WDW 40th Anniversary Snowglobes

New snowglobe and snowdome at WDW

Disney Halloween Snowglobes

3 new snowglobes appeared on DisneyStore.com today.  The Sorceror Mickey one has been available in the parks since 2008.

New Snowdome at WDW

Walt Disney World has a new plastic snowdome in some stores that has the 2010 logo in it.  Sorry, no picture yet.

Disney 2010 Snowglobes

The 2010 snowglobe has arrived at Walt Disney World and is probably available at other parks as well with only the name being changed on the base.  The retail price is 12.95.

Disney Parks makes more snowglobes availalbe online

The Disney Parks section of DisneyStore.com recently added these to the selection available for purchase on the internet.

December Disney Pins

Disney has started releasing information on pins to be released in December. Here are a few of my favorites.

new Mickey Through the Years Snowglobe

Actually now that I'm looking at the picture, I realize that this isn't exactly a Through The Years snowglobe. Instead, the various Mickey's represent the different parks at Walt Disney World. It plays "Mickey Mouse March" and costs 44.95. Medium sized.

Sorceror Mickey Theme Park Snowglobe

now available on DisneyStore.com.

new WDW pin series

There will be a new monthly pin series at Walt Disney World in 2010. The Then and Now collection will be spinner pins that show 2 attractions that occupied the same space. This example shows Horizons at EPCOT and the Mission Space attraction that replaced it.

Theme Park merchandise now available at DisneyStore.com

DisneyStore.com has added a section of theme park merchandise to their website. Among the many offerings are these three snowglobes.

Four Parks One World Snowdome

Here's another addition to the new line of snowdomes available at WDW.

Walt Disney World's New Snowdome Line

In addition to the 2009 and "What Will You Celebrate" snowdomes I showed in a previous post, I found these today in the World of Disney Store. Each sells for $6.95 and has a drain/fill plug.
I'm happy to see this as a line and hope it will continue, although I'm not real thrilled with the design choices. I did purchase the Castle and Pirates ones but have never cared for stylized version of the characters so had to pass on Cuties and the Princesses, Not real thrilled with the Pirate character either but the rest of the design I liked. Mickey and Minnie are ok but too touristy for my taste since I live here.
The Cinderella Castle one with Tinker Bell is pretty neat. You can't see it in the pic but Tink is on seperate plastic then the castle so it gives her a kind of 3D quality much like a multiplane camera is used in animation.
I hope to see this line continue with special event domes and domes based on attractions and animated features.

New snowdomes at WDW

Found these 2 snowdomes at WDW today. It was a quick stop in a giftshop on my way home after work and I didn't think to take pics of both sides of the domes. I'll probably buy them tomorrow and then will get better pics.

New WDW Celebrate Everday Snowglobe

What will I celebrate? New snowglobes, of course! Spotted this new Disney snowglobe at EPCOT today for $24.95.

Happy New Year

So here's the 2009 entry from Walt Disney World in yearly logo series of Disney snowglobes. Not a great globe but kinda cute. Way overpriced at 14.95. I immediatley was wondering why the little figure of Nemo is on there. Is this the year of the fish or something? I then noticed the other logo merchandise like this cover of a scrapbook album.
Anybody got any ideas of why they only used Nemo on the globe?

New Snowglobes at Walt Disney World

It appears that the Sorceror Mickey with park icons theme concept may become a recurring theme in Disney snowglobes. This years offerings are more figurine then snowglobe and the theme has been extended to lots of different merchandise.
I found these two in EPCOT yesterday. The single globe above was one lone figurine sitting amongst other merchandise using the same theme. The price sticker was missing so I'm not sure what it cost but it was the only one there which would indicate it is pretty popular. Inside the globe are the park icons.

This larger figurine was with the other snowglobes. It costs $48.95. No special features. Glitter in the globes.

4th version castle snowdome

As you can see, there is a 4th version of the theme park castle snowdome. This one closed on ebay today.

Disney snowdomes - matched set

We like to compare similar globes and notice the differences. Disneyland and Walt Disney World often use the same design with slight changes. Sometimes the only change is the name of the resort on the globe. Disney seems to be determined to do more and more of this in their merchandising efforts and it wouldn't surprise me to find the same globes in all 5 Resorts someday.

I thought this was something recently implemented in the last few years but this picture from Hank Millett proves me wrong.

The 2nd picture is one that I grabbed off ebay quite awhile back. Lousy picture but it clearly shows a 3rd version of the same snowdome.

Spaceship Earth

I visited EPCOT yesterday and have no new snowglobes to report. I did get to ride the newly reopened Spaceship Earth. I've read opinions of others who have ridden it, claiming that the redo is a catastrophe and terrible and the worst thing ever and, well, I liked it! In fact, I have to wonder if they were even on the same ride.

If you don't want any details about this attraction before you get a chance to ride it yourself, then stop reading now.

I found the first half of the ride to be vastly improved. Everything has been redone and it all looks great. Most of the old animatronic figures that barely moved have been replaced with the modern day figures that move all over the place. If you thought the old figures looked real wait until you see these guys. The sound system has been vastly improved and almost every scene has literally been brought to life.

Most people's complaints that I've read seem to be based on the descent after seeing the planet from outer space. There is really no scenery and you answer a few questions on a monitor screen that then shows you a cartoon about what your life could be like in the future. While I can understand that may not be to everyone's liking, I found it to be a lot of fun. Lets face it, the old descent was kinda boring. It was based on how computers are being used today not in the future. Well, I live in the present and know that computers are being used in classrooms and I can talk to other people all over the world from my pc. Why do I need to go past a bunch of scenes showing me present day? I think the cartoon about my future was much more entertaining and it seemed to me that the people getting off the ride around me were having a much better time then I have seen with the old ride.

There were a few things I didn't like. The family is no longer watching Walt Disney on their television. Snow White is no longer playing at the theatre. As a Disney fan, I didn't like seeing this little tributes to Walt go away but at the same time I recognize that they didn't really fit the story of innovention in communication that was being told. In the roman scene the little cartoon horse and chariot projection that races through the street was not there. For some reason I always liked that and thought it was neat but again realize that it may have been removed so as not to detract from the realism of the scene. Then again, maybe it will be back, the ride doesn't officially open until sometime in february so minor things like this could still be changed. I did find the new narration a bit annoying. Most of that was because it was a little to loud but some of it seemed a little to close together and talking over the scenery when I would have preferred it quiet so as to take in the whole scene better. A tighter narration in a spot or two to shorten it would help but that's just my opinion.

All in all, I enjoyed it and found it to be a vast improvement over what was replaced. The ride, once again does what an EPCOT ride is supposed to do. It educates, it entertains and most importantly, you get off feeling optimistic about the future.

Current WDW snowglobes

Some of the current snowglobes at Walt Disney World as seen at the Pop Century Resort.