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.
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:
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.
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!!!”
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:
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.
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.
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.
According to the OC Register’s Around Disney blog:
Downtown Disney is quickly losing tenants.
Club Libby Lu – a store for girls to dress up, shop and have a makeover – has closed. Owned by Saks Inc., all 78 of the Club Libby Lu stores around the nation are closing.
Department 56 and Starabillas have closed as well.
The Register’s Retail blog reports that Yankee Holding Corp. will close all 28 of its Illuminations stores. Downtown Disney’s high-quality candle store is scheduled to close April 30. Everything in the store is being sold at 25 to 50 percent off.
A fifth store might soon shutter as well.
The retail blog also reported that Quiksilver plans to close 25 of its stores. It is unclear whether the Downtown Disney outlet will be among the fatalities.
Disney spokeswoman Betsy Sanchez said today that Downtown Disney is in talks with four or five retailers to pick up the leases.
Sanchez wouldn’t comment on whether the overall sagging economy, or more specifically any reduced foot traffic in Downtown Disney, was to blame for the closures.
According to Disney’s earnings report for the quarter ending Dec. 27, theme park revenue was down 4 percent.
“From our perspective the closures at these locations had nothing to do with Downtown Disney,” said Disney Spokeswoman Suzi Brown. “These have to do with the parent companies’ decision to close the stores chain-wide.”
She said as far as Starabilia is concerned, the privately-owned celebrity collectable shop came to the end of its lease and chose not to renew it.
Though Brown said Disney hasn’t heard anything about the Quicksilver shop yet, the one in Downtown Disney is “among the top performers in the chain,” as was Libby Lu.
