Disney’s Spectacle of Dancing Lights: By the numbers

by Leigh Caldwell on

The Osborne Family Spectacle of Dancing Lights is one of the most popular holiday events at Walt Disney World.

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.

Duffy the Disney Bear – New face to see (and buy) at Disney Parks

by Leigh Caldwell on

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.

In addition to his souvenirs, Duffy has a shiny new Facebook page with more than 5,000 fans.

Busch Gardens Tampa Bay, SeaWorld Orlando raise ticket prices

by Leigh Caldwell on

Busch Gardens Tampa Bay and SeaWorld Orlando have announced price increases at the Florida theme parks.

The new ticket price at Busch Gardens Tampa Bay is $83.45, including sales tax. You will pay $72.75 for kids ages 3-9.

At SeaWorld Orlando, tickets are now $85.19 with tax included, $74.54 for kids.

By comparison, a 1-day, 1-park ticket including tax at Walt Disney World is $87.33. Disney’s most recent price increase was in August.

Those prices don’t take into account the myriad of discounts available, including savings on multi-day tickets, combo tickets that include admission to other theme parks and/or water parks, and online-only deals.

And Florida residents are also eligible for special pricing. For example, a Florida resident who pays full price for a 1-day admission receives a “Fun Card” that gets him or her in free for the rest of the year.

As the Miami Herald reports, only 1/3 of theme park patrons actually pay full price for a 1-day admission into the parks.

[Image credit: Flickr user LaurenKates]

New plans released for Downtown Disney at Walt Disney World

by Leigh Caldwell on

Walt Disney World has announced plans for major renovations at Downtown Disney, a 120-acre retail, dining and entertainment complex on the eastern edge of Disney’s Florida property.

According to details released on the official Disney Parks Blog, the renovated section will be called Hyperion Wharf, and will be a “nostalgic yet modern take on an early 20th century port city and amusement pier.”

Hyperion Wharf will be located in an area formerly called Pleasure Island — Disney’s failed attempt at establishing an adult nightclub district at Walt Disney World. Since Pleasure Island closed in fall 2008, there has been a lot of speculation about what would be put into that location, right in the middle of the Downtown Disney complex.

The Hyperion Wharf plans call for shops and eateries open during the day, and lighting that transforms the area into “an electric wonderland” after dark.

The district’s name is a nod to Hyperion, the Greek God of Light, and Hyperion Avenue, the street on which Walt Disney built his first animation studio.

Disney says construction on the new district will begin immediately, and Hyperion Wharf will be completed in 2013.

Walt Disney World reduces time spent waiting in line with Tangled Meet and Greet

by Leigh Caldwell on

The construction on Walt Disney World’s Fantasyland expansion is well underway, and apparently so is the testing for some Disney innovations expected to be seen when the new attractions open in 2013.

This spring, Walt Disney World tested a new way to wait for a ride on the Rock n’ Roller Coaster without lines.

Now a meet and greet with the characters from the new movie “Tangled” appears to be a further experiment in delivering an experience to go with kids’ souvenir photos and autographs.

Instead of just waiting in a line to see Rapunzel and Flynn Rider, Walt Disney World has set aside an area called Fairytale Garden for the new characters’ appearances. About 10-15 minutes before the characters are due to come out (the “set time” in Disney parlance), children are welcomed into the Fairytale Garden and given a coloring activity to do while they wait.

(The parents are not so lucky; they are expected to line up to hold a place for their child.)

When Rapunzel and Flynn Rider make their entrance, they come down to the coloring table to dance with the children before starting to take photos and sign autographs.

Music from the movie’s soundtrack plays while they join hands and dance around the table.

Of course, when the dancing is done, the kids go join their parents in – you guessed it – a line.But I suppose the whole thing adds up to more “quality time” with the characters and an opportunity to make a memory (“I danced with Rapunzel!”), rather than just a picture (“I waited in line for 30 minutes to take this picture with Rapunzel!”).

Here’s a video look at the festivities:

The plans for Fantasyland include similar experience-based meet and greets. Park guests will be able to watch Cinderella transform from servant clothing to her ball gown, and boys will be trained to be part of her royal guard. And Aurora (Sleeping Beauty) will be having a birthday, and children will be asked to make birthday cards and help her fairy godmothers prepare for the party.