New Fantasyland, Star Tours II and more from D23

MouseStation 346 – New Fantasyland, Star Tours II and more from D23

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On today’s show, Steven Ng joins Mark and Mike with a report on the Disney Parks & Resorts announcements from last weekend’s D23 Expo in Anaheim, California.

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Feature: New Fantasyland, Star Tours II and more from D23

On today’s show, Steven Ng joins Mark and Mike with a report on the Disney Parks & Resorts announcements from last weekend’s D23 Expo in Anaheim, California.

Mark, Mike and Steven started by talking about the theatricality of the various presentations at the Expo and how well they were done.

After a quick look at the way that the Fantasyland announcement was made, discussion turned to the Star Tours II announcement. There was some debate about what “things that have never been done before in attraction, anywhere in the world” might be, with discussion even bringing in the old ET attraction at Universal Studios.

(Note: for some images and video of what was announced at the Expo, check out Monday’s Walt Disney World Park Update.)

Discussion of the announced changes largely went from west to east, starting with the new rear castle wall and the Beast’s Castle restaurant, which will be a quick-service restaurant during the day and a table-service restaurant in the evening. The restaurant will have three themed dining rooms, with the ballroom being the largest room and the west wing being the smallest, as well as the castle gallery. There was some speculation about how the transition between services and the show in each of the rooms would be accomplished.

Next up was talk of Gaston’s Tavern, a quick-service location, followed by Cinderella’s chateau, Sleeping Beauty’s cottage and Belle’s father’s house. The princess locations are all designed to be interactive, where you can witness Cinderella’s transformation and then get to dance with her, make 16th birthday cards for Aurora and become part of the storytelling of Belle’s visit to the Beast’s Castle. A short discussion ensued about how boys would be engaged in the new area. Mark has a feeling that boys will just redirect to Adventureland.

Ariel’s Adventure will duplicate the attraction going in to Disney’s California Adventure, with the DCA version opening in 2011 and the Florida version opening in 2012.

There was some discussion about the demolition of Mickey’s Toontown Fair to be replaced by new attractions. Even Mark’s son was worried about what would happen to Mickey and Minnie’s houses. The front area will become Pixie Hollow (not opening until 2013) and the back area will become Dumbo’s Circus. There was quite a bit of the “queue-less waiting” system for the two new Dumbo spinners, which Steven referred to as sort of “Southwest Airlines boarding for Dumbo.” The Barnstormer and Toontown Train Station will likely be rethemed to Dumbo’s Circus, due to their location.

Mark quickly reviewed the plans for the Disney Cruise Line, which included having ships in three different seas at the same time during the summer of 2011, then turned to the Disney Vacation Club. There was a bit of discussion about the Ko Olina Resort being built in Hawaii, including the fact that legendary Imagineer Joe Rohde will be put in charge of the theming of the resort to the story of Hawaii..

The developments at Carsland in Disney’s California Adventure will be an entirely different show in the coming weeks, with a bunch of audio with Imagineers working on the project.

There was some other news from other forums, including the coming of Muppets Whatnot Workshops and the Muppet Mobile Electric Mayhem Band on both coasts.

We’ll have to see how things get implemented, but the amount of change announced is impressive. There is a concern about how much of the new area of Fantasyland will be attractive to boys.

What do you think? Let us know by sending us an email or calling our toll-free feedback line (1-866-939-2278)!

Twitter/Facebook poll questions

Here are the responses to some questions that Mark was asking on Twitter and Facebook in the last week. If you’d like to get in on answering these questions in the future, you can follow Mark on Twitter or friend him on Facebook.

So what is everybody’s favorite announcement out of the entire D23 Expo (parks, cruises, live-action/animated films, Muppets/Pixar/etc.)?

• Fantasyland!
• Well it may be easier to get a picture with Beast but I can’t wait to schedule my Alaska Disney cruise!
• It’s between Fantasyland and Star Tours. Can’t decide…
• Star Tours II by far!
• Cruises!!!!
• Alaska!
• The Beauty and the Beast restaurant. Food. Always food.
• Cruise to Alaska.
• Pixie Hollow!!! I was so jealous of that attraction at Disneyland!
• New Cars and Toy Story 3 movies.
• Fantasyland expansion for its photography potential, Little Mermaid ride, Star Tours update … I didn’t hear much I didn’t like. But I take it they did NOT announce any return of Captain EO, as had been rumored? Good to see they’re expending some love for MuppetVision 3D — is that going to a digital projection?
• Captain EO will not be coming back to Disneyland. I don’t know about WDW.
• Firm date and title for POTC 4 film. Expansion of Fantasyland at WDW and updating of Star Tours (FINALLY….. No offense, Disney, but sheesh, what took you so long???).
• Beast’s Castle
• Mobile Muppet Electric Mayhem!
• Mobile Muppet Electric Mayhem? Really?
• Tossup between Star Tours 2.0 and the new Muppet movie.
• A tossup for me between DCL going to Alaska and the Fantasyland expansion at the MK, with Star Tours II getting honorable mention.
• Fantasyland!
• Muppets
• Star tours 2.0. The prelimary stuff looks cool.
• Definitely the Expansion of Fantasyland. That actually made the local news this morning.
• The Fantasyland expansion!
• Def. the Fantasyland expansion! Will be amazing when it’s finished, but I’m concerned about how construction will affect things.
• Love the Fantasyland Expansion, especially the Gaston Restaurant sounds promising.
• My best D23 moment was meeting the Muppets. My wife got a hug from Gonzo, her favorite. We’ll never forget it!
• Favorite D23 announcement has to be confirmation of the Fantasyland expansion.
• star tours for parks. Pirates 4 for movies
• from the limited coverage I’ve checked out, I’m glad and excited there was a Star Tours 2 announcement. 3-D? Is that correct??!!

What do you think?

Again, if you’d like to get in on answering these questions in the future, you can follow Mark on Twitter or friend him on Facebook.

MouseAdventure at Walt Disney World, November 14

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Wrapping up

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Thanks to our audio engineer and sound editor Steven Ng and to announcer Andrew Rich.

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