Category Archives: Walt Disney

Heading to Walt Disney World in Orlando? Read this first!

Epcot Sounds Like Summer Concert Series Brings The Classic Hits 2012

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Eat to the Beat at Epcot's Summer Concert Series

Eat to the Beat at Epcot's Summer Concert Series

The Official Ticket Center Orlando, FL. – The good ole days return to Epcot as select summer nights heat up from June to July with the some of the world’s greatest tribute bands. Classic hits from the likes of U2, The Bee Gees, Bon Jovi and many more will rock during Sounds Like Summer concert series. The high-energy performances take place at the open-air American Gardens Theater in World Showcase.

The schedule (entertainment subject to change without notice):

  • June 10-17: Hotel California ~ A Salute to the Eagles
  • June 18 to 23: Mike DelGuidice & Big Shot ~ The Ultimate Billy Joel Show
  • June 24 to 30: Stayin’ Alive ~ A Tribute to the Bee Gees
  • July 1 to 7: Slippery When Wet ~ The Ultimate Bon Jovi Tribute
  • July 8 to 14: The Police Experience ~ A Tribute to the Police
  • July 15 to 21: SouthBound and Company ~ A Tribute to Lynyrd Skynyrd
  • July 22 to 28: 2U ~ A Tribute to U2

Show times are 5:45, 7 and 8:15 p.m. – except on July 4 when show times are 5:15, 6:30, 7:45 and 9 p.m. Sounds Like Summer concerts are included with Epcot admission. Additional informatio on purchasing your discount Epcot tickets click here http://www.officialticketcenter.com/epcot-tickets.aspx . For the latest information and updated show times, guests may pick up an Entertainment Guide when entering the park.

Magic Kingdom Fact Sheet

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Having Fun at the Magic Kingdom

Having Fun at the Magic Kingdom

Following the success of Disneyland, which opened in 1955, entertainment pioneer Walt Disney (1901-66) set his sights on what he called his company’s “most exciting and challenging assignment” — the creation of a vast vacation paradise known today as Walt Disney World Resort.

Walt’s dream was realized when Magic Kingdom, the first of four theme parks at the sprawling Florida site, opened Oct. 1, 1971. Walt’s older brother and lifelong business partner, Roy O. Disney, inaugurated the park with a heartfelt dedication that remains today on a bronze plaque in Main Street, U.S.A.:

WALT DISNEY WORLD is a tribute to the philosophy and life of Walter Elias Disney

… and to the talents, the dedication, and the loyalty of the entire Disney organization that made Walt Disney’s dream come true. May Walt Disney World bring Joy and Inspiration and New Knowledge to all who come to this happy place … a Magic Kingdom where the young at heart of all ages can laugh and play and learn — together.

The Park

Magic Kingdom sits on 142 acres with the towering Cinderella Castle at its center. Similar to Disneyland in California, the park is divided into seven themed lands — Main Street, U.S.A.; Adventureland; Frontierland; Liberty Square; Fantasyland; Mickey’s Toontown Fair; and Tomorrowland.

Popular attractions include Pirates of the Caribbean, The Haunted Mansion, Space Mountain, Splash Mountain, Stitch’s Great Escape!, Monster’s Inc. Laugh Floor, “Mickey’s PhilharMagic,” Big Thunder Mountain Railroad, it’s a small world, Jungle Cruise, Hall of Presidents, Mad Tea Party, Buzz Lightyear’s Space Ranger Spin, The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh, Country Bear Jamboree, Tom Sawyer Island, Peter Pan’s Flight and Dumbo the Flying Elephant.

Cinderella Castle, the park’s icon, stands 189 feet tall and includes 18 towers. Inside its main hall, five glittering mosaics created under the direction of Dorothea Redmond and Hanns-Joachim Scharff tell the story of Cinderella in 500 brilliant hues of glass.

Entertainment

In addition to dozens of Disney characters found at locations throughout the park, Magic Kingdom presents a rich variety of entertainment each day, from colorful parades to visiting marching bands. Major productions include:

“Dream Along with Mickey” — Mickey Mouse and friends show Donald Duck that dreams really do come true in this musical stage show.

