Stern Pinball, Inc., announced a new line of pinball machines inspired by the Disney+ series The Mandalorian. What’s Happening: Stern Pinball, Inc., now has The Mandalorian pinball machines available in Pro, Premium, and Limited Edition (LE) models. The machines feature a large sculpture of Grogu, video and audio from the two seasons of the series, and exclusive custom […]
The post “The Mandalorian” Pinball Machines Released appeared first on LaughingPlace.com.
Hulu is teaming with Tessa Thompson on an untitled show that will bring celebrities together as they try to assemble a puzzle while having a conversation. What’s Happening: The Hollywood Reporter states that Tessa Thompson will team up with Hulu on a new show that takes inspiration from various conversation-driven series. The new show is currently in […]
The post Tessa Thompson and Hulu Team up for a Puzzle Show Coming to the Service appeared first on LaughingPlace.com.
Several new weighted plush of classic Disney characters are now available at Walt Disney World. We found them in the plush section of the Emporium at Magic Kingdom. Weighted plush are used by kids and adults alike to combat anxiety and other conditions, but they also just make for cute toys. Mickey Mouse Weighted Plush – $39.99 The plush are soft and fuzzy. The weighted pouch is removable, so there is an opening in the back of each plush. It […]
The post PHOTOS: Walt Disney World Releases Special Plush to Help Those with Anxiety, Autism, ADHD, and More appeared first on WDW News Today.
Disney World periodically sends out surveys to Guests to gather feedback and research. The most recent batch includes asking about vaccines, park passes, masks, and so much more. Take our own informal KtP survey in the post as well! Demographics First, Disney always asks demographics like where the person resides, age, and career field. This […]
The post Disney World Guests are Surveyed about Vaccines, Masks, Magical Express, and More appeared first on KennythePirate.com.
Shake your groove thing all the way to the Magic Kingdom to pick up today’s new pin! A new ‘An Extremely Goofy Movie’ inspired pin arrived at Frontier Trading Post today! This pin features the dynamic duo and is an homage to ‘An Extremely Goofy Movie’ when Max Goof goes off to university and Goofy follows him. Goofy re-lives his 70’s disco dreams and also attends university while getting into the usual Goofy shenanigans. This pin is a limited edition […]
The post PHOTOS: New Max and Groovy Goofy Graduation 2021 Pin Arrives at Magic Kingdom appeared first on WDW News Today.
While the parks have reopened, many aspects of Disneyland remain closed!
Sleeping Beauty Castle
Yesterday, we told you all about some restaurants that are reopening around property. One of those is Blue Bayou Restaurant — you’ll be able to eat here starting May 27th, with reservations opening on May 18th! And if you were wondering what, exactly, you could chow down on, good news. Disney’s released the menu that will debut with the restaurant upon reopening!
Starting May 27th, Blue Bayou will be back open for lunch and dinner — both menus are identical. And the offerings are just a bit narrower than before. For appetizers, you’ll be able to choose from Blue Bayou’s Signature Gumbo, the Grilled Heirloom Jumbo Asparagus, and a House Salad, while entrees include the classic Monte Cristo Sandwich.
©Disney
You’ve got 2 dessert options — and kiddos get basic eats like chicken breast, mac and cheese, and whole-grain pasta.
©Disney
There are a variety of wines to pick from…
©Disney
…as well as other beverage offerings, both alcoholic and non-alcoholic. This is a huge deal, as this spot previously didn’t serve alcohol! We’re excited to give these boozy sips a try.
©Disney
We’re happy to see some classic Blue Bayou eats are still featured on this modified menu. We’ll be sure to visit upon reopening and let you know exactly how everything tastes! Remember, you can make your reservations here starting May 18th. Stay tuned to DFB for more Disney news!
Are you going to eat at Blue Bayou when it reopens? Let us know in the comments!
The post First Look: Alcohol Offerings Now Shown on Disneyland’s Blue Bayou Menu first appeared on the disney food blog.
As much as we love Disney World, not everything that they try to pull off in the parks is a slam dunk.
Some things don’t go over as great as Disney hoped they would.
We’ve seen some interesting ride ideas, some weird snacks, and a ton of things that just made us scratch our heads (Donald Duck being replaced by a hat-wearing plant, anyone?). Today we’re breaking down the times that Disney World tried to do something interesting and it didn’t go quite as planned. Hey, we’re still giving them an ‘A’ for effort!
Back for the Walt Disney World 25th Anniversary in 1996, the castle got a complete redecoration to look just like a giant pink birthday cake. It was nice that Disney tried to decorate the castle all special, but it probably didn’t go over as well as they hoped.
