Remember the Walt Disney World Easter Parade Annual TV Special?

 by Ray Keating

Lifestyle

DisneyBizJournal.com

March 31, 2024

 

Happy Easter! And on this Easter, do you remember watching the Walt Disney World Happy Easter Parade on television? 

 

It was an annual special running from 1985 to 1999, according to Disney A to Z: The Official Encyclopedia.

 

The first hosts were Rick Dees and Joan Lunden, and the final special was hosted by Caroline Rhea and D.L. Hughley.

 

The YouTube channel Sam’s Disney Diary actually offers all 15 specials! Among the list of hosts and guests, it caught my attention that the 1995 hosts were Joan Lunden and Regis Philbin, with Jim Bruer and … Dave Chapelle (!) serving as reporters. Check it out…

 

__________

 

Ray Keating is the editor, publisher and economist for DisneyBizJournal.com; and author of the Pastor Stephen Grant thrillers and mysteries, the Alliance of Saint Michael novels, and assorted nonfiction books. Have Ray Keating speak your group, business, school, church, or organization. Email him at raykeating@keatingreports.com.

 

The views expressed here are his own – after all, no one else should be held responsible for this stuff, right?

 

The Disney Planner: The TO DO List Solution combines a simple, powerful system for getting things done with encouragement and fun for Disney fans, including those who love Mickey, Marvel, Star Wars, Indiana Jones, Pixar, princesses and more.

 

Never miss any new book by Ray Keating by joining the Pastor Stephen Grant Fellowship with Ray Keating at

https://www.patreon.com/pastorstephengrantfellowship.

 

Various books by Ray Keating…

 

• The Pastor Stephen Grant thrillers and mysteries. There are 19 books in the series now.

 

• Cathedral: An Alliance of Saint Michael Novel is at Amazon. 

 

• Order The Weekly Economist III: Another 52 Quick Reads to Help You Think Like an Economist.Kindle editions here.

 

• Grab The Weekly Economist II: 52 More Quick Reads to Help You Think Like an Economist. Kindle and paperback editions here.

 

• Purchase The Weekly Economist: 52 Quick Reads to Help You Think Like an Economist. Kindle and paperbacks here. 

 

• Signed editions of Ray’s books are at www.raykeatingbooksandmore.com. 

 

Also, check out Ray’s podcasts – the Daily Dose of Disney, Free Enterprise in Three Minutes, and the PRESS CLUB C Podcast.

“Queens of Animation” Makes for a Sometimes Uncomfortable Read

 by Beth Keating

Review

DisneyBizJournal.com

March 30, 2024

 

The Queens of Animation: The Untold Story of the Women Who Transformed the World of Disney and Made Cinematic History

By Nathalia Holt  (Oct 22, 2019)

Little, Brown and Company.  (401 pages)

While I was searching for a new book to read earlier this month, I pulled The Queens of Animation off our shelf at home. It was a book that had come well-recommended to us several years ago, and we’d purchased it, but it never made it beyond the shelf in our library.   It was named “A Best Book of 2019” by both the Library Journal (Arts) and Christian Science Monitor (Non Fiction), and has a rating of 4.7 stars (out of 5) on Amazon. It seemed like March’s Women’s History Month might be a good time to dust off this previously acquired tome.

Nathalia Holt is also the bestselling author of Rise of the Rocket Girls. This time around, she is detailing the story of a group of the first women at Walt Disney Studios. These are the pioneering ladies who had a guiding hand in creating the early films that brought Disney to the forefront of animation – though, in fact, you probably won’t recognize most of their names. And that is exactly the point of Holt’s book.

The book is eminently readable, told in a narrative format, and is based on a great deal of background research.  My main quibble with the format was Holt’s retelling of certain conversations in quotation construct, a decision which makes me uncomfortable any time an author uses it, particularly with subjects who are long since deceased and have no way of refuting what they said.  This “fly on the wall” approach attributes direct conversations to people who may, or may not, have said exactly what’s being attributed to them. And in a book that digs as far back into the history books as this one does, it can be problematic.  Giving concrete words to real people is a far different thing than paraphrasing a remembered encounter decades after the occurrence. Holt does give end notes for each chapter at the back of the book to indicate where her material was taken from, but it means some flipping back and forth for the reader… and a bit of “faith and trust” that the information is as she says it is, since while sources are given, the location of the quotes in the endnotes isn’t exact, in case you personally wanted to trace the information back. (Sorry, that’s the literature major in me coming out!)

