Shanghaî Disneyland Adventure Isle Update - With New Artworks !

I've got a second Shanghaî Disneyland update for you today as new Adventure Isle artworks have been released on the SDL website. The main attraction and E-Ticket of the land will be undoubtedly Roaring Rapids with also Camp Discovery and here are some new artworks for both of them, starting by the one below showing Roaring Rapids entrance.

Roaring Rapids will take guests on a white-knuckle adventure through the heart of Adventure Isle. Riding a raft propelled only by gravity and water, anything can happen as guests plunge down a mountain and into a dark cavern where the undiscovered secrets of an ancient tribal legend and the reptilian creature Q’aráq are revealed. Only those who venture into the mountain will encounter the massive, mysterious Q’aráq.

The picture below was also released, though this one is obviously not from SDL but most probably from Animal Kingdom Asia Kali River Rapids.

Shanghaî Disneyland will be the first Disney park to offer Camp Discovery, a place where adventurers of all ages and abilities will gather to explore waterfalls, ruins and dig sites in search of ancient tribal relics. They may explore natural wonders and ancient legends, trek past waterfalls and discover tribal ruins in an elevated ropes course created specifically for this land. Guests will be able to choose their own expeditions at Camp Discovery, with some opting for the thrilling natural wonders of Roaring Mountain and others choosing to see the views and become immersed in science, nature, and history.

For Soaring over the Horizon, just a video was released and it shows footage from Soarin' Over California. For the Tarzan show, in addition to the previously released rendering below, there is a video which is the same than the one before, showing the acrobats rehearsing.

Tribal Table will be Adventure Isle festive, art-filled restaurant, inviting guests to come together for an appetizing meal in a sensory dining experience. Sights, sounds and smells will whet the appetite as guests enjoy the action of live cooking with fiery woks and rotisseries. This ancient gathering house in the Arbori village is the native heart and soul of the land, offering vivid flavors, a friendly atmosphere and beautiful artwork. The murals, artifacts and illustrations will dazzle visitors with scenes from a rich native culture.
 

See you soon for a new Shanghaî Disneyland update!

Pictures: copyright Disney - Shendi

Shanghaî Disneyland Treasure Cove and POTC Ride Update

Short news about Shanghaî Disneyland Treasure Cove from Shanghai Daily. In what we didn't knew already, except a short synopsis about the POTC "Battle for the Sunken Treasure" ride, you'll note that POTC boats will be able "to spin, travel sideways, and even move backwards" and i won't be surprised if the fall "under the sea" would be done backwards. It will be more surprising for the riders who will not expect it and probably also will solve some technical issues, like "how can we hide the hole for the fall before the boat gets into it". Advanced Audio-Animatronics can also be expected:

"Shanghai Disney Resort will have its first pirate-themed park with two giant ships and will also include an acrobatic performance.

The Treasure Cove will narrate piracy stories dating back to the 17th century in the Caribbean. Visitors will get to explore the Shipwreck Shore, Fort Snobbish, Landlubber Landing and the Village of pirates.

The theme park also features two giant ships, pirate-themed restaurants and a water play area. Visitors can watch epic scenes in Pirates of the Caribbean – Battle for the Sunken Treasure, as well as the other action and acrobatics show at El Teatro Fandango.

Battle for the Sunken Treasure is a spectacular indoor boat ride that will take visitors on a rollicking adventure with Captain Jack Sparrow to steal the priceless treasure of Davy Jones.

In the new, highly controlled ride, the boats can spin, travel sideways, and even move backwards to create a highly personalized experience.

Disney's patented Audio-Animatronics and recent advancements in robotic technology will bring these pirates to a new level of realistic performance, the resort said.

Visitors can also paddle real canoes through the waters of Treasure Cove. Captains will lead each canoe and point out scenic highlights along the way.

Furthermore, the “Eye of the Storm: Captain Jack’s Stunt Spectacular” will have its global premiere at Shanghai Disneyland. The stage production features sword fighting, stunning visual effects and a whirlwind finale. »

Stay tuned on Disney and more as we'll talk again soon about Treasure Cove with new artworks!

Pictures: copyright Disney

Text: Shanghaî Daily

Avatar Land Pandora Floating Mountains Rocks Arrive At Disney's Animal Kingdom

At Disney's Animal Kingdom the making of Pandora "floating mountains" continues and, after the building of the metallic structures, the main elements are arriving. Good luck for Disney and more readers as Geert, a good friend of mine photographer - see previous article with his amazing WDW pictorial report - was there yesterday when a crane was lowering one of the rocks of these floating mountains.

