Fantasyland Enchanted Forest-Now in Soft opening!

[HauntedGabe]

Tons of Guests this morning are strolling about the now packed Enchanted Forest today. FLE has started the forests Soft Opening well ahead of the AP Holders Preview.

This is the part I've been looking forward to the most, just having the opportunity to gaze at all the little details and theming of the expansion. Hope they either keep it open at night or soon have a soft opening in the evening.
Circus looked amazing after dark, so I hold the same hope for the Enchanted Forest.

[cindymouse6]

Tons of Guests this morning are strolling about the now packed Enchanted Forest today. FLE has started the forests Soft Opening well ahead of the AP Holders Preview.

This is the part I've been looking forward to the most, just having the opportunity to gaze at all the little details and theming of the expansion. Hope they either keep it open at night or soon have a soft opening in the evening.
Circus looked amazing after dark, so I hold the same hope for the Enchanted Forest.

It was opened during the Halloween party last night! It was amazing to be able to walk onto the Ariel ride, walk into the Belle interactive story ( my son got to be the beast). this is the last week of the dress rehearsals

[HauntedGabe]

DeJa vu?

[supernova]

If you can't beat 'em ...

[Mo Noyz]

Hahahaha...um, yeah.

Might wanna check your figures there, Mike.

[supernova]

Hahahaha...um, yeah.

Might wanna check your figures there, Mike.

I don't mean in attendance. I mean in design and layout. There's no doubt that HP world inspired Disney to kick Fantasyland into high gear.

[Mo Noyz]

Oh, OK. Misread what you were getting at there. My bad.

[supernova]

I know that even with the HP boost, Universal's numbers aren't anywhere near those of Disney as far as attendance. My worry is that, since Disney doesn't need the spike, they are only going about things half-heartedly. When attendance was down, Disney started feeding people for free, and that was enough to bring in more guests where they might not otherwise would not have spent money on a vacation. Universal took a concept and built a solid themed world area. I haven't been to Disney World to see this new Fantasyland yet, but from the videos I've seen online, I'm already writing off a good chunk of the land. I'll walk through it to see the themeing and layout, but as far as actually riding Little Mermaid or that silly little Belle thing, no thanks.

[Mo Noyz]

Well, if nothing else it was a land I used as a walkthrough between Liberty Square and Tomorrowland before. At least now I might spend a little more time there.

[HauntedGabe]

If you can't beat 'em ...

That was my thought as well.

[MartianCrab]

We were in the Magic kingdom on Nov. 11th and tried to get into the new area but were turned away because we aren't annual passholders or whatever special group they were letting in.

[HauntedGabe]

We were in the Magic kingdom on Nov. 11th and tried to get into the new area but were turned away because we aren't annual passholders or whatever special group they were letting in.

Yep, AP Holders, Special Invite media, Cast nights.

That is annoying. Disney vacation planners used the private preview this as a marketing tool the past year to boost Disney sales of AP's. It did turn around and bite them by crashing their computer system multiple times for sign up. Then there was too much interest by AP holder so Disney had to add a big chunk of extra private time slots.

It has been a juggling act, AP happier, guests paying nearly $100 to get into the park not being able to enter have been having some melt downs. Challenge for Guest Services CMs.

But it is over now and FLE is open to all now. fyi this is when the AP time was originally supposed to be, right up to the time of the Grand Opening for all.

[mickeytoo]

DeJa vu?

No, actually.
Although, I'm pretty sure I understand the reasons why, the first one is about 1,000 times more detailed and cooler looking IMO, right down to the rockwork and foliage.

[HauntedGabe]

No, actually.
Although, I'm pretty sure I understand the reasons why, the first one is about 1,000 times more detailed and cooler looking IMO, right down to the rockwork and foliage.

That is what happens when Disney's best Imagineers were let go and some of them landed at Universal dreaming up Harry Potter. I love it too, way cool.

Did you read the Legends Panel 2012 stuff? This year they did something different and brought in current and former Imagineers as the panel. This tidbit below kinda summed it up.

Monty Lunde, now President, Technifex:

"The buildup to do Epcot and Tokyo Disneyland was about 3,000 people. But then they opened and basically said
to many of us 'have a nice life' and we were let go. There was no industry for those of us to go to, and many of
us had a tough time finding work, so many of us just said 'let's try to do this on our own.' That was a first wave of entrepreneurs who started exporting what we learned at Disney to Universal, Paramount, Fox, Warner Bros. and everyone else who decided it would be a great idea to start a theme park. That essentially spawned this entire industry."

Now we look at photo's and quickly see how far these former Disney Imagineers have come in building Universal. Even more amazing is when Disney somewhat duplicates a Universal concept, Universal's is superior. Times they are a changing.

[MartianCrab]

Re. the photos:
I see two different versions of fake castles. What am I missing?