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Published
April 20, 2011
After a year in which Universal Orlando rode the popularity of Harry Potter to record heights, Walt Disney World is pinning its fortunes this summer on the one intellectual property with which the boy wizard is most often compared: Star Wars. Disney next month will reopen Star Tours, the Reagan-era simulator ride that is undergoing [...]
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April 20, 2011
The Walt Disney Co.’s biggest theme-park investments this year aren’t being made at Walt Disney World, though a top company executive says he still expects them to drive business to Orlando. Al Weiss, president of worldwide operations for Walt Disney Parks and Resorts, told local government and civic leaders last week that the company expects [...]
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April 19, 2011
An attempt by the vacation-rental industry to avoid many local government regulations has run into an influential opponent in the state Capitol: Walt Disney World. Disney, which considers offsite vacation rentals competition to its 25,000 hotel rooms and time-share units, recently joined local governments to oppose a bill that would have invalidated existing city and [...]
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Published
March 26, 2011
The future of Walt Disney World can be glimpsed in one of the resort’s oldest rides. By the end of the month, Disney plans to debut a redesigned queue for the Haunted Mansion, the classic dark ride that is one of the Magic Kingdom’s original attractions. After 40 years of slowly shuffling toward the attraction’s [...]
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March 25, 2011
With a single question and no debate, the Florida House of Representatives approved a bill Thursday afternoon sought by Walt Disney World to repeal a 27-year-old law requiring contracts between a business and independent sales agents who are paid by commission to be in writing. Disney and other supporters contend that the law – which [...]
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Published
March 23, 2011
Walt Disney World is preparing to build an addition to Disney’s Grand Floridian Resort & Spa, the most expensive of the giant resort’s 17 hotels. A permit application submitted to the South Florida Water Management District describes a six- to seven-story, T-shaped building that will be connected via a covered walkway to the existing Grand [...]
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February 18, 2011
Future visitors to Walt Disney World will be able to reserve ride times from their home computers and bypass hotel check-in desks once they arrive at the resort, the head of the Walt Disney Co.’s global theme-park division said during an investors conference Thursday. Those advances are among of a series of technological initiatives Disney [...]
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Published
February 11, 2011
A rebound in its theme parks during the final three months of 2010 helped propel the Walt Disney Co. to 54 percent quarterly profit growth, the company announced Tuesday. Disney said it made $ 1.3 billion for the three months that ended Jan. 1, the first quarter in the company’s fiscal year, up from $ [...]
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February 9, 2011
The St. Petersburg Times interviewed Walt Disney Parks and Resorts Chairman Tom Staggs aboard Disney’s new Disney Dream cruise ship last month and gleaned a couple of interesting tidbits from him. Most notably, Staggs seemed to suggest that Universal Orlando’s Wizarding World of Harry Potter, which has driven enormous attendance gains at Orlando’s No. 2 [...]
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February 4, 2011
Walt Disney World’s Splash Mountain reopens tomorrow after a month-long refurbishment with a new feature: Lap bars. The restraints have been installed in each of the18-year-old flume ride’s 64 log-shaped boats. They are designed to prevent riders from standing up or getting off before the end of the nine-and-a-half minute ride, which carries guests through [...]
