Grand Avenue & Muppet Courtyard
- Thread starter Nick
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The letters on the shelves, left to right, spell out Writer's Stop, which is a cute touch.
I love that!
The letters on the shelves, left to right, spell out Writer's Stop, which is a cute touch.
Reminds me of the Pizza Planet homage on PizzeRizzo's facade.
Stopped into Baseline today. Make no mistake, this is a Disney mock-up of a craft brewery--there are obviously a ton, but the one it most reminded me of is Crooked Can in Winter Garden. Interestingly, it is a full bar, staffed by actual bartenders, so cocktails are an option, but they push the beer and wine-on-tap heavily.
Nice selection of California beers that are either rare or unheard of in central Florida. You can make a flight out of any four. I found prices in line with what you pay in Orlando theme parks, slightly better than what Disney Springs tries to charge.
Decent amount of seating inside (tho no barstools), a ton of seats outside, including a cool circular bar in the middle. I see this quickly becoming Lifestyler Central, at least when the temperature dips below 90.
It's not a destination bar like Grog Grotto or Mizner's or Top of the World But it will attract the locals (mostly CMs) looking to "hang out" during the day, and already is attracting thirsty parents looking for a quick drink.
With it opening, EPCOT falls to third most interesting park to do a bar crawl through (fourth if you count Springs).
Nice selection of California beers that are either rare or unheard of in central Florida. You can make a flight out of any four. I found prices in line with what you pay in Orlando theme parks, slightly better than what Disney Springs tries to charge.
Decent amount of seating inside (tho no barstools), a ton of seats outside, including a cool circular bar in the middle. I see this quickly becoming Lifestyler Central, at least when the temperature dips below 90.
It's not a destination bar like Grog Grotto or Mizner's or Top of the World But it will attract the locals (mostly CMs) looking to "hang out" during the day, and already is attracting thirsty parents looking for a quick drink.
With it opening, EPCOT falls to third most interesting park to do a bar crawl through (fourth if you count Springs).
It will be a fountain again. That's why it's boxed off now. From what I know, the fountain should be in operation before the end of the holidays.
Also, small thing, but notice that the trash can icon in the "Please help keep our city clean" logo is different on Grand Ave from the rest of the park.
Here, the icon in the center of the logo is City Hall in DTLA as it looks present day:
DTLA city hall:
The rest of the park uses the Chinese theatre as the icon in that logo:
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I know what you're saying here, but USF's NYC is FAR more detailed and with more nooks and cranny's than Grand. While this is certainly an improvement over even SoA imo - it opens up the area more and makes better use of space - I wish there was more to discover here than just a bar. Some of those shops actually being real would've made this are feel more like a real, living city.
I always thought the SoA were really poorly done. It was pretty obvious that they built it to be viewed from the tram and not detailed enough for up close viewing.
Not even the tram, it's original purpose was for movies, with the theme park as a secondary thought. Not that I need to tell you that, but still
This area is really growing on me. I hope they flesh out the store fronts to actually accommodate some shops and not just a facade.
The problem with doing that is the area behind the facades is a major BOH pathway - just take a look at Bio's most recent aerials.
I honestly doubt it's feasible or else they probably would've done it.
I guess the only possibility would be to move something small into the areas. If it can fit onto a cart, it can probably fit into a small area like that. Drinks, ice creams, those bubble machines that seem to be every where.
I try to think of the area as a first time guest would; so you’ve got Baseline, Muppetvision, Pizzerizzo, Mama Melrose, and the two merch shops. It holds up in that regard, but it would definitely benefit from a walk-up window a la Auntie Anne’s in USF.
As an European I just can't connect the area to anything. The bar looks like it could be at Disney Springs. But I guess it's the "transition area" and it's the best Disney Imagineering can do these days...
Even Disney ended up using Universal's NYC area for filming in some cases since SOA facades detailing didn't meet filming standards. (as so aptly stated by Jay Stein in "Jay Bangs")
- Jan 31, 2013
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Looking at how they have the original path between ST & M3D blocked off and the addition of those large BOH gates onto Grand Avenue (also looking at the MDE representation), will this be the only pathway back to M3D now?
It is for now. I have to imagine when Galaxy's Edge opens, the old path (although somewhat updated) will again be utilized as a bypass road. I imagine Grand Avenue will become essentially a queue to get into Star Wars, and only then will the backstage road re-open to guests. And only on days where the line to get into Star Wars reaches that far back (so, probably for the first 4 years or so, ha!)
- Jan 31, 2013
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- Feb 15, 2012
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I believe the idea there will be massive queues to get into Star Wars is over exaggerated.
