What in the (Wizarding) World ??

In case you've been unconscious, under a rock, or in outer space for the past year...

The Wizarding World of Harry Potter is coming to Islands of Adventure, Universal Orlando.
     JUNE 18, 2010

What you can expect to see:


The Hogwarts Express,
which whistles and billows steam to signal its arrival;

Hogsmeade Village 
    with Wizard shops....

Zonko's:
a joke shop where you can purchase Extendable Ears and Sneakoscopes;


Honeydukes:
which features treats like Chocolate Frogs and Bertie Bott's Every-Flavour Beans  (take 'THAT' Ghirardellis);

The Three Broomsticks and the adjacent Hog's Head pub, offering traditional British food and drinks ... and the definitely non-traditional Butterbeer (non-alcoholic) and pumpkin juice;

The Owlery and The Owl Post:
where you can send letters with a  Hogsmeade postmark and buy official stamps from The Wizarding World of Harry Potter;

Ollivander's:
the wand shop where the 'wand chooses the wizard' in an interactive experience (I wonder if the Wand of Destiny will be available? );

Dervish and Banges:
the magical instruments shop selling Quidditch equipment, Triwizard apparel, Spectrespecs and Remembralls.

The attractions:

Dragon Challenge:
a twin high-speed roller coaster with many elements from the Triwizard Tournament (the former "Dueling Dragons");

Flight of the Hippogriff:
a family coaster simulating a Hippogriff training flight over the grounds of Hogwarts castle (the former "Flying Unicorn");


Harry Potter and the Forbidden Journey:
the big, huge, new ride located in Hogwarts Castle: a state-of-the-art attraction that uses entirely new technology to bring the magic, characters and stories of Harry Potter to life in ways never before experienced;

Before exiting back into Hogsmeade:
Filch's Emporium of Confiscated Goods
(get your Omnioculars here!)

I'm saving my Galleons and Knuts for HarryPotterstuff and butterbeer!!

Goodbye, Roy

Roy E. Disney, son of Disney Studios co-founder Roy O., and the nephew of Walt, has died at the age of 79.

Roy E. was involved with the Walt Disney Company for more than 56 years and was vice chairman of the BoD from 1984-2003, and chairman of the Studios' animation department. More recently, Roy E. served as director emeritus and consultant for the Company.


Disneyphiles (Disney lovers) may remember Roy E. as the man who 'took on' Michael Eisner in 2003-05, when many were dissatisfied with Eisner's job performance as head of Disney.

Requiescat in Pace, Roy

Dancin' in the Park

We were at the EPCOT/World Showcase this weekend and I always check out the model train at the Germany pavilion when we're there. 


There is a pavilion in the village. And in the pavilion there is a dancing couple. Either they fell over (probably) or ... maybe the CMs were having some fun because I do suspect they move things around during non-open hours..



P.S.  Mickey has been A.W.O.L. from the castle for quite some time. Please come back, Mickey!

Disney Picture of the Day

(I dunno who these people are, but they have a great sense of humor)

Busch Gardens Newbies

We finally made it over to Busch Gardens Tampa.

Before going, we had determined to NOT see and do everything in one day.

But we definitely wanted to:
ride the Rhino Rally,
ride the Serengeti Express,
ride the Skyride

Did all of those, liked them all.
The train's wheels did at times make an awful noise as we rolled along. Very distracting.

The Good:
The park was easy to find, even for 1st-timers.
BG's employees were friendly and helpful.

The Better:
Not crowded!

The Best:
The Park's cleanliness was most impressive.

The So-So:
Lunch: We had sandwiches (His: Italian Sausage, Mine: Corned Beef) at the Desert Grill.  The food was so-so, typical theme park fare, not as good as some of the WDW counter-service places. The servers were friendly.

It was hot and humid and the lush foliage added to it (like at DAK), so the animals were lethargic (just like us after lunch!).

Will we go back?
You betcha!
We missed all of Jungala, and will do that next time.

WWWD?

The Disney Company just spent about $4 Billion to acquire 5,000 Marvel characters.

Some of them (Spider-Man, The Hulk, Dr. Doom) can already be seen as rides / attractions up the road at Marvel Super Hero Island, Islands of Adventure, Universal Orlando.
I have two problems with this.

#1 That $4 billion could have been spent upgrading ALL of WDW's parks, building a new moderate resort and upgrading the others, re-opening River Country and Discovery Island (both of which are just moldering away), creating a new land at DAK (how about Australia!), adding a new country to Epcot's World Showcase, keeping the parks cleaner, or how about this: extending the monorail to run all over WDW and get rid of the buses.


