jedimaster1227

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/thunder-bay/story/2012/04/03/tby-cheppewa-roller-coaster.html

http://www.ny1.com/content/top_stories/158605/coney-island-rides-soar-as-fun-filled-season-begins

http://blog.al.com/businessnews/2012/04/new_splash_adventure_to_expand.html

Today I stopped by the Magic Kingdom to check out the construction progress on the Seven Dwarves Mine Train Coaster and was pleasantly surprised to find the Avengerail running for guests! Transportation ASSEMBLE! "When Captain America throws his mighty shield... All those who chose to oppose his shield must yield..." Come on folks, you know the words! Mark Ruffalo's Hulk is at the back of the Avengerail. It isn't as sleek as the Tronorail, but I like it! ASSEMBLE! Over in New Fantasyland, work continues on the Castle Retaining Wall. What have we here??? That's right folks! We have vertical coaster support assembly! The crane was swinging wood around the construction site today. Roof tiles are being added to Prince Eric's Castle. We have round supports... Gaston's Tavern is getting a roof as well. It looks like this will become an artificial tree soon. Tigger's Bouncy Place has been completely removed as work is underway to turn the former section of the interactive queue into a new meet & greet location for Pooh and his friends. Hadn't really stopped to notice the details in this poster, including the burning building. Very exciting! Rock work on the Storybook Circus side of The Little Mermaid continues to form. A new archway has been framed, which will likely serve as an access point to backstage area for cast members. Dumbo was busy today with a 40 minute wait. The pad for the Casey Jr. Splash 'n' Soak Station is nearing completion. More supports are rising in New Fantasyland! Some of these supports are pretty large... These supports will likely be covered by rock work within a year or so, but they look nice so far. Work on theming the rebuilt Toontown/Storybook Circus tents continues... This one looks to be nearing completion, at least on the outside. You can see where some of the newer rock work on The Little Mermaid's facade meets the old. Could we be getting a night time show similar to Disneyland Paris' Dreams? That's sure be awesome! The park was very busy today! Lines were surprisingly short for Sorcerers of the Magic Kingdom, but that may be because all players are currently locked into easy mode to help manage the waits at each portal. The Sunshine Tree Terrace has finally emerged from behind the scrims to reveal a few new (and hidden) details... The location now serves food items as well as snack and drink items. Most of the snack items from the location's previous menu remain. Should we look a little closer? What's this? Is that a Little Orange Bird in the Sunshine Tree that I see? I think so! Orange Bird fans rejoice! Heesa comin' home! The Dapper Dans are so awesome! The Avengerail sports the SHIELD logo on the front end of the train. So excited for the movie, and so happy to see some aspect of The Avengers making its way to Walt Disney World! Just being in the presence of the Avengerail gave me the ability to be in two (close) places at once!

http://www.awn.com/news/business/nickelodeon-and-movie-park-germany-renew-licensing-deal

^^I was there on Friday, May 23rd! ^The Disney Rewards Photo Place is found in Innoventions West next to the video game wall and the space formerly home to the Segway testing experience. I believe you can also see Where's the Fire? from your spot waiting in line for the Photo Place as well.

