Mousekingdom Blog

If you didn’t see the Super Bowl (or couldn’t watch it) last weekend you will also have missed the commercials everybody always talks about. If you missed them or want to see them again you can visit the official NFL homepage where you’ll find all commercials. For the Disney fans you’ll get to see the Prince of Persia and the Alice in Wonderland among the many other fun collection of commercials. No Walt Disney World commercial but you do get an inviting look at Universal’s Wizarding World of Harry Potter.

Picture Copyrights; Disney

In my previous one park vs other park blog entry I talked about Disneyland Hong Kong vs. Disneyland Shanghai. (read about it here). Now I would like to have a look at two parks even closer together, two parks that might be fighting for a lot of kids; Walt Disney World vs. Islands of Adventure, or should we say vs. Harry Potter.

Disney World might have had the (big) edge on many levels, especially for the younger once, with IoA being more the teens and adult park (even with Seuss Landing), but with the coming of Harry Potter we might see a shift that could surprise many. There are already pictures of the new Harry Potter project starting to find their way on the web… and they look impressive (already and the project is far from finished).

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What happens if you might be forced to pay a $1.5 billion debt one year from now but only have $98 million in cash on hand? It’s a question that needs to be answered for Universal Orlando!

The two main problems are trying to refinance during these dark times of recession and the domino effect that will take place if a first dept of $950 million cannot be paid by April 1, 2010 deadline. If Universal cannot pay the $950 million all other dept will come up for immediate payment and the company would need to pay another $500 million straight away. This second number is covered by Universal Studios assets, including all of its property.

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Universal continues to improve its offerings for guests and thereby also encroaching Walt Disney World in what it believed in the past was its very own territory … now they just added a cruise experience! But let’s not get into this story head over heels. So from the start…

Andy already made several posts in the recent months regarding the slow or even non-existing reaction of Walt Disney World to the additions that the Universal Resort as well as the SeaWorld Resort have been premiering in the last year (in particular the outstanding “Simpson – The Ride” at Universal and SeaWorld’s new water park) and are about to premiere this year (in particular the flying coaster “Manta” at SeaWorld as well as the new coaster at Universal Studios), not to mention the upcoming Harry Potter land at Islands of Adventure in 2010 as well as numerous small but guest friendly concepts such as the free option for guests staying at the official Universasl Hotels to use their room key as unlimited “Universal Express” pass to bypass queues at the major attractions or the all “all you can eat” options valid for a full day Universal or SeaWorld. Now the pressure keeps mounting as Universal decided to go head to head with WDW in one more area: cruises! (more…)

Are you a fan of the Muppets and the genius behind them, Jim Henson? In that case you sure know that you can enjoy Muppet Vision 3D at Disney’s Hollywood Studios (in Walt Disney World) and at Disney’s California Adventure (in Disneyland Resort Anaheim). But for a limited time – to be exact: till May 3, 2009 – there is more from the Muppets and Jim Henson to discover in Florida as the traveling exhibit Jim Henson’s Fantastic World stops at the Orange County Regional History Center just a short drive from Walt Disney World!

What can you expect from the exhibit? Over 100 works of art, photographs, documents, puppets, movie props, and other 3-D objects, as well as original video productions, illustrating Jim Henson the artist, his work from early high school creations to his worldwide loved tv- and movie characters and the creative process behind these. Included are such rare items as one of the Kermit puppets Jim Hensons puppeteered himself and numerous sketches by Jim Henson for such all-time favorite characters as the Big Bird…

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Follow the link to see Dolphins create air bubbles and use them to have some fun. It proofs again how amazing these animals are.

I can’t wait to go to Discovery Cove this year so me and my family can swim with them.

Picture via New.com.au

The news or even a rumour of a new attraction is always something exciting. We love to hear about it, write about it and dream about it. But it has been a while since we got some exciting news lately. The excitement came from other parks. Seaworld is getting “Manta”, Universal Studios is building “Hollywood Rip, Ride, Rockit” Roller coaster and Island of Adventure has plans to stun the audience with their Harry Potter park. All this is happening while Walt Disney World announced… well, nothing much.

OK, that wasn’t totally fair. Walt Disney World is getting Idol! It is also updating Space Mountain to Space Mountain Mission 2 and a new Stitch attraction has just entered the rumour mill.

