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 Park News - (1/26/10) A good photo update from Disney’s Hollywood Studios park can be seen at Orlando Parks News.
(1/21/10) A fun photo trip report from Disney’s Hollywood Studios has been posted to Westcoaster this week.
(1/7/10) We’ve been told that the last day for guests to “meet and greet” Prince Caspian at the Studios will be January 9th. While the Narnia themed attraction will remain for now, the character will no longer be used in the park.
(12/23/09) Walt Disney World has announced the dates for Star Wars Weekends in 2010 at Disney’s Hollywood Studios. May 21-23, May 28-30, June 4-6 and June 11-13.
(12/21/09) As I hinted at last week, Disney was trying out a very different and interactive queue concept over at Rock ‘n Roller Coaster. Instead of waiting in a line, quests were allowed to wander around a large waiting area where they were entertained by a DJ, allowed to play Guitar Hero, buy a snack, browse through merchandise and more. You can read a bit more about the concept test at Attractions Magazine or check out some of the many pictures posted at Studios Central.
(12/15/09) I’ve been told that guests to the Studios may want to wander over to Rock ‘n Roller Coaster in the first half of the day, as something of interest may be taking place. Anyone know more?
(11/23/09) MouseSteps has posted a couple of pages of pictures showing off the Osborne lights on display at the Studios.
(10/26/09) Some pictures showing off the Osborne lights set up in the daytime can be found at MouseSteps this week.
(10/15/09) Some great new fake Muppet movie posters have been added to the queue area of MuppetVision 3D. You can see them over at MouseSteps. These pictures are followed by a few more pages showing off the install of the Osborne lights.
(9/21/09) The other day Disney indicated that they would be bringing the Muppet Whatnot Workshops to both California and Florida resorts, though at the time I wasn’t quite sure what the Whatnot Workshop was. After getting some feedback and doing some research, the Muppet Whatnot Workshops were a special “build a muppet” style experience set up a select FAO Schwarz stores (who were just bought by Toy R’ Us back in May 2009). Guests are able to build their own Muppet from a collection of different body parts. You can see a bit more info and photos over at the Muppet Wiki, but I can see this easily becoming a huge hit at the Disney parks.
(9/17/09) During the D23 Expo’s Muppet presentation it was announced that MuppetVision 3D in California and Florida will be upgraded to be shown in digital 3D in the near future. A new pre-show is also being planned along with new modern movie spoof posters, such as Pirates of the Amphibian (with Kermit dressed up as Capt. Jack). The Muppet movement wont stop there however, as another Mobile character experience will soon be roaming the parks. Keep your eyes open for the Mobile Electric Mayhem Band. I’ve also heard something about a Muppet Whatnot Workshop experience that will be added to both Florida and California parks, but I’m not quite certain what that will be.
(5/25/09) According to an article posted to WDW Magic at Disney’s Hollywood Studios 20th Birthday event during a Q&A session with a few Imagineers, they left the crowd with the distinct impression that the giant Sorcerer’s Hat may be coming down at some point in the near future.
Ride Rehabs - The following information is not guaranteed to be 100% accurate.
Indiana Jones – 1/11/10 through 1/15/10
HISTK Movie Set – 2/15/10 through 3/27/10
Studio Backlot Tour – 2/15/10 through 3/27/10
 2011 - Star Tours 2 - Confirmed - (12/7/09) The official Star Wars Celebration V convention has made the announcement that they will hold the event in Orlando from August 12-15th, 2010. The timing is very interesting, as this seems to be just before Disney’s closes down Star Tours forever, to begin the transformation until Star Tours II. While no solid details have been announced yet, I would think it safe to assume some kind of special event at the ride would likely take place for them. While it was announced that the Disneyland version of Star Tours would close in October 2010, I wouldn’t put it past Disney to let the Star Wars Celebration V event group possibly be the “last riders” on their version of Star Tours... if they opted to close it a bit earlier than the Disneyland version.
(9/14/09) Disney confirms lots of goodies for a theme parks over the weekend. For starters Star Tours 2 is now OFFICIAL and will be departing from Disneyland and Disney’s Hollywood Studios in 2011. The all new version of Star Tours will be in 3D this time and include a very upgraded projection system as well as all new in-cabin special effects. They also hinted at the ability to alter the ride film as well, which has long been rumored that many alternate beginning, middle and end action sequences may be created which can be mixed together in new ways to create a wide assortment of ride possibilities, allowing Star Tours II to possibly be different every time you ride it. Star Tours as we know it will close in October 2010 so the transformation can begin. In the meantime, checkout the announce ment video below which is quite funny and has some interaction between Darth Vader and Jay Rasulo. So far all the preview footage shown only shows Pod Racing on Tattooine, but the ride may involve much more than that. A better video clip of the Pod Racing segment is in the second video, along with concept artwork that confirms that you will indeed still be taking a ride in an official Star Tours Starspeeder.