“Celebrate a Dream Come True” — Mickey Mouse leads a daily parade celebrating the history of Disney animation.

“SpectroMagic” — Presented on select nights, this energetic parade of Disney characters features floats dotted with millions of twinkling lights.

“Wishes” — Jiminy Cricket narrates the biggest, boldest fireworks show ever presented at Magic Kingdom, a heart-tugging “story in the sky” about making a wish come true, presented most nights.

Food and Beverage

Popcorn to prime rib is available in a variety of unique settings that include everything from elegant table-service restaurants to outdoor refreshment carts. Major eateries include:

  • Tony’s Town Square (Main Street, U.S.A.) — salads, pastas, Italian entrees
  • Pecos Bill Tall Tale Inn and Cafe (Frontierland) — burgers, hot dogs, sandwiches, salads
  • Columbia Harbour House (Liberty Square) — clam chowder, fish, chicken, sandwiches
  • Pinocchio Village Haus (Fantasyland) — pizza, Italian sandwiches, salads, soups
  • Cosmic Ray’s Starlight Cafe (Tomorrowland) — burgers, chicken, soups, sandwiches

Guests can dine with Disney characters at Cinderella’s Royal Table (Fantasyland – breakfast and lunch); The Crystal Palace (Main Street, U.S.A. – buffet breakfast, lunch and dinner); Liberty Tree Tavern (Liberty Square – dinner). For dining reservations, call 407/WDW-DINE.

Special Events

  • Grad Nite – Seniors celebrate the end of high school each spring during multiple nights of high-energy fun, which include concerts by popular performers.
  • Mickey’s Not-So-Scary Halloween Party – Mickey and the gang invite guests to this all-ages celebration of fun frights held on multiple nights each October.
  • Mickey’s Very Merry Christmas Party – Each holiday season, Mickey and his friends celebrate the season on several special nights with exclusive entertainment and a holiday-themed parade starring Santa Claus

Topiary Fun Facts and Landscape Trivia Thrive At 19th Epcot International Flower & Garden Festival

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Main Enterance Topiary a Few Years Back

Main Enterance Topiary a Few Years Back

19th Epcot International Flower & Garden Festival
The largest number of front-entrance topiaries ever, 1,000 brilliantly hued butterflies, 240 floating mini-gardens and 30 million blooms paint a landscape masterpiece at the 19th annual Epcot International Flower & Garden Festival March 7-May 20 at Walt Disney World Resort.

Among this year’s fun festival facts:

