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Before we start today, there's been another Cast Member death at Walt Disney World. Stunt performer Anislav Varbanov died Monday night in after-hours rehearsals for the Indiana Jones Epic Stunt Spectacular of "head injuries" -- not much else is known yet. There's quite a procession of CM deaths lately; Varbanov comes after Mark Priest died on August 10 after an on-stage slip while performing in the Captain Jack's Pirate Tutorial, and July 5 saw the horrifying death of monorail pilot Austin Wuennenberg. More on Varbanov's death at the Orlando Sentinel; we'll now continue with our regular column...

The new coaster at Universal Studios Florida, Hollywood Rip Ride Rockit (that's HRRR to all you Dane Cook fans), entered a quick testing phase recently, and actually graduated from employee testing up to regular guests, a so-called soft opening. Since the opening was expected the night before, lines quickly formed on Sunday, and once HRRR did open to the masses, it sported a two and a half hour line.

I didn't make the journey, however. I was having too much fun at the Disney resort, where I was merely up to my usual touring of the parks. We go at a leisurely pace, usually starting late and trying to visit things we haven't seen in some months. That actually brings us a lot of variation -- more than you would probably expect. From my perspective, I'm seeing stuff that's new to me on every visit, even though some of it may have been in place for weeks, months, or even years. In some cases, I'm just now noticing things that have been there since the park opened. Nothing wrong with that, in my opinion. On the contrary, that kind of attention to detail is what makes Disney justifiable famous.

I gave a taste of this kind of "New to Me" in the last article, and enough of you expressed interest that I thought I'd give you the full-sized rundown. What you see in today's article is typical of a weekend for me: I make about this many observations and new discoveries in just two park visits. Even when you live here and visit constantly, the tingling sensation that comes from seeing something new can still occur.

Many of these are small, perhaps even insignificant alterations in the parks. Normally they wouldn't merit too much attention in my update, and I usually snap the photos, digest the newness silently, and write about different things. Indeed, next week I'll return to that pattern, though I may also tack on a section of "new to me" items every now and then. But this time, I wanted to try to make it the focus.

New to Me

At Disney's Animal Kingdom, we paid a visit to the centralized FastPass (still in a test phase, possibly to end any day now) and explored the new system, trying it put it through some paces. It's not been widely reported, but these machines are not networked with each other, though they are networked (kind of) to the larger FastPass system. There are two machines for Dinosaur, two dedicated to Expedition Everest, and the last two are for Kilimanjaro Safari.


The centralized distribution center closes at 3pm to make way for the parade,
and it doesn't re-open.

We got tickets to Everest and then experimentally tried to get tickets for Dinosaur. It worked! Then, we tried Kilimanjaro Safari, and it worked too! To find out if the machines were completely unlinked, we walked over to Everest and tried there for a second set, but no luck. And to be sure it wasn't only some of the machines, we also tried Kali River Rapids, and it didn't work there either. So somehow the three centralized machines are linked up enough to prevent duplicates "elsewhere" in the park, but unlinked in that you could get all three passes in the centralized location.

Over at Restaurantosaurus, we saw something that's probably been there a while: drink cells for soda refills. This has been a trend lately. Self-service refills have been available for a long time at Sunshine Seasons Fair (Land pavilion) and more recently at Electric Umbrella, while Hollywood Studios has one at Backlot Express. It crosses my mind that this trend may be customer-friendly in the short term (who doesn't like free refills?) but I wonder if there will be long-term effects which are less customer friendly. There is no such thing as a free lunch, after all, and that's especially true for a company like Disney.


The drink cell at Restaurantosaurus

It's possible that Disney will save labor costs to make up for the extra syrup and carbonated water that guests will use up (and no, Disney does not get free syrup from Coca-Cola, despite what you may have heard). But what about the loss of sales there and elsewhere? Will families buy just one cup and share it, rather than purchase four cups as they would have in the past, with the drink cell out of reach? Will frequent visitors keep their cups to re-use visit after visit? (don't laugh -- I saw this all the time with coffee back in New Orleans Square) If those crimped sales damage the bottom line, wouldn't Disney have to make up the difference somewhere?

I imagine they'd make up the difference by making things more expensive -- either higher priced food items, or, well, more expensive soda cups. It's not hard to image $4 sodas. At that price, you'd almost feel like you had to share cups with your family, or keep your cup for next time. In short, you'd be forced to "maximize" the system since you'd be disadvantaging yourself otherwise (long-time readers will note the parallel to FastPass!)

I've long known about the existence of an unpaved path deep in the Africa-to-Asia walkway, but had never gone to look for it. It was but a quick loop through the trees, and several years ago they just replanted the entrances to the path and let it become overgrown. There's no real trace of the path now, but you can still spot the square stepping stones where the path crossed a tiny stream. To find this hidden path, take the "high road" on the walkway from Africa to Asia -- the same high road where the smoking section is located.


