Mousekingdom Blog

It is something of funny to think that Fantasmic opened in Disneyland on May 13th 1992, just 1 month after the April 12th 1992 opening date of EuroDisney (as it was then called).

Disneyland Paris has always been considered “the most beautoifull Magic Kingdom style park”, it might have the best versions of Pirates, the Mansion (Manor in Paris), Thunder mountain, Spaice Mountain and the most magical castle but, due to both financial and logisitcal problems its never had a complete nightime offering.

Sure every summer a fireworks show (“Tinkerbells Fantasy in the sky”, then “Wishes” in 2005 and then “The Enchanted Firworks” used to light up the sky as well as the Main street Electrical parade (the WDW version from 1992 till 2003) and then Fantillusions (from Tokyo) roamed down the street in summer and for the christmas season

Yet Paris never had a show stopping amazing night time spectacle to Rival Disneyland’s Fantasmic, Epcots Illuminations and the similar offerings around the world.

Now it has!

And it might jst have the most magical, amazing, heart moving speactacle of them all “Disney DREAMS”.

I had the luck of being invited to the Press event this saturday 31st of March by the creative mind behind the show; Steve Davison, and having chatted with his team I have to admit I am impressed by what was done and what stakes where up around this baby.

Sayre Wiseman (executive Producer), Steve Davison (Director), Sandra Halloran, Chuck Davis Thom Erbentraut, Brian Larsh, Kris Murray(technical experts) and Katy Harris (VP of entertainment in Paris and the person who acted as link between the California team and the Paris team) with all their collaborators worked wonders on this show.

A ton of new animation was created for the show and Steven Davison asked Dave Bossert (of Roger Rabbit, Mermaid, Beauty and the beast etc) fame to direct the many new scenes and moments which are needed to tell the story of Peter Pan’s shadow escaping and spilling all the magic of the Second star to the right into the Paris night.

And from that simple statement starts the magic….a spine chilling, heart moving 19 minutes of pure Disney Magic in the Paris night.

We are treated to a moving spectacle of projections (think “the magic the Memories and you” only plussed) on the castle with perfectly timed fireworks amazing LED specactles (the castle has all been re planted with lights and fiberoptics) fire (12 flame throwers on all sides of the castle) as well as water fountains and screens (of World of colour type).

This is where as a Disney fan I had the feeling the DREAMS team overdid themsleves- they took everything they learnt in the 20 years since Fantasmic! And placed it all together in a moving a perfectly fitting story.

If the main critizisem to World of Color was “there no story” (but again- its a different show and with a different spectacular feeling to it) here nobody could ever say such a thing as the whole specacle moves on a tight rythm to tell an amazing story of a shadow escaping into a world of DREAMS.

The event was played very well by the Paris team; the organised a gala dinner in the Disney Village event tent where Imagineering and Disney heads where present as well as actors, football players and personalities.

Actors such as Salma Hayek and Jean Reno where present, and so was ex French football player Zinedine Zidane (who did an openign speach to the EuroDisney company president Philippe Gas) as well as 2000 invited guests, journalists and representatives from the fan base.

Imagineering was present with President Bruce Vaughn, VP Tony Baxter (who managed the EuroDisneyland creation 20 years ago), present DLP creative head Tom Fitzgerald as well as the DREAMS Team as mentioned above of the legendary Steve Davison and the sweet Katy Harris with their team.

From the gala dinner the guests where moved down Disney Village and into Disneyland Paris in a “follow the light” ceremony where Cast Memembers greated guests along main street waiving led flags along the Baroque howdown music.

Along Town Square where the very same Tigger, Genie, Lumier and Sebastien giant light puppets which where used during the world of color premier event –a nice and fitting touch.

Then guests waitied in Town Square for a speach by EuroDisney SCA (the company running the parks) Philippe Gas- speach which was centered around the 20 year history of the resort with videos playing of the construction of the park and the main attractiions therefore culminating in how important DREAMS will be to the resort since it will re position the night time offering and way the guests will experience their Disneyland Paris visit.

