News Round Up 2016

[rteetz]

News

The Jungle Book (2016) is coming to Netflix November 30th

 

[eXo]

Tangelo Park was originally built as housing for the nearby missile facility (Lockheed Martin).

Thanks for the background on the neighborhood.

I am surprised at the number of homes currently in foreclosure though.

 

[skier_pete]

The themed Christmas trees sound potentially fabulous. I can see a lot of people enjoying this.

Does anyone else think they are just going to be pulling the Camp Minnie-Mickey themed Christmas trees out of storage? They were pretty cool though - so it would be good to see them on display.

Methinks DS is going to need things like this to stay relavent. We went through the new sections of DS last Thursday and while it was beautifully set up I couldn't have felt like it was less relevant. My DW (who is more of a shopper than I am but is not a big-time shopper) also was completely disinterested in the shops. She said "If it doesn't have Disney items why would I bother". We ended up in DTD less than 30 minutes before we headed over to meet some friends at Riverside.

But to the point, these Christmas festivities seem more appealing to me than the actual shops.

 

[rteetz]

Does anyone else think they are just going to be pulling the Camp Minnie-Mickey themed Christmas trees out of storage? They were pretty cool though - so it would be good to see them on display.

Methinks DS is going to need things like this to stay relavent. We went through the new sections of DS last Thursday and while it was beautifully set up I couldn't have felt like it was less relevant. My DW (who is more of a shopper than I am but is not a big-time shopper) also was completely disinterested in the shops. She said "If it doesn't have Disney items why would I bother". We ended up in DTD less than 30 minutes before we headed over to meet some friends at Riverside.

But to the point, these Christmas festivities seem more appealing to me than the actual shops.

I think it's going to be interesting to see how many of these stores change over the next couple years. I believe the initial leases are 3 years.

 

[TwoMisfits]

I think it's going to be interesting to see how many of these stores change over the next couple years. I believe the initial leases are 3 years.

It will be more interesting to see if it can keep 100% occupancy if the leases are only 3 years. Or, if to do so, they'll need to drastically reduce rents. I mean, the pastry shop going from originally 7 day/week hours of 10am-12midnight per the WDW review to now 8 hours a day M-Thurs and 12 1/2 hours Fri-Sat and 12 hours Sun means they have dropped 98 hours of service to 69 hours of service, almost a 30% drop. That's a huge drop and one you wouldn't do ever unless you were literally not able to just meet the payroll costs of the extra hours (since this has such a high fixed cost with the lease, equipment, and baking, you'd want to be open as much as possible if you could sell anything)...likely, it let them go to single shift Mon-Thurs and use of teens on weekends as a 2nd shift.

 

[TheMaxRebo]

Does anyone else think they are just going to be pulling the Camp Minnie-Mickey themed Christmas trees out of storage? They were pretty cool though - so it would be good to see them on display.

Methinks DS is going to need things like this to stay relavent. We went through the new sections of DS last Thursday and while it was beautifully set up I couldn't have felt like it was less relevant. My DW (who is more of a shopper than I am but is not a big-time shopper) also was completely disinterested in the shops. She said "If it doesn't have Disney items why would I bother". We ended up in DTD less than 30 minutes before we headed over to meet some friends at Riverside.

But to the point, these Christmas festivities seem more appealing to me than the actual shops.

we felt the same way - either needs to be Disney or something that is only there

Though, I do know we have a lot of shopping in our area near NYC if we want high-end ... perhaps for people that are from other countries or just in areas that don't have as much shopping this is something unique for them

 

[Tigger's ally]

When we were there, we went to the Dis store at the nearby outlet mall and believe it or not, there were way more people shopping at DS than at the outlet mall. My wife spent some bucks in the Uniqlo store. She loved it. She would have spent some in Kate Spade also if I hadn't threatened divorce. Arggggghhhhhhhh

 

[Mackenzie Click-Mickelson]

When we were there, we went to the Dis store at the nearby outlet mall and believe it or not, there were way more people shopping at DS than at the outlet mall. My wife spent some bucks in the Uniqlo store. She loved it. She would have spent some in Kate Spade also if I hadn't threatened divorce. Arggggghhhhhhhh

I was actually going to mention Uniqlo in my earlier comment..but think about it..the draw happens to be Disney shirts under $15.

