Category — p. News and Changes

THE LITTLE MERMAID: ARIEL’S UNDERSEA ADVENTURE

Business took me to Southern California in earlier November, so I had the chance to ride Ariel’s Undersea Adventure at the Disneyland Resort.

This ride is basically identical to what will be opening in late 2012 as Under the Sea: Journey of the Little Mermaid, part of the Magic Kingdom’s Fantasyland expansion.

I was curious if the ride was enough of a powerhouse to be a good reason for people to frame their trips around its opening, or for me to have to change my itineraries.

The short answer: nope.

ARIEL’S UNDERSEA ADVENTURE: COLORFUL, CHARMING, NOT A BIG DEAL

Without giving away the details, Ariel’s Undersea Adventure is a short re-showing of key scenes from The Little Mermaid.

Younger fans of the movie will love it. 

Everyone else will likely find it colorful and fun, but not particularly special. This is definitely not an “E” Ticket ride–it’s more like a “C” or a “D.”

It’s charming and loaded with Ariel, including some nice allusions to the effects of traditional Disney “dark rides” like Snow White’s Scary Adventures.

But in all honesty there’s not a lot to it, and it’s not worth framing your travel dates around its opening.

Sometime today, this site’s millionth visitor will stop by. 

Whoever you are, I hope the site helps you, is interesting, or both! And thanks for visiting!

I could not have imagined this number of visitors when this site launched with the thought that first time visitors to Walt Disney World could use a little more assistance than they were finding, and that maybe I could help them out.

Thanks to all of you who have visited, asked questions, posted comments, disagreed with me and thus made the site better, emailed your friends about it, liked it on Facebook, plussed it on Google, provided wonderful puffery, linked to it on message boards, cited it in newspapers, and posted about it on your own blogs and websites!

You energize and inspire me, and thanks for all your help…

Humbly, Dave.

One of Disney World’s room rate discount deals, covering periods through December 23, 2011, expires soon!

This deal must be booked by November 19th. For more, see this.

Other current Disney World deals have later expiration dates. See this for more.

This is the second page of this entry. For the first page, click here.

JIM HILL PREDICTS A FIFTH GATE BY 2021

As noted a week or so ago, Jim Hill speculated recently at the end of this article that Disney World will open a whole new fifth park sometime near its 50th anniversary in 2021.

Jim Hill is usually reliable on what people at Disney are actually talking about and working on.

That does not mean, however, that what he reports must come true.

Like any other creative business, Disney generates many more ideas than it can possibly act on (and discusses these ideas…and thus engenders rumors).

So a fifth park by 2021 is a real possibility, but not even close to a certainty. And as explained here, the earliest official confirmation would come, in my judgment, is mid-2015.

Given that, there’s three things worth addressing whenever the fifth gate question comes up:

• Is there space?
• Aren’t there better things to do with the capital?
• Won’t the new park have horrible economics from cannibalization?

IS THERE SPACE FOR A FIFTH PARK AT WALT DISNEY WORLD? [Read more →]

Disney released and discussed fourth quarter and fiscal year results last week. Overall, Disney shot out the lights, particularly in parks and resorts.

In domestic parks and resorts, small increases in attendance–and small declines in hotel occupancy–were more than made up for in higher realized prices.

The discussion of the these results in the associated earnings call reinforced what Disney has been saying for a while now–discounting will continue to be cut back, and there’s no out-of-the-ordinary domestic theme park capital spend currently planned for after 2012. [Read more →]

TRUNDLE BEING REPLACED WITH FOLD-DOWN BED AT DISNEY’S PORT ORLEANS RIVERSIDE RESORT

Frequent (and terrific!!) commenter Barberella emailed a link to a page on PortOrleans.org showing the renovation of the Alligator Bayou rooms at Port Orleans Riverside resort.

You can see these under-construction photos by scrolling down this page.

The images answer the question of “what happens to the trundle beds now that queens going in?”

The Alligator Bayou section of Port Orleans Riverside has been a godsend for larger families looking for affordable accommodations, as it is the only part of any moderate resort with standard rooms that can sleep 5.

It’s also the only standard moderate option for smaller families looking for three sleeping spaces to separate the kids.

In the un-renovated rooms, this was handled by a trundle bed that slid out from the side of one of the two full beds in the room, and fit between the door and that bed.

These rooms are very nicely sized (as are all moderate rooms) but not so big that it was easy to tell how a queen and a trundle would fit.

The answer?  As Barberella had noted in a comment last week, a fold-down bed is being incorporated into the furnishings of the long wall that also has the TV, dresser, table and such.

Check out the photos for how this will work, and thanks, Barberella!