InsidEars 1st Anniversary event - LOTS of news

Started by claire2281, April 13, 2019, 10:38:40 AM

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claire2281

The second Insidears conference was held yesterday and it came with loads of news...

- The Studio Tram Tour entrance will be relocated (since it's right where the new boulevard will go!) and Cars will be added to the attraction. Scheduled to open Summer 2020.
- The parking entrance will be changed with some booths now automated to speed things up
- Security in the hub will be updated to include more lanes to again speed things up
- The turnstiles into the park will be changed to speed up entrance. They needed to be tested thoroughly in both summer and winter conditions before they're all changed but some will appear at WDS soon.
- The Mark Twain will be restored. They need to strip it back to the bare bones and rebuild it from there with better, more hard wearing materials and this is going to take 2 years. But it isn't just going to be scrapped.
- The entire track of Autotopia is being re-paved, the queue and landscaping are being redone and the lighting is becoming LEDs. It reopens in September.
- Random drop sequences will be added to the ToT from the Halloween season
- The Emporium will close next year for an extensive refurbishment. It's being expanded, new digital features are being added and cast members will be able to process your purchases on the floor rather than you having to go and line up at a till
- As part of this, the barber shop will have to be moved to inside Liberty Arcade
- Meet and greets at hotels are being looked at so they can be 'enhanced'
- The Disney Village project is 95% planned now
- A new version of the DLP app will be released shortly with notifications of waiting times at restaurants and the ability to give you directions to something from where you are. Over the next 3 years all other expected functionality will be added - check in, park tickets, room keys and restaurant reservations. Fastpasses weren't specifically mentioned but it would seem likely.
- Annual passes and disability passes will become digital within the next year.
- Phantom Manor reopens May 3rd with a lot of small but significant story changes (but I posted about those in its topic)
- The snacks, merch, shows, costumes, characters and floats for the Lion King and Jungle Festival were all previewed
- The Frozen experience in the of Art of Animation building was previewed. It will be in three parts with Anna, Kristoff and Sven in the first part, Elsa in the second and Olaf at the end. People move from section to section and there's sing alongs etc.
- The storyline for the Marvel Land will be that Tony Stark's father had a facility in Paris in the 50s and Tony is now reopening it, inviting us to come and train to be new heroes. It'll be called the WEB facility and Spider-Man will have a strong presence (unsurprising given we know that an attraction around him is replacing Armageddon)
My Trips:
03/2009 DCR -- 07/2009 DLH -- 03/2010 Cheyenne -- 07/2010  DLH -- 12/2010 SL -- 03/2011  Cheyenne -- 08/2011 NBC -- 12/2012 HNY -- 03/2013  Cheyenne - 12/2014 SL -- 03/2016 Cheyenne -- 07/2017  Cheyenne - 12/2017 SL - 08/18 - Cheyenne - 12/2018 NBC - 07/2019 Cheyenne

Rocketeer

Lots of good news there.

My highlights...

I'm cruious to see how the Cars Tram Tour turns out. I just hope its more than a pair of eyes added to the oil tanker.

I don't like the idea of the Barber shop closing / relocating.

Good news on the Village plans coming into place.


"We're not trying to entertain the critics ... I'll take my chances with the public." - Walt Disney


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Mollaka

By digital AP does it mean an RFID card or using the app as the key (QR code?)



My badges of honor: 2014/06 - DL | 2015 Sep, 2019 May - DLP | 2018 May - WDW

Coming up: DLP: Jun, Sep, Oct | WDW: 2020 Jan

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