Luxo Jr. Debuts at Hollywood Studios!

The newest automated animatronic that Disney has created debuted today at the studios and he is a familiar face. Luxo Jr., who many may recognize from the beginning of your favorite Disney-Pixar movies, debuted today with his 3 minute show. During the show, Luxo dances along to music and shows you which kind he likes and which kind he doesn't.

RUMOR: Magic Kingdom to undergo expansion?

Today Kris Theiler (VP of operations support for domestic parks and resorts) had the chance to speak to a couple of Disneyland Cast members about her experience with the company. She talked a little bit about the restructuring and how she now does double duty for both DLR and WDW. She mentioned her work on DCA including the expansion and then mentioned she was also working on the expansion in the Magic Kingdom. During a Q&A after her presentation a cm asked if she could elaborate on the Magic Kingdom project, wanting to know if it was for the park or the recent DVC expansion. Kris responded saying it is inside the park but she couldn't elaborate any further and said there would be an announcement about the project soon.

Also another small tidbit from Kris was that Disney is constantly looking at ways to improve and change Fastpass including even charging for fastpass (no surprise there.) She did mention that the "father" of fastpass believes that fastpass should always remain free as it is a service that they owe to the public however a pay system for a "magic pass" is currently being tested in HKDL.

The is currently being rumored around forums such as WDWMAGIC, disboards and mice chat saying that in 2010, the Magic Kingdom will recieve an expansion. The above quoted did originally come from one of those sites, but never actually posted a source/link so that is why it is being called a rumor. The expansion will possibly include a snow white roller coaster, a little mermaid attraction, a beauty and the beast dark ride to replace the snow white dark ride, a it's a small world refurbishment and a possible return of Mr. Toad. This would be big for the MK as there hasn't been any major additions to the park since 1994 and this rehab of all of fantasyland would be big in providing that by adding an E-ticket snow white ride and a little mermaid ride.

Before anyone gets TOO excited, please remember that these are just rumors and have not yet been announced by Disney, and likely won't until atleast after the Space Mountain refurb is done, probably early 2010 as the project is said to not be starting until late 2010 and ending late 2012. Hopefully this ends up happening though as it is much needed.

The image below shows a map of MK with the likely area to expand upon colored in. The only thing about the map is that it is likely not going to happen that land is built in the yellow area b/c it is around the area where the fireworks are shot off behind the castle so if anything was built there, it would have to be shut down during the fireworks. So it COULD happen, it is just not as likely.

Disney Online Reservation System

Earlier this week, Disney debuted the online ADR system, helping make reservations a little easier. Going in, I was hopeful, but as always when it comes to things on Disney.com, I was a bit skeptical. I got the chance to use it on Wednesday and Thursday a bit and was surprised how well it worked. I was searching for some reservations for an upcoming trip with my family and it worked very well. All you have to do is search for the restaurant you want to make a reservation for on the Disney.com website, click the link to that restaurant on the site, and then click make reservation on the left hand corner of your screen. Once on the page to make the reservation, you can choose the time slot you want to make it and search. It will either come up with times around your inputted time, or tell you that there is no available space for reservation at the restaurant. Sometimes, depending on the time and amount of people you put in, even if you switch it up just a bit, you will be able to find a reservation at the time you want.

So overall, I would say that the system is working very well and will be a big help when booking reservations. It will also benefit those who will call as the lines will not be as jammed. The only thing that really annoyed me was when finalizing the reservations, it came up with some error that gave me a huge scare! I thought i had just lost all my reservations! It came back though and said they were booked and even sent out an e-mail to me right away with the confirmation information. It seems to be working out to be a very convenient system.

P.S. I've noticed recently Disney seems to be on top of it as far as online things go. They set up the new disney store, D23 has a surprising amount of updates (and also has a twitter and facebook page) and now this. Finally maybe Disney is getting on the ball with their websites.

Welcome to the Blog!

Hey!

So, my name is Nick and am 16 years old I am a huge Disney fan and live in Tampa, FL. I get to go to WDW a lot so that is a big plus for me. Let me explain a little what this Blog and eventual website is about. The blog will mainly focus on keeping others informed about the happenings at WDW and keep you up-to-date on anything Disney. This is not only going to be a Blog/Eventual website. Starting late summer/Early Fall 2009, we will begin a weekly podcast, which is where the teen part comes in. The podcast will focus mainly on Teens and their unbiased opinions of WDW and everything in the Disney corporation. While most of our segments will be about teens and their opinons, We will also have a segment our two where parents of the teens will give their input in the podcast. The people behind the mic on the podcast will most likely be myself and a few of my friends who also are Disney people. Hopefully everyone will listen and make the site come true and make the podcast last!