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Any theme park fanatic’s dream, a visit to the IAAPA show! I would love to visit it one day but until then I’ll have to browse the web to still my hunger. If you want to see some pictures visit the Coaster Crew website and you’ll be invited to view a collection of 400 pictures from the event that is currently taking place in Orlando.

There is enough to see on the collection of pictures to get any roller coaster, dark ride, or thrill ride fan’s hart beat a little faster.

Or, if you’re a visitor at the trade show, you can go and make an offer to one of the Cypress Gardens Rides! (a real shame)

Picture copyrights Coaster Crew.

SeaWorld is om of those parks us Disney fans can appreciate so I wasn’t to surprised when I found some concept art related to the new B&M flying roller coaster that will be build there on a Disney website.

The British website “The Disney Information Bulletin Board” has some nice artist impressions of the new Manta coaster that will open in 2009. Click on the picture to see all three artist impressions, including a track lay-out.

Pictures copyrights Busch Entertainment Corporation

For a Disney geek like me it would be a dream to live near Walt Disney World (something that might still happen somewhere in the future, just not right now for multiple reasons). For sure I am not the only one who would love to own a house near the magic so home are getting build around the park. Celebration is the most known Disney-like community, but a new one will be added to this exclusive family as Disney will free some of their land for development. It will not be for all of us because the price will be high for the planned luxury houses.

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You might not be able to live the life of Peter Pan but you can live in the house opposite Kensington Gardens park in central London where the story has been created by the writer James Matthew Barrie.

The 6 bedroom house is on the market for 6.75 million pounds (8.88 million euros, 13.22 million dollars).

Writer James Matthew (J. M.) Barrie lived in the house and met five boys in Kensington Gardens who inspired his creation at the turn of the 20th century.

As well as two large living and entertaining rooms the 3,377 square foot (313 square metre) Victorian home has a study, a dining room, a kitchen, while the bedrooms are adjoined by one en suite and a full-size bathroom, as well as two balconies. (Yahoo News)

Picture Copyrights AFP.com

While Disney have squeezed maximum mileage out of the Year Of A Million Dreams promotion in 2007 in Orlando, it will be fascinating to see if they can keep it up in ’08 in the face of a new marketing campaign from the Anheuser-Busch parks and their new Aquatica water park

This latter will see a new style of  park when it opens in March as the featured attractions will include live animals – notably a lagoon of Commerson’s Dolphins – as well as the usual exciting array of slides and rides

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Halloween, my favorite time of year! And I love both the scary and the sweet side of it. So when I am in Orlando during Halloween I’ll be visiting Mickey’s not so Scary Halloween Party as well as Halloween Horror Nights and Bush Gardens Howl-O-Scream. (and believe me when I say that the Bush Garden event is so much better then the Universal Studios one, but that is a whole other story for some other time)

Mickey’s not so Scary Halloween is a very popular event and is sold out on many evenings, especially nearer the Halloween time itself. To be able to give those missing the Magic Kingdom event a new hard ticket event might be added in the Hollywood studios (the soon to be “known as MGM Studios”). If the news is indeed correct we will get a new event as from 2009 inside the studios park. Don’t expect a scary event, that’s not going to be on any Disney plan, but it does sound like fun to me.

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Disney! It is my passion… especially the parks. You walk in there, it feels like a whole other world, like a dream that comes alive. So, with this said it is clear that Disney and the parks will always be my number one. However, there is more than Disney alone (really?). One of these things are.. well, other Theme parks, Roller Coasters and rides… I guess this might be a lame introduction to the IAAPA trade show that is starting today (The Trade show, Conference started yesterday) in Florida, but it might have work getting your attention on some other Florida events.

Why is Florida so far away for me? IAAPA is one of those events I would love to visit. See the new “toys” first. Play with them, gaze at them… sounds like fun. So if you from and around Florida, make sure to go and visit this great event. Although mostly targeted at the professional market, on Friday the general public can enjoy it for a $30 entrance fee. If I would be in the neighborhood, I would be there. And if you are, send me some pictures!

Disney has announced plans that they will open a new 800 room hotel, including Disney Vacation Club villas, in Hawaii. Contstruction is already to start next year with a planned opening for 2011.

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