What's New Archive 2001

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December 24 2001

December 21 2001

  • Happy Holidays and Merry Christmas to you all!!!
    I would especially like to thank everyone who has contributed content over the past year!! THANK YOU!

December 20 2001

December 13 2001

  • Vertical construction well underway on Primeval Whirl carnival coaster at AK
  • News from WDWGuide on the Solar Eclipse viewing from WDW

    As you know, solar eclipses are very rare and memorable events. On this upcoming DECEMBER 14, a partial solar eclipse will be visible from the majority of the continental US, including the Orlando area.

    What is particularly special about this eclipse when viewed from Florida is that the sun will set just minutes after its maximum. This means that you will want to be at an elevated position, preferably the observation deck of the Contemporary Resort, or at least a spot from which you have an unobstructed view of the western horizon. If I recall WDW's geography correctly, the partially eclipsed sun should set somewhere "behind" or near the Grand Floridian when viewed from the Contemporary.

    I recommend getting there no later than 4pm, just in case to get a decent viewing spot in case many other people are there, and to see the moon starting to eat its way into the sun at 4:12pm. The sun will be 14 degrees above the horizon at that point. The maximum, at which 44.6% of the sun's area will be eclipsed, occurs at 5:22, followed by the sunset exactly 6 minutes later.

    For further information, please refer to
    http://sunearth.gsfc.nasa.gov/eclipse/ASE2001/ASE2001.html

    And keep in mind to use proper tools to look at the sun - sunglasses will NOT protect your eye from taking damage!
    Solar filters, welding glasses, or projection methods are recommended. It's especially important to let yourkids know about this!

December 11 2001

December 5 2001

December 3 2001

November 28 2001

November 27 2001

November 23 2001

November 19 2001

November 14 2001

November 12 2001

November 11 2001

November 7 2001

November 5 2001

November 2 2001

October 29 2001

October 24 2001

October 23 2001

October 22 2001

October 19 2001

October 18 2001

October 17 2001

October 15 2001

October 12 2001

October 9 2001

October 8 2001

October 5 2001

October 3 2001

October 2 2001

October 1 2001

September 26 2001

September 25 2001

September 24 2001

September 21 2001

September 20 2001

September 19 2001

September 18 2001

September 17 2001

September 15 2001

September 14 2001

September 12 2001: Walt Disney World Resort To Reopen
After Second Closing in 30 Years

LAKE BUENA VISTA, Fla. (Sept. 11, 2001) -- Walt Disney World Resort in Florida will resume operations of all theme parks, water parks, and shopping, entertainment and recreation areas Wednesday morning, officials announced late Tuesday.

Additionally, Disney Cruise Line officials announced that sailings will continue as scheduled.

The four theme parks of Walt Disney World were closed -- for only the second time in the resort's nearly 30-year history -- on Tuesday in response to the events in New York, Washington, D.C., and Pennsylvania. Resort hotels remained open to accommodate guests.

(The theme parks were closed for the first time in September 1999 as Hurricane Floyd approached the Florida coast.)

Disney officials decided to re-open the theme parks following communication with law enforcement and state and local government officials. Disney officials stressed that the safety and welfare of guests and cast members remained a priority and security would remain heightened throughout the property.

"We are deeply saddened by this senseless act and the sorrow it is bringing to families in our nation, our community and our company," said Al Weiss, president of Walt Disney World Resort.

Guests seeking information about an upcoming Walt Disney World visit may call 407/W-DISNEY (407/934-7639).

September 11 2001

September 5 2001

September 3 2001

August 29 2001

August 24 2001

August 22 2001

August 15 2001

August 14 2001

August 13 2001

August 8 2001

August 7 2001

August 6 2001

August 2 2001

August 1 2001

July 31 2001

July 27 2001

July 24 2001

July 23 2001

July 20 2001

July 19 2001

  • SITE NEWS:
    As those of you who have been coming here for a long time will know, I have always had an up-hill battle against problems with hosting.  Well guess what - its happened again! Data transfer charges have increased, and one of my current hosting providers has terminated my account due to the amount of traffic generated.

    It is my goal to make the site as big, and full of photos, sounds and videos as possible.  However, the more I add, and the more visits I get, the more it actually costs me to host the content - so as the number of visitors increases, so does the running costs.

    To give you an idea of running costs, the site currently costs in the region of $100 - $150 per month, depending on how much data is actually downloaded in a given month.

    The first step for me to try and fund the site was via banner advertising. This currently brings in around $20 to $50 per month, depending if any of you guys buy anything from the banners!!  As you can see, this is a long way off covering the running costs.  I am currently funding the remainder myself, however, as traffic continues to increase, I can see the day where it will be economically impossible for me to continue to fund the difference.

