New Hiring Brings New Content to WDWNT

WDWNT on October 14, 2008

After a few issues led to the temporary closure of our WDWNTube Disney Parks Video Site over the weekend, we are proud to announce the addition of a new videographer and photographer here at WDW News Today. Matt Paul will be joining our team immediately, bringing a large collection of Walt Disney World videos with him to our site. Matt will also be providing the WDW News Today website with photo updates from around the Walt Disney World Resort when he periodically visits the vacation kingdom.  In the meantime, the WDWNTube is re-opened and you will see the first of our newest videos at some point later this week. We would like to give Matt a warm welcome and hope that you will enjoy all of this new content as we continue to grow the WDWNT Network over the coming months.

Sincerely yours,
Tom Corless
Owner of the WDWNT Network

Amazing New DCA Concept Art

WDWNT on October 14, 2008

Posters with some lovely concept art have sprung up on the back side of the Blue Sky Cellar building, & there are some lovely pictures up on the DCA Project Tracker on MiceChat. There are 3 posters, one for Buena Vista Street, one for Paradise Pier, & one for Cars Land. At least one piece of new concept art is revealed on each poster, like an overall map of Cars Land, an amazing overview map of the park as of 2012 (much like the original map for Disneyland), & much more. There are also descriptions of the lands on the posters. And what may be the new logo for the park is revealed on the overall map, which actually uses Walt Disney’s real handwriting.

Be sure to check it out, you won’t be dissapointed!

Important News Regarding The WDWNT Network

WDWNT on October 11, 2008

Since WDW News Today debuted about 1 1/2 years ago, we have had a lot of fun providing you with news, information, and entertainment about various aspects of the Disney Parks. It is a rewarding job, but as with anything in life, there are some moments that are regrettable. Today, we experienced one of those moments.

As most of you are aware, John Corigliano came to WDW News Today back in March of 2008 after years of working at the MouseTimes website. John had already been appearing on the WDW News Today Podcast for a few months at this point, and would become an important part of our WDWNTube video site.  He recently was given his own podcast and vidcast titled “John Corigliano’s Ear To The World.” Earlier this week, John informed the staff at WDW News Today that he would be leaving the WDWNT Network. There was no reason given for the departure, nonetheless WDW News Today was willing to work with John to correct any issues he may have had with the site. Still, no explanation was given and and there was no willingness to work on the problems, so we simply gave John a heartfelt farewell.

As preparations for John’s official departure began to take shape, we made the necessary changes to ensure that our family of websites will continue to operate as normal for your enjoyment. After John told us he would be departing from WDWNT to return to MouseTimes, a troubling incident took place. John Corigliano apparently erased a number of videos that belonged to himself and others from our WDWNTube video website on Saturday afternoon. While we do not understand the motive behind this, we are taking the necessary steps to restore these videos. If you have any of the videos that are now missing from the site and would like to help us restore them, please contact us. Your help is deeply appreciated.

Since we still do not have a full understanding of the situation, at this point we are hesitant to blame John or anyone else directly for the incident. For those of you wondering why we would come out and acknowledge this situation publicly, the answer is very simple. We have way too much respect for the people who come to and enjoy our family of websites to simply let changes like this go quietly without notice. We apologize for any inconvenience that these events may have caused and hope you will stay with us as we continue to grow and modify our operations over the next few weeks.

I am also proud to announce that we will be continuing production of our newest podcast, which will now be called “Your Ear to the World”. The updated show will feature opinionated discussions and in-park audio from both the Walt Disney World and Disneyland Resorts. It will initially be hosted by Luke Manning.

While we still cherish the friendship we had with John, we bid him a fond farewell and wish him the best in his future endeavors. We are sorry to have to be the ones to give you this information, but I I thought it necessary to explain the situation to the people who have made this website what it is today. As always, thank you for your support – we wouldn’t be here without you.

If you have any questions about this situation, we are more than happy to answer them by email at wdwnewstoday@gmail.com.

Sincerely yours,

Tom Corless
Owner of the WDWNT Network

Boats, Cars, & Segways

WDWNT on October 11, 2008

Here are a few of the latest Disneyland Park rumors from our friends over at Screamscape:

10/3/08 – The latest rumor on the proposed new Matterhorn cars claims that any plans to retire the current trains in favor of a new fleet will have to wait until 2011 at this point, as it was not approved for the next year’s budget.

9/29/08 – According to a reader this past Saturday was the last day for the Segway experience in Innoventions at Disneyland. Apparently this was never a sponsor driven display and just something the park put in as filler while building the Asimo and Dream Home projects.

10/3/08 – A few weeks ago I mentioned that Pirates had been apparently testing out a few new prototype boats under consideration for next year’s rehab. According to the latest rumor this latest boat design sounds like a disaster and may have already been canned. Apparently the prototypes may have been an off-shoot of the new It’s A Small World boat design (see pictures below), as they were said to look quite similar. The biggest flaw up front was the fact that these boats seemed to have molded “bucket seats” instead of plain bench seats, along with individual hand-grips in all the rows except the front row. The seats were said to be much too small and only allowed for four-across seating. From the sound of things, these boats may have been sent back to the drawing board for a complete redesign.

