Typhoon Lagoon will not be opening tomorrow due to storms forcast to hit the theme park areas. Blizzard Beach will open as usual, however will close if conditions deteriorate. Both parks were forced to close today due to severe weather. A severe thunderstorm warning has also been issued for the several areas in Florida.
A power outage at Downtown Disney has meant that several shops in the West-Side section have been forced to close. These include Hoypolio, Something Silver and Candy Cauldron. The cause of this outage is not currently known, however it appears that the Marketplace and much of Pleasure Island are unaffected.
This follows a similar outage that occured last month, no official cause was provided.
We've had a number of conflicting reports about the Test-Track closure, due to start in just a few short hours. It officially closes today, April 16. However over the weekend we've been hearing from cast members that the planned closure may be delayed, along with reports that it would go ahead as planned, but have several 'soft opening' days during the refurbishment.
An A Caleppa group will be performing outside of Test Track during its lengthly refurbishment, scheduled to start on Monay 16th April. This comes just a day after it was announced that The Land and Character Spot would remain open until 10:00 pm during the closure. Park officials are clearly worried about the effect that Test Track's closure will have over the busy summer period, as attendance is likely to drop. By providing a few new entertainment platforms they are hoping to lessen the disapointment for first-time guests.
Test Track is scheduled to reopen with a new and improved ride system in Fall 2012
With Test Track's refurbishment scheduled to start just days away on April 16th, its been announced that both The Land pavilion and Character Spot will be staying open until 10:00 pm to help take some of the capacity that Test Track would usually cover. Park hours are expected to stay roughly the same, however remain to be confirmed after this update.
Test Track is due to reopen in the Fall of 2012 with an enhanced ride and a complete makeover for the first time in its history.
The official Disney Parks Blog today released a time-lapse video giving a birds eye view of the Fantasyland construction work. The camera appears to be placed on the side of Cinderella Castle and overlooks part of the new Storybook Circus area. The area on the left of the video will be Enchanted Tales With Belle, Beast Castle (Be Our Guest Restaurant will be located inside) and Gaston's Tavern. The building and rockwork to the right side wil be home to Under The see - Journey of the Little Mermaid.
Click below to see the video.
Registrations for the 2013 Walt Disney World Marathon Weekend today opened. The Marathon event will take place on January 10, 2013 and covers a range of six themed marathons, each different lengths. The full Walt Disney World Marathon covers 26.2 miles and passes through all four Walt Disney World theme parks, starting at Epcot and continuing on to the Magic Kingdom, Disney's Animal Kingdom, Disney's Hollywood Studios before an exhilarating finish back at Epcot, followed by an evening party.
Those interested in taking part in the Walt Disney World Marathon Weekend should click here for official Disney information.
The upcoming Test Track refurbishment looks to be going ahead as planned as construction permits have now been filed with Orange County. Whilst Disney have not given an official date for the refurbishment, operations Cast Members are expecting the refurbishment to run from April 16th through to fall 2012.
The Test Track refurbishment plan was announced in January and will be the first major refurbishment of the attraction since it replaced World of Motion in 1998. The refurbishment will see the sponsor change from General Motors to Chevrolet, a General Motors owned brand. The pre-show area will feature a new 'design a car' area where guests will create their car on a computer before boarding the test track's new 'SimCars' to see how well their design fares on the center's driving course. A renovated showroom featuring the latest Chevrolet vehicles will also be added.
We heard earlier this month that Disney were looking at introducing Articulated busses to their transport fleet to allow larger numbers of passengers to be transported to and from the parks. Yesterday several people spotted a Nova Bus LFS Arctic being tested by Disney Transport. The bus will be tested into mid-April. All going well, the plan is to use these types of busses between value/moderate resorts and the parks.
Each of these busses are 62ft long and capable of carrying upto 112 passengers at a time.
Yesterday evening Disney announced the celebrity guest list for this years Star Wars Weekends. Somewhat disappointingly, there is only one celebrity from the original film franchise appearing; Jeremy Bulloch, who played Boba Fett in The Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi.
The full list can be found by clicking the 'continue reading' link below.