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Disney has released a special slideshow, featuring hundreds of pictures and some videos of the American Idol Experience media event that was held at Disney’s Hollywood Studios last thursday:
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Join me, Tom Corless, and a cast including Jason Diffendal, Justin Heyman, Chris Lastrapes, and Luke Manning for a variety show that celebrates the Walt Disney World Resort and its many fans. So what are you waiting for? Let’s celebrate another week of Walt Disney World information and fun on the WDW News Today Podcast!!!
To kick off episode 81, we’ll have your Walt Disney World Resort News and Rumor Report. In this week’s report, we’ll be talking about the brand new “Move It! Shake It! Celebrate It!” Street Party now performing at the Magic Kingdom, a new exhibit that will be “added” to Innoventions at Epcot this fall, and what the Disney Vacation Club will be opening in Long Island, New York, this summer.
After that, we have the fifth edition of “What Were They Thinking?”, where we will try to examine why certain decisions are made by Walt Disney World management. This time around, we’ll be discussing the creation of “Tomorrowland 1995″ at the Magic Kingdom and what lead to it’s ultimate destruction. We’ll also discuss the Tomorrowland of today and what they were thinking bringing characters into the future.
Finally, to end this weeks program, we continue our countdown of the 20 Biggest Moments in Disney’s Hollywood Studios History as voted by you with a look at what took the #13 spot on the list. We’ll also be examining just how important this moment is in the near 20 year history of the park.
To subscribe to the WDW News Today podcast on iTunes, go to this link. If you do not have iTunes, visit our Podcast Download Directory to download or listen to all of our shows
This episode is also available in an enhanced version. An enhanced podcast is a podcast with added features that standard podcasts don’t have. Enhanced podcasts include many features like Chapter listings, this lets you skip through chapters or see what is in store for this weeks show. Enhanced podcasts also have images to let you differ the chapters by. Enhanced podcasts have one negative feature, you can not play them on most mp3 players. The file format for this is a .m4a which can play on Apple’s iPod and Microsoft’s Zune. You will also need iTunes or Windows Media Player to be able to skip through chapters. If you need or would like the standard edition, download the normal edition listed below this file both on Itunes and in our podcast directory.
Celebrating 100th Birthday at Disneyland
On her 100th birthday, Friday, February 13, Frances Taylor of Lake Forest, California, took advantage of the Disney Parks “Free On Your Birthday” offer to celebrate with her extended family – four children, 10 grandchildren and 15 great-grandchildren – at Disneyland in Anaheim. She was greeted at the Main Entrance to Disneyland by Mickey Mouse and friends, who presented her with a 100th Birthday cake. In 1912, as she and her mother prepared to emigrate to the United States from their native Scotland, they were bumped from the passenger list of the Titanic. For her birthday, she boarded “the happiest cruise that ever sailed” to experience the newly refreshed and reopened “it’s a small world” attraction. Approximately 2 million people have registered for the Disney Parks “Free On Your Birthday” offer since it was announced last fall. Taylor’s daughter, Maggie Winn (far left), registered her for “Free on Your Birthday.”
WDWNT Live! Episode 6
This edition of WDWNT Live! has been completed, but don’t threat… For those of you who missed it, we will be releasing it as podcast sometime in the next couple of weeks, so stay tuned!
Included in the Show is:
- Call-In Questions
- “What Were They Thinking?!?”: So Many Celebrations
- John Rick’s Disney Pin Investigation
- WDWCelebrations Studio 20 Event Update
- And More!
Chris Lastrapes’ 2/14/09 Photo Report
WDWNT’s very own Chris Lastrapes was at the Disneyland Resort celebrating his birthday this past Thursday, and shares with us a few photos of the latest happenings around the Resort:
Workers were working outside the gates of The Haunted Mansion up to it’s soft re-opening Thursday afternoon.
The attraction was closed early in the day.
The painting of Mickey’s Fun Wheel is pretty much done. Just a little bit left to do on the stars.
Lots of work going on in the Paradise Pier lagoon.
We’ll end this short photo report with the new covering for Mr. Potato Head.
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Short video clips have begun to surface of the new Move It! Shake It! Celebrate It! Street Party that debuts tomorrow at the Magic Kingdom with the first performance at 11:00am. Here are the three only videos that have surfaced so far showing the first two floats in the parade as well as a couple of minutes of the show stop:
Judging from what you can see in these short videos, the “parade” looks like another Block Party Bash type parade. In fact, it looks almost the same as Block Party Bash in how the show is laid out. Stay tuned to WDW News Today tomorrow for coverage of the first performances of the Magic Kingdom’s new street party.
Grim Grinning Ghosts Come Out to Socialize Early
Our very own Chris Lastrapes is currently on location at the Disneyland Resort and reports to us with the news that The Haunted Mansion has re-opened early from its refurbishment. According to Chris, nothing much is new, except for some fresh coats of paint.
Stay tuned to Disneyland News Today as I will be visiting the Resort tomorrow, and will bring back plenty of pictures of The Haunted Mansion.
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Walt Disney World re-launched the official American Idol Experience attraction website this morning, just as a huge media blitz descends upon Disney’s Hollywood Studios for a weekend of publicity festivities. The website now features a 3-D model of the stage, some video clips, and a number of other features. The most vital feature has to be the online audition registration system that has been introduced. Guests will now be “required” to reserve an open audition time on the official website if they plan on trying out for the show after Saturday, when it officially opens to the public. As of right now, guests can register to audition up to two weeks in advance. Don’t expect Disney to hold to this concept too much, as there would probably then be a long line of frustrated idol hopefuls at guest relations who were turned away from auditioning because they were not aware of this pre-arrival registration system. Stay tuned to WDW News Today as more information on this audition registration becomes available.
In case many of you missed it, the attraction was featured through-out Good Morning America on ABC earlier today. The coverage concluded with a live performance in front of the Superstar Television Theater by Idol winner David Cook that didn’t entirely make it onto the program thanks to some technical difficulties. The celebration continues later today with live blue carpet coverage from the huge media event at Disney’s Hollywood Studios. The events will be broadcast between 4:30 PM and 6:45 PM and can be viewed at that time at the link provided HERE.
Live from the Blue Carpet?
Walt Disney World will actually be providing live blue carpet coverage from the American Idol Experience media event tomorrow afternoon at Disney’s Hollywood Studios. The events will be broadcast between 4:30 PM and 6:45 PM and can be viewed at that time at the link provided HERE. The attraction officially opens to guests on Saturday, February 14th.
Celebrate Race Week
Four-time NASCAR Cup Series champion and three-time Daytona 500 winner Jeff Gordon (left) takes a spin with his wife Ingrid (right) and two-year-old daughter Ella (front right) February 9, 2009 on the Magic Carpets of Aladdin attraction at the Magic Kingdom in Lake Buena Vista, Fla. Gordon visited the Walt Disney World theme parks the week leading up to the 51st running of the Daytona 500.