A new musical show featuring the characters from the Madagascar movies will premiere at Busch Gardens Tampa Bay in May. The 20-minute show, Madagascar Live! Operation: Vacation will feature pop music performed by a live band. It will be staged in the Stanleyville Theater, which will be refurbished, enclosed and air-conditioned. The characters — Alex the Lion, Gloria the Hippo, King Julien, Mort and the Penguins — will also hold meet-and-greets in the park. The show opens May 18 at Busch Gardens.
'Madagascar' coming to Busch Gardens
A new musical show featuring the characters from the Madagascar movies will premiere at Busch Gardens Tampa Bay in May. The 20-minute show, Madagascar Live! Operation: Vacation will feature pop music performed by a live band. It will be staged in the Stanleyville Theater, which will be refurbished, enclosed and air-conditioned. The characters — Alex the Lion, Gloria the Hippo, King Julien, Mort and the Penguins — will also hold meet-and-greets in the park. The show opens May 18 at Busch Gardens.
A tour of Fantasyland and a detour to Epcot
I’m just back from a tour of what’s new at Disney World’s expansion of Fantasyland and my favorite part is …. the newly revamped Test Track ride at Epcot. OK, OK, the additions to Fantasyland are fun too, but they’re aimed at the little ones and a non-parent adult isn’t likely to ride them over and over or keep going back to meet Belle. Test Track, on the other hand, is great fun for those of us who just have a childish streak. The basic ride remains the same – the car still hits 65 mph, the fastest of any Disney ride anywhere – but all the visuals have changed. Plus, the Imagineers have added a pre-show and an after-show. Before you ride, you design your own car. Although you ride in the same standard car as everybody else, the computer tests your design and tells you how well it would fare on that ride. Then afterwards, you can put your digital car on a digital track and watch it compete against others. It’s really two attractions in one. If I caught a day when the lines were shorter, I’d go back and modify my design to make my car faster. Even the grown-up kids seemed to be enthralled by the attraction, which reopened just last week. Vroom, vroom!
Designing your own car at Test Track. Photo: Ali Nasser/Walt Disney Resorts
5 million Butterbeers
Universal Orlando Resort on Wednesday served its five millionth Butterbeer, the sweet, non-alcoholic drink it created about 2 ½ years ago to serve in the Wizarding World of Harry Potter at Islands of Adventure. Universal isn’t giving out its secret recipe, which was approved by J.K. Rowling, the Harry Potter author, but here’s a version based on cream soda that can be made at home.
Photo: Celebrating 5 million Butterbeers/Universal Orlando
At Magic Kingdom, Fantasyland expansion has its grand opening next week
If, like me, you don’t have children, you might
not realize that for many younger kids, character meet-and-greets at Disney
parks have become at least as important as the rides. A girlfriend has the
meet-and-greet down to a science. “We can meet five princesses in 90 minutes,”
she bragged, a scary side of her I hadn’t seen before. (The plan requires deployment
of Dad to stand in various lines and the strategic sharing of intelligence with
other Moms as a trade-off for joining Dad in line in front of them). I had no
idea.
So while some people are excited that Fantasyland now has two Dumbo rides, one running clockwise, the other counter-clockwise, other people are more excited about the new opportunities to meet characters that are part of the expansion. By the end of next year, the park will have four new spots designed just to interact with characters. Three of them will officially open next week when the biggest phase of the expansion has its grand opening ceremony on Dec. 6.
Also of note: The new Be Our Guest restaurant in Beast Castle will serve beer and wine; the Little Mermaid ride opens; the Splitsville bowling alley and restaurant opens in what used to be Pleasure Island in Downtown Disney; and an upgraded Test Track opens at Epcot. Read my report here.
'Beast' brings wine & beer to Magic Kingdom; best places for a drink at Disney World
I've heard some suggestions that Hell is about to freeze over as Disney prepares to serve alcohol for the first time at Magic Kingdom. The new Be Our Guest restaurant in Beast Castle, part of the Fantasyland expansion, will serve wine and beer as part of its sit-down dinner service in the French-themed restaurant.
According to Disney's sample menus, wine (from France and California) will run $8-$17 per glass; beer (one French, three Belgian) will be $6.25-$10.50. The restaurant officially opens Dec. 6 with the rest of the expansion, but as with the rest of the attractions has been having "rehearsals" and will have a soft opening in the next few days.
Magic Kingdom is the only park in Disney World that doesn't already serve wine, beer or cocktails, and this seemed a good time to tell you about my favorite places to drink in the other parks.
