Home Sweet Home

WDWNT on March 29, 2008

Scott Powers | Orlando Sentinel Staff Writer

Three-story mansions and hundreds of other homes — most valued at millions of dollars apiece — would be built along the banks of Walt Disney World canals and sold to private individuals in a project under review by Orange County. The homes, mostly single-family residences but including a few condominiums and time-share units, would rise from what was Disney’s Eagle Pines Golf Course — just a jog away from the Magic Kingdom, Epcot and Downtown Disney. The adjacent Osprey Ridge Golf Course would be incorporated into the private development, now called the “Northeast Resort.”

Disney insists it is still too early in the planning process to discuss many details. With the country mired in a housing slump, one local expert said luxury homes in the gated community would most likely be marketed to and snapped up by wealthy foreign buyers.

Disney World first announced its intentions in March 2007 to build a luxury housing resort on 429 acres in the northeast corner of the giant resort, but few details have been reported. A year ago, more attention was focused on related plans to build an anchor for the resort — a Four Seasons luxury hotel — which would go up on another section of the former Eagle Pines Golf Course.

Rezoning plans now circulating inOrange County government’s planning division remain limited in detail but suggest a neighborhood like no other: a gated community of estate homes, village homes, courtyard homes, cluster-villa homes and condominiums closer than most of Disney’s hotels to the world’s most popular theme parks. Disney is asking Orange County to rezone the property as a planned development, with areas defined for single-family homes, multifamily homes, time-share units and conservation easements. Altogether, the project could encompass as many as 373 single-family homes, 200 multifamily homes and 60 time-share units, though the final tallies are expected to be lower.

Earlier forays

Disney World has spun off land for residential development before — notably the communities of Celebration and Little Lake Bryan — but the Northeast Resort would be far more luxurious, said Marilyn Waters, spokeswoman for Walt Disney Imagineering, the Disney office that handles real-estate development. She compared the Northeast Resort concept to the Four Seasons-anchored Aviara community in San Diego, a high-end vacation community for people rich enough to have multimillion-dollar second or third homes.

“This is in essence the coming together of the Disney brand and the Four Seasons brand. This is the first time that has happened,” Waters said. “These are often the types of places people come in for two or three weeks, then they won’t be back for several months.” William Weaver, a real-estate professor at the University of Central Florida, predicted Disney would market such homes heavily overseas. Disney’s reputation for attention to detail, he said, along with the project’s unique location, should make even mansions easy to sell, regardless of market conditions.

“I can’t see many Americans buying multimillion-dollar second houses on Disney property, not very many. But I certainly can see foreigners,” Weaver said. “As the dollar keeps deteriorating against everything else, it becomes cheaper and cheaper.” The area would be developed much as Disney developed Little Lake Bryan, Celebration and a couple of smaller projects. Disney would have the property de-annexed from both the Reedy Creek Improvement District — the independent government district created in 1967 to provide countylike services to Disney World — and from Lake Buena Vista and Bay Lake, the two cities created back then to provide city services to most of Disney World. Orange County would then provide such services, including utilities, fire protection and sheriff’s patrols.

Although the area is still within Reedy Creek’s jurisdiction for now, Disney is seeking advance approval fromOrange County officials with a de-annexation in mind. The project is now headed for public hearings before the county Planning and Zoning Commission and the Board of County Commissioners.

Getting to work

Earlier this month, Disney World contractors began preparing the site, installing construction fences and doing some light earthmoving on land north of Vista Boulevard and west of Winter Garden-Vineland Road. That work should take most of the rest of the year, Waters said, but actual home construction could start before the year is out. The vast majority of the homes would be built to order, and the entire community could take up to 10 years to build, though planners don’t expect it to take that long.

The county has recommended a few changes in the plans, yet there appear to be no major concerns,Orange County Planning Administrator John Smogor said. Built out to the maximum, the area could house an estimated 1,702 people. The county has to review the plans under the assumption that, except for the time-share units, the homes would serve as the owners’ primary residences, Smogor said, meaning a year-round impact on roads and services. But “if they sell these homes to rich people in Japan, the Philippines, Chicago or New York, and they want to come down here and just have a big house a few weeks a year at Disney, that’s fine,” he said.

