Announcement

You may have noticed a lack of posts here on the CanaDisney Blog over the last few months.  We'd like to apologize to our readers for the inactivity.  This leads us to our announcement - we're going to be putting the CanaDisney Blog on an indefinite hiatus.  Life and non-Disney interests have unfortunately left us without the time to maintain the site at the level that we'd like to.  We're going to leave the CanaDisney Blog up and running online, with all of the previous features and articles.  And of course we're not ruling out a return to the blog if our schedules allow for it.  But for the foreseeable future, we won't be contributing any new material to the site.

www.magicalblogorail.com

The good news is that there's still plenty of great Disney blogs out there!  For Disney news, discussion, and articles we highly recommend The Magical Blogorail and it's collective of Disney bloggers.  We were a founding member of the Blogorail and have made many friends over the years through it.  And for more great Disney blogs and sites check out our list of friends on our Links page.

And we're not going away by any means.  The best place to keep up with us is on Twitter @CanaDisney, so please give us a follow if you're not already.  Thanks so much for reading.  We won't say goodbye, we'll say see ya real soon!

Blogorail - Limited Time Magic

Welcome to those of you joining us from Pursing the Magic and those of you just hopping aboard. We are the 2nd stop on our Magical Blogorail.

On this month's Blogorail blue loop, we're playing armchair Disney Parks planners and dreaming up our own ideas for Limited Time Magic.  A lot of the popular Limited Time Magic items have featured old and rare favorites returning to the park.  We're thinking along these lines, and our idea is "Yesterday's Tomorrowland".

Tomorrowland at the Magic Kingdom has seen numerous attractions come and go over the years. For our Limited Time Magic, we'd like to bring some of our favorites back.  The first place we'd start is by giving Stitch his eviction notice and bringing back the attraction's previous tenant, Alien Encounter.  In case you're unfamiliar with the attraction, check out the clip below. Take it away, Regis!

Skip ahead to 1:17 for Alien Encounter

Another Tomorrowland blast from the past we'd love to see return for nostalgia's sake during our  Limited Time Magic "Yesterday's Tomorrowland" is "If You Had Wings".  Occupying the space where Buzz Lightyear now lives, If You Had Wings originally opened in 1972 and was a thinly-disguised omnimover ad for Eastern Airlines.  But hey, at least it didn't cost you a ticket, not even an A one!

Another extinct, beloved attraction sat where the Monsters Inc. Laugh Floor now resides.  "The Timekeeper" was a Circlevision 360 movie, the first of its kind to try to actually tell a story rather than just show the usual fly-by scenic shots.  Audio animatronics were also utilized to help tell the story.  The character of The Timekeeper was voiced by Robin Williams.

Tomorrowland at the Magic Kingdom has a rich history, with numerous version of the present and past attractions over the past 40+ years at the Magic Kingdom.  If we could plan some Limited Time Magic we'd bring some blasts from the past, like the above attractions, back for one last hurrah in "Yesterday's Tomorrowland"!

Thank you for joining us today. Your next stop on the Magical Blogorail Loop is the Disney Babies Blog. 

Here is the map of our Magical Blogorail should you happen to have to make a stop along the way and want to reboard:
 1st Stop ~ Pursuing the Magic
 You Are Here ~ The CanaDisney Blog
 3rd Stop ~ Disney Babies Blog
 Final Stop ~ Days in the Park

Podcast Report - Flower and Garden

Welcome back to the CanaDisney Podcast Report, long time no hear!  We're currently planning an upcoming visit to Disney World and one thing we're looking forward to is our very first visit to Epcot's Flower and Garden festival!  Flower and Garden just opened a few days ago, and lots of Disney podcasts are covering the festival.  Here's a few we've listened to recently:

• Generation Mouse episode 90 covered, as they put it the 'Flower & Food' festival, with great discussion on the new food component to the festival
• Be Our Guest episode 516 previewed the new and not-to-miss events at F&G
• WDW Today episode 1161 featured their Flower and Garden Festival review for 2013
• WDW Radio Live's March 6 episode also covered Epcot's Flower and Garden as Lou's lead news story
• The DIS Unplugged episode 584 also featured coverage of Flower and Garden.  And if you haven't already seen, the DIS Unplugged now features video as well as audio of their podcast recordings

Whether you're new to visting Flower and Garden like us, or regular visitors to the festival, listening to podcasts is a great way to plan your trip (or to live vicariously through others if you're unable to visit yourself!).  And for more great Disney podcast recommendations be sure to visit our Podcast Reports page.


As always, our Podcast Report page features lots of recommendations on other great Disney related podcasts. And we're always on the lookout for new Disney-related podcasts to listen to. If you've got a Disney-related podcast that you think we should feature there's no shortage of ways to contact us! You can comment here, tweet us @CanaDisney, post on our Facebook page, and send us an email at canadisney@gmail.com. See you next time on the Podcast Report!

Blogorail - Springtime at Disney

Welcome to those of you joining us from The Disney Point and those of you just hopping aboard.  We are the final stop on our Magical Blogorail.

