R.A. Pedersen's Blog, page 6

Photos: Pete’s Silly Sideshow Opens at the Magic Kingdom

Pete’s Silly Sideshow at the Magic Kingdom opened to guests today. Set in one of the tents in Storybook Circus, Pete’s Silly Sideshow character greeting shines the spotlight on Minnie Magnifique (Minnie Mouse as a circus star), Madame Daisy Fortuna (Daisy Duck as a fortune teller), The Great Goofini (Goofy as a stunt pilot) and The Astounding Donaldo (Donald Duck as a snake charmer). Storybook Circus is part of the expansion project which nearly doubles the size of Fantasyland, a multi-year p...

Test Track to Add Scenic Photos Ops

Just a quick note before we run out the door to a busy weekend of Food and Wine, Epcot’s 30th, and more (follow along live on Twitter)… but Imagineering has filed a permit to installed “TEST TRACK SET PHOTO OPS” fabricated by Adirondack Scenic. Those are the same people who made the sets for rides like The Little Mermaid and the newly revamped Dumbo interior queue play area.

What exactly will this entail? We’re not really sure, but we’re betting you get to sit in a “SimCar” as Disney has been...

Front Wall Coming Off Of Test Track Building at Epcot

We should have posted this a few days ago, but such is the nature of blogs. The front entry area of the old Test Track / World of Motion building is being torn out and off and replaced with what appears to be a new covered entry area. The three main entry doors are essentially gone and the side flanking walls have been ripped into to expose the support beams. If those beams will simply have other items attached and the surrounding walls repaired/patched or if they too will be removed to reope...

Marty Sklar on Epcot’s 30th Part 1

Editor’s note: This is Part 1 of a three-part series on how Epcot, the park, came to be and the impact it has made on the ­ industry at large from FUNWORLD Magazine written by former Imagineer Marty Sklar. It gives a good context for how Epcot came into being and we look forward to parts two and three, and feel it’s a refreshing bit of solid information that has sadly been ignored amid all the fluff being bandied about the internet lately going into Epcot’s 30th.

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It seems strange to begin a s...

Photos: Spaceship Earth Queue Reconfigured for Fastpass+

We all knew it was coming, but we didn’t want to believe it. Recently the scanners for the forthcoming Fastpass+ system were installed at Epcot’s iconic Spaceship earth attraction.

The new system allows guests to reserve ride-times at various attractions prior to arriving at the Walt Disney World resort. The complexities of the system and the apparent anticipated demand has caused Disney to add the Fastpass+ system to many attractions that previously were never even considered candidates for t...

Exclusive Look Backstage at Vehicle Renovations for Test Track 2.0 at Epcot

We just wanted to share a quick glimpse of the work that’s going on behind the scene to create the next dazzling new attraction at Epcot. This exclusive look backstage offers a glimpse of the vehicle renovations for the forthcoming Test Track 2.0 attraction. Though it’s not an interior of the ride building itself – and thus none of those glowing neon-laden sets we’ve heard so much about are visible – you can begin to see the restyling of the vehicles.

This will be the second version of Test Tr...

Shuttle Endeavour Flies Over Walt Disney World

Space shuttle Endeavour flew over the Epcot and Magic Kingdom theme parks at the Walt Disney World Resort in Florida early this morning. The shuttle departed Kennedy Space Center at 7:22 a.m. local time, the final ferry flight of the U.S. space shuttle program. Endeavour’s ultimate destination is the California Science Center in Los Angeles, CA., where it will be on display to inspire future generations with the storied history of the Space Shuttle era.

Both Walt Disney World guests and cast m...

Universal Orlando Transformers and Wizarding World 2 Dates Set

Just a quick note from the wire that the dates have solidified for the forthcoming new attractions at the Universal Studios Orlando theme park.

The Transformers attraction should be up and running as early as June 13, 2013.While similar to the Spiderman ride in vehicles and technology, the experience offered if different enough that guests shouldn’t link them directly – sort of like how Pirates of the Carribbean and Living with the Land are both boat rides but totally different experiences. Th...

November Passholder Exclusive Preview Dates for New Fantasyland Set

Though the Annual Passholder website hasn’t been updated yet – the people who push pins (get it?) have informed collectors that theNew Fantasyland Passholder Exclusive pins will be released during the Passholder Preview Dates for the area.

Which are set to occur:

November 3-4 & 10-11.

Sign up and registration, as needed, should open on the passholder website sometime soon. Exact offerings and details should be revealed at that time.

Big Thunder Mountain Railroad NextGen Queue Permit Filed

When the Big Thunder Mountain Railroad reopened recently from its extended refurbishment many fans were perplexed. Despite the push for new interactive queues everywhere in the parks, the attraction didn’t add much of anything in the way of new or interesting entertainment to its long and often tediously slowing moving queue experience.

There were however, a number of inconspicuous boxes and crates that were, at best, poorly themed to match the rest of the queue that were seemingly hiding or o...