Recent content by cwolnowski

I was just at DisneyWorld for 6 days and I couldn't help but notice the abundance of characters around for meet-n-greet in the parks. For example, on Tue., 5/15, I remember right as we entered Main Street, there was Pluto and Daisy Duck in Town Hall, not to mention Mickey and Minnie in the...

I was at MK on Tue., 5/15 and took a good look at the progress being made. I saw workers painting as well as many of them doing work on the queue. There were also workers laying down what appeared to be electrical wiring around some of the tracks. In the evening there were trains running...

I wonder when, if ever, Disney has plans to upgrade many parts of FutureWorld. In my opinion, this area is in the most need of refurbishment/ new ideas in WDW. Wonders of Life is closed, Ellen's Energy Adventure is basically the "homeless man's Dinosaur", and Journey Into Imagination is...

If Disney is considering changing Country Bear Jamboree, I hope they have learned from the mis-steps made during its "hip-and-edgy" era. For a great article about this, which as been posted before, see: <http://imagineerebirth.blogspot.com/2007/02/be-yourself.html> I personally preferred...

I've stayed at 4 moderate resorts (Carrib. Beach, Riverside, French Qtr., Coron. Springs) and my favorite one was Riverside with French Qtr. in a close second. Without going into why I didn't like the others as much, some of the features we enjoy the most about Riverside are: The large...

Disney Imagineering stated that the "new" Tiki Room attraction was going to be a tribute to Walt Disney's vision of the Tiki Room, so it should come to no surprise that it is significantly similar to the original Disneyland attraction. I had wished that they would've added an end finale number...

I've read that the Snow White themed mine train ride is still going up as planned. As for the speculation that this will be an underground ride, it is highly doubtful, as you can only dig so deep in Florida as Florida has such a high water table (as most already know, the parks are actually...

I'm quite sure the days of River Country are over. It had a pretty good run for over 25 years (opened in summer of 1976 and closed in winter of 2001) but as it got older, it became very dated and was eclipsed in popularity by the much newer and better Typhoon Lagoon and Blizzard Beach. Also, I...

I think it is apparent that this is a cost-cutting measure by Disney. Despite Disney owning ESPN, Disney nevertheless needed to shell out a good amount of money to put on the event each year. Not only did they have to pay the athletes and tv anchors for doing the event, they had to provide...

I have been going to Riveside with my family every year for about 15 years now (including the most recent trip this past April). It's our favorite resort and we wouldn't stay anywhere else (and we have sampled many Disney resorts in various price ranges). I haven't noticed anything that has...

New take on the original I recently had occasion to talk to a cast member who works in Adventureland and I was able to pick her brain about the plans for The Tiki Room. She told me that what she had heard was that Disney was planning on putting a new spin on the old attraction. Purists will...

I guess I wouldn't be all that surprised if they tried to put in newer, more technologically advanced audio-animatronic hitchhiking ghosts. As much as I don't like to see my favorite attractions touched all that much, I must say I was pleasantly surprised with the updates to the "stretching...

Of course the Wizardly World of Harry Potter is affecting attendance. But I think it's clear that the new Fantasyland expansion is largely in part a response to draw more people to visit MK and WDW in general. I also read recently, interestingly enough, that Disney and Universal met in an...

MK - When the park opens, get a FastPass for Peter Pan's Flight, which is the worst ride to wait in line for in the Magic Kingdom. While you are waiting for your time to come up you can do Philharmagic, Haunted Mansion, the Carousel, and Small World as those are all very close and quick...

I would be very surprised if the new Little Mermaid didn't get a Fast Pass system in place when it opens, at least until the initial hype and interest subsides. Even though it is a omnimover system like the Haunted Mansion, you know lines are going to be extremely long as it, along with the...