Walt Disney World News and Rumors 2/24/14 - 3/2/14

News and Rumors are gathered from various different sources. All rumors are rumors and are to be taken as such. 

News


Magic Kingdom

• The Disney Festival of Fantasy Parade is scheduled to debut on March 9.
• Some major changes are coming to the central hub area in Main Street U.S.A. Changes include new pathways, special fireworks and parade viewing areas, and beautiful gardens.  Work is slated to be complete by sometime in 2015.  For a comparison of what the new vs. the old area looks like, check out my TouringPlans.com blog post.
• A brand new 24 Hour party night is slated to happen during Memorial Day Weekend (starting at 6:00 a.m. on Friday, May 23, and lasting til 6:00 a.m. on Saturday, May 24).  The event will be called "Rock Your Disney Side" and guests are invited to come dressed as their favorite Disney Hero or Villain.
• The Seven Dwarfs Mine Train will have an interactive queue where guests are asked to wash jewels from the mine.The attraction will offer FastPass+ and will have a height requirement of 38".

Epcot

• Anna and Elsa from Frozen are supposed to be meeting guests starting at 9 a.m. again.
• Some new objects will be added to the ”Re-Discovering America: Family Treasures from the Kinsey Collection" found at the American Adventure Pavilion.  These additions include:
• Distribution of Population in New York, 1801 – At the Philadelphia Convention of 1787, states with smaller populations voiced their concern about representation at the federal level. This resulted in the Three-Fifths Compromise stating that only three-fifths of the slave population would be counted in the census. The Distribution of Population in New York, 1801 was one of the first few census calculations done by the state of New York following the compromise.
• Noon Wash by artist Jonathan Green — His work with acrylic and oil paints reflect the hope of African Americans throughout history.
• Slave Songs of the United States – Published in 1867, this original collection of African American music was the first of its kind. Northern abolitionists William Francis Allen, Charles Pickard Ware and Lucy McKim Garrison collected 136 songs from the slaves of Southern plantations, phonetically recording them as they heard them, in an effort to preserve the unique and powerful art form.
• Tintype Photographs - Popularized in the mid-1850s, tintypes were easier to produce than previous methods and made photographs accessible to more people. Though their names have been lost to history, the subjects of the tintype portraits included in the exhibit continue to share their stories of courage .
• Carte de Visite – Following a similar printing process as tintypes, carte de visite photographs were easier and more economical to produce, with the image printed on a high quality paper. The carte de visite photographs being added to the Courage portion of the exhibit feature African American soldiers from both sides of the Civil War

Downtown Disney

• Car Masters Weekends is coming back June 14-15.

General Walt Disney World News

• Disney has begun providing guests who are visually impaired with braille menus.

Rumors

• Could Star Wars Weekends include character dining this year?

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