Disney This Week - 5 January 2014

This Week – On the Main Street Gazette

The Magic Kingdom and Cinnamon Rolls, no finer way to start a holiday!

We found a memo from The Ten Commandments production at Backlot Express.

Silent Saturday enjoyed a meal at 50's Prime Time Cafe.

This Week – Around the Disney Blogosphere 

AJ Wolfe is all over the turkey leg hullabaloo at The Disney Food Blog.

We are reminded that it is people who truly matter in the Disney community in a look back at 2013 from Estelle Hallick on This Happy Place Blog.

Nicole Siscaretti has New Year’s Eve at Disney’s Hollywood Studios covered for Sparkly Ever After.

Imagineering Disney has some great Then and Now aerial perspectives of the parks.

Like, zoinks, looks like old man George Taylor has solved a Liberty Square mystery at Imaginerding.

Adam and Andrew give the Yak Attack a whirl with not-so-pleasant results at the Disney Hipster Blog.

Passport to Dreams Old & New and FoxxFur explore the illusion of life through light in the parks.

Meeting Anna and Elsa can be a feat, but Disney On Wheels and Melissa Knight Coulter embraced the challenge.

This Week – World News Roundtable

Roundtable Contributors: Blake Taylor (BlakeOnline.com).

Out With the Old

Blake Taylor (BlakeOnline.com)

Saturday, January 4, marked the final operating days for two WDW entertainment mainstays. One is gone for good, while another will return with unspecified upgrades.

Celebrate a Dream Come True Parade danced through the Magic Kingdom's streets for over 12 years, since its debut as part of the 100 Years of Magic promotion on October 1, 2001. It's gone through several iterations involving slight changes to floats, music, and names over the years, but as a whole it's remained the same procession. Many fans became tired of seeing the same old floats, but this parade is actually my favorite of any Disney has put on. Yes, its floats and choreography may have been subdued in comparison to other Disney parades, but that meant its focus was instead turned to character interaction. I like to think of the Magic Kingdom as the quintessential Disney experience, where childhood heroes materialize before our eyes and lifelong dreams of having an encounter with those heroes come true. That's what this parade did so well: By including nearly every classic Disney character imaginable and turning its attention to how those characters interact with guests along the parade route, it made for special memories that other parades with a performance focus can never achieve. I look forward to the Festival of Fantasy Parade debuting later this spring, but I admit I'll miss Celebrate.

Over at Animal Kingdom, Festival of the Lion King had its final performance in its Camp Minnie-Mickey location. The show will re-open in about six months in a new building in the Africa area of the park. There hasn't been any word on if the show is simply being moved verbatim and the theater will be the only element to receive an overhaul, or if the show's content itself will be seeing some alterations. I really do enjoy Festival of the Lion King (it's my favorite attraction at Animal Kingdom), but I'd love to see a few content changes here and there to keep things fresh.

Disney This Week - 1 December 2013

This Week – On the Main Street Gazette

We asked how many of you wanted to be a part of the Main Street Gazette as a guest columnist or contributor to Disney This Week.

The music of Horizons can change your life if you take its message to heart!

Barefoot Bay Marina, and its abundant watercraft, are as fun today as they were yesterday.

The missus took a bite out of Captain Cook's Chocolate Beer Cupcake.

We went in search of the heroic horse, Maximus.

Silent Saturday took note of the shipwrecked Albatross.

This Week – Around the Disney Blogosphere 

Estelle Hallick talks about the time The Julie Andrews Hour went Disney on This Happy Place Blog.

Terrific Disney food magnets are on the fridge of The Disney Food Blog and AJ Wolfe.

Melissa Sue Sorrells Galley explores the newest Disney swag to hit mailboxes for Mouse on the Mind.

It may seem like an annual tradition, but looking at the Grand Floridian Gingerbread House, this year from Eating WDW and Sarah Holodick, is always special to me!

