A new picture from the announced Star Tours II attraction has been released by Disney. You see the skyline of Coruscant with a Starspeeder flying over it. It is said the new voyage will take you to many well known Star Wars locations. The new attraction will debut in 2011 in Disneyland Park in Anaheim and in the Disney’s Hollywood Studios in Orlando.
Picture Copyrights Disney
Disney has announced their new concept for their Disneyland Hotel makeover at the Disneyland Resort. The redesigned pool area will get 2 slides that will have the Monorail fans very exited. The guest will start their journey down sliding through a replica of the Monorail cars. Looks like real fun and might convince those monorail fans to at least book one night at the hotel so they’ll be able to try it out.
For more pictures and info on the pool area visit the Disneyparks Blog
Picture copyrights: Disney
Disney has announced what so many US Disney fans have asked for many years, an annual pass for all US Disney parks.
The Premium pass will cost $700 and will give guess the opportunity to visit all 4 Disney theme parks in Orlando, the two water parks and both Disney parks in Anaheim.
If you own annual passes for both parks you will automatically get the new premium pass.
Next step; an annual pass for all Disney theme parks globally. Too much? I know I would get one…
Via Orlando Sentinel
It will be to nobodies surprises that Disney’s profit has fallen during the economic downfall the world is experiencing. Disney’s profit is 26% down and a recovery is not in immediate sight at the moment. Walt Disney World is packed with the same amount of guest as in the previous year, Disneyland even had 10% more visitors, but with the big discounts and special deals Disney isn’t making more money out of it.
Operating profit at Walt Disney Parks and Resorts fell 19 percent to $521 million, while total revenue was down 9 percent to $2.8 billion, despite favorable timing of the busy Easter holiday. Disney blamed the division’s struggles in part on lower guest spending at Disney World, where widespread discounts eroded average hotel rates and average ticket prices. Combined per-capita guest spending at Disney World and Disneyland fell 6 percent during the quarter compared with a year earlier. But the discounts again helped Disney sustain attendance levels despite the tough economic environment: Combined attendance at the company’s U.S. parks rose 3 percent from a year ago, with Disney World flat and Disneyland up 10 percent. (Orlando Sentinel)
The second issue is out and has arrived at my doorstep. (Or should I say under my car porch as that’s where the postman left it). Although not being excited about it, after not liking the first one, I do had to open it immediately. It’s Disney after all and I couldn’t wait to see it, even if I thought it would not be any better then the first issue. But,… I was going to be pleasantly surprised.
Although I am a big fan of the parks and always hope for in dept park stories and secrets and hope to see something of the parks on the cover, I must admit that I was drawn to the nice Donald Duck cover first. “Donald Duck, 75 years of Mischief, mayhem & mirth!” was the appropriate title to the cover. But it was time to look inside and see if the book could change my mind… and somehow it did. It starts straight away with an article about the new Monster Inc. Attraction in Tokyo Disneyland and was followed with a look at the Disneyland Gallery in the next article. A very promising start.
After being closed for a lengthly 6 months Typhoon Lagoon has finally reopened to the public. The main reason for the long closure was said to be because of mayor works on the big wave pool. Other work might have been done too.
Typhoon Lagoon is one of my favorite parks, it even beats some of your “regular” gates, so I am really looking forwards visiting the park on my next trip. Because that’s still about 6 months away, I would love to hear from those visiting the water park before me and let me know about any of the changes that are visible.
Seen anything different at Typhoon Lagoon? Let me know…
We didn’t want to rush as we had not only a full day of Disney ahead, but also a 4 hour trip back home in front of us. We had to leave the rooms by 10am, so we turned up at the parks around 10:20 on this Monday morning. I promised my son Tower of Terror would be first on the list. FastPass was closed, and it wasfor all attractions on that day in the Studios, so we went straight into the normal queue and waited for about 30 minutes before we entered the elevator. After that we also enjoyed a ride on Rock’n'Roller coaster and visited Toon Studios for Cars. The queue at Crush was way to long for our liking and I always say if we don’t go on the ride this time we have a reason to come back (as if I need any other reason).
Once we done these rides we went for a drink and cookie in the shareholders club before entering the Disneyland Park.
You can’t visit a Disney park with (young) children without visiting the Disney characters at least once one your trip. For some children this is the highlight of their visit, waited months to see Mickey Mouse, to finally arrive at the magic and share some time with him or one of his friends.
In the US parks guests have the opportunity to visit many of the characters. They are everywhere, waiting for the children’s visit. Most of the time they are located on designated spots, but sometimes they take place on one of the streets in the park. Once guests spot the character they get into line, wait patiently till it’s their turn and get a couple of minutes to shake hands, say a couple of things, get their autograph book signed and take a picture before they have to make room for the next group or family.
