What's New ?

Well, what should you expect on this upcoming trip that's new or different in Disney World? It might seem a funny question to ask of a place that's had the same Dumbo ride flying in circles for 40 years now, but there's actually quite a bit of things that's new ...

• Construction: The Magic Kingdom is in the midst of a huge construction project in Fantasyland, plus there's some rebuilding going on in Main Street. You can also expect to see some of the back part of the castle covered (tastefully so) in construction tarps. Some of the early work is already finished, and a couple of rides in Fantasyland have enhanced waiting areas. Look for queue changes at both It's a Small World and at the Pooh ride.
  
• Star Tours: Star Tours is closed right now, but is scheduled to re-open in late May, and will be a re-designed attraction. I don't know a lot of details, but I have heard it'll feature more of the prequels (groan!) and the ride will use a variety of combinations of different Star Wars vehicles so that your ride will be different almost every time you go on Star Tours.
• The American Adventure: OK, this ain't new by any means, but I've never once seen this Epcot attraction, so I'm looking forward to finally enjoying it.
• Different restaurants: This trip, we're mostly eating the tried & true, but there's a few places that'll be new for all of us.
• Magic Kingdom fireworks: Apparently a new twist to the night time show is to take images of park guests collected during the day and then project them onto the front of the castle when they do the fireworks.

That's it for this post. Stay tuned for more updates in the near future including:

- a decent list of activities at Orange Lake
- an itinerary
- some ideas about how we're gonna navigate the parks with 11 people ... do we split up into smaller groups or stay together?