#2 Marvel characters are NOT Disney characters. I admit to being somewhat of a 'traditionalist'; I just can't see Captain America (for example) and Mickey together.

So, What Would Walt Do?
Well, I'm pretty sure he'd be spinning at about Warp 6.

Food & Wine in '09

I'm laughing because as I was typing the title, I kept hitting $ instead of & ... and as anyone who has been to Epcot's Food and Wine Festival knows, $ might be more appropriate!

Anyhooo ...

The 2009 Food and Wine ( September 25th - November 8th) Food Kiosk list has been released ... see it HERE

There have been a few changes:

No Durban Spiced Chicken skewers at the South Africa kiosk;
(guess I'll have to go to Boma's )

No Frozen Bailey's at Ireland's booth.
(there's an $8 saving)

OH. Waitaminnit.

South Africa is offering something new:
South seared beef tenderloin with sweet potato puree and mango barbecue sauce.

And there are new kiosks from Thailand and Rio de Janerio.

So much for saving any $$.

Update: WWoHP

Thanks to Ricky at Orlando Attractions Magazine:

Possible Names for WWoHP Rides, Restaurants & More:

A search on the website for the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office reveals that back in May, Warner Bros. filed for several trademarks that are likely related to the new “theme park within a theme park”.

Some of the trademarked names are familiar: Three Broomsticks, Butterbeer, Ollivanders, Honeydukes, and Zonko’s.

Beyond those, six more trademarks may point to other areas of the Wizarding World and could even be the names of the attractions within it:

- Most notably, the name “Harry Potter and the Forbidden Journey” is filed under “Entertainment services in the nature of an amusement park ride.” It may be safe to assume that this will be the name of the large new ride that is being constructed in the back of the park.

- Likewise, listed under the same category are “Flight of the Hippogriff” and “Dragon Challenge,” which are likely going to be the new names for the existing Flying Unicorn and Dueling Dragons rides.

- Four other trademark names are also listed:

“Owl Post” and “Dervish and Banges” are categorized as retail stores.

“Hogsmeade Village” is listed as “Entertainment services in the nature of an amusement park attraction, namely, a themed area.”

“Magic Neep” is categorized under “Restaurant services, namely, providing of food and beverages for consumption.”

- Finally, on the same day that all of these were filed, a mark intended for use on clothing was filed featuring an Harry Potter “HP” logo along with a “stylized wing ball” better known to Potter fans as a Golden Snitch. While “Golden Snitch” has had many trademarks filed for in the past few years, this is one appears to be related to the Wizarding World of Harry Potter simply because its filing date is the same as the rest of the words. Perhaps we’ll see this graphic appearing on apparel inside the theme park.

It must be noted that while all of these words have been filed as trademarks, it doesn’t mean that they’re necessarily going to be used inside the Wizarding World of Harry Potter. There is no reason why further marks could not be filed for in the future. But it is certainly possible that next year we will have a chance to ride something called Harry Potter and the Forbidden Journey.

(Credit to Orlando United for first posting the word list)

Image: Universal Studios Orlando

Di$ney

The Hubby and I were on the way back to the parking lot after finishing our Sunday morning walk around Boardwalk.

There was an ambulance, with lights flashing, pulled up to the front of the Boardwalk Inn.

Hubby remarked, "Somebody just got their bill."

(Hint: Never, ever, add charging privileges to your room key! You just might get a real surprise at check-out if you don't keep track of all your charges.)

What the Tink?

Remember that major refurbishment of Fantasyland I wrote about?

Well.
It just might be majorly more than merely major.
Theme Park Rangers has the blue prints ... and a few questions!

+ What does this mean to Mickey and Minnie's houses in Toon Town?

(Oh no! They had better NOT get bulldozed like Residential Street over at the Studios was!)

+ Why are two areas designated "DUMBO"?

(Dueling Dumbos?)

+ Like much of Disney in the 21st century, it's princess-heavy: a Cinderella attraction, an Aurora attraction and big Little Mermaid attraction.

(And all the Disney Princess merchandise to go with them.)

+ The area marked as "Castle Wall"?

(What the Tink?)

+ Reason to believe: something HAS to be in the works somewhere, right?

(Right! Disney will definitely do SOMETHING to counter Harry Potter over at Universal's Islands of Adventure).