Operated by the Patina Restaurant Group, Tutto Gusto joins the line-up in the pavilion’s expanded dining, offering 200 Italian wines, Italian beers, coffees and a selection of authentic Italian small plates.

“We are always looking at ways to keep Epcot fresh and vibrant for our guests,” says Erin Youngs, vice president of Epcot. “The new Tutto Gusto Wine Cellar and refreshed Tutto Italia are excellent enhancements to World Showcase. Both nicely complement Via Napoli and offer guests a chance to enjoy the richness of Italian culture as they savor the authentic flavors of Italy.”

The delectable small plates at Tutto Gusto, perfect for sharing, include simple, flavorful small plates such as bruschetta di Capri, pizze fritte, polenta funghi e taleggio. Artisanal Italian cheeses are offered, with everything from soft, creamy La Tur to salty-sweet aged Parmigiano Reggiano. Fresh hand-crafted mozzarella is made in bufala and fior di latte styles.  Also featured are cured, sliced meats, including prosciutto di Parma, mortadella, sopressata and more. The corkscrew-shaped cavatappi pasta is highlighted in its own section, with different preparations.

The rustic wine cellar is furnished with authentic design elements directly from Italy: chandeliers, marble and limestone floors, wall hangings and more.  A long bar is the centerpiece of the room, with a fireplace and other classic touches.

Newly Renovated Tutto Italia

The makeover gives Tutto Italia a more expansive feel, with covered outdoor seating  for 45 with ceiling fans and lighting, and pretty new carpet,  dark-wood booths and spacious banquettes replacing some of the tables in the dining room. The lovely wall murals and elegant chandeliers remain.

The menu is classic Italian, with starters such as lightly fried calamari fritti and minestrone with pancetta.  Pasta dishes range from spaghetti with veal and beef meatballs to a handmade pasta with zucchini, mint and burrata cheese. Entrées include beautiful grilled swordfish, braised lamb shank, and creamy polenta with braised beef short ribs.  For dessert, the cannoli with sweet ricotta or mocha tiramisu are the most requested.

A gluten-free menu shows it’s not just an afterthought, with entrées including rice pasta pomodoro, risotto, and a salmon filet with artichokes, potatoes and olives.

Chef Renzo Barcatta oversees both Tutto Gusto and Tutto Italia, with Benito Sevarin leading the front of the house. Barcatta grew up in Cavalese, Italy, and honed his skills in restaurants in Venice, Milan and Rome. He prepares authentic dishes with choices sourced across Italy, offering the best of each region. In addition to pairing well with wine, Chef Baracatta’s creations also match nicely with family-friendly agua frescas and other non-alcoholic beverages.

Via Napoli

The first authentic Italian pizzeria to ever open at Epcot, Via Napoli features a selection of classical Neapolitan pizzas, ranging from pizza bianca, quattro stagioni, piccante, ortolano and a traditional margherita. Chef Charlie Restivo, a pizza expert hailing from New York, is executive chef at Via Napoli, where he crafts the pies using simple and delicious Italian ingredients such as San Marzano tomatoes, Caputo flour, handmade fresh mozzarella, Parma Cotto, crumbled sausage and water calibrated specifically to the pH found in Naples.

A distinctive feature at Via Napoli is the wood-burning ovens, which are named after the three active volcanoes in Italy – Mount Etna, Mount Vesuvius and Stromboli.  Each oven is sculpted with the “face of the volcano” — reflecting the gods whose mythology surrounds each volcano’s history.

For reservations at Tutto Italia or Via Napoli, call (407) WDW-DINE / (407) 939-3463; both are on the Disney Dining Plan. Tutto Gusto doesn’t take reservations and is not on the Disney Dining Plan.

Oo… aah… exciting, right? Well, let’s get down to nitty-gritty and start scoping them out with our peepers! Up first, the classic montage that first popped up on the Disney World website. This version actually has more to see – extra people, and in higher resolution the people look less like they’re wearing monkey face masks too. Perhaps we spoke too soon, those kids are a little creepy. Are they looking right at us?