From their everyone was invited onto Central plaza and at 22:34pm the second star to the right started shinning and flooding with its magic light the Disneyland Paris sky…..magically Peter Pan and Wendy appeared on water screens to tell their story of light, fireworks, water fountains, projections, images and music.

It was pure Disney magic

It was a just like a dream

It was Disney DREAMS

Today was Harry Potter day. No, I am not a fan and haven’t even seen all of the movies (only two so far), but we are planning a Potter marathon in the near future to catch up. We left to Universal very early in the morning to make sure we would be there before the big crowds. Well, even with another 30 minutes to go before opening there was already a big queue at the gates of islands of adventures. Got ourselves the 2 park tickets and the VIP passes to avoid queue-ing (Have I already mentioned that I don’t like queues?). We knew that Harry Potter  and the Forbidden Journey was going to be a queue, but at least we would be able to walk on to the rest of the attraction. And i can only say I was happy we got them as otherwise me might not have done as much as we did. But I am going to fast, let’s start at the beginning.

Harry Potter queue was a good hour and they used most of the outside queue area already to have to line moving. But it was worth it. This attraction is amazing! The ride system, the scenes, everything! And the experience already starts in the queue area. What a beautiful amazing area. It might have taken us an hour but it sure didn’t feel like it. The attraction itself is awesome. This is the future! The Kuka robot arms on a track, the 3D scenes with the amazing scenes build around it. I have no words!… Disney, wake up because they are taking some of the magic and starting to use it in their parks. I already was a IoA fan, but Potter will get me back there again and again. (I don’t want to even think what the expansion will bring and the new rides at Universal Studios (replacing Jaws) will do for the park. Next time i might have to miss two days of Disney to see it all.

Read the rest of this entry »

FastPass has been part of a Walt Disney World visit since years. You get your FastPass for the attraction you want to visit and then you enjoy the rest of the park until it’s time to return on the designated time printed on the ticket without the long queue. There are, however, some changes coming our way. The rumour has been out for a while but now it looks like the Disney company is preparing their cast Members to enforce a new rule. While it was normal to stop people to enter an attraction before their time frame started it was also custom to let anybody on with a FastPass that already expired. (As long as it was for that day). 

With the new rules in place however, this will no longer be possible. According to the rumours FastPasses will no longer be accepted after their time frame. There might be a 15 minute window after the printed time, but once that has past the ticket will no longer be valid.

The other change might be that they will also open a small early window for those arriving 5 minutes before their FastPass printed time. This might help to get rid of the blockage in front of a FastPass entry by those turning up a little early and where asked to wait. Will it works? Only time will tell.

(via screamscape)

It has been a while since we talked about the Disney fan with the hundreds of Disney tattoos on his body. Tattoos, according to the latest update, he wanted to have removed since he found a new love. While never really being a big fan of all the tattoos, I can’t help myself to marvel at them. They are pieces of art (in some cases) and, depending on the canvas, can even be a little bit sexy.

How about this Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs tattoo on the back of Annfaye Kao, a girl from Taiwan? It took the artist Ping three months to create this brother Grimm and Disney classic. Like I said, not a big fan of tattoos, bit this one is eye candy. To protect innocent eyes I only added a link to the little more sexy pictures of the model.

Why did I put day 15 in two parts? Well, I wanted to have the morning sun pictures from Vero Beach stand out without anything else. Didn’t see them yet? Scroll down and have a look. After that come back to read the next part of our trip.

Today we drove back to Want Disney World, checking in at Disney’s Old Key West (another “welcome home”) and would start our last 5 days of the trip. No, not complaining, still five days to go, but I couldn’t help thinking about it while checking in. It was crazy busy at Old Key West. A big queue at the check in and we had to wait a little while. We did had some problems on our first days at old Key West with 4 times chancing keys and problems with the pay option on our card forcing us to get another key. We did tell them we weren’t happy when we left and where promised a couple of special FastPasses on our next check in. So, once we got checked in we got 3 FastPasses that we could use in any park at any time. That was a nice little extra!