With its World Showcase, Epcot has the most opportunities for an adult beverage -- a British pub, beer at the German pavilion, champagne and Grand Marnier slushies from France -- and especially for people who love their upscaled margaritas and tequila. La Cava del Tequila (pictured at right) serves some outrageous margaritas -- some with a cactus-lemongrass or hibiscus salt rim, or perhaps flavored with cucumber and basil or muddled jalapenos. La Hacienda de San Angel also offers a variety of margaritas plus tequila flights. At both places, most margaritas are in the $12-$14 range, plus La Hacienda de San Angel fruity frozen margaritas for $9.25.
But my favorite spot for a drink at Epcot is Tutto Gusto, a wine bar that opened this spring adjacent to the Tutto Italia restaurant. It has an extensive wine-by-the-glass list, with most wines in the $7-$11 range, as well as by the quartino, a larger pour, most $11-$14. Tutto Gusto has a nice menu of small plates, cheese and cured meats ($6-$12, pictured at left) -- and its intimate atmosphere makes it perfect for lingering.
Disney's Hollywood Studios has the Tune In Lounge, the bar in the Prime Time Cafe, both with a '50s TV theme. The drinks menu features Dad's Classic Cocktails, including a classic martini, Cosmopolitan, margarita or Singapore Sling, and drinks from Dad's Liquor Cabinet, served with Dad's Experimental Electric Ice Cubes, all around $10.
I found the cheapest margaritas at the Dawa bar next to the Tusker House Restaurant at Animal Kingdom. Dawa is a roofed but open-air bar. It serves an African Margarita made with tangerine liqueur (only $8.25) as well as African beers.
Photo credits: Walt Disney Resorts
SeaWorld's new Antarctica ride will mimic penguin's actions
The ride
vehicle that will take visitors through the new attraction, Antarctica: Empire
of the Penguin when it opens at SeaWorld Orlando next spring will be a mobile
simulator that mimics what is happening to the penguin whose adventures the
ride follows. SeaWorld executives unveiled the 8-person car this week. The new
ride will be part of what executives consider a whole new “realm” in the park, with the ride,
restaurant, gift shop and a penguin colony with hundreds of kings, gentoos,
Adelies and rockhoppers.
“When our little hero penguin learns to waddle and slide, we’ll feel what it’s like as the car moves and reacts to the story line,” said Brian Morrow, SeaWorld Parks & Entertainment creative director. “When he takes his first swim or barely escapes danger, our guests will feel as if they’re right there with him.”
SeaWorld says the ride will be the coldest theme park attraction in the world.
Photo credit: SeaWorld
Now at Legoland: Star Wars
Legoland Florida unveiled seven scenes from Star Wars in Miniland on Friday, completing an installation that took more than a year to design and build, and consists of more than 1.5 million Lego bricks. Miniland is a series of scenes built in miniature of Lego bricks and some parts that come to life with the push of a buttom. The Star Wars scenes join New York, Las Vegas, Florida and other miniature sets. The installation has scenes from each of the six Star Wars movies plus one from the animated series "The Clone Wars." It was introduced by a legion of Darth Vaders.
Keep reading for Legoland's description of the scenes.
Photo credits: CHIP LITHERLAND/LEGOLAND
New Transformers ride to open at Universal Orlando next summer
If you’ve been to Universal Studios Orlando in the last few
months and wondered about the construction in the middle of the park, Universal’s
Creative Studio announced Thursday that it’s a ride based on the Transformers
movies. The ride, already operating at Universal Studios in Los Angeles and
Singapore, will open in the summer of 2013. Read the full story here. Still no
word on the promised expansion of the Wizarding World of Harry Potter — or what on earth could possibly be under construction on the site of the former Jaws ride, next to Wizarding World.
Photo: Optimus Prime and Bumblebee from Transformers. Credit: Universal Orlando
White rhino born at Busch Gardens
A white rhino was born
at Busch Gardens Tampa Bay this week, the seventh white rhino to be born at the
park since 2004. The baby, shown with mom Kisiri, is not yet named. It weighed
about 140 pounds at birth and is expected to gain about four pounds a day until
it reaches an adult weight of 3,500 to 4,000 pounds. Busch Gardens says that fewer
than 15,000 white rhinos remain in the wild, and approximately 200 live in
zoological facilities across North America. Busch Gardens has eight black and white rhinos.
Photo credit: Busch Gardens Tampa Bay
