Meet Mickey Mouse with FASTPASS
Mickey Mouse now reigns at a new location in Magic Kingdom® Park to meet and greet his friends at Walt Disney World® Resort. Guests can now go backstage at Town Square Theater for photos and autographs with Mickey — without waiting in a standby queue!
Mickey’s new location in the park also heralds the first-ever use of Disney’s FASTPASS Service for a character meet-and-greet experience. FASTPASS allows guests to reduce waiting by designating a window of time when they can return for a theme park experience.
The fun takes place at the Town Square Theater presented by Kodak, located just inside the Magic Kingdom® entrance. Previously known as Town Square Exposition Hall, the venue has been re-imagined as a turn-of-the-Twentieth-Century theater where posters proclaim Mickey Mouse as the star of a magic show.
A glistening marquee with gold-leaf trim and sparkling lights beckons guests to enter a lobby that serves as a hub for character meet-and-greet queues, the Box Office Gifts merchandise shop and Tony’s Town Square Restaurant. Lush curtains with gold rope tie-backs, polished-brass chandeliers and a huge tile floor mosaic of the Town Square Theater logo adorn the space.
Just beyond the lobby, guests pass through an ornate arch and enter a queue to meet Magician Mickey Mouse — or a queue to meet the Disney princesses, for whom Town Square Theater will be a meet-and-greet location during New Fantasyland construction.
The meet-and-greet experience begins when magical posters featuring Mickey’s various magic acts come to life, enhancing guests’ journey through queues into the backstage corridors of the theater. Mickey greets guests in a rehearsal-room environment amid posters, steamer trunks and stage props. It’s a classic backstage area with a wood floor and ceiling. One wall is brick, the others are papered in red and black — Mickey colors.
During the Princesses’ limited engagement at Town Square Theater, they will greet guests in an area fit for royalty — replete with plush carpeting, lush velvety-blue drapes with gold tiebacks, and a large mural backdrop of a chateau amid green, tree-covered hills and fields.
Exiting the meet-and-greet areas, guests pass through Curtain Call Collectibles, a shop with design elements suggesting a backstage area used for theater shipping and receiving — with large, barn-like doors through which props and set pieces could pass.
Guests wanting to meet Mickey or the Princesses can either obtain a Disney’s FASTPASS ticket or get in standby queues. FASTPASS tickets, which are available near Town Square Theater, designate an hour window of time during which the guest can return to the theater and have their “magic moment” with Mickey or the Princesses without joining the standby queues.
**Photo not taken at Mickey’s new location.
Le Cellier Steakhouse, one of the most popular Epcot® World Showcase restaurants, has a much-anticipated new chef and new dinner menu that debuts this week. The steakhouse concept remains and now this new dinner menu elevates this restaurant to the top tier of Disney dining. The lunch menu is not changing.
For a savory ending, go with the interesting cheeses: a Woolrich goat Brie from Ontario, Canada, paired with honeycomb; Petit Agour French sheep’s milk cheese with apple-cranberry chutney, Smokey Oregon Blue paired with walnut brittle, and Bandage Wrapped Cheddar from California (aged 30 months) with pear jam.