With the room not yet ready we decided to go and wander around Downtown Disney for a while. I still needed the special Annual Pass Orange Bird Vinylmation and I thought it would be a good idea to get it now. We got a small bite to eat before heading back to check into our room.

This time we got a slightly bigger studio. The studios at old Key West are not always the same and depending on what studio you get, you might have some more space. We were happy with it couldn’t help comparing the small Studio we got at Vero Beach. One we got everything in the room we made our way to our favourite park, Epcot. Here we used our first special fastPass and went straight on Test Track. It remains a favourite of ours, and we can only hope the rehab will do it proud. With a busy park (and not liking to queue) we did some of the smaller rides. So we got to see Nemo and his friends, visit Figment and got ourselves a nice helping of free drinks. (No, not Beverly). After that we wandered around the different countries and ended up in Japan for a quick bite while listening to de drums.

Always love Japan and for some reason get stuck there for longer than we are in most other countries. Still, we did make it out of Japan and walk towards Norway to see some Trolls. Well, with a queue all the way outside the building (and like I said before, we don’t like queue’s and there is always another day) we walked on to see if Donald had some room in his boats at Mexico. Look at that, no queue, so we could do another ride before we went for some shopping. My son found himself an amazing Pirates skeleton jacket we just had to buy. A nice finisher for yet another fantastic Disney day.

But I couldn’t go back to the room yet. I needed to stop at Olivia’s in Old Key West because I was graving for their awesome cheesecake. Got myself a nice piece of cake and a hot chocolate before we walked back to our room near Turtle Pond to call it a night.

How about that for a view? Yes, you got to get up before 6am, but it is worth it. I can’t go to Disney’s Vero Beach and not see this at least once. If you go to Vero Beach, you have to get up and witness it for yourself. Beautiful!….

You know when you go to Vero Beach you have to swim in the sea. And so we did! The nice thing about this beach is how quiet it is. Only a couple of dozen people are on the beach. Really not to bad and it feels like a private place. (Last time I was there in the summer it was about the same). A real gem if you like your luxury, but also like a quiet place to relax too.

We did also get some more pool time and a whole lot of relaxing time and a nice dinner at Shutters. It was our last full day at Disney’s Vero Beach and we wanted to make sure we would be fully relaxed before getting back to Walt Disney World.

Didn’t take any pictures today, but just check out the next day for some fantastic scenes you get to see when you get up early in the morning at Vero Beach…

Are you a Disney fan and can’t stop talking about the parks? Always sharing everything you know to those that want to listen? Are you, day in and day out, sharing your love for the park to everyone? But it’s still not enough and you want to share even more. Well, then you should have a look at the new Disney program where Disney fans can share their knowledge with the rest of the world as a member of the Disney parks InsidEARS project.

Disney fans like you and me can become part of the program to help Disney park visitors from all over to create their perfect trip. What better place to get your tips from then from those enthusiasts that visit the parks again and again.

The program has just been launched and is still in testing phase, but with a new site up it will not be long before the first Disney Parks InsidEARS will start helping spreading the magic.  To be able to become part of this program you will have to visit their website regularly for updates to find out on how to become part of this. Sounds like fun, something most of us Disney fans would love (and already do a lot). We never get tired of talking about the parks, don’t you agree?

More info on the Disney Parks InsidEARS website.

Picture copyrights Disney

Waking up to the sound of the ocean, there is nothing better than that. (to be honest, we do have to step out of the room to hear it… but still). I had to have a swim in the sea (even if there is a shark warning), so I made sure I could scrap that of my “things to do at Disney’s Vero Beach” list. It wasn’t the warmest of days, but that didn’t stop me. Nice waves and great fun to jump into them. You can feel the strong current pulling at you, but that’s part of the fun.

After the cold sea it was time for the warmer pool. Sure felt a whole lot of different, even if the pool isn’t that hot. We did catch a little sun before we went over to the mall at Vero Beach.

