Monorail Teal, the new train that was made by combining the undamaged ends of Monorail Purple and Pink after the fatal accident earlier this year, has been spotted testing around the resort. In the video, the pink and purple stripes have been colored by some white tape.

Previously: New monorail to be built from damaged monorails.

Alan Joyce, the author of Secrets of the Mouse, has just released a reference guide for Disneyland’s Hidden Mickeys – The Hidden Mouse. The mouse’s hiding places are revealed in 116 information rich full-color pages featuring hundreds of photographs, helpful tips, and bonus behind-the-scenes information about dozens of rides.

The guidebook includes:

• A comprehensive of list currently known Hidden Mickeys in Disneyland, Disney’s California Adventure, Disneyland Resort Hotels, and more.
• High-quality color photos of many Hidden Mickeys.
• Helpful tips for locating each Hidden Mickey.
• Behind-the-scenes information and fun facts about dozens of attractions across the Resort.

What sets this guide to Hidden Mickeys apart is the marvelous full color presentation. Many of the Hidden Mickeys have photos right in the book, so they’re easy to find when you arrive at the right spot. The other major Hidden Mickey guide makes finding the elusive marks more of a treasure hunt.

One of the strengths of the book is how easy the structure makes it to reference any ride or location across the Disneyland Resort in Anaheim. The Hidden Mouse will guide you to the nearest Hidden Mickey at the Disneyland Resort Hotels, California Adventure, and Disneyland itself. Using it will add an extra layer of fun to your theme park experience. I found a few Hidden Mickeys in the guide that I had no idea even existed.

My biggest fault with Joyce’s book is that he uses a very broad definition of what constitutes a Hidden Mickey, particularly when it comes to the three circle variety. In my opinion, if the proportions aren’t correct or the ‘ears’ are not correctly aligned it’s not a Hidden Mickey. But go find them yourself and make up your own mind.

For that extra layer of fun, or just something to do while waiting in queue, bring The Hidden Mouse with you on your next trip to Walt’s original Magic Kingdom – Disneyland.

Since 1979 Martin has been flying across the pond with his family to visit Walt Disney World. He’s been video taping his visits since 1990. The result is a collection of more than 150 videos documenting much of the resorts history. I’ve embedded a sample video documenting EPCOT’s “Tapestry of Nations”. Puts me right back at the curb of this fabulous parade.

Tapestry of Nations from Martins Videos on Vimeo.

Please welcome Michael Owen to The Disney Blog for this guest post. – ed

Throughout the current economic crisis theme park operators around the world have been coming up with varied marketing tools in order to keep the turnstiles turning and their hotel rooms full. Disney Parks & Resorts have been no different; Jay Rasulo commented at D23 that Disney’s recession-busting marketing strategy ‘Celebrate Today’ saw around 1 million people coming into the parks around the United States for free on their birthday.

Disney has recently announced their promotion for the New Year, ‘give a Day, Get a Day’. To put this simply if you do some volunteer work for a day Disney will offer you a free day ticket to one of their parks in either Florida or California. Of course this promotion will get a large number through the park gates, maybe more than the previous promotion. This is all well and good, but I’m not sure if Disney is really aiming their promotions at the right audience in order to best benefit their parks.

The most recent promotion and the one just announced are aimed mainly at those coming for one off trips, the same can be said for the free dining and buy four get three free on hotels and tickets. All of these offers are for people who are most likely coming on a vacation, or only for one day; meaning there is a limit to how much they will spend on-property over the duration of their visit. Admittedly, this does keep hotel rooms full and attendance high, but looking at it from a financial perspective I think heavily marketing towards those looking into, or currently in ownership, of an annual pass would prove much more successful.

So, why do I think annual pass holders are important? Simple, repeat business. An annual pass holder is going to want to make the most out of their investment, so they’ll be in the parks as often as they can be and whilst they are there they’ll most likely be spending money. Annual pass holders may not spend as much in a day at the park as a tourist would but the difference is a tourist may be in the parks 14-days a year whilst an annual pass holder could come 365 days a year, if they had the incentive to.

That’s the key point, an annual pass holder needs a reason to visit the parks more often, some sort of discount or offer which allows them to save money and/or have a more enjoyable time in the park. My suggestion for this would be a ‘Share the Magic’ promotion. My idea for this would be that anyone who buys an annual pass is allowed a select number of days a year in which they can bring a friend to the park for free. It’s similar to the ‘Celebrate Today’ and ‘Give a Day, Get a Day’ promotions apart from with this Disney are getting the profit from an annual pass.

By offering free days for friends Disney would see an increase in annual pass sales as people who wouldn’t normally see the annual pass as good value may have their mind changed by this offer. On top of that an increase in annual pass holders would see an increase in the money spent in park, as there’s more people there to spend it. As well as this the ‘friend’ who the annual pass holder brings on selected dates would be spending money in the park as well meaning Disney would be benefiting from offering such a promotion.

It also may be worth increasing the discounts that annual pass holders get whilst in the parks, it may mean they’re not paying as much for selected products but it may give them the incentive to buy something they wouldn’t at a higher price, again increasing the annual pass holders spending inside the parks. By being offered these discounts annual pass holders will feel that a day at the park is cheaper than before the promotions were introduced, meaning they’re more likely to visit more frequently.

Combine this with the current promotions, such as the recently reintroduced buy four get three free, and you’ll see both profits from both tourists and regular visitors increase, much better than just targeting one segment of the theme park visitor market, which is what Disney are doing now by primarily aiming at those visitors coming from long-distances domestically and those living outside of the United States.

