My one day trip report! The Fantasy in the Big Apple!

When:
February 29th – Leap Day

What:
A tour of the brand new Disney Fantasy in New York City! I posted some live pictures over on the cruise forum. They’re iphone pictures, so not the greatest, but you can get a preview of the day here:

http://forums.wdwmagic.com/showthread.php?t=833347

Who:
Myself and Jenell also know as Grumpyswife here on the boards. Here we are in Times Square (iphone pic):

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When I received the invitation for the tour, I knew I was going. NYC is a three hour train ride from me. Jenell lives in Maryland so we decided to meet up on the train.

The weather forecast for the day was not good. Actually it was horrible. Snow, rain all day, cold, etc. We didn’t care. Neither rain nor snow nor sleet could keep us from seeing this beautiful ship.

The perfect way to spend our One More Disney Day! :sohappy:

My train left at 6:30 so dh dropped me off at 5:45 on his way to work. It was fairly empty this morning, and under serious construction. There were a decent number of people waiting for the trains though:

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My car was pretty empty. There were a few people behind me so I didn’t stand up. I didn’t want them to think I was taking their picture so I didn’t stand up:

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Sunrise:

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Jenell’s here! (I loved being able to tag myself and post instant iphone pics!):

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Philadelphia zooming by:

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The seats:

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Click to expand...
Disneyfalcon

Disneyfalcon

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
We’re here!

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Penn Station:


The first sight when we got upstairs was a 15 story billboard of David Beckham in his underwear! Now I like David Beckham as much as the next girl, but I did not take, nor will I post a picture of said billboard. You are welcome to some and I am sorry to others.

Let’s look at some buildings instead!

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Hey, I recognize that one!

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We walked towards Times Square and cut down the perfect street to get over there. First we saw this amusing marquis:

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Disneyfalcon

Disneyfalcon

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
I see The Lion King!!

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Finally, Times Square!

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You can see how dreary it was out, but it wasn’t raining or snowing yet, and for that we were thankful!
 
Disneyfalcon

Disneyfalcon

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
Of course we didn’t want to miss the Disney store! I love the Disney Store in NYC. They have great location specific merchandise.

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Giant Vinylmation:

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I picked up these two for the kids:

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Up the escalators:

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Disneyfalcon

Disneyfalcon

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
Second floor:

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The second story had some excellent Marvel merchandise. Iron Man there will set you back more than 2000 bucks!

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Castle:

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When we finished inside the Disney Store, it had begun to rain. Not torrential, but enough that it made juggling a camera and an umbrella a little difficult.

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Disneyfalcon

Disneyfalcon

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
We wandered a little bit and decided to eat lunch at Bubba Gump. I was turned around at this point and couldn’t remember if it was in front of us or behind us. We asked a security guard at the Information storefront and he talked us out of eating at a themed restaurant. He walked us over to a diner where I had a cheesesteak and Jenell had a gyro. They were both quite good! No pictures, I was trying to upload some iphone pictures to the live trip report. Not much luck at that time.

We juggled the umbrellas and cameras again and headed to the M&M store. I love that store!

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We met Red!

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I bought some candy nourishment for the ship and we stepped out to catch a cab. I raised my hand approximately 3.7 seconds later one was pulling up! Why do cabs get such a bad rap in NYC?

Sorry no pics, rain rain rain.

We drove to the port and caught our first glimpse of the ship through the buildings. So exciting! When we got out of the cab we walked over to where we could see the ship though the glass. There she is!!

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And there I will leave you in suspense until I have more photos done!
 
Crush Dude!

Crush Dude!

Back from WDW!Counting down to DLP in November!
Oh I LOVE NYC!!

The new Disneystore looks brilliant!
I always livened the World of Disney on Madison, how does this compare??

Lovin the pics Tammy can't wait for more :wave:
 
Disneyfalcon

Disneyfalcon

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
crush dude! said:
Oh I LOVE NYC!!

