Lee’s Daily Blog

This post is for Saturday 5th September, 2009

A short post this one. Disney Parks released this video about from the imagineers a few weeks ago. It gives a good insight into upcoming items. Pay attention to some of the footage in the video – there are some good insights in there you don’t want to miss!

This week’s photo is of the Hollywood Tower Hotel, otherwise known as ‘The Tower of Terror’ at Disney’s Hollywood Studios.

Hollywood Tower Hotel

This is one of my favourite things to take photos of at The Studios, mainly because it is fairly easy to get an awesome looking shot of the tower coming out of the nearby foliage.

Unfortunately, I couldn’t master a photo of it at night – I was generally let down by my camera. I’m hoping to be able to return at some point when I will hopefully have a better camera!

Weird Al has released the music video for his new single ‘Skipper Dan’ on his myspace page.

The video/song tells the story of Dan who doesn’t quite make it into show business as he thought he would, but instead ends up working on the Jungle Cruise at Disneyland (something that has probably happened fairly often).

Apart from being a pretty good song, if you’re a disney fan it’s worth a listen, even if it’s just to pick up on those well known lines such as ‘The back side of water’.

Skipper Dan

This post is for Monday, 6th April, 2009

I was listening to Inside The Magic on my walk to University this morning and listened to a huge list of films that Disney are thinking about bringing out in 3D. Most of these are altered version of older films, that they want to re-release in cinemas (for example, they’re talking about releasing Toy Story 1 & 2 in 3D in sinema to help promote Toy Story 3, which is also in 3D).

I don’t really know where this interest in 3D technology has come from. If you’d have asked me about 3D films a year or so ago, I’d have said it was something that used the ‘classic’ blue and red glassess which had gone out of fashion. But it seems to have come back. Fortunately, most of the films seem to have moved away for using the technology for ‘Cheap 3D Tricks’ (think, things flying at you, floating in the air etc.)

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This week’s photo is of Spaceship Earth at Epcot.

Spaceship Earth, Epcot

I haveen’t got much to say on this weeks photo apart from – I’m so pleased the wand has gone!

This post is for Tuesday, 10th February, 2009

This week’s photo was taken on my holiday in Florida during October 2006. The photo is of Expedition Everst in Animal Kingdom. Unfortunately, I’m unable to remember the exact location from which I took the photo.

Expedition Everest

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This post is for Saturday 7th February 2009

About 12 months ago, news went round that It’s a Small World, would be going down for renovation. Part of this would be to upgrade the channel which the boats travelled a longer (rumoured to be to allow for slightly larger guests to ride in the boats without them ‘bottoming out’). It would also be to to clean up and fix any problems with existing dolls to ensure the experience remains at the highest quality.

What got some people up in arms though was the possibility of Disney characters being introduced into the attraction. Although some people were in favour of these changes, others felt it would be taking away from what the attraction was meant to be like.

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This post is for Tuesday, 13th January

This week’s photo is of Cinderella’s Castle and was taken at the Magic Kingdom in Walt Disney World during my holiday in October 2006

Cinderella's Castle

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Although not your standard Theme Park discussion this week, this story did grab my attention in the RSS Feeds.

From the Orlando Sentinel:

The Walt Disney Co. offered buyouts Wednesday to more than 600 executives at its U.S. resorts — including 313 in Orlando — as the company struggles to cut costs amid a worsening recession.

The company planned to hand-deliver buyout packages to 619 executives, each of whom will have until Feb. 6 to decide whether to accept the offer.

Disney warned it will resort to lay offs if too few employees voluntarily walk away.

Disney seems to be trying its hardest to take as minimal impact as possible by targeting its cost saving measures (at least they haven’t gone directly into letting people go), along with trying to keep attendance up such as by cutting hotel rates.

Whilst the cuts are at the higher level, I don’t think it will impact the guest experience we have all come to love at Disney. However, if they have to start laying off staff lower down the chain, it is at that stage I think we risk seeing it influencing the experience we have at the Disney parks.

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