• 30 million blooms blanket the park throughout the festival, which runs 75 colorful days.
• The festival’s front-entrance Fantasia topiary scene comprises 28 topiaries – more than have been used in any front-entrance display. The 28 include Sorcerer Mickey, three ostriches, two hippos, two alligators, two elephants, nine stars, a spiral and eight mushrooms.
•22,615 plant plugs of 15 plant varieties make up the Fantasia front-entrance topiary. They include reindeer moss for Sorcerer Mickey’s face and red begonias for his hat; creeping fig for Mickey, hippos and gators; Sweet Ayssum, and three shades of Lobelia simulate water spilling over a large topiary rock made up of Black Scallop Ajuga upon which the Sorcerer stands.
•4,000 Blushing Bride air plants from Guatemala color the two hippos’ tutus and 300 Cotton Candy air plants from Peru feather the wings and tails of the three ostrich topiaries. Smaller air plants are used as ostrich slippers.
•1,250 feet of quarter-inch irrigation tubing is woven into the Fantasia front-entrance topiaries.
•Dozens of additional Disney character topiaries represent the largest collection of Disney character topiary in the world and include classic film stars like Mickey Mouse, Minnie Mouse, Woody, Buzz Lightyear, Donald Duck, Goofy, Pluto, Cinderella and Tinker Bell.
•At least 25 different plants, grasses and mosses of various colors, including pink and red begonias, dusty miller, palm fiber, palm seeds, ficus and lichen, are used to create and define features of additional festival topiaries. More color has been added to the topiaries than in any previous topiary presentation.
•1,000 native butterflies represent up to 10 species at the expansive Bambi’s Butterfly House. Among the garden’s two dozen nectar plants are Cape Royal plumbago, passion flower, coral honeysuckle, blazing star, butterfly bush, scarlet milkweed and canna lily.
•More than 500,000 plants, trees and shrubs are planted for the festival; 250,000 of those are annual blossoms installed for the festival.
•Festival plants include 60 different species of trees, 47 types of palms, and 48 varieties of bedding plants.
•150 hands-on gardening demonstrations and seminars will be presented.
•Thirty “flower towers” of impatiens line Innoventions Plaza.
•240 floating mini-gardens, each three feet in diameter, of multi-hued impatiens provide splashes of color on two ponds that border the walkway between Future World and World Showcase.
•700 container gardens of flowers, herbs, plants and vegetables in clay pots, barrels and urns enhance the landscape throughout Epcot.
•400 Walt Disney World horticulturists are needed to install the festival landscape, topiaries and many exhibits; 100 Epcot horticulturists maintain topiaries and other festival displays.
•It takes more than one full year and about 24,000 cast member hours to prepare for the annual festival.
•The festival’s weekend Flower Power concert series includes 11 artists and groups known for more than 100 Top 40 hits. This year’s musical hit-makers from the 1960s and ’70s include Jose Feliciano, Starship starring Mickey Thomas, The Guess Who, The Spinners, Chubby Checker & The Wildcats, Paul Revere & The Raiders, The Turtles featuring Flo & Eddie, Chuck Negron formerly of Three Dog Night (NEW!), The Orchestra starring former members of ELO (NEW!), Herman’s Hermits Starring Peter Noone and Davy Jones.

Petty Holdings Adds Exotic Driving Experience

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Richard Petty Experience

Richard Petty Experience

The Exotics Course at Walt Disney World® Speedway will be new home to “supercars”
(November 9, 2011) Combine some of the world’s finest automobiles with a track specifically designed for drivers to safely experience their awe-inspiring acceleration, speed and handling and you have “Exotic Driving Experience”, the latest offering from Petty Holdings.

Best known as owner and operator of Richard Petty Driving Experience, the worldwide leader in the stock car ride and drive business, Petty Holdings has applied its expertise in delivering safe, accessible, exciting automotive entertainment to develop an experience allowing anyone with a driver’s license the opportunity to get behind the wheel of a “supercar” – a rarified class of automobile.

Exotic Driving Experience will feature supercars by Ferrari, Lamborghini, Audi, and Porsche. Future plans include the addition of other exotic models, as well.

It will officially begin on January 16, 2012.

“This exotics business is the most significant new offering from our company since the creation of Richard Petty Driving Experience in 1994″ said Brian Flynn, Petty Holdings Chief Executive Officer. “This was a strategic decision intended to expand our customer base by diversifying our experiential offerings.”

Plans call for Exotic Driving Experience to operate approximately 150 days annually on The Exotics Course at Walt Disney World Speedway, a new track configuration (see below) at the motorsports complex located on the grounds of the world-famous theme park.

Be Petty Disney

Be Petty Disney

Driving Experiences will start at $189 for six laps around the circuit. Thrill Rides with a professional driver at the wheel will be available for $99.

The Exotics Course at Walt Disney World Speedway®
Built in 1994, the one-mile oval at Walt Disney World Speedway® has been home to Indy Racing League (IRL), NASCAR Truck series and United States Auto Club (USAC) sanctioned races. Since 2000, it has been operated year-round exclusively by Richard Petty Driving Experience, which has seen more than 250,000 people drive or ride in one of its NASCAR race cars.

Petty Holdings recently completed an interior road course-style section at the track, specifically for Exotic Driving Experience, which features a series of quick, challenging right and left-hand turns, known as “switch backs.” Complete with barriers and rumble strips, this section replaces the frontstretch of the oval when the supercars are on track and, together with the backstretch, comprises another one-mile layout which has been named The Exotics Course at Walt Disney World Speedway®.

