Magician Mickey Greeting Guests at Town Square Theater

[BradyBzLyn...Mo 2,023]

From the Disney Parks blog...

Exclusive: Magician Mickey to Greet Guests at Town Square Theater at Magic Kingdom Park

posted on March 24th, 2011 by Jennifer Fickley-Baker, Social Media Manager

At the Disney Parks Blog, we?re as excited as you are to learn more about Walt Disney Imagineering?s (WDI) plans for Town Square Theater, the new permanent home for Mickey Mouse at Magic Kingdom Park that?s set to debut in early April.

I?m happy to report that earlier today, WDI gave us an earful ? pun intended ? on the details planned for this exciting new meet-and-greet area.

In keeping with the small-town theme of Main Street, U.S.A., Town Square Theater will take on the tradition of turn-of-the-Twentieth-century theaters that served as the center of excitement in small towns, offering thrills through vaudeville and other forms of entertainment. At Town Square Theater, families will be able to go backstage to meet Magician Mickey Mouse, who is excited to meet and greet guests in his rehearsal room.

And of course, WDI has designed the entire experience to be magical. Guests will first enter the theater building through a lobby that will serve as a hub for character meet-and-greet queues, the Box Office Gifts merchandise shop and Tony?s Town Square Restaurant.

According to WDI Concept Designer Jason Grandt, the lobby will be decorated in gold and cream colors that were chosen to recreate the feel of a historic theater.

?Upon entering the lobby, guests will be faced with a beautiful tile mosaic featuring the Town Square Theater logo,? Jason said. ?The color scheme reflects that of historical theaters with a little inspiration from our master magician, Mickey Mouse.?

Just beyond the lobby, guests will pass through an ornate arch and enter a queue to meet either Magician Mickey Mouse or the Disney princesses. Special interactive posters featuring Mickey?s various magic acts will be in place to enhance the guests? journey through the queue line, which will take them deep into the backstage corridors of the theater.

?You will recognize the poster style as that of turn-of-the-century magicians such as Houdini,? Jon Georges, WDI director/senior show producer said. ?But these posters carry Mickey?s magical touch that can bring them to life and interact with you as you wait.?

WDI is keeping us guessing on what comes next, but did send these mysterious photos for us to share.

[mgsmom 9]

That looks great to me!  When we took DD to meet the mouse last year, we thought he was in pretty drab surroundings.  I also like that he'll be closer to the entrance - no more stroller derby to beat the line!  :rofl2:

[BradyBzLyn...Mo 2,023]

New pics posted to WDW News Today...

More pics of the interior work still being done...

http://wdwnewstoday.com/archives/6734

[BradyBzLyn...Mo 2,023]

From WDW Magic today...

PHOTOS - Town Square Theater soft opening including Mickey meet and greet

Mar 30, 2011

This morning saw the first soft opening of the new Town Square Theater, the new permanent home of the Mickey Mouse meet and greet, and the very first to receive FASTPASS. The attraction opens officially on Friday April 1 2011, but we got a sneak peek at the new theater and the Mickey Mouse meet and greet a few days early.

The main entrance is comprised of two distinct sides, to the left Disney's Storybook Princesses, and to the right Backstage Magic with Mickey Mouse. (For a look at the other parts of the lobby, including the entrance to Tony's Restaurant see our update from earlier this week here.) The Princesses at this location are Cinderella, Aurora and Belle, and at Backstage Magic with Mickey Mouse, you should see both Mickey and Minnie on most days. Within each of the sides, there is a standby line and a FASTPASS line.  Once you enter your chosen line the space opens up into a huge indoor queue, beautifully decorated with posters on all the walls. Look at the posters long enough and you'll see them spring to life, as Mickey Mouse performs a magic trick or two. You can see a video of one of the posters on our video page here.

http://www.wdwmagic.com/Videos.htm

Working through the queue you head into the Theater Offices, a much smaller space where the line is split into groups. From there you move into the actual dressing room of Master Magician Mickey Mouse for a backstage meet and greet before he heads on stage. The room is wonderfully detailed and decorated with all kinds of props and details to take in. There are references to Disney parks from around the world, including a reference to Club 33. The photo opportunity looks wonderful, full of rich colors and textures, guests should get some great Photopass photos here. Hardwood floors and detailed ceilings complete the scene.

Exiting the meet and greet you move into an all new shop, Curtain Call Collectibles. It features all kinds of character merchandise, and again is very well decorated.

This new meet and greet experience is a big leap forward over the old Judges Tent, both visually and functionally. FASTPASS is not yet running, but once it officially opens on Friday it should make a huge difference for guests wanting to meet Mickey. Imagineering have once again done a great job refurbishing an area into a great new addition for the Magic Kingdom.