Be that as it may, Holt does dive deeply into the creation of Disney’s early iconic films, but she also leads us right up through the advent of the Frozen franchise. While, as a Disney fan, I was familiar with the work of Disney Legends like Mary Blair, there were quite a few women whose names I’d never heard before.  And you might not have, either, because by and large, these women were left off the credits of many of the films they’d worked so hard on, unrecognized publicly for their efforts.

While there is a great deal to unpack in Holt’s work, you will, at times, be very uncomfortable with some of the recollections.  This isn’t a puffy, cheerleading piece for the Golden Days of Disney. The men at the Studios could be relentlessly ruthless, and the women were, by Holt’s retelling, often treated very poorly by their colleagues.  It’s hard seeing these titans of the company portrayed as darkly as they sometimes are.  You will cringe when reading details of how even Walt mercilessly ripped up animator’s artwork in front of the whole group.  But you will also be cheered when Walt, ahead of the times and swimming upstream culturally, gave these women a chance when other studios put up walls to women in the industry. While they got a shot, these women were still doing ground-breaking work, and Holt shows just how difficult it was for them to break into the men’s world.

The Queens of Animation brings you stories you’ve never heard before; some of which are shocking, and some of which are downright inspiring. Remember that this was the 1930s.  And as sometimes difficult as it is to hear the rough stories, including the ones involving Walt himself, the reader is cautioned to remember that this was a vastly different era, and these women were pioneers in the field.  Be forewarned, though, that a bit of the pixie dust that Disney fans often sprinkle over the Disney company’s illustrious beginnings will be scattered in the wind with these retellings.

It is tempting to forget that these entrees into animation were occurring nearly a century ago, and to read the stories through the lens of the modern day workplace. But if you resist that urge, you’ll gain an even greater insight into the women’s struggle to fit in, despite their talent.  Filmmaking and animation were themselves fledging efforts, and the Walt Disney Company would go on to invent many of the technologies we take for granted today.  Holt recounts how much of this innovation came about, even while weaving the women’s roles into the process.  These chapters are the stories of the women who were there on the front lines while this revolution was happening.

The early part of the book introduces us to the first women admitted into the hallowed halls of the studio, a true glass ceiling where not only had no woman dared to tread before, but they hadn’t even been invited. Newspaper employment ads of the time specified that the company was seeking “men” for the animation department.  

To gain access to the creative desks, you needed to be brought on board by Walt himself.  Walt’s company was in its infancy, and operating on a shoestring (or very often, in the red).  There was a fear that after investing all the time and money into training a female animator, they would up and get married, opting to then stay home and raise a family, as many women of the era were wont to do.  It would thus be wasting the company’s investment to take that leap and bring on a female animator who might not go the distance. Finally, Walt was willing to take a chance, going so far as to think a step ahead, offering some the possibility of working from home later on.   

Holt’s narrative looks behind the closed doors into what these women’s lives were like at the Disney studios, but included in the book are also the backstories of who these women were in their lives outside the animation walls.  There are examples like Mary Goodrich, the first woman to pilot solo to Cuba (p. 63), who joined Disney to do story research. (Mary did the first story treatment for The Snow Queen back in 1938…. It would, more than half a century later, morph into 2013’s Frozen, following various fits and starts.)  Holt gives the ladies a full, fleshed out life, not just as some stock figure in the Disney history books, but as living, breathing people with ambitions of their own.

   
Interspersed with historical information about what was happening in the world outside the studios, the book also details some of the technical aspects that plagued the filmmaking process, and how the women of Disney helped solve some of the issues.  

