New Fantasyland Expansion—January 20, 2011

Today we have a special Fantasyland posting, with the latest news and information from the expansion, and this is our first Fantasyland posting of the new year. A year ago at this time we posted our very first posting regarding the Fantasyland Expansion, and it was very successful.

Here is a list of our previous postings regarding Fantasyland:

January 2010 and January 2010 2.0
April 2010
May 2010
June 2010
July 2010
August 2010
September 3, 2010
September 17, 2010
October 1, 2010
October 22, 2010
November 20, 2010

On Tuesday January 18, 2011, the Walt Disney Company announced, on the Disney Parks Blog, additions to the Fantasyland expansion in Walt Disney World’s Magic Kingdom. Sleeping Beauty, Cinderella and Pixie Hollow are no more, instead we have an expanded Circus area and the long-rumored Dwarf Mine Train.

Let’s take a look at the original aerial view from September 2009:

Now take a look at the aerial view released on January 2011:

Let’s take a look at the newly announced Snow White Mine Cart Rollercoaster to be placed in the location of the original ideas of the Cinderella Chateau and Sleeping Beauty Cottage.

The new rollercoaster “will take you on a rollicking, musical ride into the mine “where a million diamonds shine.” The coaster will feature a first-of-its kind ride system with a train of ride vehicles that swing back and forth as they whisk along the track. The journey will be accompanied by music from the classic Disney film and animated figures of Snow White and the Dwarfs.” (Disney Parks Blog)

With Snow White and her Dwarfs getting a new attraction in the new Fantasyland, that means Snow White’s Scary Adventures will be replaced with the Princess Fairytale Hall, a new meet-and-greet opportunity to meet other Disney Princesses, like Cinderella, Princess Aurora, Tiana, and Rapunzel.

Other news released this week was more information about the new Circus themed area coming to the location that is Mickey’s Toontown Fair now. The “Dueling Dumbos” will be housed in the Storybook Circus tent where guests will be able to fly with Dumbo, and also play fun and interactive games as they wait to ride their favorite elephant.

Goofy’s Barnstormer will be re-themed to the Great Goofini, a circus themed version of this Mickey’s Toontown Fair attraction. This attraction will take guests on a twisting, turning, daredevil, roller coaster “flight” high above the circus fun.

In the Circus themed area of the New Fantasyland the Toontown Train Station will be re-themed to Casey Jr, and be the Fantasyland Train Station.

Finally, more details were released about the Beauty and the Beast area of the Fantasyland expansion. The Be Our Guest restaurant is set in the halls of the Beast’s Castle, and will seat up to 550 guests and offer “great food fast” service by day and full table service dining in the evening. Just outside the restaurant, you will also be able to explore Belle’s Village, which includes Gaston’s Tavern and Bonjour! Village Gifts.

Here is an updated overhead view of what is to come and open by 2013 in the New Fantasyland, as they are calling it now.

Now, onto the second half of this report, a photo report of the updated area that is now New Fantasyland Construction. First off, during the Press Event new artist renderings were added to the wall, including several aerial views of the project and a new Seven Dwarves Mine Train preview, as well as plussed Beauty and the Beast and Little Mermaid wall coverings.

Moving along the Great Wall of Fantasyland from Pinochios Village Haus to Mickey’s ToonTown Fair, this is the order of the wall coverings. First is a ‘mini’ version of the Fantasyland aerial view.

Moving down the wall, we come across Maurice’s Cottage which had two new additions, a new “New Fantasyland… Dreams Come True 2012” banner across the top, as well as a cut out of Belle reading a book titled “Fantasyland”.

Across from the newly named Storybook Treats we have the newest addition to the Great Wall of Fantasyland, the Seven Dwarf’s Mine Train preview.

In front of the Beast’s Castle picture, a cut out of the Beast was added along with the new banner.

 

My favorite addition to the wall is the GIANT aerial view concept art of the New Fantasyland, it is right in front of the Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh attraction, and near the new Pooh Meet-and-Greet location.

Finally, the Little Mermaid board has been moved to in front of the Mad Tea Party attraction, and Ariel, Prince Eric, and Sebastian have been added to the board, along with the new banner.

 

Now onto the various construction photos from today’s early morning adventure in the park. The stupid trees are in the way of most of the views, sadly.

                   

That will finish up our super-sized Fantasyland Expansion posting, but before we go I have two questions for you, one of them for you to ponder. One, With Cinderella Chateau out of the picture, do you think we can see the renaming of Prince Charmings Regal Carousel back to Cinderella’s Royal Carousel? And two, with the new plans unveiled, do  you think we can see the new exhibits in One Man’s Dream at Disney’s Hollywood Studios to be unveiled soon?

Pictures and Information from Disney Parks Blog

Pixar Pals: Countdown to Fun!, Are We Sure This Is a Good Title?

Hearing that Block Party Bash was leaving in January to bring an actual new parade to Disney’s Hollywood Studios, I was very excited, because I was one of the few people who didn’t like Block Party Bash, I’m not a fan of show stops in a “parade”, why? because it isn’t a parade that way. Originally titled Pixar Pals Cavalcade, I was excited to see what this new parade was going to be about. Once hearing the name changed to Pixar Pals Countdown to Fun I was a bit skeptical, why? because that title is a mouthful, and most things (in my opinion) that have a long title, don’t live up to the title. This new parade, personally I wouldn’t even call it a parade, its just an eight minute long procession of color and recycled stuff, followed suit.

I went with a group of friends, braved the Martin Luther King Jr. Day Weekend Crowds and went to Hollywood Studios for the day. We were one of the first people staked-out near the Sorcerer’s Hat at 2:00pm. (If you were there, we were the ones sitting basically in the middle of the promenade in front of the giant hat.

The announcements letting guests know what is coming happen at 2:30pm, 2:45pm, and 2:55pm (30 minutes, 15 minutes, and 5 minutes respectively), are very annoying, no more Green Army Men, now we have an annoying lady/girl with a squeeky voice. But I figured I wouldn’t judge until I saw the parade. The music started, and as known before premiereing it was going to be “Countdown to Fun!” from Disney’s California Adventure’s Pixar Play Parade, so I had a tiny hope that we MIGHT get a float or two from DCA, though that was highly unlikely, guess what…we didn’t.

The parade turned the corner and headed down Hollywood Blvd and you could hear a sigh of “eh” as it moved down the route, not even to us yet, because we could see the recycled costumes, and all of the floats, just in reverse order that they were in Block Party Bash. I’ll let you see for yourself…

           

                

When the parade was over you looked around at the guests, who you could tell were there for THE NEW PARADE, and they were just filled with disappointment at this eight minute long procession. After talking to a few people, including one of my friends who was standing next to some of the executives of the park, everyone is in hope of a change as-soon-as-possible, as without it, this parade will become a tremendous failure, sadly. One question I had was, where were Lightning McQueen and Mater? You couldn’t just add them to the back of the parade like in Pixar Play Parade, you could have easily placed them in back, then had the two cones behind them, it would be better, I think, than just having two RANDOM cones at the end of the parade. Or what about Finding Nemo and Wall_E?

After yesterday, it wouldn’t surprise me if we see some changes, and fast! Did you see the parade?? What did you think? Leave comments in comment section below.