Disney Parks!

[HasiraKali]

Oh yes. The Disney parks.

First, the big news is that the new Little Mermaid attraction will be opening at California Adventure this June. They've been releasing various little video clips on the official blog with sneak peeks at what's going on. They've had scoring and videos of construction. The latest one was about the animatronic Ariel's hair of all things. They're trying to make it look like it's underwater when it obviously can't be.I have to say, the effect as it stands so far is pretty cool, if a little creepy. I was so intrigued that I made a little gif of that part of the video clip.

http://i51.tinypic.com/oucv2p.jpg

It's still rather rough they say, but I have a feelling it'll be awesome once it's perfected. This is also the same attraction they're installing in Fantasyland in WDW and in Disneyland Paris.

Speaking of WDW's Fantasyland, construction is going along swiftly there. Last week. the Beast's castle popped up, almost literally overnight. My sister was all kinds of excited because that means the Beauty and the Beast attractions and such are not far behind. I honestly wouldn't be surprised if the Fantasyland portion of the WDW expansion opened before Fall 2012.

And the animation resort should be coming along nicely. I'll try to get some pictures of what's there when I go to Pop Century in June.

[Nuduli]

Oh this news is so exciting!! Aaand yeeah... =/ Ariel does look a bit creepy.... I mean, the idea is pretty neat hope it doesn't freak too many people out! xD

I'm real excited about the BatB section and the animation resort!

[Sombolia]

That's a little... uh... uncanny valley. :lol: But still cool. Hopefully they make it a little less creepy before it goes live.

What I'M excited about is the opening of the new Star Tours!! :D We're going to Disneyland in June and I can't wait to ride it.

[KanuTGL]

Yeah, that's a kinda creepy Ariel xD But at the same time, I'm very impressed with how smoothly she moves =O

I'm gutted that the Beauty & the Beast attraction was under construction when I went to WDW; I would reeally have loved to see it. *sigh* Now I will have to go back there, how terrible :p

[HasiraKali]

It's such a shame right? ;)

I'm watching the old Parade of Dreams from Disneyland right now. The TLK unit just came on. There's something about the orchestration of the drums and the lion roar that gives me goosebumps :lol: I'm so messed up in the head...

[Azerane]

I love Disneyworld! :D As much as I hate rollercoasters (last time I went to get on one at Busch Gardens I started hyperventilating :p) I really enjoy going to disneyworld. It's just a fun atmostphere, and they do have a lot of cool rides and ironically one of my favourite rides is a rollercoaster (Big Thunder Mountain Railroad). I imagine that when I'm in florida again we'll probably go to disneyworld for a day or two. But I can never pick which park to go to, I just wish I could take all my favourite things to do and put them in one park :p

Are they updating Star Tours at WDW as well? Because that's fun =)

[HasiraKali]

Yes they are. It's opening up again in May. It's supposed to be in 3D as well. I'm not a big fan of that type of ride, but we'll go on it just to see how it is. Always have to ride something at least once :lol:

[Sharifu]

I look forward to riding the new Star Tours, but I'm thinking of waiting to go to Disneyland until 2012 when California Adventure is done with a lot of their new attractions. Of course I would like to go to Disneyland this summer, but I'm not sure if we could afford it. So I'm thinking it's probably better to wait until 2012. But we'll see, that might change... Going to Disneyland with my mom last October was kind of a last minute decision... :D Haha.

[Guntur]

Sorry guys, Johore/Malaysia Disneyland won't be happening as the parliament reject the proposal. :( but replaced with Legoland Malaysia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Legoland_Malaysia)

[Sombolia]

SUPER THREAD BONK!

Apparently, they're opening a new park in... Shanghai. Well, ok. Not what I expected but should be cool. Make sure to check it out in 2016. :P

I was just watching this video about the retheming in California Adventure.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gGvOiiVnVuA&feature=player_embedded

I'm really excited for all the new stuff. I think it'll make CA a lot better. I'm looking forward to the Victorian-ized pier and the new Buena Park-style entrance in particular. The last time I went to CA they were still building WoC, so I haven't seen anything yet.

Oh, and I've heard they're making over part of Fantasyland in WDW? Anyone know about that?

[HasiraKali]

Fantasyland is going to be awesome! :D They're expanding it considerably and even relocating Dumbo.

They're adding the Little Mermaid attraction that just opened in CA, but they're themeing the outside to look like Prince Eric's castle. From the construction photos I've seen it's coming along really fast. They're also putting in a BUNCH of Beauty and the Beast venues. The one everyone's excited for is the Be Our Guest restaurant which will be set in the Beast's dining hall. Dawn's excited for Gaston's Tavern. The Beast's castle is actually already completed and it looks AWESOME.

They also announced a few months ago that they were building a new roller coaster-type attraction based on the mine in Snow White. They'll be closing Snow White's Scary Adventure also and replacing it with a princess meet and greet.

Dumbo is essentially getting it's own area called Storybook Circus. That's being built where Toon Town was.

