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WDW Rumor Mill for the week of February 10, 2008 |
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Written by Lou Mongello
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Lots of fun and VERY interesting items in the Walt Disney World Rumor Mill this week:
First, according to a rumor I heard from one of my sources, Nestle' will be dropping its sponsorship of The Land pavilion in Epcot's Future World. The pavilion was originally sponsored by Kraft, before being taken over by Nestle' in November 1992. It is unclear at this time (assuming this is true), whether Nestle' will continue its sponsorship elsewhere in the parks, including the Plaza Ice Cream store on Main Street, USA. Fans of the Super Bowl not only saw the NY Giants win in amazing fashion in what was the greatest Super Bowl ever coupled with the most amazing play in sports history (forgive the editorial comments here) - but you also saw two notable Disney-related commercials. The first was MVP Eli Manning's "I'm going to Walt Disney World" commercial (which can be seen in this week's Show Notes), but you may have also caught a glimpse of the new WALL-E commercial by Disney promoting the upcoming movie. The film, which has a robot as its title character, will be released on June 27, 2008, and is being directed by Andrew Stanton, whose previous film, Finding Nemo, won the Academy Award for Best Animated Feature. According to one of my sources, Disney Parks is eager to promote Wall-E upon release, in keeping with their synergistic ties between films and the theme parks. My little bluebird told me that Disney is planning some sort of attraction to launch on day one of the movie's release, much the way Beauty and the Beast: Live on Stage opened the same day as the theatrical release. The only details I have now are that it's film-based, and that filming was taking place at either Lake Havasu or Lake Mead right after the new year. So while I wouldn't look for something on the same scale as an attraction like Soarin', it will likely be something more than a simple parade or character greeting area. In Epcot's World Showcase, over in Germany, listeners have reported to me that the miniature train town and railway is not only closed at the present time, but has many of its set pieces and track missing. I called the pavilion and spoke with a Cast Member who advised that the village is going to be replaced, but she would or could not speculate on what it was going to be replaced with, or if it was simply a replacement of the track and village itself. Next, I have to report as rumor because not confirmed by Disney, but based on the documents I have seen this is a done deal. You’ve heard me talk about the old Treehouse Villas in the past in response to some emails as well as in the rumor mill, and I’ve written a few articles about them for my site, but I now have solid information that the Treehouse Villas will not only be taken down, but will be REBUILT for future use. The 60 units that make up the Treehouse Villas resort area, which is located on Treehouse Lane, off Disney Vacation Club Way, between Saratoga Springs and Old Key West, along the river between Port Orleans and Downtown Disney, will be dismantled and removed and replaced with new structures that will have a smaller footprint than the current buildings, thereby addressing issues with current floodplains and wetlands. The area of a building at ground level will go from 340 sq. ft to just 84 sq. feet, although the actual structures appear to be similar in size. No modifications are proposed for the roadway, pool or clubhouse areas. It is also unknown as to whether these will hopefully be available for Guest use, or continued use by Cast Members and College Program Cast. You may view the document here South Florida Water Management District If you have any rumors to share, email Lou here or leave a voicemail at the WDW Radio Show voicemail box: 206-202-4WDW (4939).
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