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INTERCOT > Interactive > INTERCOT Insider Archive > December 2004

Intercot.com INTERCOT Insider
 December 2004 - Edition One

Brought to you by INTERCOT's network of sites:
INTERCOT - Walt Disney World Inside & Out
INTERCOT West - Disneyland Inside & Out
INTERCOT's WebDisney - Guide to Disney on the Internet
INTERCOT's MousehutMail - Free Web Based Email
INTERCOT's Thrillride Experience - Thrill Ride Parks & Attractions

This newsletter and other past issues can also be read online at; http://www.intercot.com/interactive/insider/archive

<< Introduction >>

Happy Holidays from the INTERCOT family to you and yours! This holiday edition of the Insider has something for everyone. Exciting new things are happening at Walt Disney World and Casey tells us all about it. Carol will inform us about the numerous new additions to Info Central on INTERCOT, and Ray tells us how to find all the info you may have missed in past Insider editions. Heard about the Family Magic Tour at Disney's Magic Kingdom? Carol will tell us her experience on the tour in this edition’s “Member Memoir”. A lot of great information awaits. Sit back and enjoy!

<< Disney World Events with DisneyWizard >>

December is a great month for Walt Disney World, and the news and events prove it. Besides the Holiday festivities, this December and January will bring a whirlwind of new things to look forward to.

- Extra Magic Hours change –
Beginning January 2nd, Disney will offer different Extra Magic Hours. Each day a different park will be open early in the morning, and/or up to three hours later for resort guests. All part of the “Magic Your Way” plan, this system was tested out this past May to varying success.

“…keeping [Magic Kingdom] open an extra 3 hours is obviously a big win for everyone.” –TracyL

“If I had to choose between a mix of mornings and evenings, or just mornings, I'd prefer mornings. I like to beat the crowds.” –Marisa luvs Mickey

“Magic Your Way should be re-named ‘Lots of options, but really no better than what we had last year...just a new name.’” –DisneyRN

“Now I will want to specifically avoid each park with an evening [Extra Magic Hour] altogether, as attendance is guaranteed to be considerably higher that day.” –Spaceship Tigger

Extra Magic Hour Schedule

- New Year’s Events in the World –
This New Year’s Eve will feature a variety of events for everyone from families to party-animals. Epcot and Magic Kingdom will be offering earlier fireworks (in addition to the countdown fireworks) for those that want to make it an early night, presenting Illuminations and Wishes at 7:30pm and 8:30pm respectively. For those who want to be a little more rowdy Downtown Disney will feature performances by Cheap Trick, Tone Loc, Kurtis Blow, and Kim Waters. The main attraction with this event is of course the champagne and dessert.

New Year’s Eve Details

- Castle Getting Temporary Enhancement –
Throughout the upcoming celebration, “The Happiest Celebration on Earth,” the Cinderella Castle in the Magic Kingdom will undergo cosmetic changes. Beginning in May of 2005 golden figures of Disney characters and imagery will be placed all along the Castle include Peter Pan and friends flying atop the spire. In the center of it all will be a portion of stained glass displaying each Disney castle from around the world.

“I hope I get the chance to see it in person!” –mickeymousemom
“Judging by the job they did on the DL castle for the 50th I'm not worried about this being another cake disaster.” –mjstaceyuofm
“I think it looks so elegant and beautiful.” –buzznwoodysmom

Photos and More Information

- Figment has a Meet and Greet –
Epcot has unveiled Figment’s Place - a Meet and Greet area with none other than Figment. Guests can now take photos (unfortunately word has it that he cannot sign autographs) with their favorite purple dragon at the Imagination Pavilion inside of Epcot.

“…it's great to see Figment as a character outside of the attraction…” –TiggerRPh
“I wish I could’ve met him.” –sagitarius
“Adding a Figment meet and greet is cool. I think he deserves one.” –SpecJoe Magic

Click For photos


<< Carol's Communicore >>


Happy December, Everyone.

What's New?

