2016 "March Magic" Seven Dwarfs Mine Train - Poster & Tee

The 3rd annual Disney March Magic contest is underway. Like before, it is a play on the NCAA March Madness college basketball tournament. Beginning today, the US Disney Parks and Store will release a series of team shirts--and new this year, posters too--featuring logos from the most popular theme park attractions. As the weeks go by, guests vote online for their favorite from Disneyland or Walt Disney World until the competition is narrowed down to a single winner. This year's logo for the Seven Dwarfs Mine Train is "Mine Train Miners".

Poster is on paper. Measures 24" x 36". Retail $45.

Item No. 7409055332129P.

Tee is 100% cotton. Retail $27.95.

Item No. 7405056322095M.

Stock images copyright Disney.

March Magic - Fightin' Seven Tee

With a play on the NCAA March Madness college basketball tournament, Disney is holding their own 2nd annual "March Magic" tournament. Starting yesterday, March 16, and running through April 12, the Disney Parks and Store will release a series of 32 team shirts featuring logos from the most popular theme park attractions.

The Fantasyland Fightin' Seven was one of the tees issued at Walt Disney World Resort and online. Features the Seven Dwarfs in a car from the Mine Train attraction. 100% cotton. Retail $24.95.

Item No. 7405056321581M.

The competition works like this: Two attractions are matched up head-to-head and guests vote online for their favorite from Disneyland or Walt Disney World. As the weeks progress, the winners will be narrowed down.

• Round 1, March 16-23 – All 32 team shirts available online.
• Round 2, March 25-29 – Down to 16 team shirts online.
• Round 3, March 31-April 1 – Shirts for remaining eight teams.
• Round 4, April 4-5 – Final four teams.
• Round 5, April 6-7 – Team shirts for remaining two.
• Winner, April 7-12 – March Magic 2015 winning shirt online.

The Fightin' Seven faceoff against the Flying Elephants in round one.

In the end, it's just a clever way of selling t-shirts, but we do get some nice designs out of it. See the Disney Parks Blog for more info and more shirts.

Stock images copyright Disney.

Seven Dwarfs Mine Train Catches Fire

A fire broke out yesterday evening on the "mountainside" of the Seven Dwarfs Mine Train at Walt Disney World. It appears that it was started by embers from the nightly fireworks display.

Image via InsideTheMagic; credit @behindthelense on twitter.

Video from Behind the Thrills...

The ride was shut down and guests were removed from inside, but it wasn't long before the fire was extinguished. No one was hurt. The coaster has since reopened and is fully operational again.

SDMT Pin from Disney Movie Rewards

To celebrate the new Seven Dwarfs Mine Train, Disney Movie Rewards is releasing a "Grand Opening" pin tomorrow, June 5, 2014. Dimensions: 1.75" x 1.68". It becomes available at 1:00 pm ET / 10:00 am PT. Movie Reward members can acquire the pin for 900 points. A limited release while supplies last.

Images copyright Disney Movie Rewards.

Special thanks to Nicholas Maglio of Disney Musings for the heads-up on this one.

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July 2014 UPDATE:

1937 Fan from Whistle While We Blog posted these images of the pin which she received in the mail. It came on a card with text about the ride which also included the grand opening date.

Seven Dwarfs Mine Train Poster

On May 27th, just one day before the Seven Dwarfs Mine Train "officially" opened to the public, the Disney Parks Blog was giving away a poster celebrating the new WDW attraction. The prize was free to the first 100 people who sent in an email with a “Celebrating Seven Dwarfs Mine Train” greeting of no more than 50 characters.

Image copyright Disney Parks Blog.

WDI "Grand Opening" Mine Train Pins

Three weeks ago on May 10, 2014, Snow White blogger--1937Fan of Whistle While You Blog--attended the D23 Day at Walt Disney Imagineering in Glendale, CA. The event was a celebration of the new Seven Dwarfs Mine Train at Walt Disney World and included panel discussions and presentations by the imagineers who designed the attraction.

A number of commemorative items were available for guests to purchase. Among them were these Imagineer Exclusive pins, each limited editions of 300. This first example is a boxed design featuring the ride logo.

Also for sale was a series of four "Grand Opening" mine car pins.

All images are courtesy of 1937Fan. Visit her blog post to see the other SDMT items available that day.

First Park Map Featuring the Mine Train

With the official opening of the Seven Dwarfs Mine Train on May 28, 2014, the first Magic Kingdom park map was issued featuring the new attraction and the completed Fantasyland.

Back side.

[CLICK IMAGES TO ENLARGE]

Front.

Map images via Orlando Park News.

The First Ride! Seven Dwarfs Mine Train Officially Open!

Today marks the official grand opening of the Seven Dwarfs Mine Train at Walt Disney World, and the attraction is now appearing on park maps.