http://hugin.info/150377/R/1599921/504928.pdf

(Continued) Over in the Imagination pavilion, Colorvision Creative (also known as Amazing Pictures) has taken over the operation of the photo sales area at the end of ImageWorks. Also photo service providers for Universal Orlando and the SeaWorld parks, it is intended that this new store (when completed) will serve as a product showcase for the company. The Captain EO merchandise cart outside of the pavilion was retired a few weeks ago, with remaining merchandise found within ImageWorks. Grab your Fuzzball and Hooter now while you can! With Paris' Captain EO reportedly closed for good, it is expected that the 3-D attraction will eventually be phased out of the Disney Parks once again over the next year or so, but no official closings have been confirmed at this point. Over at the Festival Center, this Goofy topiary has been slightly updated to remove his ice skates from the Winter. Let's go inside! The old Frontiers of Medicine post show for Body Wars is still blocked off, but you can see the lights remain on behind the walls after all these years. The HGTV Theater previews shows from the host channel... I'm still bummed they're not showing Seasons of the Vine here anymore. In front of the former entrance to Cranium Command is the main presentation area. This presentation was so popular guests were standing outside of the packed seating area just to watch. The merchandise area has a large collection of items for the Festival this year. The Goofy About Health stage has become the Spotlight Stage for the Festival, hosting smaller presentations throughout the day. The Intermissions Cafe is open once again... In case you were wondering what is on the menu. A touchscreen map is featured inside of the Festival Center to help guide guests to the many Festival offerings strewn about the park. We didn't see any presentations going on in here today. Body Wars is still blocked off entirely. Another presentation area takes up a good section of the pavilion. Time to venture back outside... Very recently The Odyssey adopted a new, blue color scheme. Over in the Mexico Pavilion, the back entrance path (handicapped access) has been filled with a colorful array of orchids. Gran Fiesta Donald is still a popular meet & greet character at Epcot! Over between The Outpost and the Germany pavilion is the new Haiti booth. A Food & Wine Festival Booth has been brought in to serve drink items from Haiti. There aren't any food options served here, but the drink menu is quite large for a booth. Major work continues on Tutto Italia over in the Italy Pavilion... The Cars 2 topiaries from last year have moved over to Japan for this year's display. Disney was shooting footage of the Festival throughout the day... Katsura Grill, the Japan pavilion's revitalized quick service option has seen consistent lines since its reopening earlier this year. It even has its own logo now! I can never get tired of watching this performance... The bonsai trees have returned to Japan as usual. So cool! GoGo squeeZ sponsored the childs play area in World Showcase once again, also providing samples of their applesauce products like they did previously. New this year is the Backyard Play Garden. This area features nifty and thrifty homemade projects for your home garden. There's even steps on how to make these items yourself! You can also make these... I found myself a friend! That's all folks!

Last week I had the chance to stop by Epcot to check out the Epcot International Flower & Garden Festival as well as what other changes are going on throughout the park... So let's jump right into it, shall we? This year's entrance display is themed to Fantasia, and it truly looks great! The topiaries really stand out this year! So cool! A few weeks ago work finished on modifying the Spaceship Earth queue. The white-outlined pathway is rumored to contain NextGen tech needed for the implementation of the xPass. The Epcot logo topiary becomes a peacock for the festival... Kim Possible's World Showcase Adventure will soon be replaced by Agent P's World Showcase Adventure based on the character from Phineas & Ferb. Kim Possible is still listed on the Innoventions signs, while the Vision House has been added. Habit Heroes is still closed for retooling. A cast member is stationed outside of the entrance to the exhibit to answer guest questions about the closure. Debuting later this month is the Vision House. I'm looking forward to seeing it once it opens! Walls for the Vision House run along much of the "Road to Tomorrow" within Innoventions. Habit Heroes has gained a spot on the wall of attractions at Innoventions... While Kim Possible prepares to make way for a new attraction. Over in MouseGears, a section of the store has become dedicated to Phineas and Ferb merchandise. Perry is quite the popular character! So much merch! They also have some International Flower & Garden Festival merchandise in the store. Offerings include these clever magnets... The Hub receives a minor overlay for the Festival. Hope it never leaves! We noticed something peculiar about the trees in Future World... The fabric of our lives? The Chiquita sponsorship of Living with the Land began earlier last week. A home for the shrimp... The Disney Performing Arts stage has returned to Epcot this year. Bambi's Butterfly House has also been brought back for the Festival this year. Stunning! Time for the money shots! Oooh! The child's play area in Future World was expanded this year. This year's sand sculpture promotes the Disneynature Chimpanzee release. He looks excited to visit the World Showcase too! Flower towers line the pathway between the World Showcase and Future World. More cool topiaries... I hadn't visited this in a while but the Disney Rewards Photo Place (reserved for Disney's Visa Cardmembers, which my cousin is) has some neat little details in the background. Do you see the Nautilus? Work continues on the outside of The Seas with Nemo & Friends as a new entrance path is being built into the existing building. The marquee still looks awesome. It has been speculated that this line will accommodate the addition of FastPass for the attraction. The outside construction cuts off right before guests enter the interior queue. But inside work continues to carve a path to the loading station of the ride. Yay for a Seabase Alpha reference!

