The left side of the construction represents the future area of Be Our Guest Restaurant, Maurice’s Cottage, and Gaston’s Tavern. The large building on the right side will house The Little Mermaid attraction and Storybook Circus (not included in the frame) will begin at the far right of this attraction.  The New Fantasyland attractions, stores and eateries will open in phases beginning late 2012.

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Which event in WDW’s 40 year history is most memorable to you? Is there something notable that they missed in the Infographic?

If you haven’t been to Walt Disney World in a while, or if you’ve never been at all, maybe it’s about time you did. There are plenty of Orlando Hotels and packages available these days, finding one to fit your budget has never been easier. It’s your turn to experience Disney history.

Of interest is the ride layout (I love maps of ride layouts) which can be seen at about 1:20 minutes into the video but also captured and shown below for your careful inspection.

If you have already experienced the Anaheim version of this new attraction, keep in mind that the Walt Disney World one will be bigger and better due to a larger budget and more room for the ride itself.

With no further ado, enjoy this video!

The new queue for the mansion has been expanded in two directions, into the hill that formerly served as the small cemetery near the attraction’s entrance and toward the Rivers of America. The new area will be home to four crypts, three of which will reportedly be interactive, with the gravestones appearing beyond the new crypt area. The queue is expected to wind between the crypts, though another rumor predicts that the crypts will be a diversion from the queue, similar to the “Next Generation” queue that opened recently at The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh.

These gravestones on the new hill behind the original hill at the Haunted Mansion's entrance are expected to be replaced by the original (or enhanced versions of the original) Imagineers' tombstones. Note the reels of electrical wiring ready to be installed.Photo by J. Jeff Kober.

One of the crypts reportedly pays homage to the players of the instruments in the seance room, with images of their instruments carved into the side of the crypt, and may also include a tribute to the organist from the ballroom scene. A second is an homage to Phineas Pock, a long-storied name in the Haunted Mansion mythos and the name of the rightmost singing bust in the graveyard scene. A third interactive crypt’s subject is currently unknown. A fourth crypt, across from the three interactive ones, pays homage to the sea captain that was central to the original story of the Mansion.

Meanwhile, inside the Mansion, the hitchhiking ghosts in the final scene have been replaced with projections of the same ghosts on screens, both in the “hitchhiking” scene, and along the final stretch, where they appear in front of riders on a scrim instead of their previous location in the doombuggies themselves via a reflection. It is rumored that this is temporary while work takes place to update the existing animatronic and “Pepper’s Ghost” effects with new interactivity.

As to whether similar updates will come to the Anaheim mansion or even other Haunted mansions in Disney Parks remains unknown. These additions do reflect Disney’s ongoing goal to make attractions and even ques more interactive.

The weekend’s activities will illuminate the rich history of Walt Disney’s “Project Florida.” Destination D: Walt Disney World 40th will feature a remarkable gathering of Walt Disney World pioneers, retrospectives, screenings of rare and newly discovered film and TV footage and lively presentations that will give D23 members an unprecedented look at this truly spectacular World.

All Destination D guests will also receive a complimentary, limited-edition reproduction of the 1970 “Preview Edition” of the Walt Disney World souvenir guidebook from the Walt Disney Archives Collection. The 22-page, colorful book is just one of the gifts Members will receive.

The complete Destination D: Walt Disney World 40th line-up (as well as information about D23′s Great Disney Scavenger Hunt) is available at the D23 Web site and includes:

• Appearances by notable Disney Legends & Imagineers Marty Sklar, Bob Gurr, Jack Lindquist, Eric Jacobson, Tony Baxter, Charlie Ridgway and Ron Logan, in addition to Debra Browne, the 1971 Walt Disney World Ambassador.

• A special exhibit from the Walt Disney Archives featuring rare items and artifacts showing the creation and evolution of Walt Disney World Resort.

• A multitude of fantastic presentations covering topics such as bizarre and wacky moments in Walt Disney World’s past, Walt’s vision for EPCOT, and even a peek at the Walt Disney World that never was!

• Rare autograph session with Disney Legends and authors.

• An enchanting concert, Magic Journeys: A Flight of Fancy through 40 Years of Walt Disney World Musical Memories featuring Disney Legend and Academy Award®-winner Richard M. Sherman.

Tickets will go on sale February 24 at 10 a.m., Pacific Time (1 p.m. Eastern Time) in which D23 members can purchase tickets to the spectacular two-day event at the official event page. Last year’s Destination D event was sold-out so fans are encouraged to book early.

Guests may also now register for D23′s Great Disney Scavenger Hunt: Walt Disney World, which takes place May 12 & 13, and will send hundreds of teams across the Resort’s four theme parks in what will be the largest scavenger hunt to ever hit Walt Disney World! Registration for the Hunt is open to both D23 Member and the general public.

River Country was the first water park at the Walt Disney World Resort. It opened on June 20, 1976 and ceased operations on November 1, 2001. On January 20, 2005, The Walt Disney Company announced that River Country would remain closed permanently.

