Authors Mike and Julie Neal recently announced a new edition of their award winning Disney World guidebook series entitled “The Complete Walt Disney World 2010” which is published by Coconut Press.
The Complete Walt Disney World 2010
Julie and Mike are proud of some of the new features of the book which particularly help parents in touring the Walt Disney World® Parks. This includes child-focused “fear factors”, height requirements for attractions, and estimated wait times for every ride. These practical tips also help any parent plan the details of their magical getaway including new ticket tables, touring plans and important keys for saving time and money. Mike and Julie have also doubled the book’s color photos, increased the size of the Animal Kingdom section and as mentioned above, added many money saving and practical tips to the book.
We recommend any Disney traveler purchase this guide if you are planning a Disney World® vacation in 2010 or beyond. The money you spend on this guide is a great investment. For more information on purchasing The Complete Walt Disney World 2010 guide online, please BUY IT HERE.
The Children’s Miracle Network® Classic Professional Golf charity tournament at Disney World’s Palm and Magnolia courses begins November 12 and runs through November 15, 2009. This is a PGA tour event wth a purse of $4.7 million.
Past winners of this tournament have included such current and former players as Jack Nicklaus, Vijay Singh, Davis Love III and Tiger Woods. This year’s field is stronger than it has been in recent years and includes Davis Love III, David Toms, Justin Leonard and Mark Calcavecchia. If you have ever attended the Arnold Palmer Invitational, these pro golf events are a lot of fun.
As a special attraction, the Walt Disney culinarians will offer unique food offerings on the back Nine of the Magnolia course. These will be gourmet food pairings with wine or craft brewed beers from around the world. Tickets for the food and beverage portion of the event are $10 for a one day pass or $20 for a week long food and beverage ticket.
All of the week’s fun events benefit the Children’s Miracle Network and its 170 non-profit local children’s hospitals. The Children’s Miracle Network® Hospitals in Florida include the All Children’s Hospital in St. Petersburg, Arnold Palmer Hospital for Children in Orlando, Miami Children’s Hospital, Sacred Heart Children’s Hospital, Shands Children’s Hospital at the University of Florida, and the Wolfson Children’s Hospital in Jacksonville.
Make plans to attend this very special Disney sports event, and support a great cause as well.
The 2009 Epcot Candlelight Processional at Disney kicks off on November 27th and runs through December 30th 2009. The outdoor shows are part of Epcot’s “Holidays Arould the World” at the World Showcase and are held at the American Pavilion at the American Gardens Theatre.
The evening shows are held three times nightly including 5:00, 6:45 and 8:15 p.m. Each Walt Disney Epcot special event features over 300 entertainers and 50 musicians at the Epcot Center. This year the celebrity announcers on the special Epcot candlelight dates include:
December 9th Andy Garcia
December 12 -14th Vanessa Williams
December 18 - 20th Whoopi Goldberg
December 21 - 23rd Brian Dennehy
December 21 - 23rd Angela Bassett and Courtney Vance
Disney holidays are a fabulous time to enjoy Orlando. One of our personal favorites is Mickey’s Very Merry Christmas Party and the “Once Upon A Christmas Parade”. Thanksgiving in Orlando also is an affordable time to visit Disney parks. There are a lot of vacation rentals near Disney to select from for the holiday festivities. This vacation home website reviews over 80 resort communities in the area many of which are within minutes of Epcot. We do the research for you so you can have a great vacation experience. Disney villa rentals are affordable and a great value for any Disney traveller.
We had an opportunity to attend the inaugural night of Epcot’s Party for the Senses 2009. This is part of the annual Epcot Food and Wine Festival, but with a required additional admission ticket to attend. The Spanish flavours featured for the evening were fabulous. We encourage any food and wine lovers to attend this Epcot World soiree’. This special event runs every Saturday night until November 7th from 6:30 p.m. to 9:00 p.m. The upcoming themes at Epcot Disney include:
October 3rd — Celebrating Comfort Foods with a Twist
October 10th — Celebrating the Cuisine of South America
October 17th — Celebrating Classical Cuisine
October 24th — Celebrating the Cuisine of Asia
October 31st — Celebrating the Fall Harvest
November 7th — Celebrating the Cuisine of Italy
Price for the Epcot showcase event (each evening) is $135 per person plus tax. Epcot park admission is required as well. This is a perennial favourite of the vacation rental community.
The Disney Corporation announced that it will be expanding the Disney World Fantasyland attraction in two phases with a ready date in 2012-2013. This will reportedly replicate the California Adventure Park’s Little Mermaid ride. Most of the changes will come to the east of the current Fantasyland area and north of the Winnie the Pooh ride in Magic Kingdom. This will include attractions for Cinderella and Aurora with an elaborate ride planned with the Little Mermaid theme. An expansion to the Dumbo area is also part of the plan. This is reportedly the largest change to the Magic Kingdom Park in 38 years according to the Orlando Sentinel. Orlando media also has high hopes that the Fantasyland expansion will trigger strong future parks and attractions growth.
Much of the speculation from various sources indicates a commonly held belief that Universal will capture the imagination of the market in 2010 with the opening of the Harry Potter attraction. We believe that this could be part of a larger plan to upgrade the Disney theme parks in Orlando and some future creative use of the Disney and Marvel strategic partnership may be in order as well. For now, the Disney Princess and Fairies merchandise is hugely popular for Disney with over $4 billion in annual sales and the company does want to build on that.
Vacation rentals in Orlando are an excellent way to enjoy a sunny Florida vacation. Most rental homes near Disneyworld are an excellent value when you consider amenities and the fact that most homes sleep at least 6/8 persons. Consult our vacation reviews area for information on more than 80 resort communities. We do the research for you to take the stress out of planning your Orlando vacation.
