that they were interacting with her and the big turtle on the screen.

The aquarium areas were also a source of enjoyment. The display with the clown and tang live fish was really nicely lit and she could see “Nemo” well. The carpeted areas with the large sections of glass looking into the big tank were also a lot of fun. First, they weren’t crowded and she could run around without us worrying about other guests. Second, the glass came down low enough to the ground that she could stand unassisted and look in at the fish. It was somewhat difficult for her to follow the fish, she couldn’t grasp the concept that the windows looked into one large aquarium instead of individual aquariums but this did not diminish her enjoyment. If there was a low point to this attraction it was the manatee exhibit. She just didn’t get much out of it. The manatees were big and not moving much so I think that they just didn’t hold her attention.

It is worth noting that the Munchkin had relativly little exposure to the characters prior to the trip. We have a some board books with a few of the characters but she didn’t watch TV or DVDs so she had no idea who Nemo was. She discovered Nemo, and others, at the parks. There is a down side to all of this...all of the new friends that came home with us from the gift shops. More on souvenirs later.

I have read, understand and respect what others have expressed as concerns about the dumbing down of Epcot to aim it at a younger audience. While we were "adults only" guests we shared some of these concerns but now that we have seen how much our own child really enjoyed this attraction, we could only come to one conclusion - it is pure magic.

Hurricane Charlie to appear at Innoventions

A tale of two homes during Hurricane Charlie will be appearing at Innoventions in Epcot. The attraction is based on two homes in the same neighborhood during the hurricane in 2004. One of the homes was new a suffered little damage and the other was 43 years old and had to be completely torn down. The exhibit will feature new innovations in home building.

How to Improve Epcot in 10 Parts

Epcot82 has some strong opinions about where Epcot should be going. He is currently writing a 10 part series on How to Improve Epcot. It's worth a look.

Link

Horizons...a Tribute

Miss the old Horizons attraction at EPCOT? Well, here is a chance to come as close as possible to reliving the dream. Photos, video and the full attraction script are all here. The ride through video is grainy but a nice remembrance.

Link

Disney Holiday Magic with Samantha Brown and Spaceship Earth

Something different today, Disney Holiday Magic with
Samantha Brown premiered on The Travel Channel last
night. I had a chance to catch it and it really was a bit of
the old Disney magic. The special highlighted holidays in
both Disneyland and Walt Disney World. In Disneyland,
It’s a Small World and Haunted Mansion Holiday were
highlighted. In Disneyworld, Osborne lights, the Cinderella
Castle Suite, Mickey’s Very Merry Christmas Party, some
of the resorts, and Candlelight Processional were some of
the areas visited.

Last night I received an e-mail from a friend who attended
MouseFest and was able to get a sneek peek at Spaceship
Earth. Here is what she wrote:

"The historical scenes in the first half are basically the same,
but renovated. Most of the audio-animatronic figures have
been updated, to the new type of Captain Jack Sparrow type
of movements. They are so realistic and have so many degrees
of freedom of movement at the same time! They're fabulous.
The Phonecian scene is great in that the two boats are being
held by the figures with ropes and it looks like they're really
bobbing on the water. The Greek drama scene has been
changed to reflect more Greek learning in general, but that's
OK. Then from the modern family watching the television scene
onwards, it's completely different. They have added 2 scenes
about modern computers -- a fellow MouseFest attendee
commented that the mini-skirted/leather booted girl in the
computer main frame room looks very much like Lieutenant
O'Hura from Star Trek! They they go up into the top of the ball
for the space scene. On the way down, they have you interact
with a computer screen in your vehicle. They ask you a few
questions about the previous presentations, then they ask
you what you would prefer for you vacation in the future.
Then they present an animation which reflects your personal
choices about your vacation (including the question do you
worry more about your home or about your pets when you're
away -- we know what we would both answer!) I think the
lighting/scenery on the descent is not yet completed. (At least
I hope they will add more...) The "you choose the animation"
sequence is cute, but not quite what I was hoping for as I had
heard it previously described it as a "horizons" type of next
generation whatever.... They didn't ask for our feedback, but
hopefully they will get feedback, because it was a little
disappointing. So in sum, the audio-animatronic figures were
so fantastic that the renovations are terrific (even if the ending
is a little bit of a fizzle).

Court Summons Toons, Rumor about Spaceship Earth and Girl Power

DIZNEWS: In what is reported to be a clerical error, Disney and Looney Tunes
characters were given a court summons to appear in a counterfeiting
case in Italy. The vice president of Disney Italia stated,
"Unfortunately they cannot show up, as they are residents of
Disneyland. It certainly pleased us that the characters were
considered real, because that's what we try to do."


I received an e-mail yesterday stating that the Orlando Sentinel is
reporting that Spaceship Earth will be opened for previews in
mid-December. If this is true, it would be a significant change from
the recently announced February opening date. The article is not on
the Orlando Sentinel site but for families traveling around the
holidays, not to mention Christmas crowds, I hope that this is true.


Finally, president of ABC television and co-chair of Disney Media
Network Anne Sweeney has been named the most powerful woman in
entertainment by the Hollywood Reporter's annual poll. This is a move
up from her second place ranking last year.

Figment's Imagination

A really neat little tribute site dedicated to Figment with news,
forums and videos. This site dedicated to our long lost and newly
found friend colored with royal purple pigment - viola...
we've got a Figment.

Link