New Castle Lighting

Can't wait to see this in person next month on our first 2011 trip (of many, we're APing this year).  Go to the link over on disneyparks to watch the amazing video:

When we announced, as a part of the Let The Memories Begin Campaign, that we would be projecting photographs and videos of our guests every night on Cinderella Castle in Florida and it’s a small world in California, many of my friends and colleagues responded with “Huh?” So I thought I would give you a clearer picture of what is going to be an amazing musical and visual spectacle this year.

Using high-power projection systems and digital mapping techniques that I don’t even begin to understand, the surfaces of these two beloved icons will be transformed through animation, photography and technical ingenuity. Using our guests’ photographs and videos as a starting point, and a WONDERFUL musical score as our guide,Let The Memories Begin will be a fanciful, imaginative, heart-warming and FUN look at the magical memories associated with a visit to Disney Parks. Here’s a look at what to expect.

Disney Dream

Watch the christening of the Disney Dream live this morning over at http://disneycruise.disney.go.com/ships-activities/ships/dream/?sourcecode=16853&CMP=EMC-DCLFY11Q2DDChristeningEM0094

Some more details on Israel

So Disney, the company, sez no...but Shamrock Holdings involved somehow?  Sounds like a mystery still...

Shamrock Holdings, founded by Disney family maverick Roy E. Disney as his family investment firm and still maintaining intimate ties with the Walt Disney Company, is a partner in the Haifa project. The other party Shamrock is working with is New Lineo Cinemas Israel. New Lineo operates two large multiplex/shopping mall complexes in suburban Tel Aviv.

A spokesperson for Walt Disney Parks and Resorts tells Fast Company that Disney has no plans to build a park in Haifa, Israel. However, local politicians, New Lineo and the Israeli press all confirm that the project is going ahead.

Disney in Israel

This seem to be all over the net today...true?

The Holy Land is set to become an even more magical place. Disney has announced that it is to open a theme park in Israel.

The Walt Disney Company, which has amusement parks in the US, France and Hong Kong, is planning to open another in Haifa in 2013.

The park, which will cover 20 acres of land near the Carmel Tunnel, will be home to a 25-screen cinema complex, shops and other entertainment facilities.

The project is expected to cost more than £107 million.

Current rehabs and closings at WDW

Magic Kingdom

The Fantasyland Forest development in the Magic Kingdom will necessitate the closure of several existing Magic Kingdom park areas in 2011, including Toontown.

In addition, certain entertainment experiences will be relocated:
• Meet-and-greets with Mickey Mouse will take place in Town Square Exposition Hall
• Meet-and-greets with Cinderella, Aurora, Belle, and Tinker Bell and her friends will take place in Town Square Exposition Hall.

Splash Mountain will be closed for refurbishment January 3-31, 2011.

Disney's Hollywood Studios

Star Tours -- is closed for rehab. The attraction will be updated and reopen around the middle of May 2011. The new experience will be in 3-D, an all-new ride that includes many of the new worlds and elements from the more recent Star Wars movies.

Pixar Pals Countdown To Fun! will debut on January 16, 2011, in Disney's Hollywood Studios. Four Pixar characters not seen in the current Studios parade -- Remy and Emile from "Ratatouille" and Carl and Russell from Disney Pixar's "Up" -- will be included in the new parade. The current parade, Block Party Bash, will have its last performance on January 1, 2011. There will be no parade at Disney's Hollywood Studios between January 2 and January 15, 2011.

Animal Kingdom

Primeval Whirl will be closed for refurbishment January 17 - April 5, 2011.

Typhoon Lagoon will be closed for its yearly refurbishment until January 8, 2011

Blizzard Beach closes on January 9, 2011, for its yearly refurbishment, until March 26.

Running Disney

Well my wife just signed up for the Disney Princess Half marathon in Feb...so here we come WDW.

Hidden Mickeys

Looking for hidden Mickeys is always a favorite past-time...here's one I plan on finding next trip:

At the exit of Toy Story Midway Mania in Disney's Hollywood Studios, check out the back spine of the huge free-standing "Tin Toy" Little Golden Book for a tiny white classic Mickey in the eye of a chicken, the fourth image down from the top of the spine. 

Disney Tackles Major Theme Park Problem: Lines

Nice story over on Mickey News dealing with some of Disney's fine industrial engineers.  I had an opportunity to benchmark some with them a couple of years ago and can assure you, Disney measures EVERYTHING!

Deep in the bowels of Walt Disney World, inside an underground bunker called the Disney Operational Command Center, technicians know that you are standing in line and that you are most likely annoyed about it. Their clandestine mission: to get you to the fun faster.

To handle over 30 million annual visitors — many of them during this busiest time of year for the megaresort — Disney World long ago turned the art of crowd control into a science. But the putative Happiest Place on Earth has decided it must figure out how to quicken the pace even more. A cultural shift toward impatience — fed by video games and smartphones — is demanding it, park managers say. To stay relevant to the entertain-me-right-this-second generation, Disney must evolve.

And so it has spent the last year outfitting an underground, nerve center to address that most low-tech of problems, the wait. Located under Cinderella Castle, the new center uses video cameras, computer programs, digital park maps and other whiz-bang tools to spot gridlock before it forms and deploy countermeasures in real time.

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