The path was there to reward exploration.

Wait, check that. It's not a smoking section any more. Now it's a meet and greet? Didn't seem to be a lot of interest from the visitors. I wonder if they don't know to come up here?


Tarzan's Terk looked bored.

Over at Kilimanjaro Safari, we were handed a lanyard as we got in line. You've probably been asked to do this, too. A card on the lanyard is scanned at the front, and when you turn it in before you get on the ride, it's scanned again, thereby telling the computers how long you waited (this is what informs those wait time signs you see in front of each attraction). So far, nothing new. But the Safari one we were given was oversized, extra bright, and completely obvious. One assumes they just want to make sure you don't accidentally forget to turn it in (which must happen with some regularity). The red card is still there, embedded inside the larger card and then laminated over. Not every ride is doing this, though, since we saw the regular red ones a day later.


It would be hard to forget that I'm wearing this.

Is this single-rider sign new at Expedition Everest? I could swear they were relying only on A-frames earlier. The single-rider line was pretty heavily populated, and it actually looked like it might have a longer overall wait than the standby line. The yeti, by the way, was still in "B" mode, with a strobe light taking the place of the bone-crushing movement it used to do.


Part of the single rider line indicates if it's presently open or not.

The foliage in the first, "foothills" part of the ride has been changed. There was a bad freeze this year that killed all the original ferns and plants that were here (they looked pretty burned at first), but now the new foliage is entirely different (and, I must say, quite a bit less exotic than it looked before).


Pine trees, cypress, and flowers look nice, but don't seem as immersive somehow.

The signs in front of Disney's Hollywood Studios have undergone recent changes with the addition of American Idol and now Toy Story.


These signs are constantly wearing out and showing signs of age.

Over to Epcot, where Tin Toy, the quaint exhibit in the Bijutsu Kan ("art museum") gallery at one entrance to the Mitsuokoshi store in the Japan pavilion, has been shuttered. There was no immediate word on what's replacing it, or when it's to be expected, and the CMs nearby were mum on the details.


KidCot is temporarily located outside of the museum.

The twin shops at the juncture between World Showcase and Future World have always been known as Port of Entry (east and west, respectively), but they recently sprouted new signage painted on the windows. It's a nice touch.


Thumbs up from me!

For a few weeks now, I've seen Disney avoid using the term rehab or refurbishment when it comes to rides closed for maintenance. The term now, to judge from the electronic billboard in Future World, is "renewal." It makes sense, and I can see why they'd steer clear of the word "rehab" for the drug connotations, but something about "renewal" seems off. It reminds me of the movie Logan's Run for some reason. Perhaps I just need to get used to it.


It sounds more upbeat.

Here's a detail that caught my eye, almost by accident. On the tag engraving machine at the exit to Mission:Space, most screens use placeholder words like "YOUR NAME HERE." But one screen instead uses Dave Smith as the example name. Since it's the only one with a name, I assume this is not a coincidence, but an homage to either the Disney archivist or the "other" Dave Smith who used to work for Disney Imagineering.


Dave Smith.

In the Seas with Nemo and Friends, I discovered more remnants of the former Living Seas pavilion. Since I publish a book on "hidden history" in the parks, I'm always on the prowl for such occurrences, and I've long ago found several in this pavilion. The new ones I found are on the second floor, on blue placards identifying living coral and bamboo sharks.


"part of the Living Seas coral reef propagation project."

And in the category of the truly esoteric, we've got the replacement flooring in the Future World breezeways. The painted concrete is replacing simple tile -- could it be because the original tile was too slick when it rains? (which it does basically every summer day)


One breezeway is already finished.

Kevin Yee may be e-mailed at [email protected] - Please keep in mind he may not be able to respond to each note personally.

© 2009 Kevin Yee


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Kevin's Disney Books

Kevin is the author of many books on Disney theme parks, including:

  • Mouse Trap: Memoir of a Disneyland Cast Member provides the first authentic glimpse of what it's like to work at Disneyland.
  • The Walt Disney World Menu Book lists restaurants, their menus, and prices for entrees, all in one handy pocket-sized guide.
  • Tokyo Disney Made Easy is a travel guide to Tokyo Disneyland and Tokyo DisneySeas, written to make the entire trip stress-free for non-speakers of Japanese.
  • Magic Quizdom offers an exhaustive trivia quiz on Disneyland park, with expansive paragraph-length answers that flesh out the fuller story on this place rich with details.
  • 101 Things You Never Knew About Disneyland is a list-oriented book that covers ground left intentionally unexposed in the trivia book, namely the tributes and homages around Disneyland, especially to past rides and attractions.
  • 101 Things You Never Knew About Walt Disney World follows the example of the Disneyland book, detailing tributes and homages in the four Disney World parks.

More information on the above titles, along with ordering options are at this link. Kevin is currently working on other theme park related books, and expects the next one to be published soon.

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