Happy New Year! WDW Central’s Best of 2009

Of course there is no way we can finish this fantastic year without a ‘best of’ post! The articles below are the ones I think were most popular, based on comments, links, retweets, and hits. So let’s ring in the New Year right by taking a look back at the best from 2009. Posts with lots of comments will have the number of comments listed.

• “UP” Characters at Disney’s Hollywood Studios – For some reason, this post was the post with the most hits this entire year. It has barely any information, yet it gets about 150 views each week. Hmmmm.
• “Top 7 Must See” Show Replaced, Keeps Stacey – I was one of the first to notice that the “Top 7 Must Sees” show on Resort TV had ended it’s run – and in it’s place “Must Do Disney” with Stacey remaining as host. (24 comments)
• “Stitch’s Supersonic Celebration” Closes Already – It was announced by Disney that the very unpopular “Stitch’s Supersonic Celebration”, located in the middle of Tomorrowland, would close after almost 1 month of operation.
• Monorail Crash at TTA, Driver Austin was Killed – Not the news you enjoy reporting – that’s for sure. However this was major news – the biggest news regarding WDW in 2009.
• Disney Fans Unite: Honoring Austin on Twitter – After the terrible news of Austin’s accident, Disney fans united on Twitter to make #Austin a trending topic in his honor. It was completely successful!
• Top 5: Scents of Walt Disney World – We took a look at the Top 5 scents in the WDW parks. It turned out everybody else seemed to have this on their mind too! I enjoyed discussing it with you all. (22 comments)
• What’s Your Vacationing Style? – I discussed the two main types of vacationing styles are (relaxed or rushed) and asked you what your style was. Thanks to some of you for chiming in!
• The Elements of Disney Theming: Part I – Next we looked at an element of Disney theming – the MUSIC. I talked about parade music, theme music, and how well Disney hides/themes their speakers.
• Planning Central – Not necessarily a post, but it’s worth mentioning that I opened Planning Central in 2009 and almost 25 in-depth pages were added giving tips, event information, and more to help you plan better vacations.

My Favorite Disney Sites & Blogs of 2009

A ‘Best Of’ post wouldn’t be complete without a few of my favorite Disney sites and blogs of 2009.

• D-CoT – A jukebox with thousands of songs from Disney Parks and more – just select the song you want, and click play!
• Main Street Gazette – Ryan taught me a lot this year (without knowing it) about having a posting schedule and sticking to it – and I really enjoyed reading his blog!
• My Disney Blog – I enjoyed interacting with @DisneyDean on Twitter and reading his blog this year.
• Disney Food Blog – AJ started this blog in March of 2009 and it grew incredibly fast. It’s a unique blog idea saying that food is a theme park.

There you have it, folks. I found 8 top posts for WDW Central and my 4 favorite Disney sites in 2009.

What were your favorites this year? Let me know in comments what your favorite posts here were, as well as your favorite other Disney blogs!

HAPPY NEW YEAR, from WDW Central!

Merry Christmas, from WDW Central

From all of us at WDW Central to you, we wish you a very Merry Christmas! I hope you have a holiday filled with joy, love, and everything else being close to family may bring you. Stay rested, because this coming year is going to be a challenge, like many, that we will get through.

I would like to take this time to thank the loyal readers, twitter followers, blog subscribers, and even new comers for taking the time to read a little bit of the magic throughout your day! If it weren’t for all of you, WDW Central would probably not have made it past the first few months.

Have a Merry Christmas
and a magical New Year!

Posting schedule: The magic will continue January 1st, 2010.

One of the Hidden Gems at Epcot: Club Cool

There are many hidden gems in all the Walt Disney World theme parks: places you never noticed before, or always thought “I’ll do that next time”. Unfortunately, these little details and hidden coves can sometimes be of great value.

Take Epcot’s Club Cool, for instance. People have spent the whole day at Epcot – it’s in the middle of the afternoon, everyone is sweating and just dying for some shade. Yet in all of their misery, they seem to always pass up Club Cool. Why? They don’t know what it is, and don’t care to take the time to find out.

Little do they know, inside this building are fountains and fountains of all different carbonated beverages from around the world – just waiting for them – for free, and with unlimited refills. And being in the sun all day, it’s wonderful.

Disney was so smart in the placement of this. It’s in the biggest “intersection” of the whole park for all to enjoy – right at the crossroads of a way into and out of World Showcase, and also Future World.

So next time you visit Epcot, be sure to walk towards that big fountain (can’t miss it) and check out Club Cool. Get some refreshments, relax, cool off, get hydrated – then go back out for your next Disney adventure. What are some of the hidden gems you’ve found? Share with me!

Photos by kathika & zengrrl.

Hang On! A Look at DINOSAUR’s Enhanced Motion Vehicles

Whether you personally care for the DINOSAUR attraction at Disney’s Animal Kingdom or not, you must admit that the vehicles taking you on your treacherous, turbulent journey are very effective in getting that whole “you’re-going-through-a-jungle-during-a-meteor-shower” effect across. And because of it’s realistic movements, it improves the ride quality and believability greatly. So what does it take to make this jerky ride so jerky?

DINOSAUR has one-of-a-kind ride shells called EMV’s, or Enhanced Motion Vehicles. Disney Imagineers came up with the design and patented it. The blueprints for the mechanical aspect of it is seen below.

The EMV’s, or Time Rovers as they are named for the storyline, are very complex and can offer a wide range of motion beyond normal ride vehicles. They are specially made shells with hydraulic and pneumatic arms underneath to raise the shell, and tilt it up, down, left, and right.

This is great because it adds another sensory element to the ride. When something occurs during your journey, such as a Dinosaur encounter, or a lightning strike, or even a meteor hit, the vehicle can “respond” to these effects – making it seem that much more real.

On a side note, if you’ve seen History Channel’s “Modern Marvels: Walt Disney World”, they show some cool shots of the EMV’s of DINOSAUR being tested and programmed behind the scenes. For a few seconds, you can see them really making it jerk every which way fairly fast. I’m not sure if that’s actually in the ride or not, but I didn’t know just how much it could tilt before I saw that – it had to be at least five feet each way!

Photo by ep4919.