“Finding Nemo - The Musical” is currently in soft opening at Animal Kingdom. It is showing daily at 10:00 am, 11:30 am, 12:45 pm, and 3:00 pm. Be sure to check it out if you are at AK!! However, please remember that the passholder preview is from December 1 - December 10, so if you’re not an annual passholder, you probably won’t be able to see it on those days.

If you’re like me, you’d LOVE to sleep in Cinderella Castle!! With the “Year of a Million Dreams”, that is just one dream of many that will come true for a lucky few at Walt Disney World. There is a new article in the Orlando Sentinel that provides all sorts of delicious details about the brand new Royal Suite in Cinderella Castle that is pretty interesting, check it out here.

According to this Yahoo! article, attendance at WDW is up this quarter. Here is a link to the complete article:

Walt Disney 4Q, full-year earnings climb

Here is another article from the Orlando Sentinel about WDW’s increased attendance:

WDW Attendance Up

I received my monthly Disney Hello newsletter today (a monthly newsletter all about the theme parks) and it provided a lot more details about The Laugh Floor Comedy Club:

SOMETHING MONSTROUSLY FUNNY IS COMING

Mike Wazowski’s opening a comedy club at Magic Kingdom® Park-and you could be part of it!

At the end of Disney·Pixar’s Monsters, Inc., the citizens of Monstropolis discovered the wondrous power of human laughter. And at the new movie-inspired Monsters, Inc. The Laugh Floor Comedy Club, your laughter has the potential to light up the city. At least, that’s the theory of your monstrous old pal, Mike Wazowski.

“Mike had the bright idea that, instead of going from closet to closet getting laughs, why don’t they gather humans into their world in one place to get a bunch of laughs all at once?” explained Steven Spiegel, Director, Show Writing at Walt Disney Imagineering.

Enter a fantastic and funny world
“When you enter from Tomorrowland®, you’ll be invited to walk through a doorway to the monster world,” he continues. “Inside the comedy club, there are ‘laugh canisters’ to contain the power as the audience laughs. And as part of the audience, there’s a chance that you could be trading quips with one of Mike’s friends-monsters who are getting their big break in show biz.”

Some of the monsters are more experienced at comedy than others, so part of the fun is seeing if different sets of performers “hits the big time” each time you visit. Disney Imagineers have teamed with Pixar artists to create wacky new characters especially for the new attraction, and these mirthful monsters will be doing a variety of humor, from improv and one-liners to prop comedy and physical gags.

The audience is part of the fun
The one thing they will all have in common is the fun they’ll share with Guests like you throughout the laugh fest. And everyone will fall under the watchful gaze and wisecracking wit of Roz, who is there to make sure the whole thing meets her expectations.

Opening late January 2007, Walt Disney World® Resort Monsters, Inc. The Laugh Floor Comedy Club takes the “living animated character” technology that has made attractions like Turtle Talk With Crush, inspired by Disney·Pixar’s Finding Nemo, such beloved Disney Theme Park “must-sees.” The new attraction takes this magic further than even the Disney Imagineers believed could be possible.

“I love doing these attractions and having guests come up to me and say ‘How did you do that?’, especially in this day and age when so much is possible with home entertainment systems and computers,” Steve said. “It’s just wonderful to see the reactions-especially from the little kids because, like us, they believe in the magic anyway.

“They figure they should be able to talk to the characters. We’re just helping prove their point.”

The WDW Official site is now reporting that the Monster’s Inc. Laugh Floor Company will be opening in January 2007.

“Help Mike Wazowski, your “Monster of Ceremonies,” and his wild and crazy pals power the city of Monstropolis — with laughter! Mike and his buddies have transformed the Laugh Floor at Monsters, Inc. into a comedy club for visiting humans. You won’t have the exact same experience twice as Mike invites his furry and funny friends to the digital stage to trade jokes with audience members like you. And don’t miss the wise-cracking Roz, who isn’t sure Mike is up to the task!”

The Laugh Floor will be taking the place of the Timekeeper in Tommorrowland at the Magic Kingdom.

From Disney’s Annual Passholder email:

“To celebrate the premiere of Finding Nemo—The Musical at Disney’s Animal Kingdom® Theme Park, we’ve set aside each day’s first seating between Dec. 1–10 for valued Passholders like you!”

Please note that advance sign-up is required; you can sign-up online at the WDW Passholder site:

https://secure.disney.go.com/wdw/passholder/passholdersGate?id=PassholdersGatePage

Guess what??? There are rumors that Disney engineers have been assigned to the Spaceship Earth wand in order to assess the best way of removing it in 2007. Ooooh, I hope this rumor is true! I much prefer the naked golfball to the wanded golfball

I recently experienced Everest for the very first time. I’m a huge roller coaster fan, so naturally, I was excited to find out how Everest would measure up. It’s definitely a unique coaster–the “backwards in pitch black at gazillion miles per hour” part of the ride is incredible! I have to say, I’ve never experienced anything quite like that before on a coaster. Also, the Yeti looks pretty darn neat, although your glimpse of him is rather quick. My only complaint is that the ride photos remain on the screens for an incredibly short period of time–if you snooze, you definitely lose–so, be sure to hop out of your Everest car as quick as possible so you are sure to catch your ride photo before it is lost.