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3/18/2014

Disney Shareholders Meeting Wrap-Up

Were you too busy today to catch the Walt Disney Company 2014 Annual Meeting of Shareholders? Not to worry, below is a compilation of everything that was discussed. Not in as much detail, but enough to give you an idea of everything that was discussed.

Frozen, Frozen, Frozen, Frozen, Frozen ... and some other movie stuff. But mostly Frozen.

It's no question that Frozen is a major hit. HUGE, Gargantuan, about to become the #1 grossing animated movie of all time. So of course there was lots of talk by Bob Iger about Frozen.

But the biggest news was that there is FINALLY going to be a sequel to The Incredibles as well as another sequel to Cars.

While the Cars sequel shouldn't come as a surprise to anybody, that movie is a merchandising juggernaut, the long sought after Incredibles Sequel should be met with excitement by everybody. How it took this long is anybody's guess.

There was also some talk about Star Wars Episode VII which will reportedly take place approximately 30 years after Star Wars Episode VI (Return of the Jedi).

Lastly, they released a third trailer for Maleficent which continues to look great.

Pirates of the Caribbean Battle for Sunken Treasure

One of the only Parks announcements was a new Pirates of the Caribbean ride for Shanghai Disneyland. This is the first of the Pirates rides that is going to be based on the film franchise vs the versions that have had characters from the movies added to existing attractions.

During the Q&A there was an odd question segment by one person, but one nugget that did come out of that is that there will be "some" Mulan presence in the Shanghai park.

Not much more news than that at this time.

D23 in Anaheim August 14-16, 2015

Not really a whole lot to add to the above title, D23 is coming back in 2015. I'm sure more details will be surfacing in the next year.

Q&A

There were, as always, questions from those in attendance. These are mostly Disney fans asking questions, so they certainly ran the gamut. A list of some of the questions asked:

Pin Traders not having room inside Disneyland to trade pins: Iger mentioned not wanting the Pin Traders to interfere with normal park guests.
Lily Belle Exclusivity: Iger incorrectly stated that anybody could go to City Hall and get a pass to ride even though the Lily Belle is now reserved for Club 33 Members and other VIP's. How long until an AP shows up at City Hall and tells them "Iger said I could ride"?
Disney Cruise Line: No new ships, but there will be new itineraries.
Disneyland Submarine: For the last time ... THE RIDE ISN'T LEAVING!!! (My words, but that was the gist of Iger's answer)
Somebody announced themselves as a "PREMIER Passholder" so we'd really listen to his question. I forgot what it was about.
GAC Passes: No plans to revisit current system that is actually working
A question about Characters in the park and hand drawn animation: Iger once again plugs Frozen and says there are no plans to make any further 2D Animated Feature Films.
Question asking about holding Stockholder Meeting at Walt Disney Family Museum: No plans right now.
Disney Dollars: No plans to discontinue Disney Dollars.
Lastly, one of the questions started off with the person telling Bob Iger that he was his "favorite character" and wondered if he'd melt in Acetone. It was kind of creepy and I wonder if Iger even got the reference.

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3/2/2014

Walt Disney World Princess Half Marathon Weekend

Today we have an update from a new contributor, Renée , who brings us the first in what we hope will be many updates from parks in Florida and RunDisney events.

I participated in the inaugural Glass Slipper Challenge, which consisted of a 10k race on Saturday and a half marathon on Sunday. This bib was to be worn on both days. In the initial registration, you were asked who your favorite princess was, and whoever you chose would appear on the bib along with their colors. And since I ran in every Princess half marathon since it started 6 years ago, I was considered a "Perfect Princess."

I was hoping for a photo op with the Frozen princesses, since the line for the meet and greet at Epcot is always several hours long. This was the closest I got, with Elsa above the crowd on the road outside of the park giving out words of encouragement to the runners.

In these races I see some fairly common characters on the course that I don't bother stopping for, but I saw Baseball Goofy outside of the ESPN restaurant at the Boardwalk resort, and being a MLB fan, I had to stop for a quick shot.

At the New Balance booth at the expo for the weekend, I was disappointed that there was a wall for the names of the runners participating in the 10k and half marathon, but not both. I discovered at the finish area at the actual races, there was the wall listing for the Glass Slipper Challenge runners.

The medal the runners received after completing the inaugural Enchanted 10k race.

The day after the Enchanted 10k was the main event of the weekend, the Princess half marathon. Around 24,000 runners gathered before sunrise in the roads outside of Epcot for the start.

My view of the fireworks at the start of the race from corral C

As each corral was allowed to start, we inched closer to the starting line and they released fireworks for each group.

The race announcers next to the stage were dressed in their prince and princess costumes, and were joined by Cinderella's fairy godmother to greet the runners as we crossed the starting line.

The sight of the banner across the starting line, where we began our 13.1 mile journey

The race starts just outside of Epcot and from there we headed to the Magic Kingdom. Right before entering the park, we went through a small backstage area towards the front of Main Street.

Running through the Magic Kingdom park is a huge draw for Disney runners. No matter how many times I've done it, I still have to admit that it's pretty cool.

After running up Main Street, you see the castle and run through a good portion of the park.

And of course no Princess race would be complete without a jog through Cinderella's Castle

The rest of the Magic Kingdom course goes through Frontierland, where you can also get an idea of the fog and humidity that hovered over us all morning.

After leaving the on stage area of Magic Kingdom, it goes into another backstage area, next to Splash Mountain, where some of the parade floats are kept. Another character meet and greet was set of there, one of several along the course, and while I wasn't running to set a world record, stopping for each character would have been pretty time consuming.

There was no line for Princess Atta, in front of the billboard on the road outside of Magic Kingdom. I thought it made a nice photo op.

Once finishing the race, there were a few different areas to go to get certain medals for your achievement. I went to the "Perfect Tent", where I was given an extra lanyard for my medal to indicate that I have completed every Princess half marathon since the beginning.

In addition to the regular medal for the half marathon, I also received a medal for the Glass Slipper Challenge.

Thanks for the update Renée. Congratulations on completing the Inaugural Glass Slipper Challenge and for being a Princess Half Marathon Legacy Runner!!!

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YOUR CART

Disney Parks

Disney Shareholders Meeting Wrap-Up

Frozen, Frozen, Frozen, Frozen, Frozen ... and some other movie stuff. But mostly Frozen.

Pirates of the Caribbean Battle for Sunken Treasure

D23 in Anaheim August 14-16, 2015

Q&A

Walt Disney World Princess Half Marathon Weekend

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