Every little girl loves Tinker Bell, and if you’re visiting the Magic Kingdom, Orlando Florida right now they’ll be able to meet a more “life-size” version now.

The mischevious fairy is visiting Mickey’s Toontown Fair at Magic Kingdom with four of her fairy friends doing Meet n Greet sessions helping to promote the new Disney animated movie called…. “Tinker Bell”.

From the Disney site.

To celebrate the animated film “Tinker Bell,” Disney’s most famous fairy and four of her best friends are featured in a meet-and-greet experience in Mickey’s Toontown Fair at Magic Kingdom. To meet Tinker Bell and her fairy friends, guests enter a magical forest called “Pixie Hollow,” a special place deep in the heart of Never Land. Tinker Bell, made famous in the 1953 Disney animated classic “Peter Pan,” for her “hostess” role in Disney television specials and for “flying” above the Disney theme parks, is joined inside Pixie Hollow by four fairy friends: Fawn, an animal fairy; Iridessa, a light fairy; Rosetta, a garden fairy; and Silvermist, a water fairy.

Last year, the Wild Arctic ride at Seaworld was transformed into the Polar Express Experience over the holiday season. After it’s successful run in 2007, the ride will again be based upon the popular Christmas movie. The attraction will open on Nov. 14 and run through to Jan. 04. Wild Arctic will close on Nov. 04 to allow for the transformation.

Also to return is the Shamu show, “Shamu Christmas… Miracles”. Guests can join Shamu for the holidays during “Shamu Christmas…Miracles.” This captivating show helps guests celebrate the holiday season as a time filled with hope and peace and just possibly, miracles. The 22-minute production comes to life daily from Nov. 12 through Dec. 25 at Shamu Stadium.

The Polar Express Experience and “Shamu Christmas… Miracles” are included in the regular park admission.

SeaWorld’s Makahiki Christmas Luau will be available from Nov. 12 to Jan. 4 (with the exception of Dec. 25). It features island cuisine and ancient Pacific Island traditions. It’s $46 general, $29 for ages 3-9. Theme park admission is not required for the Luau.

There’s been a fair few questions around the net concerning whether or not you can make an advanced dining reservation (adr) at the new T-Rex cafe that’s just opened at Downtown Disney. It appears the answer is not at the moment.

Over on the Orlando Visiting forum, someone has gone to the effort to contact the manager of the T-Rex Cafe and got the following response.

Thank you for your inquiry into the new T-REX Orlando! We are proud to announce that our restaurant is open today!

We will be on a walk-in basis only until 2009. You may check our website at anytime or call 407-828-TREX (reservations are currently not being taken). We will be accepting the Premium, Platinum and Wine and Dine Disney Dining Programs for those on Disney Dining.

Have a T-REXcellent day!

So, for the time-being, just pitch up and hope the wait isn’t too long. To read the thread, click here.

From the amount of buzz going around the internet, the arrival of Downtown Disney’s latest restaurant is set to be a huge hit. The T-Rex Cafe is brought to you by the Landry’s group, who are also responsible for the Rainforest Cafe’s that are also at Downtown Disney and the entrance of Animal Kingdom.

In what seems to have been an age in construction, it’s recently been announced that the T-Rex Cafe will be opening on the 16th of October. The food looks like standard fare, but with groovy dinosauresque names such as the “Bronto Burger”. I’m guessing that most people will be drawn not by the food but the dinosaur theming and other entertainment such as the Paleo Zone, an set of interactive games where you can pan for gems and fossils in Discovery Creek.

To look at the full menu, visit the official T-Rex Cafe site here.

It appears that Disney have had a re-think on some aspects of what was dubbed as Disney’s 5th theme park and originally dubbed as Disney’s Night Kingdom.

The information appears to have come from a series of surveys carried out by Microsoft and articles from Jim Hill among others.

From what I’ve read, Disney are still aiming to keep the aura of exclusivity of the park, only allowing a maximum of 2000 visitors at any one time in a similar vein to Seaworld’s Discovery Cove. The difference now being that the park will have four different admission slots, being morning, early afternoon, late afternoon and evening. Probably one of the main reasons that the Night Kingdom moniker had to be dropped. It will be interesting to see how Disney manage to get people to leave the park for each session.

There’s an outline of the questions asked in the survey in this thread. That gives an idea of the entertainment that the park may offer.

