Do you live in the United Kingdom? Have you always felt that your town had something magical about it? Maybe it could be a twin of Walt Disney World’s Magic Kingdom? Well now Disney wants you to tell the world about your special down and nominate it to be paired with the MK in Orlando.

From now until 22 November 2009, anyone across the UK (over 18 years) can nominate their home village, town or city to become the Walt Disney World twinned town by visiting www.waltdisneyworldtwinnedtown.co.uk. Full terms are available on the website.

The winning location will be announced as having official “Walt Disney World Twinned Town” status and arrangements will be made to hold a magical Disney party in January to celebrate the twinning. Plus, the lucky person who submits the winning nomination will jet off to Walt Disney World in Florida with their family (max 4 people) for the official twinning ceremony presided over by the mayor of Main Street, U.S.A., in the fairy tale Magic Kingdom.

To nominate your town, you can write about how great it is, take photographs, or even make your own video, showing why it deserves to win this amazing competition. Entries can be uploaded on the website and visitors to the site can browse all qualifying entries to check out the competition.

The winning entry will be selected by a team of judges, including TV star Angellica Bell, Vice President Creative Inc, Walt Disney World Duncan Wardle, Vice President and managing director of Disney Destinations International UK Hugh Wood, and one of the famous Walt Disney Imagineers, Patrick Brennan.

In the second time lapse video of today we have a behind the scenes look at the Magic Kingdom as it puts up its fall decor to transform the park into a Halloween wonderland.

Today is the 38th anniversary of Walt Disney World. They’ve released a tilt-shift stop motion video as a present to us all. It celebrates a day in the life of the Magic Kingdom. The tilt-shift technique makes the real look like miniature toys. Check it out.

(via Disney Parks blog)

There have now been two spacemen named Buzz in space. Buzz Lightyear returned from one year on the International Space Station in September. Buzz Aldrin, of course, famously walked on the moon (and provided the inspiration for the toy’s name). If you’re at the Magic Kingdom this Friday you’ll have a chance to see them both together. I wonder if the universe will explode.

The Magic Kingdom is having a special Pre-Parade at 2:45 PM on Friday, Oct 2 to welcome back Buzz Lightyear from his long stay in space. Also appearing in the parade is Buzz Aldrin and astronaut E. Michael Fincke. Buzz Aldrin will also be signing autographs for his two books in Exposition Hall, 4pm – 5pm on Friday.

(Thanks Jacquie!)

Now that the 2010 promotion for Disneyland and Walt Disney World has been revealed with a bit of a huh? I think it’s time to look forward to 2011 and Walt Disney World’s 40th Anniversary.

In 2011 the Fantasyland Princess expansion will still be under construction and Star Tours II will be in a different park, so what ever Disney does at the Magic Kingdom will have to be spectacular enough to draw guests on its own.

I was at Disneyland all summer for its 40 Years Of Adventure promotion. They had opened the Indiana Jones Adventure and designed the whole concept around that theme. They had The Lion King Celebration parade (my favorite parade of all time). And the released a new Disneyland park map. That may not seem like much to you, but it was a big deal at the time as it had been years since Disneyland sold a park map. Then there was the 40 days of summer where the park gave away a trading card every day for 40 days in a row. That was absolutely crazy trying to get to the park on nights when it closed at 6pm.

Walt Disney World is at a different place in its evolution than Disneyland was at its 40th. It got a head start using lessons learned at Disneyland. WDW also has a different target market. They need to attract families who want to stay for 4-7 nights, preferably on property.

What would you like to see at the Magic Kingdom as it celebrates its 40th year? What would make you bring your family to the MK for it’s 40th Anniversary?

My wishes are for two new parades, and I mean new. Don’t recycle existing ones. Spectromagic can go visit some other Disney park, the Magic Kingdom should get a new parade that uses modern technology to really wow. Leave out the show stops though, can you say Light Magic? I think the Day parade should be a highlights parade bringing back some of the more memorable moments from Florida and the park’s past.

I would also like to see Disney reach out to the Florida community in a way that lets everyone know we’re in this boat together. Other than that it needs a snappy name and a catchy tune that we all leave the park humming.

Put on your thinking cap and post your ideas below.

