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Epcot Enthusiast wrote in this week to say: I saw a Tweet today that said that you and Len Testa were touring Future World and World Showcase recording stories for a new " Unofficial Guide Disney Dish with Jim Hill" podcast. Epcot is my very favorite WDW theme park. Could you please share some...

Okay. I know. It’s been a particularly brutal winter for most of the country this year. But if you can hang in there just a few more days, Spring officially arrives this Saturday! Mind you, Walt Disney World didn’t wait for the vernal equinox (which officially occurs on March 20 th at 1:32 p.m. EDT)...

By now, you’ve probably heard about the freakishly cold weather that the Sunshine State experienced back in January. Where temperatures actually dipped down into the 20s in the Central Florida area. Well, it wasn’t just the state’s fruit & vegetable crop that got whomped by these...

Did you hear about the play test that WDI ran at The Magic Kingdom last month? Where the Imagineers used Guests who were waiting in line for a character meet-n-greet right outside of Pooh’s Playful Spot to try out a new entertainment-based queuing system? Though the Imagineers are being pretty close...

First, let’s start with the news that everyone has been waiting to hear: Florida’s freak cold snap appears to be over. After this past weekend, where the temperatures got so low that a few spots in Central Florida had scattered snow flurries, we’ll be back in the 60’s later today and the mid-to-high...

I don’t know how many of you got to see Jason Garcia ’s great story about the Space Mountain redo at WDW ’s Magic Kingdom (It was featured on the Orlando Sentinel ’s new Daily Disney blog . Which is well worth adding to your Favorites list, by the way). Copyright Disney. All Rights Reserved Anywho …...

What with that $1.1 billion worth of construction that’s currently going on at Disney’s California Adventure (not to mention that $100+ milllion redo of the Disneyland Hotel that just got underway), the next three years are going to be a particularly tough time for the Disneyland Resort . Walt Disney...

Epcot has long been noted known for its mix of education and entertainment. Which is why Gary Vaynerchuk fits in perfectly at this theme park. This self-trained wine expert flew into Orlando late last week to help kick-off the 14 th annual Epcot International Food & Wine Festival . And in his own...

Once upon a time, if you wanted to get away from the crowds at the Magic Kingdom , you hopped on a bus and then headed over to the Lake Buena Vista Village. Where – if you could find a seat by the window – you could then kick back a cocktail or two at Cap’n Jacks Oyster Bar and watch...

This year, there are lots of places around the country where you can go to see Fourth of July fireworks. The bank of the Charles River in Boston, South Street Seaport in NYC as well as the National Mall in my hometown of Washington DC. But what if you’re one of those “too much ain’t enough” types and...

This past Sunday night, D23 – The Official Community for Disney Fans – had its first real event of size at The Walt Disney World Resort . With charter members invited to come on out to Epcot so they could enjoy an evening of music, munchies and munitions. So what was the verdict on the Flowers &...

Over the years, I have heard a lot of stories from Disney insiders that I’ve been lucky enough to interview. Like how Alice Davis once told me that she knew that Mary Blair must be dealing with some horrific personal problems. Given that – in the early 1970s – this Disney Legend’s acclaimed sense of...

Since Epcot ’s International Flower & Garden Festival is now headed into the home stretch (this celebration of Spring in Central Florida officially wraps up on May 31st with a Flower Power Concert starring Tony Orlando ), you’d think that at least some of the blooms that are currently on display...

Having already put together Imagineering Field Guides for the Magic Kingdom , Epcot and Animal Kingdom , Alex Wright has taken a break from writing about the Walt Disney World Resort (Reportedly because the folks at Disney Editions want WDW Guests to get used to calling the park-formerly-known-as-MGM...

If you want to know all about the Walt Disney Company's past , there are lots of great books already on the market. Just in the past year, we've had David Koenig 's " Realityland: True-Life Adventures at Walt Disney World ," Michael Barrier 's " The Animated Man: A Life of Walt Disney " and Neal Gabler...

Wayne C. sent in an interesting follow-up question to yesterday's article : "When exactly did Disney World executives realize that their resort was about to hit a rough patch? Based on some of the things they've done over the past six months (EX: Announcing back in July that they'd be closing Pleasure...

Bradley R. writes in to ask: Jim -- I was just down at Disney World and I have to admit that the Magic Kingdom's "Celebrate America! -- A Fourth of July Concert in the Sky" show was pretty spectacular. But as good as those fireworks were, they got me thinking. Has Disney World ever staged a bigger display...

As a kid I'd tune in the Wonderful World of Color every Sunday night. Most of the time Walt would introduce some western or historic feature - or some story like "Melvin, the Manic Marmoset" - and I'd switch over to watch Ed Sullivan . He had ventriloquists ! On a good week, there'd be an animated feature...

Now THAT'S Dedication... Shortly after Disneyland opened in 1955, someone found an unpaid bill in a desk drawer amounting to thousands of dollars. When Walt heard about it, he is supposed to have said, “Well, when you do big things, you make big mistakes.“ Here's another example of this phenomenon, from...

For Disney's Animal Kingdom fans ... It's one of those bad news / good news kind of day. The bad news is ... Plans for DAK's long-in-development nighttime parade -- "Rivers of Lights" -- have been tabled. Not because Animal Kingdom management lost confidence in Steve Davison's original concept. But ...