Speculation continues to abound about what is in store for the major Orlando theme parks after Disney’s recent Marvel comics acquisition. If you missed the news, the Walt Disney Company purchased Marvel Entertainment Inc. for $4 billion which includes the treasure trove of over 5,000 Marvel superhero characters.
With such powerfully branded action figures as “Spiderman”, Disney can further penetrate the “tweenager” market.
The thought of an entire theme park in Orlando geared around the Marvel characters allows one to imagine the possibilities that are now available. With Disney’s amazing ability to promote, market and effectively distribute high quality entertainment products, we cannot wait to see what happens.
For an extra premium on regular admission Magic Kingdom tickets during the holidays, enjoy Mickey’s Very Merry Christmas Party 2009. The dates for the upcoming Disney special holiday events are as follows:
November 10, 12, 13, 15, 17, 19, 20 and 29th
December 1, 3, 4, 6, 8, 10, 11, 13, 15, 17 and 18th
This is an annual Mickey’s Christmas event featuring a festive parade, live entertainment and appearances from Disney characters and a special fireworks show. Mickey’s “Once Upon a Christmas” Parade is a delight for the whole family. One can also enjoy Cinderella’s Castle with Castle Dream Lights. Main Street USA will also be abuzz with magical snowflakes to the wonderment of all children. Complimentary hot chocolate and cookies will also be served with Mickey at Christmas.
Chrismas in Orlando 2009 promises to be a delightful prelude to Disney’s holiday festivities. Enjoy a Disney World vacation rental during this time of year including all the amenities you are accustomed to at home. This website reviews over 80 vacation home communities on several factors including quality, location and amenities. Find out why vacation rentals are a much preferable option to cramped hotels when staying in the Orlando area.
The 2009 Epcot International Food and Wine Festival will be held from September 25th through November 8th, 2009. A regular Epcot admission ticket will allow you to enjoy this 14th annual park event with over 25 global markets represented. International flavours from six continents including Thai, New Zealand, Moroccan, Chilean, Chinese and American foods. This is always a favourite with Orlando vacation home owners and guests.
Each Epcot world international pavilion features daily beer, wine and food tastings. The food portions are appetizer-sized and run anywhere from $2 to $7. The festival also boasts professional culinary events managed by Disney Chefs along with visiting Guest Chefs as well. This year Cat Cora, Warren Brown, Jeff Henderson, Jacques Torres, Alan Wong and other professional culinarians will be attending. The event welcome center will also showcase book signings, food oriented seminars and wine classes.
Along with great food, one can enjoy music at the themed events (”Eat to the Beat”). The musical performances will be held at the American Gardens Theater at the American Pavilion. Times for the afternoon and evening performances will be 5:45, 7:15 and 8:30 p.m. Scheduled muscical acts for 2009 include Richard Marx, Sister Hazel, Taylor Dayne and Los Lobos. Consult the Disney schedules for specific dates and times.
Book a vacation rental in Orlando to enjoy this great Epcot special event. Consult our extensive community reviews for ratings and reviews of over 80 short term rental subdivisons in Orlando, Davenport and Kissimmee, Florida.
The Miami Herald reports in the August 1st, 2009 edition that Walt Disney World has now implemented increased ticket prices at its area theme park attractions despite a catastrophic economic recession and what some could describe locally in Orlando as an economic depression (i.e. a 10% drop in localized GDP).
The increased ticket prices will run around 3-5% for most attractions depending upon the length of the attraction pass. The one-day kids pass will increase an amazing 7.9%. A Disney spokesperson indicated that ticket prices still provide a great value to families and consumers.
Although many applaud and commend Disney for all of its local community activities and programs, such action in a crippled economic climate will be put into question. The blogs fervently lit up today in response. Many were hoping that the Disney Corporation could have used this as a real opportunity to silence the critics and even announce a price decrease. This would have been in sympathy with the pain being experienced by many consumers. Other local Orlando businesses who have the power to increase pricing 4-5% without significant consequences (outside of health-care) are some what limited.
Some critics may also conclude that this price increase is being implemented in response to the recent company wide Disney earnings release and its effect on Disney’s stock price.
Longer term, higher ticket prices could alienate some middle class families, both domestically and abroad. Middle class consumers are the largest consumers of theme parks in Orlando.
The annual ritual of announcing price increases at local Orlando parks has enabled some cynics to conclude that management may have become isolated from the plight of everyday folks and their struggles in light of the economic crisis; however the parks in turn argue they may need to take such action to optimize revenues and profits.
Many consumers are highly disappointed that Disney has responded in this manner to raise theme park prices at this critical time for many families.
Other parks in the area often follow Disney ticket price increases. It will be interesting to see how they respond given the worst economic climate since the great depression.
Disney released quarterly earnings today with third quarter profit dropping 26%. The most important item for Orlando businesses was the fact that domestic park attendance actually rose 3% mainly due to heavy discounting. International parks and resort attendance dropped 9%. CEO Bob Iger also indicated that the company did see signs of economic stabilization.
The big question for any local businesses is how long the discounting will continue. The Disney CFO, Tom Staggs, indicated that discounts such as the “Buy 4, Get 3″ promotion will continue as long as the economy remains weak. Without this heavy discounting, the drop in local transient leisure hotel occupancy would be even more dramatic.
Feedback from our sources indicates that proximity to the Disney parks is even more paramount from an occupancy impact. It’s pretty apparent that hotels further from the parks are really struggling. As it relates to vacation homes, distance to the attractions is important as well. Our site makes an attempt at profiling over 80 vacation home communities on several factors including distance to major attractions.