There's a lot more. I suggest going to www.wdwnewstoday.com to see the cool pictures they have of that progress so far. It's updated all the time. You'll have to wade through the huge amount of Star Tours stuff (they were REALLY excited :lol:) in the recent updates, but Fantasyland is there too. :)

[Sharifu]

I really want to go to Disneyland again just for the new new Star Tours ride, The Little Mermaid ride and the new Mickey's Soundsational Parade! :p There's a TLK float in that parade as well... Well that's what I've seen in drawings of the parade... I would love to go to Disneyland this year but I think I should wait until 2012 when California Adventure is done with all it's "remodeling". I'm excited for all the changes there though. Petteri I might possibly go to Disneyland this year if his brother and sister want to go to Southern California when they come to the U.S. this fall. We'll see.

[Sombolia]

There's a new parade? With a TLK float? :gasp: Awesome! I'm (hopefully) going back to Disneyland in July, so I'm definitely going to watch that :) (My friends and I usually skip parades to take advantage of the shorter lines, haha)

[nathalie]

Disneyland Paris is going CRAZY!

Boost up the price for the parking lot.
26 $ for 1 day o_O are the mad ??

Thank God for having an annual pass.

And 14 more days till my next trip *dances*

[TommyP32891]

I live 1 hour from WDW, so I got to go 3 times last year and am going again next month for my birthday. I am so excited.

[HasiraKali]

Parking charges are pure profit, so that's not surprising. We saw them towing cars from Downtown Disney since they parked there instead of the appropriate parking lot for the park. Can't say I blame people, but it was still rather amusing.

[Jazzy B Bunny]

Disneyland Paris is going CRAZY!

Boost up the price for the parking lot.
26 $ for 1 day o_O are the mad ??

Thank God for having an annual pass.

And 14 more days till my next trip *dances*

Have fun & send me a postcard! 4 months til my trip! So excited! We are going into Paris for a day too. Only really have 2 days in the parks :( we are staying on site at the Santa Fe. Really want to go back to WDW Florida but way too expensive :(
So of anyone wants to take me.... Haha!

[nathalie]

There's always the meeting next year ;)

Hmm, 2 days ... in my experience that's too short, specially in June already, when the weather is already quite nice.
But that's just from my own experience.
When I went in 2010, 2011, June 2012 the park was packed, and we only got to do like, 3-4 things :/

Though, I've heard other people saying they can do it in 2 days, but they litterly RUN around the park to get fastpasses, and plan everything to the minute.

I'm not like that, I just let it all happen when I'm there, and see how it goes, lol.

[Jazzy B Bunny]

We will be taking full advantage of 'extra magic hours' my brother went in July last year with his school and he said they got to do most things and they only had 2 days.
I say I only have 2 days, but that's full days. On night 1 we are going to do the Disney village and dreams, so that's 2 things ticked off :)

ETA we are going at the start of June during week days, the travel agent said that no kids are on holiday then as the French break for summer at the end of June.

[nathalie]

Well, be aware that during EMH only a limited of rides are open, sometimes only 3 or so, but could be that during summer months they open more things.
I've never used them before, so I've only heard these things from others, so don't pin me on that, hehe.

Staying in a true Disney hotel then?
I'd rather use a much cheaper hotel so I can go a few times more, then to save up for a Disney hotel, and only be able to go once.

But then again, if you only manage to get there once every so often, it does seem better to choose a Disney hotel.

[Jazzy B Bunny]

We are staying at the Santa Fe for 4 nights (5 days) so we have park tickets for all that time, but we arrive late afternoon on day 1 then have to leave by 10.30 on the last day. That also includes a full day trip into Paris. I've never been before, so wanted to d the sites lol

[Jazzy B Bunny]

I also didn't want to be worried about getting trains to and from the park. At least if we get tired we can walk back to the hotel for a relax and freshen up :)

[nathalie]

I've booked Kyriad now for the 3rd time. It's one of the selected hotels and the "cheapest" one too.
Takes not even 10 minutes with the shuttle bus I think.

Since I have an annual pass now untill October, I really don't care in what hotel we'll be at. Preferablly off-site, lol, but since my boyfriend has to drive up there and back home on his own, as I can't drive, decided to stay on-site, so he also wouldn't have to drive in the evening to get back to the hotel and such.

[nathalie]

Trip nr 14 to DLRP has been booked!
Will also be meeting Jazzy B Bunny (Sarah) there, which will be great! :D

June 3rd and 4th.
It'll be a very quick visit, as I'm basicly only going to give 4 people a discount on them bying their AP's, so I can collect 3 stamps, and renew my own AP for "free" in October.

(trip nr 15 for July will be planned next week, haha, but that trip we've been talking about for 2 months now, so that one was going to happen anyways)

If anyone is in need of a TLK plush, Pumbaa boxers or socks, let me know ;)

[HasiraKali]

So it's been officially announced (though everyone already knew, and construction started MONTHS ago) that FoTLK is moving into Harambe "sometime in 2014". I do not like the vague nature of this statement...