Finally, here is our very last Walt Disney world photo report (we promise) from last week. This report is from WDWNT Owner Tom Corless and is quite lengthy, so let’s get started:
Starting at the Magic Kingdom on April 27th…
WDWNT’s own Jose Castillo is back from the Walt Disney World Resort and has plenty of photos to share with us, so let’s take a look:
Jose arrived at Disney’s Hollywood Studios Wednesday evening to enjoy Fantasmic!
Park hours were expanded and a Fantasmic! was added at 10:00 PM
The WDWNT Network has once again reached out to our audience and made changes and additions based on their thoughts. After collecting responses from our 2009 annual survey, we have decided to add and enhance a few features of the WDW News Today website.
The first major addition is a new calendar function powered by Google Calendar. After testing some alternative calendars over the last few weeks, we have determined this to be the calendar to meet our needs and the needs of our viewers, providing a clean, easy to read layout that will allow us to post Walt Disney World Resort and WDWNT Network events regularly. The Google Calendar also provides some useful features that the other candidates did not, such as the ability to copy events to your own Google Calendar, print an agenda of the calendar’s upcoming events, and provide weekly and monthly viewings based on preference. Our new calendar can be reached by clicking the calendar button in our navigation bar on WDW News Today.
The second major addition is that of a text-based WDW News Today Newsletter, carrying our latest Walt Disney World news headlines straight to your email box. So many of you responded that you wanted news by email, that we could not deny the request. This is only the first version of the newsletter we will be presenting, as we are already actively looking to make some enhancements to the system in the not-so-distant future. To subscribe, just simply enter your email address into the subscribe box in the left sidebar of the WDW News Today website.
The final update will certainly make our many Twitter followers happy. While most of the WDWNT Team is at the Walt Disney World Resort next week, we will be frequently updating the WDWNT Twitter with text and pictures bringing you the latest happenings from around the parks (including coverage of the 20th Anniversary events at Disney’s Hollywood Studios May 1st). If you are not following WDWNT on Twitter yet, be sure to go to twitter.com/wdwnt and start following us today!
For our Disneyland News Today audience, don’t fret, the calendar and newsletter functions will be rolling out to the DLNT website sometime in the next week.
We hope you enjoy all of these new additions to WDW News Today!
Thank you for your continued support,
Tom Corless
Owner of the WDWNT Network
Our good friends over at WDWCelebrations have put out a press release that includes details on the official activities Disney will be doing to commemorate the 20th Anniversary of Disney’s Hollywood Studios on May 1, 2009:
WDWCelebrations Studio 20 Commemorative Event Final Schedule Released; Official Disney Events Include Special Sessions with Walt Disney Imagineering
Orlando, FL , April 19th, 2009 —WDWCelebrations is pleased to announce the release of the final schedule for our Studio 20 Commemorative Event, celebrating the 20th anniversary of Disney’s Hollywood Studios™. Two major additions to the event schedule feature official Disney activities marking the anniversary.
On Friday May 1, 2009, the date of the anniversary, the park will open at 8:00 am with a special rope drop ceremony welcoming guests into the park to kick off the celebration. In addition, two special sessions to commemorate the anniversary will take place in the Premiere Theater, one at 9:00 am and another at 10:45 am. These sessions will feature Imagineers from Walt Disney Imagineering who were fundamental in the development of the park and will share their insights on the creation of Disney’s Hollywood Studios™. Currently scheduled to appear are Bob Weis (Executive Vice President of Walt Disney Imagineering), Tom Fitzgerald (Executive Vice President, Senior Creative Executive; WDI), and Eric Jacobson (Senior Vice President, Creative Development; WDI). Each session will last approximately one hour. This exclusive information was communicated to the WDWCelebrations Core Team by the management of Disney’s Hollywood Studios™ in a recent meeting regarding the park’s 20th anniversary celebration. This information was approved for release by Disney.
Adam Roth, Co-Founder of WDWCelebrations, explains, “We are very excited about these new developments surrounding the celebration of the anniversary, and are very appreciative of the management of Disney’s Hollywood Studios™ for sharing it with us. As such, we decided to extend our registration period in order to accommodate any additional guests who wish to join WDWCelebrations at our Studio 20 event.” The registration deadline for Studio 20 has been extended to Saturday, April 25, 2009.
About WDWCelebrations, L. L. C.
WDWCelebrations, L. L. C. is a Florida-based organization created by Disney fans, dedicated to “celebrating the magic of the past, present, and future, together.” WDWCelebrations was founded by the organizers of Celebration 25, which commemorated the 25th anniversary of Epcot in 2007. WDWCelebrations Commemorative Events are designed to celebrate milestones in Disney park history. For more information about WDWCelebrations and its events can be found at http://www.wdwcelebrations.com.
In addition:
Anniversary merchandise will be available, and Starring Rolls will be selling special anniversary cupcakes. Many of the restaurants will feature menu items from opening day.
If you are planning at being at the Studios on May 1 or 2, 2009, be sure to register to be a part of history and WDWCelebrations’ Studio 20 commemorative event by visiting WDWCelebrations.com.
It seems that there will be some merchandise released on May 1, 2009, (not all on April 28th as we previously speculated) to celebrate the 20th anniversary of Disney’s Hollywood Studios. Among other options, 5 limited edition pins will be released to commemorate the special day:
Each pin will retail at $10.95 and will be a Limited Edition of 1500. This is a “gold-plated” version of the open edition pin we showed you a few weeks ago.
This pin has director Mickey Mouse in front of the Earful Tower
This rather simple pin features director Mickey in front of a star
This pin features Mickey sitting in the director chair on top of some film reels
The final pin features director Mickey in front of Rock ‘N’ Roller Coater and the Twilight Zone Tower of Terror
As most of you know, I love the parks and I love pins, so these will be absolute musts for me. Be sure to stay tuned to WDW News Today as we get more details on the 20th anniversary celebration of Disney’s Hollywood Studios.
The first picture of any merchandise that will be released to commemorate the 20th anniversary of Disney’s Hollywood Studios on May 1, 2009 has finally appeared. Of course, it’s an open edition pin that will be sold beginning April 28:
A very cool logo to say the least. The only thing I find a little strange is that the “20th anniversary” appears to be in the Tomorrowland logo font. No matter what, the logo looks great and I look forward to buying plenty of merchandise featuring it. Stay tuned to WDW News Today as we continue to gather information on the historic 20th anniversary of Disney’s Hollywood Studios on May 1, 2009.
