A new dinosaur themed restaurant recently debuted at Downtown Disney in Orlando.   The T-Rex Restaurant features several fun-filled environments, including a geothermal region with a “Kitchen of Fire” and a 26-foot-high lava wall oozing over “ancient geological formations.”  In an ice cave room, a woolly mammoth and her baby help greet visitors. And in an aquatic region, look for a 45-foot giant octopus with animated tentacles.

The exterior features a full-size Tyrannosaurus Rex and another massive dinosaur measuring 28 feet tall and 122 feet wide.

T-Rex features a fun combination of dining and shopping in an interactive, prehistoric environment. The concept is designed around water, fire and ice as guests visiting T-Rex will be greeted with life size animatronics dinosaurs that live among cascading waterfalls, bubbling geysers, a fossil dig site and more.

Central Florida was well represented among the 2008 Golden Ticket Award winners in an annual vote of amusement park aficionados polled by Amusement Today magazine.  The poll gauges the best of the best among all of the nation’s theme parks.

Here’s how Orlando’s theme parks fared in the voting by category:

Best Overall Park

#5      Universal’s Islands of Adventure

Best Waterpark

#3      Disney’s Blizzard Beach

#5      Disney’s Typhoon Lagoon

Best Marine Park

#1      SeaWorld Orlando

#4      SeaWorld’s Discovery Cove

Cleanest Park

#4      Disney’s Magic Kingdom Park

Best Shows

#3      Disney’s Hollywood Studios

Best Food

#3      Epcot

Best Water Ride in Theme Park

#1      Dudley Do-Right’s Ripsaw Falls at Universal’s Islands of Adventure

#3      Splash Mountain at Disney’s Magic Kingdom Park

#4      Popeye and Bluto’s Bilge-rat Barges at Universal’s  Islands of Adventure

#5      Journey to Atlantis at SeaWorld Orlando

Best Kid’s Area

#2      Universal’s Islands of Adventure

Best Landscaping

#5      Epcot

Best Outdoor Show Production

#1      Epcot

#5      Disney’s Hollywood Studios

Best Dark Ride

#1      Amazing Adventures of Spider-Man at Universal’s Islands of Adventure

#2      Twilight Zone Tower of Terror at Disney’s Hollywood Studios

#5      Pirates of the Caribbean at Disney’s Animal Kingdom Park

Best Halloween Event

#1      Halloween Horror Nights at Universal Studios Florida

Best Christmas Event

#2      Disney’s Magic Kingdom Park

Best Carousel

#4      Universal’s Islands of Adventure

Best Indoor Coaster

#1      Revenge of the Mummy at Universal’s Islands of Adventure

#2 Rock ‘N Roller Coaster at Disney’s Hollywood Studios

Get set for the 15^th and final edition of ABC’s Super Soap Weekend at Disney’s Hollywood Studios - slated for Nov. 15-16, 2008.

The Disney theme park will play host to approximately 30 daytime drama characters during this year’s event, which is being discontinued by Disney-ABC Television Group after a 15-year run.  The group plans to send its soap stars out on a national promotional tour next year, rather than sponsor a single weekend at Disney World.
This highly popular soap event allows Hollywood Studios guests an opportunity to get up close and personal with their favorite ABC Daytime stars. The stars will answer questions, sign autographs and entertain with their unscripted and lively conversation.  The Daytime TV luminaries will also be featured in special motorcades and live music sessions during the two-day event.

Due to the overwhelming popularity of the event, guests are usually allowed to gather on Hollywood Boulevard about 30 minutes prior to official Park opening.

When it comes to Disney favorites, it’s tough to top Cinderella, Snow White, Ariel and the other popular princesses.  But look out now because Disney is ready to roll out the Disney Fairies!

To go along with a straight-to-DVD animated children’s movie about Tinker Bell scheduled for release on Oct. 28, 2008, Disney is also opening a new walk-through attraction featuring Tinker Bell and four other pixie fairies.  The new “Pixie  Hollow” attraction will be part of the Magic Kingdom and feature Iridessa, Rosetta, Silvermist and Fawn in addition to Tinker Bell.  The attraction opens Oct. 24 in Mickey’s Toontown Fair section of the park.

The Disney Fairies will be developed for books, movies, Internet games and other Disney merchandise.

Now everybody can enjoy a magical birthday wish!   That’s because Disney is offering free birthday admission to any Disney World theme park in 2009.

As part of a new promotional campaign, anyone who shows up with a valid ID including proof of birth date will receive a free ticket (currently valued at over $75) on that day in 2009 for one of the theme parks at Disney World Orlando or at Disneyland in California.
 

Disney’s goal is to get people to celebrate birthdays, anniversaries, honeymoons and other big occasions at a Disney park.  Don’t miss your chance for a magical celebration… after all, it’s free in 2009!

Halloween comes early to Orlando.  All of central Florida’s major theme park players offer frightening or fun Halloween activities.  From Disney’s fun-filled event to Universal’s annual fright-fest, there are plenty of Halloween happenings for everyone!

DISNEY:  Mickey’s Not-So-Scary Halloween Party

Celebrate a most magical Halloween at Disney’s Magic Kingdom! Come in costume and trick-or-treat for candy and goodies with all of your favorite Disney Characters, all dressed in their finest Halloween outfits. With special entertainment, this not-so-scary party is no trick - it’s a real treat!

