Mousekingdom Blog

If there is one thing that might tickle my senses almost as much as Disney itself it’s Halloween! So combining Disney and Halloween is always a fun thing. To nobodies surprise I am a big fan of Mickey’s Not So Scary Halloween Party. I love it! But I can’t stop there as there is to much Halloween fun in Florida to go unnoticed.

One of these events is Halloween Horror Nights over at Universal Studios. This year is a special celebration year. 20 years of Halloween Horror Nights! 8 haunted Houses, several scare zones and multiple show have been revealed for this special event and it looks… awesome!

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The yearly IAAPA or The International Association of Amusement Parks and Attractions Trade Show will be held in Orlando for the next 10 years. While the show did go to other locations in the past, including Las Vegas, it did have shows planned in Orlando for the years with even numbers. Now the people behind the trade show and IAAPA decided to settle for Orlando every year, booking the convention center for the years with uneven numbers too. Bad news for Las Vegas, where some of these shows where planned to take place. (Via Orlando Sentinel)

The Trade show is the biggest show related to the amusement park and ride industry.

There is the book, there is the movie, and now there is the room! De Alice Suite straight from the fairy tale. The room is not Disney related, however when visiting Disneyland Resort Paris you could still hop over to the capitol city itself for an extra night in the suite. The suite will set you back a hefty 440 Euro per night and might not be to everybody’s liking. Especially the double toilet does sound a little weird. The rest of the room does look wonderful and fabulous though.

“Suite Alice” design by LES AILES DU DESIGN
This is the world of Alice in Wonderland, subtly recreated, with many a nod to Carroll’s fairy tale. Funny clocks, tiles that turn bright and make films appear like magic, strange objects, large stuffed animal, a bathroom with shower and tub, and a curiously kinky toilet for 2 with a chess game in between the seats! The Suite Alice is also equipped with a top quality king-size bed, a TV screen diffusing four different mood fragrances, air conditioning, a large desk, mini-bar, electronic safe and bathrobes. (Seven Hotel Paris)

While it isn’t a direct link to Disney I thought it was fun to share and show that’s not only the good people at Disney that come up with some wonderful (and strange) ideas that work.

You can find the room in the Seven Hotel in the heart of Paris. Other rooms include a 007 Suite and the Marie Antoinette Suite

The flights in Europe are resuming but airlines expect it to take several days till regular operations will be fully established and all guests that were impacted by the air service interruption forced by the volcanic ash will finally be moved to their original destinations. In other words: there are still thousands of toruists worldwide stuck away from home. For those stuck in Orlando respectively the Orlando area the Tourism Bureau has collected a list of special offers as we already reported on Tuesday. In the meantime the list maintained by the bureau has grown substantially with new offers. And certainly there is something new for everyone interested in theme parks …

It all started with SeaWorld giving away free tickets for SeaWorld Orlando, Aquatica Orlando and Busch Gardens Tampa Bay. In the usual game of reactions in the Orlando theme park business Disney matched the offer by SeaWorld and started offering free tickets as well (even so the offer was limited to just two dates). The only one missing in the game was the Universal Resort. But no need to be afraid – just as the three major theme park players react to each other’s price increases, Universal did react to the free theme park ticket offer for stuck international guests as well …

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The volcanic ash that has been blown from Iceland across the northern half of Europe since the middle of last week has caused serious interruptions not only to the air traffic in Europe, but also to the holidays of thousands of vacationers across the globe. While many may end up missing their vacations somewhere in Europe due to the cancellation of their outbound flights at the start of the vacation (which most probably will also hurt Disneyland Paris in a year that is shaping up to be far from stellar so far) there are also thousands of Europeans stuck at their vacation destinations long past their original return date.

Being forced to extend their vacation indefinitely (as even once international flights to Europe will resume it will take up to a week according to current estimates till the regular flight schedule can be reestablished and most probably even longer till everyone has been moved back to their original destination) not only brings up the question what to do with the extra time to keep the mind of the problems caused (e.g. missed work etc.) and relieve the stress, but also the question how to finance the extra time away from home. The Orlando Tourism Bureau and its members have reacted to this by offering services and experiences to guests affected by the European air service interruptions for free or at greatly reduced rates. (more…)

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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