Pop! on Location: WDW January 2015 Photo Shoot
Last summer, I took a bunch of Funko’s Pop! Vinyls down to Walt Disney World for a couple of photo shoots, including a Frozen Summer Fun Review and a romp through New Fantasyland. This time through, I visited all four Walt Disney World Theme Parks for some photo fun with some of the newly released Pop! Vinyls.
Disney’s Animal Kingdom
We start off at Disney’s Animal Kingdom, where the crews from The Jungle Book and The Lion King could be found frolicking around the park.
First stop was the Christmas Tree, located at the main entrance to the park, where some of our friends found their likenesses on toys surrounding the tree.
Next stop was a group shot in front of the Tree of Life, which is the icon for Disney’s Animal Kingdom.
On the Maharajah Jungle Trek, guests can take a self guided walking tour where they can meet some Asian animals, including Tigers. It was a cold day out there, so some of the animals were not active, but The Jungle Book crew enjoyed themselves.
Following that, Baloo and King Louie met their Animal Kingdom counterparts.
After that, it was a quick trek over to Africa, where the gang from The Lion King was hanging out in the newly opened Festival of the Lion King area. Scar was not around, still being on the run from the hyenas.
After that, a short train ride to Rafiki’s Planet Watch brought together Rafiki with his Animal Kingdom counterpart.
If you grab a bite to eat at Disney’s Animal Kingdom, you are given a Wild About Safety card. Each Wild About Safety card has a theme park/ vacation safety tip on it. The one currently given out with meals is Tip #14: Do Not Feed the Animals- Your yummies are not good for our tummies!
Disney’s Hollywood Studios
After Disney’s Animal Kingdom, a short bus ride brought us to Disney’s Hollywood Studios, where Hiro and Baymax from Big Hero 6 met their Meet ‘n’ Greet counterparts in the park.
While there, Fred posed next to his portrait and comic book, which are part of the queue for the Meet ‘n’ Greet.
Fred then wanted to enjoy a Butterfinger Cupcake over at Starring Rolls Cafe. This is a must stop treat for anyone with a sweet tooth.
Over on Sunset Boulevard, the guys from Who Framed Roger Rabbit? were checking out the sites and sounds of the area that was inspired by the time period represented in their movie.
While at Disney’s Hollywood Studios, Roger wanted to visit his signature and prints in front of the Chinese Theatre.
Epcot
Leaving Disney’s Hollywood Studios, we boarded one of the Friendship Boats, which took us to the International Gateway entrance of Epcot (located in World Showcase). This was great, as Anna, Elsa, and Olaf from Frozen wanted to visited Norway and pay respect to the former Maelstrom ride.
Disney’s Contemporary Resort
Hopping a Monorail to get to The Magic Kingdom, we first swung by Disney’s Contemporary Resort, where the Mary Blair/ Frozen inspired Holiday Gingerbread version of Elsa’s castle was still up. Anna and Elsa were excited about seeing it, and loved that the Cast Member let them play on it.
Also on hand was a limited edition pin commemorating the castle, which I got. You can see the pin here with the Pocket Pop! Anna, Elsa, and Olaf.
The Magic Kingdom
Walking into The Magic Kingdom, I knew this was going to be the busiest part of the photo shoot for this trip. We first started in the Hub and areas around Cinderella’s Castle, where Bambi‘s Bambi, Flower, and Thumper enjoyed the gardens.
Also in the Hub were the newly released Stitch 626, Lilo, and Scrump. Stitch and Scrump enjoyed finding the Stitch “Disney Side” artwork on the way to Tomorrowland.
From there, I caught up with the Lilo & Stitch gang in Tomorrowland, where’s the Stitch’s Great Escape ride is located.
Stitch could not resist spending some time with his Tomorrowland counterpart.
A quick jaunt over to Adventureland brought out a delicious treat that all of us enjoyed, and something that is a must for any visitor to the Magic Kingdom: the Dole Whip.
It was then time to join Stitch and a lot of other Disney friends in the Move It! Shake It! Dance & Play It! Street Party.
From there, it was on to Fantasyland to first visit Ariel. Upon seeing Hipster Ariel, the Fantasyland Ariel did not know what glasses were, but she tried to recreate the look with her dinglehopper. How do you think she did?
Over at Princess Fairytale Hall, the Fantasyland Anna and Elsa first met their Pop! counterparts, and then met Olaf and Marshmallow!
Next to Princess Fairytale Hall is The Friar’s Nook, a Quick Service Restaurant which specializes in Pot Roast Mac ‘n’ Cheese. As the sun was setting, the gang from Robin Hood took a break to have a bit of dinner and hang out around the castle turrets.
Finally, with the sun setting, the Hot Topic exclusive Snowflake Jack Skellington and Black Rose Sally from The Nightmare Before Christmas took some time to visit with family at the Haunted Mansion, and then took this pic together before we called it a night.
Wow. Four Parks. Almost three dozen Pop! Vinyls. One great time. I would like to thank Allison over at Funko and all of my friends and family who sent me Pop! Vinyls for Christmas to use for this photo shoot. Once again, it was a wonderful time, and I look forward to doing it again with a new bunch of Pop! Vinyls next time.
As always, if you want to check out all of my Pop! on Location Photo Shoots, you can find them all here. 2014 was an awesome year, and 2015 is gearing up to be just as fun.