    So now onto the next option.  It has been suggested by some regular visitors that they would like to make a voluntary contribution to help support the site.  So if you come here often, and enjoy the content, by giving a small amount (say $10 or whatever you feel you would like to contribute), you would become a Supporting Member of this site, and would help to ensure that the site can continue as it is, adding new content, news and interactive features.  WDWMAGIC.COM is not a business, just something I do in my spare time that has grown from a 1 page website 5 years ago, to what it is today, over 800MB of content, 2000 visitor sessions per day, and an online community all of it's own.

    If you would like to contribute, you can do so using the Internet standard payment system - PayPal.  The email address to use at PayPal is steve@wdwmagic.com.

    Thanks! Steve.

July 17 2001

July 16 2001

July 13 2001

July 12 2001

July 4 2001

Your letter is "A"

July 1 2001

June 29 2001

June 28 2001

June 25 2001

June 24 2001

  • Latest Sorcerer Hat construction photos

June 23 2001

June 18 2001

  • New Pop Century Resort Brochure
  • As you can see, I have been busy with the new layout - hope you like it!  You should find it quicker than the previous layout, as it is far more efficient, and hopefully the new navigation style will be easier to use. Regular updates should resume shortly, although I am still working on some changes.
  • NOTE: If you are running an old Netscape or IE browser, you may experience problems seeing the Contents menu on the left.  This can be fixed by upgrading to one of the latest browsers, such as IE5.5 or Netscape6.

June 13 2001

June 12 2001

June 7 2001

June 6 2001

June 4 2001

  • NEW Discussion Forums
    As many of the regular Forum members will know, the speed of the boards was getting progressively slower, and approached unusable at times.  The good news is I now have a new system live, which is MUCH faster, and has many more features.  However, the bad news is that it has not been possible to transfer user accounts or posts from the old forum to the new. So it means you will need to re-register.

    The new forum can be accessed at 
    http://forums.wdwmagic.com

    The old forum, which is now read only, can still be read at
    http://212.103.234.69/wdwmagic_cgi/ultraboard/ultraboard.pl
  • Tower of Terror Videos back online

June 1 2001

May 31 2001

May 30 2001

  • I am currently moving some areas of the site to a new server, so you may experience some disruption and dead links.  If you do happen to come across a dead link (excluding Videos/Audio), could you please email me at webmaster@wdwmagic.com
    -     wdwmagic.com will continue to host News/Rumors/Information
    - wdwmagicmedia.com will host specific attraction information, photos and other media
    - wdwmagic.com will continue to be the entrance point to all parts of the two sites, so you do not need to remember the alternate domain name.
    This course of action has been necessary due to the increasing bandwidth requirements of the site.  During May 20001, total data transfer was 80GB.  The existing wdwmagic.com server was unable to support that amount of traffic, which forced the split of the site across 2 servers.

May 25 2001

May 24 2001

May 21 2001

May 18 2001

May 13 2001

May 11 2001

May 9 2001

May 3 2001

May 2 2001

April 30 2001

April 26 2001

April 22 2001

  • UPDATE: Fudgie reported in live from the park today that a CM he spoke to at City Hall confirmed Timekeeper will be closing at the end of Saturday 28th April. He was also able to speak to a CM at El Pirate y Perico, who confirmed the restaurant would also close at the end of day Saturday 28th.

    The 2 Magic Kingdom closures (Time Keeper and Keel Boats) have been delayed by up-to a week. Closure is now set for between the 22nd and 29th April 2001 (with the 29th being the most likely). The reason for the delay is said to be a higher level of attendance than expected. There is no word on whether this delay will also apply to the AK changes.

April 20 2001

April 18 2001

April 17 2001

  • BIG MK NEWS. www.intercot.com first reported that Timekeeper is set to close. Since then I have been trying to source information to confirm this. I now have word from a reliable insider that, assuming there is no last minute change of plan, effective this Sunday the 22 of April 2001, Timekeeper and the Keelboats will be closed 'indefinatly'. This is due to the fact that these two rides had VERY low attendance, often putting through less than 10% of what they optimally could in an hour. No replacements are currently planned. On a better note the Hall of Presidents will open shortly with a temporary show until the G. Bush Anamatronic is ready, sometime in October of this year. More info on these items as soon as I have it.

April 13 2001

April 11 2001

April 9 2001

April 5 2001

April 3 2001

April 2 2001

March 29 2001

March 27 2001

March 25 2001

March 23 2001

March 22 2001

March 21 2001

March 20 2001

March 19 2001

March 15 2001

March 12 2001

March 7 2001

March 5 2001

March 2 2001

March 1 2001

February 26 2001

February 23 2001

February 20 2001

February 19 2001

February 15 2001

February 8 2001

February 5 2001

February 3 2001

February 1 2001

January 29 2001

January 24 2001

January 22 2001

January 18 2001

January 17 2001

January 15 2001

January 12 2001

January 8 2001

For updates from 2000, go here

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