By Andy Guinigundo There is perhaps no place more magical during the holidays than a Disney park. That is true stateside and internationally. Let’s take a peak a two international holiday celebrations Disney style. Paris, France – “A Fairytale Christmas Celebration” at Disneyland Paris commenced on Nov. 8 and will continue into the New Year [...]

The Grinch will take over Universal Orlando’s new official Facebook page to answer guests’ questions live this afternoon. The star of Dr. Seuss’s “How The Grinch Stole Christmas” will interact with fans and give them a humorous glimpse into the entertainment they can expect at Grinchmas – a live stage show at Universal’s Islands of [...]

Since 2002, Universal Studios has partnered with Macy’s to bring elements of the famous Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade to Orlando during the holiday season. In addition to shipping down memorable floats featured in the annual New York parade, Macy’s brings several of the giganic balloons that have made the parade so popular over the decades. [...]

Disney has gone miniature-crazy as they release their third tilt-shift video shrinking Walt Disney World through a clever photography technique. This time, their cameras were set up at the Magic Kingdom, during the Disney Parks Christmas Day Parade tapings, capturing the entire parade as well as performances by the Jonas Brothers, Kris Allen, Celine Dion, [...]

After a couple of days delay, the Disney Parks Christmas Day Parade television taping finished up yesterday at the Magic Kingdom. We brought you photos from the first day of recordings featuring Yanni and Kris Allen last Thursday, and the tapings were to continue the next two days, but Mother Nature had other ideas with [...]

“American Idol” winner Kris Allen and composer/pianist Yanni performed at the Magic Kingdom on Dec. 3, 2009 as part of this year’s taping of the annual Disney Parks Christmas Day Parade. Taping continues on Dec. 4 and 5 and will be aired on Dec. 25 on ABC. Here are a few photos of today’s performances, [...]

December is one of the best times to visit Orlando. Even though there’s no real snow, you’re sure to be able to get into the Christmas spirit with all of the festivities. Whether want to visit the Grinch, go ice skating, see thousands of dancing holiday lights, Orlando has you covered. Here are the events [...]

By Andy Guinigundo Washington, D.C. and Anaheim, Calif. – The first mention of a ceremonial turkey presentation at the Whitehouse (stop snickering, an actual turkey) was during the Truman administration. No mention is made in the literature about a Presidential Pardon. It wasn’t until the first George Bush’s administration in 1989 that the yearly tradition [...]

By Andy Guinigundo It wasn’t even quite the last week of October at my local Target and Walmart type stores that Halloween decorations were coming down and all things orange and black were being consolidated. This was followed by empty “seasonal items” shelves. Finally on Nov. 1, Christmas decorating and shopping was in full swing. [...]

Looking for a unique holiday adventure? Florida EcoSafaris at Forever Florida has announced their new Holiday Lights Zipline Safari that takes guests through the Forever Florida Wildlife Conservation Area fifty‐five feet off the ground amid dancing colorful lights and music. The two and a half hour experience allows guests an opportunity to spot wildlife, zip through [...]

For the 2009 Christmas season, Disney has installed into the Magic Kingdom’s Emporium windows along Main Street U.S.A. the long out-of-view animated window displays based on the holiday favorite, “Mickey’s Christmas Carol.” Six scenes tell the classic story of Mickey Mouse as Bob Cratchit and Scrooge McDuck as Ebenezer Scrooge. These scenes were originally on [...]

This holiday season, in addition to the return of SeaWorld Orlando’s annual Polar Express Experience make over of their Wild Arctic siulator ride, they’re adding three all-new shows: Winter Wonderland on Ice An all-new holiday-themed ice-skating show, Winter Wonderland on Ice, debuts on Nov. 27 at SeaWorld’s Bayside Stadium and will be performed on select [...]

With Christmas decorations beginning to show up all over Walt Disney World, fans have wondered when the popular Lights of Winter archways linking Epcot’s Future World and the World Showcase would be installed. The answer: they won’t. Today Disney announced that the Lights of Winter have officially been retired: From the official Disney Parks Twitter [...]

We were invited to attend Tampa’s Lowry Park ZooBoo earlier in October but weren’t able to make it to the event until this past weekend. Since Halloween and the event is over, I won’t give you a full scare-by-scare review. The ZooBoo is a fun, family-friendly event. Although there were a few animals on display, [...]

There are only two nights remaining to experience Halloween Horror Nights at Universal Studios. As an added treat, Universal added an all-new scare zone this week. Located within a New York area alley, characters from past Horror Nights events (like Jack the clown pictured above) have emerged to greet guests once again, previewing what’s to come [...]

The LaVene Family Trail of Nightmares in downtown Celebration, Fla. is a surprisingly fun small-scale Halloween haunt. While it doesn’t come close to having the same big budgets used to create Halloween Horror Nights and Howl-O-Scream, this haunted walking trail does have a unique personal touch. Dr. Daniel LaVene (pictured above) is a real doctor, [...]

An all-new terrifying scarezone will emerge from the shadows this week during Halloween Horror Nights at Universal Studios. Guests who are brave enough to walk the ominous New York alley will have the chance to inspire elements of next year’s 20th anniversary run of Halloween Horror Nights. “The fog will surround you as you make [...]

It’s a well-known “secret” that Disney’s annual Christmas Day parade is actually taped a few weeks before Christmas Day. This year, it’s being taped at the Magic Kingdom on Dec. 3, 4, and 5 (Thursday – Saturday). Registration is now open for anyone who wants to sign up to be part of the crowd and [...]

We’ve attended Mickey’s Not-So-Scary Halloween Party in the Magic Kingdom at Walt Disney World for the last few years and thought we’d bring you some of the highlights of the family friendly event. The Not-So-Scary event is packed with Halloween-time entertainment featuring Disney character meet-and-greets and dance parties, a special fireworks show and parade, and [...]

Tampa Bay Buccaneers Cheerleaders Roseanne Strobel, Holly Sellers, Cynthia Bastos, Aubrey Gainey, Nina Stauffer, Ryan Theriault, Rochelle Alvarez and Jaime Hanna took a break from the sidelines to visit Howl-O-Scream at Busch Gardens over the weekend. During their evening, the cheerleaders toured the brand-new Delta-Epsilon-Delta: Pledge Week and Nightshade Toy Factory haunted houses, and the [...]