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Walt Disney World Resort Pictures
The text list below contains the captions of all images in the set.
Arrived at MCO on a red eye from LAX bright and early. Grabbed some breakfast then headed to the Magical Express. This was just after 7am. A great time to arrive.
We arrived at WDWs entrance about 10 minutes to 8.
The Pop Century tree.
First stop after checking in, the Magic Kingdom.
The spur line for the monorail is done and a work tractor is parked there.
Driving by the Contemporary (notice no tarps or work going on).
Plenty of signs and barriers up to try and keep guests out of the way of buses at the MK bus stop area.
There was a separate bag check and entrance area for those attending the Christmas Parade taping only.
An express stroller rental option.
The Let the Memories Begin signage is still around, but decorated for the holidays.
Finally made it into the park, 8:46am...
Signs to guide the audience to their waiting area.
Town Square is all decked out for the season plus the taping.
Over on the right is the audience line.
A closer look at one of the trees on the train station.
A look down Main Street reveals they are filming down by the castle this morning.
A closer look.
Equipment staged in Town Square for later in the day.
The stage for the parade host.
Speakers and other gear are set up along the street.
Confetti canons.
Some regular work going on the East side of center street (believe that is the name).
Walt surrounded by cameras, lights, and other gear.
Some signs letting everyone know what is going on.
Working my way around to where I can see and hear what is going on. They were taping a song with fireworks going off.
Got around to where I could see and ask someone who was performing (because of course I had no clue). It was Justin Bieber. (bottom of this shot in blue)
A video featuring a wide shot of a take.
Is that Denny Newell, senior show director from Disneyland? He has been responsible for many of the recent parades at Disneyland. (see I am a Disneygeek that I could pick out that face in the crowd but took me asking someone who the performer was).
For all you Justin Beiber fans out there some more shots of him between takes.
Kind of a fun shot with the camera gear and guests in the way.
Here is a better/tighter video clip of a take. For those of you who have never been around a Hollywood production. They run through the song several times. Both with and without effects, with/without the singer even. It is a very long and somewhat boring process.
Decided to move on as they were doing crowd pick up shots.
A long line for the Tangled crew. Still shorter than Disneylands has been though.
Made my way into Fantasyland where Prince Charmings Regal Carrousel is going behind tarps for some work. Guessing to update the look a bit to fit with the new Fantasyland.
Great to see these three out for pictures in Fantasyland.
Still working away in front of the castle.
There were no waits this morning. Guess most guests were watching the taping or stuck in the crowd.
The expansion is looming in the distance.
But first noticed Dumbo was a walk on. And it was approaching 9:30am so guessing this was not going to last much longer.
A rare sight.
The other direction.
Took some random shots since this is most likely my last time on this Dumbo since it will be removed in the coming months.
From up in the air you get a great view of the Fantasyland work. You can see the new Dumbo taking shape on the left in this shot. The large building on the right is the queue. Beyond that you can see Goofys coaster.
A closer look.
Belles village taking shape to the left.
A pit where the Mine Coaster is going. In the distance you can see the new train station taking shape.
This is one of the old tents. Looks like it is staying, just going to be redone. On the left is the rockwork around the Little Mermaid.
A better view of the rocks taking shape.
The soon to be removed classic dark ride. This will be a meet and greet location.
Belles village
More rock work and some trees.
A much better view of the coaster progress.
Prince Erics castle for the Little Mermaid
Now some ground level shots.
The rockwork does look great. I had to bite my tongue a bit when talking with the cast members and they were talking about the scope and scale of the rocks... it is impressive and if I had not been watching Cars Land take shape over the past year it would have really been impressive.. but Cars Land is just such a larger scale.
A wider shot of the area.
As I mentioned Snow White will be closing eventually. So went for a ride since there were only a handful of people in line.
A closer look at the Carrousel
A couple interesting shirts...
Winnie the Pooh Fastpass is still by PhilharMagic
The first section of new Castle wall is going up near the Village Haus between that and Belles Village
Peter Pan was not a bad wait.. only about 15 minutes.
We opted for Fastpass to come back later.
All the walls and planters are gone/down from Fantasyland and it is quite open and bare right now.
Here you can see where the new wall extends out from near the restrooms.
Back to the Carrousel (I was aimlessly roaming around trying to see what was going on in Fantasyland and since it was not crowded I kept going in circles)
A nice wide shot of the expansion area.
More shots of the rock work progress
Plenty of workers on site even though it was a Saturday.
The walls now come out and go right up to the Mad Tea party queue.
Literally right into the queue area.
Back to the new wall going up by Village Haus (I said I was walking in circles).
To help get some perspective on where it is.
The Dumbo line was still only posted at 15 minutes but it was filling up fast.
Moving on.. the former skyway building is now gone.
A closer look reveals the building is gone but some of the support structure is still up there.
A wider shot. It looks so bare without the old building.
Some work going on between the restrooms and Columbia Harbor House
A random Haunted Mansion shot.
Not quite sure why I took this picture.. but decided to include it for the fun of it.
This area is being used still for the Pricess and the Frog Meet and Greet.
Back to Main Street to check out the parade taping progress.
They have moved down to Town Square and are set up for the set of sequences.
First up a band dressed as Santa with elves. I missed their name. Was in tourist/vacation mode and not reporter.
A video clip of one of their takes.
Next up they started to roll Christmas parade floats down the street. In the foreground you can see the MC (Billy) who kept the crowd informed and entertained. He has been around for quite a few years now doing this.
The characters started to filter out to the street next.