“We needed a circuit that would allow customers to really get a sense of what these incredible cars are capable of” said Rick Fedrizzi, President and Chief Operating Officer, who designed the new interior section. “Drivers can rapidly accelerate to high speeds on the backstretch of the oval and, when they come into the interior section, feel the incredible braking and handling characteristics of whichever exotic they’ve selected.”

“It is an absolute blast to drive this course in any one of these cars,” Fedrizzi said.

About Petty Holdings:

Petty Holdings, LLC owns Richard Petty Driving Experience, the worldwide leader in NASCAR-style stock car drive and ride entertainment, which operated at 25 race tracks in the United States and Canada in 2011. It markets other Petty and Richard Petty branded and licensed ventures including Petty Safe Driving and Richard Petty’s Fantasy Racing Camp. It also provides motorsports support services to the commercial and film industries, mobile marketing event services and designs and executes ride and drive events for automobile manufacturers

Headquartered in Concord, NC, Petty Holdings is a portfolio company of BV Investment Partners, a leading middle-market private equity firm, investing in the information and business services, communications, and media sectors.

New Years Eve Parties In Orlando 2011 ~ What Will The Orlando Theme Parks Have In Store This Year?

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New Years Eve Parties In Orlando 2011

New Years Eve Parties In Orlando 2011

 

As many of the locals know, Orlando is a busy town during New Years Eve. As with any town, the New Years Eve Parties are the most popular place to be when ushering in the 2011 New Year, but in Orlando, it is big business. When New Years Eve hits Orlando, the Orlando theme parks jockey to have the best, most exciting events and the locals and travelers from around the world are the winners of this healthy competition. Continue reading →

Walt Disney World ~ Disney’s Animal Kingdom Brings Thrills of Faraway Adventure

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Bookings Begin Oct. 15 for Experience Launching in Early 2011

Wild Africa Trek ~ Bookings Begin Oct. 15 for Experience Launching in Early 2011

 

A ravine of menacing-looking crocs, pools of hippos, bushwalks along untracked terrain and other thrills await guests on Wild Africa Trek, a unique wildlife experience scheduled to launch in early 2011 into the deepest, most-remote reaches of Walt Disney World Animal Kingdom.

Reservations can be booked beginning Oct. 15, 2010, for the three-hour, expert-led adventure that will immerse guests in the realms and wildlife thrills of far-off Africa – without leaving the Walt Disney World Resort. In small groups, guests on the Wild Africa Trek will enjoy an “up-close-and-personal” experience with African wildlife species that make their home in Pangani Forest as well as other areas of the park’s Harambe Wildlife Reserve.

As part of the adventure, guests will clip onto a lifeline as they step to the very edge of a cliff to get amazingly close to the hippos and crocs waiting just below. Talk about cliff-hangers!

Adventure-minded guests will have the experience of a lifetime as they get immersed in an authentic African safari experience that only Walt Disney World can deliver,” said Michael Colglazier, vice president of Disney’s Animal Kingdom. “We are thrilled to be offering this unique outdoor adventure aimed at active vacationers, taking interactions with the incredible animals that inhabit the Harambe Reserve to the next level and literally blazing new trails in our park.”

Highlights of what’s in store for guests on this add-on adventure:

Walt Disney World ~ Navigating a rickety footbridge over a river chasm can be dicey enough for explorers. In an all-new Walt Disney adventure, what lurks below that bridge may quicken their step to get to the other side: Crocodiles! Continue reading →

Coming to Orlando? Beware of Ticket Fraud!

