Even though it has been open for a few months now, the remodeled Portobello restaurant at Downtown Disney’s Pleasure Island has now launched its own updated website. The website features the story of the restaurant and their chef, as well as complete lunch and dinner menus and wine lists. The site can be found at portobellorestaurant.com and reservations can be made by calling (407) WDW-DINE.
We’d proudly like to welcome Shawn Hutchinson to the Disneyland News Today staff as not just a staff photographer, but also a member of our podcast team. Here’s his first photo report for us from this past Friday:
Lines were not very busy at the Mickey and Friends Tram Station.
Or at the Disneyland main entrance for that matter.
I see a storm approaching over California.
But Disneyland looks good… For now.
I spoke too soon… There’s the rain, lots of it!
Read More about Shawn Hutchinson’s 2/20/09 Disneyland Park Photo Report
WDWNT Videographer Matt Paul has provided us with a fantastic (and lengthy) and long-awaited video of the brand new “Move It! Shake It! Celebrate It! Street Party” at the Magic Kingdom. The video is embedded courtesy of the WDWNTube Disney Parks video site:
ANAHEIM, CALIF., February 16, 2009 – Earlier this year, Jungle Cruise skippers all around the world were preparing their funniest material for a chance at representing their respective Disney Parks in Tokyo this month. Since the attraction debuted at Disneyland in 1955, the skipper role has always been one of interaction and fun, telling the story of the Jungle Cruise through silly jokes.
As part of Tokyo Disney Resort’s 25th Anniversary Celebration, a total of eight Jungle Cruise skippers from Disneyland Resort, Hong Kong Disneyland, Walt Disney World Resort and Tokyo Disney Resort have been chosen to represent their resorts during a nine-day excursion to Tokyo Disney where they will participate in a unique dream opportunity.
In conjunction with the milestone anniversary, the Oriental Land Company, the Japanese company that owns and operates the resort, made 25 dreams come true for Cast Members. The Jungle Cruise skipper dream is one of the most unique being fulfilled. The request came from Kenichi Ito, a supervisor for Jungle Cruise, who dreamt to have Jungle Cruise skippers worldwide gather at Tokyo Disneyland and create an occasion where they could exchange best practices and, of course, best jokes!
In Anaheim, Jungle Cruise skippers Kevin Lively and Mickey Wright were chosen as representatives of the original attraction.
At the Disneyland Resort, the competition began in January with 60 skippers. On Feb. 6, six finalists took to the jungle delivering their finest skipper antics to a panel of surprise celebrity judges including – Chief Creative Officer of Pixar Studios and Walt Disney Animation Studios John Lasseter and his wife, Nancy, Executive Vice President and Walt Disney Imagineering Ambassador Marty Sklar, Senior Vice President of Walt Disney Imagineering Tony Baxter, and Walt Disney Imagineering Senior Director and Concept Writer Kevin Rafferty.
Each finalist had one shot to deliver his or her spiel to the judges. Rain poured down throughout the skippers’ spiels making for a well-themed trip through the rainforest. Although conditions were soggy, the skippers were cool, calm and collected while delivering punch line after punch line.
“All the skippers were terrific, every single one,” said Sklar. “They were all able to use their own unique style during their performances to make the jokes funny every time. We had a tough time deciding the winners.”
The excursion takes place Feb. 27 through Mar. 6, and will include a two-day tour of Tokyo Disneyland and Tokyo DisneySea, Jungle Cruise skipper training on the Tokyo attraction, and the opportunity to present their personal spiel’s to the group.
After about a month away from the parks, Myrna Litt finally returns with a new photo report:
After taking a break off for Presidents Day weekend, the Main Street repaving project returned this week in full force!
New, similar signs, replacing the old birthday ones at the Plaza Inn.
The windows have been temporarily covered over with a fake view outside due to tarps around the building.
If you couldn’t tell they’re fake, then these old signs will prove it to you.
Now for a few pictures from the newly re-opened It’s a Small World.
Casting will be held this weekend in Downtown Disney for ABC’s new “Suppernanny” spin-off, “Super-Manny”. The OC Register’s Around Disney blog:
If you’re a parent: Are your children a giant pain?
If you’re a child: Do you frequently find yourself in trouble with your parents, teachers, the cops or the fire marshal?
