The Report
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Four weeks. That's how long it's been since you've seen The Report. I'm not going to cop out like I did last time and blame the stupid editor. Nope, I have more integrity than that. This time I'm blaming the idiot programmer who's barely keeping the site running and claims he has no time to put up my columns. Whatever! Just remember - it's not my fault.
Anyway, let's make like a tree and get started...
Disneyland
News, Rumors and Events
The big news over the pass few weeks (other than the Big Thunder Mountain
accident) is the cutting back of FastPass. Pirates of the Caribbean and Haunted
Mansion have already had them removed. Winnie the Pooh won't be far behind. And
while Haunted Mansion Holiday is expected to have FastPass, "it's a small world"
holiday won't - at least that's what the rumors say. At DCA It's Tough To Be a
Bug and Muppet*Vision 3D have been without FastPass for some time now. You can
read lots more on the FastPass story (facts and rumors) in the MiceAge.com article
Bye-Bye FastPass.
Speaking of things going away, Who Wants To Be a Millionaire - Play It! will be closing at DCA after August 20th (I've heard a rumor the WDW version will be closing that same day as well). In addition, DarkBeer on the Discussion Boards is reporting Aladdin - A Musical Spectacular will be dark on Tuesdays and Wednesday beginning August 31st.
When DCA opened Disney initially had two separate park maps. At some point they joined the two together. In the past couple of weeks they've again separated. This is in addition to another change - the entertainment schedule is no longer contained in the maps. Instead it's on a separate sheet (both parks share the same sheet). Separating the entertainment schedule from the maps means the maps don't need to be reprinted as often. It also means if you're park hopping you now have three things to carry instead of one.
Westsider had a very interesting post about testing for the 50th fireworks show. The descriptions are amazing. Check it out!
Further on the horizon is the rumor that the sub lagoon has once again been greenlit for a transformation into a Finding Nemo attraction. This rumor tends to come and go, so don't hold your breath, but at some point some rumor about the lagoon has to be true. And the rumored kiss and make-up between Disney and Pixard does bode well.
Disney put on a great show for the NFFC convention in mid-July. Jay Rasulo (Chairman of Walt Disney Parks and Resorts) and Matt Mendenhall (Executive Vice President, Global Marketing) shared some of the plans for Disneyland's golden celebration. Many of the plans had been discussed before, but there were a couple of surprises including the announcement that local airports will announce Disneyland's celebration with banners in the terminals, and certain attractions (Mr. Toad and the Carousel were among those mentioned) will have one ride vehicle painted gold. Both ideas sounded like great fun.
The big announcement coming out of Disneyland's 49th birthday was the Happiest Faces on Earth program. Disneyland expects to receive over a million photo contributions taken at Disneyland over the past 50 years for inclusion in mosaics placed around the Resort. There are many ways to submit your photos and both traditional and digital are accepted, so start submitting. Disney will even let you know where you can find your photo in the finished pieces. Go to Disneyland.com/photo for all the details.
This isn't strictly Disneyland related, but if you're in the area, you may be interested - Donald Duck gets his star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame on Monday. And to celebrate, Disneyland is previewing his latest film, The Thre Musketeers, at the El Capitan Theater for free! Click here for all the details.
Speaking of movies, TV and that sort of thing - ABC's annual Primetime Preview Weekend is coming up at DCA September 10-12, and The Princess Diaries 2 has its world premiere at Downtown Disney on Saturday, August 7th (stake out a spot and catch a star).
And lastly, we bid a sad goodbye to Petals (the leather place) which has closed at Downtown Disney. But we say hello to QuickSilver which recently opened where Liquid Motion once was.
Fun Stuff
World renowned (at least in the LP world) restaurant critic Cindy aka cstephns has three new Disney reviews on her site: