Category — Walt Disney World

This Sunday marks the official reopening of Space Mountain at Walt Disney World’s Magic Kingdom. Technically, it’s currently in soft open; which means it might experience some down time. (Heck, it might even experience downtime after Sunday).

While not exactly the major overhaul that many thought Space Mountain deserved, this rehab has brought some fairly significant changes to the attraction. Okay, it’s mostly a fresh coat of paint, some new projections, and some queue enhancements. But hey, it’s open again.

To celebrate I’m calling mini-meet, or Tweetup if you’re reading this from twitter, to experience it together. Let’s get together at 11:00 AM on Sunday in front of Space Mountain by the round planter. We’ll go once through the standby queue and once through fastpass, so come early and pick up your fastpass.

It’s the time of year to be thankful and to give of your heart. The spirit of giving shines 365 days a year at Walt Disney World Resort, which provides cash and in-kind support to more than 100 local non-profit organizations. One such organization, Coalition for the Homeless of Central Florida, provides food and shelter to approximately 600 people each night, including many families with children.

Coalition for the Homeless is more than a shelter; it is a comprehensive program designed to empower homeless men, women and children to become self-sufficient. In addition to food and shelter, the Coalition provides programs and services including education, job skills training, case management, licensed day care, child development programs and housing placement.

“When you see homelessness in the media, you are moved to humility and compassion but when you see homelessness in person, you are moved to action,” says Trevor Larsen, vice president of Engineering Services & Manufacturing for Walt Disney Parks & Resorts, who is making a difference at the Coalition by providing leadership through his board service and support in the maintenance and improvement of Coalition facilities. “There are plenty of ways people can help,” says Larsen, who invites others to “come meet these adults and children in need and get involved.”

Additionally, Disney VoluntEARS serve nearly 750 meals monthly at the Coalition and chefs from Disney Resorts will prepare and serve dinner for residents on Thanksgiving and Christmas Day. Disney Chef Tony Marotta is overseeing Thanksgiving meal preparations, which begin two days prior to the holiday. “What surprises me most is when we ask our team for volunteers to help at the Coalition, we always get two-to-three times more than we expect,” says Marotta, who will be making a traditional feast to feed approximately 700 people.

“Disney’s generosity, both financial and in-kind, has been invaluable to us in meeting the needs of the homeless individuals and families seeking our help,” says Coalition for the Homeless President/CEO Brent Trotter. “And the volunteer involvement of Disney Cast Members really extends our reach in helping those in desperate need.”

For the past two years, Walt Disney World Resort has recognized Coalition for the Homeless with its top Disney’s Helping Kids Shine Grant – the Bob Allen Outstanding Community Service Award – for its outstanding outreach efforts to the homeless children of Central Florida. Disney provides funding to the non-profit’s children services program, which aims to instill values such as trust, honesty, integrity, responsibility, personal power and self-esteem.

“It’s humbling and a great honor to be recognized for our work with families,” says Trotter. “Families with children are the fastest growing segment of the homeless population in Central Florida today. We’ve created a wide variety of services to meet the unique needs of the growing number of children who the Coalition serves and are happy to have the support of Disney in our mission.”

To learn more about how you can help, visit www.centralfloridahomeless.org.

Quebec’s citizens looking to get a flu shot for the H1N1 Virus have a health official’s trip to Walt Disney World to thank for their short wait to get vaccinated. Inspired by the Fastpass system that saves guests a virtual place in the queue for attractions like Peter Pan and Space Mountain, a coupon tells each patient when to return for their flu shot.

Lines are still forming at some vaccination centres, where people are queuing up early just to get their coupons. But officials say the system has been effective. At one vaccination centre in Montreal’s Plateau Mont Royal district recently, nurses and health workers outnumbered people in line.

“The system is marvellous,” said Johanne Spencer, who’d whisked through her vaccination. “You know what time you’re going to have your turn and you know how long you’ll have to wait. You don’t waste three, four hours in line.”

I’m pretty sure Disney won’t be promoting this as they don’t want the parks identified with Swine Flu at the moment.

More here (Hat Tip to BoingBoing’s Cory D.)

Just wanted to quickly highlight some of the new merchandise that’s available at Walt Disney World these days.

Haunted Mansion Action Figures! They’ve done something like this before, but these are more affordable.

This new Pirates Mickey Ears actually looks like a dead mouse skull if you ask me. Not exactly a Disney image.

If you like Disney’s new Vinylmation collectibles, then you’ll love these plush versions. I like the monorail one myself.

Even if you can’t make it to the parks, you can find some of the best Disney Themepark Merchandise available on the LaughingPlace.com Store.

Downtown Disney Orlando recently added a tethered balloon experience, Characters In Flight. It takes guests 400 ft into the air for a glorious panoramic view of the Lake Buena Vista area. When it opened the attraction was notorious for closing down for safety with even a light breeze in the area. It’s rumored that they brought in a new operations team and these days the balloon flies in even a stiff breeze.

Of course, this can make things interesting from time to time. From what I’ve seen the flight up is fine, but sometimes the landings can be a bit shakey. The video below wasn’t even the roughest landing I saw all day, but it’s still an e-ticket experience. Check out the passengers clapping at the end. Happy they all survived it sounds like.