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When Fighting Fraudulent Ticket Sales In Orlando, It’s the Commitment to Tourists that Really Counts; The Official Ticket Center Has Responded to the Problems.
It’s well-known that discount Walt Disney World tickets can be difficult to find at the best of times. Fraudulent ticket sales from off-site theme park vendors have been a problem. Most visitors to Walt Disney World in Orlando can only hope that the availability of cheap Disney tickets exists, when they want them, and at the right price.
The company has a newly revamped blog and also has a daily promotion that brings significant free incentives for ticket sales over $500., including two free Universal City Walk passes or two kids “eat free” cards.
Whenever and wherever they do come to Orlando, The Official Ticket Center will be here to competitively service the traveling public with outstanding, discounted ticket prices to all major Orlando and Central Florida attractions.  One innovative and well-known Orlando entrepreneur, Patrick Pulliam of The Official Ticket Center, has made a success out of ethically offering an abundant supply of in-demand Orlando attraction tickets, including the popular Disney World, at major discounts. Patrick Pulliam, Owner of The Official Ticket Center, has carved out a highly unique niche and strong discount reputation in one of the world’s most popular tourist destinations.
“We have been very successful in forging a consumer friendly service,” Pulliam says. “We always felt that Orlando-bound tourists need not pay top dollar for prime attractions like Walt Disney World, Universal Orlando resort, SeaWorld , Kennedy Space Center and other popular Central Florida attractions. Especially in today’s economy, when high prices have kept families away.”
Pulliam and his staff work hard to provide Orlando tourists with a wide variety of information regarding visits to Orlando as well.
“We help to distribute an interesting weekly report about the best deals in Orlando,” Pulliam says, “and The Weekly Scoop is a very popular summary that our current and previous customers always look forward to.”
A recent “Weekly Scoop” included hot advice on Disney Water Parks, and a listing of special events in Orlando of interest to area visitors.
“Disney attractions have been especially competitive in the slow economy,” Pulliam observes.
He does not expect area theme parks to immediately begin pulling back on the discounts that have helped to maintain attendance during the recession.
“The essential issue is really how fast tourists continue to book aggressively,” Pulliam says. “Whenever and wherever they do come to Orlando, The Official Ticket Center will be here to competitively service the traveling public with outstanding, discounted ticket prices to all major Orlando and Central Florida attractions.”
Pulliam additionally pointed out that current Orlando area promotions have reached a lot of first-time families. He indicated he is committed to moving forward with a focus on servicing first-time and repeat visitors with optimum service and extremely competitive ticket pricing.
For more information and Disney vacation plan, please visit Pulliam’s website:
http://www.officialticketcenter.com
Or Call
1-877-406-4836
Twitter Connect
http://twitter.com/oticketc

When Fighting Fraudulent Ticket Sales In Orlando, It’s the Commitment to Tourists that Really Counts; The Official Ticket Center Has Responded to the Problems.

It’s well-known that discount Walt Disney World tickets can be difficult to find at the best of times. Fraudulent ticket sales from off-site theme park vendors have been a problem. Most visitors to Walt Disney World in Orlando can only hope that the availability of cheap Disney tickets exists, when they want them, and at the right price. Continue reading →

Mickey’s Not-So-Scary Halloween Party 2009

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Toon Town Halloween

Mickey’s Not-So-Scary Halloween Party is a Halloween-themed special event held select dates in September, October and November in Magic Kingdom theme park that requires a separate ticket to attend.

The event will be held from 7pm–12am on the following dates in 2009:
September 4, 11, 15, 18, 22, 25, 29
October 1, 2, 6, 8, 9, 12, 13, 15, 18, 20, 22, 23, 25, 27, 29, 31
November 1

The Official Ticket Center is offering discounted ticket prices for the September event dates. To purchase tickets, or for more information, click here or call us toll-free at 1-877-406-4836. Continue reading →

Epcot Changes Line Up for Candlelight Processional 2009

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2009 Epcot Candlelight Processional

2009 Epcot Candlelight Processional

Changes in Epcot’s Candlelight Processional lineup include Angela Bassett, Courtney Vance

Actors Angela Bassett and Courtney Vance have joined the lineup of narrators for Candlelight Processional, the part of Epcot’s holiday offerings. The couple, who have been married since 1997, will read during the performances of Dec. 28-30, according to www.disneyworld.com. Bassett is lending her voice to the upcoming Walt Disney Pictures animated project, The Princess and the Frog, currently set to be released Dec. 25, 2009. Continue reading →