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Episode 640 of WDW Today is now available for download here.
One-click subscriptions to WDW Today:
    
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Thanks to the hard work done by Bob, Len, Fred and many others, The Unofficial Guide to Walt Disney World 2010 is currently the ninth best selling travel book on Amazon (and as been in the top 100 for 112 days)! And if you take a look at the travel book section right now, you’ll see something really cool: a special feature with two articles from Unofficial Guide author Bob Sehlinger.
Under the headline “Experience the Magic Without the Lines” (see image right), Bob has two special amazon-exclusive articles: Five Unofficial Ways to Prepare For Your Trip to Walt Disney World and Test Your Disney Smarts!, which you’ll have to go to check Amazon to read!
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Len recently made two guest appearances on The Season Pass Podcast, an excellent show on theme parks and attractions hosted Brent Young and Doug Barnes. In early August Len talked all things Unofficial, including the Unofficial Guide to Walt Disney World 2010 and how he got involved with The Guide in the first place. And in an episode just released yesterday, Len joined Brent and Doug to share his vegas stories, including best / worst hotel experiences and the new touring plan additions to the new book. The Unofficial Guide to Las Vegas 2010 is available now–so go check it out!
You can check out the Disney World episode here, and the Vegas episode here. And be sure to visit The Season Pass Podcast and subscribe to it on iTunes.
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Episode 639 of WDW Today is now available for download here.
One-click subscriptions to WDW Today:
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A few weeks ago I started my series on the bathrooms of Walt Disney World. If you missed my first entry you can find it here: Part I: Magic Kingdom.
This week I’d like to turn the focus to my personal favorite park, Epcot. Since Epcot covers so much land, there are lots of restrooms to chose from. Many of them are just run of the mill bathrooms, but there are a few standouts. So here are my favorites and not so favorite restrooms throughout Epcot’s Future World and World Showcase.
Favorites:
Future World near Test Track and Mission: Space: I seem to always need to hit this one before or after taking a spin on one of this area’s attractions. If I’ve taken the 45 minute journey through the Universe of Energy I’ll certainly need to make a stop shortly after. I also usually hit this one as a preventative measure before getting in the long queues for Test Track. Even if we go single rider like we often do, chances are the attraction will break down at least temporarily while we’re waiting. This one is often busy, but usually clean and a regular stop on my tour so it gets the thumbs up. And yes, a photo of the entrance to this bathroom is the wall paper for the exterior screen of my cell phone.
Between Future World and World Showcase at the Odyssey: This bathroom is a hidden gem! Most guests are racing from Future World to World Showcase and never even notice this restroom exists. I’m sure it helps that the Odyssey is only open for special events, but I’m not complaining. I often feel like this is my own private lady’s room! And since it’s rarely used it’s also very clean.
The Germany Pavilion: It’s easy to make a pit stop here while enjoying the World Showcase. Rather than trying to use one of the ones in the WS restaurants, which are always tiny, I hit this one right off the main walk way. My friends can keep busy checking out the train set while I do my business. It’s always a necessity to run over here before Illuminations starts if we are watching it from one of the surrounding countries. It’s also very important to know where the best World Showcase bathrooms are when you’re drinking around the world… Honorable mentions around World Showcase go to the UK and Morocco pavilions.
Least Favorites:
Any Restaurant in World Showcase: Although they are all themed with signs in the appropriate languages and such, they are often too small. There seems to always be a queue for these with very little space to wait. I recommend waiting to use one of the large facilities if you can wait it out.
On the Fence:
The Land Pavilion near Soarin’: This one gets a mixed review because I often have to use it, but its always packed! It’s hard to navigate around all of women (not to mention strollers) in this relatively small bathroom. However, it is convenient to give my traveling mates my park pass and let them deal with the Soarin’ fastpasses while I use powder my nose.
