Category — w. Most Recent Stuff

Disney World announced a new room rate deal a few days ago that basically represents up to 20% off per night at certain value resorts, up to 25% off per night at certain moderate resorts, and up to 30% off per night at certain deluxe and DVC resorts.

The new Disney World deal covers “most nights” through December 25th, and needs to be booked by December 25th.

The catch is that only residents of a set of southeastern states—Alabama, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, Virginia, and West Virginia—are eligible for this deal. (Residency is validated at check-in by credit card billing address.)

Not all Disney resorts or room types are in the deal—some because of demand, and others because they remain closed.

Disney’s page on this deal is here.

Other deals came out at the same time. The best way to sort them out for your specific circumstances is to work through a travel agent, who will get you the best price.

I recommend Kelly, the long-standing travel agent partner of this site. Contact her using the form below:

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MICKEY AND MINNIE’S RUNAWAY RAILWAY

Mickey and Minnie’s Runaway Railway opened at Disney’s Hollywood Studios in March 2020, in the space formerly occupied by The Great Movie Ride.

Since the parks re-opened, Mickey and Minnie’s Runaway Railway has been one of the most popular rides at Disney’s Hollywood Studios, with only Rise of the Resistance being a higher priority. This makes sense, as it is an all-ages ride in a park with few such, and has some pretty appealing stars. And it’s silly and fun!

The concept of the ride is that guests are being transported into a cartoon via a train for which Goofy, taking a break from leading the worldwide COVID-19 response, is the engineer and conductor. Goofy being G, things get off-track pretty quickly, and the train cars split off into separate ride vehicles for the rest of the experience.

Most of the ride is spent passing through a variety of large, richly detailed sets that combine physical structures, audio-animatronics, and projection-mapped added visuals. The overall effect is astonishing, with rich details that will take many rides to fully see.

One exception is a waltz-conga scene which fits nothing else on the ride whatsoever but simply exists to take gleeful and whimsical advantage of the underlying technology of the ride vehicles.

The pre-show to the ride, which includes a brief Mickey short and a tour-de-force entry to the railroad station, has been suppressed for social distancing reasons.

Mickey and Minnie’s Runaway Railway has been seeing what today counts as long lines all day. The lowest-wait way to see it is at park open or just before park close.

Note that the Disney characters in Mickey and Minnie’s Runaway Railway are based on the more recent Paul Rudish styles of these characters, not the more cuddly versions elsewhere in Walt Disney World.

If you or your party has not yet seen these, then a first stop to see Vacation Fun in the Mickey Shorts Theater is the right thing to do, to be introduced to the new styles.

This would work, of course, only if either you have a two day visit to the Studios, with Vacation Fun on day one and Mickey and Minnie’s Runaway Railway on day two, or if you plan to see Mickey and Minnie’s Runaway Railway near park close and Vacation Fun earlier that day.

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Welcome back to Fridays with Jim Korkis! Jim, the dean of Disney historians, writes about Walt Disney World history every Friday on yourfirstvisit.net.

MR. TOAD’S WILD RIDE AT MAGIC KINGDOM

By Jim Korkis

With Halloween right around the corner, some Disney fans may have forgotten that the original release of the classic The Legend of Sleepy Hollow was paired with another segment about a popular British character.

Mr. Toad’s Wild Ride was a classic “C Ticket” dark ride in Fantasyland that originated at Disneyland on opening day. Its doppelganger was also an opening day attraction at Magic Kingdom’s Fantasyland, but it closed in 1998 and was replaced by The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh, despite guest protests.

Mr. Toad’s Wild Ride’s story was a very loose adaptation from the Disney animated feature The Adventures of Ichabod and Mr. Toad (1949) focused primarily on Toad’s terrifying and irresponsible driving through London going “nowhere in particular”.

(c) Disney

The Latin motto on Mr. Toad’s coat of arms is “Toadi Acceleratio Semper Absurda” (A Speeding Toad is Always Absurd).

Guests boarded turn-of-the-last century motorcars individually named for characters in the story. Each vehicle had a quarter horsepower electrical motor drawing power from the rail beneath it.

The Disneyland version was so highly popular that the Imagineers wanted to increase the capacity for the attraction, so unlike the California ride, the Florida ride had two separate tracks and boarding areas. Each track featured some different scenes.

Track One took guests through a library, a rural English barnyard with animals, a courtroom and jail cells with convicts. Track Two allowed guests to view Toad’s trophy room, a kitchen, a gypsy camp, Ratty’s house and Winky’s Tavern.