Magic Kingdom Shop Shuffle

WDWNT on March 29, 2008

As part of the big refurbishment that the Chapeau on  Main Street U.S.A. in the Magic Kingdom recently went through, the shop has expanded into the former Disney Vacation Club area next door. In response to the removal of this DVC information location, a new Vacation Club kiosk with a Circus theme will be added across from the Dumbo the Elephant attraction in Fantasyland. Stay tuned to WDW News Today for more info on this as it becomes available.

Lights Out at Epcot

WDWNT on March 28, 2008

Sara K. Clarke and Jason R. Garcia | Orlando Sentinel Staff Writers

Most of Disney’s Epcot Center lost power this morning, according to park employees and visitors. Power was back on in some parts of the park in the afternoon, but some major attractions were down.

At about 1:30 p.m., Spaceship Earth and Journey Into Imagination were still listed as “down,” according to a park board that updates visitors on the status of rides. Honey, I Shrunk the Audience was closed, but it wasn’t clear whether that was because of the outage. Contacted early this afternoon, Disney spokeswoman Kim Prunty said she had not yet heard of the outage.

It was not immediately clear what caused the outage. There was a long line at Guest Relations, where some visitors were trying to get refunds or tickets to transfer to a different Disney park. One guest said people were given the option of getting a Park Hopper ticket to use today or a one-day pass to use another day.

Power went down about 11:30 a.m., said Bobbi Baessler, a park visitor from Chicago. “We saw the monorail, and it was stopped,” said Baessler, who was in line hoping for a refund or admission to another park. “We were waving to all the people. At least we weren’t stuck up there.” Baessler said it was her family’s last day in Orlando. “So it’s not like we can come back tomorrow.”

Tom Connelly, of New York, said he was waiting for the Living with the Land ride with his family of five when the line stopped moving. They eventually got out of line and went looking for another attraction. “We were walking around from ride to ride,” he said. “Everything was closed.”

One thing that added to confusion was that many park workers were reluctant to say why rides were closed, Connelly said. He and his family passed the time by going to the World Showcase, which had power. But outside concessions there were closed as well, and many vendors were draining their freezers, he said.

Pixar Play Parade Has Returned

WDWNT on March 28, 2008

The Pixar Play Parade returned to Disney’s California Adventure yesterday after about a week off due to damage on the Bug’s Life unit. Due to the damage, the Bug’s Life float has been temporarily pulled out of the parade, & we have no idea yet as to when it will return.

Catching Up With the World

WDWNT on March 27, 2008

As we catch up on the last two days, here is some Walt Disney World news that has come out since our site difficulties:

-As reported on our forums, the Figment’s Place meet and greet and the Figment walk around character have been retired at Epcot. Expect Dreamfinder and his “little” purple dragon to return to the park sometime in the next few months, probably late 2008/early 2009.

-The “Partners” statue depicting Walt Disney and Mickey Mouse at the Magic Kingdom has been repainted with a new look. Some of the Mickey (his face, pants, and shoes) has been repainted gold. The new look is very nice and we hope to have a picture of it up soon.

It’s a Small World News Report

WDWNT on March 27, 2008

Thanks to the keen eye of MiceChat members, I was able to catch a news report on LA’s CBS 2, that talked about some of the planned changes to It’s a Small World.

If you weren’t able to catch the report, we have audio of the report available for direct download here!

Opening and Important Dates for Toy Story Mania

WDWNT on March 26, 2008

Here are the dates our “sources” have stated for the following events pertaining to the new Toy Story Mania attraction at Disney’s Hollywood Studios:

-Soft Openings begin on or around April 25, 2008

-Cast Member Previews of the attraction from April 26-27 and May 2-4, 2008

-Media Preview on May 9, 2008

-Annual Passholder Previews from May 10-12, 2008

-Media Press Event on May 16, 2008

-Official Grand Opening on May 20, 2008.

These very same dates were also posted on the Inside the Magic Forums, which leads me further to believe they are accurate as of the current moment. Be sure to stay tuned to WDW News Today as more information becomes available on any of these events and this upcoming attraction.