I remember visiting the Magic kingdom during Halloween, where Winnie the Pooh and his friends appeared in Halloween outfits. They where lined up, (about 5 characters) and guests formed a long line in front of them to get their pictures taken. It was al very organized and very neat, with new guest lining up behind the last one and never did I see anybody try to queue barge.It looks like a good an honest way to make sure every child gets their turn, but their is a down side to it too. There is no room for sporadic interactive fun.
Test Track in Epcot opened to the public on March 17 , 1999 (with soft opening started at December 19, 1998). The ride is associated with General Motors from the beginning. They pay multiple millions every year as part of their 10 year sponsor deal with Disney. But this can now come to a full stop. GM isn’t doing to well (read extremely badly) and needs to save money wherever it can to save the company. One of those savings could come from sponsorships.
GM has been asking for money from the government and can’t just go and spend that money without giving it a good thought. But, like every business, you can only make money when you spend money. Sponsor deals are part of that. It makes people aware of your product, get them interested a make them buy the product. If you stop sponsorship (or advertisement) the awareness will be gone and sales will not be able to pick up at all. One could wonder if backing out on the Test Track sponsorship would be a good move.
Want a free one day passport for the Disneyland Resort Paris?
OK, I know … this sounds like a bad ad – there must be a catch, after all Disneyland Resort Paris can not be that desperate to hand out free tickets? Well – if it is, it is trying to conceal it. The free tickets are actually given away jointly by the Resort and Air France, the official airline of DLRP and one of its long-term sponsors. Got you interested? The details follow after the break…
Has it really been three years? A quick look at the archives, and yes, it has been!. Our first entry dates from 21st February 2006, so the Mousekingdom blog is celebrating its third year on the web and is ready for year 4.
Thank you to all our reader, fellow Disney fans and visitors of the blog. Without you we would not be here. Also a big thank you to the Cast Members, the imagineers and everybody at Disney for making the dreams we love so much reality. Thank you to all the other bloggers and Disney sites, especially those that occasionally linked us. And also a big thank you to the rest of the team and everybody who contributed to the blog. (You have a story you want to share, we welcome guest writers).
3 years… it’s only the beginning of the ride. We hope you enjoyed it so far and that you’ll be there for the many more years we plan to be here on the blog.
How much would you pay for that one Disney collectible you so desire? How about a million dollars to get your hand on a Blue Main Entrance Pass? Well, if you go to Ebay it can be yours for that price… if you are the high bidder. Bidding starts at a whooping $1,000,000 for a used card. As a collector myself I would love to have this card,… but not for that price.
The highest price I have ever seen paid was for a Disneyland Resort Paris entry test card. The collector paid about $750 for this card and up to today it is the only one I have seen so far. Again, something I would not pay (for that money I would go to a Disney park), but for some collectors it doesn’t seem to high.
Dubai wants to become the new and big tourist capitol of the world but with the world’s economy going down like a roller coaster so are the projects of Dubai. One big project scrapped is SeaWorld. Seaworld was going to be build on a Shamu like island. Together with Aquatica, a water park, it would open in 2012. Discovery Cove was going to follow with an opening set for 2015.
This is a big project they scrapped and one must wonder how the others feel about their parks and tourist attraction planned to open or to be build in Dubai.
Let’s hope economy will get better soon. If so the plans to build the parks might get new life.
Busch and Nakheel remained committed to the project and would move forward “when economic conditions permit.”(Orlando Sentinel)
Next time you’re at Walt Disney World, Disneyland or one of the other Disney Parks around the globe and you are waiting in line for a long time think about the fact that the Disney lines are the best in the world. While nobody likes standing in line, at a Disney park you’ll at least get some sort of entertainment, either in a form of a pre-show experience or because of the beautiful decorations and other stuff to discover while waiting. Some people think that one can learn a lot about Disney, or should even contract them to build lines for other events. So does the writer of the following piece, who says that the lines at Obama’s inauguration where a disaster.
Many people have now heard the basic story of last Tuesday morning: Some number of people with tickets showed up hours in advance, and did not get in through the the gates to see President Obama’s inauguration ceremony. That number, of which I was one, is easily in the tens of thousands, and maybe higher. (Tripso)
The write up however didn’t start positive for Disney as she says that it is a favorite pastime for many to bash the “Mouse”. But after the lines she experienced at the inauguration she found a new appreciation for Disney.
See, Disney does something good for everybody…
Could the “we will, we won’t” games be over? According to the China Daily it is!
The Walt Disney Company and the Shanghai municipal government have signed a project proposal to build the first Disney park on the Chinese mainland. (China Daily)
The first phase could include a theme park, one hotel and a shopping center. The biggest change will be the park itself as a traditional Disneyland isn’t something that would work because many of the Disney characters and movies are unknown in China. Mickey will be there, but many other Disney characters might not pass the gates.
Remember that this is still not an official announcement!