Park attendance up

According to CNBC article, attendance at the domestic Disney parks increased by three percent, beating analysts' expectations. The biggest factor leading to the increase in attendance was Disney's "Buy 4, get 3 free" deal offered in the spring.

However, the news is not all good. Even with the increased attendance, total revenue at the parks was down nine percent and operating income down 19-percent. Even this loss is better than expected, according to the article, because in the prior quarter, park operating revenue was down about 50-percent.

Disney CEO Bob Iger said Disney's latest numbers are a sign that the economy is stabilizing.

Let's hope so.

Tip Tuesday: More enhancements available for Photopass

Welcome to another Tip Tuesday.

This week's tip is a followup to a couple of tips I've discussed in the past when it comes to making the most out of Disney's Photopass service. I've already covered how Photopass works and the benefits of the Photo CD.

Following my recent WDW trip in June, I was going through my Photopass pictures and noticed that Disney now has many more enhancements available to guests. Many of the new enhancements follow the "What Will You Celebrate?" theme, but there are a few new ones that are really nice. Perhaps my favorite of the new shots is the "I'm a Real Character" photo frame, featuring Mickey as a pirate and Minnie as the redhead from Pirates of the Caribbean (see photo above). At DHS, there are some "Up" themed borders, but, interestingly enough, they weren't offered for the photos with the "Up" characters, just for the around-the-park shots.

These new enhancements are all the more reason to get the photo CD and to enhance as many photos as possible. Remember, you can add as many enhancements to each photo as you wish. You do have to add enhancements one at a time - this is something I hope Disney can change so the process is streamlined. It took me about 2 weeks to enhance all our original photos.

Also remember that you only have a month to enhance photos, order CD's, create books, etc. before your photos expire. That one month clock starts from when you enter your code from the Photopass card(s) you received at the parks.

Sadly, one of the Photopass photographers told me that it appears the "duel with Captain Hook" magical Photopass image is no longer offered. I hope Disney will either bring this back or come up with some other magical photo options.

So be sure to get plenty of family photos with Photopass -- it's the best way for everyone to be captured in the magic!

Come one, come all, get your FastPasses here!!!

DeWayne Bevil at the Orlando Sentinel has a story posted yesterday about a new experiment Disney is conducting at Animal Kingdom with the FastPass system -- centralized FastPass distribution. Guests can go to one location and get a FastPass for any attraction that offers FastPass in the park.

I'm not so sure about this one. I'm a huge fan of FastPass, but part of the magic of FastPass is actually going to the attraction to get your pass. Guests play the game of FastPass time vs. standby line time By making FastPasses available at a central location, FastPass becomes the ONLY option, thus making the odds of FastPasses running out much sooner is pretty high.

I also assume that the one-FastPass-per-person rule (with some exceptions, see this post for more) will remain in effect.

Let's carry this idea forward and put it at the Studios, a park where FastPasses for the major attractions runs out very quickly (think Tower of Terror, Rockin' Roller Coaster and Toy Story Mania). The rop-drop happens and instead of people hurrying to one attraction, they instead rush to the central FastPass location to get passes for one of the E-ticket attractions. That place will become so crowded it will be insane. You'll practically need a FastPass to get a FastPass.

Even with a centralized FastPass distribution, Disney has to keep the FastPass machines at the individual attractions. If Disney ONLY has FastPass distribution at a central place, it will be bedlum and the entire FastPass system will be worthless, so I very much hope Disney doesn't decide to pull out the individual machines.

I'll try to look at this on the plus side. Having a centralized location does offer convenience. If, for example, you want to get a set of FastPasses for Soarin' and then catch the standby line at TestTrack, you wouldn't have to go all the way to Soarin' to get the passes and then hustle all the way over to TT, hopefully to get a short standby line. A central location would be beneficial in this instance.

I guess I'll have to see just how this pans out before I decide if this is a good idea or not.

What are your thoughts? Keep it or ditch it? Post a comment!

Report: Something's going on backstage...

The Orlando Attractions Magazine blog is reporting cast members are starting to see some unusual things happening backstage near Fantasyland in the Magic Kingdom. According to the post, cast members say some construction is taking place backstage, presumably part of the rumored Fantasyland expansion. This is in addition to some additional reports noted in the post.

