3/24 Characters in Flight balloon photos and video, AKL Villas and more

[nbodyhome]

The Characters in Flight balloon went up yesterday, and the attraction might be open in a week! I also have a few pics from the AK Villas and treehouses.

I have all the photos with links to 4 videos I shot here:

MouseSteps - Park/Resort Updates


And some of them larger:





















Jambo House/Animal Kingdom Lodge sign:





The guard shack/gates that will be open soon at the AKL/Villas:





Rehab at the McDonalds:




Bed in the Saratoga Springs/DVC treehouses:





Couch in the Saratoga Springs/DVC treehouse:

[Stitchy]

maybe I missed something...what is the attraction going to be?

[Rose Marie]

Characters in Flight is an attraction is where you hand Aerophile $16 to take you 400 feet in the air for 6 minutes and look at DTD. They have an attraction similar to this at DLP where it is apparently really popular so they're trying to see if it'll work here. I'm not sold on the design of the balloon myself, though.

Great pictures Denise. I like the "spy shots" of the Treehouses - they look like fun!

[nbodyhome]

I have photos up from the DLP one on my site, I never did ride it. I think $16 isn't a terrible cost, and I think it will be popular (based on the interest in it, including of onlookers yesterday). It is amazing to me that they may have it up in a week when the balloon was just installed yesterday!

Glad you like the treehouse pics, I did that with the Bay Lake Towers - but even better, and on video too.

[danyoung]

I'm gonna have to see this thing in person and think about it a bit. I'm not really afraid of heights, but it sure seems like a flimsy way of flying!

[NeverNeverland]

$16.... wow.

[sealsm]

I'm not much on balloon rides, but it looks like it could be fun

[Micoofy Duck]

oh wow this looks sooo cool and sooo expensive when your party is added up.

[nbodyhome]

I actually thought it'd cost more, it seems fairly reasonable. (I know it's only a 10 minute or so ride).

[Rex Dopey24]

thats pretty interesting.

[Stitchy]

Characters in Flight is an attraction is where you hand Aerophile $16 to take you 400 feet in the air for 6 minutes and look at DTD. They have an attraction similar to this at DLP where it is apparently really popular so they're trying to see if it'll work here. I'm not sold on the design of the balloon myself, though.

Great pictures Denise. I like the "spy shots" of the Treehouses - they look like fun!

oh, well...I wish it would have been open last year. My mother has always wanted to go up in a hot air balloon.

I bet my husband and daughter will want to try this. I am terrified of heights...but, I may have to tag along just cause I'm "sensible" one and will discourage them from hanging over the sides or throwing pennies at people. lol

[MarkTwain]

I like the design of the balloon personally. And knowing WDW, I would have expected more than $16. At least they are finally bringing something new to Pleasure Island.

Do you have any pictures that show the entire treehouse, Nbodyhome?

[Hazelrah]

I actually thought it'd cost more, it seems fairly reasonable. (I know it's only a 10 minute or so ride).

I don't know if it's exactly reasonable for 10 minutes, but I completely agree that I thought it would cost way more. Heck, it wouldn't have surprised me if it was $60 a person.

I think the balloon is a little too bright yellow. Would have liked a more Jules Verne-ish Around the World in 80 Days look (which is actually how I imagined the DLP version, since I've never seen pictures).

[Peabody]

Too much for me for what it is. I've done one before. It's neat, but to pay $50 for a family to go really high for 6 minutes is too much. I could get a lot more bang for my buck elsewhere in the resort with that money.

[Jerren]

We had a similar balloon downtown in Baltimore which we rode a few years ago, it's not a hot air balloon as we know it it's basically a huge helium balloon, attached to a braided steel cable with is then attached to a big wench that's located below ground. The gondola is a enclosed cage that you can walk all the way around to see whatever you want to see and it is attached to the balloon by that netting you see in Denise's pictures. You are very safe in the cage, the view is breathtaking, and the ride is very slow and smooth, they don't just let it fly up like TOT or anything it's slower than an elevator so you can get used to the height gradually. I'm not great with heights but to me it felt safe and I was not anxious at all, in fact I was sad when it ended.

It's very safe no fear of the cable snapping or such, the big issues is when the wench breaks down and people get stranded up in the air. This has happened a couple times where folks where stuck in the air for a couple hours while they manually cranked them back down to the ground.

Don't expect it to fly during high winds or thunderstorms for safety reasons, and I see that as a big limiting factor down in Orlando as they do have a lot more thunderstorms down there when compared with Disneyland, so it may not run as often as they would like it to which could drive the cost up over time.

The price of $16 is also a bit cheaper than what they charge up here, I think it was $22/adult when we did it about 5-6 years back. So to me anyways that's cheap!