It’s VERY pink. ©Disney
Unfortunately, many people HATED the castle look during that time. If you booked your “once in a lifetime” trip during this time, instead of those classic family photos in front of the castle you got a VERY pink reminder of your uniquely timed visit! Nowadays, it has quite the fan following, and we’ve even seen merchandise with the birthday cake castle. While we can appreciate the cake design now, we think we like the 50th Anniversary castle a LOT more!
We hate on this pretzel a lot here at DFB, but we think it deserves our disdain. (WE’RE SORRY, pretzel. It’s really not you, it’s us?) This poor unfortunate soul (LOL…sorry) was part of the 2019 Christmastime offerings at Disney’s Animal Kingdom. When we saw the promotional picture, the iced pumpkin pretzel looked like a cute idea, but in reality, it was NOT cute.
It’s so sad…
The icing came out uneven and patchy — it kinda looked like it went through a horrific accident. In total disbelief that such a sweet little pretzel could end up such a hot mess, we even ordered it a second time just to be sure. Yep, still a face for radio, this one.
Oh Poor Pumpkin Pretzel
Better, but no dice. The poor Cast Members tasked with making this treat at Thirsty River Bar and Trek Snacks struuuuuggled to make these frosting-dunked concoctions and the end result both times looked more cheesy than frosting-y! You’ll likely NOT be surprised to learn this did not return last year! It sparked much conversation among our team and has been the subject of many, many jokes. At least the pumpkin pretzel accomplished something!
Back in 1998, Iago from Aladdin and Zazu from The Lion King took over a classic Magic Kingdom show, and The Enchanted Tiki Room: Under New Management was born! This unusual retheme made the show lose a bit (OK, a LOT) of its charm, and fans weren’t too fond of the changes.
Nope. ©Disney
Surprisingly, the show lasted for nearly 13 years until a fire started in the attic of the building. The fire caused some damage to various elements of the show and it had to go under refurbishment. When it reopened 7 months later as Walt Disney’s Enchanted Tiki Room, guests were pretty relieved to see arguably the two most annoying birds in Disney animated history gone and much of the original show returned!
Back in 2019, EPCOT got some new eats to celebrate the Guardians of the Galaxy — Awesome Mix Live show. One of the treats on the list was called the “Space Sandwich” and the bun was supposed to mimic a galaxy full of stars. Intriguing, right? WRONG. It looked like this:
Yeah, that’s definitely not appetizing.
Unfortunately, the bun turned out to look more like a moldy mess than a work of art. The sandwich itself wasn’t terrible, basically just a pulled pork sammie, but we couldn’t really get past the look of “moldy” bread. We’re all for adding some fun color to otherwise boring-looking foods but any kid that’s learned their colors could tell you: brownish bun+blue=mucky dirty looking bread. It’s a no from us, Disney.
Ahh, one of the most infamous Disney World attractions of all time…Stitch’s Great Escape. This show opened up in 2004 to replace the ExtraTERRORestrial Alien Encounter, which was deemed “too scary for kids” (OK, OK…adults too. Not speaking from experience or anything!). Disney hoped that they could make the attraction a little more family-friendly by retheming it with a different…more cuddly…alien.
We hate to say it…but good riddance.
The show received mixed reviews from guests, with some thinking it was fun and others describing it as the worst attraction in Magic Kingdom. You basically sat stationary in a room and watched a robo-Stitch do very little for 10 minutes. The general consensus from most guests, though? That chili dog burp was gross.
This float first appeared during Villains After Hours in Magic Kingdom in early 2020. It was made with black raspberry soft serve and cherry coke. Sounds pretty tasty, but in execution, it tasted like medicine your mom would force you to take as a kid.
Our poor unfortunate soul for having to eat this!
The Poor Unfortunate Souls float came back for the Halloween season with cream cheese soft serve instead and was much better received, although it was still only liked by about half of the people who tasted it. The artificial “cream cheese” flavor was just too much for some tasters. Poor float indeed…you tried to fix it Disney, but you just didn’t succeed.
Okay, we understand that when Disney premieres a new movie that they want to promote it in the parks. That makes sense. However, if you’re going to promote the characters, do it in a way that isn’t scary! Listen Disney, no ALL characters translate to a walking, real-life version, OK. Case in point:
She’s more scary than cute!
If you ever stopped by Hollywood Studios around the time that Toy Story 4 premiered, then you likely ran into Bo Peep. It was neat to see her in the parks meeting with Woody, but we’ll be honest…she was pretty terrifying! That face just looked a little too creepy for our liking. (Anyone else feel like her eyes are staring into your soul? 
) For a generation or two that grew up with Bo in her poofy dress, seeing her stomping around in her high-waisted cropped romper getup was a lot.
