News / Production Courtyard

The two pillars appeared at the weekend behind the first set of fences, connected onto the English queue of Stitch Live!, in the space between the Walt Disney Television Studios roof and a tree to the left of the building. One tree from this spot has already been removed.

Writing on the pillars confirms they’re moulded concrete. Whilst some initial reports suggested they could be connected to form an arch, their height and size matches quite neatly with the supports for the existing queue canopy.

This canopy, which actually curves slightly outward from the building in line with the circular Place des Stars, could actually be being extended using the pillars to provide an entrance to Playhouse Disney.

White dots are the pillars — could the canopy be extended similar to the red space?

Placing the entrance to Playhouse Disney: Live on Stage here, further out from the building, would also help to “fill in” this corner of the courtyard that now looks unlikely to receive the long-proposed addition of Soarin’ any time soon.

The only barrier for Handy Manny still to overcome — how do guests queueing on the left to see Mickey Mouse Clubhouse and friends bypass those guests exiting from Stitch Live on the right? Stay tuned…

— Consult our previous articles for more diagrams showing the placement of this new show, due to officially open in March/April 2009.

[Pictures: Mousy.be]

We’ve been used to slightly more interesting cups of coffee in the parks for some time now, since The Coffee Grinder in Main Street, U.S.A. and others began offering a squirt of cream on top of your cup. Rather a long way from the creations of a regular city coffee shop, sure, but the new Café Cafés looks to be taking it another step closer…

Top of the menu for this new semi-covered eatery in the corner of Production Courtyard is the option to “Personnalisez votre café en 3 étapes” — or, as the English translation less eloquently says, “Do your own coffee in 3 steps”.

What does that mean? First, (1) you choose your coffee — such as Latte, Cappuccino and others — then, (2) your recipe — add flavoured syrups — finally, (3) your topping — chocolate powder, cinnamon, etc.

After the “themed” smoothies and faux cocktails of Hollywood & Lime at La Terrasse Perrier, the Studios are again trying something new for the parks.

The location also sells sweets such as the standard brownies and cookies, which you can enjoy on seating inside (either side of the counter) or outside. The tables are identical to those at La Terrasse and the new Café Mickey extension, only with new designs on top, whilst the chairs actually appear to be recycled from the original La Terrasse.

Overall, the installation appears to be a great success in turning a dead area of the park and an underused portion of Rendez-Vous des Stars into a busy miniature coffee shop.

[Pictures: Mousy.be’s latest photo trip report]

Café Cafés, the oddly-titled new coffee shop fashioned out of the enclosed former terrace of Rendez-Vous des Stars Restaurant, is just about ready to open its doors!

Well, it would if it had any. With construction fences now removed, we can see for ourselves what the designers and Nescafé sponsors have managed to create out of this relatively small semi-circular edge of the building.

Indeed, there are no doors, rather a large opening cut perfectly into the old glass-brick wall, leading into a covered area with a large serving counter. Decorated with (likely faux) mahogany panels and given a metallic trim, the counter already houses a display case for pastries and cakes, with several menu boards ready and waiting up above. If you were a new park visitor, you’d probably assume it was here all along.

The counter itself appears curiously similar to the on-ride photo desk at the exit of Buzz Lightyear Laser Blast. Nevertheless, there has always been a slight cross-over between the neons of Discoveryland and the neon Art Deco of Production Courtyard, allowing the same circular, ringed edges to feel at home here.

Inside — yes, there will be an “inside”! — the floor has been replaced with a continuation of the more durable patio stones from outside.  Tables and chairs similar to those in the new Café Mickey terrace have already arrived and the walls and ceiling have been painted a colourful lilac. Unfortunately, it’s here that signs of the modern-day world begin to creep in rather more noticeably than if this were a true Imagineering project.

The hanging smoked-glass lights blend contemporary with Art Deco well, but a second type of lighting — a large coffee bean-styled piece of smoked glass embedded with halogen lights — seems like it could be taking the balance a little too far in the wrong direction.

Very visible speakers, identical to those which still plague La Terrasse, are also here, along with a long horizontal heater for those many cold days in this very open-to-the-elements area. The general layout seems to put the new location in the same category as Victoria’s Home-Style Restaurant, only with a less “home-style” environment. It’s “functional”, rather than “immersive” or “themed”, and certainly less than we’ve become used to from sponsors such as Coca-Cola and Perrier recently.

When you’re sipping your flavoured coffee, gazing out across the courtyard, will you care? Well, the experience likely won’t be quite as memorable as a coffee at Disneyland Park’s Cable Car Bake Shop, but it will finally give Walt Disney Studios Park a fifth indoor eatery.

Only the fifth, and only just “indoor”…? Make that a black coffee.

[Pictures: WDSfans.com]

If you’ve had a chance to look through the merchandise at Tower Hotel Gifts yet, you’ll know that Disney characters dressed up in the recognisable maroon uniforms of the Hollywood Tower Hotel bellhops are more than just slightly popular. But so far, we’ve never been able to meet… a life-size one.

Step up to the elevator doors, Goofy! Disney’s infamous disaster zone is undoubtedly the perfect fit for the accident-prone hotel, now arriving every day this Summer next to the dried-up fountain for photos and autographs with his fans — in the full Tower of Terror costume.

“Aw gawwsh, which way is the hotel again?!”

Pins, plushes, T-shirts and more have all been dedicated to Disney characters dressed as bellhops over the years at the other two Hollywood Tower Hotels in California and Florida. Never before though, has one worn the costume for real. Another “petit exclu” for Walt Disney Studios Park!

Though times are not published in advance, you should be able to find Bellhop Goofy to the left of the attraction entrance every afternoon at the Studios, with appearances often right up until the park closing time of 7pm.

[Pictures: DLRP Today.com]