Timeshares are vacation properties purchased by a group of owners who split the cost of the property and its annual fees and who are eligible to visit the property every year during the block of time that they have purchased. Timeshares are not without controversy, and many people believe that the overpriced properties touted by high pressure salespeople are a waste of money – they are more expensive and less flexible than hotels, are hard to get rid of, and depreciate in value faster than cars.
But for the people who love vacationing in the same place every year and who are comfortable with long term joint-ownership of a property, timeshares shouldn’t be discounted. As always, Disney has an answer for everything, and their answer to timeshares is the Disney Vacation Club.
One of the villas at the Old Key West Resort, photograph by Samantha McElhaney
The Disney Vacation Club is a vacation timeshare division owned by The Walt Disney Company which operates an annual Vacation Points system that members can use towards yearly vacations at the Disney Vacation Club Resorts or one of more than 500 other member destinations worldwide. There are eleven Vacation Club resorts located in Anaheim, California; Lake Buena Vista and Vero Beach, Florida; Hilton Head Island, South Carolina; and the brand-new Aulani Disney Vacation Club Villas in Ko Olina, Hawaii.
Read More: http://www.disney-blog.com/?p=914
The debut of Pixar’s Cars 2, sequel to the 2006 animated hit, Cars, is a little more than a month away, and State Farm is currently sponsoring an exciting sweepstakes inspired by the film. Enter the sweepstakes between now and July 17th, 2011 for your chance to win one of 18,000 prizes from the “18,000 State Farm agents on a mission for you,” including the grand prize, a 2011 Cadillac SRX.
Screenshot of the Cars 2 Sweepstakes sponsored by State Farm
When you sign up for the sweepstakes, you automatically receive 50 points towards Disney Movie Rewards. The full list of sweepstakes prizes is below:
Read More: http://www.disney-blog.com/?p=899
Walt Disney Theatrical Productions has done well on Broadway with two of the longest running musicals of all time, The Lion King (ranked #7 with 5638 shows and counting), and Beauty and the Beast (ranked #8 with 5461 total performances), and with their newest family-friendly hit, Mary Poppins, still climbing the ranks.
Mary Poppins on Broadway, image from disney.go.com
Mary Poppins made its Broadway debut on November 16th, 2006 and has played more than 1900 shows at The New Amsterdam Theater which previously housed Disney’s The Lion King before the show moved to the Minskoff Theatre. Mary Poppins features all of the characters and many beloved songs from the hit film starring Julie Andrews and Dick Van Dyke, including “Chim Chim Cher-ee”, “A Spoonful of Sugar”, “Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious” and “Step in Time”.
Read More: http://www.disney-blog.com/?p=891
On Friday, May 20th after eight months of renovations, Hollywood Studios reopened Star Tours, the Star Wars-inspired motion simulator ride, just in time for the first of many Star Wars Weekends which attract thousands of fans to the Disney parks on Fridays, Saturdays, and Sundays every May and June.
Star Tours: The Adventures Continue and its sister ride in Disneyland which reopens in June have been revamped with a new flight path, new characters, state-of-the-art 3-D effects, and even a new line queue. Each ride experience will be a little different as the simulator flies through one of 54 different scene combinations, including a pod race on Tatooine and a visit to Padmé Amidala’s home planet, Naboo.
Sign for Star Tours: The Adventures Continue, photograph by Samantha McElhaney
Read More: http://www.disney-blog.com/?p=871
On June 3rd, 2011, more than 20 years after The Little Mermaid splashed into theaters, Disney’s California Adventures theme park will finally launch an attraction starring everyone’s favorite mermaid, Ariel.
Ariel’s Undersea Adventure is a five-and-a-half minute ride-through attraction that takes guest on a journey through scenes from the beloved movie, with a soundtrack that includes some of the film’s most popular songs – “Part of Your World,” “Under the Sea,” “Kiss the Girl,” and “Poor Unfortunate Souls.”
Concept art for Ariel's Undersea Adventure at Disney's California Adventures park, copyright Disney
Disney Fans Insider recently published an article with fascinating behind-the-scenes details about the new attraction. The article highlights the technical advances in digital 3D design programs that allowed the Disney Imagineers to fully realize the 183 characters featured in the ride, from animating Ariel’s hair and designing “skin suits” to creating the sea witch Ursula, one of the most advanced Audio-Animatronic figures ever built.
Read More: http://www.disney-blog.com/?p=862