The plot hole in Holt’s story, if you will, is that Holt presents the male-female dichotomy in the company as if it was a “Disney” problem, and that the sometimes cruel and aggressive co-workers were the ones roadblocking the women, when in reality, the bias against women in the workplace was a wider cultural and societal issue of the times.  While Holt’s book often reads as if the Disney company was forcing women out of the studios, it is important to remember what was happening outside the doors of the Burbank facility as well.

Have you ever heard the phrase “History repeats itself,” or Churchill’s “Those that fail to learn from history are doomed to repeat it?”  Reading Holt’s book, I was often struck by the repeating patterns of decision making from Disney’s early days, to current 2024 dilemmas.  Golden Age decisions about animation vs. live action adaptations, and the “back-burnering” of films that had already spent lengthy amounts of time (and money) in production could just as easily be ripped from the minutes of today’s board meetings.

One of the aspects of the book that I found most intriguing was the connection between many of today’s films, and the fingerprints that the first female animators left on them.  There were a good number of projects that were given early treatments of film concepts, but never gained enough traction to make it to the big screen.

  
Think films like The Little Mermaid, Frozen, and other contemporary movies were dreamed up during the Disney Renaissance or later?  No, indeed, Holt points out that many of those films got as far as storyboard efforts, with their own unique artwork, back in the day, but for various reasons, they were shelved in “the morgue” until they were rediscovered decades later.  For example, The Little Mermaid had scripts written in the 1940s by Sylvia Holland and Ethel Kulsar before getting filed away (p.284), only to come up for air in 1989.  Pocahontas (1995) was influenced by artwork Retta Scott had done in the 1940s (p. 298).  Mary Goodrich’s 1938 treatment of The Snow Queen (p. 308) would resurface in 1977 with Imagineer Marc Davis (who was looking at ride ideas for Disneyland at the time), only to melt away until the 1990s when a more evil version of Elsa would start to emerge. But once again, the studio would “Let It Go.”

Eventually, years later, Frozen would find itself in the hands of director (and writer) Jennifer Lee. Following yet more revisions and reimaginings, Frozen would finally explode into box office history in 2013, nearly 75 years after it first touched Mary Goodrich’s desk.  Woven into the underlying fabric of the multiple treatments of the 1844 Hans Christian Anderson fairy tale was the influence of Mary Blair’s artwork.  When Frozen later won the Oscar for “Best Animated Feature Film,” it was the “first time in forever” that a female director from Walt Disney Animation had been handed an Academy Award.  In fact, Lee was the very first female director of a Walt Disney Animation Studios full-length feature film.  As Holt points out of today’s animators and female leaders, “Their triumphs would rest on the shoulders of Bianca, Sylvia, Retta, Mary, and all the other women of Disney’s golden age.” (p. 306)

Holt’s book is an interesting read for Disney fans, obviously, but it will also open a whole world for history buffs, film historians, and those who are delving into women’s history, even if it’s not Women’s History Month.  The book is currently available on Amazon in Kindle format ($14.99) or in print (paperback $17.89, or hardcover for $22.78; print copy prices fluctuate).

 

__________

 

Beth Keating is a theme parks, restaurant and entertainment reporter for DisneyBizJournal.

 

Get The Disney Planner: The TO DO List Solution by Ray Keating. More information at

https://raykeatingbooksandmore.com/shop/ols/products/disneyplanner. And please listen to the Daily Dose of Disney with Ray Keating podcast.

Flamingo Crossing Restaurant is Disney-Adjacent… And Oh, So Good!

by Beth Keating

Review

DisneyBizJournal.com

March 29, 2024

 

Flamingo Crossing is a still under-construction shopping and hotel complex in Winter Garden, Florida, but it is probably better known to locals as the home of Disney’s College Program dorms. Anchored by a quartet of hotels and an abbreviated-size Target store, the recently built store fronts are beginning to fill up with a variety of small retailers and quite a few eateries, including a Skyline Chili on one side of the roadway, and an interesting dessert-only café called White Rabbit Dessert Experience and a scratch-made BBQ place called Ellie Lou’s Brews & BBQ on the other.