Both tracks took a spin through the town’s plaza, circling a fountain and eventually ended on railroad tracks where an approaching train sends the vehicle to “Hell”. The guests are greeted by gleeful, little red demons having pitchforks and tails, which was a scene not in the film itself but was included because of Walt Disney’s personal feeling that reckless driving should have consequences. Officially, the scene was labeled the “Inferno Room” referencing Dante’s Inferno.

Maintenance costs were minimal. The attraction could accommodate all ages, sizes, and any health conditions. In addition, the attraction was what was known as a “push-button” ride that could be operated by any Fantasyland attraction cast member with minimal training. However, it was a slow loading attraction and the effects quickly became out-dated.

Winnie the Pooh and his friends were enjoying a huge surge of popularity while guests did not remember the film inspiration for the Mr. Toad attraction at all and there was no Toad merchandise being sold in the park. On the other hand, Pooh related merchandise was selling more than Mickey Mouse and with the addition of an attraction those sales would only increase. With the Toad’s attraction double space there was plenty of room for an attraction and a gift shop. In 1997, Disney announced that a Pooh attraction would replace Toad.

A fan campaign was launched to “Save Toad” headed by John Lefante who urged sending letters and e-mails to the Walt Disney Company by the thousands. That campaign led to actual demonstrations at the attraction called “Toad-Ins” reminiscent of the well-known “sit-ins,” and they garnered media attention. Those reports led to even more supporters, but the attraction still closed as announced.

In the new attraction on the left wall of the scene in Owl’s house, there is a painting of Mr. Toad handing over the deed to the building to Owl and there is also a picture of Mole tipping his hat to Pooh. In the Haunted Mansion pet cemetery, up near the top is the Kevin Kidney Big Fig of Mr. Toad painted to resemble an oxidized, rusting grave marker.

Disneyland Paris was originally meant to have a ride version that would have been truer to the actual film with a different final scene that would have had Toad in a plane. It was never built but a Toad Hall restaurant (with an exterior similar to Disneyland’s revised 1983 attraction) did open.

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Thanks, Jim!  And come back next Friday for more from Jim Korkis!

In the meantime, check out his books, including his latest, Disney Never Lands, about planned but unbuilt concepts, and Secret Stories of Walt Disney World: Things You Never You Never Knew, which reprints much material first written for this site, all published by Theme Park Press.

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DISNEY WORLD NEXT WEEK: SEPTEMBER 5 TO SEPTEMBER 13, 2020

The material below details next week’s Disney World operating hours, Extra Magic Hours, parades, and fireworks.

Things are … a little different… as Disney World re-opens.  See this for park previews and key insights.

OPERATING HOURS AT WALT DISNEY WORLD 9/5-9/13/20

The Magic Kingdom will be open from 9a-7p 9/5 through 9/7, and 9a-6p 9/8 through 9/13

Epcot will be open from 11a-9p 9/5 through 9/7, and 11a-7p 9/8 through 9/13

Disney’s Hollywood Studios will be open from 10a-8p 9/5 through 9/7, and 10a-7p 9/8 through 9/13

Disney’s Animal Kingdom will be open from 8a-6p 9/5 through 9/7, and 9a-5p 9/8 through 9/13

EXTRA MAGIC HOURS AT WALT DISNEY WORLD 9/5-9/13/20

There will be no Extra Magic Hours until further notice.

PARADES AT WALT DISNEY WORLD 9/5-9/13/20

There will be no parades until further notice.

FIREWORKS AND EVENING SHOWS AT WALT DISNEY WORLD 9/5-9/13/20

There will be no evening shows until further notice.

SHOW SCHEDULES FOR WALT DISNEY WORLD 9/5-9/13/20

See Steve Soares’ site here. Click the park names at its top for show schedules.

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REVIEW: VACATION FUN IN THE MICKEY SHORTS THEATER

The Mickey Shorts Theater opened in the space formerly occupied by many attractions—Sounds Dangerous my favorite among them—in Echo Lake near Indiana Jones in Disney’s Hollywood Studios in early 2020.

At the moment it is showing Vacation Fun, a set of excerpts from recent Mickey Mouse shorts such as Potatoland and Amore Motore, collected together into a reasonably coherent montage, with a new ending.

It’s fun, it’s air-conditioned, it’s a place to sit, and perhaps most importantly, for those who have not yet seen the “new” Mickey Mouse animation style, it’s a very helpful stop before going to Mickey and Minnie’s Runaway Railway.

For such folks, seeing Vacation Fun first will keep them from possibly being jarred early at the Railway from the very different animation styles found there.