You better believe I'll be there next Sep. The price point is perfect. Sure there are more expensive things in there but for the average visitor it's easy on the wallet.

 

[Keels]

Disney Springs was plenty busy when I was there today ... and I had to wait in line quite a bit to make purchases.

That said - I'm not going into Something Silver or the Pearl store or anything ridiculous like that. But, yes, I ended up buying quite a bit from various retailers that I don't have in my city or am not willing to drive to Dallas to shop at.

 

[mcd2745]

Methinks DS is going to need things like this to stay relavent. We went through the new sections of DS last Thursday and while it was beautifully set up I couldn't have felt like it was less relevant. My DW (who is more of a shopper than I am but is not a big-time shopper) also was completely disinterested in the shops. She said "If it doesn't have Disney items why would I bother".

I know some of the shops (such as Uniqlo) have integrated some Disney products. However, we feel the same way. We just want to go check out the shops that are solely Disney. So that means the Marketplace, primarily. Unfortunately, it's simply much too inconvenient to get there now and just not worth the effort - and time.

 

[Disneymom1126]

We just returned and here are some overall observations - somewhat off topic, but maybe not

Hollywood Studios - We did two half days here - there were lots of FP+ availability all day. All of our FP+ that we booked were in the later afternoon into early evening and we still were able to get a 4th FP+ for Tower of Terror both days...also got a FP+ for Fantasmic about a half hour before the show on the Thursday we were there...however...I will never do FP+ for Fantasmic again - I only grabbed it because "why not" there were no other rides we were going to ride and I figured it cut out that long walk to get to the theater when you do standby...but because of where the FP+ seating is, it took us SO LONG to get out of the theater and then on top of that...they are having everyone leave some back-way behind the Beauty and the Beast theater and behind all the stores on Sunset Blvd...whoever thought up that idea was not thinking...all those thousands of people being funneled into a narrow street...disaster! Third track at TSMM was great and ToT is still a favorite for my family. Also got to meet @skier_pete and watch the star wars fireworks with them

Epcot - Great day there - spent a lot of time around world showcase and had a FP+ for Frozen...the animatronics are great, but I would not wait in that line without a FP+...even with the FP+ it took us like 20 minutes to even board the ride; didn't get a chance to do Soarin cause we used our FP+ for Frozen and rope-dropped Test Track...it was super crowded coming back to the park around 7:00 p.m. - and I think everyone that came in at that time went straight to Soarin - we had planned to ride it a half hour or so before Illuminations, but it was still a 70+ minute wait...Food and wine wasn't too crowded from what I saw.

Animal Kingdom - Still my favorite park. The views of what you can see of Pandora are amazing...I really cannot wait until that opens up -as people have noted you can see the building for the ride from where the busses drop you off and it is huge! It's going to be great...and AK is still my favorite park! We rope dropped and rode EE 6 times in a row with no wait in the morning, and then went back and rode it 6 more times in a row at the end of the day...all with no wait - also tried Flame Tree BBQ for the first time...very good. A few of the Rivers of Lights boats were out and they were cool to look at - still a little bitter that it wasn't running while we were there! The show on the Tree of Life is also really cool

Magic Kingdom - DD was obsessed with Sorcerers of the MK this trip...we played it all three days we were there and she defeated all of the villains on the first level...it was great to beat the mid-day crowds - rope drop is still great at MK, we did all of fantasyland and half of tomorrowland before 11 a.m. (except SDMT, which we had a FP+ for later in the day). They were having some issues with Splash two of the days we were there and that through our plans off a bit - it was down most of the morning and didn't open either day until around 10:30 - 11:00. The new Mickey's Friendship Faire show was cute as well

Far fewer "people who suck" this trip...lol...the only really inconsiderate thing I saw was someone who let their toddler pull half the role of toilet paper out in the bathroom and then just left it on the floor for someone else to clean up

Last thing I noticed - this was my first time staying anywhere other than a value resort and there was a HUGE difference when it came to the bus service. When I stayed at POP and Art of Animation the busses were always SUPER crowded and more than once I had to either wait for the next bus or stand on the bus both in the morning and when leaving the park at night. We stayed at AKL for four nights and POFQ for four nights and I only had to stand one time - on the way home from Hollywood Studios on our first night...and even then someone offered me their seat, but I let them keep sitting because it was night one and I didn't have "park feet" yet. There were many times when there were only 5-6 people on the bus with us - I feel like that's a little thing, but it totally made parts of the trip more relaxing!

