We’ll pick things up after yesterday’s post on the President’s visit to Magic Kingdom with new scrims on Main Street. Now that I’ve doubled my number of followers on Twitter from 17 to 34 virtually overnight with the tweets from the President’s visit, I feel like I’m going to have to clean this website’s content up. I’m not going to. But I feel like I should.
If there’s anything that gets the Disney blogs/forums erupting, it’s tarps. I’m trying to think of things that are a bigger deal. The truncated monorail hours, maybe. Big refurbishments. A presidential visit. Ummmmmmmm…I think that’s it.
You may remember our last look at the Magic Kingdom scrims from this post.
This was The Chapeau then.
This is The Chapeau now.
And specifically.
Main Street Bakery then.
Main Street Bakery now. A couple more:
It’s no big brown box…but beggars can’t be choosers.
Chamber of Commerce too. All of Main Street should be behind scrims at one point or another over the next couple of years.
Ruining your pictures of Main Street.
Very ruined.
I popped over to the Contemporary Resort to do some blogging from the Contempo Cafe. The Internet was fast there – 22.84mbps download and 17.91mbps upload according to speedtest.net. I’m sure it gets bogged down in the morning and evening when more people are on though. For those keeping score at home, the Contemporary does not have resort-specific merchandise yet.
Now over to Hollywood Studios at about 5:15pm to catch the Rock the Night Fireworks. You may remember our Characterpalooza post from a couple of days ago here. Ordinarily, the characters meet in the Animation Building, but Disney had moved them up to the front of the Park. This is just inside the turnstiles on the left side. My assumption is that this is a “one time thing” to help offset the inconvenience of the Main Street closure over at Magic Kingdom and the characters should return to the Animation Building. Here, we have Geppetto and Pinocchio.
Mary Poppins and one of her penguins.
Captain Hook and Smee.
Pocahontas and Meeko. Chip and Dale and Minnie were also meeting.
Hollywood Studios ordinarily features Fireworks only two nights each year – New Year’s Eve and Independence Day. This is a real treat.
Nominal wait times according to the board. It’s about 5:25pm.
Remember how DJs are Disney’s answer to everything?
The Britto figurines are still prominently displayed in the front of the Animation Gallery.
They run $60 each. Only the usual characters were appearing inside the Animation Building – Frozone/Mr. Incredible, Winnie the Pooh, and Sorcerer Mickey.
If you’re wondering why Disney doesn’t offer Fireworks more often, there are two basic reasons. The first is money. The second is that it necessitates the early closure of several attractions, Toy Story Midway Mania included. Toy Story closed at 5pm, Great Movie Ride at 5:30pm, and One Man’s Dream at 5:30pm. Some amount of setup is required for the Fireworks and the “fallout” rains down overhead. Not really the place you want to be during a Fireworks show. With the closure of these attractions, along with Backlot Tour and Honey I Shrunk the Kids Playground at 5pm due to darkness, only Sunset Boulevard is basically open. And Star Tours/Muppet Vision 3D.
Most of the quick service eateries had also closed. Backlot Express at 5:30pm. Studio Catering Company at 4pm. Pizza Planet at 5:30pm. So basically Min & Bill’s Dockside Diner, Sunset Ranch Market, and ABC Commissary are the only quick service locations operational at this hour. This is the Fried Fish and Fries, which is actually one of the cheaper entrees at $7.49. It’s the same fish you’ll find over at Columbia Harbour House at Magic Kingdom. It’s not much more than “food.” The fish is decently crispy, but it’s certainly nothing to write home about. And those Heinz tartar sauce packets are virtually impossible to open. I’m just saying.
And while we’re here, the 1/3 Pound Angus Cheeseburger topped with three fried shrimp for no reason in particular. It is your stereotypical Disney burger, but the addition of fresh lettuce, onion, pickle, and tomato is a nice touch. And the shrimp are crispy. They ought to start serving a fried shrimp entree similar to Columbia Harbour House. Actually, they should serve the entire Columbia Harbour House menu. What they don’t tell you is that the has the “secret sauce” already on it. Order it without if you don’t care for Thousand Island dressing.
Some new arrivals while we’re in the neighborhood. I guess I’m in the minority when it comes to theme park merchandise – I think they do a great job with it.
Don’t they though?
Launchpad McQuack. So epic.
If Disney released Rescue Rangers and DuckTales on Blu-ray I would advertise it every single day for five years.
Aren’t I fabulous?
I usually look like the “Mornings aren’t pretty” Minnie Mouse version. All day I mean.
Can I get a smile?
Hats:
Not sure about the target audience there.
The Perry shirt comes in adult sizes now. Which size did you need Darcie?
What does it mean?
Love it.
Your options. Good stuff.
Here we are waiting for the Rock the Night Fireworks.
One of my favorite drinking games in Walt Disney World is “Who’s That Blogger?” When you see someone that looks like a Disney blogger (typically dorky looking, 25-30 years old, males, big cameras) you chug the vodka you snuck into the Park in a water bottle. That’s the whole game. This bro in the leather jacket is serious. Huge tripod and a microphone. Probably laughing at me and my Rebel XTi.
These sorts of events are very popular with the Disney blogging community. WDWMAGIC was on hand. WDWNewsToday was in the house. InsideTheMagic too. And OrlandoParksNews. Those links will take you to their videos. If you like this website, you should bookmark those if you haven’t already!
Behind us near the beginning of the show.
It was pretty epic. Sorry for using “epic” twice in the same post. But it was. Mulch, Sweat, and Shears is playing live music on the stage in front of Mickey’s Sorcerer’s Hat. The best line of the night goes to them – “This is where it starts to get expensive.”