- Magic Your Way Debuts In 2005 -
Beginning January 2, 2005, the Walt Disney World Resort will offer tickets to the various theme parks, attractions and other entertainment offerings that are tailored to the length of a guest's vacation and  - and allow them to save more per day based on their length of stay. New packages are also being introduced at the same time highlighting affordability and flexibility. Guests can now select from a more convenient array of package options to design a vacation that best fits their specific needs and budgets.

Discussion
Ticket Details
Package Information
Dining Plan Participating Restaurants

Speaking of budgets, a new page pertaining to Historic Walt Disney World Discounts is now available in Info Central. The page tracks discounts previously offered to give guests an idea of what may happen with discounts in the future.

Historic Walt Disney World Discounts

- Disney PhotoPass Debuts -
Instead of having to wait in line at a Photo Center for your vacation photos, guests may now view, share and order their photos online at DisneyPhotoPass.com.  Guests will still be able to view and purchase their vacation photos at Disney Photo Centers located throughout property. However, if they want to wait until they arrive home they'll have that option.

More Details

Park Hours and Events are currently posted through February. Visit Info Central to fine-tune your vacation plans.

Park Hours & Events

Happy Planning! See you all next year!

<< Bytes & Pieces with TiggerRPh >>

The INTERCOT Insider is our twice-monthly newsletter detailing the latest happenings at the Walt Disney World Resort and here at INTERCOT. What do we do with all those old newsletters? Well, like any good source for information, we archive them for you.

Whether you’re a new reader of the newsletter and want to catch up on information or an INTERCOT veteran trying to look something up, we’ve saved it for you. In our Insider archives you may find a restaurant or resort review that might help you plan for an upcoming trip to Walt Disney World. Or maybe you’ll find some trivia information from WDWDriver.

I’ve peaked your interest now, right? Now, I bet you’re asking, “Ray…where do I find these old issues? I don’t see a link to them.” Ah, but we do. In the upper right hand corner of the site, next to “INTERCOT Shop” and “Info Central” tabs, is a tab labeled “Interactive.” Click this tab. The fifth link down on this page is “INTERCOT Insider Archives.” You’ve reached your destination. Now that wasn’t so hard was it? Actually though, we’re not quite there. Click on this link and now you’re there. Listed here are all the INTERCOT Insiders that we have done.

You need to remember that this archive is a work in progress. Right now, we have archived all the issues of the Insider back to May of this year. Our wonderful Insider staff is busy working on archiving the remaining issues of 2004 and coming soon issues from 2003.

Insider Archives

<< Family Magic Tour - Members Memoirs >>

Carol took her son on the Family Magic Tour offered at Magic Kingdom on a recent vacation and had a blast. Below is a segment from her  “Halloween Hoopla” trip reports;

” I was told to check-in for the tour 30 minutes early. When we met up with our group we received a bottle of water and a sticker to wear. (Everyone had a different symbol drawn on their Peter Pan stickers with their names. We were the “tick-tocks”. There were a total of 16 of us in attendance.)

Let me preface this by saying experiences for this tour will vary greatly. A lot depends on your guide and group. We so happened to have an excellent guide, Cory, and a fantastic group of children and adults eager to participate.

We gathered around Cory to find out what our mission was. He was quite sad actually. He had just found out from Mickey Mouse that Captain Hook’s favorite hook was stolen. If Cory did not have it back by noon Captain Hook was going to turn the Magic Kingdom over to the pirates. Arg! (Now this was very comical since Shayne was sporting 2 Stitch tattoos. Cory was not sure Shayne could be trusted – since pirates have tattoos. )

Nevertheless, we were allowed to stay despite the tattoos. We introduced ourselves and had to tell everyone who our favorite Disney character was. (More on that later.) We were given Mickey dust to toss up into the air for good luck. At this time Cory presented the scroll of clues. There were 9 in total. We’d have to solve each of the clues to receive the next – with the end result the hook.

I don’t want to give away the clues. However, I will tell you we ended up pretty much in all of the lands. At one point we had to cross the bridge to Tomorrowland acting like “our favorite characters”. This was SO funny. I imagine if there are party-poopers in the touring party it would definitely deflate the fun. Not our group. We acted out great!