The mall was nothing special and not worth a visit, however I did find a great book at the book store. It was the “Comic-Con: Episode IV: a Fans Hope” book. I am a big comic fan (always loved the fact that Disney bought Marvel) and have been at this con so it was nice to see some of it back in this book. All pictures of fans at the con with some pictures of celebrities and panels. Fun book! We didn’t stay to long, it was going to be party time later on.

We had a nice home-made dinner in the room (as in sandwiches), before going to the party at the poolside. They played your average party music that most people know and sing along to. Nothing special. The fun part was at midnight though. Just before the New Year the DJ send everybody to pool side. 95% of the people had their regular clothing on, but they all knew what was coming. Then, 10 seconds before New Year the countdown started. 10-9-8-7-6-5-4-3-2-JUMP… Everybody jumped in the pool to celebrate the New Year. This was so much fun. Such a simple idea, but I and my son loved it.

It was also a very clever way to celebrate as many people now had to go to their room to change. The party was pretty much over after that as most people left. Didn’t really matter as it was a perfect way to get into the New Year. My son said “I jumped up in 2011 and landed in 2012”…

… or, as he already comes from Paris, re-locating to a new home at the Walt Disney Studios as it looks like the Ratatouille dark ride attractions is ready to get build.

Disney did not announce anything official but a building permit is up and it looks like nothing can stop the rat now!

For more in dept information visit DLP.Info news section, where we will follow up on the construction in the coming months and years.

So we have the sea and we have the sun. What does that add up too? That’s right; a whole lot of relaxing fun. As you can see a Disney holiday doesn’t always have to be running from one ride to another (not that this is possible at Vero Beach), it can be just as fun enjoying the pool and the weather. It’s pretty much all we did this day.

In the late afternoon we did get to wander around a little bit to enjoy the wonderful view of the ocean. It’s like a beautiful dream you don’t want to stop. I did do some picture taking and just love the sign with all the Disney vacation Club locations. It’s these things that make Disney just that little more special than any other location.

In the evening we went to Sonya’s, the upscale restaurant at the resort. Nice menu and it wasn’t easy to pick something as there were a couple of good things on there. After talking the waiter and asking for some advice I finally went for the scallops and it was amazing. We had a great seating area to. At the back where there are only about 5 tables. Very nice place to eat and I highly recommend it.

I’ll leave it with this short update for this day and let you enjoy the sights on some of the pictures. Be back for more, especially to read how to celebrate New Year eve at Disney’s Vero Beach.

We got to sleep a little longer today as we would get a private ride to Vero Beach at 11am. So started to pack at 9:45am, packed at 10:15am and ready to go. (No time wasting on packing). The trip was about 90 minutes with not much to see or do. However I am always amazed how much more room there is in and around the Orlando area. Still so much green, and that’s nice to see.

90 minutes later and ready to check in. I just love hearing it; “welcome home”. We got ourselves a studio as that’s all we need, however we were a little disappointed. We had an amazing room last time (in the main building), with two beds, big bathroom and enough room to manoeuvre but with a parking lot view. This time we had a room in one of the other buildings and it was small. Only one bed, a pull out sofa and no room for our 3 suitcases. While the room isn’t that important, it would have been nice to have a slightly bigger room. I think there are bigger studios and we just got an unlucky small one.

It wasn’t going to stop us from having fun so we made sure to get changed and get some sun. This pool is so nice, love how it’s done and it has a very nice (fast) slide. Aahhh… the sun, we love it. Not much more to say about that as most of you will know how it feels. It loads your inner batteries.

We decided to get some shopping done to avoid spending too much money at the restaurants. We did need a taxi, but we got a phone nr (available at the front desk) from a driver named Johnny. He took us to the store and back for a reasonable fee (lower then a cab). We highly recommend him. Just ask at the front desk in case you need a cab.