Obviously the rocks are prepared in another location and then each will be fixed one by one to the metallic structures, to form at the end the floating mountains, which is a pretty smart way to create these mountains, and even probably the only way to do it...

First view of the rock from backstage...

Closer shots from inside the park...

This last picture was shot by Geert from the top of Expedition Everest!

Thanks a lot to Geert for his special report!

Pictures: copyright Geert Jan Bijlstra

New Star Tours Sequence on "Jakku" and Hyperspace Mountain Videos - Updated with FULL New Star tours Sequence Video

The new Star Tours sequence on Jakku was not supposed to be added before December 1 but apparently it's already playing at Disney's Hollywood Studios. And who says "playing" says" fan videos" even if it was forbidden to film - but you know how fans can be transgressive...
We now have a video of the full new sequence, so no need to say that it is full of spoilers...
WDWNT has also posted a brief synopsis of the new sequence which include a holographic transmission with BB8...

"So, the new sequence takes place after the opening sequence (featuring either Darth Vader or the scanner droid looking for the rebel spy), in the space usually occupied by Hoth, Kashyyk, or Tatooine. You fly into Jakku and immediately the Millennium Falcon is in front of you. Finn appears on the side screen to deliver the classic “Star Tours? What are you doing here?” line. A chase ensues with First Order TIE Fighters, ending with the Falcon pulling an insane maneuver to take out a TIE Fighter. You then crash into some wreckage and the ship stops for a moment. At this point, scavengers from Jakku begin to try and rip the ship apart for spare parts to sell. R2-D2 zaps them away and the Starspeeder 1000 takes off and leaves the planet. The new sequence is followed by a new holographic transmission sequence featuring BB-8. BB-8 and R2-D2 sort of conspire against C-3P0 to continue the mission and protect the Rebel spy. After that, the ride travels to one of the randomized finale planets."



There is more about Star Wars as, at Disneyland Anaheim, the Season of the Force has started with  the star Wars Launch Bay in the former Innoventions building and Hyperspace Mountain. And let me tell you that this "Star Wars" version of Space Mountain is pretty awesome, as you'll see on this low light video posted by Attractions Magazine!




Videos: copyright Attractions Magazine, Attraction Faction

Hong Kong Disneyland Update : Mickey and the Wondrous Show Full Video, and more...

Time to come back to the light little by little before the darkness from this tragedy swallows us all. I suggest we'll start the week with a short Hong Kong Disneyland update thanks to pictures found on Google Earth and This is Mr B Facebook page.

As you know HKDL is now in its 10th Anniversary celebration and HKDL 10th Ann surprises will start to open soon. At the entrance guests can see this big "book" with Mickey and friends - pictures above and below - probably here to remind to the park visitors that tomorrow is starting the new show "Mickey and the Wondrous Book" which had this week-end its media preview event.

Here is a picture of the entrance to the theater of Mickey and the Wondrous Book, in Fantasyland.

And here are three first pictures of the show.

Editing: It didn't took long and we have now the video of almost the full Mickey and the Wondrous Book show!

Also in Fantasyland will open this December the Fairy Tale Forest, below a picture of one of the entrance gate.

HKDL guests still have to wait until mid 2016 to enjoy the awaited Iron Man Experience but new Google Earth views provide a view of the works as seen from above.

Another interesting view from Google Earth is showing the construction of the Explorers Lodge, HKDL awaited new hotel opening in 2017.

And, taking about hotel, Chip and Dale make sure that the rooms of the beautiful HKDL Hotel are ready for the 10th Anniversary celebration!

As usual, follow me on the Disney and more Facebook page for more Disney and theme parks news!

Pictures: copyright Disney, Google Earth, This is Mr B

It's All About the Assembly Point

One more thought about what happened in Paris, and later tonight or tomorrow we'll be back to theme parks news.

As it happen in this kind of event a lot of people are saying "we're living in a world of nuts". Now, let me tell you this: NO, we are not, THEY are - the terrorists - and i'd like to take a minute or two to explain you a bit more about this.

Basically, we're all living on the same planet but not in the same mental space. It can be for cultural reasons - for instance an American and someone from India don't have the same cultural roots and don't "see" the world the same way - but the reality being quite the same everywhere we all join together in a global mental space where reasonable and rational people learn to live together. But there are other people - the crazy ones - who, for different reasons are seeing the world with a psychotic angle. They live on the same planet than us and live in the same material world but their mental space is as far as possible than ours. Their world is not rational, the logic of it is based on beliefs which don't have any sense, etc... and their "bubble of reality" can't connect with the one of rational and reasonable people.