Everyone enjoys being rewarded for their loyalty, maybe it’s time Disney took note of that too.

M. Owen

Two breaking news items from Walt Disney World in the news this morning.

Early this morning there was a report of smoke on a monorail. Operation was stopped and the fire department called in. No fire or damage could be found. It looks like that monorail was sent back to the shop and the rest of the fleet returned to normal operations.

Smoke from a possible electrical short is not all that unusual on WDW’s aging monorail fleet. But neither is it common. Still, I don’t see this as a sign of concern.

The other story coming out of WDW this morning is quite a bit sadder. A 16 year old guest staying at the Port Orleans Riverside resort was found dead in his room this morning by a member of his family. Sheriff investigators are on the scene of this tragedy.

The thoughts of everyone at The Disney Blog go out to their family. No one wants this to happen, especially on vacation.

Planning a trip to Walt Disney World or Disneyland resorts in 2010? Disney wants you to give back to the community and they’ll give you a free ticket to celebrate your participation. The “Give A Day, Get A Disney Day” promotion celebrates the volunteer ethic by matching you with an approved nonprofit to make a difference. Hopefully this will light the volunteer spark under some who have yet to experience the joys of doing good for others.

GADGADD replaces the 2009 ‘Celebrate Today’ promotion where you could get free admission (or a replacement gift if you were an annual passholder) on your birthday. That promotion ends Deember 31, 2009.

The GADGADD promotion is fairly simple. Beginning January 1, 2010 you must sign up at Disney’s website and search for an available volunteer opportunity. Once you’ve completed your shift at the organization, Disney will verify your session and send you an email that will allow you to get one free ticket (allow at least two weeks for verification). You can only earn one ticket a year through this promotion and supplies are limited.

To get an idea of what shifts will be available search HandsOn Network’s list of approved volunteer opportunities for a something near you. Feel free to volunteer today and help out a great organization, but it won’t count toward the promotion until after you sign up for Disney’s promotion. Even if you already regularly volunteer, you still have to sign up at Disney’s site for your shift to qualify.

There are many more details in Disney’s FAQ for the program. For instance, if you’re an annual passholder you can choose an alternate gift such as a special fastpass or a collectible set of mouse ears with a matching pin. The whole program wraps up on December 15th, 2010. You’ll have to use your ticket voucher by then. Plus there are a few blackout periods ( Walt Disney World® Resort: March 29 – April 8 and July 4, 2010 AND The Disneyland® Resort: February 13-14, March 21, June 21-22, July 4, November 21, December 11-12, 2010 ).

Disney plans to use the Muppets to promote the campaign. Check out the launch site. It’s actually pretty cute and full of downloads and even a contest to win a free trip.

What do you think? Is this a good follow up to 2009’s promotion? While I don’t have Disney’s numbers for the event, I have to wonder how successful the free birthday ticket was at driving new traffic to the parks. Probably more successful in Anaheim where more people live within driving distance.

I don’t see this promotion driving a lot of new traffic either. It certainly is a great idea though.

Disney has a long history of volunteering in the community. The cast member army of VoluntEars is always out and about in the community and Disney’s Conservation efforts makes an impact every day all around the globe. I hope that the GADGADD promotion will now create millions of new ripples in the pond and you never know if one of those will become a tidal wave of change.

I saw a great headline that the much needed Maglev line between Anaheim’s resort district and the Las Vegas area had received federal funding to get started on the first phase. It was only $45 million toward a potential $12 billion project, but it was an indication the line would eventually be built.

Since phase one was to run from Las Vegas to the Nevada/California Stateline (aka Primm, where all the casinos are owned by MGM Grand, who must have some great lobbyists) I hopped on over the the Las Vegas Review Journal website to see what they had to say.

Guess, what. There’s no official announcement about the federal funding and lots of confusion about which of two competing projects to fund. If you’re interested in political infighting check out the story in the LVRJ.

But what I want to know is as a travel consumer which would you prefer? A 300-mile an hour MagLev train that gets you to and from Anaheim and Las Vegas in 1.5-2 hours with a minimum of stops along the way? Or 150-mile an hour train that makes more stops in the smaller communities and requires a transfer to make it to the Anaheim area from Las Vegas. It would take 4-5 hours for this option.

For the record, I’ve driven from Disneyland to Las Vegas in less than 4 hours. So I think the faster option is much better even if it is more expensive. Sometimes you have to pay to get the options that would make the service desirable to the consumer. Plus, we need at least one MagLev project in the United States as proof of concept to help get them, and other high speed rail systems, going. Might as well be Anaheim to Las Vegas since it’s a high traffic route and relatively easy to develop in terms of navigation.

What do you think?

Update: alas the user appears to have disabled the video now. But it clearly shows the cable exploding all over two guests and then a frantic, and pointless, struggle to escape the ride vehicle as it came to a rest outside the station. Guests reportedly had to coach the father to calm down and help stop the bleeding on his son’s leg before emergency crews could reach them.

Update 2: NBC in LA has now posted the video. But they run an advertisement in front of it, of course.

Two were injured when a cable snapped on the Xcelerator roller coaster at Knott’s Berry Farm earlier this week. The ride is closed while the park investigates what went wrong.

In a weird coincidence there is on-ride video footage of the actual accident. I post the following video with a warning. If you have young kids you ride coasters with you may have second thoughts after seeing what these guests experienced during the failure.

More details on the incident at the OC Register.