 

[rteetz]

We just returned and here are some overall observations - somewhat off topic, but maybe not

Hollywood Studios - We did two half days here - there were lots of FP+ availability all day. All of our FP+ that we booked were in the later afternoon into early evening and we still were able to get a 4th FP+ for Tower of Terror both days...also got a FP+ for Fantasmic about a half hour before the show on the Thursday we were there...however...I will never do FP+ for Fantasmic again - I only grabbed it because "why not" there were no other rides we were going to ride and I figured it cut out that long walk to get to the theater when you do standby...but because of where the FP+ seating is, it took us SO LONG to get out of the theater and then on top of that...they are having everyone leave some back-way behind the Beauty and the Beast theater and behind all the stores on Sunset Blvd...whoever thought up that idea was not thinking...all those thousands of people being funneled into a narrow street...disaster! Third track at TSMM was great and ToT is still a favorite for my family. Also got to meet @skier_pete and watch the star wars fireworks with them

Epcot - Great day there - spent a lot of time around world showcase and had a FP+ for Frozen...the animatronics are great, but I would not wait in that line without a FP+...even with the FP+ it took us like 20 minutes to even board the ride; didn't get a chance to do Soarin cause we used our FP+ for Frozen and rope-dropped Test Track...it was super crowded coming back to the park around 7:00 p.m. - and I think everyone that came in at that time went straight to Soarin - we had planned to ride it a half hour or so before Illuminations, but it was still a 70+ minute wait...Food and wine wasn't too crowded from what I saw.

Animal Kingdom - Still my favorite park. The views of what you can see of Pandora are amazing...I really cannot wait until that opens up -as people have noted you can see the building for the ride from where the busses drop you off and it is huge! It's going to be great...and AK is still my favorite park! We rope dropped and rode EE 6 times in a row with no wait in the morning, and then went back and rode it 6 more times in a row at the end of the day...all with no wait - also tried Flame Tree BBQ for the first time...very good. A few of the Rivers of Lights boats were out and they were cool to look at - still a little bitter that it wasn't running while we were there! The show on the Tree of Life is also really cool

Magic Kingdom - DD was obsessed with Sorcerers of the MK this trip...we played it all three days we were there and she defeated all of the villains on the first level...it was great to beat the mid-day crowds - rope drop is still great at MK, we did all of fantasyland and half of tomorrowland before 11 a.m. (except SDMT, which we had a FP+ for later in the day). They were having some issues with Splash two of the days we were there and that through our plans off a bit - it was down most of the morning and didn't open either day until around 10:30 - 11:00. The new Mickey's Friendship Faire show was cute as well

Far fewer "people who suck" this trip...lol...the only really inconsiderate thing I saw was someone who let their toddler pull half the role of toilet paper out in the bathroom and then just left it on the floor for someone else to clean up

Last thing I noticed - this was my first time staying anywhere other than a value resort and there was a HUGE difference when it came to the bus service. When I stayed at POP and Art of Animation the busses were always SUPER crowded and more than once I had to either wait for the next bus or stand on the bus both in the morning and when leaving the park at night. We stayed at AKL for four nights and POFQ for four nights and I only had to stand one time - on the way home from Hollywood Studios on our first night...and even then someone offered me their seat, but I let them keep sitting because it was night one and I didn't have "park feet" yet. There were many times when there were only 5-6 people on the bus with us - I feel like that's a little thing, but it totally made parts of the trip more relaxing!

Glad you had a nice trip.

Awesome that you got to meet Pete.

As for the buses that just might be dependent on a lot of things such as time of day, and time of year. I have stayed at all three levels of resorts and I think I would agree that values tend to have the most crowding on buses. As for deluxe and moderates it can depend. BC where I stayed for example tends to share buses with BWI and YC. I have also stayed at POR which is much larger than POFQ and bus crowding is sometimes a problem there. Overall I think people make the buses seem worse than they are. Sure they aren't fantastic but they aren't terrible either.

 

[Disneymom1126]

Glad you had a nice trip.

Awesome that you got to meet Pete.

