The Animal Kingdom Paroon shark catfish is often overlooked in his little channel near the Tree of Life. It’s time we gave him some love.
Who Needs American Idol?
The original Disney MGM Studios had a location to showcase guests’ musical performance skills long before Ryan Seacrest showed up, and I’m not talking about SuperStar Television. It was a shop of sorts, very similar to those photo booths where they will green screen your head onto a movie poster. Only in this case, you […]
Mount Rushmore of Disney World
The Disney company is always willing to exploit old characters in new mediums, so it’s a surprise to learn that of all the characters and personalities on property, only four are actually duplicated as Animatronic figures in different attractions. I’m talking strictly animatronics here. For instance, Nemo appears in several attractions, but only as a […]
Muppet Lockers
The Stage 1 Company Store near the exit to MuppetVision is riddled with gags and in-jokes, just like the 3D theater. But oftentimes it’s easy to overlook some of the nice touches hidden in the clutter. For instance, as you enter through the door pictured on the left, you pass through what is ostensibly a […]
Adventureland Veranda Uncovered
Crowds have been extremely high this holiday season, and one of the byproducts of the crushing masses is that Disney will occasionally get desperate enough to open up areas that were previously off-limits. By sheer chance, I had the opportunity to set foot in one of the Magic Kingdom’s oldest and most dormant spaces yesterday. […]
Where Can I Find the Jurassic Park Ride at Disney?
Guests often want to know where they can find Jurassic Park the Ride in a Disney theme park. And they’re often surprised when they can’t. Universal Studios owns Jurassic Park the Ride. Their version in Universal Studios Hollywood even took potshots at Disney in the form of disembodied Mickey Mouse ears floating ominously in the […]
Does the Original Star Tours Break the Star Wars Canon Timeline?
Star Tours is one of those rare Disney attractions based on a property owned by someone else. George Lucas officially sanctioned the ride — and with this level of detail, there’s no doubt Lucasfilm opened the archives to the Imagineers for reference. They scrutinized costumes, painstakingly recreated props, and hired original actors like Anthony Daniels […]
Hands-On Animation
Almost everyone who passes through the gates at Disney’s Hollywood Studios is familiar with the celebrity hands-in-cement that grace the courtyard of the Chinese Theater, right at the entrance to the Great Movie Ride. But most guests don’t know that there is another courtyard honoring some of the greatest actors in movie history. This courtyard […]
Hack Your Speedway Wait Time
The puttering little cars of Tomorrowland Speedway is notorious for its slow-loading passenger turnaround. CMs have to manually move each car up to a station, make sure the next driver is buckled in, and then flag them on their way. It can add up to an interminable wait in line. However, there is one hack […]