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, [...]

A host of Disney characters welcomed Princess Tiana this morning following her horse-drawn carriage ride to Cinderella Castle in the Magic Kingdom. Tiana is featured in the upcoming Walt Disney Pictures animated film “The Princess and the Frog” which marks Disney’s return to traditional 2-D hand-drawn animation. Today’s special welcome was a one-time event in [...]

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 [...]

Disney celebrated the 40th anniversary of The Haunted Mansion with a special event on 9/9/09 at the Disneyland Resort in Anaheim, Calif. Guests had the opportunity to attend panel discussions featuring Walt Disney Imagineers and Legends as well as a special “wedding reception” dinner party featuring the infamous bride of the Mansion, Constance. While the event [...]

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 [...]

The Tomorrowland Transit Authority (TTA) recently received an update at the Magic Kingdom in Walt Disney World. It closed for refurbishment at the same time as Space Mountain back in April 2009. While the Space Mountain improvement is still in-progress, the TTA reopened within the last few weeks with added colorful, nighttime lighting (seen above). [...]

The Sum of all Thrills, a new attraction and ride sponsored by Raytheon, opened today at Innoventions East at Epcot. The Sum of all Thrills lets guests create their own ride experience by choosing a ride theme: a roller coaster, bobsled or jet plane. Using multi-touch object recognition tables, guests use math and engineering-based tools [...]

Amidst being in Orlando for the Spooky Empire “Ultimate Horror Weekend,” Tippi Hedren, star of Alfred Hitchcock’s “The Birds,” is seen here visiting Dracula and his brides at the entrance to one of the haunted houses in this year’s Halloween Horror Nights event at Universal Studios. This photo makes me wish the old Alfred Hitchcock [...]

Concluding our series of posts surrounding the 2009 Spooky Empire “Ultimate Horror Weekend” is an overall summary video of the events that took place on Oct. 9. Seen here are celebrity meet-and-greets, including director John Landis (Animal House, The Blues Brothers), actors Shannen Doherty (Beverly Hills 90210, Charmed), Tippi Hedren (The Birds), Jason Mewes (Clerks, Mallrats), [...]

Hollywood director John Landis, best known for his films Animal House, The Blues Brothers, and Michael Jackson’s “Thriller” music video, was one of the special guests at the Spooky Empire “Ultimate Horror Weekend” 2009. After he watched a “Thriller” reenactment performed by the Rich Weirdoes and original “Thriller” video dancer Cheryl Sington’s Dance Warehouse group, [...]

Danielle Harris, star of Halloween 4 and Halloween 5, as well as Rob Zombie’s Halloween and Halloween II was one of the special guests at the Spooky Empire “Ultimate Horror Weekend” 2009 in Orlando. (You might also remember her from her role 18 years ago in Don’t Tell Mom the Babysitter’s Dead.) We had a chance [...]

As part of the Spooky Empire “Ultimate Horror Weekend” 2009, hundreds of zombies and other ghoulish creatures walked up and down International Drive on October 9. The zombie walk and opening ceremonies were put on by the Deadite Empire. Special guests at the event included John Landis, director of Michael Jackson’s “Thriller” music video, and [...]

Steve Gonsalves and Dave Tango, stars of SyFy’s television series “Ghost Hunters,” have had a busy week in Orlando. First, they attended Halloween Horror Nights at Universal Studios on Oct. 8, signing autographs and having a few close encounters with some of the event’s creatures. Watch Gonsalves and Tango walk through the Dracula haunted house [...]

As part of Spooky Empire’s “Ultimate Horror Weekend” 2009 in Orlando, two impressive reenactments of Michael Jackson’s “Thriller” took place in the parking lot of Friday’s Front Row on International Drive. Enjoy the full first performance here: httpvh://www.youtube.com/watch?v=loms9LT26C8 The above show was performed by the Rich Weirdoes and Cheryl Sington’s Dance Warehouse. Sington is one [...]

Here’s a very cool video from Disney’s official blog. The process used to create the video is called tilt-shift, or selective focus photography. This technique makes everything look miniaturized, as if they are miniature models instead of real objects. For the video, a series of photographs, taken one per second, were run together. First up [...]

The icon of Howl-O-Scream 10 at Busch Gardens Tampa Bay is the mysterious Ms. Vayne. While she tends to be somewhat private, especially during daytime hours, we had a chance to interview her for our Fall 2009 issue. Not all of the questions and answers could fit into the issue, so here are the remaining: [...]

Walt Disney World Sports Media Director Darrell Fry posted this hilarious video of Mickey Mouse showing off his hip-hop dance moves on the Disney Parks Blog. The video was recorded at Disney’s Wide World of Sports Complex (soon to be ESPN Wide World of Sports Complex), but there’s no word at which event or when [...]

Ever since my first visit to Halloween Horror Nights at Universal Studios Orlando in 1997, I have wanted to become a scareactor. A scareactor (pronounced like “character”) is derived from the words “scare” and “actor” (obviously) and is the name given to the actors that fill haunted houses and scare zones with the goal of [...]

Following last week’s scare-by-scare review of this year’s Halloween Horror Nights 19 event at Universal Studios, here is a review of a Howl-O-Scream 10 at Busch Gardens Tampa Bay. Like Horror Nights, Howl-O-Scream is packed with haunted houses, scare zones, and stage shows. However, unlike Horror Nights, you won’t find a lot of well-known characters [...]

We had a chance to visit SeaWorld yesterday for the first day of this year’s Halloween Spooktacular. If you haven’t been, it’s really not spooky at all, as you can see in the video and photos below. It’s great for the kids and the adults may also enjoy watching some of the characters interact. All [...]