Today, at the D23 Expo, Disney announced several new additions to their parks. One of these new additions will be new Star Wars Experiences in Disneyland’s Tomorrowland and Walt Disney World’s Hollywood Studios parks.
The first new experience will be a “Star Wars Launch Bay” attraction. This will be a meet and greet style ride where guests will meet their favorite Star Wars characters. The Star Wars Launch Bay will also be featured in the new Shanghai Disneyland’s Tomorrowland when the park opens in 2016.
Another new Star Wars experience will be a new scenario on the popular “Star Tours – The Adventures Continue” rides. Both of these parks have this simulator ride, which features around fifty ride experiences. This new scenario will be added to these ride experiences and will be themed to the new Star Wars movie, which will premier in December.
The final experience will be the “Season of the Force” event. This will be a limited time event at both of these parks. It will be an extension of the popular “Star Wars Weekends” event, which currently occurs in these parks. There will be new restaurants, shopping, and more at this special experience. In Disneyland’s Tomorrowland, the Space Mountain roller coaster will become “Hyperspace Mountain” temporarily to celebrate Star Wars. For Hollywood Studios, there will be a new Star Wars firework spectacular coming. This short experience will begin in early 2016!
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Today, at the 2015 D23 Expo, one of the most heavily rumored lands in Disney history was finally announced, Star Wars Land. This brand new land will be coming to the Disneyland and Disney’s Hollywood Studios parks.
This new themed land will be at a size of 14 acres. It will be the largest single-land expansion for the Disney parks.
The land will feature two new attractions. One of these attractions will “put you in a battle between the new order and the resistance.” Another attraction will allow you to control the famous Millennium Falcon ship.
These two new lands are exciting new additions for the Florida and California parks, which will hopefully immerse guests in one of the most popular movies of all time.
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Today, Disney’s annual D23 expo has some major announcements for the parks! One of these announcements is the all new Toy Story Land, which will be coming to Disney’s Hollywood Studios.
This new expansion will add two new attractions and will expand the existing Pixar Place section of the park.
One of the new attractions will be a new roller coaster. The family friendly ride will twist you around the course in slinky dog themed cars. It sounds like it will be a fun attraction.
Another addition will be an Alien Saucers attraction. The famous three-eyed aliens will appear in this ride, which will let families travel in their own flying saucers. This attraction should help Hollywood studios appeal to a younger demographic, which is one that is currently neglected at the thrill-heavy park.
The final expansion will be adding a much needed third track to the extremely popular “Toy Story Midway Mania” attraction. This ride has one of the longest waits of any ride at the Disney parks, and this should help shorten the wait.
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Six Flags Great Adventure is by far the best Six Flags park that I’ve been to! It has some great coasters such as El Toro, the airtime filled INTAMIN woodie as seen above, and Nitro, an amazing B&M hypercoaster. They are also home to Kingda Ka (the giant green roller coaster in the background), the world’s tallest roller coaster (until Skyplex comes in 2017) and Zumanjaro, the world’s tallest drop tower (on the front of Kingda Ka, it isn’t in this picture). It’s a great park, but the theming isn’t as good as other parks! I strongly recommend visiting this park!
Universal Studios Orlando is home to rides from The Simpsons, Despicable Me, Harry Potter, and so much more! This is one of my favorite parks! It provides thrills through what has become a decent amount of thrill rides, but I like some other parks just a little bit more. If you are in Orlando, you have to go to Universal!
#8-Busch Gardens Williamsburg
Busch Gardens Williamsburg is home to some amazing B&Ms! The one in the video (Scroll Down for Subscription Link) above is The Griffon, their B&M Dive Machine! The park also has Apollo’s Chariot, an awesome B&M hypercoaster, and Verbolten, not a B&M, but a great Zierer ride for the whole family with the only vertical drop on a roller coaster in the United States. This park is a hybrid on theming and thrills, which is what I love in a park. It has some of the best theme park landscaping around!
Busch Gardens loves B&Ms! This park is home to Sheikra, Kumba, and Montu, three amazing and powerful B&Ms! On top of that, they have some INTAMIN glory in the Flying Drop tower Falcon’s Fury, and the ride for everyone to enjoy, Cheetah Hunt! This park has a great Safari, some great coasters, and some good landscaping. The theming is relatively good, like its sister park in Williamsburg. Definitely head over to this park from next time you are in Florida!
#6-Kings Dominion in Doswell, Virginia
Kings Dominion gets points for being my home park! I love I-305 and Volcano, Oh the INTAMIN glory of this park! You can’t forget a ride on Dominator, the B&M floorless coaster, and of course the classic, Premier Rides built, Flight of Fear. Kings Dominion is not the best park by any means, but it is a great local park, it definitely is the best in the region!