Singer & Arena Football team owner Jon Bon Jovi poses with Goofy Nov. 16, 2009 on the New York Street backlot set at Disney’s Hollywood Studios theme park. Bon Jovi and his band, who have sold more than 120 million records in a career that spans 26 years, have just released their newest album, “The Circle.” The group will begin a world concert tour in early 2010. (Photo courtesy Disney. Gene Duncan, photographer)

With Thanksgiving just around the corner, it’s time to start thinking turkey. I know I’ve been thinking about dining out this year instead of preparing a meal at home. I’m just too tired to cook after the craziness of this year. So it’s a good thing that some of Downtown Disney’s finest restaurants are featuring scrumptious Thanksgiving menus on Thursday, November 26, 2009.

Fulton’s Crab House

Executive Chef Ron Cope has crafted a decedent Thanksgiving menu guaranteed to surpass even your wildest dreams of the perfect turkey-day feast. Guests will start their meal with either Butternut Squash soup (topped with cinnamon whipped cream) or a Baby mixed greens salad with candied pecans, roma tomato & Maple ginger vinaigrette. The Thanksgiving entrée goes classic with a Roasted Turkey Breast with sage stuffing, turkey gravy, homemade cranberry relish, whipped sweet potatoes, Yukon gold mash. As always, end on a sweet note with Homemade Pumpkin Pie! Kids also have the option to make their own sundae with vanilla ice cream, Oreo cookie crumbs, rainbow sprinkles, and chocolate sauce.

Fulton’s Crab House is located at located at 1670 Buena Vista Drive Lake in Downtown Disney. The Thanksgiving Day hours are 11:30 am- 11:00 pm. $29.95/person. Kids under 10 $12.95/person.

Portobello

This Thanksgiving at Portobello, Chef Steven Richard & Consulting Chef Tony Mantuano will serve a traditional three course dinner with a creative twist. Priced at $33.95 per person and $14.95 for children 10 and under, the first course offers options such as Caesar Salad or Sweet Potato Bisque. Enjoy an entrée of Roasted Turkey Breast with Rosemary Gravy, Pancetta and Apple Dressing, Haricot Verte, Whipped potato and cranberry relish. And of course, Thanksgiving dinner wouldn’t be complete without dessert so dig into Portobello’s delicious Pumpkin Bread Pudding.

Portobello is located at located at 1670 Buena Vista Drive Lake in Downtown Disney. The Thanksgiving Day hours are 11:30 am- 11:00 pm.

Wolfgang Puck Grand Cafe

Chef Sinclair Thorne & Consulting Chef Wolfgang Puck have created an immaculate Thanksgiving menu to be offered in their gorgeous upstairs dining room. Start with an Amuse Bouche of Duck Comfit (long island duck in puff pastry with toasted Hazelnuts and orange cranberries sorbet) before you move on to the first course with a choice of Seared Scallop (Creamy celery root puree and duo pepper puree) or Duck Napoleon Slow braised duck layered with herbed goat cheese, Crispy wontons and apple-raspberry chutney. The Second Course offers a choice of Lobster Bisque with crispy prosciutto and lime chive crème fraiche or Tomato Mozzarella Salad Butter lettuce, heirloom tomato, arugula, shaved parmesan cheese Buffalo mozzarella, balsamic reduction and basil aioli. Wolfgang Puck has created a tradition main course consisting of Oven Roasted Free Range Turkey (with mushroom duxelle, garlic mashed potato, turkey dressing baby vegetables Orange spice cranberry relish) and Braised Short Ribs (with Herb and goat cheese polenta and fall vegetables.) End on a sweet note with Pumpkin Crème Brule (Spiced pumpkin custard with caramelized sugar)

Wolfgang Puck Grand Cafe is located at located in Downtown Disney. The Thanksgiving Day hours are 11:30 am- 11:00 pm. $69.95/person. $16.95/person for children 12 and under.

Today TouringPlans.com, the fine folks behind the Unofficial Guide to Walt Disney World, are launching a preview version of Lines, a mobile website for iPhone users that displays estimates of wait times for every attraction at Walt Disney World, in real time.

For the past 10 years they’ve been obsessively researching wait times at Walt Disney World, collecting and processing a massive amount of data along the way. Their products like Touring Plans and the Crowd Calendar help you efficiently tour the parks and avoid the crowds.

In Lines, it’s obvious they thought a lot about one’s experience while touring the parks: standing in Frontierland and want to know how long the line is at Space Mountain? Is Soarin’ really a ninety minute wait? Will there be FASTPASSes left at Toy Story Mania if we get there at noon?

Lines was built to solve these problems. There are many mobile applications doing wait times (Disney included), and accurate estimates are particularly challenging. TouringPlans has the unique dataset required to provide the most accurate estimates.

There is also a handy preview of what tomorrow will look like. I’d like to see this expanded in future editions.

To give it a test-drive, grab an iPhone our iPod Touch and navigate to http://m.touringplans.com (other mobile platforms are on the way). You’ll need a TouringPlans.com subscription (which is free) to use Lines during this preview.