Now, what really happened on Friday evening in Paris is that THEIR mental space has stormed inside OUR mental space, the one we share together. The goal being to drag us in their mental space, their "world of nuts" where all is about fear and power. Unfortunately, generally it works, just like it did in Sept 2001. But to succeed they have to do something so powerful for the mind that it will cause a move of what is called in chinese energetic medicine ( also known as acupuncture ) the "assembly point". What is the "assembly point"? Well, as you probably know chinese energetic medicine is based on what is called the energy canals in which is moving the "Chen" ( the energy ) and it's also where acupuncturist put their needles to de-block energetic knots which prevent the energy to flow as it should do ( i did acupuncture studies in a previous life so i know well what i'm talking about ).

Now, i'm not going to do a master class about acupuncture, but basically all these energies assemble together, creating an "invisible energetic body" - what christians call the "soul". There is multiple assembly points possible which are all based on the front of the body and they're located starting from just below the ombilicus and then more up to the top of the head including the famous one located on the forehead between the eyes - the "third eye" - where Hindus put their famous color powder. They are also called "chakras" in India. And depending of the assembly point - or chakra - where all your energies assemble you will "see" the world on a different way. The outside reality remain the same of course but the way you "see" the world in your mind will be completely different.

What the terrorists try to achieve is to blow up the place where is our assembly point to drag us in "their" world. And if the shock is strong enough it will succeed and your usual mental space will be so much disturbed that it will install panic. This is where the fear is coming from. And this is why it is so important to don't let them win the war of fear ...and succeed ( consciously or unconsciously ) to put back our assembly point where it was before. Most of the time we succeed to do it, but the disturbance generally left a trace. And sometime the traumatism shock is such that it moves the assembly point of the whole world, this is what happened on Sept 11 as, as we know, there has been a "before" and "after", and the world was not the same after Sept 11 ( always talking here about the mental vision of the world, not the material world ).

Anyway, all this to say that the battleground of this war is in fact not only in streets but also in our minds and this is probably where it is the most important to win the battle. And the best way to do it is to be rational. Yes, there have been terrorist attack in Paris, we had others before and there will be others in the future. But, no, there won't be attacks each day and the chances to die in a terrorist attack are still the lowest compared to others kind of death. What happened Friday evening is an unforgettable tragedy, but life must win, not death, and we have to learn to get out of it just like we do after a sleep during which we had a really bad nightmare. Sometime it takes hours to get out of a nightmare and here it's the same: it's just people who try to drag us in THEIR nightmare, and we must find in our mind the way out. It's a matter of survival, it's a matter of life winning over death.

Horror in Paris

A series of terrorists attacks happened in Paris tonight, leaving at least 120 people dead and probably dozens of people wounded. Attacks happened in different places almost simultaneously and it’s a horror. President François Hollande declared the emergency state all over France and borders are closed. It’s an unprecedented and the worst terrorist attacks that ever happened in France. These attacks are most probably coming from the Islamic state and jihadists who went in Syria / Iraq and came back to France. What was feared happened and the days and weeks to come are not at all going to be happy in France as the nation will mourn the victims and it will take time for the country to recover. Terrorism won’t win and democracy will prevail, there is no doubt about that, but in the meantime, fear will also prevail before anger comes in. Which is exactly what the terrorists - who are there to spread terror - are looking for.

Disney and more is not really the place to debate about this insane terrorist problem and its roots - French excellent newspaper Le Monde posted yesterday one of the best article i’ve ever read about this - but i just would like to say this: before being terrorists, before being murderers, monsters, etc…, the terrorists who did this carnage this evening in Paris are before anything completely dumbs, unbelievably stupids. They don’t know anything about what life is made of, and they probably will never know. Now, put a Kalashnikov in the hands of someone completely dumb and frustrated with his life, add on it some crazy ideology and here is what you’ve got, a bloodbath with 120 people killed when they just went out of their home to enjoy music in a concert hall or a drink in some of Paris charming cafes. It’s quite easy to fight back with guns other people with guns, but it’s much less easy to fight back stupidity. This is where the real problem is, and it’s not gonna be an easy task. 

All my love and prayers are with tonight victims and their families.