But we do get a much better look at what we think is going to be the new marquee for the attraction. Notice how in the higher resolution you can actually see the lines that define the panels/ribs on the surface of the curved shape that mimic the metallic panels of the old World of Motion and Test Track building.

And we also get a much better look at the vignettes in the background, in particular the one the car seems to zooming toward in the distance behind the main focus vehicle. Lovely little people designing cars it seems.

And then there’s this.. Anyone know what “Electricification” would mean in this context? We’re baffled, but obviously it was important enough to include in the concept art.

We didn’t find anything terribly exciting in the middle image – we just thought it was nifty looking so we included it just incase you wanted to make it your desktop background or something. We will note once again something that has bugged us since these concept art pieces came out. Responsiveness is supposed to be blue and depicted by a little mountain.. It’s purple and has the time-clock icon – the characteristics of what should be “power” according to Disney’s own little promo pieces. That makes that art apparently wrong or fudged or something…

That said.. the third image. That’s where things got interesting. It’s a blatant overlay of the old Test Track ride.

Your eyes don’t deceive you, that is a sign that blatantly says “brake test” along with the old arrow signs, barrier railing, and even the ghost of an orange cone for good measure. You can even make out the remnants of a few barrier reflectors lights too. You know this new scene will be replacing the old ABS brake scene in the revamped attraction.The other scenes depicted are just kinda pretty and don’t seem to give up much detail, but there’s a few more tidbits to milk from this one.

There’s a really big structural grid up in the air. That lightning effect is coming from a serious bit of hardware. It’s big. Also, the whole section is sort of enclosed in its own sort of grid with walls and a ceiling of its own.

We jokingly suggested that the famed Tesla coil effect that WDI had developed for the Maelstrom attraction but never used was making a comeback when we first saw that lightning effect in the concept art. Maybe that’s closer to the truth than we really knew.

Regardless, the detailed images make this refurbishment look all the more exciting. Certainly more vibrant and colorful.. and if anything, more detailed, and large cloudy-rig-in-the-airy.

The test will involve a special Fastpass card allowing entry to the Fastpass lines for various Magic Kingdom attractions at a pre-determined time. Guests will be asked their preferences for attractions and time slots prior to arrival at the Magic Kingdom and then be paired with an itinerary.

The special Fastpass itinerary confirmation itself will be emailed to the guests, but can also be reviewed by visiting City Hall or at enhanced Fastpass kiosks at Jungle Cruise, Splash Mountain, Mickey’s Philharmagic, and Stitch’s Great Escape. Participants may only enter the designated Fastpass queues during the time periods allotted in their itinerary. This program test will continue through May 15th.

UPDATE: We’ve been informed that Jungle Cruise, Splash Mountain, Mickey’s Philharmagic, and Stitch’s Great Escape are both on the system and enhanced kiosks to check one’s itinerary, but other attractions like Haunted Mansion, Peter Pan’s Flight, and The Many Adventures of Winnie-the-Pooh will also be part of the system but without the ability to check an itinerary.

Rather, we just happened to find one of them that stuck out today as interesting. Disney has a tendency to sometime make imagineers into “celebrineers” to give a face to a project and since we actually recognized the name and face we’re going to run with it. So, without further ado.. this guy:

That’s Trevor Bryant. He’s got a website and portfolio you can go click around and if you’re insanely wealthy I’m sure you could probably hire him to design you something too. Notably for us Epcot-loving folks though, he was on the Horizons team.

Which, well, let’s be honest – might explain why the new Test Track appears to actually have “sets” rather than wide open spaces of nothingness in an empty warehouse poorly disguised as an empty warehouse. That’s just a theory though.

Now we admit there’s a tendency to think “He’s come to save us with his Horizon-y awesomeness!” but in reality this project could sour pretty quickly. There’s been some less official concept art making the rounds that shows evil “screen technology.”  Notably though, Epcot attractions have always relied on screen technology, even World of Motion, Horizons, and Journey into Imagination. Several of their major scenes were entirely screen-based.