I wish Disney would have run this show during the entire Fantasmic refurbishment. It’s pretty awesome. Logistically, having to shut down Toy Story, One Man’s Dream, and Great Movie Ride two hours before the start of the Fireworks is infeasible though.
A nice end to the night. Mr. President, you are welcome any time!
{ 22 comments… read them below or add one }
They had the t-shirts before but we couldn’t find the hooded sweatshirts in adult sizes.
Oh, I thought you wanted the platypus shirt!
Ooooo… a real pickle on that burger! The last few burgers we’ve gotten at Disney came with what I guess they were trying to pass off as pickles, but were in fact cucumbers that had been briefly dipped in vinegar.
Wth all the complaining leading up to this (mostly from people not even there), I would have LOVED to have been at the parks that day. Getting up close to parade floats, additional EMH at the other parks, cool fireworks at DHS…those seem way better than just walking up Main Street on a normal day! Plus MS opened, what, around 2 or 3, anyway? Yea, I’m pretty sure the complainers were complaining about something else.
The t-shirt “What does it mean?” is a play on the album cover of Joy Division’s Unknown Pleasures. They are a late 70′s, alternative band that became New Order. Hard to believe that this obscure band and album cover art is Disney’s inspiration though.
“This is where it starts to get expensive.”
MSS rocks. Literally, and figuratively.
I am a little fascinated by the scrims, who makes them , how and what else do they produce when they are not making scrims.
Josh, you did do a great job with your coverage of the president’s visit, not that I am surprised in the least.
@ScottKN nice catch, love Joy Division I was just listening to “Love will tear us Apart”.
Nice to see positive coverage of the President’s visit. Thanks, Josh. I was thinking the same thing as someone above – it actually looks like a great time to have been there!
Disney makes the best scrims ever. Sure, they might ruin far away Main Street “skyline” pictures, but up close they look great. I LOVE Thousand Island dressing on my burgers…it’s one reason I love In’N'Out Burger of California (now also in parts of Nevada, Utah, Arizona and Texas – and some day soon I hope Colorado for this CA transplant). It wasn’t clear where you got that food at DHS….which quick service place had the burger and the fish? Or are they available at all or most of the QS places there? BTW what was that honey mustard dipping sauce for, your fries? Or am I wrong about what is in those two little paper tubs? Anyway, good post. Thanks for the fireworks photos. Too bad so many attractions have to shut down for that to happen.
Great pictures of the fireworks!!! I never have any luck taking pictures of them.
The burger and fish were from ABC Commissary. And I do believe it was honey mustard dipping sauce. The fireworks were amazing! Thanks to the President for coming which allowed them to happen.
Thanks for the answer, Deb. I might put ABC Commissary on my DHS list. So far I’ve really only eaten at Sci Fi Diner and at HBDerby there. I want to go cheaper/quicker next time.
Also, Josh, thanks for posting links to those other sites – I check out wdwmagic.com a lot just for news about the Fantasyland Expansion (their news links have a lot of photos and info, not just their chat forums – I’m not a member and can’t post there anyway). And I use the wdwnewstoday site but for the Disneyland news link there. Inside the Magic was new to me. Bookmarked. And I’d love to have an adult size Perry the Platypus shirt some day – they didn’t have an oversized one at Walmart. Hubby has one from Disney Store (black with Perry’s face outlined in colors) and my kiddo has one that’s too big for her right now (it’s a women’s extra large but they’re cut very small) but I don’t have one yet. We’re going to see Phineas & Ferb Live On Stage at Pikes Peak Center on February 5th (yes, Superbowl Sunday, oops – I only watch the commercials anyway).
Thanks for posting this info! We are heading to WDW in about 2 weeks and we have a little one that loves getting autographs. We’ll definitely check out Characterpalooza.
PS – I, too, have been victim to the Single Rider Line at RnR….my philosophy on it now? “Just say no”.
Someone live streamed the fireworks, and it was totally amazing!
Josh, do you remember where you saw the Mickey Joy Division shirt? We will be there in a week and I MUST buy it for my husband for his birthday. He’s a huge JD/New Order fan and that is the most perfect Disney tee I can imagine for him.
Have to say in my trips to Disneyland there’s something I dig about walking down main street, when I was at Disneyworld last week, it was quite disappointing, mostly because it was the big brown box look.
@angela I see they are on sale at the DisneyStore.com. Josh hasn’t answered you yet but I’m guessing he took those merchandise pictures at one (or some) of the stores there on Hollywood Boulevard perhaps before stepping out on the street to view the fireworks.
The Joy Division shirt is sold out online. It is kind of a sore spot with some people. Google Joy Division and Disney.
Adam, my husband posted the shirt to my facebook page today so he found it before I was able to buy it for him. I did see that it was sold out online. And you are right, the reaction from Joy Division fans has been, shall we say, lively. My husband runs a record store in a college town and is in a few very “difficult” bands and many of his acquaintances are all up in arms about the shirt. Just today his friends have called it “a sacrilege”, “bogus”, “stupid”, “disgusting”, “in bad taste”, and something that makes one “want to vomit”. More than one person called Walt a Nazi or Nazi-sympathizer and claimed that he would “love” (in much cruder terms) a Mickey design based on one from a band named after a Nazi term.
All I can do is laugh. Some people take themselves WAY too seriously. And I can’t wait to buy this shirt; I’m hoping they are still available in the parks!
Maybe next they’ll have a shirt with Mickey underwater floating towards a dollar bill a la “Nevermind”.
@angela, people definitely take things to seriously. It’s just a shirt and I would say only a small percentage of people in the world would have any idea what the shirt was “inspired by”. I had no idea who Joy Division was until Josh posted the picture of the shirt and ScottKN gave the explanation.
What’s the sku on that “Real men wear mickey ears” tshirt.