Mousekingdom Blog

The big Walt Disney World news we just talked about (and everybody is talking about) are the 2 new projects related to the Four Seasons resort and a second Disney Village style area with shops and more hotels. While this is big news and will bring big changes to the Walt Disney World Resort, it is not something I am wildly excited about. Maybe it is big to others, I am sure the Four Season Resort will be great, an attraction or new park would have excited me a lot more (I know, The fifth gate will never be out of my head even if it is not something that we might see anytime soon) …

While Disney did add some great new attractions like Expedition Everest or Soarin’, it are the other parks in Orlando that are now getting into the spotlight, stealing Disney’s thunder. Seaworld for example has just announced there new Water Park called Aquatica. (See article Orlando Sentinel)

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It doesn’t happen a lot you get to see Walt Disney World, Universal Studios and SeaWorld in the same advertisement like the new Orlando “Built for families. Made for memories.” advertisement videos that are shown on TV right now…

I must admit that I like the “turning young” story they use in the videos. This describes what many of us fans feel when we visit the theme parks…

You can see the ads on Orlando Sentinel’s Tourism Central Florida Blog

A group of Korean investors is looking at building a new Theme Park just three miles south of Disneyland.

After years of failed efforts to land some sort of tourist attraction, the Garden Grove City Council has agreed to let an investment firm move forward with plans to construct a $4-billion amusement park in a city best known for its annual strawberry festival. (Source LA Times)

While they say it doesn’t look to compete with Disneyland in Anaheim they must hope that visitors of the resort would hop over for a visit. They are taking Islands Of Adventure as an example of what they want to have in place in California.

I must admit that I love Islands of Adventure and every Walt Disney World visit has brought me to the Universal Studios resort for a visit.

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Whenever I go for the “sweet” Walt Disney World Halloween experience I will not miss another Haunt when I am in Orlando. Like I said it the first part; I love Halloween, so it is impossible to celebrate without a visit to some really scary haunts. The best place to do this when visiting Walt Disney World (in my opinion) is going to Halloween Horror Nights in Universal Studios. (starting 29th September)

Now the last thing I would do (as the Disney fanatic that I am) is lure away people from WDW to visit another park, but admittedly there is a lot of fun out there that will tempt me to get off Disney property and enjoy it.

Halloween Horror Night is one of those and one of my favorite events. I go to Mickey’s not so Scary Halloween party, but I will make sure to go to some (multiple) Halloween Horror Nights too during a “Halloween” visit

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Susan and I have spent pretty much all of the last 6 weeks or so on a major travelling adventure (as goes with the job) around parts of the USA, looking at new writing projects and coming across some unique insights and attractions along the way, some of them Disney-related and some not.

We’ve been in theme parks (notably Cedar Point, Ohio, Hershey Park, Pennsylvania, and Busch Gardens Williamsburg, Virginia), along the coast, to historic sites (notably Gettysburg, Williamsburg, Jamestown, Yorktown and the Shenandoah Valley), scenic sites (The Blue Ridge Parkway, Skyline Drive and Natural Bridge, all in Virginia) and even on a Caribbean cruise (with Carnival, not DCL, but still with positive results). And it has to be said, Disney and Co have a LOT of competition nowadays, especially from the likes of the cruise lines.

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Going to the movies is something I love to do; the atmosphere, the BIG screen, the awesome sound effect… It is all part on the experience that makes seeing a movie in a cinema special. My last Disney movie was Pirates of the Caribbean, Dead Man’s Chest (I guess that counts for a lot of us). I loved the movie, and also loved the new Walt Disney logo at the beginning of the movie. It makes me want to go to the parks. But isn’t this a missed opportunity? Could they not add, before the movie starts, a nice beautiful advertisement of the Disney Parks? Including information on how and where to book. If they would add this before every movie as an attachment would this not have a very positive effect on the people in the theatres? How many people went to see Pirates but have never been to a Disney park? Many for sure! (I talked to people who liked the movie but never seen the ride it was modeled after) So before the movie start they should show the park and get the people interested for a visit. Show the link even more as they did with the small intro before the movie starts.

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Psst … I need to tell you a secret … there is a world full of wonders outside the Disney resorts as well. But shhhh … don’t tell anyone, we don’t want them to run all over the place

Enough of the kidding – but there is something true about that, after all when we as Disney fans finally get to a Disney resort there is a certain urge to enjoy as much of the offerings from Disney as possible, which also means there is less time for the famous tourist highlights and especially the hidden gems in the vincinity. That (and the fact that I realized that I tent to not post as much here as I originally promised) has prompted me to come up with a new series which I hope to publish more or less regularly every Saturday or every other Saturday: DETOUR

For the inauguration part I thought I bring something up for all of us visiting the Disneyland Resort in Anaheim, California. After all with the 50th Anniversary celebrations still going strong their is already a strong urge for us fans to drop by Anaheim..

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