WDWNT Reporter Matt Paul spent a long Saturday at the Walt Disney World Resort and has a number of newsworthy photos to share with us, so let’s take a look:
Matt started off at the Transportation and Ticket Center, on his way to the Magic Kingdom
A Figment poster and the TTC promoting next week’s D23 Expo in Anaheim. Would this be a good time to plug our live coverage of the expo? ;)
The Magic Kingdom is ready for Mickey’s Not-So-Scary Halloween Party, the first of which is September 4th
This fall foliage is on every lampost on Main Street U.S.A.
There are a select few white pumpkins spread throughout Main Street. Could these glow in the dark?
Main Street Station is adorned with a fitting wreath for the autumn season
These also hang from the train station lamps
The Confectionery gets into the Halloween Spirit.
Let’s take a moment to stop in the Emporium to look at some of the new Halloween Merchandise
Plenty of Halloween costumes are on sale in the Kids Clothing section of the Emporium.
Woody and Buzz Lightyear costumes
Pirate Costumes for girls
Peter Pan and Captain Hook Costumes
A new Halloween t-shirt for this year
Three pairs of Halloween Mouse Ears are on sale this year
This pair actually glows in the dark
Buckets are ready and waiting to be filled with candy
Pete’s Dragon is now on available for purchase on Disney DVD (That’s right, no Blu-Ray yet)
Matt heard the Main Street Philharmonic coming down the street, so he ran outside to see their show
Tarps are still up on Center Street for some touch-ups on the Uptown Jewelers facade
The Halloween decor even goes down the rarely visited Center Street
The Main Street Arcade facade is still behind walls and tarps
Plenty of entertainment on the board
As you can see, the park wasn’t very crowded
10 minute wait for Dumbo sounds pretty reasonable
Moving into Tomorrowland….
If only we could see behind this door
The left side of the new Tomorrowland stage is still behind tarps
These new temporary lighting fixtures were added for the Halloween Parties, where the stage will be used for the customary dance parties
Temporary lights have been placed on top of the stage’s Control Booth as well
The upper level of the Tomorrowland Skyway building is being torn down slowly
The box on the right may look like a speaker…
But is actually the sign pointing to the temporarily closed Skyway building restrooms covered by a box
Some of the TTA railings are looking a little rusty
The rusty patch ends quite abruptly
The TTA’s entrance is still behind construction walls as the attraction will now re-open September 12th
The lighting package for the Halloween Party has been installed along the TTA Track
Dream Along with Mickey was playing as Matt reached the hub, so he snapped some nice shots
Does he know Captain Hook is right behind him?
Matt then enjoyed the “Move It! Shake It! Celebrate It! Street Party”
Some new college program Cast Members from Casey’s Corner were brought out to enjoy the party
They had some fun with King Louie
Time to get in the conga line
“Play Ball!!!”
Over in Liberty Square, tarps are still up on Ye Olde Christmas Shoppe
Some of the roof is out from behind tarps, but is not finished yet
The store remains open with temporary signage
Halloween Merchandise has made it’s way into Ye Olde Christmas Shoppe
This year’s Mickey and Minnie plush look a lot like last year’s
This Haunted Mansion piece has been around for a few years
The Mickey watches and the original canvas tote are back as the regular promotions
Just 118 days until Christmas!
All 14 Flags were at half staff in Liberty Square for the passing of Senator Kennedy
The Diamond Horseshoe’s temporary signage has been replaced with a shiny new permanent one
It looks really great!
The Frontier Trading Post is full of new merchandise
The tenth anniversary celebration of Disney Pin Trading kicks off October 1, 2009, and will run until October 10, 2010, or 10/10/10. This pin bag and a bunch of other open edition anniversary merchandise is now available.
The wood seating area around this tree was recently replaced, it looks a lot brighter
Let’s continue our Photo Update with a short trip over to Epcot!
Some additional construction materials are backstage at the Magic Kingdom
Rumors speculate that this is to build a new parade warehouse for 2010
Could Parade of Dreams from Disneyland be on the way in 2010???
A nice view of Spaceship Earth from the Monorail
It may look like a big crowd heading in, but the park was far from crowded
No wait for Spaceship Earth, reminds me of every day before 2008…
It was after 7PM, so Imagination! and the Circle of Life were closed. Living with the Land is closed until November.
Innoventions Green….
and Innoventions Blue
Floor work is still being done on the Blue side, temporary carpet covers an unfinished portion in front of Mouse Gear
The two stores in World Showcase plaza have been given new names and new window displays
For Disney Traders, there are these banners
It turns out not all of the frames for the displays are completed.
A few others are on Port of Entry
A cool banner with the World Showcase logo
One banner hasn’t made it yet
Let’s hop back on the Monorail, and try to catch Spectromagic over at the Magic Kingdom
A Beautiful sunset over the Seven Seas Lagoon
Bay Lake Tower in all of it’s glorious splendor
The lighting on the Magic Kingdom sign in front of the Main Street Station has already been changed to green for Halloween
It’s time for Walt Disney World’s greatest parade (as you voted in a recent WDWNT poll), SpectroMagic!
I think we can now call it a WDW classic
Brer Bear and Pluto were out with the Big Bad Wolf in front of the finale floats for some reason
Practically blurry in every way
Snow White and the Dwarfs were also out of place, walking in front of the final float
Time to take a quick look at the new color changing TTA Lighting in Tomorrowland before “Wishes”. Although the new LED Lights were static tonight, you can still see a big improvement in the brightness of the loading platform
Time for a sing-along: “Wishes! Dream a Dream”
“Wishes! Set it free”
“Wishes! Trust your heart…”
“Just believe”
“We’re all just children…”
“Reaching for our dreams”
“They’re shining high above us…”
“and even though it seems so far…”
“We put our faith and hope on a shooting star!”
I think we can stop singing now :)
A really cool shot
Time for the grand finale
That concludes Matt’s photo update, goodnight Magic Kingdom!
