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Last Monday afternoon, I was at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library & Museum and overheard a pretty funny exchange between two of the docents who'd been assigned to work the " D23 presents Treasures of the Walt Disney Archives " exhibit. Photo by Alice Hill It seems that one of these...

PixiePal 225 recently wrote into say: I've been following the Fantasyland expansion project at WDW's Magic Kingdom for a couple of years now. And while I love the level of design and attention to detail that I've been seeing in the completed portions of Storybook Circus, as a Tinkerbell fan...

I have to admit that It's been kind of amusing to watch the reaction (both here and elsewhere around the Web) that Tuesday's "What's really behind the sudden change in Disney Parks & Resorts' facial hair policy" story has been getting. With all sorts of would-be Disney scholars...

You're going to read a lot today about how - by revising their long-standing policy on facial hair - Disney Parks and Resorts is now turning its back on nearly 60 years of tradition. Which isn't entirely true. I mean, if Walt Disney himself really insisted that no one with a beard or a mustache...

Wow. Has it really been 15+ years since Beth Dunlop wrote " Building a Dream: The Art of Disney Architecture " ? Obviously Disney's world has gotten a whole lot bigger since 1996. Which is why I think it's terrific that Disney Editions recently decided to revisit Dunlop's book....

"The Muppety Makeover of Disneyland that Almost Happened" Can you picture a Kermit -green version of the Matterhorn ? Or -- for that matter -- Miss Piggy standing in for that winkin' Cleopatra that you see as you float through " it's a small world " ? Or Animal filling in...

Here's a fun factoid for all of you Michael Jackson fans out there: Following the success of "Captain EO," Michael Jackson and the Imagineers actually spent about six months in the late 1980s developing a follow-up attraction. One that would have reimagined the King of Pop as a three-armed...

Picture this: It's the Fall of 1990. And after a highly successful summer (with attendance levels at the Happiest Place on Earth reaching record highs thanks to this theme park's 35 th anniversary celebration as well as the popularity of the Party Gras Parade ), Disneyland management is now facing...

As any good gardener will tell you, Fall is a great time to prune. Why For? Because once the leaves are off the tree, you can actually see what you're doing. More to the point, flowering plants that are pruned back in the autumn usually experience vigorous regrowth the following spring. Photo by...

Maddy Mouse wrote in to say: I have kind of a weird question for you to answer. I notice that Walt Disney World has lots of rides, shows and attractions that the Imagineers originally designed for Disneyland . But when it comes to rides, shows and attractions that the Imagineers originally designed for...

As part of this week's hit-and-run trip to Southern California, I made a special trip to the Disneyland Hotel yesterday. Just so I could then check out that replica of the Big Thunder Mountain Railroad which had recently been installed in the Frontier tower lobby. Photo by Jim Hill When you're...

The redo of Disney California Adventure Park is really coming together nicely. As you can see from these shots that Noe took yesterday, its Pan-Pacific-Auditorium-inspired entrance is getting closer & closer to completion. Photo by Noe Valladolid How close? A quick peek over that Disney-characters...

Though there's been no formal announcement yet, jungle drums quickly spread the news last night that Trader Sam's (i.e. the bar component of the Disneyland Hotel 's new Tangaroa Terrace complex ) was finally open for business. Photo by Shelly Valladolid Tiki fans stood in hour-long lines...

I got an e-mail asking me what I thought of that concept painting of the Shanghai Disneyland Resort which was shown at The Walt Disney Company's 2011 Investor's Conference yesterday. Concept art for the Shanghai Disneyland Resort. Copyright Disney Enterprises, Inc. All rights reserved To be honest...

Care to guess which creatures are the most popular at Disney's Animal Kingdom theme park? The answer may surprise you. It's not those real lions, elephants and giraffes that you can see while rolling across the faux-African savanna aboard Kilimanjaro Safaris. But - rather - those all-too-human...

As you walk through Walt Disney World's Magic Kingdom these days and encounter all of those construction fences for the Fantasyland expansion project it's kind of hard to imagine what this part of the theme park will look like in just a few years. But me? I can't help but look at the attractions...

My apologies if this week's Monday Mouse Watch is somewhat on the short side. But I just got back from Southern California. And since I'm flying down to Florida tomorrow morning to start covering the grand opening of the Wizarding World of Harry Potter, I really don't have time to write a full-blown...

By now, you’ve no doubt seen those online videos that made many a theme park fan go gaga. Where a few lucky Guests – as they were making a stop at Mickey’s House at Disneyland earlier this week – suddenly found themselves face-to-face with a NextGen walkaround character. A Mickey Mouse who not only addressed...

Orange County Mountie writes in to say: I have just been loving these stories that you have been doing about Disneyland ’s expansion plans from the 1970s and 1980s. All of those rides, shows and attractions that the Imagineers wanted to build back then but never got around to. In your last article, you...

This coming Saturday (provided – of course – that the Bay State isn’t still under water ), I’ll be down in Avon, MA. taking part in the 15 th annual Janet McDonald Memorial Walk Against Cancer . This fundraiser is something that my family does every year in order to honor the memory of my late cousin...