Exploring Cambodian ruins
Zipline into Tropical Americas
Observing and feeding river hippos
Observing and feeding bats
Passing through the Lions Canyon
Trek through the Tropical Americas rainforest
Riding a boat into Tropical Americas
Riding a boat out of Africa
Encountering awakening spirits in the Spirit House
Enjoying authentic, live entertainment throughout the Global Village
Taking a break at the Lodge rest area
Passing through the Throne Room over teetering stone columns
Enjoying a range of global cuisine in the Marketplace
Enjoying Mayan temple ruins
Getting up close and personal with penguins and tortoises on the beach
Crossing the tightrope bridge over tigers
Crossing the suspended bridge over crocodiles
Walking with kangaroos through the Australian outback
Walking through the head-high grass in the African Savannah

Night of Joy kicks off tonight for a two night run of contemporary Christian music at Disney’s Hollywood Studios (DHS). This is the first time the twenty-five year old event has run at the Studios, as previously it has been held at the Magic Kingdom.

I don’t think the move has pleased everyone, with Brandon Heath saying, “I’m a little bummed that it’s not in front of the castle, but I also like the park we’re going to because it’s got the Rock ‘n’ Roller Coaster”

“I’m a sucker for Magic Kingdom, man,” Heath says. “I love the nostalgia of it.”

Disney have pretty much said that the Night oj Joy concerts fit more with the show-biz persona they are trying to add to DHS, as this park also hosts other annual and daily events such as Star Wars Weekends, Super Soap Weekends and the High School Musical Street show.

Anyhow, if you can get down to DHS, here’s the two night line-up.

Friday September 5, 2008
Chris Tomlin
MercyMe
Rebecca St. James
BarlowGirl
Matthew West
Rush of Fools
Brandon Heath
Britt Nicole

Saturday September 6, 2008
Casting Crowns
TobyMac
Fred Hammond
Marcos Witt
Mandisa
Aaron Shust
RED
Pure NRG

As you can see, Mandisa stars on Saturday. A nice little tie-in to the American Idol Experience with her being an American Idol 2006 finalist.

With the summer season coming to an end, we move swiftly into Halloween mode. We’ve already mentioned the Seaworld’s Spooktacular, but we couldn’t forget Mickey’s Not So Scary Halloween Party which starts on the 5th of September.

Disney World are giving Mickey, Minnie, Donald and Daisy a new look for the event and have released a couple of pics. Donald is always my favorite for some reason.

Remember that this is a hard-ticketed event and runs on the following dates.

Sept. 5, 9, 12, 16, 19, 23, 26, 28, 30
Oct. 2, 3, 4, 5, 7, 9, 10, 13, 16, 19, 21, 23, 24, 26, 28, 30, 31.

You can purchase your tickets in advance, by calling 407/W-DISNEY or visit disneyworld.com/halloween.

Slated for an October 2009 opening, Universal are giving you an opportunity to decide the music that will accompany the ride (and extract some info from you at the same time.

On of the unique features of the snappily title Hollywood Rip Ride Rockit Roller Coaster is that you can choose the tune you ride along with. so as part of the survey, Universal asks you to rate a list of songs to see if you’d like them to be featured on the ride. A selection of the choices can be seen below (note… there’s loads more than these)

Sweet Home Alabama by Lynyrs Skynyrd
Them Bones by Alice In Chains
Start Me Up by Rolling Stones
Real Fine Place To Start by Sara Evans
Hedwig’s Theme From Harry Potter by John Williams
Money For Nothing by Dire Straights
Uptown Girl by Billy Joel
Monty Norman by James Bond Theme
Like Glue by Sean Paul
It’s Goin’ Down by X-Ecutioners
Survival Of The Sickest by Saliva
Refugee by Tom Petty
The Hand That Feeds by Nine Inch Nails
Rock And Roll by Led Zepplin
Wicked Garden by Stone Temple Pilots
Old Time Rock And Roll by The Hit Crew

It also looks as if Universal are planning on selling movies of you on the ride instead of the usual photo of the rider screaming as there were a few questions asking whether this should be on DVD or Memory Sticks.

To take the survey visit http://www.visitorsatisfaction.com/start.aspx?s=rockit

Disney have their popular Mickey’s Not So Scary Halloween party (MNSSHP) and Universal have the more adult oriented Horror Nights. Seaworld have also got Halloween tied up with the Seaworld Spooktacular.

A family oriented affair, more akin to Disney’s MNSSHP Seaworld’s Halloween Spooktacular will be running on the following weekends.

October 4-5 2008
October 11-12 2008
October 18-19 2008
October 24-26 2008
October 31 2008

So what are some of the highlights for Seaworld’s spin on Halloween:

Sesame Street Show – Countdown to Halloween Stage Show featuring Count von Count, Elmo and friends.
Trick-or-Treat – Kids can follow the Spooktacular map to 15 trick-or-treat stops.
Frozen Fun Zone – An ice DJ will heat up the area with interactive games and activities.
Themed Characters – Gummy Worm Wanda, Salt Water Taffy and Swedish Fish Suzy are among 35 themed characters roaming the park.

The Seaworld crew are also putting on a themed character break starring Count von Count as well as a family sleepover party.

Click here to visit the Seaworld Spooktacular site.