Toy Story Mania Press Release

WDWNT on March 25, 2008

Even though we released and confirmed most of these details last week, here is a look at a press release from LaughingPlace.com about Toy Story Mania:

Disney Parks guests will don 3-D glasses and enter a wild and wooly 4-D world of Woody the Cowboy and Buzz Lightyear when Toy Story Mania! premieres this summer. The attraction will debut on both coasts: at Disney’s Hollywood Studios in Walt Disney World Resort in Florida, and along the Paradise Pier midway in Disney’s California Adventure at Disneyland Resort in California. Celebrating the Disney•Pixar classics “Toy Story” and “Toy Story II,” Toy Story Mania! raises the bar for interactive ride-game attractions. It’s a high energy, immersive adventure that makes guests a key part of the action as their game play triggers special effects that provide a fourth dimension of fun. “Toy Story Mania!” engages guests in a whole new way with the delightful characters of the films.

Upon entering the attraction, guests will be welcomed by Mr. Potato Head, more than five feet tall and looking like he stepped right down from the movie screen. The state-of-the-art Audio-Animatronics Mr. Potato Head makes a perfect carnival barker for the immersive Toy Story Mania! experience, since he is the first attraction-based Audio-Animatronics figure who can engage guests in a two-way conversation.

Everyone gets a front row seat when guests put on their 3-D glasses, “shrink” to the size of a toy, and board the Toy Story Mania! carnival tram ride vehicles, whose fast travel and spinning add a huge amount of fun to the interactive experience. The exciting and colorful route takes guests through “Andy’s Bedroom” filled with oversized murals and toys. The vehicles spin to face Toy Story Mania! game booths – high-tech yet rooted in classic midway games of skill – and guests aim for 3-D animated targets using their own on-board “spring-action shooters.” Players pair up and sit side-by-side for a friendly competition that delivers an ever-changing variety of targets and surprises. As they play, guests can actually see the “virtual” objects they’ve launched leave their “spring-action shooters” and hit the targets (or not). And thanks to 4-D special effects technology, they may sense objects whirring past them as they pop out of the 3-D scenes.

The Toy Story Mania! games – five of them, plus an introductory practice round – are designed to be enjoyed by audiences of all ages and skills, from beginners to serious gamers. Play is energized by the spirit of the “Toy Story” characters cast in games that best suit their very animated personalities.

First comes the “Pie Throw Practice” round in which guests can try splattering targets with “virtual” pies. Next Hamm the pig hosts a “Hamm & Eggs” booth in which players launch “plastic virtual eggs” at various barnyard targets. “Bo Peep’s Baaa-loon Pop” presents a landscape full of balloon sheep, trees and other objects at which guests can launch virtual darts. But players had better be careful! A popped virtual water balloon might add an additional 4-D wet dimension to the game. From there it’s on to “Green Army Men Shoot Camp” where the challenge is to break plates with baseballs. Next up is “Buzz Lightyear’s Flying Tossers,” a ring-toss game hosted by everyone’s favorite space ranger, with Little Green Aliens as the targets. For the grand finale game, Toy Story Mania! players will ride through Wild West scenes launching virtual suction-cup darts at targets in “Woody’s Rootin’ Tootin’ Shootin’ Gallery.” A final “Woody’s Bonus Roundup” encourages guests to fire their “spring-action shooters” as rapidly as possible at one last super-target for extra points. When scores are tallied, players’ skill levels are identified with the reward of an onscreen “virtual plush.”

The game play of Toy Story Mania! is accompanied by ingenious musical variations of Randy Newman’s “You’ve Got A Friend in Me,” arranged by veteran music editor Bruno Coon, a frequent Newman collaborator, to compliment the games – for example, a military brass band version for “Green Army Man Shoot Camp.” No matter how many times guests return to ride and play, they can be sure every ride-through will be different.

Monorail Red Puts Rumors to Rest

WDWNT on March 25, 2008

Disneyland has been conducting regular after-hours tests of Monorail Red, putting to rest persistent Internet chat room rumors that the new Mach VII would have to be sent back to the assembly plant for major modifications.Disney officials said that the new monorail has been cycling around the beamway under its own power and that sending the futuristic bullet-nosed train back to the Vancouver, Canada, assembly plant was “never considered.”

After the test-and-adjust phase, Monorail Red will undergo state inspections, and Disney employees will be trained in the operation of the five-car burgundy train before visitors get their first ride.

Monorail Blue, still under construction in Canada, is scheduled to arrive at Disneyland between mid-April and early May.

The monorail’s sleek iconic exterior features color-shifting paint with gray pinstriping that evokes the stainless-steel side panels of the 1959 original designed by Disney Imagineer Bob Gurr.

— Brady MacDonald, Los Angeles Times Staff Writer