Greetings all from a very busy and tired Geek Labs. As the subject line of this thread stats myself and a fellow Geek Lab employee embarked on a 4 park visit yesterday to get updates photos scoop info leaks the works. Did we succeeded in some cases yes in others no. I have already emailed Steve all the pictures which if he uses all of them look for a nice size update this week.
To answer a question real quick Yes I will be at the Annual Passholder preview early on Saturday for Mickey's Philharmagic so look for me there taking a ton of shots. If you want to meet that’s cool just msg me when and where. Enough small talk on with what you’re reading for the trip report......
We started at the Magic Kingdom early. We made it to Fantasyland shortly after the welcoming to the park to purchase our Philharmagic pins and to camp out in front of the attraction to see if a preview would be happening. While waiting for about an hour and ten minutes I had several guest come up and ask when the attraction would be open or if I worked there could I direct them to where they need to go. Needless to say once they discovered I was not a CM they where a little embarrassed but I still helped them out. All in all about a dozen guests (Disney you can put me on the payroll if you like anytime)
Mickeys Philharmagic exterior looks amazing the entire rehab wall is gone, and the area is cleaned up nicely. The Fast Pass machines where covered the electrical door was semi closed as was also the CM control box (house phone, microphone etc) I could make out the inside queue area through the windows. It has a nice painting of musical notes, and score pieces on the wall. It also appears to have queue rows (ala Time Keeper) with leaning rails for people to use. While camped out a CM from Operations I would imagine came out and did some tweaking to the CM control box he stated at that time he did not think a preview would happen today. Still holding out hope we waited then we noticed more movement inside the queue area this time allot of CM's the front door opens and out walks the initial opening group of CM's going through the training process on how day to day operations are going to be.
I tried to listen in as much as I could with out being rude. You will see in one of the shots I took of the control panel the numbers 1500 on it. If I heard the CM state that is the turn around time for things to move at. I am thinking load people into theater load into main queue hold move more into main line etc. I could be wrong. She also stated that they are going to do hopefully a small modification to the railing in the queue line by the main entrance for the CM's to use. Currently it is on solid rail leading to the main door. They are hoping a piece of the rail will be cut away and a chain system be in place where a CM just moves a chain instead of stepping over the rail all day long. The lead CM over the training walked over and said there would be no preview today that they where having issues with the film. Which of course generated my response “what’s wrong with the film?" She stated that the current film the designers where no happy with some of the character models and that they where tweaking for another rerun and that the film could be in later that day. She stated at the time there would not be a preview for they would need to tweak everything and get the timing right. She did stat CM and AP preview would happen but that after that the attraction could be down for more tweaking to make the Oct 8 Grand Opening. From what I hear from our good friend hmppan this is a true statement and that Disney is doing tweaks to a new film. Its the same show just revised character models from what we hear. Also some updated painting was going on over at Tomorrowland. The huge rock formations where getting a primer coat it appeared placed on them.
We then left and went to Animal Kingdom. I took shots of Everest Construction goings ons. Not to much to note there allot of dirt moving, and allot of heavy equipment. They where working though on Saturday. Meet up with sillysppok13 also just to say Hi
We stayed a short time at Animal Kingdom and then moved on over to MGM. There I took some updated shots of the Stunt Show work being down, and the rehab work on New York Street. Rockin Roller Coaster was still in rehab and being worked on. I didnt find something alittle odd over by Star Tours. The stand alone speeder bike you can sit on a get a picture taken was gone. I think its just in for a fresh coat of paint. Can anyone confirm this??
After that we made our way to Epcot. Where while onboard Monorail Black we where held up from entering the Epcot monorail station by another monorail having "technical difficulties" I didnt hear them say what color it was but we held over by Dreamworks. The fountain there that shoots water uphill is currently down for cleaning. It needs it to very dark and stained.
We then left Epcot meet up with our CM friends some old and some brand new ones and had a very late dinner and chatted.
Sorry for the long post it was allot of information I was trying to squeeze down into small segments.
To answer a question real quick Yes I will be at the Annual Passholder preview early on Saturday for Mickey's Philharmagic so look for me there taking a ton of shots. If you want to meet that’s cool just msg me when and where. Enough small talk on with what you’re reading for the trip report......
We started at the Magic Kingdom early. We made it to Fantasyland shortly after the welcoming to the park to purchase our Philharmagic pins and to camp out in front of the attraction to see if a preview would be happening. While waiting for about an hour and ten minutes I had several guest come up and ask when the attraction would be open or if I worked there could I direct them to where they need to go. Needless to say once they discovered I was not a CM they where a little embarrassed but I still helped them out. All in all about a dozen guests (Disney you can put me on the payroll if you like anytime)
Mickeys Philharmagic exterior looks amazing the entire rehab wall is gone, and the area is cleaned up nicely. The Fast Pass machines where covered the electrical door was semi closed as was also the CM control box (house phone, microphone etc) I could make out the inside queue area through the windows. It has a nice painting of musical notes, and score pieces on the wall. It also appears to have queue rows (ala Time Keeper) with leaning rails for people to use. While camped out a CM from Operations I would imagine came out and did some tweaking to the CM control box he stated at that time he did not think a preview would happen today. Still holding out hope we waited then we noticed more movement inside the queue area this time allot of CM's the front door opens and out walks the initial opening group of CM's going through the training process on how day to day operations are going to be.
I tried to listen in as much as I could with out being rude. You will see in one of the shots I took of the control panel the numbers 1500 on it. If I heard the CM state that is the turn around time for things to move at. I am thinking load people into theater load into main queue hold move more into main line etc. I could be wrong. She also stated that they are going to do hopefully a small modification to the railing in the queue line by the main entrance for the CM's to use. Currently it is on solid rail leading to the main door. They are hoping a piece of the rail will be cut away and a chain system be in place where a CM just moves a chain instead of stepping over the rail all day long. The lead CM over the training walked over and said there would be no preview today that they where having issues with the film. Which of course generated my response “what’s wrong with the film?" She stated that the current film the designers where no happy with some of the character models and that they where tweaking for another rerun and that the film could be in later that day. She stated at the time there would not be a preview for they would need to tweak everything and get the timing right. She did stat CM and AP preview would happen but that after that the attraction could be down for more tweaking to make the Oct 8 Grand Opening. From what I hear from our good friend hmppan this is a true statement and that Disney is doing tweaks to a new film. Its the same show just revised character models from what we hear. Also some updated painting was going on over at Tomorrowland. The huge rock formations where getting a primer coat it appeared placed on them.
We then left and went to Animal Kingdom. I took shots of Everest Construction goings ons. Not to much to note there allot of dirt moving, and allot of heavy equipment. They where working though on Saturday. Meet up with sillysppok13 also just to say Hi
We stayed a short time at Animal Kingdom and then moved on over to MGM. There I took some updated shots of the Stunt Show work being down, and the rehab work on New York Street. Rockin Roller Coaster was still in rehab and being worked on. I didnt find something alittle odd over by Star Tours. The stand alone speeder bike you can sit on a get a picture taken was gone. I think its just in for a fresh coat of paint. Can anyone confirm this??
After that we made our way to Epcot. Where while onboard Monorail Black we where held up from entering the Epcot monorail station by another monorail having "technical difficulties" I didnt hear them say what color it was but we held over by Dreamworks. The fountain there that shoots water uphill is currently down for cleaning. It needs it to very dark and stained.
We then left Epcot meet up with our CM friends some old and some brand new ones and had a very late dinner and chatted.
Sorry for the long post it was allot of information I was trying to squeeze down into small segments.
