Tuesday, October 27, 2009

Liberty Tree Tavern Pot Roast Review

By: Kristen Hoetzel

New England Pot Roast

New England Pot Roast from the Magic Kingdom’s Liberty Tree Tavern. Recipe found in Cooking with Mickey and the Disney Chefs by Pam Brandon (2004). This item is served during lunch hours on their a la carte menu and is one of the most popular dishes.

I was trying to decide on what to make for an episode of Cooking With Mickey, a how-to video of Disney recipes when I came across this recipe. Growing up in the north with cold winters we always had pot roasts. They are one of those staple comfort foods when it’s cold. I thought this would be a great recipe to do considering at the time fall was just a couple months away.

Wednesday, October 21, 2009

The Sum of All Thrills


By Kyle Rupinski

Epcot's The Sum of All Thrills is towards the back of the Innoventions building on the right. After the short pre-show detailing how the company behind the ride (Raytheon) and how to build your coaster, you move to the "Design Lab" where touch screen table tops help you build your coaster. There are lots of choices for your coaster, starting with "Bobsled" "Roller coaster" and "Jet" (bobsled is the mildest, jet is the wildest). From there, you have four parts of your coaster to build, and with each part you get four different track pieces to choose from. This is where the physics comes in. You are given an interactive ruler & knob to control how high you coaster goes and how fast it goes. BUT if it's too high, too fast, or too slow physically, you will have to fine tune your dimensions.

Fountain of Nations

Do you enjoy the Fountain of Nations at Epcot? Here is a new video that was posted on youtube by attractions magazine. There are two songs used during the performance. One is from the Rocketeer and the second song is from Yanni and its called "Standing in Motion" I hope you enjoy this video as much as I did.

Monday, October 12, 2009

Kyle Rupinski Park update for 10-9 and 10-10-09

Work walls and scaffolding are up in Fantasyland, mostly around Mrs. Pott's Cupboard. It's unclear if this is just scheduled maintenance on the Exterior or part of the recently announced Fantasyland refurbishment.


Sunday, October 11, 2009

Walt Disney Time Travel "Wonders of Life"

By: Stratofariusbr on Twitter

The year is 1990. You are just getting to EPCOT Center. As you enter the park, you pick up a map, and discuss what pavillion will be the first one you'll visit. Horizons? No. World of Motion? No. Living Seas? No. You are going to Wonders of Life.
Wonders of Life opened in 1989. It was the last Future World pavillion to be opened, pratically one of the firsts to receive permanent rehabs (such as Seas with Nemo), and was sponsored by Metropolitan Life. Metropolitan Life is a company that did just what the pavillion theme was - Health and Life.*** Wonders of Life was a big golden ball and used a simple concept, the ride-watch-see. This was used in lots of other pavillions. Wonders of Life originally contained two theaters: one for The Making of Me and another one for Cranium Command,a simulator for Body Wars. Wonders of Life also has two food bars and lots of healthy exhibits.
The pavillion only opened on 1989 because the Imagineers couldn't find the right technology to make those concepts come true and there was no one to sponsor it. When it opened, it surprised everyone. I mean, Horizons opened on 1983, and Living Seas on 1984, but 1989? That was in the verge of the 90's! Disney wanted to do something that made people scream: "This is from the future!". They did that, a bit.
The two attractions are Body Wars and Cranium Command.How about let's talk about Cranium Command first.

Cranium Command was a show that was builded like it was inside of someone's head. The story of the ride is as follows: You are another Cranium Cadet who joined the Cranium Command team. These are little guys who control people's heads. As you enter the pre-show theater, you meet two of the most iconic characters of EPCOT Center. First, is General Knowledge who is a strong and angry general. Then you meet Buzzy. Buzzy is a young cadet who wants to be a Cranium Commander. General Knowledge decides that Buzzy should drive an adolescent boy so he could see if Buzzy deserved to be in the team. He then ordered the audience (delivering his best line: Where do you think you are, Disney World?) to follow Buzzy and see how he works. The audience then moved to the main theater and watched as Buzzy tried to control the boy's brain and deal with all the other organs in the body, who always talked with him.



The other attraction was Body Wars,a simulator much like the one in Star Tours. There is one difference, instead of travelling to Endor, you travel inside the human body. The attraction has a backstory. It is that you are travelling with MET (which matched the sponsor's name), an enterprise whose speciality was making medical operations from inside the body and turning "spaceships" into mini-"spaceships".The min-spaceships are beamed into the body. Things go wrong as you have some... technical problems.

Wonders of Life was received with acclaim. People loved it and it filled quicker than Horizons or Imagination.Things didn't go all well. On 2001, MetLife dropped sponsorship. Wonders of Life remained open until 2004. This was a surprise since the most expected thing was a rehab (example: Horizons, Universe of Energy and Living Seas).
On 2004, It started to become a seasonal pavillion. It opened when the WDW management wanted it to open. On 2006, Wonders of Life opened its doors as Wonders of Life for the last time. The big DNA which stood outside the pavillion was removed and since that year, Wonders of Life only re-opens as a pavillion for the International Food & Wine Festival.
The question is: will Wonders of Life get back to its brains or stay on its feet?
Only the Imagineers and time can tell.

Make sure you check out @Stratofariusbr on Twitter or his blog at http://stratwitter.wordpress.com/

Monday, October 5, 2009

To Infinity and Back! Buzz Lightyear Returns from Space

Disney World on Friday October 2nd celebrated Buzz Lightyear’s cosmic achievement as the longest tenured crew member in space with a ticker-tape parade down Main Street, U.S.A. in the Magic Kingdom at Walt Disney World. Some of Buzz’s new friends, including astronaut Buzz Aldrin and International Space Station Expedition 18 astronaut Michael Fincke, attended.

I want to thank
Shaun Mattox for taking these great photographs. And sharing them with Wdwfacts.