Opened in November, one of the pristine new restaurants in the complex might just be one of the best hidden gems adjacent to the Disney Bubble.  Located at Disney World’s western gate around the corner from the Magic Kingdom, and a mere five miles from Animal Kingdom, Simply Capri is a remarkable restaurant that serves up the cuisine of Southern Italy’s Amalfi Coast. Wood-fired pizza, house-made pastas, lots of tantalizing seafood dishes, and creative cocktails are on order, made from specially imported ingredients. The restaurant is also known for its Negroni bar, and there’s a Spritz bar as well.

Its Disney-adjacent location isn’t its only Disney connection, however.  Simply Capri’s Nick Valenti is the gentleman who brought you the restaurants in the Italy pavilion at EPCOT, Space 220, The Edison, Morimoto Asia and other Disney locales. He is the CEO of the Patina Restaurant Group, and has served as Chairman Emeritus at the Culinary Institute of America. General Manager Benito Sevarin was the Head of Operations in the Italy Pavilion at EPCOT. He was also Director of Operations for Le Cirque in New York. (That’s high praise, indeed, to those of us from the north!)  Executive Chef Giovanni Aletto was born and raised in Italy, where he also owned his own restaurant, and his previous role as Executive Chef in the Italy pavilion at EPCOT makes him no stranger to restaurants in the tourist corridor.

   
And while Simply Capri’s executive team may have Disney connections, there’s a bit of a familiar feel with the staff as well – a good number of them are cultural exchange program participants from Italy, just like many of the cast members at EPCOT, giving the restaurant an even greater feel of authenticity. (Check their nametags for their hometowns!)

While the people plating up your lunch and dinner and shaking up your drinks no doubt give the room its Italian flair, the décor does its part as well. Hand-painted Italian fixtures and an imported pizza oven pull it all together in this light and airy space.  The only drawback to the beautiful room? Its high ceilings allow the atmosphere to be a little loud during certain times of the night as the tables pack out.  If the weather is nice, though, there’s also an outside patio that is a bit quieter.

 
Now, on to the food…

 

Our waitress dropped off a plate of sliced bread that had a lightly seasoned olive oil topping. Resist the urge to scarf it all down while waiting for your meal, because this soft, fluffy bread might better serve you when your meal arrives, especially if you’ve ordered one of the entrées with a sauce or broth. (We’ll explain later.)  The only thing that would have made this bread better would have been if it had been served warm.

For our appetizers, we chose the Fior Di Latte Mozzarella ($15) and the Polpette Capresi ($14).  Both were delicious, but the Polpette Capresi is something we would return for again and again.  The Fior Di Latte Mozzarella was plated with a smattering of multi-colored cherry tomatoes, drizzled with a light olive oil and Italian seasonings. The trio of mozzarella balls was extremely fresh, but in hindsight, it wasn’t anything particularly creative.  We should have tried one of the many other appetizers that were a bit more inspired (and also delicious looking as they passed by to other folks’ tables.)  Next time, we might opt for the Fritto Sorrentino ($12), a combination of fried pizza dough, stuffed with ricotta, mozzarella, salami, and marinara. Or maybe the Parmigiana Di Melanzane ($14), a dish of thin-sliced fried eggplant, marinara sauce, mozzarella, and Parmigiano Reggiano. If you are more of a seafood fan, the Carpaccio Di Tonno Agli Agrumi ($22) might be more your style, with its fresh tuna marinated with Valencia orange, lemon, black pepper, olive oil and arugula. That was also intriguing.

The clear winner for our appetizer choices, though, was the Polpette Capresi, the homemade meatballs smothered in a bright tomato sauce and topped with fresh ricotta, mozzarella, basil, and Parmigiano Reggiano. The sauce was perfectly made, not too sweet, but also lacking in any acidic notes. There was just a hint of a garlic undertone. The fresh made ricotta, which added so much flavor,  melted right into the sauce, and we wanted to scoop up every last drop in the dish. (This is what you needed to save some of that bread for!)  The meatballs had a slight, but very welcome, firmness to them - we don’t like mushy meatballs!  This appetizer was a definite “get this again.”