Head to the photos below for a complete walk through of the new area and shop, along with some pictures Mickey and Minnie. As always. click the thumbnails for a larger version.

http://www.wdwmagic.com/Attractions/Town-Square-Exposition-Hall/News/30Mar2011-PHOTOS---Town-Square-Theater-soft-opening-including-Mickey-meet-and-greet.htm

[BradyBzLyn...Mo 2,023]

New posts, loads of pics and a video posted to WDW News Today...

http://wdwnewstoday.com/archives/6749

http://wdwnewstoday.com/archives/6752

[BradyBzLyn...Mo 2,023]

From the Disney Parks blog....

Mickey?s Magical Meet-and-Greet Debuts April 1 at Magic Kingdom Park

posted on March 31st, 2011 by Jennifer Fickley-Baker, Social Media Manager

Last week we gave you a sneak peek inside Town Square Theater, the new permanent meet-and-greet area for Mickey Mouse at Magic Kingdom Park. Today, we?re happy to share more details with our Disney Parks Blog readers, as well as a new batch of photos from inside the theater, which will officially open April 1.

Here?s a look at what you can expect on your next visit.

Town Square Theater (previously Town Square Exposition Hall), has been re-imagined as a turn-of-the-Twentieth-Century theater where posters proclaim Mickey Mouse as the star of a magic show. From the start, guests have three options: enter the queue that leads to Mickey Mouse, join the queue for Disney princesses, or pick up a Disney FASTPASS ticket that enables guests to return and visit with their favorite characters at a later time.

There?s plenty of magic in store for those who wait in the queue, which is lined with posters of Magician Mickey Mouse doing some of his best ? and occasionally, daring ? magic tricks. Guests who look closely just may see a trick or two take place before their very eyes! And fans of Walt Disney?s first successful animated character, Oswald the Lucky Rabbit, may be delighted to see him featured on one lobby poster as ?Oswald the Disappearing Rabbit.?

Later on, you?re welcomed into Mickey Mouse?s dressing room for a meet and greet. Although Mickey is the star of the show, his dressing room sports many magical touches that may make guests take notice, including a Leota-brand crystal ball, a familiar-looking parrot umbrella and a bird in a cage that seems to vanish before your very eyes.

Be on the lookout for another reference to Oswald placed among Mickey?s belongings here, too.

Families who choose to see Disney princesses at Town Square Theater will do so in a separate new area that?s fit for royalty. This room, which is a temporary meet-and-greet location for Disney princesses, features luxurious blue tapestries and a dreamy mural of a lush forest and a royal castle.

After their meet and greet, guests exit through Curtain Call Collectibles, a shop with theater prop theme. Here, some of the contraptions used in Mickey?s best magic tricks ? including a dunk tank, sword basket and saw of dread ? have been repurposed to showcase Mickey merchandise.

Check back on Friday for video that celebrates the theater?s debut.

http://disneyparks.disney.go.com/blog/2011/03/mickeys-magical-meet-and-greet-debuts-april-1-at-magic-kingdom-park/

[BradyBzLyn...Mo 2,023]

Video posted to the Disney Parks blog today...

http://disneyparks.disney.go.com/blog/2011/04/town-square-theater-debuts-at-magic-kingdom-park/

[BradyBzLyn...Mo 2,023]

Take an extensive photo tour, courtesy of  WDW News Today

http://wdwnewstoday.com/archives/6764#more-6764

[BradyBzLyn...Mo 2,023]

From the Disney Blog.  Most of the pics are similar to others here, so I've left them out.  Follow the link if you want to see them...

Mickey?s new Magic Kingdom Digs, plus more (part two)

Posted on April 7, 2011 by John Frost

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If you haven?t yet seen it, start at part one of our exploration of Mickey?s new Town Square digs. We?ll going into more detail down below. For those who already saw it, welcome back and away we go.

Starting in the lobby, there is a great new ?mosaic? on the floor. The 1901 is a hidden reference to the year of Walt Disney?s birth. Thankfully Disney has resisted the urge to use every square foot of the lobby for selling things. The lobby, as it stands now, has a good balance between the waiting area for Tony?s restaurant, the photo shop, and the entrance to the meet and greet queues. The flow worked nicely.

If you look in the door of the queue to see how long the wait is, you?ll get a pretty good feel for the Mickey Mouse queue. As I mentioned, it never grew over 10 minutes the Saturday we were there. But if you look to the back and see no queue for the princesses, keep in mind that there is an extra hidden room that hides a wait of up to 35 minutes (depending on Fastpass volume). I know the princesses are only in this location temporarily, but this blue room is worse than soulless, it?s mind numbing. Can they at least bring in one or two monitors and some wall art like they had in the old location? Better yet, have a play area for the kids and a queue for the adults like at Pooh.