We also had to sneak through Cosmic Ray’s crawling on our hands and knees. You should have seen the patrons looking at us. When we arrived at the exit Cory felt no one noticed us. LOL! Also at the exit the flood gates opened. It was POURING! Cory dismissed us for our break. We all grabbed drinks and hoped the rain would stop before our 15 minutes were up. It did lighten to a drizzle. Thankfully.

Our next journey involved making wishes with pennies in the fountain, walking backwards, doing pirouettes, hopping, skipping, jumping, taking giant steps … etc. It was so much fun!

Those last 15 giant steps took us to Liberty Square. We were searching for Tink’s “prison”. Once found - the last clue took us to a glade. Upon approaching - out jumps Peter Pan and Wendy. (I have to tell you – they were unbelievable. So much so I wrote Disney a letter. Both were so into their character!) At this point Peter fesses up to stealing the hook. He ducked behind some trees and brought it out. Lots of cheers erupted. We had saved the Magic Kingdom from the pirates! Arg!

At this time we took family photos, received autographed declarations and were invited to go see Mickey’s PhilharMagic with Peter and Wendy. Shayne was asked to hold onto the hook for safe keeping. Cory would make sure it got back to the Captain thereafter. Peter was very naughty along the way. He jumped in puddles and rang the Liberty bell – to name a few. When we arrived at the attraction we were escorted into a private waiting area. The children played duck-duck-goose with Peter and Wendy. They played for about 15 minutes. We were taken into the theater. Peter was not thrilled about having to go all the way down to the end of an aisle. He pouted. (They let us bend the rules and had a special spot just for the tour folk.)

Peter sat next to Shayne and had us laughing through the entire viewing. He stood up and yelled when his segment of the show came on screen. He even asked Shayne if he thought Ariel was a true redhead.

After the show Peter and Wendy shook our hands and thanked us. I cannot tell you how much fun we had. Shayne is still talking about it. Peter Pan jumped right to the top of his “favorites”. The tour was only $25 each. We got a discount for being Vacation Club members and paid $20. It was worth that and a whole lot more. Shayne was the perfect age. He was young enough to not worry about being silly – and old enough to know where the clues lead.

Great – great fun!!!”

Tour Information

<< Off Topic with ChipDale >>

Lucky Jane is enjoying some well deserved time at Disneyland. She’ll be back later in the month to update us on the November Water Cooler happenings.

<< Conclusion >>

Hope you have enjoyed this issue of the Insider, and as always, we welcome any suggestions, comments or vacation memoirs to be sent to [email protected]. With 2004 coming to an end, here’s wishing you all a joyous and safe holiday season! We hope you continue to join us at INTERCOT to plan those 2005 Walt Disney World vacations! Happy New Year!

<< INTERCOT Would Like To Thank>>

The INTERCOT Insider and INTERCOT.com are supported by the following sponsors who in turn, help us bring the Magic to you!

Magical Journeys
Magical Journeys is your Disney Vacation specialist. Start planning your Vacation Discount Dreams today!
Website: http://www.yourmagicaljourneys.com/

Radisson Resort Parkway
Right in the heart of action! Only 1.5 miles from Walt Disney World is an oasis of ponds, beautiful landscaping, serene waterfalls and relaxing options hiding in every corner.
Website: http://orlando.guestselectresorts.com?pid=INTERCOTN

All Star Vacation Homes
When you need a home away from home, look no further. From comfort to luxury, All Star Vacation Homes has it all in four series of homes to fit any taste and any budget just moments from the magic of Walt Disney World!
Website: http://www.allstarvacationhomes.com?ovchn=OTHER&ovcpn=Listing+Sites&ovcrn=intercot&ovtac=AD

Happy Limo
Providing ground transportation to the entire state of Florida.
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The Official Ticket Center
Walt Disney World’s, Universal Studios and Sea World’s #1 guest service provider for the last 3 years. The Official Ticket Center has been servicing vacationers for more than 7 years now and sells tickets only, at a discount price.
Website:
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Comments or questions may be sent to [email protected]

 

 
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