The main entrées for the night were where Simply Capri really shined.  Both of our picks were spectacular, and worth the drive to Winter Garden.  

 

The first selection, the Scialatielli Dei Faraglioni ($30), was a large bowl of house made egg ribbon pasta, tossed with shrimp, clams, mussels, calamari, and cherry tomatoes, seasoned with parsley and Italian herbs, and drizzled with olive oil.  With the thick, fettucine-like egg pasta, you’d expect this to be a heavy dish, one that you’d avoid in the Central Florida heat, but you’d be wrong.  This dish was put together with a broth that was light and tasty, and didn’t detract from the various shellfish piled into the pasta.  The entrée was the kind of dish that you’d imagine eating if you were sitting in Italy, staring out at the Mediterranean.  The dish also works in a place like Florida, though,  simply because of its seafood-laced broth, rather than a sauce that is heavy with cheeses.  The broth was strongly flavored of the ocean, and the dish was teeming with plenty of fresh seafood.  No complaints there! The various kinds of seafood were perfectly cooked, not overdone in the least, and we thoroughly enjoyed this dish.  Our suggestion to you as the diner?  This is the other place for which you might want to save your fresh bread, because it would be a great vessel for sopping up the rest of that delicious broth.  We left too much of that goodness behind, even after trying to scoop it up with a spoon.

Entrée #2 was also a delight…. And only available on Wednesdays!  We opted for the baked Ogni Mercoledi Lasagna Bolognese ($28). The multiple, uber-thin and truly delicate sheets of pasta were filled with plenty of tender meat sauce, Parmigiano Reggiano, and beschamel, and served in a perfect red sauce.  This was, perhaps, the best lasagna we’d ever had, and we make a pretty good homemade lasagna ourselves!

If our two choices aren’t what you are looking for on your visit, there’s also a series of salads ($14-$20), soups ($10-$12), and woodfired pizzas ($18-$26) that looked great. Linguine with clams ($28); more traditional spaghetti and meatballs ($24); Pennette Al Salmone (Smoked Salmon in white cream, $26); house made Ravioli Caprese ($27); Filet of Florida Red Snapper ($38); and Seabass ($36) are among some of the other choices.

We almost skipped dessert because we were reaching capacity at that point, but since it was our first time at Simply Capri, we threw caution to the wind and ordered two to share.  

 

The Coppa Tricolore ($15) was an enormously tall glass of high-quality gelato, served with a spoon so long it stretched from our hand to our elbow (no lie!).  There are several different gelato combinations on menu, but we chose the vanilla, chocolate, and cookies and cream gelato, topped with whipped cream and chocolate sauce. There are also pieces of chocolate cannoli crumble sprinkled in, and while some folks might like the added texture, we’d have left them out and just enjoyed the super creamy gelato.

Our additional dessert was the Tiramisu ($11), because if you are in an Italian restaurant, you have to get the tiramisu.  (There’s also a cannoli available for $12 if you are so inclined.). The tiramisu was good, but not great. Served in a small glass canning jar, it had a layer of dark cocoa powder over the creamy custard.  Unfortunately, the custard was a bit on the watery side, and not as sweet as we’d expected.  The Lady Fingers were light, and almost disappeared into the custard.  The coffee soak was also a light touch, so even those who aren’t as big of a coffee aficionado won’t be overwhelmed.

There are lots of adult beverages on the menu, from the Negroni bar, to the imported Italian wines, and some designer cocktails.  We opted for one of the mocktails, though. It’s springtime, and as former northeasterners, we thought the Cherry Blossom ($8) would be fun.  Made from fresh lemonade, cherry juice, and vanilla syrup, this drink was just as tasty as it was pretty.  It was refreshing, without being too sweet, and though it was made from a lemonade base, it wasn’t overwhelmingly tart.