So far, there's no word at all from Disney on these supposed plans. It is still quite possible that this is all a hoax or just conceptual plans, but with all the talk coming from cast members, it appears something may be going on. Is it this rumored major expansion? Is it just routine maintenance that's being perceived as this supposed expansion plan? Who knows.

Tip Tuesday: The Power Bag

Welcome to another Tip Tuesday!

In this week's tip, I wanted to share another packing tip that I've found to be especially helpful when bringing along all those great gadgets.

See if this sounds like you: you're packing for a week (or longer) at Walt Disney World. You know you want to take your camera (which has a special battery), your iPod to listen to Disney music during the flight/drive, your cell phone and your laptop. Now add to this all the tech that your spouse and kids might be bringing.

Before you know it, you've got four cameras, an external camera flash (with rechargeable AA batteries), six iPods, three cellphones, three Nintendo DS's and a portable DVD player all to keep running and charged in one hotel room.

Think this is outlandish? Guess again. I just described all the tech my family of five took with us on my last trip to WDW in June -- and we were driving.

Now stop and think about all the chargers each gadget requires. That gets to be a lot doesn't it?!?!?! Where in the world are you going to pack all that and keep it organized? I faced this very dilemma last year when I finally had an idea -- take an old camera bag and turn into in the "Power Bag." This is where I would keep all the chargers I need for all the various gadgets we take on trips. This bag never goes to the parks, it stays in the resort room.

In addition to the chargers, I also included a outlet strip in the power bag. This is, perhaps, the most critical part of the bag. How many hotel rooms have all the outlets you need? The answer, in my experience, is NONE. To solve this problem, I purchased an inexpensive outlet strip with at least a six-foot long cord. With the outlet strip, I had enough outlets to plug in all the different chargers. I still had to swap some chargers during the week, but I managed to get everything charged.

If you're bringing a lot of tech with you on your WDW trips, try packing a separate power bag. I've found it's made the job of keeping all the gadgets charged and ready to go much easier and less stressful.

So charge up everyone!

Fantasyland wishes, or at least this fan wishes...

Are these plans the real deal or just some hoax? Click image for a better view.

Same plans as above, overlayed on an aerial shot of the current Fantasyland (aerial photo courtesy Bing.com). Click image for a better view.

For the past week, the plans you see above have been making their way across the internet. As the story goes, these are apparently plans for a rumored major expansion of Fantasyland. Whether or not these are genuine plans or some fan hoax has yet to be determined (if it ever could be determined). Naturally, Disney has no comment on these supposed plans (which I'm not surprised about).

In any case, I initially held off commenting on these plans because I didn't want to spread the hoax (at first, I thought these plans were fake). The more I see other Disney fan sites and mainstream media discussing these plans, I thought I should go ahead and give some comments about what may or may not be in store for Fantasyland.

To help me get a sense of just what would stay and go, I superimposed the plans over an aerial image of present-day Fantasyland (thanks to Bing.com for the aerial view). As you can see from the second image above, much of the expansion (for argument's sake, let's consider this to be actual plans) will use land not currently in use. In fact, it would be a good thing for Disney to finally make something useful out of the old 20,000 Leagues site (of course, I'd like to see 20,000 Leagues make a return, but something's better than nothing).

This expansion does mean the death of Toon Town, which in my opinion isn't a huge loss. WDW's Toon Town never made it to the level of Toon Town at Disneyland. The most interesting part of Toon Town, the Barnstormer, would be staying. What's would be replacing Toon Town? Pixie Hollow. Now currently just a meet and greet area, Pixie Hollow would be greatly expanded to include a play area and a larger meet and greet area.

I also found it very interesting that much of the "planned" expansion centers around princesses. It should come as no surprise, since young girls (and their parents) are a huge target demographic for Disney. Boys, don't worry, you still have much of the rest of the park to visit if the princess-related attractions aren't your thing (think Pirates, Buzz Lightyear, Space-Splash-Big Thunder mountains, etc.).

Probably the biggest question I have is this "castle wall" section just beyond Cinderella's Golden Carousel. What's up with that? Fantasyland already has a big castle, does it need a second? Perhaps this is a low wall meant more to expand the castle theming rather than another castle altogether.

