Mouse Extra

I have recently received the newest edition of Walt Disney World with Disabilities by Stephen Ashley. And again the authors have hit a home run. If you have any type of disability or issue at all, I recommend this book to you. I do not limit my recommendation to those Disney guests in wheelchairs (although for those folks this book is indispensible). If you have any type of issue ranging from food allergies to motion sickness to various phobias to visual problems to high blood pressure, you need this book before going to Walt Disney World. I am sure you do not need to be told that a trip to the Mouse can be daunting even for those without these types of conditions.

The strength of this book is in the parks. Each attraction is given an extremely detailed review with a focus on anything that might cause you a problem such a flashing lights, certain fragances, or motion. Even seemingly gentle attractions like the Seas with Nemo & Friends has a laundry of potential problems. In that particular case, the authors mention claustrophobia, fear of sharks or fish, fear of the dark and motion sickness as possible issues. Attractions such as Mission:Space and the Tower of Terror have a much longer list for obvious reasons.

Another major strong point is the authors attention to dining. Each eatery is covered in extensive detail. Food allergies are covered as is manuverabiltiy for guests in wheelchairs. This detail is not limited to table service establishments but covers the whole gamut of food choices offered at the parks.

The one weakness with the book is the attention to the resorts. I would like to see more information given to specific resorts. Currently, the hotels are covered generally based on the resort type, i.e., Value resorts, moderate resorts so on and so forth. I feel the book should address each resort, such as the Caribbean Beach, with its particular issues. However, there is a decent amount of material as is. Plus, the authors have a terrific website where they are starting to compile this information for the reader. The website also gives updates on attractions that have opened since the printing of the book, such as Toy Story Mania.

The book also gives a great overview of the parks for guests with disabilities. Transportation such as the monorail system is covered in this section as is tips for handling crowds. Other general topics such as oxygen use and service animals are discussed, as well. The information on Guest Assistance Cards, a most for those with certain conditions, is very helpful. But then again the whole book is very helpful.

For today’s posting we head back to Lou Mongello’s Rumor Mill, which he publishes entirely too infrequently for us, and take a look at what may be the end of what is the internet’s most popular current buzz…

Big news: I have heard from a number of reliable sources that Night Kingdom has, in fact, been put on hold and shelved, at least temporarily, and there are no plans to continue with the add-on nighttime experience at this time. But like everything in Imagineering, no good idea is ever dead, so who knows if it may come back in the future. But for now, it seems that the discussions and debates over Night Kingdom can come to an end.

While I can not confirm this as absolutely true, I can tell you that the Night Kingdom chatter has certainly slowed, in fact it has all but stopped.  Mr. Mongello makes a lot of sense here.  The economy is failing.  There is little doubt about that.  And Disney has already taken many preemptive steps to stem the effects on its theme parks.  It is hard to imagine at this point the Disney brass giving the green light to a massive and expensive project.

Many people never actually believed that Night Kingdom was in serious discussions at Imagineering.  The concept of an ultra-expensive boutique park like that of Sea World Discovery Cove has always been something Disney has admired, and they may go to that idea again soon.  For all we know, these plans may not have been cancelled and may actually never have been intended to be funded anytime soon to begin with.

More information has come out regarding the resort being built for Hawaii in the form of a recent press event. Here is a story from DVCNews.com with a picture of the model. Its a bit bigger than I thought I will say. The project is adding about 830 hotel and vacation time-share rooms, a “fantasy-laden water play area” and a huge spa to the Ko Olina resort area on West Oahu. It appears there will be about 350 hotel rooms and nearly 500 vacation villas. The Ko Olina area already house luxury condos and a Marriot complex.

The time share villas will, of course, be a part of the DVC family of resorts much like the stand alone resorts at Hilton Head and Vero Beach. And the joint is expected to be done by 2011. For those of us who are DVC members, this is an exciting project. I, for one, have never been to Hawaii and would love to go. Now, I can use my points.

