From Shawn Slater on the Disney Parks Blog: One of the true delights of the recent holiday season at Disney Parks was a special segment during our evening projection show, “The Magic, The Memories and You!” The faces of Cinderella Castle at Magic Kingdom Park and “it’s a small world” at Disneyland park were transformed into gingerbread masterpieces, brightly colored packages and palaces of ice. Well if you enjoyed that, our Creative Entertainment team has another treat in store, just in time for Valentine’s Day! A new show segment is set to debut Feb. 1, inspired by some of the most romantic moments in Disney animation. Cinderella Castle and “it’s a small world” will be covered in red roses for one sequence and turned into a beautiful, star-filled sky for [...]

WDWNT Reporter Adam Roth visited Disney’s Animal Kingdom and Epcot on Friday and has some noteworthy photos to share with us, so let’s take a look: One of the rock arches is being rebuilt in the Oasis Major reconstruction Could we refurb this please? This water fits the theme, but it is disgusting… Waterfalls running at Everest Is this photo from 1971? The steam is still working Well, he moves more than Harold… The new Disney Vacation Club logo is everywhere now On to Epcot where the old Alfredo’s facade is being ripped apart in the long-delayed remodeling of Tutto Italia This makes me want to cry… The quick serve window is open at Via Napoli to accommodate guests Mmmmmm… [...]

One of our WDWNT Reporters visited Disney’s Hollywood Studios earlier tonight to see the one-night-only performance of the “Rock The Night” fireworks spectacular, which turned out to be a slightly altered version of the usual New Year’s Eve show. Enjoy a complete video of the show: The show was an attempt to get guests away from the Magic Kingdom for the day while President Obama visited. Disney’s Hollywood Studios would typically run Fantasmic! in this situation, but it is currently under refurbishment, so running this show was the only other option. Guests seemed to have a great time, so I would deem this a very successful temporary replacement.

While the new Disney Vacation Planning DVD didn’t offer much new information on New Fantasyland, there was one interesting piece of concept art and a new description for one of the smaller additions: “The Casey Jr. water play area will feature water squirting from playful monkeys, elephants, and camels as Casey lets off billows of nice, cool steam.” From the look of the concept art provided, guests will get to pose for photos with Casey Jr. in the midst of a wild water play area. While it may not be an E-ticket, the attention to character detail shown in the concept art has us pretty excited for this little corner of Storybook Circus.      

Something HUGE is going to happen at Walt Disney World this week and in response Disney is preparing with some major entertainment changes. The following information was sent to cast members today: Due to an event this week, please ensure Cast Members are aware of the information attached regarding updated operating information for this week. Note that updated Guest collateral will be delivered to operational areas beginning Tuesday evening, Jan. 17. In addition, an in-room letter is being placed in occupied Disney Resort Guest rooms starting tomorrow morning. Channel 19 (on in-room TVs) will be updated daily to reflect these changes. The changes are for Thursday, January 19th and they are pretty significant. First off, Disney’s Hollywood Studios will be running a [...]

WDWNT Reporter Josh Siegel visited the Magic Kingdom on Sunday to complete his Sorcerers of the Magic Kingdom quest and he took some newsworthy photos from his trip to share with us: Pain and Panic disguised as happy woodland creatures DEFEATED! Merlin has statues of all of the villains Hades has another challenge for us… Chernabog! Time to rest after defeating all of the villains Ooooooo, a badge! Hades isn’t happy He’s trapped… All of the Villains are stuck in a snowglobe Progress on the old Dumbo Mostly intact still The Castle Wall waits to grow over this plot The construction site is still a bit messy The stroller parking situation is getting bad Work ont turning the Skyway into [...]

WDWNT Reporter Josh Siegel visited the Magic Kingdom on Thursday and has a ton of newsworthy photos to share with us, so let’s take a look: Sorcerers of the Magic Kingdom was testing There is a window at the head of the queue area to give guests more info It is still a fire station, just with three added Sorcerers stations WDWFD used instead of the customary MKFD Package Pick-up/Chamber of Commerce behind tarps Pooh and Tigger now greeting guests in the garden New flowers planted for the season Roy and Minnie await the move back to Town Square Some of the Confectionary and The Chapeau facades behind tarps Sign pointing guests to character FASTPASS Waits are short This will [...]

WDWNT Reporter Adam Roth had the chance to test drive the new Exotic Driving Experience at the Walt Disney World Speedway earlier today during a media event. The experience is set to officially debut on Monday, January 16th, but we’re providing an early look for those of you interested. We’ll start off with a video of Adam driving the Lamborghini SuperLeggera on the added modified course: The walls are decorated to promote the new offering in the briefing room The briefing room is now shared for both experiences Professional racer Christian Fittipaldi talking to the media Gary gave details about each car and the track layout The cars were then put into a hat and drawn at random to be [...]