One-Day Disney Park Passport from 1983

After the Year of a Million Dreams promotion was stretched into years, Disney tried the What Will You Celebrate promotion. Disney has now retooled the What Will You Celebrate promotion into Give a Day, Get a Disney Day.

The idea of this promotion in Disney’s own words is “to inspire one million people to volunteer a day of service to a participating organization in their communities.” This country has some of the most generous people in the world, and they usually can be counted on to give quite a bit when a disaster happens almost anywhere in the world. According to Associated Press, Americans have donated more than $5 million through their cell phones to help the victims of the recent Haiti earthquake. So it should not be hard to get a few people to give a little right? Well, there is always the small print. You can’t just donate your time to any old cause; they must be approved by Disney and arranged through Disney’s website. It is their promotion after all.

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The Disneyland Story: Featuring Great Moments with Mr. Lincoln

Greg Nutt

With the announcement by Disney today that Captain EO, the 1986 collaboration between George Lucas, Francis Ford Coppola and Michael Jackson, will make a return to Disneyland for a limited run, many have over looked the return of a true Walt Disney classic attraction, Great Moments with Mr. Lincoln.

Originally created for the 1964/65 New York World’s Fair by Walt Disney and his creative team of Imagineers for the State of Illinois, Great Moments with Mr. Lincoln found a home at Disneyland’s Opera House on Main Street U.S.A. in the summer of 1965.

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Mystic Manor Concept Model

D23 was pretty good and the most amazing part for me was the Walt Disney Parks & Resorts Exhibit.

Not only did they pull out all the stops for the presentations, they had front line Imagineers manning the exhibits. Many of them the actual artists or project mangers for the exhibits they were assigned too. In the photograph to your right Imagineer Dustin explains the story and show effects for Hong Kong Disneyland’s upcoming “E” Ticket – Mystic Manor. If there was an “F” Ticket, this one attraction might lead the way to a whole new level in Disney story telling and presentation.

Disney Hawaii DVC Concept Model

I’ve wanted to become a DVC member for some time. So far it has not been in the cards for me and Disney Vacation Club has not offered much that I found exciting beyond the Walt Disney World Resort. Well this resort has changed my mind and it’s fantastic.

I was lucky enough to see the concept art at the Architects office that design the resort for Disney almost a year ago and I was impressed then. To see the model and talk to the Imagineers about this new resort was great. We talked “shop” as we were both long time architectural project managers, and the funny thing was, we both know some of the same people in the industry. It’s a small world after all. Sorry I could not resist!

Wall*E @ D23

Wall*E and Lucky the Dinosaur both made appearances at D23 in the Walt Disney Parks & Resorts Exhibit. Lucky was popular in his own right, but Wall*E stole the show at this part of the exhibit. Long lines of guest waited to get their photos taken with Wall*E and Disney’s Photo Pass Castmembers were on hand to help you out (and make a buck or too! LOL).

Wall*E was what you would expect from a robot left on a planet to fend for himself, noisy when he rolls around, beat up, and as cute as can be. He will be a great addition to the parks and I hope to see him there soon.

For more photos of concept art, seminars and Disney Celebs from D23, please visit my flickr D23 set at http://www.flickr.com/photos/imagineeringmyway/sets/72157622336183372/

Radiator Springs Large Scale Model @ D23

Hi guys, Stephen here from Sydney, Australia.

 

Here is my review of Cruzin DCA on Segways. It is a early start for this tour and you need to meet a cast member at 7:30 am at guest relations. They told us to stand near the letter “C” and they would find us. You are then taken to a room at the back of guest relations to watch a video about the segways and how to ride. They also offer a light breakfast of coffee, tea and pastries.

 

Once the tour begins, youare taken by the cast member to in front of Monsters Inc where you get to have a go at driving the segways. These segways are so much fun to ride and easy to learn. Then you head off to tour the park and stop at many points where the cast member tells you about things in that area that you would not normally know. The tour allows you to see the park from a very different perspective including the large drop at Grizzly River with no water in it and it even allows you to go through redwood creek challenge on the segways. The tour takes in the whole park and some of the back stage areas.

 

At the end of the tour you get you picture taken near the Hyperion theater.You are given a nice souvenir photo and Pin. I think this tour is realy cool and would definitley recommendit to others.

 

This tour takes about 3 hours and costs $99 and is worth every cent. I have attached a photo of my wife and I enjoying the segway tour.

 

Stephen