On Google Video, there is a video of Disneyland 1956. It is interesting to see the park back in the day.

Hat Tip Boing Boing

Vagablond has a fun post for those of us who have more brains than hair.

Two of Walt Disney World’s most upscale resorts –– The Swan and The Dolphin –– are now offering 25% discounts on one night’s stay to anyone who can prove they recently bought a toupee, hair transplant or hair-restoring drug.

Read the rest at a great travel site, Vagablond.

Disney World’s Animal Kingdom is set to open it’s first large scale attraction in 2 1/2 years with the introduction of the roller coaster ride Expedition Everest in early April. The ride is to give the impression of visiting the Himalayas. The ride billed as a family ride does have a 44” height restriction so the little tykes will not be able to ride it.

But it sure sounds like fun and it is nice to see Disney add a fancy ride like this to its Animal Kingdom park. The team that built Expedition Everest has used thousands of props to lend authenticity including the entryway that introduces the riders to a traditional Nepal village.

 Inside lives the biggest, most fierce creature Walt Disney ever built — and a mile-long runaway train ride through the Himalayas that brings visitors face-to-face with a mythological legend. In Nepalese lore, the mysterious yeti is thought to protect the pristine east Asian mountains and forests.

At Walt Disney World’s new Expedition Everest attraction, it’s a howling animatronic beast with more potential thrust power than a 747 airplane — and the center of the theme park giant’s first big-ticket attraction here in 2 ½ years.

Everest, set to open April 7 in Disney’s Animal Kingdom, features a train navigating an 80-foot drop, rumbling over bridges and through valleys backward and forward to escape the monster, which has twisted and broken the tracks.

With no upside-down turns, Everest isn’t as white-knuckling as some new coasters. But it could help Disney draw visitors to the Animal Kingdom, which has long lagged in popularity behind sister parks Epcot, the Magic Kingdom and Disney-MGM Studios. via the Miami Herald

Disneyland now has available a new podcast filled with special hints and behind the scenes information for the park. Podcasting is a audio recording that can be downloaded to your computer and played back on the computer or portable mp3 player such as an IPod. 

 The Walt Disney Company yesterday announced that they’d made available the first 2006 episode of the “Official Disneyland Resort Podcast” series available for download from either the Apple Itunes Directory or an official Disneyland site.

The monthly Disneyland podcast, said Disney, focuses this time around on the opening of the all-new attraction “Monsters, Inc. Mike & Sulley to the Rescue!” at Disney’s California Adventure Park and then goes backstage for a peek at the workings of the Matterhorn Bobsleds ride. Both segments include interviews with those who are involved with the attractions. The podcast is hosted by Michael Geoghegan. via Designtechnica

When on a cruise, the biggest fear is having to dine with people who are less than thrilling. The cruise industry is recognizing this  difference and now is offering  more choices for dining, and working to provide personal and intimate options for the dining public. Carnival, Celebrity, Cunard, and Disney have all started offering more options for their passengers, but Norwegian Cruise Line was the originator of the trend.

The trend today is toward flexibility of dining times, variety of cuisine and premium dining in intimate restaurant settings.
The shipboard dining experience now prizes quality over quantity and frequency.
Norwegian Cruise Line is credited with pioneering the trend in 2000 with its launch of Freestyle Cruising. With a sweeping stroke, it did away with the large dining room, the two dinner seatings, the assigned table companions and the nightly dress code.
As others have rushed to mimic Norwegian’s model, dining space has been carved up into restaurant-type venues. Smaller galleys have been built here and there, particularly on the newer ships.

Visit  The Columbus Dispatch for more details on other cruise lines and their dining options.

Following a hotel industry trend, smoking will be banned at all Disneyland Resorts as of March 1st, 2006. Presently, 95 percent of the rooms are smoke free at Disneyland.

Smart move by the company and organization.

Disneyland has announced plans to make all 2,224 rooms at its Anaheim, Calif., resort smoke-free as of March 1.
Disney Vice President Rob Doughty said the company has been receiving “steadily declining requests” for smokers’ rooms at the resort’s three hotels, USA Today reported Wednesday. In fact, he said only 35 smoking rooms are have been reserved through 2010. via The Post Chronicle.