Mousekingdom Blog

Expedition Everest is a success! (already, even if the official opening date is 7th April) And it is a success not only for Disney but also for the guests loving Disney and its Theme parks. Animal Kingdom has been the park that could be found at the bottom on many peoples list. With Everest this has changed for sure. The park is crowded (during previews, and will be once Everest officially opens) with first time and returning visitors, all because of that one “special one of a kind ride”. No clone, no copy but a new experience. Sure, it is a roller coaster, no big massive drops, no records being broken, but the Yeti and the mountain giving it such a great appeal that everybody wants to see it… The benefits for Animal Kingdom are endless. More visitors is more business and more attention. Everest might be the attraction bringing in the guests, but how many will now stay longer and experience other rides, watch the parade, or even spend some extra on food while they are there? Good move from Disney? Best move ever! And they know it…

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Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest is the first sequel to Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl. Release date in the USA will be July 7, 2006. I thought the first movie was amazing, a little scary for children, but great entertainment for Teens, Adults and fans of the attraction.
Johnny Depp was awesome in it. He plays the roll of Captain Jack Sparrow in a great way. But I am more excited to see my all time favorite actor appear in this Francine. Chow Yun-Fat as Captain Sao Feng. Unfortunately I will have to wait until the 3rd movie, Pirates of the Caribbean 3: Uncharted Waters (Release Date: 2007-05-25, the film has entered post-production), before we can see him in Action.

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What a great customer service!

have always been sceptical about Disneyland Resort Paris’s customer service!
But today I had yet one more signal that something good lies in Marne la Vallee.

Let’s face it sometimes you have that feeling that most of the cast members working the resort are just trying to get there bread in to the house, working without any passion, devotion and just “going through the motions”.

Some other cast members actually drive themselves to the edge to get that perfect Disney experience to the resort guest.

Sometimes I have even been over critical to some cast members, talking to some friends in management about how Paris has had the bad luck of getting some “bad apples” which would probably not make it even as janitors in supermarkets (with all due respect to the janitors ) .

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This is your chance to own a Mickey Mouse collection that, for sure, could be called a One of a kind! This collection looks amazing. All Mickey Mouse collectables starting from 1928 up to the present day. Everything is in this collection, Pins, Dolls, Plush, the very first Mickey Mouse comic book, Limited editions, Disneyana and so, so, so much more. A collection with items from all over the world

One of America’s largest personal Mickey Mouse collections including museum cabinetry.
Presently the collection is displayed in a 1500 square foot private museum.
12,000 pieces spanning from 1928 to present including rare and hard to find collectibles and complete collections from countries around the world.

This is a collectors dream and you can have it for $399.000. The Lighted Cabinetry valued at $50,000 added to the lot for free. No idea of the shipping costs but he does offer it to be shipped worldwide. What are you waiting for? This is your chance to own a (big) piece of Disney history. Mickey Mouse Collection with Cabinetry $399.000

No room? No problem, go for something smaller; How about a $1.000.000 Jessica Rabbit pin?

Well the new DLRP advertising campaign has just started and it’s dreamy! It fits perfectly with the new brochure designs and the proposed new website design (with that swirly intricate design). It’s fresh, modern… very blue… but works incredibly well. It is basically a girl’s monologue of being a princess. She describes them as beautiful, the clothes they wear and how she wants to be one. It then cuts to scenes from inside the parks.

Some of the images are from Walt Disney World’s Magic Kingdom (such as Cinderella in her metal coach), some are from Disneyland Resort in California (looking through the castle gates and to the carousel… at least I think it was, from memory), but there’s also some Disneyland Resort Paris stuff (including an awesome picture of our castle at night, with great lights, pixiedust and Tinkerbell flying around it!)

Unfortunately I wasn’t able to see the whole ad as I was asleep (haha, but I’m not feeling that well), but it was amazing I woke up at kind of the right time. No doubt I’ll see it again soon, but I was genuinely excited by it. The version of “A Dream Is A Wish Your Heart Makes” sounded really great and the style was really professional. Oh, and a quick note, it seems that the current DLRP website homepage has been updated with a still from the new campaign. It shows a boy pretending to be Peter Pan (after all the Buzz stuff)… aww, bless!

Keep an eye out for it on TV tonight in the UK and France (not sure about other countries yet though)!

It seems Disney’s European cruises are the worst-kept secret in the cruise business at the moment. Their official press conference to announce Disney’s Magic’s Mediterranean programme in 2007 is still not until March 21, yet many travel agents and cruise discussion forums are already stating the cruises as fact, even down to the departure dates (as Andy so rightly reports below).

And it is a BIG departure from the norm for Disney, from the tried-and-trusted ports of the Bahamas and Caribbean to a range of countries that all speak different languages.