Safari Mike reminds readers at Jambo Everyone of why it’s great to volunteer for Flights of Wonder.

Eating (and Drinking) around the World and Andy Jackson whip up a batch Eclipses from the Disney Fantasy. 


This Week – World News Roundtable

The holiday this week also made for a slow news week, but Blake Taylor sums it all up nicely!

Roundtable Contributors: Blake Taylor (BlakeOnline.com).

No News in Good News

Blake Taylor (BlakeOnline.com) 

In terms of breaking, earth-shattering news and announcements, this week is a little slow. In terms of setting a course for what I believe to be future Disney history in the making, this past week was a game-changer. We had a fairytale musical film playing to sold-out theaters across the nation, a new Mickey Mouse short accompanying it, and a primetime Muppets television special. (Regardless of your opinion on that latter item, as it was a bit cringe-worthy at times, it's neat to see the Muppets in the public eye.) This is a big moment for Disney. Their franchises and studios all seem to be exactly where they need to be for optimal impact. And we get to soak in all the magic that comes with it.

Disney This Week - 24 November 2013

This Week – On the Main Street Gazette

We spoke from the heart about the closing of Sid Cahuenga's One-of-a-Kind.

There was some Muppet business going on at the front gates to Disney-MGM Studios.

We grabbed a seat at Boatwright's Dining Hall for a delicious dinner.

A little background was given about Morocco's Fez House.

Silent Saturday was spent admiring Rosie's Victory Garden.

This Week – Around the Disney Blogosphere

The 1989 Walt Disney World Resort Vacation Handbook uncovered by George Taylor for Imaginerding sets my heart aflutter, particularly the artwork!

AJ Wolfe has the Disney chef in your life in mind when she presented her guide to Disney cookbooks on The Disney Food Blog.

Even a bad situation can be fun at Walt Disney World, as Melissa Sue Sorrells Galley reminds us in Mouse on the Mind.

Melissa Knight Coulter and Estelle Hallick chatted about The Boys, the documentary about the Sherman Brothers. You can find Part I at This Happy Place Blog and Part II at Disney On Wheels.

Fantasy in Flight, Beautifully Disney’s Tink inspired line, is broken down by Nicole Siscaretti for Sparkly Ever After.

Sarah Holodick whips up a Brown Elephant, an Outpost favorite from the 2013 International Food and Wine Festival, at the home base of Eating WDW.

The history of the motion simulator attraction is covered by Sam Gennawey at Samland.

This Week – World News Roundtable

Roundtable Contributors: Alan Mize and Blake Taylor (BlakeOnline.com).

Give That Button a Squeeze

Alan Mize 

In a move that should finally close the shutter on Kodak, Disney has announced a deal where Nikon will become the official camera of the Walt Disney World and Disneyland Parks.  This partnership will see previous Kodak photo spots rebranded to Nikon photo spots.  In addition, all Disney PhotoPass photographers and Disney Fine Art photographers will be equipped with Nikon photography equipment.

This move ends an almost eleven month period where Disney had no official camera sponsor. Honestly, I had almost given up on the idea of Disney naming a new official camera partner.  In the age of smartphones, many guests simply use their phones to take pictures of their vacation.  And even those guests that do have a higher technology digital camera probably aren’t going to have their equipment choice swayed by a corporate sponsor, so I fail to see the reasoning behind this decision from Nikon.  It made sense for Kodak to get in the parks because there was an almost steady flow of guests needing to buy a roll of film, but the days of running out of film mid-vacation are gone.  On the other hand, I guess it’s always a good move to have your name prominently displayed at a location that is visited by millions of people each year.  And for Disney, sponsorship money is money that they don’t have to spend out of their own pocket so perhaps it is a win/win situation.

Re-Viewing Disneyland

Blake Taylor (BlakeOnline.com) 

The View broadcast live from Disneyland last week, and lucky for fans of the Mouse, all of the Disney-centric segments are available to watch online individually at ABC.com/TheView. From John Lasseter giving Whoopi a tour of Cars Land, Demi Lovato performing "Let It Go" from Frozen, and interviews with special Disney-connected actors like Kurt Russell and Tim Allen are among the fun highlights.