Service at Simply Capri was well-paced, and the food came out consistently (and correctly!). Our wait staff was cheerful and friendly, offering explanations (and pronunciations) of the menu details.  We also got an unexpected follow-up text from Simply Capri the next day, inquiring about our visit and providing a chance for feedback.  Our response?  We’ll definitely be back. Our meals were much appreciated.

Simply Capri is located at 114 Ruby Red Place in Winter Garden, Florida. They are open seven days a week, serving lunch from noon to 3:30 p.m., and dinner from 4:00 p.m. until 10:30 p.m.  Sunday Brunch is available from 11:30 a.m.  to 3:00 p.m.

__________

 

Beth Keating is a theme parks, restaurant and entertainment reporter for DisneyBizJournal.

 

Get The Disney Planner: The TO DO List Solution by Ray Keating. More information at

https://raykeatingbooksandmore.com/shop/ols/products/disneyplanner. And please listen to the Daily Dose of Disney with Ray Keating podcast.  

Disney and DeSantis: Politics and Business as Usual

 by Ray Keating

Commentary

DisneyBizJournal.com

March 28, 2024

 

The announcement that the Walt Disney Company and Florida Governor Ron DeSantis have agreed to move on from their dueling lawsuits is a case of politics and business as usual.

 

Disney has a major shareholder meeting coming on April 3, and, no doubt, wanted this controversy to go away. Meanwhile, since DeSantis’s attempt to become the Republican presidential candidate for 2024 crashed and burned, the governor had little reason to drag on his political show of attacking Disney to gin up the GOP base.

So, it was time to move on for all parties. In fact, new development deals between Disney and Central Florida Tourism Oversight District, which signed off on the settlement with the House of Mouse, will be hammered out.

 

CNN reported:

 

A trial was set to begin in June. But now, Disney holds that prior agreements are null and void and intends to negotiate a new deal that likely would be beneficial to Disney’s development plans in the area.

 

Separately, in January a federal judge dismissed a lawsuit Disney filed accusing DeSantis of weaponizing his political power to punish the company for exercising its right to free speech. Disney quickly filed an appeal, but it will now put that on hold “pending negotiations” on a new development deal, among other matters, with the district.

 

Additionally, both parties agreed to drop the various state-wide lawsuits they’ve filed against one another. Instead, both agreed to resolve their differences outside of the courtroom in way that would not require either to admit any fault or liability, according to text of the settlement.

 

That’s nice.

 

Of course, serious questions are left on the table. For example, does it make sense for a business to weigh in on political issues that have nothing to do with its actual business? Can politicians get away with abusing the powers of government to attack particular businesses with whom they disagree on an issue?

 

Anyone thinking that a company like Disney would stand on principled ground regarding free speech and fighting government overreach fails to understand that publicly traded businesses will go only so far as management believes it will benefit the company. (That is, unless a company is captured by a leftist social agenda, and then management tends to blindly step into politics even if it creates risks and uncertainties for the bottom line.) None of this should surprise anyone.

 

Meanwhile, anyone thinking that politicians today take stands based on principle fails to understand politics as it particularly has further degraded over the past decade-and-a-half or so. On both sides of the aisle, few, if any, serious thinkers hold elected office. Instead, Democrats make a point of pandering to the party’s hard-core leftist base, and Republicans pander to its recently emerged populist base. 

 

If you doubt these points, consider that for all of the attacks Governor DeSantis had hurled at the Disney company, including the special treatment it received, CNN noted the following from the press conference this week announcing the Disney-DeSantis deal: “DeSantis suggested the settlement could give Disney more of an edge to compete with neighboring Universal Orlando’s theme park, which recently announced an expansion slated to be complete next year.”

 

If it weren’t all so sordid and dangerous, it might be funny.

 

__________

 

Ray Keating is the editor, publisher and economist for DisneyBizJournal.com; and author of the Pastor Stephen Grant thrillers and mysteries, the Alliance of Saint Michael novels, and assorted nonfiction books. Have Ray Keating speak your group, business, school, church, or organization. Email him at raykeating@keatingreports.com.

 

The views expressed here are his own – after all, no one else should be held responsible for this stuff, right?