http://www.facebook.com/notes/disneys-photopass-service/new-disney-photopass-arriving-april-4-2012-to-walt-disney-world-resort/10150650931518325

Holiday World has sent us a press release regarding their upcoming "Rock the World" Christian Music Fest.

Six Flags Great Adventure has sent us some awesome photos of their landmark topping off of SkyScreamer! Thanks again for the great photos Six Flags!

Legoland Florida has sent us photos and video of the Legoland Water Park as it reaches its latest milestone, getting one of its most important elements--WATER! [coastertube]http://www.themeparkreview.com/coastertube/play.php?vid=LLF_Waterpark_Gets_Water_h264broll_sl84[/coastertube]

Universal Orlando has sent us a press release announcing the official debut date for both the Universal's Superstar Parade and Universal's Cinematic Spectacular: 100 Years of Movie Memories.

http://www.themalaysianinsider.com/features/article/building-every-kids-dream...-brick-by-brick At LEGO Technic, experience the thrilling Project X Tracks roller coaster ride. Siegfried Boerst, general manager of LEGOLAND Malaysia, enjoys making every kid’s dream come true. The Kid Power Towers at Imagination with the Observation Tower in the background. A landscape view of the themepark with the Dragon Coaster. Trucks at LEGO City Rescue Academy where parents and children can experience what it’s like to hose down a “burning building.”

^The changeover in New Fantasyland plans between the D23 Expo 2009 announcements and the revised announcements in 2011 were the following: Cinderella meet & greet removed Sleeping Beauty/Aurora's Cottage meet & greet removed Pixie Hollow section of New Fantasyland completely removed Dumbo location altered Barnstormer officially added to the New Fantasyland plans for reworking Winnie the Pooh meet and greet no longer retained for New Fantasyland The blueprints from the original expansion plans as well as the D23 Expo 2009 announcement can both be found at the link below, detailing what was originally intended for the Fantasyland expansion. http://www.themeparkreview.com/forum/viewtopic.php?p=780394#p780394 Vertical construction has progressed this week on the Seven Dwarves Mine Train Coaster with steel supports being installed for the track. I'll be visiting later this week to grab some photos, but needless to say, they are working at a rapid pace to get the coaster done.

http://finance.yahoo.com/news/allen-weiss-appointed-apollo-group-200500378.html

Martin's Fantasy Island has announced the addition of a mat racing slide called Dragster Drench for the 2012 Season! http://www.martinsfantasyisland.com/new.html

Wild Waves has announced that they will be adding two new attractions to the park for the 2012 season!

http://articles.orlandosentinel.com/2012-04-01/business/os-cfb-tourism-0402-20120401_1_room-prices-hotel-rates-disney-owned-hotels

http://www.orlandosentinel.com/the-daily-disney/os-disney-tom-staggs-fantasy-20120402,0,2212268.story

The Orlando Sentinel has posted an interview with Tom Staggs, chairman of Walt Disney Parks & Resorts, in which he references some news on New Fantasyland. http://www.orlandosentinel.com/the-daily-disney/os-disney-tom-staggs-fantasy-20120402,0,2212268.story

http://www.olc.co.jp/wpmu/wp-content/blogs.dir/7/files/2012/04/20120402_01e.pdf

http://disneyparks.disney.go.com/blog/2012/03/first-look-at-merchandise-for-the-30th-anniversary-of-epcot-at-walt-disney-world-resort/