In 1983, Journey Into Imagination opened at EPCOT and started a long saga of various rides at the Imagination Pavilion. The original version lasted until 1998, then it was replaced the following year by the revamped Journey Into Your Imagination. And let’s just say, the new version was NOT received well by guests.
This pavilion has been through many changes!
The second iteration of the ride lost the fan-favorite characters of Figment and the Dreamfinder, as well as the hit song that came along with the original. These losses were lamented by guests, and they complained so much that Disney chose to redo the ride AGAIN in 2001. That’s when we got the Journey Into Imagination with Figment that we have today! (It’s not the same as the OG, but it’s definitely better than the last one.) Still no Dreamfinder, instead we get the lackluster Dr. Nigel Channing, and this Figment is less childlike and more just annoying. Maybe if there’s a 4th time it will be a charm, Disney?
When Disney World launched Mission: SPACE, they wanted the new ride to be as realistic as possible. The goal is to simulate a rocket launch accurately, and, from what astronauts have said…they succeeded! Disney worked with NASA to design the attraction, so the experience is pretty darn realistic!
What kind of ride comes with barf bags?!?!
However, this means that the centrifuge-based ride is SUPER intense. (In fact, it’s the only Disney ride that comes with barf bags.) It was SO much when it first opened guests were getting sick and walking (err…stumbling) off the ride dazed and feeling pretty crummy the rest of their day. Disney responded by toning things down a bit, eventually adding the Green Mission for those who don’t want to feel like the skin is flying off of their face.
Before Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge opened in Disney’s Hollywood Studios and Disneyland, we were promised quite a few things about the land. Sadly, not all of those promises came to be! For instance, we were told that guests would get to see X-Wings flying high above the land. We got to see one for a few short seconds at a media event, but when the lands opened…nothing!
We do get some pretty cool character encounters, though.
We were also assured that there would be roaming droids on Batuu. The lovable hero R2-D2 was at Disneyland for a very short time, but he hasn’t returned to greet us since then. Disney also hoped to add a dinner show to the land and that didn’t happen, although it’s possible that it could come to Star Wars: Galactic Starcruiser instead. Oh, and remember when how you performed on Millennium Falcon: Smugglers Run was supposed to follow you around the land with in-character actors engaging you at every turn? Yea…not so much.
Photo by Jeff Gritchen, Orange County Register/SCNG
But the biggest flop of all for Black Spire Outpost? Blue milk! If it was supposed to be Disney’s way of competing with Universal Orlando and their Harry Potter-inspired Butterbeer…well, that didn’t really work out. The flavor and texture fell flat for many, making it largely forgettable. Blue Milk is fine and all, but Butterbeer still reigns supreme for most on our team.
Those are all the times we gave Disney an A for effort, even though things didn’t really work out in their favor. That’s okay, not every idea can be a winner, and we still love going to the parks! Stay tuned to DFB for more advice (and things you need to know) for your upcoming Walt Disney World vacation!
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Is there anything you think Disney didn’t execute to perfection in the parks? Let us know in the comments!
The post A For Effort, Disney World first appeared on the disney food blog.
Disneyland has been reopened for a few weeks now!
Disneyland
We’ve gotten the chance to see some of the new health and safety measures in action, and we’ve been closely following the phased reopening of the resort as more restaurants and other locations become available. And now, we’ve got an update on Disneyland’s virtual queue system!
Disneyland reopened with a virtual queue in place for Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance, just as there was pre-closure. However, the virtual queue looks a bit different than before. Guests now have 2 boarding group distribution times, at 7AM and 12PM daily, and can join from outside the park (depending on their specific circumstances). That’s all well and good…but now, ANOTHER ride is implementing the virtual queue system.
Rise of the Resistance
Now, Indiana Jones Adventure has started using the virtual queue system — but in a bit of a different way. While it is listed alongside Rise of the Resistance in your virtual queue options on the Disneyland app…
©Disney
The process is a bit different. The virtual queue will only open “as needed” each day, and guests can only request to join after entering Disneyland Park. Additionally, the ride may switch between the standby line and virtual queue throughout the day, with standby taking place at park open and after all the day’s boarding groups have been called. If you’re visiting, you should keep a close eye on the Disneyland app to know which is the case at any given time.
©Disney
We’ve seen the line for Indiana Jones Adventure stretch pretty long lately — it even takes up parts of the Jungle Cruise queue! — so this virtual queue may really help cut down on those wait times. We’ll keep you posted as this new process goes into effect, so stay tuned to DFB!
Are you a fan of Indiana Jones Adventure? Let us know in the comments!
The post Another Ride Joins Disneyland’s Virtual Queue System first appeared on the disney food blog.
