It's been awhile....

WOW! Time certainly does fly. Last time I posted a blog, I was just getting back from my July 4th trip, since then so much has happened, including me moving to Florida, which has been amazing. Probably the biggest thing that happened since then was the announced Fantasyland expansion, which if you scroll down the page you will see I posted the leaked plans for it back in June. They announced that at the D23 Expo, where they also announced they would be bringing Star Tours into the 21st century by making it 3D and adding all new video to the ride. They also announced they would be refurbishing Muppet Vision 3D and making the film Disney Digital 3D, like the one over at Disney's California Adventure. Also Muppets related, they announced they would be making a new Muppets movie called "The cheapest movie ever made".

Speaking of the Muppets, they are part of Walt Disney World and Disneyland's new promotion this year: "Give a day, Get a Disney day". The promotion prompts you to volunteer at one of the places Disney has partnered with for this promotion for a day, and in return you get either free entrance into the park for however many in your family are volunteering (Max. 5), Fastpasses (similar to those given for your birthday), or donate the free day to a charity. The "What will you celebrate?" theme will also stay for this year. The Muppets have been a big part of the advertising so far, appearing in commercials and in TV appearances when they announced the promotion. I personally think this is great. I love that they are prompting people to volunteer and help others, and at the same time try to bring the Muppets back in the spotlight!

That brings us to Halloween at WDW and (mostly) Mickey's Not So Scary Halloween Party. Being my first year living in Florida, this was my first time going to the party. Overall I thought it was WELL worth it, especially since I hadn't been. The parade was hands down the best I have ever seen at WDW and the fireworks were actually a lot better than expected. Being someone who would come down pretty much once a month from North Carolina usually, i've seen Wishes a lot. I thought HALLOwishes was basically just going to be the same thing with just more of a Halloween feel to it. Boy was I wrong though. Don't get me wrong, I love Wishes, just in my opinion they've been around a bit long and it's time for a change. I was captivated watching these and it was refreshing to see something new. Other than that, the candy for the most part was pretty decent and we had a great time.

Now we march on towards Food and Wine. Again, being new to living in Florida, this was my first time. I went twice with my family, Me of course being underage at 17, I could only enjoy the Food Part of this festival, but I didn't mind because it was a great experience still. Normally when we are at Epcot it usually winds up that we spend an overwhelming majority of the time in Future World because my brother and sister don't like the showcase that much. It was refreshing to spend a couple days just strolling around the World Showcase and stopping to taste the food and then going on the occasionally ride when we were done. The food for the most part was great. My favorite was the Chicken Urumqi. A close second though was the Spicy chicken sausage. This thing was one of the spiciest things I have EVER had.

So now that we've recapped most of the big happenings from the past 5 months, on to the present. Halloween has come and gone and the Christmas decorations are now up. That means the parks all decked out in holiday fashion, Mickey's Very Merry Christmas Party (Which I will be going to), the Osbourne Lights and the Lights of Winter.....Wait, Excuse my memory loss, Disney has scratched Lights of Winter for this Holiday season, saying "The Lights of Winter at Epcot has been enjoyed for years. But tech to operate the lights is obsolete, prompting us to retire the lights" via the official Disney Parks twitter page. Minutes later, they posted "Debuting at this year's Holidays Around the World at Epcot is a new gospel choir, "D'Vine Voices - Nov. 27 through Dec. 26". Oh, and did I mention that Space Mountain is back open for business? At least it is running in soft open status that is. The official opening date is 11/22, just in time for the Thanksgiving crowd. I myself have rode it, but will save my opinion on it for a future blog post just on Space Mountain.

Just back from July 4th week vacation

We just got back from the world last night and had a great, nice long vacation. We stayed at the new Kidani Village. The rooms were beautiful and the pool was great and the walk isn't all that bad to get over to Jambo if you have one of the parking lot view rooms (although that is the only advantage of those rooms) so Savannah view rooms are pretty close too. We noticed that there seemed to be far less people getting on/off at the bus stops at kidani than at Jambo. Overall Kidnai was a very nice hotel, i think having a counter service closer would make it a lot better though.

I'll start out by saying this has to be the best and the longest lasting vacation i've ever had. We started out the week by doing the KTTK tour, which was great. I enjoyed very much going behind the scenes and seeing those kind of things as well as the utilidors. The crowds were pretty light this trip with the exception of the 3rd and 4th, so we were able to get a lot done, but also took it easy and spread out our schedule.

We went to MK about 3-4 times, EPCOT 2-3 times, AK 2 times and DHS only once. We really were just taking it easy and doing a little each time we went to a park, going back to the room for a nap and then went to a different park at night. While we were there we did the dining plan which worked out well and got a lot of food out of it. Overall we were happy and it worked out in the end. While we were there we were able to catch "Slippery When Wet: A Bon Jovi Tribute Band" at EPCOT. They were great, looked and even sounded like the real thing. I wish i could have seen another set from them, but we needed to go. We were also able to catch the preview of the HOP and I thought it was great. I thought Lincoln looked almost real when he stood up and was moving around and most everyone else looked great also. It was also pretty cool when GW talked and then Obama repeated the oath of office (Correctly!). You could definatley tell Disney put a lot of effort into this.