We enjoyed an evening eating in (even in the small studio) before wandering around the resort for a while. It doesn’t take you to long to see it all, but gazing at the sea and listening to the waves hitting the beach is more than enough to put a smile on once face. We just love this place…

Getting up early every day is worth it to be able to do lots of rides, but one cannot forget a holiday should be there to relax too. So this time we got up a little later and went to Animal Kingdom to see some of our favourite animals. We took the Wildlife Express Train and went over to Rafiki’s Planet Watch. Here we took the time to see some of the smaller animals up close.

There were two birds being checked at the Conservation Station Animal Care centre but we lost interest early and moved on to see all the other cool stuff here. Some of these critters are amazing and well worth a visit. Too many people forget about this part of the park and think there is nothing to do or see, but they are so wrong.

The animal caretakers are known to come out with an animal and share their knowledge with the guests. This time we got to see a hawk. Some people say it’s not nice to keep animals as they should live in the wild, but care centres like this proof that sometimes there is no other choice. If so this hawk would be long dead. It was found with an injury on one of his wings loosing the ability to hunt as it would not have been able to fly anymore. At the centre they took care the bird would be helped and taken care of. Although it can now fly short distances again, it would never make it in the wild anymore. Now, with the care of the Disney Castmembers the animal can live even longer than most of his fellow hawks.

While we love to see the animals even we have to go back. Why? Well, there were still Everest FastPasses and we did pick one up before visiting the animals. You can never enough ride that monster, it’s just a shame the Yeti is still not working. (and won’t be for a long time to come). After the yeti encounter we went to see some other kind of animals, namely Nemo and his friends. Great show! Maybe a little too long, but still a must see on a WDW trip.

Now, after all the animals it was time for something completely different. Something we already wanted to do on our previous trip but because of the high ticket price didn’t in the end. This time we said we would do it. Cirque du Soleil’s la Nouba…

There were two performances this day and we opted to go to the early one. We did go early enough so we could walk around Downtown Disney a little but we couldn’t wait to see the La Nouba performance. From the moment it started we knew it was going to be fantastic. (Yes, we somehow expected that way before that). The artist kept on showing amazing stuff but especially the young Chinese with the diabolos and the aerial ballet in silk where amazing. But the Power track and trampoline was the icing on the cake. AMAZING. With my son being a trampoline athlete himself (over 10 gold medals) this one was the one we looked forwards to the most. And it delivered. Beautiful, breathtaking, Awesome, incredible… do I need to say more. This was one of the highlights of our trips and worth the price. We hope to do this again on one of our next trip and we can only recommend it to anybody going to WDW. An absolute must and a great way to end a day at Walt Disney World.

Another day of fun, although unfortunately one family member was really sick today and stayed at the room to sleep it off. It’s always a shame to be sick, but it’s always worst when you are sick on a holiday. So it was up to me and my son to enjoy the park with the two of us.

Epcot was the choice for today and again we made sure we would be there at the moment the rope dropped. Once inside we took the route everybody takes, straight to Soarin! First of all get some FastPasses and then queue for it. This time the queue was no longer then 10 minutes, something that would change very early during the day. The Soarin flight was great. We got seated in the middle “glider” in the middle row. Perfect. It does make a difference where you sit and the middle of the middle is the best place as you will (almost) see no black sides and you can focus on the screen only. There are some cracks and black spots on the film visible. That’s a real shame of course and one can only hope Disney will not wait too long to get that fixed. It does take away from the overall experience.

Once we got out of the attraction there was already a big queue. At least 45 minutes, if you would want to wait for it in the stand by queue. Just enough time for a small breakfast before we go on it again. Shared some strange sandwich with eggs, potato and meat in it. Not the best as we didn’t even finish it between the both of us. Or maybe we where to excited to fly again.

Here is the fun part on our second trip on Soarin; we got the exact same seats on our second run! All we did was switch places with each other. We also did the Living with the lands attraction before our second Soarin ride, but let’s be honest, this one isn’t that much of fun. There weren’t even any Mickey shaped pumpkins.

