Here at WDWNT, we often never travel beyond the borders of the Disney theme parks, but a tremendous opportunity presented itself last week. The Toothsome Chocolate Emporium and Savory Feast Kitchen opened at Citywalk at the Universal Orlando Resort and we decided we should check it out. Luckily, I went armed with my video camera so we could share the experience with all of you:
Over the last 9 years, WDWNT has hosted some of the most amazing historical Disney Parks countdowns, whether it was the greatest moments in the history of Epcot, Hollywood Studios, Walt Disney World, or event the 60 year history of Disney theme parks. Well, now we’re taking it a whole lot further…
We are on a quest to find the 45 greatest thing to EVER exist at Walt Disney World. From food to attractions, characters to restaurants, and everything in-between (like maybe the Dinosaur Jubilee, Pin Trading, or even parking trams), we need to know what 45 things are the absolute best things about the Vacation Kingdom of the World. Why 45? Well, because Walt Disney World is turning 45 this year!
This is where you come in… we need you to decide what makes the list! Voting is open right now at THIS LINK, but I will warn you it is pretty intense and might take you a few minutes (or hours if you are as intense about you love for all things Disney World as we are). The list has almost 1000 items on it and you will have to distribute 200 points at your will between the items you want to see on the list. Each item can get between 1-9 points, and with a 200 point limit overall, you will want to spend your points wisely.
Voting is only open for a limited time through tonight’s broadcast of WDW News Tonight, which of course will be live from 9PM-11PM ET at listen.WDWNT.com, AM 1520 WBZW in Orlando, and on YouTube.
The results will be distributed through original YouTube programming, as well as on the WDW News Today Podcast over the next several weeks.
So, what are you waiting for? GET VOTING!
Over the last 9 years, WDWNT has hosted some of the most amazing historical Disney Parks countdowns, whether it was the greatest moments in the history of Epcot, Hollywood Studios, Walt Disney World, or event the 60 year history of Disney theme parks. Well, now we’re taking it a whole lot further…
We are on a quest to find the 45 greatest thing to EVER exist at Walt Disney World. From food to attractions, characters to restaurants, and everything in-between (like maybe the Dinosaur Jubilee, Pin Trading, or even parking trams), we need to know what 45 things are the absolute best things about the Vacation Kingdom of the World. Why 45? Well, because Walt Disney World is turning 45 this year!
This is where you come in… we need you to decide what makes the list! As you know, we opened the first round of voting yesterday, but now the final and most important round begins. What remains are the top 250 things from the 45 year history of Walt Disney World and you now must pick 45 of those and rank them as you wish. Voting is open now at THIS LINK.
The results will be distributed through original YouTube programming, as well as on the WDW News Today Podcast over the next several weeks.
So, what are you waiting for? GET VOTING!
Here are the rules and disclaimers:
Click here to enter!
Every year as this website grows older, we reflect upon the accomplishments, impact, and incredible growth of WDWNT. It has now been 9 years since WDW News Today launched on July 8th, 2007. What was founded on the website you see before you and built on the back of daily news and information about Walt Disney World is now a vibrant collection of blog posts, videos, podcasts, radio programs, streaming original programming, & more. The last year in particular has been a memorable one, as we introduced WDW News Tonight blending the most popular aspects of many of our past programs, and provided the best coverage possible of all of the new attractions that debuted at the Walt Disney World Resort. We even set incredible new records in traffic for our websites and podcasts this year, as we continue our fight to be the first and best source for Disney fans. Oh, and did I mention the $6255.42 total we raised for Toys for Tots in the last year bringing our fundraising total to $25,805.24 over the past nine years?
In the world of Disney, our site has covered huge stories such as the 2015 D23 Expo, the financial cutbacks at the domestic parks, the introduction of new seasonal ticket pricing at the theme parks, the Disney After Hours event at the Magic Kingdom, the opening of Frozen Ever after at Epcot, the delay of Rivers of Light at Animal Kingdom, and much more. We also said goodbye to the original Soarin’, Dream Along with Mickey, the Lights, Motors Action, Extreme Stunt Show, the Honey I Shrunk the Kids Movie Set Adventure, the Osborne Family Spectacle of Dancing Lights, and the Earfful Tower. We even celebrated the 60th anniversary of Disneyland with fascinating podcast & radio show segments celebrating 6 decades of the very first Disney theme park.
Tonight, we will continue our annual tradition of presenting a special anniversary program on WDW News Today: On The Air, and as well for the first time ever on AM 1520 WBZW in Orlando. The show begins at 9PM ET and will last until 12AM ET. During this show, we will be making several earth-shattering announcements about the future of WDWNT. We’ll be interacting with you live through our live chat-room, taking any questions you may have about the Disney Parks, the Walt Disney Company, or about what we do at WDWNT. Unlike years past, we have a few special segments we will present as well, such as a visit from Cornac the Magnificent, WDWNT: The Match Game, and a few surprises! We hope you will join us for that tonight as it is always a very fun event!
On a personal note, the 9 year journey of this website, the podcast, and the entire family that makes up WDWNT continues to be the greatest experience of my life. I’d like to thank the incredible volunteer staff of over 30 people that have worked tirelessly to get us where we are today and the loyal readers & listeners who are to thank for our great success. I am very proud of what we have accomplished in the last 9 years and amazed at where it has taken me today, moving me across the country to my new home just minutes away from Walt Disney World. I’m looking forward to living up to our tagline, continuing to be the worldwide leader in Disney Parks news. As a great song once said, “We’ve just begun to dream!”
