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Walt Disney World Halloween Trick-or-Tweetup A Great Event


Some of the ghoulish entertainment for the evening.

Thursday night my family and I joined nearly 300 other guests at the Magic Kingdom for a special Halloween Trick-or-Tweetup event. The Disney Parks Blog organized this fun, engaging, and magical event for the few lucky guests whose fast fingers got them and RSVP before the event filled up.


Imagineer Pete Carsillo gave tours of the Haunted Mansion Graveyard project he helmed.

Guests were encouraged to dress up and tweet from the event, which many did. Three special guests from Walt Disney Imagineering answered questions from the attendees and Disney Blog team go into the spirit coming in costumes. They also provided free soft drinks and desserts. Finally, they handed out gifts to some of the best costumed guests and everyone got a parting gift (two actually).

Really, I would have been happy with something to drink and the Imagineers. But this event was over the top. One of the best free things I’ve ever experienced as a guest. It’s too bad they can’t do this more often. Disney gets all sorts of great publicity (like this) and the locals get to feel like they’re appreciated.

My biggest critique was that there was so much to do, I couldn’t get it done in the time allotted. Which, if you think about it, isn’t really that bad.

More photos and another video below the jump:

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Risk and Reward, is Disney Parks & Resorts on the Right Track?

With the recent announcement of an Avatar themed land and attractions coming to Disney’s Animal Kingdoms and the troubled opening of Disney’s first Hawaiian resort, Aulani, a lot of the conversation has settled on the types of risks the Walt Disney Company’s parks and resorts division has been taking lately.

It’s a bouillabaisse of different complaints:

  • The monorail and bus system is no longer inpsiring, future world has stagnated, Tomorrowland is now toontown, with the result that Disney’s position as a company with vision has been lost.
  • That Disney should believe in its own artists to come up with compelling stories and themes instead of buying properties like Avatar or Prince of Persia. Franchising is fine, but it shold be ‘Disney’ franchises, not Fox.
  • That building in Hawaii will not pay off for DVC. Either no one will buy it, or they’ll be using those points on the mainland anyway leaving Aulani an empty shell much of the year.

You can see why the Disney company may be confused. One one hand they get attacked for not doing enough on the other for doing too much. That’s true, but the general theme is Disney needs to take more risks when it comes to its parks and resorts.

Read More »Risk and Reward, is Disney Parks & Resorts on the Right Track?

Disney Parks Chief Is Every Cast Member

I love this little skit from D23 that Ricky Brigante caught and put up on youtube. It shows Disney Parks & Resorts President Tom Staggs doing a variety of cast member jobs as he takes over the position from Jay Rasulo. Quite funny, huh! It’s… Read More »Disney Parks Chief Is Every Cast Member

Disney Parks Mobile Magic App Now Free for Verizon Customers

Are you a Verizon customer with an Android phone? Then you’re in luck, Disney Parks and Verizon have just reduced the price of their “Mobile Magic” application down to nothing. Yep, download it for free right now and next time you’re in the parks get accurate wait times and fast pass information in real time. iPhone users will have to wait as that application is still in development.

This is a good move for Disney, I never understood why they charged people to learn more about the parks in the first place. Seems like they’d want their guests to be better educated about their in park choices so they can have a better time and tell others about it, hence bringing back more families in the future.

With NextGeneration (NGE) technology coming soon, Disney’s relationship with Verizon is likely evolving and may dissolve completely. That will allow those who have other carriers to get in on the fun. But for now, it’s only for Verizon customers. Thankfully I am one, I’ve now downloaded the app and will try it out next time I’m at the park.

More details on the app below the jump:

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More details on Disney Vacation Club Firings

Jason Garcia at the Orlando Sentinel has done some excellent digging on the cause and effect of the recent firings, yes there was more than one, at Disney Vacation Club. As we speculated earlier, it turns out that former DVC President Jim Lewis was let… Read More »More details on Disney Vacation Club Firings

Disney Vacation Club Shakeup

The Orlando Sentinel is reporting that former Disney Vacation Club President Jim Lewis was let go by the Walt Disney Company on Friday. Lewis had led Disney’s time-share arm since 2006. While Lewis presided over a controversial expansion of DVC locations across WDW and a… Read More »Disney Vacation Club Shakeup

Disneyland announces addition of Audio-Descriptive device in Outdoors area

As if on cue, Disneyland just announced the addition of audio-descriptive service for outdoor areas for those with visual disabilities. Earlier this week a class action lawsuit was certified against Disney parks for not accommodating those with visual disabilities. Disneyland and Walt Disney World has had this device for over a year now, but now it’s even more useful. I like the device it’s very rugged and quite an amazing experience, even for those who don’t have visual problems.

Disneyland Resort guests with visual disabilities can now explore Disneyland in a new way through this Disney-designed device that provides detailed audio description of outdoor areas.  An interactive audio menu allows guests to choose the type of information they would like to receive about outdoor areas—from a description of their surroundings to information about nearby attractions, restaurants and entertainment. The new outdoor service is an enhancement to the audio description that debuted over a year ago, which provides guests detailed audio description of key visual elements for more than 20 attractions at Disneyland and California Adventure.

A good PR move from Disney, but a bit obvious.

Update: The full press release is below the jump:

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Promotions Shake Up Disney Parks & Resorts under Tom Staggs

In a long internal memo today, Tom Staggs made official the organizational shakeup everyone knew was coming after Staggs took over the Walt Disney Parks and Resorts division. It’s nothing earth shattering, but it does flatten some of the levels of hierarchy that were said to have frustrated Staggs since he took over.

In short, current WDW president Meg Crofton expands to oversee all the domestic parks and the two parks in France. Karl Holtz, who a few years ago was rumored to be leaving Disney, is instead adding DVC to his DCL and Adventures by Disney responsibilities. Leslie Ferraro becomes executive vice president, Global Marketing and Sales combining those two closely related departments and Erin Wallace, executive vice president, Operations Integration also adds revenue management to her desk. The move also creates a new executive council under Staggs.

While Staggs’ reorganization did not cut any of the deadwood certain segments of Disney fans wanted to see go, I believe the general movement here is a good one. It will allow for efficiencies where they need to exist and independence, with oversight, as required for the parks. Combining marketing and sales is a no-duh in my book, they are both measured by the same final metrics (butts in beds and asses through the gates), so unifying them is good. The only move that looks questionable to me is giving the extra power of revenue management to operations. However, they are the yin and the yang of theme park operations. Having one person keep a close eye via her myriad of spreadsheets and minions (and I mean that in the nicest possible way), could be very positive.

Let’s keep a watch on this for the next 3-year planning cycle and see if there really is any improvement. Meanwhile, the pressure is kicked up a notch for these people to get things done or they too could be reorganized right out of a job.

The full text of Tom Staggs’ announcement is below the jump:

Read More »Promotions Shake Up Disney Parks & Resorts under Tom Staggs