So let’s be all judgmental and base this on the rest of this person’s track record with Disney. We’ve got: Mannequins Dance Palace… Alien Encounter.. Indiana Jones Adventure… Disney Vision.. Air Launch Pyro…Something about saving historical stuff from a garbage dumpster…

Ok, this man can do no wrong. We’re saved! Break out the bubbly! Epcot’s turning over a new leaf! Woo-hoo!!!

For starters there’s the apparent new overall logo for the pavilion. We do wish they had gone back to the circle logo from the original Epcot design, but it’s still at least fairly sleek and stylized – not as clunky as the old one. At least it’s not orange.

Then there are these circles denoting what appear to be the different segments of the testing facility itself once you’re inside the revamped attraction.  They’re sort of look like little power meters that would fill up or deplete depending of performance.

Also looking at them one can sort of assume the general sequence of events – capability, efficiency, responsiveness, and power. That puts capability at what was hill climb, efficiency somewhere around brake testing, responsiveness in the “hills course” and power out on the outer loop. Which seems to be where they line up in the next few pieces of concept art as well…

If we assume that gold ring is marking the “Capability” course segment and with the angle of the road it’s apparently at the top for what was the “Hill Climb” of the old Test Track. Similarly the green scanning lasers could be for the “Efficiency” section and look to be physically replacing one of the old Hot/Cold chambers in the attraction. The purple power section and cyber-cacti are harder to place exact locations within the existing attraction though. We’ll leave that to people’s imaginations for now.

And finally, more photoshop mash together art! In the future, everything is going to glow and waft through the air kids! If anything it’s telling us that the leading sculptural icon “thing” that we pointed out in the past is important as it is showing up yet again. Here’s hoping the canopy out front comes down and the sculptural icon goes up as a replacement.

Secret Agents to Foil Dr. Doofenshmirtz’s Evil Plans

LAKE BUENA VISTA, Fla. – Debuting in June at Epcot, Disney Phineas & Ferb: Agent P’s World Showcase Adventure is based on the wily secret-agent alter-ego of Perry the Platypus – faithful pet to the title characters from Disney Channel’s animated series “Phineas & Ferb.” Although just a simple pet to Phineas and Ferb, Perry turns into Agent P in each episode to help stop the misguided plans of his nemesis, Dr. Doofenshmirtz.

Epcot guests will transform into secret agents to help Agent P thwart some of Dr. Doofenshmirtz’s most daring plots. Agents will use a “high-tech secret agent device” to receive clues for each case. Solving the clues will take agents to different places throughout seven World Showcase countries at Epcot – Mexico Pavilion, France Pavilion, Germany Pavilion, Norway Pavilion, Japan Pavilion, China Pavilion and the United Kingdom Pavilion. Agents will scour each country for clues, evil “Inators,” and – with a little bit of luck – help Agent P defeat Dr. Doofenshmirtz.

Do you see what we see? Well, perhaps it’s a matter of context and knowing what you’re looking for.. and stalking the new pavilion sponsor – Chevrolet – obsessively for indicators of which way the wind is blowing internally. The important bit we’ll be discussing today is this:

That is a concept/prototype car from GM known as the EN-V being assembled in a workshop as interpreted by someone from Walt Disney Imagineering in this particular piece of art. Don’t believe us? Well here’s the real EN-V concept as it appeared in 2011:

The concept has since been re-branded internally by GM to be a Chevrolet product – much like how Test track itself is being re-branded to Chevrolet – and most recently advertised with some design tweaks as the EN-V 2.0 as of yesterday at Auto Show China 2012. It essentially got some structural redesign and some additional wheels – ones not depicted in the earlier Test Track concept art.

So why might this unassuming little egg shaped vehicle be the envy of Future World? Well, because it represents a return to futurism and futuristic concepts that once permeated Epcot and Future World. The EN-V concept has been in development for a number of years as a solution to modern urban development and personal transportation. Think of it sort of the Segway Personal Transporter, if the Segway wasn’t a silly thing people rolled around on just to be more-pretensiously-geeky-than-thou.Let’s start with the official blurb:

General Motors showed the company’s vision of the Chevrolet EN-V 2.0 concept at Auto China 2012 today. It is an evolved design of the company’s revolutionary mobility concept revealed at World Expo 2010 Shanghai.

