World of Dreams Photo of the Week

One of the most unique areas in the whole of Walt Disney World is without a doubt Chester and Hester's Dino-Rama. This fun, vibrant area is a sub-land of Dinoland USA, itself one of the six lands at Disney's Animal Kingdom. Whilst it may be a small area of the park, Dino-Rama offers several awesome activities, including the Primeval Whirl attraction, one of my favourite Pin Trading locations, a Character Meet & Greet, and much, much more! The area is themed very cleverly, and whilst the Roadside Attraction putting a fun, lighthearted spin on Dinosaurs theme does seem to clash quite noticeably with the rest of Dinoland, Chester and Hester's is actually intricately linked with the rest of the land by a backstory that is not only intriguing, but also absolutely ingenious! It's explained fully in this incredible article by Jack Spence on AllEars.net- I would thoroughly recommend reading it! The backstory really is wonderful, and certainly changed my view of this unique area of Dinoland USA!

Whilst the two areas; Dino-Rama and the remainder of Dinoland, are both part of the same backstory, their individual themes do heavily contrast one another. The great thing is that the Imagineers have ensured that the two areas blend seamlessly together in a thematic sense, thus further reinforcing their backstory and immersion. My picture this week is a perfect example of this very transition between the two areas. It shows an extravagant sign encountered by guests as they exit the Dino Institute, which houses the 'Dinosaur' attraction, and head back toward Chester and Hester's. The sign playfully informs guests that they're entering Dino-Rama, with its tone staying true to the theme, and playing a key part in the guests' journey between the two areas.

So, here it is! I've used my favourite tilt-shift effect, as well as a filter to enhance the rich colours in the photograph. I hope you like it!





Thanks for reading! Don't forget that this picture will be posted to my Instagram account, which can be found here! Please also check out the awesome We're Going To Walt Disney World Podcast! Show #35 is out now, which is a magical trip report!

Have a magical day!

World of Dreams Photo of the Week

Hi everyone! As you may have guessed, the Attraction Review was cancelled last week, due to me staying with family. I meant to post on the blog informing you all of this, but was so busy that the opportunity never arose. It'll be published tomorrow. Anyway, here's this week's (slightly late) photo...

It might not be immediately obvious what exactly this picture shows. Whilst it does look like some of the architecture in Adventureland over at the Magic Kingdom, this photograph was actually taken in Africa at Animal Kingdom, in the Kilimanjaro Safaris queue to be exact. Whilst it might not be the most elaborately themed queues around, despite it being for one of the park's busiest and most congested attractions, it really is a wonderful queue, with this cleverly built roof being a great example of how every single part of the parks is themed to the very highest standard. Yes, I do agree that the theming here isn't the most popular, but as with every Disney attraction, it is pretty cool! I really do love this queue, I think it sets the tone perfectly for the attraction!

So, here's the photo!




I've used a filter, which I think has created a really cool effect! I love how adding a filter to photographs of the Disney Parks can really make the picture look, well, magical! This is especially if the filter fits the theme of the part of the park being photographed.

Thanks for reading! Please also check out the We're Going To Walt Disney World Podcast! Have a magical day!

World of Dreams Photo of the Week- Celebrating Mission Space's 10th Birthday!

Today, Mission Space, which is arguably one of Walt Disney World's most intense thrill attractions, celebrates its tenth birthday. Located in Future World East at Epcot, this very unique simulator attraction allows guests to embark on the first ever manned mission to Mars, which naturally doesn't go as smoothly as planned, such is the attraction's storyline.

Despite being one of the most technologically advanced attractions on property, Mission Space isn't as popular amongst Disney Fans as one might think. The reason for this is that it replaced Horizons, an Epcot attraction which was a very firm favourite amongst guests. As obviously a Disney Fan myself, I do resent the removal of Horizons from the park, as I was never able to experience it and have gained an appreciation through reading articles and watching videos of how magical this attraction was. However, I think it's unfair to judge Mission Space on this principal. It's an incredible attraction in its own right, and whilst it may or may not be as good as Horizons was, the fact remains that it's a cutting edge attraction that is not only very creative and well Imagineered, but has also remained at the forefront of technology, even after a decade of operation. It's one of my favourite attractions.

My photo this week shows the incredible entrance area for Mission Space. Called Planetary Plaza, this area has so much to see, from awe-inspiring models of planets and moons to inspirational quotes from people such as astronauts, you'll want to spend some time fully exploring it. I remember Planetary Plaza taking my breath away the first time I saw it, and it's never failed to do the same each time I've returned to the attraction!