The leaked plans for the Magic Kingdom Fantasyland expansion appear to be mostly, if not totally, true. This based on announcements from Jay Rasulo at the D23 Expo today. There’s some good detail of the plans at my previous post looking at the blueprints. Now we also have some gorgeous concept art to go with it. (click for larger versions)

Update: download 2.5 mb larger version here.

This concept art shows the expanded area from the POV of above Cinderella Castle. In the front left you see the ‘castle walls’ from which you will travel through into the various Princess Realms. Belle, Sleeping Beauty, Ariel all have their own castles (aka meet and greet areas). The Beauty and the Beast realm will also have a new dinner show.

Ariel’s castle will contain the Little Mermaid attraction that’s also being installed at California Adventure.

At this point the Fantasyland Expansion concept art differs a bit from the blue prints we saw. Tinker Bell and the fairies still get their Pixie Hollow (which will be phase two of the expansion), but the Dumbo attraction (see concept drawing below) is moved to the other side where Goofy’s Barstormer and Donald’s boat is now. There is also a coaster in the back that is not on the blue prints. I’ll be curious to see how this all turns out in the final version.

The new Dumbo attraction will have two spinners and, apparently, more of a circus theme. The blue prints specify an ‘interactive queue’ which, based on this art, would appear to be more living character initiative animatronics. Think Mr. Potato Head in the Toy Story Midway Mania queue.

All this, Jay says, will be open in 2012. A year late for the 40th Anniversay of the MK. But not too shabby a schedule. I would like to have seen another solid ‘ride’ type attraction, something aimed at the whole family instead of another meet and greet/mini-show. But the dinner show and the themeing look pretty outstanding.

Follow below the jump for the full press release related to all of Jay’s park announcements:

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Back in the early days of the internet Walt Disney World featured live Web Cams at the parks. Then sometime around the turn of the millennium they went off line and never came back. It was a big loss for theme park fans who used them to keep a little of the magic alive in between vacations.

For a long time Fans consoled themselves with a weather web cam erected at the Swan & Dolphin that was pointed toward EPCOT’s Spaceship Earth. It wasn’t good for much, but checking weather conditions, and the status of the Yacht & Beach Club after a hurricane rolled through. Then last year, that web cam, too, disappeared.

Well, the Swan & Dolphin has turned it back on. But it’s pointed in a new direction, this time at the Dolphin Hotel. It is still useful for weather observations, but now features a view of the Starwood brand property instead of Disney’s.

This leaves a void for the Disney fan again. Something the folks at Disney Parks and Resorts can easily fill. All we ask is one camera at each park. They don’t even have to show crowds or sensitive areas. At Disney’s Animal Kingdom (or the Lodge) there should be a Savannah Cam. At Hollywood Studios show the Light’s Motor Action stage (with the big blue hat behind it, so we can keep an eye on the Imagineering promise that it will shortly go away). At EPCOT the beautiful shot from the top of the American Pavilion across the lagoon to Spaceship Earth would be perfect. At the Magic Kingdom a view looking from Splash Mountain to the Castle or from the Contemporary at the Magic Kingdom itself, would be perfect.

All these angles avoid showing guests or maintenance vehicles in the parks. None show backstage areas that might tip off unwanted actions from guests. But they all capture a part of the magic that means a lot to Disney fans for a very small cost investment.

What do you think? Should Walt Disney World flip the switch? Are there any other views you would rather see?

I took off Friday for my son’s 6th birthday. As per his wish, we spent some time meandering through the Magic Kingdom doing what he wanted to do (mostly).

The day started with ride over to the park on the monorail. Believe it or not, that was my first ride on the transport since the tragic death of monorail purple’s pilot. The system functioned as it should, there may have been a couple extra cast members on the platform, but for the most part things were the same as they ever were.

We tried to time our arrival with the little show that takes place at the train station as the park opens to guests. It’s a cute show, but it seemed most of the cast members were just going through the motions and the guests that were selected to open the park really didn’t do any thing much. I think it’s time for some new magical moment to be created here, hopefully one that doesn’t involve crowding hundreds of people into a small area and then forcing them to move through an even smaller passage way all while strollers run over their toes and elbows are thrown jostling for position.

So having survived Disney’s version of the Running of the Bulls, what do we do next? Head to our first Fast Pass? No! Not this day. We went straight to the Harmony Barbershop where the official festivities for “Pink Hair Day” were set to begin.

(follow me below the jump for a photo of the famous pink hair and more from the day)

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