“Our designers and engineers are exploring a range of options for turning the EN-V concept into a reality,” said Kevin Wale, president and managing director of the GM China Group. “The EN-V 2.0 concept would use technologies such as the mobility Internet, electrification and telematics to help change the automotive landscape and ensure a sustainable future for our industry,”

The original EN-V (Electric Networked-Vehicle) concept was a centerpiece of the SAIC-GM Pavilion at World Expo 2010 Shanghai. The two-seat electric vehicle pioneered a new automobile DNA based on the convergence of electrification and connectivity. It was developed to show the possibilities for alleviating concerns surrounding traffic congestion, parking availability, air quality and affordability for tomorrow’s cities.

The EN-V 2.0 concept adds features that consumers demand such as in-vehicle climate control and personal storage space. In addition, it would be capable of driving in all weather and city road conditions.

GM expects to use EN-V 2.0 prototype models in pilot studies throughout China.

That sound much more like old EPCOT Center than Epcot we know today doesn’t it? And it’s true. “EN-V” in the EN-V program actually stands for Electric Networked Vehicle. Aka: “Smart Vehicles.” All those rumors of the heavy “TRON-esque” network influence and the electric glow of a million points of data.. We can tell which way the wind is blowing now.

If you want to learn more about the development of the EN-V vehicles and get a glimpse of where this all seems to be going and maybe even where GM and Chevrolet’s interests are heading, feel free to check out these videos about their vision regarding the project:

We have absolutely nothing more on this other than “because Disney said so” to back this up – but.. Epcot is getting a Starbucks! Oh, well, and Disney put out this blog blurb about California Adventure and June.. but really, who gives a crap about that? Epcot is getting a Starbucks!

Today, we’re excited to officially announce plans to bring your favorite Starbucks drinks and food items to all of our theme parks at Disneyland Resort and Walt Disney World Resort.

In June, the first of six planned Starbucks locations is scheduled to open at Disney California Adventure park. And more locations are planned at Disneyland park and Walt Disney World Resort (Magic Kingdom Park, Epcot, Disney’s Hollywood Studios and Disney’s Animal Kingdom).

The Starbucks locations inside our parks will be designed to fit the theme of their surroundings. At Disney California Adventure park, Starbucks will be located in the Fiddler, Fifer and Practical Café on Buena Vista Street, a place that transports guests to 1920s Los Angeles, when Walt Disney arrived in California and a cup of coffee was the perfect way to jumpstart a busy day. The store’s location plays off the Spanish/Mexican architecture of the period, and baristas will wear 1920s-inspired attire.

The café will serve Starbucks items, including coffee and espresso beverages, Frappuccino® blended beverages, and signature breakfast sandwiches and pastries. Guests also will have their choice of Disney favorites, including signature sandwiches and other items, as well as delicious desserts and sweet treats.

Original post: We’ve gotten some basic first reports from cast members that the Tree of Life icon at the Animal Kingdom park at the Walt Disney World Resort had some sort of damage or incident reportedly involving one of the smaller branches falling off the tree itself. While Disney investigates – as it’s not a real tree, but a massive metal structure – the It’s Tough to Be a Bug attraction and Tree of Life walkways are closed until further notice.

We will post any further details or photos if they become available. Hopefully there’s nothing majorly wrong with Animal Kingdom’s icon.

Q.  I heard one of the branches from the Tree of Life fell.  Is this why the area is closed to Guests?
Yes, a small branch (weighing approximately five pounds) fell to the ground, away from Guests and Cast.  In an abundance of caution, we are closing some experiences in the immediate vicinity of the Tree of Life as we further inspect it and complete any necessary maintenance.

Q.  What caused the branch to fall?  Was it weather related?
We are still reviewing the situation.

Q.  What exactly will be closed while we inspect The Tree of Life?
The trails around the Tree of Life will be temporarily closed, as well as the “It’s Tough to be a Bug” attraction and the Kid’s Discovery Club location.

Q. When will the experiences around the Tree of Life reopen?
At this time we do not have a reopening date.