Our latest photo report brings us to the Magic Kingdom, so lets see what is new and exciting at Walt Disney World’s first park:
Road Work Rages On
Road work continues on World Drive to enhance the Magic Kingdom arrival and departure experience. Work is underway for a new “flyover” for access to Magic Kingdom resorts and completely reworked and expanded toll plaza for the Transportation and Ticket Center.
We snapped all of these pics while riding aboard the Epcot monorail.
Welcome to the Magic Kingdom
Happily Ever After
The Happily Ever After nighttime spectacular debuted a few weeks ago, taking over the park map.
The poster for the show replaces Wishes under the train station. It is also sponsored by Pandora… the jewelry, not the moon.
A number of Happily Ever After items can be found for sale in The Emporium.
An annual passholder shirt is available behind one of the registers.
Large crowds have been showing up nightly for the new show, so be sure to get there with plenty of time to spare if you care where you see it from.
If you would like our thoughts on the show, you can read them here.
We have a video of the premiere performance of thew show for you to enjoy:
We also have video of a special performance of the spectacular, which includes a live performance of the theme song at the end by the voices who recorded it for the actual show:
This and That
The attraction poster phone case designs are already gone from D-Tech on Demand. There is no word as to why they were pulled, but hopefully you were able to grab one before they were removed.
Some new MagicBand and phone case designs were made available recently.
I continue to love the fajitas platter at Pecos Bill’s, even with the yellow rice that replaced the previous iteration.
With the fixin’s bar, a kid’s meal can become a real feast.
Disney recently changed their bagged carrots for kids to a new brand. I’ve never heard of these…
The Disney Parks exclusive Jolly Roger Pop Funko figure is available again in Caribbean Plaza.
The rhino is still missing over at the Jungle Cruise.
The former hot dog stand in Frontierland now sells Mickey Pretzels and Churros.
The hearse is missing outside of the Haunted Mansion.
A new Under the Sea Treat cupcake is available at Prince Eric’s Village Market.
The interactive robot character iCan recently debuted in Tomorrowland at the Magic Kingdom.
In my opinion, this is a million times better than PUSH ever was, engaging far more guests. He is portrayed by a pretty witty performer to boot, making this Streetmosphere for Tomorrowland, essentially.
His showtimes are listed on the timed guide, so be sure to catch him next time you visit the park.
See iCan, in action below:
I shouldn’t be allowed alone on Space Ranger Spin…
Some new items found in The Emporium.
This kids Rey shirt is pretty adorable.
NEW SULLEY PLUSH!
There is a ton of new mugs for sale in The Emporium.
Small candy dishes from the Neverland Collection, $12.99 each.
I hadn’t seen this ceramic castle before.
Pandora jewelry on Main Street has a special offer on the new Fantasyland charms.
With the purchase of a set, you can get a Shag lithograph.
Stitch’s Great Escape is open for the Summer.
Entrance and exit signs were installed at the Lunching Pad to avoid guest confusion.
The new Cosmic Dance Party has taken over the stage in Tomorrowland.
The Cool Ship in Tomorrowland now has Pizza Frusta. You can read out full review of the two varieties here.
Work on the new outdoor covered seating continues at Cosmic Ray’s Starlight Cafe.
The Cheshire Cafe now has Cheshire Cat Tails for a snack and Cold Brew Coffee. You can read our review of these items here.
The water fountain near the Jungle Cruise was refurbished, but now the feeding hole gag is flat and simply painted on.
Guests used to be able to stick their fingers in here…
A light was left on before the drop on Pirates of the Caribbean, revealing the spot where the talking skull once was (prior to the 2006 refurbishment).
Casey’s Corner has switched back to all-beef hot dogs!
The macaroni and cheese hot dog is also back.
Shirts for the upcoming Gay Days can be found in The Emporium, for both men and women.
Some rainbow pins for sale as well.
iCan looks like testing grounds for a possible interaction in Star Wars Land..
Not at all. iCan is a preexisting character built by an outside vendor that is currently contracted specifically for Tomorrowland. It’s an attempt to re-energize the land with a character offering unique from anything we’ve seen before at Walt Disney World. As Tom suggests, it appears to be fairly successful.
its a shame that you have to line up so early in the giant holding pen that is now the hub. All that time guests are not spending there money . Oh well. And I thought I was the only one that made a meal out of the fixing bar!
The Gay Days merchandise is interesting because I don’t think Disney World does any other official sponsorship, scheduling, or marketing for Gay Days. It’s all organized by a third party and is an “unofficial” Disney event, I’m pretty sure. I notice the merchandise is sans Gay Days’ trademarks, so Disney has even avoided licensing fees. The merchandising gurus over at Disney Parks are clever indeed!
You are correct that Disney does not recognize Gay Days, but they’ve been merchandising for it for years now. Considering the amount of guest complaints and ultimately compensation guest relations deals with every year, they have to make their money back somehow.
Disney has always opened GAY DAYS with open arms, which is a great ting. Perhaps their always being so inclusive, offering full benefits for gays back in the 70’s is the backbone to their success. It has not sponsored any events related outside their own precise branding, including religious, political, LGBT. Several of the the top executives in past and now of Disney parks is openly gay, as is about 60% of the cast members. Disney gets more complaints on their unofficial religious events in the park than gay days now. Check out Guest Relations Night Of Joy one day…absolute nightmare. I’ll take gays over religious zealots any day of the week…so will Disney.
Aside from the illiterate gramatical structure you presented, there is little in the way of facts you gave in your list of reasons “gays are better” than things you wish were true diatribe.
So much for peace and love.
