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It's been so busy around here I have had no hope of keeping up with all the
changes at Walt Disney World. I reckon the only way to get caught up is to
attempt to catalog everything in one fell swoop. Otherwise, I'll just slip
further and further behind schedule.
The big news this week is the soft-opening of Space Mountain, which has been
closed since April. The official opening is November 22, but since this past
weekend the ride has been open intermittently. I haven't been on it myself just
yet, so I'll withhold a full review until next week (when the ride has its
official opening). In the meantime, here's a view of the lifthill just a week
before the soft-openings, as seen from the TTA. The upside-down astronauts had
been removed!
A view with lights on from several weeks ago.
Another addition to the Magic Kingdom has been Tiana's Showboat Jubilee. This
show appeared first in Orlando but has since also started in Anaheim. The
Orlando version begins with a small processional as the costumed dancers make
their way from the Frontierland backstage near Diamond Horseshoe over to the
Liberty Belle boat, and then the boat steams over to the Splash Mountain bridge
and stops for its show.
And just what is this show? It's entertaining, I can say that. I don't yet
know the characters or villains from this movie, but I felt the show introduced
them to me. I don't know the songs, but by golly if I didn't leave this show
humming more than one of the tunes--hopefully I will like this
movie.
Tiana is instantly recognizable as our heroine.
Almost everything about this show is done right. It's energetic, it's
fast-paced, it's dynamic, and it manages to take a 2-D surface (the side of the
riverboat), and render it a 3-D canvas. Props are held over the side, oversized
tarot cards are rhythmically pumped in and out from the side, performers "hide"
under the railings and then pop into existence… I was surprised with how much
they could do with such a limited platform. They even squeezed in a quick
pyrotechnic display at the end.
It's unusual for me to like a show such as this "out of the
box," but I was impressed.
The show makes use of Guest performers, much like the Celebrate parades, and
I have to say they looked to be having a ball. I found myself
just a touch envious--I would like to try this myself someday!
Still on the Magic Kingdom--it's amazing how much has happened here in the
past months--we've got the destruction of the top half of the Tomorrowland Skyway
building, and the complete renovation of the bathrooms below. This building was
an eyesore before, so I welcome the change. It was hugely refreshing to see
change come that is NOT tied to a new merchandising location, for once.
Not that all merchandising is bad. I snapped up the $8 Haunted Mansion action
figures last month.
The Tomorrowland Transit Authority not only reopened with new lights (as
covered here previously), but new audio has also been added. Fan reaction has
been decidedly mixed on the Internet, with many claiming the new narration is
more boring and lacks a storyline. Gone are the "intergalactic spaceport"
references to Tomorrowland; this time, the journey is more of a simple tour.
When our vehicles pass over an attraction, we hear from the characters below
(Stitch, Buzz Lightyear, Monsters Inc), with the result a bit more of the
continued "cartoonization" of Tomorrowland.
Buzz Lightyear got his own photo location between
Carousel of Progress and Space Ranger Spin
I'm not all that opposed to a story-free attraction, surprisingly. Marc Davis
is on record saying that he created the Haunted Mansion and Pirates of the
Caribbean to be experiences rather than stories, so I'm not convinced that
stories are always needed. It's OK to be a tour, really it is. But I do have a
problem with how quiet the narration is. Unlike Disneyland's PeopleMover, the
TTA in Orlando uses audio in the "ceiling" rather than in the car, and it's
hard to hear everything.
Another new item: a merch cart has been replaced by more-permanent shelving.
Over in Epcot, a few months ago a quiet little bar opened up in the Mexico
pavilion to serve tequila. Well, it was "quiet," but on most of my subsequent
visits, the place has ranged from "almost full" to "insanely overcrowded" (with
the latter state resulting in a stereotypical velvet rope drop outside the
establishment, behind which a line was building). I'm not a tequila drinker, but
this place looked like absolute fun for anyone who is.
The murals tell the story of tequila from guava plant to
bottle.