Once you get through this area, you may have an even longer wait in the single room for the Princesses. Which brings me to my other chief complaint about the Princess Meet and Greet. Because there is only one room for the Princesses (as far as I could tell), they only way to speed up the queue is to reduce the interaction time with each Princess. The day I went the queue was pretty small (never longer than 30 minutes) so the the Princesses were generous with their time. But I can see pressure turning this into a photo factory.

Alright follow me below the jump back to Mickey, where the magic is happening:

In the standby queue for Mickey there are some ?coming attraction? posters advertising various tricks from Mickey?s magic act. Two of them are actually video screens that come to life with little comic sketches. It?s not quite the Portrait hall at Harry Potter-land?s Hogwarts School of Magic, but it?s at least an attempt to entertain the guests in the queue.

Once you?re let into see Mickey you enter a hall and are directed to Mickey?s dressing room. The other rooms says ?Rehearsal? instead of Mickey, which is a cute detail.

Inside the dressing room, there is a short little queue where approximately 10 guests wait behind a rather large open trunk for your photo with Mickey and Minnie. On the trunk?s back and lid are traveling stickers for each of the other Disney theme parks around the world and the cruise line. Nearby there are also a few posters like this one.

I?m not going to give away all the details in this report, but here are a few of the things to look for on your trip. Inside the trunk are potions from Madame Mim.

In the smaller trunk among props for various magic trips is one of the room?s hidden Mickeys.

I like the humor in the Magicians Manual. Very Disney.

I didn?t get good photos, but there are two animal cages, each with a fun story to tell.

A couple of fun easter eggs can be found on this bulletin board. The note from ?The Amazing Presto? is a reference to the Pixar animated short ?Presto?. There is a hidden Oswald on the young fan mail Mickey posted up. And the band concert poster is, of course, a reference to the 1935 Disney animated short ?The Band Concert?, which used to play when this space when Town Square Opera House had a movie theater.  Also Band Concert was the first Disney short in technicolor.

On the desk is another hidden reference to the Toad Vehicle that used to sit in the Town Square opera house. Plus, I think Imagineers just like sneaking in references to Toad where ever they can.

Above the desk and the makeup mirror is a crafty display of the icons from all four parks. The Sorcerer?s Hat from Disney?s Hollywood Studios, The Tree of Life from Disney?s Animal Kingdom, The green globe is Spaceship Earth from EPCOT, and the books represent Cinderella Castle from the Magic Kingdom. That?s a cool detail, even if DHS should move the Hat from in front of the theater?

I like that Mickey had this blueprint of the ?Saw of Dread? posted. However a real magician never reveals his secrets, so it?s a bit out of theme.

Once you?re done with your personal time with Mickey and Minnie, you?re ushered into the ?storage? area of the theater, which doubles as the store. It?s mostly plush and clothing. No collectibles, despite what the sign outside says. High up on one of the shelves is a reminder of the old Toon Town location for Mickey?s meet and greet ? the ?bird house? version of Mickey?s house that was being worked on in his garage.

There are also full size models of each of the magic tricks that you saw in the queue posters on in Mickey?s dressing room.

As you leave the store, turn right and you?re right back into the lobby area to enter the queue again. There?s actually a nice little mini-lobby there to display some historic materials. I hope Disney takes advantage of that.

A few more thoughts as I wrap up this report.

Fastpass distribution times were moving in unison, which tells me that they never once met their maximum distribution for a time period, and yet, the times were always at least 45 minutes in the future. Disney artificially sets the times ahead. They?re hoping that guests with FP will spend some time browsing the stores on Main Street while waiting for their time to come around.

There are a few additional downsides. Mickey is still silent. We know they have a talking Mickey in Disneyland, why not here. You?re really shuttled through the Mickey Meet and Greet too fast to take in all the great details. Queues were short the day I was there and they allowed us an extra 5 minutes to check everything out (with Mickey showing off some of the details himself). But since they?re only using curtains for the backdrop, couldn?t the cool stuff have been in the queue, even if it was just the inner queue?

Hope you enjoyed this little tour. Mickey?s new digs in Town Square adds a new wrinkle to your travel planning. For now, there?s no need to get in their and see him first thing in the day. Come back a little later and grab a Fastpass to see him with little or no wait. And the addition of a Fastpass for the princesses makes that almost mandatory since there?s nothing going on in that standby queue to entertain the little ones.

[http://thedisneyblog.com/2011/04/07/mickey%E2%80%99s-new-magic-kingdom-digs-plus-more-part-two/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+TheDisneyBlog+%28The+Disney+Blog%29/url]