#5-EPCOT at Walt Disney World in Orlando, Florida
EPCOT, or the Experimental Prototype Community of Tomorrow was Walt Disney’s biggest dream. Unfortunately, it was nothing like he planned it to be. He planned it as the sprawling city of the future, with what was actually built as its centerpiece. EPCOT is a permanent world’s fair, not the city of tomorrow. Fortunately for us, EPCOT has some great thrill rides, like Test Track, and some awesome family rides like SOARIN! This park has beautiful theming throughout, and delicious food, especially in the world showcase!
#4-Magic Kingdom at Walt Disney World in Orlando, Florida
The Magic Kingdom is the most visited theme park on earth for a reason. It is one of the most well themed parks on Earth, with a wide array of classic and modern attractions such as Space Mountain, the Jungle Cruise, It’s a Small World, the Haunted Mansion, The Seven Dwarfs Mine Train, and countless others! The Magic Kingdom is great for every age, from 1 to 100, the headline park of Walt Disney World is fantastic!
#3-Hollywood Studios at Walt Disney World in Orlando, Florida
Disney’s Hollywood Studios is the last Disney park on the list, but I want to give an honorable mention to the Animal Kingdom, it needs some more rides to be great. Hollywood Studios is a park in transition, there are so many rides closed in this park. I can’t wait to see what the transition will bring to this park. Even with the closures, this is my favorite Disney park, because it has theming and thrills! From The Twilight Zone Tower of Terror, the best drop tower that I’ve been on, to Rock n’ Roller Coaster, which has some awesome Aerosmith music, to Toy Story Midway Mania, the fun family shooter, Hollywood Studios is jam packed with some of the best rides in the country! This park is worth your time while you are in Orlando!
#2-Islands of Adventure at the Universal Orlando Resort in Orlando, Florida
I love Islands of Adventure, they have a bit of everything! It is the best place to find thrills and theming combined together! From the Marvel Universe, to Jurassic Park, and Harry Potter, this park has it all! It has some great dark rides like Spiderman and The Forbidden Journey, it has the family friendly Dr. Seuss and Toon Lagoon areas of the park, and three amazing B&M coasters (Dragon Challenge is two roller coasters)! This is by far the best mix of theming and amazing thrills that I know!
The Thrill Capital of the world is home to Millennium Force, the number one roller coaster on earth, Maverick, the insane INTAMIN Blitz, Gatekeeper, an awesome B&M WingRider, and so many more insane coasters! This park pushes the boundaries of roller coasters, they were the ones who started the Coaster Wars! It may not have too much theming, but this is by far my favorite park because of the insane thrills of this glorious park!
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That’s right, the five best gift shops! This article is for those of you who crave awesome Disney merchandise and other cool stuff. The five shops on the list either have great variety or completely unique merchandise! There are so many great gift shops at Walt Disney World that it’s impossible to include them all, so I have compiled a list of some of the best. I have an honorable mention for The Art of Disney in EPCOT and everything in the World Showcase, they are the best shops! If you have a gift shop you like a lot, tell us in the comments or tell us on Social Media, we love to hear your opinion!
#5-Ye Olde Christmas Shoppe in The Magic Kingdom isn’t big, but they stick to a fun holiday theme! We love the ornaments that are sold in that store! It’s simply a fun, themed store.
#4-Main Street Emporium is great when you’re trying to find awesome Disney clothes, and nearly every piece of merchandise, in the Magic Kingdom. Although, some other stores are better in our opinion, but not in the Magic Kingdom!
#3-Mitsukoshi Department Store in EPCOT is our favorite in the world showcase. It’s HUGE, it’s definitely a department store! It has everything from Japanese foods to Pokemon. You can find everything Japanese in this store!
#2-The Contemporary Hotel Gift Shops are a couple of gift shops at one end of the contemporary. You can find a lot of various Disney items in these stores. The two stores offer a large selection of objects that make them some of the best stores. I recommend stopping here on your way out of the Magic Kingdom!
#1-Mouse Gear is so large that it needs a map. It’s located right in the center of EPCOT and has everything you can think of related to Disney! It’s the largest gift shop that we know of at Walt Disney World. This is an urgent stop on any visit to EPCOT for us!
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Yesterday was five underrated Disney Attractions, today is five overrated Disney Attractions! These attractions are rides that I feel either are bad and Disney titles them as amazing, or good with lines that are way too long! I have an honorable mention for the Seven Dwarfs Mine Train. The Mine Train is a great ride, but you need to do it early, late, or with a FastPass. Do not wait in the ninety minute plus long lines! *These lines are part of the “new-ride buzz” and should die down eventually!
#5-Peter Pan’s Flight is a classic Disney attraction where you fly over scenes from the story of Peter Pan. It’s good for children and is a slow moving ride, but it often gets waits of an hour or more. Peter Pan’s Flight is fun, but don’t do it if it’s an hour long wait, wait for a five minute line instead, which occasionally happens)!
