Local news is reporting that a cast member at Disney’s Animal Kingdom was injured this morning in a fall at the park. The cast member was taken to the hospital after complaining about hip pain. So far no word on where the fall occurred. The… Read More »Cast Member Injured in Fall at Disney’s Animal Kingdom
Toy importer G.A. Gertmenian and Sons is recalling a Pixar Toy Story 3 Bowling Game licensed by Disney due to violation of the lead paint standard. The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission, in cooperation with Gertmenian and Sons, today announced a voluntary recall of the… Read More »Disney/Pixar Toy Recall Alert
Some late news on the sad tale of the missing Disney Cruise Line crew member from the Disney Wonder. Apparently, there has been some activity on her credit card. Police have asked the crew member’s family to report any additional activity on her bank records… Read More »Missing Cruise Worker Story Takes an Odd Turn
Around 2:50 pm today, pieces of decorative faux rock at Disneyland Paris’ Big Thunder Mountain Railroad roller coaster attraction fell and struck guests riding the attraction. Five guests were hurt. Four were treated at the park, however one ‘serious’ head injury was taken to the… Read More »Disneyland Paris Accident – Big Thunder Mountain Faux Rock Fall Injures 5
Today most of the major news channels covered the story of Tilikum’s return to live performances at SeaWorld Orlando. Tilikum was involved in the tragic death of a trainer just over a year ago. That tragedy resulted in huge changes for the Shamu show at… Read More »Run for Dawn’s Dream on April 16th
The UK’s Chester Chronicle interviewed the family of the crew member missing from the Disney Wonder ship. I won’t reveal the name here, but you can get that information if you want to click through. The interview reveals the missing cast member is a 24… Read More »Local Newspaper interviews lost Disney Cruise Line crew members family
New video has just been uploaded that shows recent footage of damage to the neighborhood near Tokyo Disney Resort. This car is driving right by the resort, see the Cirque Du Soliel building go by on the right early in the clip. Then look to the side of the road and cracks in the road. Sometimes the ground has shifted by a couple of feet. That whole area will need new paving, new power lines, new street lights, bus stops, etc.
This, of course, is nothing compared to what the Tsunami ravaged sections of Japan have experienced. But it does shed some light on how soon we might expect any of the Tokyo Disney hotels or Tokyo Disneyland or Tokyo DisneySea to reopen.
There’s still quite a lot of clean up to do.
Here’s video of a local news station interviewing a Tokyo Disney performer upon her return to the US. There’s also a few shots of the damage done to her apartment and neighorhood:
Below the jump is new video from inside Tokyo Disney Sea taken just before and after the quake:
Read More »Tokyo Disneyland – New Video of Damage to Neighborhood, Performer
As I fell asleep last night, word from Japan was that the nuclear power plant had experienced further problems with possibility of a larger leak of radiation. To make it worse, winds were shifting driving any radio active particles in the air back toward land. This morning I awoke to news that radiation levels in Tokyo were 10 times higher than normal, which is still a ‘safe’ level but not good obviously, and the situation at the nuclear plant was now ‘catastrophic’. That’s definitely not good.
The Tokyo Disneyland entertainment cast members I’ve been following online were concerned and with good cause. Some to the point of panic ready to break their contracts and buy a $2500 air ticket on their own.
So I’m happy to hear that Disney and OLC management has stepped up to the plate and offered to send any international cast member back home, if they want, with the promise that their job would be available when the situation returns to normal. OLC is even picking up the cost of air travel. Very nice to see them step up to the plate like that. But so far Disney Cast Members have been nothing but professional and amazing, so it was almost expected that they would do this now.
Tokyo Disneyland is contributing in a different way to relief efforts. Water from pools and ponds around the town has been claimed for use as shower and toilet water (but not for drinking please). That now includes water from Tokyo DisneySea’s Mediterranean bay area (and I assume hotel pools, although this article doesn’t mention that).
Below the jump is a video taken from the monorail that shows the condition of the parks.
Read More »Tokyo Disneyland Update: Entertainment Cast Can Go Home