The casting team of ABC-TV’s parenting reality show, “Supernanny,” will look for families Saturday in Downtown Disney for the new “Super-Manny” – featuring a male nanny.
“We have great luck casting at Disneyland and Disneyworld,” said “Super-Manny’s” Johnnie Raines, supervising casting director.
Disney owns ABC.
Ricochet Television producers are hosting the open casting call for the show from noon to 4 p.m. Saturday near the LEGO Imagination Center.
The first “Super-Manny” installment aired in November. Psychologist Mike Ruggles is ”Manny.”
“We were looking for a way to reach fathers,” Raines said. “He has that ability to connect with dads differently than Jo Frost (of ‘Supernanny’).”
According to an ABC statement, the producers are “looking for families who are lacking structure in their households; parents who have ordinary and extraordinary circumstances; blended families where both sides are seeking help; and specifically fathers who are overwhelmed with parenting.”
Raines said Ruggles would spend two weeks with each family on camera for each episode. Producers will condense the footage into an hour-long show.
None of the families will be paid for their time — the “main benefit is the help,” Raines said. “You don’t win $1 million if your kids don’t throw food at dinner.”
Interested moms and dads can also e-mail Gina Gonzalez at ggonzalez@ricochettelevision.com to apply. Include information about your family, a recent family photo and a daytime telephone number. For more information, call 1-877-626-6984.
Even though I strongly dislike the restaurant, I applaud the effort to keep the experience at the “Tutto Italia Ristorante” in the Italy pavilion at Epcot fresh with special dining events like this one:
Carnevale di Venezia is February 23 to March 4 at Tutto Italia Ristorante at Epcot
A special lunch and dinner menu will be available to guests featuring scrumptious Italian cuisine. During the celebration, guests can choose one of two pre-selected appetizers, entrees and desserts. Lunch is served daily from 11:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m., with dinner from 4:30 p.m. to 8:45 p.m. A special performance by “Viva Venezia” will occur each evening during dinner inside the restaurant – see weekly times guide for show times. The musical trio, known as the “strolling musicians”, will serenade guests with traditional Venetian music. Call (407) WDW-DINE for dining reservations.
The recent changes in the entire “Disney Parks and Resorts” management structure has brought about some interesting additions and repositioning in Walt Disney World management. From the Orlando Sentinel:
The number two executive at Walt Disney World is being bumped up to run newly merged resort functions between Orlando and Anaheim, Calif.
Erin Wallace, who has been the senior vice president of operations at Disney World since August 2006, moves to the new position senior vice president of operations integration/line of business for Walt Disney Parks and Resorts.
Disney announced the move Thursday, one day after unveiling a broad restructuring of its U.S. theme parks designed to consolidate operations between Disney World and Disneyland. The company, which has been hit hard by a sharp drop in consumer spending, will cut an undisclosed number of jobs in the coming weeks as part of the streamlining.
In her new role, Wallace will oversee a series of combined functions at Disney’s domestic parks. They include merchandise development, entertainment and imaging, attractions, lodging, animal programs and environmental initiatives.
Wallace, 49, has been with Disney for more than 23 years. She began in the resort’s industrial engineering department, and her assignments have included vice president in charge of the Magic Kingdom, Disney’s flagship theme park.
Wallace will report to Al Weiss, president of worldwide operations at Disney’s parks and resorts division.
Disney also said Thursday that it has named Dan Cockerell to run Epcot, the second-busiest of Walt Disney World’s four theme parks. Cockerell, previously a general manager in the Magic Kingdom, succeeds Jim MacPhee, who will now oversee special projects at the Orlando resort.
Each of the vice presidents overseeing individual theme parks will continue to report directly to Walt Disney World President Meg Crofton. So will MacPhee and the executives in charge of Downtown Disney, golf operations, sports facilities and transportation.
Crofton will continue to report to Weiss.
At the same time as it combines operational functions at its U.S. parks, Disney is also consolidating real-estate and business development functions into one unit and all of Walt Disney Imagineering, the company’s attraction-design arm, into another unit.
The goal, a Disney spokesman said, is to develop “a three-pronged team” within Disney’s parks division, with one charged with developing new initiatives such as new parks and expansions, another with designing and building the infrastructure, and the third with running day-to-day operations.