The new Disneystore looks brilliant!
I always livened the World of Disney on Madison, how does this compare??

Lovin the pics Tammy can't wait for more :wave:
Click to expand...

I love NYC too!!

Someone who lives there can probably tell you better. I've been to that Disney store and the one on Fifth Avenue. I believe the one on Fifth is their flagship store and it's awesome. This one was good too though!
 
wilkeliza

wilkeliza

Well-Known Member
crush dude! said:
Oh I LOVE NYC!!

The new Disneystore looks brilliant!
I always livened the World of Disney on Madison, how does this compare??

Lovin the pics Tammy can't wait for more :wave:
Click to expand...

The WOD store on 5th was much better than the current Disney Store in Times Square. WOD had so much more merchandise and had things for adults. I really miss the art gallery and the Princess Party room. The store layout now is much more open and there is quite a bit less merchandise. The WOD store use to sell Disney Parks merchandise as well as Pins and other items. The Disney Store in Times square sells t-shirts, stuffed animals, vynlmations, toys and some dress up clothes but not nearly of the caliber of the WOD store. I was shocked that they don't sell the music, Blue-Rays (except brand new releases that you have to pre-order), or pins outside of the never changing NYC specific ones they sell. I went to a Disney Store in NJ that just reopened recently and actually loved it more than the Times Square Disney. I live and work just a few avenues West of the Broadway location so I am there at least once a week getting a new vynl or looking for a new t-shirt but I always feel like for such a big store they have such a small mix of items. There is just one tiny corner of adult things and it is all the expensive hi-end Disney merchandise.

Sorry for the long response but I was so in love with WOD and would go to that store all the time and when it closed I was heart broken. I really wish Disney Times Square would have been another WOD store.
 
Crush Dude!

Crush Dude!

Back from WDW!Counting down to DLP in November!
Disneyfalcon said:
I love NYC too!!

Someone who lives there can probably tell you better. I've been to that Disney store and the one on Fifth Avenue. I believe the one on Fifth is their flagship store and it's awesome. This one was good too though!
Click to expand...

The one on fifth is closed Tammy :fork:
 
Crush Dude!

Crush Dude!

Back from WDW!Counting down to DLP in November!
wilkeliza said:
The WOD store on 5th was much better than the current Disney Store in Times Square. WOD had so much more merchandise and had things for adults. I really miss the art gallery and the Princess Party room. The store layout now is much more open and there is quite a bit less merchandise. The WOD store use to sell Disney Parks merchandise as well as Pins and other items. The Disney Store in Times square sells t-shirts, stuffed animals, vynlmations, toys and some dress up clothes but not nearly of the caliber of the WOD store. I was shocked that they don't sell the music, Blue-Rays (except brand new releases that you have to pre-order), or pins outside of the never changing NYC specific ones they sell. I went to a Disney Store in NJ that just reopened recently and actually loved it more than the Times Square Disney. I live and work just a few avenues West of the Broadway location so I am there at least once a week getting a new vynl or looking for a new t-shirt but I always feel like for such a big store they have such a small mix of items. There is just one tiny corner of adult things and it is all the expensive hi-end Disney merchandise.

Sorry for the long response but I was so in love with WOD and would go to that store all the time and when it closed I was heart broken. I really wish Disney Times Square would have been another WOD store.
Click to expand...

They have no Art of Disney area??? :fork::brick::fork::brick::fork:
 
Disneyfalcon

Disneyfalcon

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
wilkeliza said:
The WOD store on 5th was much better than the current Disney Store in Times Square. WOD had so much more merchandise and had things for adults. I really miss the art gallery and the Princess Party room. The store layout now is much more open and there is quite a bit less merchandise. The WOD store use to sell Disney Parks merchandise as well as Pins and other items. The Disney Store in Times square sells t-shirts, stuffed animals, vynlmations, toys and some dress up clothes but not nearly of the caliber of the WOD store. I was shocked that they don't sell the music, Blue-Rays (except brand new releases that you have to pre-order), or pins outside of the never changing NYC specific ones they sell. I went to a Disney Store in NJ that just reopened recently and actually loved it more than the Times Square Disney. I live and work just a few avenues West of the Broadway location so I am there at least once a week getting a new vynl or looking for a new t-shirt but I always feel like for such a big store they have such a small mix of items. There is just one tiny corner of adult things and it is all the expensive hi-end Disney merchandise.

