7/25/19 Disney News on Parade

Welcome to this week’s Disney News on Parade on Facebook Live. We cover both Disney at Play and Disney at Work topics. Here are the headlines for this week:

Galaxy’s Edge On Its Way!

It’s only a few weeks before folks are going to be entering Galaxy’s Edge at Disney’s Hollywood Studios. Disney Cast Members are visiting between August 1st through 16th.

Platinum, Platinum Plus and Premier Passholders will soon have an opportunity to register to explore the land, shops and more during an exclusive Annual Passholder preview—with select times from August 17 to August 21, 2019. Invitations to sign up came today and with a few hours the event was full.

We released a new video this week showcasing retail at Galaxy’s Edge. Check it out:

Halloween & Christmas in July

*Lots of new additions to Mickey’s Not So Scary Halloween Party. Images by Disney.*

It’s July, we’re talking about Christmas and Halloween? Well, that’s what Disney wants you to think about. Disney is blogging and posting amazing photos of Halloween and Christmas parties, just to make sure no one misses anything. You can get the most complete listing of offerings for Halloween when you click here for Halloween. Stay tuned and in the next day or so, we’ll have a complete Christmas listing for you as well, which will include a new show for Monsters Inc. Laugh Floor, a Mad Tea Party, done holiday style, Space Mountain with lighting and high-energy holiday tunes, and for the first time, Tomorrowland Speedway will be filled with thousands of lights and stylized decor.

*Tomorrowland Speedway meets Osborne Family Spectacle of Lights–Maybe.* *Image by Disney.*

Meet Me In the Parks

This week my Meet Me in the Parks features Ann and Trent Matthews. Trent and I go back nearly 40 years and it has been decades since we saw each other. Check out our get together here on Facebook.

If you’d like to be featured in Meet Me in the Parks, please reach out via Facebook Messenger or email me at JeffKober@gmail.com. We’ll see if we can arrange a time that works for both of us to Facebook Live our love of all things Disney. We look forward to hearing from you!

Check back with us weekly to view other Disney fans sharing their moments at Walt Disney World. Please follow us and like us on Facebook. We look forward to sharing your stories with our viewers, so let’s meet at the parks soon.

Celebrating Tower of Terror’s 25th Anniversary

July marks the 25th anniversary of the Twilight Zone Tower of Terror. Our family was there on opening day, and lined up to experience this new attraction. Most stores on Sunset Boulevard weren’t open yet, and wouldn’t be for another year or two. Still, it was an amazing experience–at least for me. I’m not sure about my younger children.

*The Tower of Terror. Photo by J. Jeff Kober.*

I was also fortunate to develop and host programs for several years at the Tower of Terror doing Disney Institute programming. The The Tower of Terror cast has always been amazing. Among my favorites is T. J., who has served for many years, and is a familiar face in many of the Studios’ marketing videos. I remember the tour he gave me through the entire building, to include the roof top on top of the tower. Breathtaking!

One of my favorite memories was filming at midnight and hosting a pizza party for the crew in the library. No chairs, we all sat on the ground. Then we filmed the drop sequence 7 times in a row without getting out of the ride vehicle.

Here are the words found on the card in the boiler room:

*Discarded card in the Boiler Room queue at Disney’s Hollywood Studios. Photo by J. Jeff Kober.*

What I shared is just one chapter from my book Disney’s Hollywood Studios: From Show Biz to Your Biz. Another chapter covers the incredible theming and detail of the attraction itself. Other chapters cover the amazing attractions, many of which are no longer with us, but have really interesting stories to tell. It’s available on Amazon.