MouseStation 186 – MousePlanetWatch news
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Run time 0:44:51
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Walt Disney World News
- An armored truck was robbed early Tuesday morning at the Grand Floridian Resort while making a delivery, though authorities say that it was an inside job. Three suspects have been arrested.
- The folks over at the Disney Endurance Series have come up with another new race, so next March you can race with royalty at the inaugural Disney’s Princess Half Marathon Weekend.
- Disney has released a whole bunch of information regarding the special events for this fall and holiday season. A brief summary is available in Monday’s Park Update, and there’ll be more information coming in our park guide and in later park updates.
- We’ve now got the full schedule of “Sounds Like Summer” concert series acts and a nearly complete lineup for the Eat to the Beat series.
- The list of construction permits filed with Orange County includes a new wheelchair queue at Big Thunder Mountain Railroad, sidewalk repair work at the Polynesian and Grand Floridian, installation of what seems to be carts related to the coming Kim Possible interactive adventure at Epcot, and plenty of other work across Walt Disney World.
- Quick Takes:
- Disney Vacation Club members will be included in this coming weekend’s Toy Story Mania annual passholder preview.
- This year’s Women Run the World 15K was won by Heather King of Orlando, while Sonja Friend-Uhl of West Palm Beach took the the Go Red for Women 5K.
- The Tampa Bay Buccaneers will be holding practices from July 25 through August 13 (link) at Disney’s Wide World of Sports Complex.
- We’ve heard that Figment’s Place has been discontinued as part of the work at the Imagination pavilion.
- The NFFC will be holding its third annual Florida Convention at the Regal Sun Resort in the Downtown Disney Resort Area from October 3 through October 5 this year.
- The Florida Senate has approved Florida Governor Charlie Crist’s nomination of Disney senior vice president for conservation and envorinmental sustainability Jerry Montgomery to the board of the South Florida Water Management District, which oversees environmental regulations in South and Central Florida, including Walt Disney World.
- Walt Disney World president Meg Crofton has been inducted into the Florida State University College of Business Hall of Fame.
This and other news can be found in this week’s Walt Disney World Park Update.
Disneyland News
- A man jumped to his death from the 14th floor of the Disneyland Hotel last Friday morning in what the Anaheim police department has initially determined to be a suicide.
- Around the same time Friday morning, but on the other side of the resort, a Disneyland tram struck a sign as it made the turn leaving the Mickey and Friends parking structure, causing minor damage to the back car of the tram.
- Dozens of videos of Hong Kong Disneyland’s “it’s a small world” attraction have been posted to YouTube since the ride began soft-opening previews last month, and MousePlanet readers are looking to these videos to get a preview of the changes reportedly being made to the Disneyland version.
- MousePlanet columnist David Koening first reported in his Blog on May 1 that Disneyland has finally decided on the location for the Tinker Bell meet and greet.
- The Disneyland Resort hotels have announced a new reservation deposit policy for stays on or after May 10, 2008.
- Prom season has officially begun, and traffic and crowds around the resort are greatly affected.
- This and That:
- We have a few more details about the first-ever Danskin Women’s Triathlon at the Disneyland Resort on Sunday, June 15 2008.
- DVCNews.com is reporting that some West Coast members of Disney’s Vacation Club have received a “save the date” postcard about a member’s reception and “Getaway Days Travel Expo” to be held May 24-26 at the Paradise Pier Hotel.
- A construction wall around the Sun Plaza fountain may be the first sign of the pending renovation of Disney’s California Adventure.
- Cast members tell us that the Disneyland Resort will stop offering engraved “guest of honor” name badges as soon as the current inventory of blank badges sells out.
- As reported in the Walt Disney Company news segment last week, the Wall Street Journal reported last week that the Disney Cruise Line will add a fuel surcharge of $8 per person, per day to cruise bookings made on or after May 28.
- This weekend may have marked the final performances of the Aladdin and Jasmine Storytale Adventure at Disneyland.
- A Prince Caspian pre-parade is now running 20 minutes before scheduled performances of the Parade of Dreams at Disneyland.
- The Los Angeles Times reported last week Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger’s staff is considering a slate of new tax proposals, including a new sales tax on “entertainment purchases,” including theme park tickets.
- Fall 2008 MouseAdventure will be held November 16 at the Disneyland Resort. Additional details about format, cost, theme park, times, registration, etc, etc, etc will be released MUCH later – look for additional info sometime in July. Discuss here.
This and other news can be found in this week’s Disneyland Park Update.
The Walt Disney Company News
- Disney released their earnings for the second quarter of fiscal 2008 on Tuesday. The company’s diluted earnings per share were 58 cents, versus 44 cents in the second quarter of fiscal 2007. For the first half of the year, diluted earnings per share were $1.21 versus 93 cents after adjusting for one-time income from the sale of businesses last year. Revenues and segment operating income were all up, with the exception of segment operating income at Consumer Products, which was down 14 percent due to the transition to self-published titles in the video game area and issues with minimum guranteee revenues in merchandise licensing. We included an few interesting clips of Disney CEO Bob Iger talking about various aspects of the company’s performance, including theme parks, buying back the Disney Stores and the upcoming release of WALL-E. You can access a replay of the entire 55-minute-long conference call here, or get a printed copy of the release here.
- Euro Disney S.C.A.reported an 18 pecent increase in revenues for the first half of its fiscal year.
- Hours after the Disney conference call, where CEO Bob Iger had expressed hopefulness that the talks with the Screen Actors Guild would conclude successfully, the talks came to a crashing halt.
- The WALL-E robot that Bob Iger mentioned during the second quarter earnings conference is one of the new programmable robot toys that Disney will be releasing through licensees this year.
- The Jonas Brothers will follow the Miley Cyrus playbook by taking footage shot during their “Burning Up” concert tour this summer and turning it into a 3-D movie for release next year.
- Filming is now underway on High School Musical 3: Senior Year.
- Disney movies continue to drift downward in this week’s box office report, though The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian opens next Friday.
Administrative stuff
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Thanks to our West Coast correspondent Andrew Rich, and audio engineer and sound editor Steven Ng.
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