Sorry for the long response but I was so in love with WOD and would go to that store all the time and when it closed I was heart broken. I really wish Disney Times Square would have been another WOD store.
Click to expand...

I didn't know it closed! That is sad. It was awesome, I agree.

crush dude! said:
The one on fifth is closed Tammy :fork:
Click to expand...

I had no idea!!
 
wilkeliza

wilkeliza

Well-Known Member
crush dude! said:
They have no Art of Disney area??? :fork::brick::fork::brick::fork:
Click to expand...

Yep NO Art of Disney area.

I am not even sure exactly why they decided to stick just a regular store in Times Square. I have heard two different possible reasons as to why. One was that the Disney Store name had been sold to The Children's Place some time ago and was only recently bought back. It was during this time that WOD was closed and plans to move it began. I don't really buy this story because to my knowledge the WOD 5th avenue was not apart of that sell.

The second rumor is two part. The first part is very true. The rent on the building on 5th avenue was disgustingly high for the foot traffic the store got. The type of people that shop on 5th avenue are not typically families that are Disney fans. After the economic down fall the WOD store was fighting to make a large enough profit to stay open. At the same time Virgin Mega Store went under and that space in Times Square was going for a rather affordable price for the sheer amount of foot traffic you get in Times Square. So Disney as well as some other stores rented out the space and started moving in.
Part two is that when they were moving to this location the higher ups decided not to put in a WOD store again because they felt like since the North East is a very big area for traveling to Walt Disney World they felt like the parks were loosing merchandise money by having a World of Disney in New York City. Many people would wait until they got home and make a quick day trip into the city to buy their parks merchandise thus saving shipping and handling and even getting to see NYC for a day. I didn't really believe this one either because it just seems like it doesn't matter where the WOD store is the money still goes into the same profit account at the end of the day.
 
Crush Dude!

Crush Dude!

Back from WDW!Counting down to DLP in November!
wilkeliza said:
Yep NO Art of Disney area.

I am not even sure exactly why they decided to stick just a regular store in Times Square. I have heard two different possible reasons as to why. One was that the Disney Store name had been sold to The Children's Place some time ago and was only recently bought back. It was during this time that WOD was closed and plans to move it began. I don't really buy this story because to my knowledge the WOD 5th avenue was not apart of that sell.

The second rumor is two part. The first part is very true. The rent on the building on 5th avenue was disgustingly high for the foot traffic the store got. The type of people that shop on 5th avenue are not typically families that are Disney fans. After the economic down fall the WOD store was fighting to make a large enough profit to stay open. At the same time Virgin Mega Store went under and that space in Times Square was going for a rather affordable price for the sheer amount of foot traffic you get in Times Square. So Disney as well as some other stores rented out the space and started moving in.
Part two is that when they were moving to this location the higher ups decided not to put in a WOD store again because they felt like since the North East is a very big area for traveling to Walt Disney World they felt like the parks were loosing merchandise money by having a World of Disney in New York City. Many people would wait until they got home and make a quick day trip into the city to buy their parks merchandise thus saving shipping and handling and even getting to see NYC for a day. I didn't really believe this one either because it just seems like it doesn't matter where the WOD store is the money still goes into the same profit account at the end of the day.
Click to expand...

It's a bit of both!

1: Disney did buy back the Disney Store brand


And

2) the rent on the 5th avenue store was CRAZY!!!
 

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