Peter Pan’s Flight is not worth the wait! Shoutout to the iPad Camera over there!
#4-Toy Story Midway Mania is one of my favorite rides at Disney, but its lines are unbearable. I waited at least an hour and a half for this in the off season before they closed down half of Hollywood Studios. I recommend this ride, but get a FastPass! For the lady that was in front of us, the line was so long that she needed to lay down on the floor and use her Samsung Phone/Tablet.
The talking Mr. Potato Head is the only thing that keeps you sane at Toy Story Midway Mania!
#3-SOARIN’ is yet another of one of my favorite rides, but the lines are yet again unbearable! We waited forty-five minutes, and that was barely worth it. Do not ride this when the lines are long, it’s not worth it!
The sign saying “Now Taking Flight from The Land” should be changed to “Taking flight after being delayed 2+ Hours!”
#2-Dinosaur! gets good reviews from most, but it’s awful. It doesn’t get long lines, but it is flat out terrible. It stopped three or four times during our ride, in the dark, until they had to evacuate us. The people behind us were saying, “not again” as if they had been stuck on it before! This ride is terrible, go ride Expedition Everest instead! The only good thing about this ride is that it got me a free any-ride fast pass! Thanks Dinosaur, for getting me onto Everest faster!
This is where we got stuck, going downhill under the giant dinosaur. At least it didn’t constantly roar at us!
#1-Mission Space is a great achievement according to some of the Imagineers, but it is overrated. I wouldn’t wait an hour for this like many do. It’s a themed centrifuge. I’ll admit that it is intense and feels like you are in a rocket, but it just isn’t that good. If they give you a barf bag, it can’t be good!
It may look pretty and fancy, but Mission Space is terrible!
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Hello everyone! We’re back with another blog post! Recently, we visited Walt Disney World and Orlando for our winter vacation, and here’s what happened!
Day #1- Plane rides and Hollywood Studios!
After a flight from DC to Orlando, we hopped on the Magical Express bus to the Polynesian Village Resort at Walt Disney World. We quickly settled into the room, I grabbed the cameras and we were off to Hollywood studios via the Disney Transport Bus.
Another look at the awesome lights!
Keeping with the Disney spirit, the Christmas tree was beautiful in the Polynesian lobby.
The pool was undergoing construction, but they gave us free Blizzard Beach tickets! Unfortunately, we didn’tt have time to visit the waterpark.
We arrived in Orlando in the late afternoon, so we had to move or ditch one of our FastPasses. We bumped back Star Tours, but it had a short wait, so we did it after Tower of Terror, the best drop tower of all time (and the only one I’ve ever enjoyed)!
After a quick bus ride, we were at the Studios Park, which barely ever hosted productions.
This view looks a lot different today! The Chinese theatre is poking through, and I wonder what it’l be like in a few weeks!
I actually will miss the hat! The Chinese theatre is still poking through!
The Tower of Terror could be my favorite Disney ride. It was my first time on it, and what I realized is that the seatbelt really makes it a different, better ride experience than the average drop tower! Must be the Disney Magic!
I’m not a drop tower person, and I LOVED Tower of Terror. I’m not a simulator person, and I LOVED Star Tours: The Adventure Continues as I rode it for the first time that day. I have only liked a few simulators ever-The Simpsons Ride at Universal, Minion Mayhem at Universal, and now Star Tours!
Since it was dark by the time we reached it, my camera couldn’t take any good photos, so here’s Star Tours! The simulators have thousands of different ride experiences built in so each ride is different as you cruise with the Star Wars characters. Overall it’s a fantastic ride!
After Star Tours was Muppet Vision 3D! Muppet Vision 3D was created due to a lack of attractions at Hollywood Studios upon opening, and competition with Universal Studios Orlando which boasted 30 attractions upon opening. The ride is a 3D film (with some great 3D) that takes place in Muppet Labs and has a fun story tied into it.
While I may not have been able to get a good picture of the ride, the great family ride has a giant Kermit the Frog on top (as shown here from Streets of America)
Here’s the Streets of America. Isn’t it so amazing looking!
The Streets of America were decorated with some of the most impressive lights I’ve ever seen. The lights flash on and off in a musical “show” for Christmas. Be on the lookout for the hidden Mickeys. *Cough The Earth *Cough.
The only Rock N’ Roller Coaster picture I got (from earlier in the day). I love this ride! This is one of the best Vekomas you can find on Earth! It’s just a fun launch into some great inversions with awesome Aerosmith music playing!
After our afternoon in Hollywood studios, we went back to the Polynesian and ate a delicious dinner at the Kona Cafe. The food was delicious and several say it has the best sushi at Disney. I recommend seafood while eating at this restaurant. So this is the end of Day 1 for A Very Disney Christmas! Stay tuned for Parts 2 and 3 coming soon! Be sure to follow the blog here today and follow us on the other social media sites! Thank you for reading!
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