Park News - (1/13/11) According to the local news, a small fire started in the attic of the Tiki Room at the Magic Kingdom earlier today, but was quickly put out by the automated sprinkler system. No injuries were reported. In other news, a nice general photo update of the various rehab projects going on in the park this week has been posted to Orlando Parks News Finally MouseSteps takes one last tour through Mickey’s Toontown Fair before it vanishes forever, as well as dropping by the Haunted Mansion to try and get a peek at what is going on in the Graveyard. The Tomorrowland Speedway is now also down to just 2 of the 4 lanes, as it looks like they are preparing to alter the course of the speedway a bit along with the closure of Toontown Fair..
(1/10/11) MouseSteps wanders around the Magic Kingdom this week taking a look at all the little things being worked on, including sections of Main Street as well as a look at Splash Mountain’s current rehab in progress.
(1/3/11) Check out the NYE fireworks that took place at the Magic Kingdom over at Amusement Insider this week.
(12/29/10) Take a peek inside the new Disney Operational Command Center bunker, under Cinderella Castle, to see how Disney is now attempting to fine tune and tweak how the park runs and lessen the stress of waiting in line. Inside this giant command center, covered with wall to wall monitors, Disney follows the flow of the crowds around the parks. Too many people in Fantasyland? They’ll dispatch a mini parade style show to draw some of those crowds over towards Tomorrowland. If the lines are too long at Pirates, they may dispatch Captain Jack Sparrow into the queue to entertain the masses. If this all sounds a bit too familiar somehow, then you’ve probably seen the 1973 film Westworld, directed by Michael Crichton. Yes, the same Crichton who went on to create the Jurassic Park novels, based on the similar idea of yet another theme park gone crazy.
In Westworld, the story revolved around an ultra premier theme park experience called Delos, divided into several themed lands such as MedievalWorld, RomanWorld and WestWorld, inhabitated by lifelike robots to simulate the local population. Guests arrive, and are taken down into a Utilidor style network of underground hallways for orientation and to get into costume and then taken to their respective worlds. Pulling all the strings from a deep underground bunker was the Central Control Room. If a guest was having a bad time, they would manipulate the experience (and actions of the bots) to enhance that guests experience. Having a bad time in MedievalWorld? Then next thing you know you’ve just defeated the Black Knight in a duel and gained the attention of the princess, all under the ever watching eyes and ears of the command center crew.
For a great look at the daily start-up of the resort from the Control Room, check out the video clip embedded below, but jump ahead to the 2:45 mark, followed by an early morning wake up call from the resort’s evil gunslinger played by Yul Brynner. If you haven’t seen it before, it’s really worth watching and gives you all kinds of interesting ideas of just what other plans Disney may have up their Next Gen sleeve. Next time you see a child lose a Balloon in a Disney park and see a CM come up and give away a new one to the crying child, it will make you think a little harder about just who was really watching.
