GDP Special Pictorial: Tiana’s Showboat Jubilee

Today we have a special pictorial of a short lived show at Magic Kingdom, that everyone I talk to, and I mean everyone wishes it would return, Tiana’s Showboat Jubilee. Running from mid October 2009 to December 2009, this musical show took place on the Lilly Belle Riverboat that sailed around the Rivers of America in Frontierland. The boat stopped in front of the Thunder Mountain Bridge and the cast, along with a special group of guests, performed various songs from the Princess and the Frog. This short lived show was more of a promotion for the film, and many thought it would return for the DVD/Blue Ray release of the film, but it did not.

Disneyland also had Tiana’s Showboat Jubilee, but it ended when Magic Kingdom’s did, but it appeared again, on land and with a new name in New Orleans Square.

                              

After the performance, the boat went on a tour of the Rivers of America and got a personal meet and greet with the characters from the film.

In my opinion, it was one of the greatest pieces of entertainment that have been in the Magic Kingdom in years.

Anything and Everything Disney’s Animal Kingdom!!

Dear Global Disney Pinvestigation Readers,

In preparation for the 2011 Blogging Season I’m planning various postings and series throughout the first couple months of the year, so first and foremost I’m taking any and all suggestions for Blog Postings about ANYTHING Disney, from Movies to Shows to Theme Parks to Various Attractions or even Themed Lands… Anything!

In April, I’m planning a special, month long series, dedicated to Disney’s Animal Kingdom, from lands to attractions, and more special stuff to come. But in early December I will have the honor of going on a special tour with one of my friends (who is an Animal Kingdom lover), and has been on every tour offered at Disney’s Animal Kingdom multiple times.

In this special tour, I will be going on a in-depth walk through the park, earlier in the day she will be going on a Backstage Tour and asked me if I had any questions for her to ask, as of now I can  not think of anything, go figure! So I’m opening the floor up to you, the readers of GDP. What do you want to know about Disney’s Animal Kingdom?? Anything and Everything! Just email me, tweet me (be sure to use #GDPDAK in tweet), Direct Message Me on Twitter, or Facebook me. I will go through the questions and pick out the ones that are the most interesting, I have no specific number so I could pick all, or none.

Be sure to do either of those types of communication if you have suggestions for the blog topics as well.

I can’t wait to see what you wonder about Animal Kingdom. If all questions can be sent in by December 7, 2010 11:59pm EST. Oh, and I forgot to mention, from EVERYONE who sends in a question, I will be choosing a random winner for a special prize that will be announced in April!

Sincerely,

         Cody Smith

GDP Park Report: 4 Parks, 5 Entertainment in 6 Hours—Part 1

This was an impressive feat, in my book. On Thursday I closed down three parks (Disney’s Animal Kingdom, Disney’s Hollywood Studios, and Epcot), went to all four parks, and saw five pieces of entertainment (Celebrate a Dream Come True Parade, Mickey’s Jingle Jungle Parade, Fantasmic!, Osbourne Spectacle of Dancing Lights, and Illuminations).

Here is Part 1 of the report, Part 2 should be posted tomorrow. Part 1 will consist of the first half my adventure, the two Kingdoms, Magic and Animal.

   

 

 

Fantasyland Forest Expansion—November 20, 2010

This is our archives of our bi-monthly edition of Fantasyland Forest Friday, keeping you up-to-date on the latest happenings over in the Fantasyland area that is being made over into the “Fantasyland Forest”.

Past Fantasyland Forest “Fridays” for you to keep track of the progress:

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

As with the last couple of Fantasyland Expansion postings there hasn’t been much news in this realm, though we do have some pictures of the expansion. First, we have our general construction shots, and obligatory crane shots.

The Little Mermaid attraction building is looking great, they are beginning to wall off the queue area of the attraction.

The Beauty and the Beast area is taking shape as well, they’ve added another floor to the structure.

 

Obligatory Great Wall of Fantasyland shot.

The Many Adventure of Winnie the Pooh re-opened on Monday, kind of. The attraction was plagued with spurts of working on Monday, but on Tuesday it was fully operational. From Monday until Thursday the attraction used its FastPass entrance as the queue for the attraction because the interactive portion of the queue for this attraction was still getting the finishing touches, but it opened on Friday. For more information and pictures from the recently opened queue, be sure to visit WDW News Today for Banks Lee’s report.

Pooh’s Thotful Shop reopened as Hundred Acre Goods.

Portion of the outdoor queue area for the attraction still being worked on. (at time of shot, Thursday)

  

Last week, the Mad Tea Party reopened with a new color scheme on the roof, sadly no glass roof.

 

Finally, lets take a trip to Disney’s Hollywood Studios for the recently reopened One Man’s Dream, where we have some ‘previews’ of the Fantasyland expansion, a glass case is dedicated to the expansion, it wouldn’t surprise me if the area that reopens soon, now titled The Legacy Continues, will feature more concept art.

     

Though nothing in this case is new for us to see, it does give us great hope that this will be updated, similar to the Blue Sky Cellar in Disney California Adventure.

That’s it for now, be sure to stay tuned for more updates throughout the months.