Disney Resort Planned for Hawaii!

Looking ahead with Disney’s future plans. Disney plans a Hawaii hotel complex to be completed in 2011 at the Ko Olina resort in West Oahu.
Walt Disney Parks & Resorts' first venture in the islands will add 830 hotel and vacation time-share rooms, a fantasy-laden water play area and an 1,700-square-metre spa to this rapidly expanding resort area. A detailed scale model of the complex was displayed at a news conference with Disney officials and Honolulu Mayor Mufi Hannemann.
It'll be the first such complex for Disney away from a theme park, combining a 350-room hotel with 480 vacation villas on one of Ko Olina's four man-made lagoons, which already feature a Marriott hotel and timeshares, a luxury condominium project and wedding chapels.
"We plan to offer the opportunity for our guests to vacation in a completely new way, very different than they do at our theme park resorts, when they come here to Hawaii - to be surrounded, to discover Oahu, to discover the Hawaiian Islands," said Disney resorts chairman Jay Rasulo.
The resort is expected to hire 1,000 "cast members," Rasulo said. Many will come from Oahu's relatively low-income Leeward Coast.
Disney has several themed resort hotels near Disneyland in California and Disney World in Florida, but has never built a hotel and time-share complex that will stand on its own. Rasulo had said there were no plans to expand the resort into a theme park.
The timeshare units will be part of the 350,000-member family-oriented Disney Vacation Club, which has eight other resorts.

T-REX Cafe' is now open-Disney Downtown

T-REX: A Prehistoric Family Adventure, A Place To Eat, Explore and Discover is now open at Downtown Disney in Lake Buena Vista, Fla.. Landry’s Restaurants and Schussler Creative combined in developing this concept for a new dining and retail experience in an interactive prehistoric environment. Guests visiting T-REX will be greeted with life-sized animatronic dinosaurs, bubbling geysers, a fossil dig site and much more.
"T-REX will attract visitors of all ages with its mix of delicious food and unique entertainment," said Tilman Fertitta, president, chairman and CEO of Landry's. "Downtown Disney is the perfect location for this innovative concept."
"T-REX is the perfect place to uncover never-before-known dinosaur facts and let your imagination roam wild," said Steve Schussler.
Some of the highlights are as follows:

• A large excavation pit with replicas of fossil bones waiting to be uncovered by would-be paleontologists to practice their skills
• The Geode Splitter breaks up geodes to display hidden minerals.
  Pan for precious stones, gems and fossils within Discovery Creek.
• Expand your knowledge of the dinosaur era and play one of several family-friendly games on the interactive Paleo Screens.
• T-REX greets visitors with a skeletal version of a 125-foot long replica of an Argentinasaurus and an animatronic Tyrannosaurus.
• T-REX also greets guests with a giant animatronic octopus sitting on top of the Shark Bar, motioning guests in for a specialty drink and a view of a 5,000-gallon shark tank.
• A 30,000 sq. ft. restaurant seats 600 guests and is divided into several separate, distinctive dining rooms, each with its own theme and animatronic dinosaurs.
• Areas include the Ice Cave, Fern Forest, Coral Reef Dining Room, Sequoia Room and Geo-Tech Room.
• An amazing meteor shower travels across the dining room ceiling every 20 minutes.
• Food facilities are cutting-edge. The Kitchen of Fire offers an open kitchen with a giant rotisserie that allows visitors to see meals being prepared.
• Dishes including Triassic Tortellini, the Bronto Burger and the one-of-a-kind Boneyard Buffet.
• The Dino-Store where you can shop for exciting dinosaur-related apparel and gifts. Young dinosaur fans will especially enjoy the chance to take home their own personal dinosaur at Build-A-Dino.

Sounds like a lot of fun for everyone!

Disney's Pleasure Island phased out-New Attractions Planned!

Pleasure Island of Walt Disney World that caters to young and restless clubbers, has been phased out and is being retooled or "reimagined."
The Downtown Disney area will have new shopping areas, eateries and other attractions.
The 8 Trax, The Adventurer's Club, Mannequins Dance Palace, BET Sound-Stage Club, Motion and The Comedy Warehouse are now closed.
New features are being added, including attractions such as a hot-air balloon and a dinosaur-themed area. But mostly, Pleasure Island will be changed into an eating and shopping area.
A Disney spokeswoman said, "It's been a very smooth transition. We made the announcements early enough in June to provide pass-holders a long enough time to make arrangements."
The changes are based on surveys taken where people responded with a desire for more broad-based dining and retail opportunities.
Attractions being tweaked or added include T-Rex: A Prehistoric Family Adventure, scheduled to open late 2008. The dinosaur-themed family eatery will serve lunches and dinners featuring life-sized animated dinosaurs.
Several new restaurants opening early 2009 in Downtown Disney will feature Central and South American cuisine, specialty drinks and live music along a lake waterfront.
All of this is being done to introduce more family oriented entertainment.
Pass-holders to Pleasure Island have can get a refund on their passes, a prorated amount. Go to any guest relations location or vacation planning booth at Disney World or call (407) 827-2281.
Holders of premium annual passes will be able to play a round of golf at Disney's Oak Trail Golf Course for the inconvenience. To make tee times, which are required, premium pass-holders can call (407) 939-4653 or go to http://www.disneyworldgolf.com/.