SATURDAY SIX Presents: Flights with Bio vol 9 (Tropical Americas, Muppet Courtyard, EPIC Universe and MORE!)
This week’s SATURDAY SIX heads back into the air with blogger-in-the-sky @bioreconstruct for a fanastic bird’s eye view of Walt Disney World and Universal Orlando (along with some pretty great “boots on the ground” photos as well.) Let’s start off with Disney’s latest construction at…
# 6 – Animal Kingdom
If I were to rank all the Disney and Universal park icons, I think the Tree of Life just may take the top spot on the list. The tree is just awesome to look at, and the closer you get to it the better it looks because of all the insanely great details.
Currently, Animal Kingdom is home to a large expansion that includes the construction of an area themed to Encanto (and down the road another themed to Indiana Jones.)
The area of the park that the Encanto section will reside in is the former home of Chester & Hester’s Dino-Rama. As you can see, all the “attractions” (RIP Fossil Fuel Games) have been removed.
Still mind boggling to me that Disney – or any theme park for that matter – would get rid of an area themed to dinosaurs, one of the few things that will resonate with kids until the end of time.
As you can see, not too much going in terms of construction. To be fair, it took years for Disney to build a structure for shade at Woody’s Lunchbox in DHS, so unless there are some DVC rentals in this area I wouldn’t expect to see too much any time soon.
At center of the photo below are recently added Imagineering offices for coordinating the construction in Animal Kingdom. What I really love though is the rare look at the “backside” of Expedition Everest that reveals one of the true best kept secrets in all the theme parks…stuff that guests will never see is almost never themed.
# 5 – Disney Hollywood Studios
Absolutely love these “big picture” shots that show so much of a theme park in one photo.
Our annual In Memoriam article later this year is going to be a a two-parter because of so much that is going away in the theme parks in 2025. Next month, Muppet*Vision 3D closes its doors to make way for a Monsters Inc based attraction.
The fabled Star Wars Galactic Starcruiser is the first EVER two time nominee in our annual Theme Park Turkey of the Year Awards, but with the “experience” being turned into Imagineering offices and YouTuber Jenny Nicholson getting a Hugo Award nomination for her amazing four hour Must Watch video describing why the Starcruiser spectacularly failed, I have a feeling it may become the first ever THREE time Turkey nominee later this year.
# 4 – Resorts
While Bio is over Disney property, let’s checkout some other great photos including this fantastic aerial shot of the Radiator Springs area in Disney’s Art of Animation Resort. This is one of my family’s favorite spots in all of WDW to just walk around in and check out all the wonderful details from the world of Cars.
Here we have a look at the Finding Nemo area of Art of Animation, and in the top left you’ll see some of the Lion King section. This resort was a homerun in every conceivable way. Full stop. The only negative is how the Landscape of Flavors food court has become a shadow of its once great self.
In fact, Art of Animation has become even better since it opened because of the addition of the Disney Skyliner, which it shares with Pop Century.
Here we have an extraordinary shot of the main pool area at Pop Century.
Disney’s Caribbean Beach and the Riviera DVC Resort are also a part of the Skyliner Resort Area.
While on the ground, never paid much attention to this area below, but seeing it from above shows how well placed it is to support multiple Disney resorts.
Let’s head a little down the road and check out some resorts that are close to Disney Springs. They may not have all the Disney focused amenities you get by staying onsite at WDW, but they have some amazing benefits of their own and can usually be found at a great price.
Speaking of Disney Springs… love this shot which is looking down at the Aerophile that is currently high in the air.
Let’s also take a quick peek at the recently reopened Typhoon Lagoon. For the first time since the pandemic of 2020, both Disney water parks will be open at the same time over the course of this Summer.
# 3 – EPIC UNIVERSE
Now we’re talking! We’ve been following Bio’s coverage of Epic Universe for YEARS and its amazing that the park is now days away from its official grand opening! How absolutely great is the shot below?!!!!!
The photo below features several of the expansion pads that are available to Epic Universe for future development. If you want to know all the latest Rumors and Innuendo on what these pads could be used for, be sure to watch THIS VIDEO by the Permit Princess herself, Alicia Stella.
There are large expansion pads next to Donkey Kong Country and Stardust Racers, but let’s take a look at one of the smaller lots as well.
