Dan@Disney

For the first time in a long time, I finally had 2 days off this week. The first was spent mostly in a taxi to and from UPS near the airport to collect the TV that G and I bought on Black Friday and which they tried to deliver 3 times when neither of us were home. The second was more exciting as it was the grand reveal of New Fantasyland at the Magic Kingdom. Despite asking around the pavilion nobody else was as much of a keeno as me and prepared to get up at 7am on their day off to go watch it.

I arrived at about 8.15 and the park was already allowing people in. I went straight to the hub and managed to secure a spot fairly close to the front, just behind the area reserved for the media. It was a long wait until 10am when the show finally started. They moved us forward a little once all of the media was in place and I managed to end up behind a fairly tall guy which made my view a little more restricted but I could still see most of what was going on.

The show started with a royal announcer coming on stage to much fanfare and announcing that the master of ceremonies would be Ginnifer Goodwin who plays Snow White on ABC’s Once Upon A Time. Disney were obviously playing to the modern day princess theme. She then introduced Jordin Sparks who sang a medley of Disney Songs from the movies featured in the New Fantasyland area and was joined by characters, including Dumbo who never show up!

Tom Staggs, Head of Walt Disney Parks and Resorts then came on stage with Mickey Mouse to speak to the crowd before Ginnifer read the dedication and New Fantasyland was officially revealed with much confetti, pyrotechnics and banner unfurling. After the show I went up to New Fantasyland to find it incredibly crowded with media and guests trying to try out the new attractions.

The wait times were crazy so I ended up bailing out and meeting Catherine. We did a few MK attractions before heading over to the Studios to try the, also newly unveiled  Jack Sparrow attraction which was awesome. It should really be a lot more popular than it is. The attraction is based on projections that immerse guests in the world of Jack Sparrow and they come face to face with many of his adversaries. The projections used are some of the best I have seen – I only wish some of this technology had found its way in to New Fantasyland. The quality blows a lot of the stuff in the mermaid ride out of the water – no pun intended!

Since then it has been back to work with some very tiring days on podium as the restaurant continues to get busy in the run up to the Holidays. On Wednesday a large group of UKs are heading to Hoop Dee Doo which is what I am really looking forward to at the moment and what is getting me through the craziness of Silly Season at work.