 

The Disney Planner: The TO DO List Solution combines a simple, powerful system for getting things done with encouragement and fun for Disney fans, including those who love Mickey, Marvel, Star Wars, Indiana Jones, Pixar, princesses and more.

 

Never miss any new book by Ray Keating by joining the Pastor Stephen Grant Fellowship with Ray Keating at

https://www.patreon.com/pastorstephengrantfellowship.

 

Various books by Ray Keating…

 

• The Pastor Stephen Grant thrillers and mysteries. There are 19 books in the series now.

 

• Cathedral: An Alliance of Saint Michael Novel is at Amazon. 

 

• Order The Weekly Economist III: Another 52 Quick Reads to Help You Think Like an Economist.Kindle editions here.

 

• Grab The Weekly Economist II: 52 More Quick Reads to Help You Think Like an Economist. Kindle and paperback editions here.

 

• Purchase The Weekly Economist: 52 Quick Reads to Help You Think Like an Economist. Kindle and paperbacks here. 

 

• Signed editions of Ray’s books are at www.raykeatingbooksandmore.com. 

 

Also, check out Ray’s podcasts – the Daily Dose of Disney, Free Enterprise in Three Minutes, and the PRESS CLUB C Podcast.

For a Limited Time – Get the Two Latest Pastor Stephen Grant Adventures by DisneyBizJournal.com’s Ray Keating for FREE!

 Join the Pastor Stephen Grant Fellowship at the Bronze Reader level or higher, and receive For Better, For Worse and Christmas Bells at St. Mary’s for FREE! And get every new book by Ray Keating as a key benefit of your membership.

 

And with more books coming in Pastor Stephen Grant, Alliance of Saint Michael, and new series, this is the right time to join!

 

Find out more at 

https://www.patreon.com/pastorstephengrantfellowship

 

If you savor exciting and thoughtful thrillers, mysteries, historical fiction, and more, then joining Ray Keating’s Pastor Stephen Grant Fellowship is a great way to make sure you don’t miss any page-turners; you get thanked by name for your support in each new book; and you gain access to other cool stuff. 

 

As you know, Ray Keating is the author of 19 Pastor Stephen Grant thrillers and mysteries, as well as Cathedral: An Alliance of Saint Michael Novel, which is the first book in a historical fiction series. More books are coming in these series, as well as books in new series. So, don’t miss out!

New Drone Show Coming To… Disney Springs?

 by Beth Keating

News

DisneyBizJournal.com

March 23, 2024

 

When new shows appear on the Disney World horizon, guests typically expect them to take place in the parks. A new parade, a new stage show, new concerts during festivals… But they all make their homes in one of the four theme parks. The upcoming “¡Celebración Encanto!” sing-along show beginning June 10 at EPCOT is just one example.

Beginning Memorial Day weekend, however, Disney World’s “fifth park,” Disney Springs, will be debuting a limited time drone show in the skies over the west end of the shopping and dining complex.

  
“Disney Dreams That Soar” will take place nightly from May 24 through September 2, 2024. Using music and Disney movie quotes, the state-of-the-art show will tell Disney stories that celebrate the joy of flight.

 
Disney fans have been hoping for a drone show at the Florida resort, following amazing drone shows in other theme parks around the world, including earlier this year at Disneyland Paris with its “Disney Electrical Sky Parade,” utilizing hundreds of drones, fountains and projection lighting;  and the “Avengers: Power the Night” show at Walt Disney Studios Park.

 
Universal Studios Hollywood has also put on a drone show, with the Wizarding World’s popular (and spooky) “Dark Arts at Hogwarts Castle” show.

This will not, however, be the first drone show for Disney Springs. In 2016, “Starbright Holidays” briefly entertained guests over the Springs.

 

__________

 

Beth Keating is a theme parks, restaurant and entertainment reporter for DisneyBizJournal.

 

Get The Disney Planner: The TO DO List Solution by Ray Keating. More information at

https://raykeatingbooksandmore.com/shop/ols/products/disneyplanner. And please listen to the Daily Dose of Disney with Ray Keating podcast. 

