Posts Tagged ‘News’

Disney ends ‘Give a Day’ promotion after 1 million volunteers sign up

With a little help from Mickey Mouse, Chicago residents (from left) Danielle Rub, Dwayne Gibson and Marissa Sproul begin a volunteer project Sept. 29, 2009 at the Bethune School of Excellence in Chicago. (Photo by Gene Duncan/Walt Disney World) The Walt Disney Co. on Tuesday ended a promotion offering...

March 9th, 2010 | Featured, Jason Garcia, News | Read More

Disney picks general contractors to run Fantasyland expansion

Walt Disney World has picked a pair of construction firms to lead an overhaul of the Magic Kingdom’s Fantasyland section, the biggest-yet expansion of the Orlando resort’s oldest and busiest theme park. Disney has hired Barton Malow Co. of Southfield, Mich., and Birmingham, Ala.-based Hoar...

February 26th, 2010 | Jason Garcia, News | Read More

Disney turns to ’storybook’ themes to fill hotel rooms

Rick Allen, general manager of Disney's Caribbean Beach and Pop Century Resorts, talks about the "storybook" theming of select rooms at Caribbean Beach, at Walt Disney World, Thursday, Feb. 18, 2010. The specially decorated rooms feature custom made themed-furniture, pirate artwork, nautical...

February 23rd, 2010 | Featured, Hotels and Resorts, Jason Garcia, News | Read More

Race-track operator at Disney World says it might raise age limits if legal waivers aren’t reinstated

Fans of stock car racing can get behind the wheel or ride shotgun at Walt Disney World Speedway. (Walt Disney World photo) The Richard Petty Driving Experience, which operates a race track at Walt Disney World, says raising age limits to exclude children from driving or riding in its stock cars is “a...

February 23rd, 2010 | Featured, Jason Garcia, News | Read More

Disney World and others in Florida’s tourism industry try again to restore parental waivers

Horseback riding at Walt Disney World. Fourteen months ago, the highest court in Florida ruled that parents did not have the authority to sign away their children’s civil-lawsuit rights before participating in potentially dangerous commercial activities — a decision that outraged the state’s...

February 19th, 2010 | Jason Garcia, News | Read More

In a recession, Disney’s tour business adds cheaper trips

Adventures by Disney is now offering lower-priced, fewer-frilled versions of some of its most popular trips, including one to London and Paris. (Photo courtesy of Adventures by Disney) At a time when travelers are trading down, Adventures by Disney is going budget. The Walt Disney Co.’s premium-priced...

February 15th, 2010 | Featured, Jason Garcia, News | Read More

Just how wonderful is the most wonderful time of year for Disney theme parks?

Christmas is always the most wonderful time of the year for Orlando’s theme parks, as hordes of families flock to the resorts while their kids are briefly out of school. The Walt Disney Co.’s latest quarterly earnings offer a glimpse of just how profitable that holiday period really is. Thanks...

February 10th, 2010 | Featured, Jason Garcia, News | Read More

Disney earnings offer few signs of theme-park turnaround

Walt Disney World and the rest of the Walt Disney Co.’s theme parks, battered for more than a year by the economic downturn, still aren’t showing many signs of a turnaround. Disney said Tuesday that room reservations at its U.S. resorts for the January-through-March quarter are running 10...

February 9th, 2010 | Featured, Jason Garcia, News | Read More

Continued softness seen at Disney theme parks

A day before the Walt Disney Co. reports earnings for the final three months of 2009, analysts at J.P. Morgan today upgraded shares in the company based on improving economic trends. But they are less upbeat about Disney’s theme-parks division than they are about the company as a whole. J.P. Morgan...

February 8th, 2010 | Featured, Jason Garcia, News | Read More

Marvel superheroes could pose antitrust risk for Disney, Universal

The Incredible Hulk roller coaster is one of several Marvel-themed attractions in Universal Orlando's Islands of Adventure theme park. (Photo courtesy of Universal Orlando) Spider-Man has Walt Disney World and Universal Orlando in a web that legal experts say could put the rival resorts at risk of...

February 1st, 2010 | Featured, Jason Garcia, News | Read More