10/6/08 – I’ve got a quick update on the new prototype Pirate boats. It seems that the comments about the poorly designed prototype boat at pirates was in reference to another test boat dropped into the water very briefly in early 2008. The new prototype boat(s) that was tested more recently will not have the bucket seats or hand grips that were talked about in the last rumor, but will have contoured seat backs just like the new small world boats. They will leave the bench-seating design intact and will actually allow for one extra passenger per boat. The current boats seat only three in rows 1 and 6, and four-across in 2-5. The new boats have a wider Row 1 that will allow for four-across seating as well.

New DCA Concept Art

WDWNT on October 11, 2008

Here are 2 new pieces of DCA related concept art, plus the logo for the Blue Sky Cellar, released by Disney:

Blue Sky Cellar logo.

Concept art for the inside of the Blue Sky Cellar.

New concept art for the Silly Symphony Swings, the re-theme of the Orange Stinger.

An Innovative Look at Innoventions

WDWNT on October 10, 2008

A brand new website devoted to Innoventions at Epcot has opened to give guests an idea of what the mostly updated interactive expo has to offer. You can see this new website by going HERE. This opening of this site coincides with the recently updated Innoventions maps, which tell guests to visit the official website to continue their experiences from the many different exhibits. The website even features details on the new IBM exhibit coming later this year called the “Thinkplace”.

The most recent version of the Innoventions logo that first debuted in 2007

This is yet another piece of the huge revamp that Innoventions has been going through over the last few years (encompassing the additions of Stormstruck, Don’t Waste It!, Slapstick Studios, Kim Possible World Showcase Challenge kiosks and Kidcot locations). The entire project is almost complete, with only a few new exhibits left to be put in place on both the East and West sides. Expect more changes inside and out, as the entire exterior of the Innoventions buildings to be repainted to the new blue and green color scheme sometime in 2009. You may even see the East and West side renamed Innoventions Green and Blue at some point in the future. The entire project is scheduled for Spring 2010 completion. The project has garnered all of Epcot’s attention at the moment, and is the biggest reason why we haven’t seen anything new happening over at the Imagination! pavilion just yet. Be sure to stay tuned to WDW News Today as more information on this project becomes available.

Miley Cyrus Sweet 16 Highlight Video

WDWNT on October 10, 2008

Here’s another new video related to the Miley Cyrus Sweet 16 event, which looks to be an official one from Disney, featuring various highlights from the night, as well as an interview with Miley:

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mj8e3jEnQaM[/youtube]

Christmas Angels

WDWNT on October 10, 2008

According to various reports, the Courtyard of Angels in New Orleans Square, as previously rumored, has been transfered over to a Christmas time store, selling what else but Christmas merchandise.

We will try to get pictures of this new store for you later this week, so stay tuned.

Your Vacation is Calling

WDWNT on October 9, 2008

Disney Parks will once again be offering a special Christmas Day perk to guests who are booking their trips in the near future:

LAKE BUENA VISTA, Fla. — What could be more exciting than opening presents on Christmas morning?  How about this: getting a call from Mickey Mouse announcing the gift of a 2009 Walt Disney World vacation?

Between Nov. 28 and Dec. 23, guests who book their 2009 vacations to Walt Disney World Resort can sign up to receive a call from Mickey Mouse on Christmas Day, surprising their family with the vacation news.

And the time has never been better to visit the Vacation Kingdom in Florida.  It’s party time at Disney parks during 2009.  As part of a special park-wide celebration, everyone who visits a Walt Disney World Resort or Disneyland Resort theme park in 2009 gets in free on their birthday. Disney Parks has embraced a new travel trend called “celebration vacations.”  Wondrous new entertainment and special services such as character greetings can be booked to help guests transform personal milestones such as birthdays and anniversaries into magical Disney experiences.

The Holidays Live On!

WDWNT on October 9, 2008

I discovered two very interesting websites today while browsing the web:

-Similar to the Halloween website we told you about a few weeks ago, the Walt Disney World Resort has set-up a pretty nifty site to promote the seasonal happenings around the resort in the 2008-09 holiday season. You can see the page by going HERE.

-Disney will be running another special merchandise event themed to the Pirates of the Caribbean movie franchise in 2009, however, this time it will be taking place on the Disney Cruise Line. The Disney Wonder will be hosting “Pirates of the Caribbean: The Legend Lives On” from March 7th through the 12th, 2009. The event schedule is currently set to include:

– A special welcome reception with Lee Arenberg and Marty Klebba at a Walt Disney World® Resort on Saturday, March 7.
– Event Exclusive Seminar aboard the Disney Wonder with Talent from Pirates of the Caribbean films
– Private Meet and Greet with Talent from the Pirates of the Caribbean films
– Viewing of The Curse of the Black Pearl, Dead Man’s Chest, and At World’s End.
– Unique entertainment aboard Disney Wonder and Castaway Cay
– First Opportunity to Pre-Purchase Open and Limited Edition Pirates of the Caribbean Themed Merchandise
– Event Exclusive Gifts

Tickets to the event will be $250 in addition to the costs of joining the cruise. More details, as well as a sale date, should be appearing soon. Be sure to stay tuned to the official site which can be found HERE.