As we look further north, we get into some serious princess action. Cinderella, Aurora, Belle and Ariel each have attractions (though Aurora and Belle's attractions appear to be pretty small -- perhaps just walk-through areas or a movie-based attraction?). Most likely the "Voyage of the Little Mermaid" attraction (not to be confused with the show currently running at Disney's Hollywood Studios) will be similar, if not an exact replica, of The Little Mermaid attraction coming to Disney's California Adventure as part of that park's major renovation currently under construction. Note that no mention is made of Disney's newest princess, Tiana, making her on-screen debut this December in The Princess and the Frog. If these plans are genuine and do move forward, I suspect Tiana would find her way into these plans pretty quickly, perhaps at the expense of another princess, (Cinderella maybe -- after all, Cinderella does have a huge castle and a carousel already).

In addition to a Belle-themed attraction, the plans call for a new "Be Our Guest" restaurant (presumably table-service) and Gaston's Tavern (probably a counter-service or snack-service). Based on the layout, it appears these areas would be heavily themed and landscaped (no surprise).

What may be the most interesting element of all is the new "Dumbo" area with not one, but two Dumbo attractions (most likely similar to the current ultra-popular Dumbo attraction). What I find to be even more interesting than the dual attractions, which is probably a good idea given the immense wait times for Dumbo, especially in the afternoons, is the "nextgen interactive queue." I can only guess this would be a queue similar to Soarin' and Space Mountain (in the soon-to-be completed refurb), where guests would be able to play games or otherwise interact with different elements.

It's also worth noting that the old Toon Town train station has been re-named the Fantasyland train station -- further evidence of just how big Fantasyland would become -- easily the largest land in all of the Magic Kingdom.

I showed these possible plans to my elementary-aged daughter who is all about Disney princesses right now. She couldn't wait to see these new elements, especially the expanded Pixie Hollow and the new Little Mermaid attraction. When I asked her about the demise of Toon Town, should these plans move forward, she said "there isn't that much to do in Toon Town besides the Barnstormer." My sentiments exactly. Don't get me wrong, I like Mickey and Minnie's houses. They just aren't enough to make Toon Town a viable "land" all it's own. I imagine Disney might find a way to relocate those two elements. As for Donald's Boat, it looks like it could be taken up by an extension of the Dumbo area, though it's not clear on these plans what might be there.

Again, I want to stress that we have NO IDEA if these are genuine plans or not. If these are a fake, then someone's gone to a lot of effort to develop some very interesting plans using as much space as is available for expansion. If these are genuine plans, then I think Disney's got a great idea going. Fantasyland (and the Magic Kingdom as a whole) could really use some real attention.

There is one possibility. The 40th anniversary of the Magic Kingdom is coming in 2011. Could it be that this expansion was/is in the works to coincide with that major milestone?

Of course, there's another major element to consider when it comes to expansions -- the economy. Disney's not exactly raking it in right now, though I think things are better now than they were six months ago. All the same, Disney has billions committed to an expansion of DCA, half a billion (or so) committed to the expansion of Hong Kong Disneyland, is in the works to build an all new park in Shanghai (as part of a joint venture with the Chinese gov't) and is still working on a significant renovation to Space Mountain at WDW. That's a lot on Imagineering's plate.

Does Disney have the capital for a multi-million dollar project like this expansion? I have no idea.

Walter Cronkite passes away at 92

Walter Cronkite, one of America's most trusted men, died today at the age of 92. In addition to his storied career as the nations preeminent newsman, Cronkite had several ties to Walt Disney World.

The most notable connection between Cronkite and Disney was Cronkite's narration of Spaceship Earth from 1986-1994. Cronkite took over for Lawrence Dobkin in 1986 and was replaced by Jeremy Irons in 1994.

Cronkite also could be found providing the introduction and conclusion to the holiday-themed version of Illuminations beginning in 1994.

Cronkite teamed up with Robin Williams on the "Back to Neverland" film that ran at the Disney-MGM Studios from the park's opening in 1989 until 2003.

Cronkite was a great storyteller and his legacy will live on. I would like to express my sympathies to the Cronkite family and to the CBS News team for their loss.

ESPN RISE games start this weekend at Disney's Wide World of Sports

ESPN RISE and Disney’s Wide World of Sports have developed a new weeklong, multi-sport event called the “ESPN RISE Games”. The ESPN RISE Games, which will feature elite and competitive channel sports events, will be presented by Target. The ESPN RISE Games Presented by Target will take place July 19-25, 2009 at Disney’s Wide World of Sports Complex, the nation’s leading multi-sport venue for amateur and professional sports, in suburban Orlando, Fla.