 

Easter Goodies Available at Grand Floridian’s Easter Cottage

 by Beth Keating

News

DisneyBizJournal.com

March 22, 2024

 

A sure sign of spring at the Walt Disney World Resort is the arrival of the dozens of giant  chocolate Easter eggs at the Grand Floridian Resort & Spa.

These eggs are, without a doubt, not just candy. They are detailed works of art. That they are temporary and fleeting makes them all the more interesting. 

Talented pastry chefs have created these intricately decorated eggs, each with its own Disney character or theme, and made from such components as modeling chocolate, fondant, Krispie rice, and cocoa butter paint.  Many times, you’ll be able to actually watch one of Disney’s culinary artists hard at work, designing a new egg for the display tables. (In fact, we watched Yadi, a member of the culinary team who’d created the Alice in Wonderland egg on the side tables, as she painted a multi-character egg in front of guests.) The creators will be happy to chat with you as they work, answering any questions you might have about the egg making process.

Some of our favorite designs this year were definitely the double-sided Alice in Wonderland egg with its working clock parts; the rotating Beauty and the Beast egg with its interior rose; the Sword in the Stone egg with Merlin; and the Donald and Daisy Duck house, with Daisy peeking out an upstairs window.

There are nearly two dozen eggs on display at the Grand Floridian, depending on whether you count them by themed display, or by individual creations.  You have to make sure you walk around both sides of the eggs, because many are three dimensional, and are decorated on the inside, the outside, and the back and the front.  They range from whimsical (Al’s Toy Barn) to educational, with multi-faceted sketches of Snow White and Cinderella, looking like diagrams from the Ink and Paint departments’ guidebooks. Some, like the Mickey and Minnie’s Runaway Railway tribute and the Main Street Electrical Parade, even light up.

The eggs also ranged from small bunnies, to the larger Munchlings “kitchen stove,” to a James and the Giant Peach that was nearly as tall as many of the guests visiting the display.  The Kakamora coconuts from Moana were also large (as far as coconuts go!), balanced precariously together in fight mode on a tabletop.  Jasmine’s palace was downright gorgeous, and it took me awhile (and reading the chef’s personal notes below the egg) to figure out the blue cat egg was a tip of the pastry brush to Yzma from Emperor’s New Groove.  If you want to know the inspiration behind each creation, a brief note from each artist is on the table next to the egg.

The egg displays may be the main draw at the Grand Floridian, but there’s also a “Grand Cottage” set up for guests to buy a yummy goodie.  Now in its third year, this people-sized cottage offers edible on-the-go snacks, as well as treats that you can take home and craft yourself.

The goodies range from the more tea time or breakfast items like the Guava Cream Cheese Sweet Roll ($4.75); Hot Cross Buns ($4.50); or Cream Cheese Carrot Coffee Cake ($9.75);  to the sweeter stuff, like Easter Marshmallow Pops ($4.50);  Bunny Burrow Dirt Cups ($7.00); Fruity Cereal Mickey Pops ($7.25); Carrot Blondie Pops ($7.50); White Chocolate Bunny Pops ($8.00); Marshmallow Eggs ($8.00); Lemon Blueberry Whoopie Pies ($8.25); Confetti Pops ($9.75); Milk Chocolate Bunnies ($12.00); a variety box of Macarons ($15.00); a Bunny Flower Pot ($15.00); and The Grand Egg ($20.00).  Can’t make up your mind?  The Easter Treat Box ($80.00) will let you take home an assortment.

Disney Parks Blog video on how these fascinating eggs are made!

The Grand Cottage is open daily through April 1 from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. at Disney's Grand Floridian Resort and Spa.  

 

__________

 

Beth Keating is a theme parks, restaurant and entertainment reporter for DisneyBizJournal.

 

Get The Disney Planner: The TO DO List Solution by Ray Keating. More information at

https://raykeatingbooksandmore.com/shop/ols/products/disneyplanner. And please listen to the Daily Dose of Disney with Ray Keating podcast.