As for the buses that just might be dependent on a lot of things such as time of day, and time of year. I have stayed at all three levels of resorts and I think I would agree that values tend to have the most crowding on buses. As for deluxe and moderates it can depend. BC where I stayed for example tends to share buses with BWI and YC. I have also stayed at POR which is much larger than POFQ and bus crowding is sometimes a problem there. Overall I think people make the buses seem worse than they are. Sure they aren't fantastic but they aren't terrible either.

Yeah I would agree they aren't bad - just mostly liked not having to wait for a second bus to come at the end of the night especially

 

[jlundeen]

Glad you had a nice trip.

Awesome that you got to meet Pete.

As for the buses that just might be dependent on a lot of things such as time of day, and time of year. I have stayed at all three levels of resorts and I think I would agree that values tend to have the most crowding on buses. As for deluxe and moderates it can depend. BC where I stayed for example tends to share buses with BWI and YC. I have also stayed at POR which is much larger than POFQ and bus crowding is sometimes a problem there. Overall I think people make the buses seem worse than they are. Sure they aren't fantastic but they aren't terrible either.

Yes, we've seen it crowded on the POFQ bus at the end on the night...but even having to stand with really tired feet beats trying to drive out of there!

 

[skier_pete]

Also got to meet @skier_pete and watch the star wars fireworks with them

Animal Kingdom - Still my favorite park. The views of what you can see of Pandora are amazing...I really cannot wait until that opens up -as people have noted you can see the building for the ride from where the busses drop you off and it is huge! !

Hey there - it was great meeting you and your daughter - too bad we only crossed paths the one time...

To keep this on topic - @Disneymom1126 mentions the view from the bus stop of Pandora:





I was quite surprised how much you could see.

Last thing I noticed - this was my first time staying anywhere other than a value resort and there was a HUGE difference when it came to the bus service. When I stayed at POP and Art of Animation the busses were always SUPER crowded and more than once I had to either wait for the next bus or stand on the bus both in the morning and when leaving the park at night. We stayed at AKL for four nights and POFQ for four nights and I only had to stand one time - on the way home from Hollywood Studios on our first night...and even then someone offered me their seat, but I let them keep sitting because it was night one and I didn't have "park feet" yet. There were many times when there were only 5-6 people on the bus with us - I feel like that's a little thing, but it totally made parts of the trip more relaxing!

As far as the bus crowding goes - the thing is, the value resorts have a LOT of rooms - Pop Century has nearly 2900 rooms. POFQ has maybe 1000 rooms. (Though I know sometimes they share with POR - but usually not at peak times nor to MK.) Kidani only has 500 rooms total. So unless they run 3-5 times more buses to Pop Century - which they don't - then the buses are going to be more crowded.

 

[rteetz]

News

Here's the taping schedule, CM are not told how long or where or what is taping, just the time they have to be there. They did it by slots:
Nov 9th MK 10am and 6pm
Nov 10th MK 10am and 1pm
Nov 10th Epcot 4:30pm and 7pm
Nov. 11th MK 8am and 12pm
Nov 12th MK 8:30am and 2pm
Nov 12th AK 4:30pm
Nov 13th DHS 10am and 2pm and 5pm
Obviously all of these are subject to change

Parade taping schedule, of course though the parade is not being taped at WDW only performances and other things.

 

[rteetz]

News

Disney is planning a new twist on Oliver Twist...

http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/ne...e-hamilton-director-941178?utm_source=twitter

 

[rteetz]

Reminder

RnRc refurb starts Thursday

http://www.orlandoparksnews.com/2016/10/rock-n-roller-coaster-closing-for-short.html

 

[HeroOfWDW]

of course though the parade is not being taped at WDW

Tell me if I read this wrong, but is the parade really not being taped at WDW this is year? Is it going to be taped at Disneyland?

 

[skier_pete]

Sharing a few more shots - here's the DHS construction - though I admit none of these are great. This one is from outside Tatooine Traders looking down what used to be the streets of america:



These are from the road - so from outside the park looking in - this is the new bridge that's been constructed to move materials into place:



Here's a shot of the construction area of DHS. On the left you can see the Muppetvision Building. There's not really much to see and again this was taken from the road - but it does give a good impression of how much space was cleared in the back of DHS.