The ESPN RISE Games Presented by Target will be anchored by three elite high school sports events: the AAU 17-under Boys Basketball Super Showcase presented by Champion®, the Under Armour High School Softball All-American game and ESPN RISE’s newly developed, elite high school football event Champion® Gridiron Kings. Additional sponsors for the event will include POWERADE, the events exclusive beverage provider.

The weeklong event will also feature competitive channel youth sports – baseball (10U, 11U and 12U), basketball (12U and 14U), field hockey (U14, U16 and U19) and track & field (12-14 and 15-18). The ESPN RISE Games Presented by Target is expected to host 4,000 student athletes.

“Creating events like the ESPN RISE Games provides us with a great opportunity to work with our various partners to offer student athletes, looking to hone their skills, the resources and inspiration that can be utilized to aide in their continued development,” said James Brown, senior vice president, ESPN RISE. “We hope that the events we are planning will motivate them to elevate their collective games, taking them all one more step closer to achieving their individual goals.”

The ESPN RISE Games Presented by Target is in line with the strategy for the ESPN re-branding of the Disney sports complex, which will create a one-of-a-kind, immersive experience for athletes and fans.

“The ESPN RISE Games builds on the wide range of nationally-recognized youth and amateur sports events we host at Disney's Wide World of Sports Complex,” said Mike Millay, Disney's Director of Sports Events. “Through the increased collaboration between Disney and ESPN, we look forward to creating more marquee events and transformational sports experiences at our sports complex that athletes, coaches and spectators can’t get anywhere else.”

ESPN RISE GAMES ELITE EVENT DETAILS:
AAU 17-under Boys Basketball Super Showcase presented by Champion® is part of the AAU National Championships held at the Disney sports complex and features marquee 17-under club teams from across the country. The event includes two days of pool play and a single-elimination tournament. The tournament is a breeding ground for future NBA stars including Amare Stoudemire, Chris Paul, Dwyane Wade, as well as collegiate phenoms such as Tyler Hansbrough and JJ Redick. July 20-25.

Under Armour High School Softball All-American game will feature 30 of the top high school All-Star players in the nation divided into two squads. Players are selected by a committee of high school softball experts from ESPN RISE. July 19-21.

Champion® Gridiron Kings is an elite high school football event that features the best players in the game’s seven skill positions – quarterback, running back, tight end, wide receiver, linebacker, cornerback and safety. The event includes performance training, position specific training, skills challenges and a 7-on-7 competition. July 23-25.

Team enrollment for the open division baseball, basketball, field hockey and track & field programs are available. Additional information on the ESPN RISE Games Presented by Target is available at ESPNRISEGames.com.

It all started 54 years ago today...

“To all who come to this happy place; welcome. Disneyland is your land. Here age relives fond memories of the past...and here youth may savor the challenge and promise of the future. Disneyland is dedicated to the ideals, the dreams and the hard facts that have created America...with the hope that it will be a source of joy and inspiration to all the world.”

With these words said on July 17, 1955, the Happiest Place on Earth was born. Today marks the 54th anniversary of Disneyland and the final day in the career of one of the greatest Imagineers ever, Marty Sklar.

Of course, the opening of Disneyland didn't go as smoothly as Walt would have wished, but open it did and has become a signature piece of America ever since.

So Happy Anniversary Disneyland and to Marty Sklar, we thank you for all your years of service and dedication to making Disney magic. We wish you all the best in all you do.

Disney buses collide at Contemporary Resort

As if things couldn't get worse for Disney transportation, there is are reports from WESH-TV and The Orlando Sentinel that two WDW buses collided this afternoon in front of the Contemporary Resort. According to news reports, about 50 guests were on the two buses when one rear-ended the other on World Drive at around 2:40 p.m.

According to a Florida Highway Patrol spokesperson, one bus had stopped as traffic was merging at a point where World Drive narrows from three lanes to two lanes. The second bus did not stop in time and struck the stopped bus.

According to the FHP, about a dozen people suffered minor injuries and were transported to local hospitals.

"There is nothing more important to us than the safety of our guests and cast members. We are focused on the well being of those involved and are working closely with law enforcement," said a Disney spokesperson in a statement.

This latest incident comes less than two weeks after the fatal monorail accident in which a monorail pilot was killed.