Tom Corless
CEO & Founder of WDW News Today
On Friday night, WDWNT had a live 3-hour broadcast to celebrate its 9th anniversary. During that time, some major announcements were made, including WDWNT: The App! If you missed the show and all of our announcements, you can watch them here:
Here’s a quick rundown of what WDWNT: The App can do:
– All the latest news from WDWNT at your fingertips, including push notifications
– Listen to all of the WDWNT.com podcasts (WDW News Today Podcast, Around the Hub, WDW News Tonight, Radio Free Disneyland, “See Ya’ Real Late”, Nerd Alert, ETC.) streamed to your device
– Listen to continuous Disney Parks music & audio from WDWNT: On the Air streamed to your device (with the ability to run in background for the first time on iOS)
– Watch the latest videos and shows on the WDWNT YouTube Channel
– Accurate park hours for the Disney Theme Parks from our WDWNT Now! service
– See the latest tweets from the WDWNT Twitter feed without leaving the app
– Shop for WDWNT gear at WDWNT: The Store
Android/Kindle
The Android app includes a few extra things, including an Android TV version and push notifications of new WDWNT blog posts.
iOS
The iOS app includes the ability to join the WDWNT: On the Air chat right from the “On the Air” screen. This feature will come to Android soon. Push notifications for iOS is in the works and we hope to have that soon.
As Tom mentioned during the broadcast, we know these apps have been requested for a while and we made them just for you. We hope you enjoy them! If you would, please stop by the appropriate app store and leave us a rating. Also, please let us know what you think of it after you get to play around with it for a while.
I want to give a quick shout out to Michael V. Battista and Nick Turpchinoff for their help in creating these. Thanks guys!
As you may or may not know, WDWNT has a full website dedicated to bringing you fast and accurate information about the Disney Parks, worldwide. The best part of all of that is it’s free! We want you to have the best information when you make a visit to a Disney Park.
As a quick side note, we announced during the WDWNT 9th Anniversary Show that a WDWNT Now! app is in the works, and will hopefully be available soon.
Let me give you a rundown of what our website can do!
One of the biggest features of WDWNT Now! is what we call “Quick Queries”. You can send an SMS/text message to +1 407-917-4007 that contains certain text and get a quick reply back. For instance, you can send an SMS message containing the text #status midway soar fotlk wishes aloha and get a response back similar to the following:
Locations’ statuses
- Soarin’ Around the World – Wait: 75 min
- Toy Story Midway Mania! – Wait: 50 min
- Wishes nighttime spectacular – Next event: Today at 10:00PM
- Festival of the Lion King – Next event: Today at 10:00AM
- Aloha Isle – Today’s hours: 10:00AM – 11:00PM, avg. item price: $4.61
I also want to announce that the same queries you can ask of the SMS service you can ask with our new WDWNT Now! Bot! If you browse to https://now.tdrnt.com/bot you can ask it the same queries that you can with SMS. This feature is in beta and eventually we’d like to add natural language (such as “what’s the wait time for Space Mountain?”) but for now our quick query format will have to suffice.
Are you a Now! user? Will you be now? If so, please let us know what you’d like to see and what we can do to make it more feature-filled.
WDWNT is celebrating the grand opening of our new online store! Shop WDWNT: The Store to get WDWNT-branded merchandise, including shirts, hoodies, phone cases and more!
Bring home the Hollywood Studios Hard Hats collection today!
We are proud to have partnered with TeePublic, a well-known provider of shirts and apparel incorporating designs from independent artists. Currently, TeePublic is having a site-wide sale, and T-Shirts can be purchased for as low as $14! We are currently featuring the exclusive WDW News Tonight apparel and the winner of our “March Tragic 2016” competition (a parody of Disney’s popular March Magic team t-shirts), the Hollywood Studios Hardhats! There is also a huge variety of nerdy, Disney-centric shirts available through our TeePublic storefront, so you’re sure to find something you’ll love.
When you click through the links on our store page and make a purchase, you are helping to support WDWNT on our mission to bring you the very latest in Disney Parks news, commentary, and comedy. We are still a non-profit organization, so any and all profits are used to enhance the website and podcast in various ways.
WDW News Tonight logo apparel, AVAILABLE NOW!
In the coming weeks, we will be adding more merchandise and shopping opportunities to our new shopping page at https://tdrnt.com/store.
WDW News Tonight debuted just last week, but we’re already pushing the envelope with something you’ve never seen before…
Disney online dating seems to be something we are seeing a lot of right now, so in the spirit of all of the WDWNT game shows that have come before it, we are proud to announce WDWNT: The Dating Game!
In the game, an eligible bachelor or bachelorette will get to ask 5 total questions one at a time to each of 3 eligible dates. The eligible daters have a :45 second time limit to finish their answer. At the end of the questioning, the contestant must pick one of the three. They then agree to go on one date at a restaurant at Walt Disney World paid for by WDWNT. The date would then be recapped on a future episode of WDW News Tonight.
Here are the rules and disclaimers:
If you enjoy WDWNT (which we hope you do if you are reading this), from our daily blog posts to the WDW News Today Podcast and beyond, we hope you will take a few minutes out of your day to take our annual survey. This survey is your chance to create change and help shape the future of WDW News Today. If you are interested, please head to Survey.WDWNT.com and fill out the survey. The survey is of a decent length, but every response matters and is seriously reviewed and taken into consideration by WDWNT management.
Thank you for your time and your help!