Here’s another angle of this small expansion pad located off of Celestial Park and bordering Super Nintendo World.
Isle of Berk has got to be pound for pound one of the best overall lands created for ANY theme park when you combine three rides, a great show, fantastic dining options, great gift shops, and some wonderful meet and great characters (including both Vikings AND dragons!) Berk is perfect.
Still pinching myself that a land based around the Universal Classic Monsters is real. It’s not one-to-one considering how much of an impact they have had on pop culture, but this is something like other fan favorites such as Tron, Treasure Planet, or the Disney Afternoon shows getting their own fully developed land inside a theme park. Just unthinkable…but now, thanks to Dark Universe, there is hope.
You can see a large expansion pad for Dark Universe at the back of this photo. Make sure to watch Alicia’s video where she covers the scuttlebutt on what could be going in this area (and if it does, I’ll lose my mind…in a good way.)
The entire area of the Ministry of Magic section of Epic Universe is just fantastic. Right before press time Universal also delivered two huge surprises. It brought back Harry Potter and the Battle at the Ministry a day earlier than it was scheduled to return from scheduled downtime, and in even bigger news, the attraction came back without Virtual Line (a system that I criticized in last month’s Theme Park Enjoyment Index while making the case it should not be used in parks with less than 20+ attractions, like Epic Universe. Thankfully it seems like Universal came to their senses.)
As much as I love the other lands in Epic Universe, there’s something to be said about walking into Super Mario Land. There’s nothing like it and it brings true joy to my heart.
The various fountains and other uses of water in Epic Universe is just terrific.
Between the Fantasyland’s Prince Charming Regal Carousel, Seuss Landing’s Caro-Seuss-El, and now the Constellation Carousel in Celestial Park, Central Florida has possibly the greatest collection of incredibly themed carousels anywhere in the world. I have to think for a while of how I would rank the three because each are so great in their own way.
Right outside Epic Universe sits the sister resorts, Terra Luna and Stella Nova.
Bio has also broken down the actual walking routes available to guests staying at these resorts. Longtime readers of this fine blog series know we also did an entire article dedicated to Bio’s walk from Epic Universe to Universal CityWalk.
#2 – Epic Details!
As only he can do, Bio is able to take his great aerial photos from above and combine them with photos he takes on the ground to give his followers a fascinating look at the parks and how they work. For example, this aerial photo shows part of the extended queue for Battle at the Ministry.
While here is that same area when seen from inside the park.
Bio is well known for taking straight up E-Ticket photos, like this amazing photo of what appears to be the statue of Apollo aiming his arrow at two trains dueling on Stardust Racers.
But he’ll also go into specific details on photos, such as a close up of elements on the Apollo statue showing a level of detail that most guests will never notice.
Of course we also get a fantastic shot of the Apollo statue at night, but Bio goes the next step and…
…shows us how that lighting is achieved!
Speaking of lights, Bio was Johnny-on-the-spot breaking news that Universal had installed ring lights around their photo validation lockers throughout the park. This photo validation is a true game changer in the theme park industry in terms of how fast and easy it is for guests to use lockers.
The above photo was taken for lockers that are for guests riding Monsters Unchained, and Bio also got us a great picture taken in the queue of a visual element many people in line may not notice.
How many people are going to notice that utility covers were changed in Celestial Park?
How insanely great is this rooftop figure that was created solely for a kiosk selling Coke?
Thanks to Bio we not only get the detail of the figure standing on one of Coca Cola’s signature shaped glass…
…but the Coke bottle she is holding also lights up! Absolutely love this detail.
One of my Universal Secret Shames is how much I personally enjoyed the old Monster’s Café restaurant in Universal Studios Florida. Over the last few years Bio has been keeping track of some old friends who used to hang out as part of the signage…
# 1 – A Stay in the Helios Presidential Suite
With the month plus long previews of Epic Universe, Universal also opened Helios Grand Hotel with prices that were much cheaper than they will be going for once the theme park officially opens. Bio took this opportunity to not only book a room at the hotel, but one of the two Presidential Suites!
I’ve stayed in a Presidential Suite at the Loews Royal Pacific Hotel and it is completely surreal to see how The Other Half lives. The amount of space you have is just staggering.
