‘News’

Disney-created situation ‘virtually certain’ to end in crash, mother of worker who died says

By Jeff Weiner, Orlando Sentinel In new court documents, the mother of a Disney monorail worker killed last year accuses her son’s former boss of “flippantly” vacating his duty, creating a dangerous situation that “was virtually certain to result in injury or death.” 21-year-old...
September 2nd, 2010 | Featured, News | Read More

Space Mountain music: Hear all about it from an Imagineer

Disney World visitors this week are among the first to hear something new: Space Mountain set to music. An uptempo, futuristic soundtrack has been added to the Magic Kingdom roller coaster. I talked with Alex Wright, a show designer with Walt Disney Imagineering, about the change, which is an extension...
September 1st, 2010 | Behind the scenes, Dewayne Bevil, Featured, Imagineering, News, Things to do | Read More

Broadcasting from the Tower of Terror

From the reality-meets-fantasy files: Walt Disney World’s semi-autonomous government, which is attempting to improve emergency-services radio coverage, has struck a deal with the resort to install new radio-transmission equipment — inside the Twilight Zone Tower of Terror. The agreement will allow...
August 26th, 2010 | Featured, Jason Garcia, News | Read More

Disney discounts continue, though they aren’t as deep

Walt Disney World, navigating a still-soft economy, has extended a sizable hotel discount deep into 2011, though the resort continues scaling back the scope of its promotions. Disney on Monday added a series of new travel dates in 2011 for vacation packages that pair hotel rooms with free meals at Disney...
August 16th, 2010 | Featured, Hotels and Resorts, Jason Garcia, News, Tickets and Deals | Read More

A few more words about Fantasyland…

Today’s paper carries a story in which new Walt Disney Parks and Resorts Chairman Tom Staggs confirmed that Disney is redrawing the Fantasyland expansion plans it announced last year. The story arose out of an interview Staggs did with the Orlando Sentinel earlier this week. Obviously, space constraints...
August 13th, 2010 | Fantasyland, Fantasyland construction, Featured, Jason Garcia, News | Read More

Disney says Fantasyland expansion plans are changing

Disney is redrawing the sweeping Fantasyland expansion plans it laid out last year, even as bulldozers clear land for the project inside the Magic Kingdom. With the revisions, begun under new Walt Disney Parks and Resorts Chairman Tom Staggs, designers are attempting to rebalance the plans, which initially...
August 12th, 2010 | Fantasyland, Featured, Jason Garcia, News | Read More

Harry Potter beats Mickey Mouse — but he also helps him

Hogwarts castle looms over the patio of The Three Broomsticks restaurant at the Wizarding World of Harry Potter in Universal's Islands of Adventure. (Marjie Lambert/Miami Herald) We know that the Wizarding World of Harry Potter has worked wonders for Universal Orlando so far this summer: The hugely...
August 11th, 2010 | Featured, Jason Garcia, News | Read More

Disney offers improved, though still tempered, outlook for its theme parks

The Walt Disney Co.’s theme-park business may finally be near the bottom of what is now a nearly two-year downturn. Disney said Tuesday that fiscal fourth-quarter hotel reservations at its resorts in Orlando and Anaheim, Calif., are running just 1 percent behind the same period a year ago, the most...
August 10th, 2010 | Featured, Jason Garcia, News | Read More

Disney earnings could offer clarity to uncertain outlook for theme parks

The Walt Disney Co. reports fiscal third quarter earnings this afternoon amid widespread uncertainty about a theme-park business that is being buffeted by some conflicting crosswinds. There are plenty of positive trends. Universal Orlando, for instance, last week posted an upbeat quarter, with higher...
August 10th, 2010 | Featured, Jason Garcia, News | Read More

Goodbye to the Power Rangers at Hollywood Studios

I swung by Disney’s Hollywood Studios Saturday to bid farewell to the Power Rangers. The defenders of good are heading back to the Ranger academy, according to cast members on duty, and Saturday was their last day to appear at the Studios’ New York Street area. There was a good-sized crowd...
August 8th, 2010 | Featured, Matt Palm, News | Read More
« Older Entries