With the holiday season officially here, the helpful experts at Walt Disney World have put together a few instructional videos that will make your Thanksgiving celebration easier. First make your tables sparkle with clever themed floral decorations. The Disney Florists make it simple to do.… Read More »Helpful Thanksgiving Tips from Disney’s Experts
Disney Resort on O’ahu Scheduled to Open in 2011
Walt Disney Parks and Resorts broke ground for its first family destination resort in Hawai’i today with a traditional Hawaiian blessing ceremony on its 21-acre oceanfront property, located at the Ko Olina Resort & Marina development on the western side of O’ahu. Scheduled to open in 2011, the new family friendly destination will overlook breathtaking crystal blue lagoons and white sand beaches and is planned to include 350 hotel rooms and 480 Disney Vacation Club timeshare villas.
The IAAPA Attractions Expo opened on Monday. But the show doesn’t really get going until the “What’s New” presentation which was yesterday morning. This year the kickoff session featured performances from Universal and The Blues Brothers, dancers from Busch Gardens, and a new song from beautifully performed by a singer from Walt Disney World Resort. All in all a great showcase for central Florida.
Three new IAAPA members were inducted into the Hall of Fame. Arto Monaco (Land of Make Believe) and Edgard “Eddy” Meeus (Walibi Parks)Â both played key roles in the early days of theme park development and were awarded posthumously. Larry B. Cochran helped open Six Flags over Texas and rose to the top of the company during his 41 years of service and team building. He gave a wonderful speech with a tribute to his family and team members.
The bi-annual Applause Award went to Xetulul a theme park in Retalhuleu, Guatemala. I’ve never heard of this park, but it looked like a lot of fun. San Diego SeaWorld cam in a close second.
After the morning performance everyone heads down to the show floor to make some deals and see what’s hot from vendors old and new. I only managed to cover about 20% of the show floor yesterday but click through the cut to read a few things that caught my eye.
ICE! at Gaylord Palms Resort is back for its sixth season. I was lucky enough to go last night and found the new displays to be a lot of fun. It’s amazing to see how huge blocks of ice have been transformed into wonderful works of art.
A little advice: make sure you buy your tickets online ahead of time to save a few dollars. Plus plan to eat somewhere else either before or after the event. The restaurant selection at Gaylord Palms are good, but very expensive, even more than what you might find on Disney property.
The ornaments are a whole new room this year and my favorite of the show. There are a few more pictures below the cut.
James (Black Wolf) Hansen, Anita (Quick Silver) Hansen, and Garry (Thunder Hunter) Englehart perform the annual Blessing of the Four Directions, November 12, 2008, in the lobby of Disney’s Wilderness Lodge at the Walt Disney World Resort in Florida. November is American Indian Heritage Month.
Sadly the rumor I posted last week has come true. Cypress Gardens will close for four months to retool into two separate gates. The water park will grow larger while the attractions and animal exhibits will be removed and sold to other amusement parks. The… Read More »Cypress Gardens to divest itself of Animals, Attractions
For those who say that Disney is going to be hurt by the soft economy, well that’s probably true. But they’re experts at riding slow times out and will definitely come through this better than others in the industry. For example, Disney is bringing back… Read More »Walt Disney World Vacation Deal – Pay for four nights, get seven
First, a tropical depression has formed in the Caribbean and looks likely to reach hurricane strength this week. This is not a rumor, but it’s not likely to affect Central Florida either. I’ll post again if things change. Second, the Disney Gossip blog has some… Read More »Walt Disney World Rumors