Event Highlights:

• Mickey’s “Boo-to-You” Halloween Parade
• Trick-or-treating throughout Magic Kingdom® Park at numerous locations.
• Happy HalloWishes fireworks spectacular - where the Disney Villains go trick-or-treating in the sky!
• Characters decked out in their favorite costumes - so wear yours, too.
• Some of the most popular Magic Kingdom attractions.

Event Dates:

September 19, 23, 26, 28, 30

October 2, 4, 7, 9, 13, 16, 19, 21, 23, 24, 26, 28, 30 (Oct. 31 sold out)
SEAWORLD ORLANDO:  Halloween Spooktacular

Enjoy an underwater fantasea at SeaWorld Orlando, where you can trick-or-treat with friendly sea witches, octopuses, mermaids, pumpkin fish and more.  Come in costume and play with sea fairies, learn from a “school” of fish or dance with an ice witch.

Event Highlights:

• Festivities are included with park admission and begin at 11 am
• Enjoy 15 “treasure stations” with treats galore
• Sesame Street “Countdown to Halloween” live musical stage show with Elmo, The Count and other Sesame Street pals
• Strolling Entertainment

Event Dates:

October 4-5, 11-12, 18-10, 24-26, 31

UNIVERSAL STUDIOS FLORIDA: Halloween Horror Nights

Nowhere to turn. Nowhere to hide.

On select nights in September, October, and November, come face to face with your deepest fears as Bloody Mary brings history’s most terrifying urban legends to life. Inside the haunted houses or on the darkened streets, there’s nowhere you’re safe in the most immersive horror experience ever. If you survive, you can experience it all - only at Universal’s Halloween Horror Nights, the country’s premier Halloween event.

Event Highlights:

• More Scare Zones
• More Scare Actors
• More haunted houses
• All new live shows

Event Dates:

September 26-27

October 2-5, 9-12, 16-19, 22-26, 29-31

November 1

A favorite show is nearing the end of its run at Disney’s Animal Kingdom.  The live stage version of Pocahontas and Her Forest Friends, which opened with the park’s opening 10 years ago, will conclude its run on September 27, 2008.The 15-minute show, which features one actor as Pocahontas interacting with a variety of animals including a possum, porcupine, ducks, birds and a snake,  while offering a view on how humans can better interact with nature and help protect our natural resources.

After 19 years of partying, Disney’s six popular Pleasure Island nightclubs will be closed this fall to make room for a broader mix of family oriented restaurants and shops.  The clubs, which catered to young, single adults will close after Sept. 27, 2008.

This bold new approach is the result of Disney’s customers requesting more broad-based dining and retail opportunities and to address a need for more specialized entertainment options.

Pleasure Island opened in 1989 and we designed to look like a revitalized back-alley warehouse district.  However, the island known for its music, dancing, drinking and partying now creates an awkward link between two other popular entertainment districts: Marketplace and Disney’s West Side.  Those sections offer nightclubs that are operated as part of restaurants that appeal to a broader, family-friendly crowd.

Two of Orlando’s biggest contemporary christian music events set to return on Sept. 5-6, 2008

 Universal’s Rock the Universe

Rock your soul with an exciting weekend of pulse-pounding, feel good, music and thrills at the annual Rock the Universe celebration at Universal Studios.  Slated for Sept. 5-6, 2008, this amazing Christian rock weekend brings a long list of top Contemporary Christian performers to the Universal stage, including: Switchfoot, Reliant K, Newsboys, Skillet, Grits, Group 1 Crew, New Method, Third Day, Jeremy Camp, Jars of Clay, Stellar Karl, Leeland, The Beautiful Republic and Special D.

Disney’s Night of Joy

Get out your calendars and circle these two rockin’ days to celebrate Faith in 2008: Friday, September 5, and Saturday, September 6! The music moves to Disney’s Hollywood Studios^TM for the first time, where some of today’s most powerful voices in Contemporary Christian music will take to the stage for this popular event.

In over 20 years, the Night of Joy events have featured a long list of Grammy and/or Dove Award winners and played to a combined audience of nearly one million people. This year’s event will again bring out the best with performers that include: Chris Tomlin, MercyMe, Rebecca St. James, BarlowGirl, Matthew West, Rush of Fools, Brandon Heath, Britt Nicole, Casting Crowns, TobyMac, Fred Hammond, Marcos Witt, Mandisa, Aaron Shust, RED and Pure NRG.

One of the most iconic sites at Disney’s famed theme parks remains the monorail system of transportation.  In fact, June 14, 1959, marked the start of the first urban monorail system in the U.S. when the Disneyland-Alweg Monorail System began operations at Disneyland in California.

In Central Florida, the Walt Disney World Resort Monorail System today operates 12 Mark VI monorail trains on three lines of service.  This system opened in 1971 with two routes and expanded to three lines in 1982.

The modern trains that have been in use since 1989 are each 203 feet long (consisting of six cars) and can carry 360 passengers. The trains are driven by eight 113 HP motors which are powered by a 600-volt electrical system.

The Walt Disney World Monorail operates over a span of 14.7 miles and carries about 150,000 guests per day or 50 million Disney guests each year.

The three routes on the Walt Disney World Monorail include:

Express: Express service between the Magic Kingdom and the Transportation and Ticket Center (TTC).

Resort: Round-trip local service making stops at the Magic Kingdom, Disney’s Contemporary Resort, the Transportation and Ticket Center, Disney’s Polynesian Resort and Disney’s Grand Floridian Resort and Spa.

Epcot: Service between the Transportation and Ticket Center and Epcot.