Also fun are the seats in the Mickey Shorts Theater…

…which are Mickey Shorts!

During the virus, every other row is roped off, and there are also closed spaces between groups of seats.

This is a minor attraction—but Mickey and Minnie’s Runaway Railway is not. For those intending to see the Railway who are not yet familiar with the new Mickey animation style, it is a necessary pre-show.

Some other photos from the attraction:

From the pre-show holding area.

From the post-show exit area.

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Welcome back to Fridays with Jim Korkis! Jim, the dean of Disney historians, writes about Walt Disney World history every Friday on yourfirstvisit.net.

SPLASH MOUNTAIN AND THE PRINCESS AND THE FROG

By Jim Korkis

Many Disney fans, myself included, were taken completely by surprise when the Walt Disney Company announced in June that it would be re-theming Splash Mountain to the animated feature film The Princess and the Frog (2009).

Splash Mountain opened at Disneyland on July 17, 1989 and three years later on July 17, 1992 at Walt Disney World’s Magic Kingdom. It opened at Tokyo Disneyland that same year.

There are some differences among the three in terms of duration, length of flume, and number of drops, although all three tell the same story in a fairly identical layout.

Splash Mountain was created at Disneyland for three business reasons. First, Executive Vice President (basically head of Disney Parks and Resorts) Dick Nunis wanted a water flume ride at the park. Second, a big attraction was needed to draw more attendance to the dead end cul-de-sac known as Bear Country. Third, the America Sings attraction was closing, and this was an opportunity to re-use the audio-animatronics.

It was Imagineer Tony Baxter who found the solution to all three challenges and came up with the idea that it could all be themed to the Disney feature film Song of the South (1946), especially since the audio-animatronics characters had been designed by Marc Davis who had animated similar characters for the problematic film.

Several names were suggested for the attraction including “Song of the South Log Flume Ride”, “Zip-a-Dee-Doo-Dah”, and “Zip-a-Dee River Run.” At one point, CEO Michael Eisner looked at the model and said, “It’s a mountain… you have a big splash at the end… it’s Splash Mountain.”

At Eisner’s insistence, Uncle Remus would not be shown or mentioned in the attraction, for fear of possible controversy. In fact, the ride would just reflect the three animated segments in the film and ignore the live action story and characters.

The attraction loosely follows some of the incidents in the animated sections of the Song of the South film. Brer Rabbit runs away from home and finds himself in more adventures than he intended. He continually outwits Brer Fox and Brer Bear until he is trapped in honey (rather than the politically incorrect Tar Baby in the movie) and taken to Brer Fox’s lair to be eaten.

As in the movie, he convinces Brer Fox to toss him into the spiky Briar Patch, where the plucky rabbit survives because he was born and bred in it and thus is intimately familiar with it. The grand finale has the Oscar-winning “Zip a Dee Doo Dah” song being sung by critters on a massive rocking showboat–one of the show elements not sculpted out of cement to prevent water damage.

At Walt Disney World, the project was turned over to an entirely different team of Imagineers led by Eric Jacobson. There had to be some significant exterior color changes to blend into the Frontierland color scheme (rather than the Georgia-looking red coloring at Disneyland). The ride and the queue are both longer at Magic Kingdom than at Disneyland.

At Walt Disney World, there is a stronger presence of Brer Frog (Uncle Remus’ fishing buddy in the original movie) as a storyteller. The ride vehicles were designed so that guests could ride side-by-side rather than Disneyland’s sitting in a single file like the original Matterhorn bobsleds.

There are significantly more audio-animatronics characters in the Disneyland version because they were rescued from America Sings. In Florida, there are fewer such figures because they were expensive to build.

My favorite Florida addition is the weasel located in the cavern scene, the last scene before the water log reaches the incline for the big drop. He pops out of the ceiling when the water log is approaching Brer Fox and Brer Rabbit,

He shouts “FSU” (Florida State University), although is sounds somewhat like a sneeze, because one of the Imagineers was a graduate of that school. Interestingly, this character was also included in the Tokyo Disneyland version.

For now, the attraction remains open and will probably continue to operate for awhile because of the pandemic.

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Thanks, Jim!  Find more from Jim on the history of this in his Who’s Afraid of The Song of the South?.

And come back next Friday for more from Jim Korkis!

In the meantime, check out his other books, including his latest, Disney Never Lands, and about planned but unbuilt concepts, and Secret Stories of Walt Disney World: Things You Never You Never Knew, which reprints much material first written for this site, all published by Theme Park Press.

Follow yourfirstvisit.net on Facebook or Twitter or Pinterest!!