Whilst the stunning architecture here is such that one could spend hours photographing it from a multitude of different angles, my photo is a pretty basic shot of the whole area. I'm planning to take a proper camera on my next trip, so hopefully I can get a variety of great quality photos of Planetary Plaza to share on the blog.

Anyway, here's the photo!





I'm actually quite pleased with how it's turned out, considering I captured this image on my iPod! I've added a filter and a tilt shift effect, and I think it's turned out really well!!!

Happy Birthday Mission Space!

Thanks for reading! Please also check out the awesome We're Going To Walt Disney World Podcast, as well as my Instagram account, where this photo will also be posted! My username's BloggerDisney

Have a magical day!

My Thoughts On The New Opening Process For Disney's Animal Kingdom!

Hi everyone! Apologies for the week without a new post on the blog. I've been away for a week (not to Disney), and I will admit I was very disorganised, so therefore couldn't find the time to write anything- I was either too busy or too tired! Now that I'm back, however, posting will resume as normal.

Today I'm going to talk about an interesting news story from the past couple of days that really grabbed my attention. What with all the awesome stuff going on at the D23 Expo this past weekend, this story, for what it is, has gone relatively unnoticed. This news is that Disney's Animal Kingdom has seen a drastic and pretty unique change to how it opens each morning. The traditional rope drop by the Tip Board on Discovery Island has gone, and has been replaced by a new system which sees guests let into the park 15 minutes prior to the official opening time. They are at this point allowed into the park, and are given the opportunity to do some of the park's awesome attractions before the time that the Animal Kingdom's official opening arrives. At present, three attractions are participating in this system, namely Expedition Everest, Kilimanjaro Safaris, and TriceraTop Spin.

I know, I was a little surprised by that last one too, but what I should imagine Disney are trying to do here is to firstly cater to all age groups and demographics with these early openings, and also to distribute crowds around the park as equally and evenly as possible. TriceraTop Spin may be a low capacity, moderately themed cycle ride, but it is an attraction that ticks both of those boxes. Indeed, I happen to really enjoy TriceraTop Spin- it's a fun take on a classic Disney ride system.

Whilst I'm not sure how this new opening effects or is effected by morning Extra Magic Hours at the park, what we do know is that park wide Fastpass distribution still doesn't begin until official park opening. Unfortunately, this leads us onto yet another thing we don't know about this system, which is how it'll work with Fastpass+ when that's fully implemented. Obviously I have no idea, but I expect that Fastpass+ reservations won't be offered for the 15 minutes prior to the park's posted opening time, as that quarter of an hour isn't inside the official park opening times. Therefore, it's not officially considered to be open, even though it is. Just like you can't get a Fastpass on the current 'Classic' Fastpass system for after a park closes, even if it doesn't actually end up closing at the official time, I'm guessing that the same will apply for before the park is officially open.

After this news having been around for a day or two now, it's becoming apparent what the majority of us Disney Fans think about it. From what I've read, opinions are pretty mixed, with a lot of people like myself being torn as to what they think about this innovative new opening procedure for AK. I personally am intrigued as to how this unique new system functions, and am interested to see how it works over time and how it deals with different crowd levels. I still heavily favour the traditional park opening ceremony and rope drop which is sadly featuring less and less in the parks, but I am always all for Disney trying out new things, especially with how they manage this vital part of the park day.

It seems to me like they are definitely doing this in the interest of enriching the guest experience. I can see no way that this could be a cost cutting initiative for them- surely opening attractions earlier will cost more in wages and power- and instead I see it as their way of distributing the crowds as equal as is feasible prior to park opening. Opening just the three attractions located pretty much equidistant from each other should achieve this, making traffic flow more balanced and less chaotic for when the remainder of the park opens- something which will really help this wonderful park that is- despite its status as Walt Disney World's largest park- typically quite congested.

I'm still not entirely sure how this system will provide the most efficient way of opening the park, but I do have compete confidence that Disney, thanks to their years of experiences running theme parks, will know exactly what they're doing and get it completely right. I also see several advantages and disadvantages for how we tour this park. I am concerned that maybe it could produce slightly disproportionate wait times in the first few hours of park operation, and could also jeopardise the plans of people who already have breakfast ADRs planned for the park. But I know that Disney will have most certainly taken these things into consideration when planning the change, so there'll be no problem. Besides, there's the trump card of more park time equals more experiences- definitely a massive win here! In my opinion, just one extra ride on Everest, the Safari or even TriceraTop Spin is a big bonus!

