Walt Disney World

The first phase of the multi-stage unveiling of the Fantasyland makeover has moved into "soft opening" mode in advance of an official unveiling later this month at the Magic Kingdom in Florida. Photos: Fantasyland expansion at the Magic Kingdom Three years in the making, the new Fantasyland at Orlando's Walt Disney World resort adds a Little Mermaid dark ride and a Seven Dwarfs roller coaster while updating the classic Dumbo ride and recreating the village from "Beauty and the Beast.

Walt Disney Co. is looking to bring some Marvel muscle to Disney theme parks. Disney Chief Executive Bob Iger told shareholders attending the annual meeting Tuesday in Kansas City, Mo., that the company has done preliminary design work that will one day lead to Marvel superheroes appearing in the theme parks along with Disney's other familiar characters. "We haven't announced anything yet," Iger said. "But we're working on some concepts. " When Disney acquired Marvel Entertainment Inc. for $4.3 billion in 2009, the Burbank entertainment company talked about incorporating the comic book giant's library of 5,000 characters throughout its various businesses.

Walt Disney Co. is looking to bring some Marvel muscle to Disney theme parks. Disney Chief Executive Bob Iger told shareholders attending the annual meeting Tuesday in Kansas City, Mo., that the company has done preliminary design work that will one day lead to Marvel superheroes appearing in the theme parks along with Disney's other familiar characters. "We haven't announced anything yet," Iger said. "But we're working on some concepts. " When Disney acquired Marvel Entertainment Inc. for $4.3 billion in 2009, the Burbank entertainment company talked about incorporating the comic book giant's library of 5,000 characters throughout its various businesses.

The first phase of the multi-stage unveiling of the Fantasyland makeover has moved into "soft opening" mode in advance of an official unveiling later this month at the Magic Kingdom in Florida. Photos: Fantasyland expansion at the Magic Kingdom Three years in the making, the new Fantasyland at Orlando's Walt Disney World resort adds a Little Mermaid dark ride and a Seven Dwarfs roller coaster while updating the classic Dumbo ride and recreating the village from "Beauty and the Beast.

After months of negotiations, Walt Disney World and leaders of its largest union group agreed to a tentative contract that could avert a strike at the theme park resort. Most leaders of the Service Trades Council, a six-union coalition that represents 40% of the company's 53,000-person workforce, will recommend that its members approve the three-year contract Nov. 11.

A delegation of Anaheim city administrators is expected to travel to Orlando, Fla., within two weeks for talks with Walt Disney Co. executives to determine how the Central Florida city has absorbed extensive business expansion in the area now dominated by the entertainment company. City Manager James Ruth said Monday that the meetings, which are also expected to involve government officials from Orlando and Orange County, Fla.

DisneyWorld will be 25 years old Tuesday, and the Lake Buena Vista, Fla., theme park and resort is celebrating. On Tuesday, it will open Disney's BoardWalk, a waterfront "village" that aims to create the flavor of the Mid-Atlantic coast circa 1930. It includes 910 rooms at BoardWalk Inn and BoardWalk Villas, a dance hall, pub and dining. On Wednesday, the world's largest Disney store opens, with 12 shopping areas. There's also a new roller coaster at Mickey's Toontown Fair.

The U.S. Army's "Shades of Green" may sound like a training film on camouflage application, but it's not. Rather, it is a 288-room hotel just outside Walt Disney World near Orlando, which opens Tuesday as an economical vacation spot for members of the armed forces. Once called the Disney Inn, the hotel was acquired from Disney via a 99-year lease as part of what Army spokesperson Maj. Linda Ritchie says is military downsizing.

We just got back from Walt Disney World. The kids had a great time. Now I need a vacation. Lesson No. 1: A visit to Disney World with children is not (I cannot stress this enough) a relaxing experience. Don't count on lazy afternoons around the hotel pool. There's too much the kids want to do . . . or it might rain, as it did when we were there. Lesson No. 2: Disney World with children is expensive. Expect to spend all you brought and then some. Don't forget your credit cards.

Since California Adventure made its debut six years ago, billed as Disneyland's hipper, edgier younger sibling, the entertainment colossus founded by Walt Disney has wandered far from the Orange County city where he launched his first park in 1955.