Next week I’ll continue the bathroom series with a look at Disney’s Hollywood Studios offerings…
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Yes, this is little more than another shameless plug to follow us on Twitter. However! With the introduction of Twitter lists, you can now follow a special list of TouringPlans.com / Unofficial Guide team members: http://twitter.com/TouringPlans/team. So come join us on Twitter (or on Facebook) and follow our team as we break down current Walt Disney World news, offer planning advice, broadcast (and receive) wait times from the parks, and play the occasional twitter-inspired game.
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Episode 638 of WDW Today is now available for download here.
One-click subscriptions to WDW Today:
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Not long ago, I was privileged to be a guest on the world famous WDW Today Podcast. I get my WDW news fix three times a week from Matt, Mike, Mike, and Len. The show topic was the design behind the arrival experience at each of the 4 parks. Making a great first impression is one of the hallmarks of the Disney parks. So let’s try and get into the head of the Imagineers and figure out why each entrance is unique but distinctly Disney. If you go to Samland you can see the fully illustrated version of this article.
Welcome to the Disney’s Hollywood Studios (DHS, formerly the Disney-MGM Studios), the “Hollywood that never was – and always will be” as the opening proclamation stated. Welcome to the Disney theme park version 2.0. You have entered one of the most influential parks in the entire Disney Empire.
If Disneyland, the Magic Kingdom, Epcot, Tokyo Disneyland, and Disneyland Paris are directly related, then the Studios set the mold for such parks as Disney’s California Adventure, Hong Kong Disneyland, and Walt Disney Studio’s in Paris. Instead of fully realized, immersive environments, with monstrous budgets, the Studios pointed toward a sort of MBA solution – a just in time theme park. Build it small and quickly add capacity as necessary. This solution has influenced the DHS arrival experience.
DHS was the first park built with a bus system in mind. At both the Magic Kingdom and Epcot, the buses are tucked away at the side. At DHS, the buses are prominent at the entry plaza and the auto-parking shuttle further complicates pedestrians’ access. Toss in a boat dock and you have an orientation that is not true to north south like the other parks. The entry is at an angle which influences the way light and shadows would fall on the park’s “Main Street” wienie – currently the giant hat but formerly Grauman’s Chinese Theater.
Walking through the main gates is a combination of a Hollywood postcard comes to life and a bit of time travel through iconic Los Angeles pieces of architecture. The Imagineers would tap into the collective consciousness of moviegoers and recreate a glamorous dreamlike vision of the Hollywood. They use real Los Angeles buildings the same way the early film companies filmed throughout the southland.
It all starts with the Pan-Pacific Auditorium. This iconic building was Los Angeles primary convention center from 1935 to 1972. In 1989, just 3 weeks after DHS opened, it burnt down in a spectacular fire. This is where all of the big shows, conventions, the circus, and other exhibitions were presented. The Pan-Pacific Auditorium was a wonderful example of Streamline Moderne and originally designed by Walt’s buddy, architect Welton Beckett.
This is the only park in Florida where you can see through the gates. The train, Spaceship Earth, and the Oasis block your vision in the other parks. The one major obstruction is the tribute to the 1936 Crossroads of America building. Throughout Hollywood Boulevard (and continuing Sunset Boulevard) the Imagineers use a tool called shrink and edit to tell a story. In most cases, they take a real life building and change the scale and some of the detail. In the case of the Crossroads building, it is topped by a 5’3” Mickey with one copper ear that works as a lightning rod. The Crossroads of America complex was one of Los Angeles’s first mini-malls.
Tomorrow you will need to go to Samland and we will push through those entry gates and take a look around the entry plaza.
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Park hours, parade schedules, Fantasmic showings and all the other new Disney information is going in the giant TouringPlans.com hopper. A couple turns of the wheel, the push of button and a pinch of salt an we’ll have the updates incorporated into the Crowd Calendar for you.
An early glance shows that some changes to the recommendations for park days may occur based on the new schedules, specifically because of the new Fantasmic showings announced for November and December.
Stay tuned. We’ll post a blog when the final updates are completed.
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Episode 637 of WDW Today is now available for download here.
One-click subscriptions to WDW Today:
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