At Test Track, the yearly switching out of cars has now resulted in the
much-anticipated Chevy Volt finally being on display. But it's not any Volt…
this is the modified car used as a movie prop in the second Transformers movie
(where he was named "Jolt" instead). Disney parks have a long tradition of
displaying movie props, so this one fits right in.
You can't touch/approach Jolt – it's on a rotating pedestal –
but watch for the lack of door handles!
In Japan, the Tin Toy exhibit has been replaced by Bijutsu-Kan, A Collection
of Japanese Arts. Inside this small venue, most of the interior walls are gone, and you'll see
a large central room dominated by a rock garden. If you get curious about the
immaculate raked grooming, feel free to reach down and touch it--it's glued
together with some kind of adhesive spray. On the walls are photographs of
Japanese heritage sights. The Kidcot table remains just outside this venue.
Signs also attest to the World Heritage Sites on display.
Overall, it's an interesting addition to Epcot, but the effect is fluffy and
ephemeral. It leaves you wanting more, like trying to make a meal out of the
lightweight meringue atop a cake.
You won't spend that long in here, I warrant.
The bigger news has been the addition in Innoventions of Sum of All Thrills,
by Ratheon. This simulator replaces the "build your own robot" exhibit, and it's
a worthwhile replacement. You design your own coaster, using pre-formatted parts
in three stages, and then take your smart card upstairs to ride it. The idea may
sound like "cyber space mountain" (a similar ride at Downtown Disney's
DisneyQuest), but the Innoventions simulator is far, far more tame. The
sensation is more likely to make you nauseous than excited, actually.
There are several simulator arms in this area.
Amid all these additions, there have been removals, too. The Kidcot stations
in Future World were quietly discontinued several weeks ago, freeing Disney from
needing to man the locations and presumably saving a bundle in the process. Now,
the former stations are just abandoned wall displays. The Kidcot stations in
Future World remain staffed and untouched.
Kids can still read about the subject, at least.
At Disney's Hollywood Studios, Luxo the Lamp moved in months ago opposite Toy
Story Mania, but it's theoretically still in soft opening phase, and it doesn't
work every day. Indeed, every time I've tried to make it to a performance (they
run every fifteen minutes), the animatronic has been malfunctioning, so I still
can't really comment on it.
A more noticeable addition has been the replacing of the signs above the
Great Movie Ride. It has irked me for years now that the neon-based lights on
the older signs were often burned out, or just took literally hours to heat up.
The new signs lack this kind of lighting entirely. The downside, of course, is
that they now look cheap and temporary.
To the left, the old-style sign (presumably to be removed
soon). To the right, the flatter new sign.
It's not all bad news at DHS. I've also noticed several encouraging fixes to
themed show: a replacement Coca-Cola bottle (the one that cracks open and sprays
mist on passers-by) outside the Backlot Tram Tour, the fixing of the water spray
and flashing headlights on the "crashed" tram outside the tour, and even smoke
rising once again from dinosaur Gertie in Echo Lake at nighttime, while her
eyeballs glow brightly with new lights. Speaking
of
that
area, when did the entrance to the Idol auditions move to the
Echo Lake side of the building? It used to face the Sci-Fi diner.
Nothing stands still at Disney World; even Disney's Animal Kingdom has had
some small changes of late. Some months ago, the signs on the train out to
Rafiki's Planet Watch were changed out to reflect more recent Disney DVD
advertising.
Left: DisneyNature – a good enough fit, I guess. Right: The shark-catfish
at DAK isn't quite six feet, but I'll be
he's four feet long.
And I was happy to see a sign for the Asian catfish near the Tree of Life.
Until now, this paroon shark-catfish has lived in obscurity, with 99% of the
visitors not aware that below the bridge lurked an enormous catfish that has to
be seen to be believed; it was one of my favorite "hidden" details of DAK.
The
original idea to DAK had been to leave some trails unmarked and some animal
exhibits unheralded, the better to reward exploration and discovery (for its own
sake). I grew to admire and like that philosophy, but I can see why current operators wanted to label an exhibit, especially if the vast majority of the
visitors were otherwise just going to ignore it.
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