Live from the Pirates premiere red carpet

The MouseStation and MousePlanetWatch Podcasts

MouseStation 20 - Live from the Red Carpet of the Pirates of the Caribbean Premiere and MousePlanetWatch 20 news feed for May 24, 2007

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MousePlanetWatch 20 run time 0:38:13

In the Walt Disney World news, sponsored by Small World Vacations, MousePlanet's preferred travel provider, most of the news came from this past Monday's Walt Disney World Park Update, and links to the various information reported can be found there. Here are some quick links:

• Disney announced the start of the new Disney Travel On Demand on Time Warner Cable and Cablevision.
• The Service Trades Council Union voted down Disney's proposal on a three-year contract.
• The list of special merchandise for this year's Star Wars Weekends is now available, along with images of airport signage advertising the event.

In the Disneyland news, all of the news came from this past Monday's Disneyland Park Update. Here are some direct links to information from some of the stories:

• The obituary for Fulton Burley is in a thread on MousePad.
• Alex Stroup's Pirates of the Caribbean premiere write-up is in the Disneyland Park Update, as is Karen Hathaway's Nemo Dream Mobile story.
• Cindy Stephens "Taste" event review is on MousePad. Discussion of Mickey's Halloween Treat tickets is on MousePad as well.
• You can find discussion of the Ollie Johnston estate sale here.
• More information about the Star Wars Celebration IV "Disney Parks and Star Wars Toy Exclusives panel" is at "http://www.rebelscum.com/story/front/C4_Collecting_Panels_Medallions_105797.asp" target="_blank">rebelscum.com.

In The Walt Disney Company news, several stories have related links.

• Disney is releasing The Secret of the Magic Gourd in China this summer. The Lion King has begun preview performances in South Africa, and the show will open on June 6.
• The Broadway production of Mary Poppins received seven Tony Award nominations, including Best Musical.
• Disney has signed a deal with Sprint to carry ABC, Disney Channel and ABC News Now on its Sprint TV service.
• The Disney Family Learning Center has been introduced at Family.com.
• After you pick up your pirate chart at your local Volvo dealer, you can go to the special Hunt site to start your search for pirate treasure. The official Volvo's treasure hunt blog and message board is here.
• You can "Piratize" yourself at the special MySpace site promoting Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End.
• The Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End video game for the Nintendo DS platform is the first standard video game designed to interact with the theme parks. The game (without the theme park interactivity) is also available on six other platforms: Sony Playstation 2, Playstation 3 and Playstation Portable (PSP), Nintendo Wii, and Microsoft Xbox 360 and Windows XP.

MouseStation 20 run time 1:14:45

Our Tip of the Week this week came in a voicemail from Morris Jones of Los Angeles, recommending that (if you're staying at the Grand Californian Hotel) you visit Grizzly River Run in the morning, then go back to your room to dry off before returning to the park to enjoy the rest of your day.

Featured topic: Interviews live from the Red Carpet World Premiere of Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End

Steven Ng interviewed many of the fans waiting for the celebrities, including MouseStation listeners Marcie Reeter, her enthusiastic daughter Bailey, Natalie, Andrea and Renee Leahy and Alyssa Marmalejo and their living magical moment Brody.

Celebrities interviewed included:

• Wilmer Valderrama, voice of Disney's Handy Manny
• Chris Ferguson, World Series of Poker champ
• Christy Carlson Romano, voice of Kim Possible
• Richard Cook, Chairman of The Walt Disney Studios
• Ed Catmull, President of the Pixar Animation Studios and Walt Disney Animation Studios
• Don Hahn, Head of Walt Disney Feature Animation
• Jay Rasulo, Chairman of Walt Disney Parks & Resorts
• Roy E. Disney, Disney Legend and Walt's nephew
• Greg Ellis, Officer Groves in the movie
• Reggie Lee, Tai Huang in the movie
• Lee Arenberg, Pintel in the movie
• David A Williams, Make-A-Wish Foundation CEO (The entire premiere served as a benefit for the Make-A-Wish Foundation, raising millions from ticket sales.)
• Photos of many of these accompany Alex Stroup's story in the weekly Disneyland Park Update.

If you were at the premiere, please call our toll-free feedback line (1-866-939-2278) or send us email to tell us about it.

This week's Featured Attraction is the Tomorrowland Transit Authority at Walt Disney World's Magic Kingdom. Mark and Mike both really enjoy it. Mike has even taken a nap on it while going around multiple times without getting kicked off. The line is usually short or non-existent, it's a nice trip above the crowds of Tomorrowland, you get to ride past a large slice of Walt Disney's original EPCOT model, and you even get to ride through Space Mountain (and, if you're lucky, see the attraction with its lights on if it breaks down).

Mark was once on the TTA when it broke down inside Space Mountain. The lights stayed dark and they were led out by flashlight. Mark had to climb down either a ladder or steep stairway carrying his then one-year-old son, and was not at all happy about it.

This week's Review system spotlight focuses on the Disneyland Hotel at Disneyland Resort. Mark has never stayed there, but Mike has been there multiple times and highly recommends it. MousePlanet readers seem to agree, as it was rated 4.1 out of five planets on the strength of 43 reviews. You can also find the Disneyland Hotel in our Park Guide.

In this week's Ask the Kid segment, listener Jeremy Szydlowski asked Mark's 8-year-old son: "Have you ever come across a character while at Disney that you didn't know? if so who was it?"

This week's Magical Moment came from a celebrity interview on the red carpet from Reggie Lee, who plays Tai Huang, Sao Feng's (Chow Yun-Fat) second-in-command. Reggie's Magical Moment came from a moment during filming when Yun-Fat showed him a great deal of respect.

In Listener Feedback, there were only a couple of emails due to the early recording of this week's show, both regarding last week's show.

• Mike wrote that the Beijing Shijingshan Amusement Park is already taking down several of the Disney character statues, which we had already mentioned in last week's show.
• Roy wrote that he thought that Shijingshan's ripping off of Sleeping Beauty Castle was no worse than that castle being inspired by Mad King Ludwig's Neuschwanstein castle. Mike and Mark disagreed, as being inspired by something and being substantially different is not the same as being largely the same in appearance.

Send in your suggestions, comments or tips via our email form or via voicemail on our toll-free feedback line (1-866-939-2278). You can also make suggestions by replying to this post.

If you want to contribute a story for our Magical Moment segment (and possible inclusion in the Cast Place column here on MousePlanet), you can either use our email form or the toll-free feedback line. (We like when you use the voice mail system, because then we can play it on the show.)

You can get your MousePlanet (or MouseStation) swag from the new MousePlanet CafePress store.

Thanks to our West Coast correspondent Andrew Rich, and audio engineer and sound editor Steven Ng.

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Thanks for listening!