Disney This Week - 17 November 2013

This Week – On the Main Street Gazette

This week we spent time north of Walt Disney World exploring Disney's Hilton Head Island Resort.

 Without a park to funnel guests to, we pondered if there was enough to bring guests back to Hilton Head time after time.

Trudging through the history books, we talked about the brief history of Longview Island .

Dining at Tide Me Over, Signals, and the Endmund's Family Low Country Boil can be a real treat.

How Shadow came to reside at the resort is a truly interesting tail, err... tale!

Silent Saturday found a nice place to relax with a view of the Fishing Pier from a hammock.

This Week – Around the Disney Blogosphere

FoxxFur has spent seven years working away at Passport to Dreams Old & New and I for one cannot wait to see what she finds in the next leg of her journey.

If I say the words "1970s" and "Walt Disney World," do you automatically think of George Taylor and Imaginerding like I do?

AJ Wolfe has the latest on Walt Disney World gingerbread on The Disney Food Blog.

One of the readers of Imagineering Disney is creating a Splash Mountain model that is a true work of art, and thanks to Mitch for sharing it with us!

Sarah Holodick has great look at alternative Thanksgivings in Eating WDW.

Melissa Knight Coulter knows that not every cheese danish is made the same, and puts them together in a throwdown for Disney On Wheels. 

This Week – World News Roundtable

As I am a few weeks behind, so too are the stories from the contributors. They sent some of these in to me weeks ago, and I am just now getting to post their work. Any outdated news is purely my fault, not theirs. Enjoy!

Roundtable Contributors: Estelle Hallick (This Happy Place Blog), Alan Mize, and Blake Taylor (BlakeOnline.com).

Playing it Cool

Alan Mize 

Earlier this week, Club Cool inside Epcot unveiled their newest flavors.  While one “fan favorite” hung around, every other flavor is new to the Club Cool experience.  The new lineup includes: Fanta Pineapple, VegitaBeta, Melon Frosty, Bibo, Sparberry, Guarana Kuat, and Inca Kola.  Last, but definitely not least, the lone holdover is of course, Beverly.

I think it was high time that this change occurred.  Recent trips inside Club Cool showed that many of the flavors were always “out of service” so you were only able to sample one or two flavors.  Personally, I’m looking forward to sampling the Fanta Pineapple and the Bibo.  Also, the Inca Kola apparently tastes like bubblegum which definitely sounds interesting.  By rolling out all new flavors, hopefully guests will be able to experience all eight flavors during their visits and experience a different side of Coca Cola than they’re used to. 

Not the Osborne

Blake Taylor (BlakeOnline.com) 

There's a new surprise hidden within the Osborne Family Spectacle of Dancing Lights this year at Disney's Hollywood Studios: Baby Sinclair, the eccentric infant from the ABC's extinct sitcom Dinosaurs. Baby Sinclair observes guests from a Streets of America window and is among many of the fun hidden items throughout the Osborne Lights display. It's small touches like this or new music selections that gives the Osborne Lights fresh fun year after year. It's quite possible that the Baby Sinclair figure used here is the same prop used years ago for the Dinosaurs street show that performed at "Disney-MGM Studios" back when the show still aired on ABC. I'm the baby, gotta love me!

Lounging at the Derby

Estelle Hallick (This Happy Place Blog) 

Living in an expensive city and still wanting to go out once in awhile, small bites and drinks are kind of my go-to when it comes to being social. Even though I'd rather see improvements to old attractions, I love that Disney is incorporating these small eateries into the park experience. That being said, I'm very excited about the lounge opening up at the Brown Derby! I haven't been to this restaurant in years (price? not in DHS much at night?) so it would be nice to have a little bit of the experience but without the fluff.

Great move!