The parade host, Mario Lopez joins them.
He did several takes of several different spots/dialogs. Here is a brief video.
A great shot of the characters and parade performers.
A wider shot of the scene
Noticed these signs up throughout the Emporium. Guess people need to be directed to where merchandise is now a days.
More units lined up for the taping.
The next section on deck was from the Animal Kingdom parade.
Hmm.. something missing here...
One of the other lamps.
Back to Fantasyland after lunch.
Wow the Peter Pan wait. (The Fastpass was backed up and probably 15-20 minutes too so we skipped it).
A new name here.. the Cheshire Cafe.
The Dumbo queue really sticks out beyond the Speedway. Should be an interesting transition.
The back of the queue building.
In the background you can see the rockwork for the Little Mermaid building.
Lining up the next sequence which includes Pirates.
Performers hanging out.
The Pirates units rolling around the hub.
On the street were a couple units from the Studios Pixar parade.
Mario in between takes.
Samantha Brown from the Travel Channel introduced a clip on Disneyland Resort projects, Cars Land.
Next up Pirates!
A video clip of some of the Pirates sequence.
Setting up the next shot which featured the dogs from Treasure Buddies.
A look in at a control area where they were reviewing all all the camera angles.
Next up the Princesses
Ratatouille
Stitch!
Mrs Claus
Queuing up the final Christmas parade segment.
The flag pole is temporarily moved in front of City Hall due to the taping.
Santa is making his way down the street.
That wraps up the parade for me.. time to move on.
Hopped on the Express Monorail.
Here you can see the walls for the recently announced Grand Floridian DVC work stretch out to the pool area of the Grand Floridian.
The site has had some prep work but nothing major yet.
A monorail got in the way of my shot!
Here you can see the work stretches up near the Wedding Pavilion.
Looking back.
Over at the Transportation and Ticket Center (TTC) the parking lot signage has been redone. It now features a Villains and Heros tram stop.
A map of the new areas.
Speaking of new.. digital displays over the ticket booths.
Hopped on a bus to my next stop, the Animal Kingdom.
Guidemaps way out front of the park.
The tree out front, looked to be the same as usual.
One of the exhibits on the trail leading from the Oasis to Discover Island.
The Tree of Life.
Some of the Christmas decorations up around Discovery Island. Nothing new jumped out to me.
A healthy crowd in Africa.
Work going on at the monkey exhibit as you enter Pangani Forest.
A look at some of the signs as you enter the hippo area.
From the Outlook
Working around to the Gorilla area.
These three were chasing each other around the trees a bit.
Walking out the other side of the work.
Caught the Jingle Jungle Parade before heading out on Safari.
A video clip of the parade. Nothing new jumped out at me this year.
On Safari now. A Nile Hippo out of the water walking along.
Everyone waiting to head in for the evening.
Thought this was a great shot of the cheetah.
Then it turned and looked at me for even a better one.
Two others were up and roaming around.
The most active I think I have ever seen them.
Moving on to the lions.
Next up a bus over to the Studios to meet the rest of my group for dinner.
It was just after 5:15 and the sun was setting.
Random shot of Oscars.
The stage was all lit up tonight.
They were using it for Disney Channel Rocks!
Phineas and Ferb have a Meet and Greet out near Muppets.
A better shot of them.
The Cars area is still near by.
Time for a walk through the Osborne Family Spectacle of Dancing Lights.
The light canopy has been updated this year to multi color LEDs which make for some really impressive effects when put in motion.
A tribute to Jennings Osborne who passed away last year. An all white angel.
A couple video clips of the lights (I have more from years past if you visit our YouTube Channel).
Mickey popcorn buckets
In some of the windows animations are now played.
On this screen they play some of the history of the lights.
The street was jammed with guests this evening.
I was going to search for the cat (there is a hidden cat in the display each year) but it will have to wait for another evening.
The stage is also used for the Mulch, Sweat, and Shears group.
Random sign shot.
Heading out to my last park of the day.
Was trying to get a nice long exposure shot of the entrance as I walked to EPCOT but kept getting lens flares.
Fantasmic wrapping up near by.
The Boardwalk pool area.
The outdoor Boardwalk tree.
Made a quick stop in the lobby. This years creation looks more or less the same as last years.
I keep saying I need to spend the time for the 15 hidden Mickeys but I always seem to be on the move somewhere...
New this year QR codes by some of the displays.
A store set up near by.
Next stop World Showcase. As I was hiking to the American Adventure saw Taarij, the Morocco Holiday Storyteller was out.
Most of the walls around the gardens in Japan were down. But is was not fully open yet.
The American Adventure tree is off on the side instead of on the fountain in center.
The 6:45 Candlelight was just wrapping up when I got to the area. Geena Davis was the guest narrator this evening. I hung around for the 8:15 (pictures in a few pages).
While waiting a large scream went up nearby and a large group of girls went running. Guess they found one of the performers from the Christmas parade. I missed who and did not feel like acting like a paparazzi so I have no clue except they surrounded someone to get some pictures.
Santa and Mrs. Claus were out for pictures as usual.
They are a great pair!
Time for the 8:15 Candlelight.
Some random shots from the performance.
A clip from the show. I have more on our YouTube channel from past years of both Disneyland and Disney World if you are interested.
After the show spotted a couple of the Citizens of Hollywood directing a VIP group around.
A classic holiday shot across the lagoon.
Germany.
Two random Illuminations shots.
If you have never seen the Holiday Tag, nothing says Peace on Earth like earth shaking fireworks!
Heading out of the park.
This wraps up Day 1.