I'm back from a week long trip to WDW (27-4) and have a few notes to share with everyone:
Magic Kingdom
- Saw SNFS/MMM 5 times. 2 times from the park, 3 times from BLT. I found it a bit sleepy up until the Pirate part, but it really kicked in there and overall was a great fireworks show.
- I Also saw MSEP. Got a front row spot for the 11 PM parade. Great, great parade. Spectro is a nice parade, but MSEP is far better imo.
- Question: I noticed that on the front of Cindy's Castle where they shoot the fireworks and blast the fire when they are "Blowing up the castle" in SNFS/MMM looks a little different than the rest of the castle. The brick look that I thought was always there isn't there and it looks as though they've painted over it or did something to protect it. Am I just imagining this?
- Some scaffolding went up around the tree near Pooh early last week. Nice to at least finally see them doing something there.
- PPF and Plaza Restaurant both came out from behind tarps.
- Expo Hall had a good portion of it's Tarps taken down, but tarps were put up over top of the building.
- Casey's, Disney Clothers and LTT still have tarps up as well. Casey's had some walls and a few tarps taken down in the past few days though.
- Rode BTMRR yesterday and a lot of the effects in the 3rd lift hill weren't working.
- Photo pass added at Space Mountain. Available to pickup at the SM gift shop.
- Temporary sign still in place at Cosmic Ray's Starlight Cafe
- New railings now pretty much fully in place at the Noodle Station.
- Despite rain most of the day and drizzling into the night, there was still huge crowds at MK last night for the July 4th fireworks.
EPCOT
- Captain EO had soft openings June 30
- Went to see EO again with the DVC preview on July 1, but they said it was having "Technical Difficulties" around 10:40.
- They let everyone in the park at 8:45 on July 2 for the EO grand opening. (see my video here)
- They added a Captain EO Marquee that really makes it a lot more noticable.
- All 3 showings I went to were pretty full. The Soft opening and Grand opening i'd say were full and were probably majority CM's. Everyone seemed like they were into it and seemed like they were MJ fans.
- Overall I thought Captain EO was great though. The effects really made it that. I thought they may have overused the moving theater effect a little bit though.
- New lights in the Imagination! area
- Work continues on Hacienda de San Angel and Via Napoli
- As EE had said from his trip last week, I also noticed the dirt on the SSE tiles.
DHS
- Rode TSMM today and it skipped the first game and wouldn't let us play the second game. When we got off, we told them and they let us go back on, but still weird.
- TSMM is closing at 8:30 tonight b/c they are shooting July 4th fireworks off from the surrounding area.
- Other than that, not much that I noticed here. Admittedly though, I didn't spend too much time at the Studios.
DAK
- Yeti still in B mode
- Good Times Gathering Spot open
- I wanted to see if I could see the baby Gorilla or Elephant, but we only went there once (Monday, so it was a while ago) and forgot to look while we were there.
- I'm pretty sure that's it from DAK
If you have questions about anything else just ask and i'll do my best to answer. I have have a bunch of pictures from the trip that I may post as well, but I can't guarantee I'll get them up tonight.
Magic Kingdom
- Saw SNFS/MMM 5 times. 2 times from the park, 3 times from BLT. I found it a bit sleepy up until the Pirate part, but it really kicked in there and overall was a great fireworks show.
- I Also saw MSEP. Got a front row spot for the 11 PM parade. Great, great parade. Spectro is a nice parade, but MSEP is far better imo.
- Question: I noticed that on the front of Cindy's Castle where they shoot the fireworks and blast the fire when they are "Blowing up the castle" in SNFS/MMM looks a little different than the rest of the castle. The brick look that I thought was always there isn't there and it looks as though they've painted over it or did something to protect it. Am I just imagining this?
- Some scaffolding went up around the tree near Pooh early last week. Nice to at least finally see them doing something there.
- PPF and Plaza Restaurant both came out from behind tarps.
- Expo Hall had a good portion of it's Tarps taken down, but tarps were put up over top of the building.
- Casey's, Disney Clothers and LTT still have tarps up as well. Casey's had some walls and a few tarps taken down in the past few days though.
- Rode BTMRR yesterday and a lot of the effects in the 3rd lift hill weren't working.
- Photo pass added at Space Mountain. Available to pickup at the SM gift shop.
- Temporary sign still in place at Cosmic Ray's Starlight Cafe
- New railings now pretty much fully in place at the Noodle Station.
- Despite rain most of the day and drizzling into the night, there was still huge crowds at MK last night for the July 4th fireworks.
EPCOT
- Captain EO had soft openings June 30
- Went to see EO again with the DVC preview on July 1, but they said it was having "Technical Difficulties" around 10:40.
- They let everyone in the park at 8:45 on July 2 for the EO grand opening. (see my video here)
- They added a Captain EO Marquee that really makes it a lot more noticable.
- All 3 showings I went to were pretty full. The Soft opening and Grand opening i'd say were full and were probably majority CM's. Everyone seemed like they were into it and seemed like they were MJ fans.
- Overall I thought Captain EO was great though. The effects really made it that. I thought they may have overused the moving theater effect a little bit though.
- New lights in the Imagination! area
- Work continues on Hacienda de San Angel and Via Napoli
- As EE had said from his trip last week, I also noticed the dirt on the SSE tiles.
DHS
- Rode TSMM today and it skipped the first game and wouldn't let us play the second game. When we got off, we told them and they let us go back on, but still weird.
- TSMM is closing at 8:30 tonight b/c they are shooting July 4th fireworks off from the surrounding area.
- Other than that, not much that I noticed here. Admittedly though, I didn't spend too much time at the Studios.
DAK
- Yeti still in B mode
- Good Times Gathering Spot open
- I wanted to see if I could see the baby Gorilla or Elephant, but we only went there once (Monday, so it was a while ago) and forgot to look while we were there.
- I'm pretty sure that's it from DAK
If you have questions about anything else just ask and i'll do my best to answer. I have have a bunch of pictures from the trip that I may post as well, but I can't guarantee I'll get them up tonight.
