Category — Walt Disney World

If you’re ever walking through the town of Swindon in the United Kingdom and find yourself thinking, gee This is a lot like Walt Disney World then you can understand why Swindon has been officially honored at Walt Disney World Resort in Lake Buena Vista, Fla. with a plaque marking the “twinning” of the Wiltshire town. A special guest at the twinning ceremony was The Mayor of Swindon (Cllr David Wren).

Pictured above is a plaque marking the twinning was placed in the United Kingdom pavilion at Epcot World Showcase. It will remain in place throughout 2010 for guests to see. (Photo Courtesy Disney. Diana Zalucky, Photographer)

Previously: Disney Hunting for Twin Town.

More Disney News you can use…

No vampire owners for Disney’s Miramax. Summit Entertainment pulls out of the bidding.

Disney’s Imagineers will be helping Orlando get its iconic Lake Eola fountain working again. It was laid low by a lightning strike last year. Estimated repair cost is $1 million.

Upcoming Pixar introduces us to the newest Toy Story 3 character – Buttercup.

Disney Interactive lays out their game plan for making great games.

Tour the changes underway at EPCOT as it prepares for the Flower and Garden festival via LP Lotion.

If you’ve not yet taken a visit to the Wide World of Sports complex at Walt Disney World, what are you waiting for? The World Champions to show up? Well this year you’ll have your chance to see the Atlanta Braves take on the New York Yankees as part of their spring training.

Early reports are that pitchers have already been practicing at ESPN WWOS. With everyone else arriving soon for two weeks of workouts before the first game on March 3rd.

Read more and get the full pre-season game schedule below the jump:

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Must be the time of year, on Saturday we rode the Kilimanjaro Safari and were amazed at all the animal babies out on the savannah. Today we get news that a Baby White-Cheeked Gibbon has joined the family at Disney’s Animal Kingdom.

Guests visiting the Asia section of Disney’s Animal Kingdom are getting a glimpse of the latest addition to the park’s family – an endangered white-cheeked gibbon born Feb. 2. Isn’t he cute?

The yet-to-be named male and his mother, Melaka, are bonding well according to the animal experts who oversee the daily care of primates. Guests may see them and the baby’s two sisters, Suki and Tuyen, in their habitat near Kali River Rapids.

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Valentines Day is over and President’s Day is underway, time to look forward to the next big holiday… St Patrick’s Day? I guess that’s a good excuse for dressing Mickey Mouse in his Irish finest with Kathy Ireland.

Former supermodel Kathy Ireland, who is now CEO of a design and marketing firm, Kathy Ireland Worldwide, was at Walt Disney World to give a keynote address for Disney Parks’ first-ever “Social Media Moms Celebration,” a professional and personal development gathering for mom bloggers. Ireland’s speech focused on “real solutions for busy moms.”

Lots of great twitter comments from the #DisneySMMoms group all week long and they got to hear from a lot of great speakers including Guy Kawasaki and Chris Brogan. Everyone I spoke to said they had a great time and are looking forward to next year.

(Photo courtesy Disney. Preston Mack, photographer)

Yesterday Disney revealed a giant World Record Setting canned food sculpture – titled “Celebrate Volunteers” – and then promptly dismantled it and shipped it off to regional food banks. Disney VoluntEARS shaped the sculpture with a larger-than-life Goofy, Mickey Mouse, Donald Duck and Pluto – all sculpted out of cans. Goofy’s trademark hat consisted of cans of bread crumbs, for instance. Mickey’s famous head was shaped from cans of black olives, and cans of sliced pineapple made up Pluto’s eyes.

Here’s a timelapse video of the build:

Previously: Give A Day, Get A Disney Day attracts 600,000 already.

It was a huge day at EPCOT today. A world record setting canned-food sculpture, a new duet with Joe Jonas and Demi Lovato (more on that late tonight), and Chef Robert Irvine’s Dinner Impossible filming (again more on that later tonight). But the day was really about Disney’s amazing new promotion for its Give a Day, Get a Disney Day promotion for 2010.

Against the backdrop of a world-record sculpture of canned goods destined for food banks, Disney Parks officials on Thursday announced a major milestone with the “Give a Day, Get a Disney Day” program, a first-of-its-kind effort to help inspire 1 million people to perform volunteer service.

Since the program’s launch only six weeks ago, more than 600,000 people in the United States, Puerto Rico and Canada have volunteered or signed up for volunteer projects in their communities, announced Tom Staggs, chairman of Walt Disney Parks and Resorts.

“With the launch of our ‘Give a Day, Get a Disney Day’ program, we hoped to spark something truly special,” Staggs said. “But even we have been overwhelmed with the response.”

Disney originally announced that they would try to give away around 1 million tickets to volunteers. I don’t know if that means you need to sign up for a shift soon, or if they’ll extend the promotion throughout the year.

Canned-Food Structure Unveiled, Verified Largest-Ever by Guinness World Records®

As part of the event celebrating family volunteers and to dramatize the spirit of giving, Walt Disney World Resort on Thursday unveiled a mammoth structure of canned goods – food that will be donated to food banks in Orlando, Miami and Atlanta.

The canned food sculpture – titled “Celebrate Volunteers” – was revealed for media and guests at Epcot. Disney VoluntEARS shaped the sculpture with a larger-than-life Goofy, Mickey Mouse, Donald Duck and Pluto – all sculpted out of cans. Goofy’s trademark hat consisted of cans of bread crumbs, for instance. Mickey’s famous head was shaped from cans of black olives, and cans of sliced pineapple made up Pluto’s eyes.

The cans represent approximately 70,000 meals, according to Dave Krepcho, president/CEO of Second Harvest of Central Florida. “Each can makes a difference in someone’s life who cannot afford this food,” he said. “Much of this food goes to children in need, working moms trying to provide, senior citizens coping on fixed incomes and people whose disabilities keep them from working.”

The spectacular, character-themed structure – consisting officially of 115,527 cans – was also a world record, according to Guinness World Records, the internationally recognized authority on record-breaking achievement. Guinness World Records Thursday authenticated the achievement as the Largest Canned Food Structure ever created, easily eclipsing the previous record of 54,527 cans set in June 2009 in New Zealand. More fun facts at the bottom of this post

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