Today’s posting is from Mike, contributing writer to Mouse Extra

The much anticipated T-Rex Restaurant has opened at Downtown Disney.  The droos opened yesterday and our friends at WDW New Today already have some great coverage of the place.  Take a look at their video and photos.

It does appear interesting to me and I am looking forward to trying it out when I get to Walt Disney World in January.  But I will be completely honest here.  It does not seem to distinguish itself all that much from the Rainforest Café.  The T-Rex audio-animatronics are impressive, but certainly not all that technologically advanced.  But I will reserve judgment until I can experience it myself.

This is not some esoteric article about how Mickey has changed. Instead, I just wanted to inform the readers that the My Pal Mickey interactive doll is going the way of the Length of Stay passes and Horizons. According to wdwinfo.com, the doll will no longer be made. Once the current supplies are gone, so will My Pal Mickey. For those of you who have the item, fear not, it will continue to work as before. For those of you who don’t have one, well, there always ebay I suppose.

I have an early model and frankly, don’t like it much. As I said in a review quite some time ago, I feel the doll was a waste of sixty five dollars. I just found the thing annoying with the same dumb jokes over and over again and little useful information. The concept was original and presumably later versions were better, but now the doll is gone. I don’t suppose there will be a My Pal Buzz or My Pal Ariel anytime soon?

Last week, Al Lutz from MiceAge.com had a column that included one very interesting rumor that has not received as much attention as I would have expected.  It has to do with the possibility of Jay Rasulo, chairman of Walt Disney Parks and Resorts, expanding his empire by buying up certain other theme parks…

…But what Rasulo has been good at is the strategic planning and future growth of the theme parks and resorts. Rasulo may have no desire to go on the rides, but he does have a knack for putting together a plan to get people to his properties. His latest rumored project involves exploratory interest in the Anheuser-Busch parks, specifically the two SeaWorld parks in Orlando and San Diego. And believe it or not, the San Diego park is the one that is of most interest.

Why isn’t Orlando’s SeaWorld the main focus? Because the big Disney cruise ships on order and headed to the West Coast in a few years can dock in San Diego, and all those Disney Cruise Line passengers could burn up an additional day of their itinerary visiting Disney’s SeaWorld…

Let me first say that I waited on this story a bit because I was hoping to find some sort of confirmation that this idea is being discussed.  I did not find any, but I decided in the end to go with it based solely on this specific reporter.  For all of Al Lutz’s faults with some readers, he tends to be a bit negative for some fans, he is usually right on when it comes to these rumors.  So it is worth discussing the idea of Disney taking over SeaWorld, which is not completely out of the realm possibility now that Anheuser-Busch has recently changed hands.

I do think Mr. Lutz has a somewhat California-centric view on this, however.  Yes, the park in San Diego, after being given the full Disneyfication, would be a terrific stop for cruise line passengers and that relationship between the two entities would be mutually beneficial.  I know I, for one, would love to take a Disney Cruise that begins and ends at Disneyland and also brings you to another completely different Disney park.  Throw in a west coast version of Castaway Cay and you have a Disney fan’s dream trip.

But the Orlando SeaWorld is also of much interest to Disney, if not more.  Mouse officials have done a very poor job at hiding their complete and utter jealousy of SeaWorld’s Discovery Cove and have in fact been trying to figure out how to create one of these types of parks themselves.  Would buying Discovery Cove be less expensive?  The Florida parks are much closer and symbiosis between them much more easily achieved then at California.  But can Disney bridge the gap between these two parks with enough buses to and from the SeaWorld front gate to satisfy Disney guests and get them out of the “bubble” of Walt Disney World? 

There is little doubt that being under the Walt Disney World umbrella would immediately inject a flood of new guests through SeaWorld turnstiles, but that is not the question that needs to be answered here.  Is SeaWorld’s financial potential on both coasts great enough to justify such a large investment?  With the economy the way it is, would Disney really make such a large purchase?  I think the answer to both of these questions is a “definite maybe”.