I mean c’mon, your own personal gym inside the room?!!
I’ve always admired the weirdoes perfectly sane people who spend time on their Universal vacation at the hotel gym, but having this in my room is something even I would want to do (mostly in order to work off some of the thousands of calories I would be taking in at places like Pizza Moon.)
The Presidential Suite accommodates up to six guests, but Bio made a better decision and brought along all his cameras. Reminder, not all heroes wear capes.
The floor to ceiling windows at Helios allowed Bio to get some jaw dropping shots.
Bio also recorded some incredible Time Lapse videos that you have to see…
Honorable Mention – Epic Universe Parking
Believe it or not, there was some actual news when it came to the Epic Universe parking lot since it opened. However, lets get an overview of entire parking area first.
Bio has even taken the time to label each section. Explorer is where the handicap parking is and Viking is where Premier annual passholders get to park.
The section marked “Dragon” above? When the parking lot first opened, this section had a different name that paid homage to the Super Nintendo World area of the park.
• Yellow arrow is at a pavement circle in the Epic Universe entry plaza.
• Yellow line is the border of the Monster, Gamer, Hero and Viking parking sections.
• A 5 minute walk from this “four corners” location to the arrow. (photo by @bioreconstruct)
So there you have it: Flights with Bio Volume 9! See you next weekend for the latest installment of the SATURDAY SIX, where we’ll look at something fun from the world of Disney and Universal. If you enjoyed yourself, be sure to check out the THEME PARK ENJOYMENT INDEX, giving a monthly recap of all the theme park news you need to know (and a lot more you don’t need to know, but we’re gonna tell you anyway). You can also follow Your Humble Author on Social Media (@derekburgan).
If you enjoyed this article, you will surely like the following:
SATURDAY SIX Presents: Flights with @bioreconstruct vol 1 (Starcruiser, Disney Lake Nona Land)
SATURDAY SIX Presents: Flights with @bioreconstructi vol 2 (EPIC Universe, Tron Lightcycle Run)
SATURDAY SIX Presents: Flights with @bioreconstruct vol 4 (Luminous, Journey of Water)
SATURDAY SIX Presents: Flights with @bioreconstrust vol 5 (DreamWorks Land, EPIC Universe)
SATURDAY SIX Presents: Flights with @bioreconstruct vol 6 (Back to WDW!)
SATURDAY SIX Presents: Flights with @bioreconstruct vol 7 (Tropical Americas)
SATURDAY SIX Presents: Flights with @bioreconstruct vol 8 (Epic Universe Night Shots)
The SATURDAY SIX Celebrates 10 Years of @bioreconstruct
The SATURDAY SIX Presents: @bioreconstruct’s favorite aerial photos
The SATURDAY SIX Takes 3 Flights in a Single Day with @bioreconstruct
The SATURDAY SIX Presents: Our Favorite @bioreconstruct photos of 2024
The SATURDSAY SIX Presents: Our Favorite @bioreconstruct photos of 2023
The SATURDAY SIX Presents: Our favorite @biorconstruct photos of 2022
The SATURDAY SIX Presents: Our favorite @bioreconstruct photos of 2021
The SATURDAY SIX Presents: Our favorite @bioreconstruct photos of 2020
Special Thanks to The Elite Brandon Glover, Digital Maestro Scott Walker, the bio-est of all reconstructs @bioreconstruct, Captain Cruiseline Scott Sanders of the world famous Disney Cruise Line Blog, my personal protege Hunter “Elvey” Underwood, artist @SonderQuest, the mighty maven of merchandise Hedgehog’s Corner, the SAT SIX Fun Squad of Parkscope Joe and “the Dadalorian” Nick, hot shot Michael Carelli, charter member of the Universal Four @Nitro230, the permit princess Alicia Stella, master cartographer Tommy Hawkins, and Hermione Granger’s tutor Megan Stump for their invaluable assistance with this article. Absolutely no help was added by SeaWorld Influencer @SuperWeenieHtJr. The SAT SIX is inspired each week by goofballs Aengus Mackenzie and LitemAndHyde and you Potterheads will enjoy Meg’s other blog work over at the Central Florida Slug Club.
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