Positioned on the shore of Bay Lake near Discovery Island in Lake Buena Vista, Florida, River Country was part of Disney’s Fort Wilderness Resort & Campground and matched this area in its rustic wilderness theming, replete with rocks and manmade boulders (created by the same man who created Big Thunder Mountain Railroad at the Magic Kingdom).

According to Screamscape, the new vacation ownership project’s design will be “based on the old Buffalo Junction plans from years ago.” The shelved Buffalo Junction project — also called Wilderness Junction — was to include a 600-room resort along the southern coast of Bay Lake at Walt Disney World next to the River Country water park, which was open from 1976 to 2001.

If the project comes to fruition, it will join other Disney Vacation properties which include the 295-room Bay Lake Tower at Disney’s Contemporary Resort, the 458-room Animal Kingdom Villas and the 136-room The Villas at Disney’s Wilderness Lodge, just to name a few.

Now for the first time in history, that opportunity is available with a new luxury residential community Disney is building – Golden Oak at Walt Disney World.

Golden Oak is planned to be a luxury residential resort community within the Walt Disney World Resort, designed by Walt Disney Imagineering, and owned and operated by a newly formed Disney subsidiary, Golden Oak Realty. It is being developed in the Magic Kingdom Resort Area near Bay Lake with the first few home sites to be available for purchase in late 2010 and a projected for completion date in 2011.

The community will include approximately 450 lavish custom single-family homes and estates priced between $1.5 million and $8 million, featuring themes such as Spanish, Mediterranean and Colonial. The homes will be spread out amongst four gracefully arranged neighborhoods – Carolwood, Carolwood Reserve, Silverbrook and Kimball Trace. Residents will receive benefits such as a private concierge, VIP access to Walt Disney World parks, home maintenance and more.

Here are just some of the ammenities planned for the families of Golden Oak:

• Private VIP transportation
• A suite of in-park benefits
• Access to select special-event tickets
• Community-hosted activities throughout the year

Additionally, Golden Oak Concierge services will be just a call or click away. It will be their pleasure to take care of such arrangements as:

• Move-in services
• Travel and private transportation
• Disney parks and special-event tickets
• Golf tee-times
• Dinner reservations
• Private VIP tours
• At-home dinners and parties
• Holiday home decorating
• Grocery shopping and errands
• Pre-arrival and post-departure home maintenance services

If that was not enough, home owners will have access to certain features at the nearby planned Four Seasons Resort Orlando (also within the Walt Disney World Resort). These include a full-service spa, restaurants, facilities for private events and an 18-hole golf course designed by Tom Fazio.

With such a limited number of homes and prices exceeding the range that most can afford, this will definitely be a community for the elite. However, if you have the means and are fortunate enough to be selected from the Priority Reservation List, Golden Oak offers a dream-come-true opportunity to never have to leave the magic of a Disney park/resort experience.

For more information, visit the official site of Golden Oak at Walt Disney World.

Disney Parks Blog reports that Donna became pregnant through artificial insemination in July 2008 and received extensive pre-natal care throughout her pregnancy. In addition to regular ultrasounds, veterinarians and elephant managers monitored her hormone levels on a daily basis to help them determine when she would give birth. Labor appeared imminent last night and the animal care team stayed with her to provide round-the-clock care until the female calf was born around 11:30 p.m.

This is the fifth elephant born at Disney’s Animal Kingdom. In addition to Donna’s first female calf, Nadirah, Tufani, a male, was born in 2003; Kianga, a female, was born in 2004; and Tsavo, the youngest male, joined the herd in 2008. All remain on the savannah at Disney’s Animal Kingdom. This birth raises the total number of elephants in the Disney’s Animal Kingdom herd to thirteen, including five males and eight females.

The Art of Animation Resort will be built on a 65-acre plot across a lake from Disney’s Pop Century Resort. The location will allow Disney to use a pair of long-neglected, unfinished buildings that Disney originally constructed as a second phase of Pop Century but which it abandoned amid the 2001 recession. Pop Century’s first phase was completed in 2003.

Plans for the new resort show 10 wings of rooms and a separate building housing the check-in lobby and restaurants. The hotel wings will be separated into four distinct groups, each with a theme from a different animated movie: The Little Mermaid, The Lion King, Finding Nemo and Cars.

The resort will be priced as a “value” hotel, at the low end of Disney World’s scale, similar to Disney’s Pop Century and All-Star resorts, where standard rates begin at $82 a night. It is the first hotel that Disney has built on the property in seven years.

For additional information, see a more concise write-up at The Orlando Sentinel.

This event will take place “after-hours” and as such will require a separate entry ticket. Besides the Star Tours attraction, there will be specially-themed party zones, Star Wars shows, a “Death Star Disco” and “Symphony in the Stars,” a Star Wars-themed fireworks show. Tickets to the event are on sale now at a cost $75 per person.

While the event is called “Last Tour to Endor,” the attraction is not closing for refurbishment immediately following the event but rather will close, as originally announced, this October.