Robot Land, a $600-million theme park celebrating famous science fiction cyborgs and motion picture androids, is expected to open in South Korea in 2013. > Photos: Robot Land theme park rides and attractions Located about an hour west of Seoul in the coastal city of Incheon, Robot Land would feature 11 rides, seven attractions and eight shows on 190 acres. Dubbed the world's first robot theme park, the oft-delayed Robot Land would compete for visitors with the world's 10th busiest theme park ( Everland )

SeaWorld Orlando has announced a multi-year plan to add a 3-D movie, a swim-with-sea-life attraction and a new themed land in an effort to counter increasing competition in Florida's crowded theme park marketplace. The largest and most expensive expansion in the marine park's 38-year history comes on the heels of the successful debuts of Universal Orlando's Wizarding World of Harry Potter in 2010 and Legoland Florida in 2011. During that same period, Walt Disney World announced plans to open a Fantasyland makeover at the Magic Kingdom starting in 2012 and Avatar Land at Disney's Animal Kingdom starting in 2015.

The idea for a Little Mermaid dark ride has been in the so-called blue-sky stages of creative brainstorming at Walt Disney Imagineering since the movie premiered in 1989 -- from rough artist sketches to scale-model mock-ups to fully realized concepts. After 22 years in the making, Little Mermaid: Ariel's Undersea Adventure will officially open Friday at Disney California Adventure . "The attraction has been worked on quite a bit since the film came out," said Lisa Girolami, Imagineering's senior show producer for the new ride.

The cute, new $100-million Little Mermaid dark ride is just what Disney California Adventure needed: a D-Ticket attraction geared toward moms with young children. Photos : Concept art of the Little Mermaid dark ride While neither groundbreaking nor awe-inspiring, Little Mermaid: Ariel's Undersea Adventure is the type of audio-animatronic ride sorely lacking at the built-on-the-cheap Anaheim theme park, which is undergoing a $1.1 billion renovation.

After 14 years in the making, the long-rumored and oft-delayed remake of the Star Tours attraction at Disneyland is about to become a reality. Walt Disney Imagineering's Tom Fitzgerald has been there since the beginning, writing the attraction's original story line back in 1987 and shepherding Star Tours 2.0 since 1997. On June 3, the rebooted simulator ride makes its official debut at the Anaheim theme park. Photos : Concept art of Star Tours: The Adventure Continues at Disneyland Back in 1997, Fitzgerald was summoned to Skywalker Ranch in Marin County, Calif., by director and producer George Lucas during post-production for "Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace" to look at footage of what Lucas called the   "perfect sequence" for a long-envisioned update to the Star Tours simulator ride: a pod race on Tatooine.

Emerging from the African jungle, my knees wobbled as I carefully traversed the missing slats in the rickety footbridge. In the river chasm below, a dozen sunbathing crocodiles were awaiting my first misstep. This surreal safari scene seemed real enough to me -- even though I knew the make-believe jungle was deep inside a theme park carved out of Florida swampland. Disney's Animal Kingdom in Orlando, Fla., has been offering the three-hour Wild Africa Trek for about a month now, taking about a dozen visitors at a time on VIP guided tours through the theme park's Pangani Forest.

Stepping up the pressure on rival Walt Disney World, Universal Studios Florida on Wednesday announced a multibillion-dollar expansion in Orlando that includes its second amusement park there, five hotels, a golf course and a CityWalk-style retail complex. Universal Studios Florida--jointly owned by MCA Inc.

If your youngsters would like to rub shoulders with Hollywood types, they have a chance to meet 9-year-old Taran Noah Smith, who appears on the hit television series "Home Improvement." Taran will be at The Oaks mall in Thousand Oaks on Saturday from 1 to 3 p.m. Of course, he's not there just to schmooze but to autograph a new book about Walt Disney World at--where else?--the mall's Disney Store. The top-rated sitcom is produced--no coincidence here--by Disney Studios.

I was really annoyed by Christopher Reynolds' article on Disneyland ["Anaheim Made Easy," Nov. 14] until I read the article about Disney World by Mary McNamara ["An Overload in Orlando," Nov. 14]. If Reynolds is going to spend several hundred dollars on admission, it would behoove him to do a little research. If he had spent just 10 minutes on any of the blogs or Disney sites, he would have known about such things as Fastpass and meal reservations. And I don't understand paying the exorbitant prices for admission to Disneyland if he's only going to do about a third of the rides.

Walt Disney World Resort ticket prices Four parks: Magic Kingdom, Epcot, Hollywood Studios and Animal Kingdom One day, one park: ages 3 to 9, $74; 10 and older, $82 One-day Park Hopper: $128/$136 Two-day Park Hopper: $200/$216 Four-day Park Hopper: $263/$286 Seven-day Park Hopper: $278/$301 Park Hopper tickets allow visits to multiple parks per day. Other ticket options, hotel packages, meal plans and annual passes...