Map image copyright Disney/Google

Soft openings for the new coaster have actually been occurring for a week. I was at the park last Wednesday when they let on about a hundred lucky guests first thing in the morning. I missed this opportunity, and soon after it was closed off to allow only cast members to ride for the remainder of the day. Thursday was a similar experience. However, on Friday May 23rd, the park was open 24 hours and the Mine Train was in full swing!

My first chance was on Saturday. The queue line wrapped around the outside of the attraction, clear past Storybook Circus. At 10:30 am, the soft opening began and park guests could ride for the remainder of the day (except for a few short interruptions now and again).

While the wait sign read 60 minutes, the actual time standing in line would be somewhere between 25-45 minutes. It moved rather quickly.

On my first ride, I had the pleasure of joining Ben Miles and his parents (Ben being the last person ever to have ridden Snow White's Scary Adventures). A medley of instrumental Snow White music filled the air as we walked through the ascetically pleasing interactive queue.

The ride itself is rather interesting because it's a roller coaster, yet with dark ride elements. Disney considers it a family coaster, but it's one that packs a punch! Other than the loading area and the two show scenes, there's hardly a flat stretch of track to be found. And the individual swinging mine cars make for a smooth, yet even more intense experience.

The first third of the ride is all coaster as it takes you up a lift and around sharp curves. Then as you enter the mine, things slow down to a dark ride pace.

Much has already been said about the state-of-the-art animatronics. It's all true. A spectacular show scene features the singing dwarfs. Then as we near the end of the mine, we climb another lift.

On this last third of the ride, the coaster's g-force is really felt. Drops, turns, and speed! We end up outside of the cottage and come to a complete stop. Through the windows we see the Silly Song dance reenacted. A few of the dwarf animatronics were brought over from the Scary Adventures for this. The best time to view this scene is at night when the window glass isn't reflecting your own image back at you.

And at the very end, standing outside of the cottage is a terrific new audio-animatronic Witch.

The Seven Dwarfs Mine Train is a great addition to the new Fantasyland. Fun and thrills! It's a coaster, though, not a dark ride. The loss of a classic attraction like Snow White's Scary Adventures is still a difficult pill to swallow. Yet, at least her memory can live on in aspects of this new gem of a ride.

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Today's grand opening wait time is up to 3 hours.

Photo by allears.net.

Ribbon-Cutting Ceremony for Mine Train

The Disney Parks Blog has posted pics and video from the grand opening of the Seven Dwarfs Mine Train where a ribbon-cutting ceremony took place early this morning. Snow and the Dwarfs were joined by Magic Kingdom vice president Phil Holmes and Orlando Magic players Tobias Harris and Victor Oladipo to officially open the new attraction.

The NBA stars, along with seven pairs of adults and kids from Big Brothers Big Sisters of Central Florida, all became the first official guests to ride the Mine Train.

Photos and Video copyright Disney.

Seven Dwarfs Mine Train - Online Game

Minor's Wanted! During our wait for the WDW attraction to open, Disney has produced a "newsreel" to recruit more miners. The clip encourages viewers to visit DisneyMineTrain.com.

Over the last couple of weeks, this ride webpage has had a countdown going for the release of an online Seven Dwarfs Mine Train game for kids. Visitors could "join the crew" and acquire a dwarf name, but the game itself was not live until today. Spoiler alert! If you want to discover the game details for yourself, don't read on.

When I did this a few days ago, there were a series of five questions I had to answer.

Favorite color and sound?

Bring to a desert island?

Free time and present preferences?

After completing the answers, my name turned out to be Lovey. (I hope this doesn't mean the desert island I end up on belongs to Gilligan!)

I was then able to download the Miner's Handbook.

Now that the game has gone live, I went through the process of getting a dwarf name again. This time, only three questions were asked, and they were completely different from the earlier ones.

And my new name is Chatty.

The game is made up of three challenges--the first is Pickin'. Chip away at the rock to get as many gems as you can in 45 seconds. Click your mouse to activate the pickaxe.

Next is Rockin'. Use your arrow keys to rock the mine car back and forth to collect the falling gems. Try to avoid other objects, though, which detract from your score.

The final challenge is Singin'. After listening to the dwarfs deliver a round of Heigh Ho, the order in which they were singing is jumbled. It's up to you to put them back the way they were.

After the game is finished, the results are tallied and your specialty is declared in a downloadable certificate. I am a Diamond Picker.

On another try, I received a low score and was awarded a Minor Miner certificate. A high score got me Gem Master.

After the Mine Train attraction officially opens on May 28th at Walt Disney World, kids can take their certificate to City Hall to receive an official seal of approval.

With the game now online, I took another look at the Miner's Handbook. It has a new look and more pages (as compared to the one from a few days ago).

All images copyright Disney.