Disney News Feed for September 20

MousePlanetWatch 37 - news feed for September 20, 2007

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Run time 0:27:21

Reminder: We have three separate feeds: one for MouseStation only, one for MousePlanetWatch only and one for both in a single feed. This way, you can subscribe to whichever combination you prefer.

Let us hear from you!

Send in your suggestions, comments or tips via our email feedback 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 Monday Magical Moment segment (and possible inclusion in the Cast Place column here on MousePlanet), you can either use our email Magical Moment story form or the toll-free feedback line. (We love it when you use the voice mail system, because then we can play your call on the show!)

Something new

Let us know what you think of Mark and Mike discussing the news instead of Mark just reading it!

Walt Disney World News

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• The schedule for the Candlelight Processional has been filled out. For the complete schedule, listen to the show or go to Monday's Park Update. Mike is disappointed that they have Steven Curtis Chapman there but he only narrates and doesn't sing.
• The Haunted Mansion reopened to positive reviews last Thursday.
• We've got some photos of the construction of Toy Story Mania in Monday's Update, thanks to Steven Kropf.
• Quick Takes:
  • Next year's Night of Joy event will be leaving the Magic Kingdom after 25 years and moving to the (by then) Disney's Hollywood Studios.
  • We've now got updated dates.for next year's closure for refurbishment of the main pool at the Caribbean Beach Resort.

This and other news can be found in this week's Walt Disney World Park Update.

Disneyland News

• It's construction season at the Disneyland Resort.
• Disney has cancelled more heavy metal concerts at the Downtown Disney House of Blues on both coasts.
• Garden Grove has shot down a proposed casino just down the road from Disneyland. Instead, the land will be used for an InternationalWEST development.
• The Disney on Ice show featuring The Incredibles going to Disneyland is now hitting Manchester, England.
• Disneyland did OK, but not fabulously, in the 2007 Amusement Today Golden Ticket Awards.
• The Los Angeles Times has weighed in with an opinion on when the best time is to ride the Finding Nemo Submarine Voyage with the shortest wait.
• Mickey's Halloween Treat has sold out for October 12. That night, MousePlanet staffers and readers will hold a meet to kick off MouseAdventure weekend.
• There will be a Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs 70th anniversary event, though details are still pending.
• David Koenig is reporting that there will be fake snow and icicles on Sleeping Beauty Castle and new Year of a Million Dreams wraps on the two remaining monorails later this year.

This and other news can be found in this week's Disneyland Park Update.

The Walt Disney Company News

This week's news was a little disjointed due to Mark's need to rush to leave town for a family funeral.

• Disney Parks marketing boss Mike Mendenhall is leaving the company, and will become Chief Marketing Officer for Hewlett-Packard. Some lament his departure, as he was responsible for many promotions that brought larger crowds into the park, but others are rejoicing, claiming that he has been responsible for many of the evils of poor decisions related to new attractions.
• left off at 14:30
• The Disney.com web site had a record-breaking month in August, racking up 23.03 million unique visits.
• The High School Musical 2 soundtrack has spent four consecutive weeks at No. 1 on The Billboard 200 album chart, the first album to achieve that milestone since 2005. Meanwhile, the Hannah Montana 2/Meet Miley Cyrus CD has spent 11 consecutive weeks in the Top 5 on The Billboard 200, the only double album in 30+ years to accomplish the feat since Stevie Wonder?s Songs in the Key of Life in 1976.
• Disney CEO Robert Iger sold $41.6 million in Disney stock during the current $10.2 billion corporate buyback, according to Financial Week. In the show, however, we said that he led the pack in selling during a buyback. While he was easily among the top few, he was far outdone by Angelo Mozilo of Countrywide Financial, who sold a reported $118 million in stock during a $2.5 billion buyback program. Safeway?s Steven Burd also topped Iger, selling $47.7 million during the company's $4 billion buyback program.
• The Walt Disney Company came in at number 7 in Business Week's list of best places to launch a career. Last year, it topped the list.
• Disney Legend Ralph Kent, known as the "Keeper of the Mouse," and who was also honored with a window on Main Street U.S.A., passed away last Saturday.
• Disney will soon begin a safety testing program for all merchandise made in China.
• Roy E. Disney will permanently donate the trophy his boat Pyewacket won in this year's Transpacific Yacht Race to the Newport Harbor Nautical Museum.
• Disney has been accused of violating Chinese labor laws by an activist group. While Disney has contracted this out, it maintains a policy about the conduct of its licensees, so we'll see how this turns out.
• Hong Kong Disneyland has completed a disappointing second year as it celebrates its second anniversary.
• The remake of Tron is still in the pipeline, with Joseph Kosinski supposedly directing and original Tron creator Steve Lisberger as producer.

Administrative stuff

We've gotten a lot of positive feedback on the new format of shorter, more frequent MouseStation shows. Currently, MouseStation is published three times a week, with short subjects on Mondays, featured topics on Wednesdays and listener feedback on Fridays; the MousePlanetWatch news is published on Thursday. We're still currently maintaining the series of three feeds, one for MouseStation only, one for MousePlanetWatch only and one for both shows.

Based on listener feedback, we will be deciding whether to merge the feeds, and return to a single feed with all shows, folding MousePlanetWatch into the main MouseStation feed. That would still leave us with four shows per week, but there would be only one feed. With the current listener numbers being fairly even between MouseStation and MousePlanetWatch, it seems as if there's a great deal of overlap between the shows.

Please weigh in on the idea of returning to a single feed via email or by calling our toll-free feedback line at 1-866-939-2278. Don't forget that we love voicemails because then we can put your voice on the show!

Don't forget that you've only got two weeks from tomorrow to get your entry in for our Owner's Locker contest!

We also wanted to remind you that we have now scheduled our MouseFest meet for the podcasts. The MouseStation Hustle-tini Meet will begin at 5:30 p.m. at Classic Concoctions in the Everything Pop food court at Disney's Pop Century Resort for Bluetinis to get our nerve up to get up and boogie. We'll make sure that we're in the lobby before 6 p.m. so that we can do The Hustle, then return to Classic Concoctions or elsewhere to record some more for the podcast. For more information on the Hustle-tini or any other MousePlanet-sponsored meet at MouseFest, check out our MouseFest information page.

Wrapping up

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

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