Today we also went on the Kuka robotic arm at Epcot’s Sum of All Thrills attraction. These are great fun. We created a jet plane attraction and it was intense. However it was also very smooth. Great experience and one that already gave us some sort of indication what to expect when going to Islands of Adventure later in the holiday. We got some more time to kill and after trenching our thirst at the cool station (no, no Beverly) we walked over to Test Track. (We did get a fastPass before).

After lunch we took the boat to Hollywood Studios where we wanted to see the Comedy Warehouse again. But we came in a little late as the performance was already completely full. We got there 20 minutes before it started and they already had to turn down guest because of a full house. Hello Disney… bring it back (in some form). As most attractions had long queues already we opted to see some shows. (We don’t queue!) Indiana was first and we got an alternate show because of the bad weather (Heavy rain). The second part was split into two parts and we got some more funny elements. The plane part was completely cut. A shame, but the little extra funny stuff was nice to see too. (however if you haven’t seen the original it is a loss). After the show we got to see the Comedy Warehouse Holiday Special. We got there early enough this time, about 40 minutes early! But it was worth it. So funny, with laughs from beginning to end.

After that we went to see the stunt show. This being a Disneyland Paris original I expected to see the same but I was surprised how much differences there are in both shows. The US version seems a little faster (probably because they don’t have the language barrier as we have in France), but also because some of the rearrangement of the stunts. They did some good improvements and it was also nice to see the water jet in action again. Great fun. After the show we had a little time left and we went to see a cartoon in a movie theatre (sorry, lost the name of the location). First time I see this place open. We got to see the Prep & Landing: Naughty vs. Nice short. Fun movie to see once, but that’s it. Would see it again.

Now it was time to go to one of my favourite eating places. Jiko at Animal Kingdom Lodge. Luckily we where back to three, although still not feeling 100%, my lovely wife didn’t want to miss it (or maybe she missed her boys way to much and wanted to see us). Jiko is an amazing place. The food is fantastic. If you go there make sure to order the Mack & Cheese as a side order. It’s the best one in the resort.

This is the third day I force myself to get out of the room early so I could be at Disney’s Hollywood Studios by the time it opens. Opening time was 7am and we got there by 6:50am. Our goal was to get to see all the different star Tour movies on this trip and after 4 rides today we seen all the different movies. No, not all 54 variations, but all short films. Our favourites are the Pod Race and the Bounty Bunter Boba Fett (with the Death Star) scenes. Before we tried to see all of them we did get another fastPass for Toy Story Mania. With Holiday crowds this is the only way to do it as lines go well over an hour, even early in the morning.

Now here is something I could not miss. The Comedy Warehouse Holiday Special at the Sounds Dangerous stage. I always loved the Comedy Warehouse at Pleasure Island and was not happy about its closure. Luckily Disney put this special (kid friendly version) inside the park and it was awesome. I just love the way they get some ideas out of the public and create a comedy sketch around it. Such a great talent! I hope Disney will bring this back in some form, not just during the holidays. It was a success as the room was packed to capacity.

Another show, not filled to capacity, we visited on this day was the Next American Idol Experience. I think we got to see the third show of 8 shows that day, but the room was only half full. The finals of the day might have been full, but with the attraction not being that old and the fully packed Hollywood Studios this attraction might already become a little bit of a failure. It was to be expected that this one couldn’t last that long. I might be wrong, but that’s the expression I got when I visited it. Still, it was fun to see the show,… once on the trip.

We also got ourselves some FastPasses for Tower of Terror today and we got to see Belle and the Beast. Nice sweet show, but Tower wins this round. It’s one of the best attractions out there and I could ride it again and again (and so could my son).

With the park being full and queue-ing not an option (I don’t queue… well, most of the time), it was time to do something different. So we took the bus over to the Wilderness Lodge to check out the hotel. I love this location, especially around the pool. We had a good look around before taking the boat over to the busses at the Magic Kingdom so we could make it back to our own hotel. It’s always nice to visit another resort and many people forget about this. Those places are also part of the Disney magic and they give you the chance to relax a little, away from the busy parks, while still being at a magical place.