Disney’s parks division, which accounts for more than a quarter of the Disney Co.’s total revenue, has taken other streamlining steps. Last week, the division announced that Disney Cruise Line and the Adventures by Disney packaged-tour business would be merged into a single department “focused on operating the businesses that take the Disney brand to new places.”
After a few days of delay, Jose Castillo has finally provided us with pictures from the last day of his latest trip to the Walt Disney World Resort. Let’s take a look at some of his pics from Monday:
The balloon window-clings have now reached the Walt Disney World buses
“Follow that bus to the best kept Disney secret!!!”
While we provided you with Disney’s side of the story yesterday, the Orlando Sentinel is offering a fresh perspective into the entire shake-up going on throughout the domestic “Disney Parks” in both Orlando and Anaheim:
The Walt Disney Co. on Wednesday said it will eliminate an undisclosed number of jobs as part of a sweeping corporate overhaul at its domestic resorts, which includes plans to combine back-office operations at Walt Disney World and Disneyland. Disney would not say how many jobs it intends to cut or how much money it expects to save through the moves. The company employs about 80,000 people at its U.S. resorts, including 62,000 in Central Florida.
With the shake-up, Disney will consolidate East and West Coast “operating infrastructure” — responsibilities ranging from procurement to menu-planning to merchandise — under Al Weiss, the president of worldwide operations for Walt Disney Parks and Resorts. The plans also call for uniting disparate creative engineering and business-development units under single executives.
In a statement, Disney said it was forced to speed up corporate streamlining plans by the worsening global recession, which has eroded revenue at its theme parks and elsewhere across the Burbank, Calif.-company’s media and entertainment empire.
“These changes are essential to maintaining our leadership position in family tourism and reflect today’s economic realities,” Parks and Resorts Chairman Jay Rasulo said in the statement. In a separate memo to employees Wednesday, Rasulo wrote that “organization changes require difficult decisions, including the elimination of some roles.”
“These decisions were not made lightly and we know this will be a challenging transition. The people affected are our friends and colleagues, and they have made valuable contributions,” Rasulo added in the memo. The announcement comes the same month Disney revealed that its first-quarter profits fell 32 percent. Operating profit in the parks-and-resorts division fell 24 percent during the three-month period, which ended Dec. 27. It also follows Disney’s decision last month to offer buyouts to more than 600 executives at its domestic resorts. A spokesman said Disney received “a satisfactory response” to the offer, though Disney would not say how many executives took the buyouts.
The risk of over-cutting
John Gerner, managing director of Leisure Business Advisors, a Richmond, Va., consultant firm, said Disney likely will be able to make deep cost cuts by consolidating operations.
“I think it definitely has quite a lot of potential for savings. . . . As far as the theme parks go, there’s definitely economies of scale in being able to merge all those operations together to the extent that they can and centralize them,” Gerner said.
But Gerner said Disney, which relies on a constant infusion of fresh content to fuel everything from park attendance to DVD sales, must not cut too deeply in creative areas.
“They’ve got to be careful because there are so many very specialized people that work for Disney, especially on the creative side, that would be very difficult to replace once things turn around,” Gerner said. “That’s what a lot of creative companies, not only Disney, have to rely on.”
In addition to steering “operating infrastructure” at the Orlando and Anaheim, Calif., parks through Weiss, Disney said that its Walt Disney Imagineering unit would be reorganized into a single practice reporting to Bruce Vaughn, executive vice president and chief creative executive, and Craig Russell, executive vice president and chief design and project-delivery executive.
A new ‘global’ team
The company also said it would establish a new “Global Business Development team” headed by Executive Vice President Nick Franklin, which will be charged with combining existing business and real-estate development functions. The unit will be responsible for focusing growth strategies at existing parks-and-resorts businesses and identifying new opportunities around the globe. Vaughn, Russell and Franklin all are based in California.
Disney said other departments will make “appropriate changes” in the coming weeks.
As an example of what it hopes to achieve through the streamlining, Disney pointed to the simultaneous development of Toy Story Mania! attractions at both Disney’s Hollywood Studios in Orlando and Disney’s California Adventure in Anaheim, which helped hold down design costs.
The corporate overhaul means fewer employees will now report directly to Meg Crofton, president of Walt Disney World, and Ed Grier, president of Disneyland.