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Whatever the cruise will be, it will be a Disney Cruise as the company is looking to widen their horizon. The rumor that the Disney Cruise will sail from Europe in 2007 already appeared on the DLP.Info Forum, but also on Screamscape and I also received some mails from Disney fans that are planning their trip to Disneyland Paris for a short visit before boarding the cruise liner direction Walt Disney World in Orlando. Sounds great to me too, as I have started to dream about it already myself. Never thought I would ever consider taking a cruise, but if Mickey is the captain I do not need a lot of convincing.

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Not really an Ice Skating fan, I must admit. But the new show of Disney on Ice does look like fun. The Incredibles on ice in a story where they visit the Magic Kingdom and end up meeting Mickey? Sounds like a great time to me. The Incredibles are great characters, ad them to the concept of bringing the Magic Kingdom on the Ice tour and I think they have a winner. The show is currently on stage in the Palace of Auburn Hills in Detroit.

Disney on Ice skated into The Palace of Auburn Hills Wednesday with its first show to have an original story line.

“Pixar’s The Incredibles in a Magic Kingdom Adventure,” on the ice through the weekend, takes the Incredibles on a vacation designed to help the audience re-live their favorite Disney theme park memories. The family of superheroes experience an electric light parade down Mainstreet, U.S.A., explore a haunted mansion, ride a jungle cruise and bump into Mickey, Minnie and their gang along the way.

You can see the full story about the Icy adventures on Detnews
And here is the Disney on Ice website

Well, it might not have gone exactly like that, but it is the story of Walt Disney Co. Chief Executive Officer Robert Iger who, while watching the Parade during the opening from the Theme Park in Hong Kong, made the decision to buy PIXAR.
Watching the Parade he noticed that most of the characters passing by are from PIXAR movies.

“Disney, home of Mickey Mouse, Snow White and Cinderella, hadn’t created any recognizable animated characters in the past decade”, Iger said. The recent animated characters in the parade were from Pixar, Steve Jobs’ animation studio, which Iger agreed to buy for $7.4 billion.

“It really hit me hard that we had had 10 years of real failure, keeping animation strong is incredibly vital.” Iger said. “Animation creates more of a ripple effect than any other business at Disney, the world’s second-largest media company”

You see, all you have to do for a good business idea is watch a magical Disney Parade. Not sure if I can use that excuse for a next visit.

You can find the full story on the Orlando Sentinel website.

Disney is coming to Paris… again. This time with an art exhibition covering a period of 30 years with a collection of pieces that helped shape Disney what it is today. The Collection displayed will exist out of 300-350 pieces of Art collected by Walt Disney and Roy Disney during their trip to Europe. Many of those might be shown for the very first time. Sure something that will impress many Disney fans who not only love what is Disney today, but also want to know the history of Walt Disney and his company

The Exhibition will take place in the “Grand Palais National Gallieries” in Paris and will start from 15 September 2006 to 16 January 2007.
After sharing the magic in Paris the whole collection will be shipped to Montreal where it will find a home from 8 March 2007 up to 24 June 2007 in the “Museum of Fine Arts”

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There’s been loads of talk recently about the possible name change of Paris’s “Disneyland Park”. Again, rumours have appeared at around the same time of year as last time they entered the news, so what’s bringing this information forward? Well, apart from the Kids Carnival talking about “Magic Kingdom” several times when referring to Disneyland Park, there’s not a lot of proof. (Note: The Kids Carnival also called the park “The Magic Kingdom” last year too!) 

If we are to read a future name change into the simple use of the simple phrase, then why haven’t we heard about it already? Could the team behind the resort’s previous name changes not resist another alteration or is this all talk? Well, “DisneyMagic15” from the dlp.info forum seems to know something the rest of us don’t and has provided “renderings” of potential logos the resort has reportedly designed (lets watch this space).

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Every fan of the Disney theme parks surely has heared a thousand times the story being told about the famous apartment Walt had created for himself and his wife Lilly above the Fire Station on Town Square in Disneyland Anaheim. I am not going to rehash it once again.

If you are like me, you might be interested in visiting the apartment - unfortunately we are out of luck. For obvious reasons the apartment is offlimits to guests. BUT the Orange County Register now together with Disney and Tim O’Day has come up with a really great alternative: a 360-degree panorama of the interior and an audio-guide! SO take a look where Walt stayed… The only problem with the Flash-presentation: now I really want to see the apartment myself!

Hong Kong Disneyland is doing bad - there isn’t enough to do. Hong Kong Disneyland is selling out too fast at special occassions like Chinese New Year’s - it needs more to do. Whatever the reasoning (and in the end it should be a combination of the two popular reasonings mentioned) - Hong Kong Disneyland is working on it.

Even before Hong Kong Disneyland opened “Autopia” was under construction as first expansion. Then photo reports by several fans from the exhibition in the Opera House on Hong Kong Disneyland’s Town Square showed artwork for a water playground to be added to Tomorrowland as well. Featuring water squirting UFOs and robots (the latter at least in drawings similar to some decorative elements from early Toon Studio sketches for the Walt Disney Studios Paris) and named appropriate “UFO Zone”. But now the resort has announced a real surprise…
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