Overall the crowds were pretty good for the time of year and with the exception of the 3rd and 4th, I didn't notice many really long lines where we had a hard time getting on anything more than once anywhere other than DHS. TSM topped at 100 minutes at one point on the 1st, while TOT and RNR were around 60. We were able to get on all of them once and that was all. I was also pretty disappointed that luxo jr. was not running during the time I was there on the 1st. I was looking forward to seeing him running.

I couldn't believe it when I had heard that the monorails had crashed early on the 5th. Then I started to believe it more b/c I realized they were working 12-14 hours that day and they were probably put under a lot of stress to keep things moving at a quick pace. It's too bad that that had to happen.

So overall, it was a great vacation!

I'll Post pictures of the resort from the vacation later on tonight. I have some really good ones from around MK and from BLT.

Luxo Jr. Debuts at Hollywood Studios!

The newest automated animatronic that Disney has created debuted today at the studios and he is a familiar face. Luxo Jr., who many may recognize from the beginning of your favorite Disney-Pixar movies, debuted today with his 3 minute show. During the show, Luxo dances along to music and shows you which kind he likes and which kind he doesn't.

RUMOR: Magic Kingdom to undergo expansion?

Today Kris Theiler (VP of operations support for domestic parks and resorts) had the chance to speak to a couple of Disneyland Cast members about her experience with the company. She talked a little bit about the restructuring and how she now does double duty for both DLR and WDW. She mentioned her work on DCA including the expansion and then mentioned she was also working on the expansion in the Magic Kingdom. During a Q&A after her presentation a cm asked if she could elaborate on the Magic Kingdom project, wanting to know if it was for the park or the recent DVC expansion. Kris responded saying it is inside the park but she couldn't elaborate any further and said there would be an announcement about the project soon.

Also another small tidbit from Kris was that Disney is constantly looking at ways to improve and change Fastpass including even charging for fastpass (no surprise there.) She did mention that the "father" of fastpass believes that fastpass should always remain free as it is a service that they owe to the public however a pay system for a "magic pass" is currently being tested in HKDL.

The is currently being rumored around forums such as WDWMAGIC, disboards and mice chat saying that in 2010, the Magic Kingdom will recieve an expansion. The above quoted did originally come from one of those sites, but never actually posted a source/link so that is why it is being called a rumor. The expansion will possibly include a snow white roller coaster, a little mermaid attraction, a beauty and the beast dark ride to replace the snow white dark ride, a it's a small world refurbishment and a possible return of Mr. Toad. This would be big for the MK as there hasn't been any major additions to the park since 1994 and this rehab of all of fantasyland would be big in providing that by adding an E-ticket snow white ride and a little mermaid ride.

Before anyone gets TOO excited, please remember that these are just rumors and have not yet been announced by Disney, and likely won't until atleast after the Space Mountain refurb is done, probably early 2010 as the project is said to not be starting until late 2010 and ending late 2012. Hopefully this ends up happening though as it is much needed.

The image below shows a map of MK with the likely area to expand upon colored in. The only thing about the map is that it is likely not going to happen that land is built in the yellow area b/c it is around the area where the fireworks are shot off behind the castle so if anything was built there, it would have to be shut down during the fireworks. So it COULD happen, it is just not as likely.

Disney Online Reservation System

Earlier this week, Disney debuted the online ADR system, helping make reservations a little easier. Going in, I was hopeful, but as always when it comes to things on Disney.com, I was a bit skeptical. I got the chance to use it on Wednesday and Thursday a bit and was surprised how well it worked. I was searching for some reservations for an upcoming trip with my family and it worked very well. All you have to do is search for the restaurant you want to make a reservation for on the Disney.com website, click the link to that restaurant on the site, and then click make reservation on the left hand corner of your screen. Once on the page to make the reservation, you can choose the time slot you want to make it and search. It will either come up with times around your inputted time, or tell you that there is no available space for reservation at the restaurant. Sometimes, depending on the time and amount of people you put in, even if you switch it up just a bit, you will be able to find a reservation at the time you want.

So overall, I would say that the system is working very well and will be a big help when booking reservations. It will also benefit those who will call as the lines will not be as jammed. The only thing that really annoyed me was when finalizing the reservations, it came up with some error that gave me a huge scare! I thought i had just lost all my reservations! It came back though and said they were booked and even sent out an e-mail to me right away with the confirmation information. It seems to be working out to be a very convenient system.

P.S. I've noticed recently Disney seems to be on top of it as far as online things go. They set up the new disney store, D23 has a surprising amount of updates (and also has a twitter and facebook page) and now this. Finally maybe Disney is getting on the ball with their websites.

Welcome to the Blog!

Hey!

So, my name is Nick and am 16 years old I am a huge Disney fan and live in Tampa, FL. I get to go to WDW a lot so that is a big plus for me. Let me explain a little what this Blog and eventual website is about. The blog will mainly focus on keeping others informed about the happenings at WDW and keep you up-to-date on anything Disney. This is not only going to be a Blog/Eventual website. Starting late summer/Early Fall 2009, we will begin a weekly podcast, which is where the teen part comes in. The podcast will focus mainly on Teens and their unbiased opinions of WDW and everything in the Disney corporation. While most of our segments will be about teens and their opinons, We will also have a segment our two where parents of the teens will give their input in the podcast. The people behind the mic on the podcast will most likely be myself and a few of my friends who also are Disney people. Hopefully everyone will listen and make the site come true and make the podcast last!