F&G's crown jewel, the beloved Mater topiary
Photo courtesy Sam Howzit, Flickr

Thanks to Blogorail Black for having us aboard this month!  We're all discussing Springtime at Disney. And this year we'll actually be visiting Disney World in late spring!  Disney World has a lot of unique offerings during springtime, and we're looking forward to a couple of things in particular.

One of the things we're most looking forward to on our upcoming Disney World trip is visiting Epcot's Flower and Garden Festival.  We've never been to Epcot during Flower & Garden before!  The Flower & Garden festival just recently opened, and runs until May 19th at Epcot.  We'll be visiting the festival just in the nick of time, right on closing weekend.  And this year's F&G lineup has been expanded, featuring a brand-new food component (similar to Epcot's Food & Wine Festival).

In addition to the new food pavilions, all of the regular Flower and Garden favorites return, including:

• Over 100 character topiaries
• Flower Power concert series
• Bambi's Butterfly House
• Seminars at the F&G Festival Centre

Another Springtime at Disney event that we're really excited for is Star Wars Weekends at Hollywood Studios.  Star Wars Weekends run weekends this year from May 17 to June 9.  We've been to Star Wars Weekends once before, way back in 2008, back when we were Disney World noobs.  Since then Star Wars Weekends have expanded quite a bit, and with Disney's recent acquisition of LucasFilm there's anticipation of even bigger and better things for the 2013 edition!

You can expect to find at Star Wars Weekends:

• Celebrity appearances and autograph signings
• Star Wars parade
• Star Wars and Disney characters in the parks
• Behind the Force - Insight into the making of the films
• Exclusive merchandise
• Hyperspace Hoopla stage show

We plan on spending the bulk of our upcoming trip to Disney World at Flower and Garden and Star Wars Weekends.  These events are two of the things that make Springtime at Disney such a special time of year!

Thank you for joining Magical Blogorail Black this month. We will be back in April with an all new theme.  Keep checking in with our blogs in between loops to keep up to date with ourDisney news, photos and stories. If you are looking for more Disney magic, youcan make your way over to The Magical Blogorail website to see all our membersand their blogs, as well as all our previous loops.

Here is the map of our Magical Blogorail should you happen to have to make astop along the way and want to reboard:

1st Stop ~ Manda’s Disney Blog
2nd Stop ~ The Magical Mouse Pad
3rd Stop ~ The Disney Point
Final Stop ~ The CanaDisney Blog

Blogorail - Favorite Attraction Vehicle

Welcome to the first stop aboard Magical Blogorail Blue. Today, we are sharing with you our favorite attraction vehicles in Disney parks.

Back in January when Blogorail Green wrote about their favorite ride vehicles, we immediately loved the topic and knew we had to steal... er, BORROW the subject the next time we got to choose the blue loop's topic. And so here we are!

The magic of Disney Parks are in the details.  And the attraction vehicles are certainly no exception. Disney imagineers always find a way to put you in the story of an attraction, and the attraction vehicles are are a huge part of that. So many of our favorite attractions have iconic vehicles -  the Haunted Mansion's DoomBuggies, the TTA's Peoplemover, Space Mountain's Rockets -it was hard to narrow down just what is our favorite attraction vehicle.  Ultimately we decided on a favorite attraction vehicle that's totally unique and unparalleled in any other Disney or theme park attraction - The Tower of Terror's Elevator cabs.

The Tower of Terror's elevator cabs are technically called an Autonomous Guided Vehicles (or AGV for short).  The cabs have their own onboard power, and are thus able to move along the floor without being guided by a track.  The vehicles follow a pre-programmed path through the attraction.  This technology is pretty impressive all on its own, but all of this trackless tech merely gets the elevator cab where it needs to go - to the elevator shafts.

Once the AGV elevator cab reaches the elevator shaft, another marvel of Disney imagineering comes into play.  The elevator cab ride vehicle actually enters ANOTHER vehicle!  The AGV elevator cab drives into a larger vehicle called the Vertical Vehicle Conveyance (or VVC for short).  The VVC is a giant elevator car that carries the AGV up to the 5th Dimension scene.  The VVC drops off the AGV elevator cab which then drives itself through the 5th Dimension scene, and the VVC descends back down to the load level to pick up its next passengers.

Once the AGV elevator cab travels through the 5th Dimension is arrives at the Tower of Terror's drop shaft, a second supercharged VVC is used.  This VVC differs from your typical elevator, though, in that it is pulled both up AND down.  This allows the elevator to actually plummet downward faster than gravity would naturally allow!

 And even if you're afraid to try the Tower of Terror, like Beth from Pursuing the Magic, we highly recommend it - it's not as scary as you would think, and Disney would never let anything bad happen to you, right?  Anyone who's rode the Tower of Terror knows that it's an exciting, totally unique experience unlike anything you've ever encountered on a theme park ride.  And it's why the Tower of Terror's elevator cabs are our favorite attraction vehicle.

Thank you for joining us today. Your next stop on the Magical Blogorail Loop is the Disney Babies Blog.  

Here is the map of our Magical Blogorail should you happen to have to make a stop along the way and want to reboard:
You Are Here ~ The CanaDisney Blog
2nd Stop ~ Disney Babies Blog
3rd Stop ~ Days in the Park
Final Stop ~ Pursuing the Magic