Walt Disney World‘s newest hotel will feature four courtyards themed around four beloved Disney animated films: Finding Nemo, The Little Mermaid, The Lion King and Cars.
The Little Mermaid section of the resort will have 864 traditional hotel rooms with sea-inspired decor.
Buildings featuring theming from the other three movies will house a total of 1,120 family suites designed to accommodate up to six people. The family suites will include two bathrooms, a master bedroom, and three sleeping areas in the living room.
The design includes a piece of furniture Disney calls an “Inovabed,” which transforms from a dining table into a bed.
The new Florida resort will also have a large main pool with a pool area, two quiet pools and an animation-themed food court. It is scheduled to open in the summer of 2012.
When you travel to visit Mickey this spring, you won’t find him in his house. Walt Disney World has announced that the Mickey’s Toontown Fair area of the park will close after Feb. 11, 2011.
The area features the side-by-side houses of Mickey Mouse and Minnie Mouse, Goofy’s Barnstormer – a kiddie coaster, Donald’s Boat – a playground for toddlers, and a large character greeting area where guests can meet Mickey and Minnie, Tinker Bell and her fairy friends, and several Disney princesses.
Mickey’s Toontown Fair is being closed as part of Disney’s grand plans for the largest Walt Disney World expansion ever. Princess castles, restaurants, and a new ride based on The Little Mermaid are being added to Fantasyland.
The construction is set to be completed in 2013.
Mickey’s Toontown Fair opened as a new “land” at Walt Disney World in 1988, when it was called Mickey’s Birthdayland in celebration of the Mouse’s 60th birthday.
Many Disney enthusiasts dislike the cartoon theming of the area and say that it doesn’t fit in with the rest of Walt Disney World. But the land in the northeast corner of the Magic Kingdom has proven popular with families.
The Disney Parks Blog says that Disney World guests will still be able to meet their favorite characters after Toontown Fair closes. Mickey, Minnie and the Disney Princesses will greet guests in a building in the Magic Kingdom’s Town Square. Tinker Bell will move to Disney’s Hollywood Studios, and her fairy friends will flutter over to Epcot.
I spent many a childhood vacation driving back and forth to Florida. My family loved to vacation here. We went to various beach communities around the state, and our trips would often involve a day or two spent at Walt Disney World.
So the whole family was excited when, in 1984, one of my aunts moved to Florida. It was immediately decided that the extended family would spend Christmas there. Not only that, but we were all going to Walt Disney World. On the day after Christmas. Because, surely no one is on vacation at Walt Disney World at Christmastime.
On Dec. 26, the whole extended family – grandparents, aunts, uncles, cousins, probably 18-20 of us – loaded up in a motor home for the 1-hour drive to Walt Disney World. It was smooth sailing for the first 45 minutes, and then we hit the traffic. It took an extra hour to get into the parking lot, and the lot closed practically right behind us.
I still remember the nervous voices of my parents and the other adults in the car, quietly discussing the crowd levels.When we got up to the Ticket and Transportation Center, there were people everywhere. Into the Magic Kingdom we went, and it was packed, as well. I only remember riding one ride that Dec. 26 – It’s a Small World. I also remember waiting at least an hour in a 2-hour line for Dumbo before being forced to leave the line because some younger cousins had to use the bathroom.
Our expectations of an empty park and lots of rides and shows were not met, and the whole day was way less than magical.
I have now lived in Florida myself for 17 years. And almost every January or February, I run into someone, new to Florida, who decided that Walt Disney World would be empty around Christmas and it would be the perfect time to take the family. And their tale always ends up like mine. I listen, and then explain that there are certain times of year that we locals – and that includes them now – don’t go the parks. Christmas is tops on that list.
What I know now is that many families have made a trip to Walt Disney World their Christmas tradition. And with good reason, because there are a lot of Christmas sights to see at Disney World. But those folks go in with their eyes open to the crowds.
So, trust me, Walt Disney World is crowded at Christmas. While Disney doesn’t release attendance figures, the two weeks surrounding Christmas and New Year’s Day are widely believed to be the highest attended times in the Disney theme parks every year.
Each night at dusk, the lights are turned on at Disney’s Hollywood Studios. It is impossible to take a picture that shows the magnitude of Disney’s dancing lights display. It completely covers the buildings in the theme park’s Streets of America section. So, to try to give you the big picture, here are some of the numbers that go into making this display.
1,000 – The number of lights this display started with when Jennings Osborne put some lights up outside his Little Rock, Arkansas, home at his daughter’s request. When the exhibit grew into millions of lights, it drew too much traffic to his neighborhood and was moved to Walt Disney World near Orlando, Florida.
16 – The number of years that the spectacle has been lighting up the night at Disney’s Hollywood Studios, where it was first displayed in 1995.
5,000,000 – The number of individual lights now in the Osborne Family Spectacle of Dancing Lights display.
350 – The number of miles the strings of lights would cover if laid end to end.
40 – The approximate number of “hidden Mickeys” in the lights display. Disney designers add Mickey shapes to the display, and many guests try to find them all.
%Gallery-108574%1 – The number of black cats in the Christmas light display. When the Osborne family’s lights were transported to Walt Disney World, a cat from the family’s Halloween display wound up with the Christmas stuff. Each year, the Disney designers put the cat in a different location in the display for guests to find.
66 – The number of machines used to make the “snowflakes” that fall periodically during the display, according to Studios Central.
5 – The number of songs the Christmas lights are programmed to “dance” to. This year’s songs include “Christmas is Starting Now” by Big Bad Voodoo Daddy and “A Mad Russian’s Christmas” by Trans-Siberian Orchestra.
3 – The number of “Phineas & Ferb” characters heard in the audio track that plays on the Streets of America. A bit with Phineas, Ferb and Dr. Doofenshmirtz has been added to the Spectacle of Dancing Lights this year.
21,000 – The approximate number of hours that Disney employees work to install the display.
53 – The number of nights that Disney’s dancing lights display can be seen this holiday season. It runs through Jan. 3, 2011.
If you are planning at trip to Disneyland Resort or Walt Disney World at the holidays, you will likely encounter Duffy the Disney Bear.
And when you do, I imagine you will likely think, “Hey, who the heck is this?”
No, you’ve never seen Duffy in a Disney movie. He’s never been in a Mickey Mouse cartoon or a Pixar animated short. And he’s not the star of a new series for preschoolers on the Disney Channel.
Duffy the Disney Bear is the first character conceived and introduced solely in Disney Parks. That’s right – Disney made him so that they could sell you another souvenir.
Duffy’s “backstory” is that he was sewn by Minnie Mouse as a present for Mickey, to accompany him on his travels around the world. We here at Gadling told you this summer how many grown men take teddy bears on business trips, I suppose grown mice need a stuffed animal to cuddle on their business trips, too.
Duffy was introduced as a costumed character at Epcot and Disney’s California Adventure this fall after six years of popularity at Tokyo Disneyland Resort. In Tokyo, Duffy is such a craze that young women line up outside Disney stores when a new Duffy outfit is released.
And just in time for Black Friday shopping, he is being sold in three sizes at Disney’s Florida and California theme parks, along with a variety of outfits, Duffy keychains and other souvenirs. The Orlando Sentinel reports that about three dozen Duffy items are expected to arrive in the coming year.