Now it's your turn- I want to hear your opinion if you want to share it! Do you welcome this change? How do you predict it will influence your touring of Animal Kingdom? Maybe you've visited the park recently and experienced this new opening system for yourself- in which case I'd love to know your thoughts! If you want to share your opinion, you can do so by commenting, Tweeting me @BloggerDisney, posting on the blog's Facebook page, or emailing me at worldofdreamsblog@gmail.com
I'd love to hear from you!

Thank you for reading! Please also check out the wonderful We're Going To Walt Disney World Podcast! I'm also now on Instagram; with my username being bloggerdisney. I hope you have a magical day!!!

World of Dreams Photo of the Week- Special Edition!

Happy Thursday everyone! I hope you enjoyed my review of It's a Small World, which was posted yesterday!

This week's edition of Photo of the Week is a very exciting and special one, celebrating the arrival of Mosi the Giraffe, who was born recently at Disney's Animal Kingdom. He's the first Masai Giraffe to be born at the Animal Kingdom, and has fittingly been named 'Mosi', which means 'first'. The name was chosen by readers of the Disney Parks Blog in an online poll, with Mosi being one of several options presented by Disney for the name of this adorable baby Giraffe. Having personally voted for the name Mosi myself, I'm thrilled that I wasn't alone in loving this beautiful name, and I really do think it's the perfect name for the first Masai Giraffe born at Disney!

The poll is now closed, but I would still thoroughly recommend reading the wonderful article which accompanied it. Not only does it feature loads of incredibly interesting facts about Mosi, the Disney Giraffes and Giraffes in general, it also has a remarkably cute picture of Mosi. He is a simply gorgeous baby giraffe, and I hope to see him next time I ride Kilimanjaro Safaris, the attraction at Animal Kingdom which he now calls home! He's certainly one lucky giraffe!

Speaking of Kilimanjaro Safaris, another amazing article was published yesterday on the Disney Parks Blog, which revealed that Mosi had made an appearance at the Kilimanjaro Safaris Savanna for the very first time! This awesome article was also the official announcement that the name Mosi had won the poll, and would therefore be the baby giraffe's name. My favourite thing about this article is by far the two beautiful pictures which were shared of Mosi's very special first day out on the savanna, as well as an exquisite video, which shows him exploring his new home with his mother, and also features an interview with Steve Castillo, the Zoological Manager at Animal Kingdom.

And that brings me to my Photo of the Week, or should I say PHOTOS of the Week!!! To celebrate the newest edition to Kilimanjaro Safaris, I have two pictures to share- a firdt for Photo of the Week- each showing two of his fellow giraffes who live at the attraction too. Unfortunately I don't know if these giraffes are related to Mosi at all, but they're definitely his 'neighbours'! These photos were taken last October, long before Mosi was born, so I'm afraid I have no way if knowing if they're part of his family. Nevertheless, I'm sure all the giraffes are great friends now, as all the magnificent animals at Kilimanjaro Safaris always seem to be!

I must apologise for the bad quality of these photos; they were shot on my iPod, which doesn't stabilise images very well. Considering I was in one of the Safari trucks, and we only spotted the two giraffes at the last minute, it was difficult to get a good photo!

I have edited both images, and despite the poor quality of the originals, I'm actually really proud of how the edits turned out. In fairness, when I originally took these photos I was on a moving vehicle! Anyway, I'm really happy with my edits!

So, without further ado, here they are!

For the first one, I applied a filter, which I really think adds an element of authenticity to the image. I don't know why, but it really does add to the photo, and I think makes it more vivid and visually interesting:




For the second, I changed the brightness, saturation and contrast, and applied a tilt shift effect to the photograph, focusing on the giraffes themselves:




As I said, I really do like how these edits have turned out, especially seeing as they both have the track the giraffes are walking along as a very clear leading line, one of my very favourite photographic elements! I tried to make both pictures sum up the excitement and awe of seeing the majestically beautiful animals on Kilimanjaro Safaris, and I really hope the photographs have achieved this!


Before I go, I just wanted to remark upon how excited I'm getting about MyMagic+. I'm especially enjoying the My Disney Experience app, for which a new update was recently released, which most notably no longer requires you to be logged in to view current wait times at Walt Disney World. I really can't wait to try the app and all the other terrific features of MyMagic+ next time I visit WDW!

Thanks for reading! If you get a moment, please follow me on Instagram, where I will from now on post the pictures from Photo of the Week, (as well as them being posted normally on the blog of course), as well as the pictures I already post of everything Disney I encounter in my day to day life! You can follow me here, and my username is BloggerDisney! Thanks! Please also check out the amazing We're Going To Walt Disney World Podcast! I'll be back tomorrow with a review of a popular Epcot attraction.

Have a magical day!