(3/21/09) What a difference six months makes as it looks like the Star Tours 2 project has been delayed until 2011 according to an update at MiceAge from a few weeks ago. However, shortly after that article was posted, I was contacted by one of my sources who reported that the story about the delay was old news leftover from last summer. With everyone in fear of losing their jobs these days, I’m told that the Star Tours 2 project was brought back out of the closet and is being worked on once again to prove that the department staff is needed because they are still in the middle of a major project.
While there is no solid timeline set for it yet, there are some issues going on between Disneyland and Disney World management over this new attraction. Disneyland wants the full fledged, crank the knob up to 11, full of new in-cabin special effects version of Star Tours 2. Orlando on the other hand, always ready to snip away at attraction budgets, is asking for a more bare-bones, no-frills version, and to reuse as much of what’s already installed as possible version. The funny part is that in an effort to push this thing along, both may get their wish, with Orlando being willing to put in the low-budget version while Disneyland installs a version of many cool new effects. What could help or hurt the scheduling here however is just how willing the Oriental Land Company is to get involved in the project as well, providing additional cost-sharing capital to the project which would help them all move into production more quickly.
2012/2013- Monsters Inc. Coaster - Rumor - (11/23/09) While we don’t have too much to share on the subject right now, I’m told that a Monsters Inc. themed dark coaster ride is still in the long term planning for the Disney Studios park. However, I’ve been told not to expect to hear about any real progress being made on the project until Star Tours 2 is close to being finished. At that point they will likely make the call on if they will give the green light to Monsters or come up with another project instead.
(7/10/09) Honestly I’m not sure what to believe anymore, because the Monster’s Inc. themed coaster project proposed for the Studios park seems to get approved and then put on hold again more times that I can count. Numerous coaster companies and different styles were apparently looked at for proposed ride but the last known coaster style to be locked in was to be a Vekoma Family Inverted style coaster… but with an entirely new restraint system similar to what was installed on the Carolina Cobra at Carowinds this year.
(1/5/09) According to a Screamscape source the big push to get started on the Monsters Inc. coaster was suddenly put on hold for the time being, even though they were previously so hot to get it started. According to today’s update over at Jim Hill Media, they claim that Disney has put the project on hold until they can find a sponsor for the attraction to help fund part of it, rather that just fund the entire thing by themselves.
(11/24/08) Sources tell us that the remaining empty soundstage next to Midway Mania has been “cleaned out” recently to make way for the pending new thrill ride. While Monsters Inc. is still the popular choice in the rumor mill for this rumored indoor coaster ride, we’ve rumors that an Incredibles themed concept has also made the rounds. More on this when I find out.
(9/11/08) According to one of our readers, that rumored new Monsters themed coaster is still in development and may end up with name along the lines of, “Monsters Inc. Door Vaulter”. I’m going to hope they put some polish on that name and work on it a bit more before they make any kind of announcement. The site is still the same, with the suspended coaster project going into the soundstage area to the left of Toy Story Mania building, which means that they may have to take the roof off that building to accommodate the height of the coaster system most likely. Of course until Disney is ready to pull the trigger and drop the budget payload into the right accounts, nothing is going to happen just yet.
(7/22/08) According to the latest report from Jim Hill Media the Pixar themed coaster project is back on again for 2011 now. The good news this time is that it may be a much bigger and better ride than the old idea of cloning Crush’s Coaster with a new theme. According to the article, the winning concept is actually a new inverted coaster concept that will recreate the “hanging doors” theme from Monsters Inc. The idea is that the coaster will run through the huge door storage area as seen in the film, which has been installed with numerous large yellow scream/laugh energy storage canisters. Other fun ideas also mentioned include retheming the Honey I Shrunk The Kids play area to have a new A Bugs Life theme in the near future as well.
This isn’t the first time I’ve heard about a Monsters Inc inverted or suspended coaster idea, but the last time around it seemed like management was more interested in the more family friendly spinning coaster design used for Crush’s Coaster in Paris. Of course it was also a cheaper and smaller alterative to what was pitched for the Monster’s Inc themed coaster which was aimed at being quite a bit more thrilling. Of course the idea of a Monsters Inc ride to capture coaster ride’s screams also goes back to a proposed dark ride concept that I believe was first pitched for Disney’s California Adventure in Paradise Pier. The idea was to place an inverted dark ride system (similar to Peter Pan) in a building under and behind the park’s California Screamin’ coaster (right where Toy Story Mania is now) that would serve as a giant energy collector for the Monster world by harvesting all those screams from the coaster above. Right now I’m just going to cross my fingers and hope that this latest Monsters Inc. ride concept gets the green light.
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