Did you also notice that there is a new video in space mountain? I believe the video that is displayed on the screens right before you step into the rocket was recently replaced, now showing a (rock-n-rollercoaster style) instruction video about how to store your bags and belongings inside the rocket, how to lower the gravity bar etc.
That’s a few year’s old now, those screens weren’t there until a year or two ago. The big screen at the top of the queue is still the same and plays the old video.
“Considering the amount of guest complaints and ultimately compensation guest relations deals with every year, they have to make their money back somehow.”
Nonsense.
Not really anymore, maybe in 1980’s. Now, thankfully society has come to accept people of more diversity. Disney used to get complaints about people of ‘color’ in the park at one time in the not recent past. Thankfully the bigots are passing away, and new generation who is more loving and accepting of other humans are emerging. Disney has always been ahead of society in the welcoming Gay Days.
It must be really lonely in your little world.
“Nonsense”
Really? You don’t think people complain? In this polarized world we live in I guarantee it happens a lot… Especially from families who didn’t know this event even existed before they got there… I personally don’t have a problem with it as long as people dress and act appropriately, but you don’t have to be a sociologist to know it could cause a problem for some people…
I pulled the following off the web from a non religious news source…
———
Gay Days has attracted criticism from both religious and LGBT groups. While Disney does not sanction Gay Days (and officially tells employees to treat it as any other summer day), conservative Christian groups accuse Disney of not doing anything to stop the event. The Southern Baptist Convention boycotted Disney for eight years. Another organization flew banner planes one year warning families of gay events at Disney that weekend, citing emails from people nationwide who unknowingly booked their vacation during Gay Days. Janet Porter, president of the Christian organization “Faith 2 Action”, is highly critical of the event. She encouraged families to re-think visiting Walt Disney World. She told families to expect to see “cross-dressing men parading public displays of perversion” during their visit.
Drug use and overt sexuality have caused some lesbian and gay people to oppose the event. Pete Werner, openly gay founder of Disney fan-site WDWInfo, has called the event “disgraceful”. Werner’s criticism mainly derived from the public displays of affection by the attendees in full view of families.
You pulled that off of wikipedia, not a news source.
And as for “cross-dressing men parading public displays of perversion” weren’t Cinderella’s step-sisters in the Main Street Electrical Parade played by men in drag for years?
Yes very good… I just wanted to make sure people and the moderator didn’t think those quotes or my overall post was coming from a biased source or a condemning view point and that the piece I posted was not my thoughts (I mainly liked the reference to Pete Werner)… However, I have read up on it and have seen news stories from papers describing dress and behavior that would be considered unacceptable for children but was far more graphic and thought too graphic for the moderator to accept… Moreover, I felt what I did post was descriptive enough to get that across without being too descriptive… I’m sure people can fill in the blanks with their imagination… I spent plenty of time in places that are LGBTQ friendly and never had a problem with it (South Beach FL, PTown Mass, ect…)… but I also wouldn’t consider those places a mecca for expensive family vacations like WDW… And it’s always been my experience that it only takes a handful of militants and/or extremists on both sides to make something like this an issue!!!
Again, I don’t have a problem with it as long as people are dressed appropriately and keep the displays of affection to an acceptable level. A WDW park or resort is no place for public sexual expression, whether hetero or homo… People need to think of others.
The people who condemn others, and who they are, like your wiki cut and paste, are usually the ones who you should really fear. Don’t believe all you read. The gay/bi/transgendered as a group usually behave MUCH better than the heterosexuals. And they tend to be way less obese. More receptive to other people who are different than they are. The list goes on. Disney has never paid the price to be on “Gay Days’, but has always promoted and supported it whole heartedly. They were out decades ago.
“And it’s always been my experience that it only takes a handful of militants and/or extremists on both sides to make something like this an issue!!!”… Activists should be in that sentence… couldn’t think of the word when I wrote that post.
WDW bends over backwards to accommodate every belief system in the world because every belief system in the world comes through there… not a great place for extreme activists…
On a positive note. Thank you tom for all the pictures and reviews it lets us know what to look for next time we go. As of gay days it doesn’t bother me as long as they show respect to other families there with children. I teach mine thats the way they are. They should not have to hide it. holding hands and stuff but just don’t be gross in front of the children and so flamboyant it’s hard to explain what they are doing . Last year went there because school got out did not know about gay days all i can say those people know how to have fun . Only a few out of thousands i had to explain what they are doing. Teach your children we are all people we are all different thats the world we live in .
ONE LOVE
So right! One love. If you’re homophobic in 2017, you can’t blame it on anything but pure ignorance. Of course, there’s people w/o class, and people who hate anyone that doesn’t look, act or think like them of every corner of humanity, We’ve gone before on gay days, and it was fun as always, better behaved folks than any other day, which still has a ton of gay people, they just don’t wear all red…most of them are wearing costumes…as the majority of cast members (and artistic folk in general) aren’t straight. Who cares? No matter when we go, we still were more concerned with Disney cutting corners everywhere they could and charging more for so much less, but overall, have a great time because of our mindset. Disney celebrates diversity. They back gay days, and always have. Worth noting, Orlando celebrating Orlando United Day June 12th in honor of one year from the Pulse tragedy. This is a very diverse town.
Also sponsored by Pandora…the jewelry, not the moon! bahahahhaha????????
So…..what happened to the hearse… I noticed it was missing too!
I see plenty of PDA in Disney parks, and it’s always from straight folks. Try being in line for Space Mountain sometime… LOL!!!
Nice to see bot- I mean bob chapek interacting with the guestss in tomorrow land. #botchapek