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Epcot closed today because of a fire early this morning at a power sub-station near the park. The fire caused most of the park, as well as a few nearby resorts, to lose power. Magic Kingdom and Disney-MGM Studios will stay open late tonight to make up for any inconvenience. This is only the third time that the park has closed in it's twenty year history, the other times being for a hurricane and in the aftermath of 9/11. This is the first time that any WDW park has shut down independently of the others.
6/3/2002
Aloha, everybody! It's almost the Fourth of July, and that means baseball, lemonade, hot dogs, and fireworks. It also means lots of new movies hitting a theater near you. Do yourself a favor, and celebrate by going to see the best movie out there, and the best Disney movie in a long, long time: Lilo & Stitch.
If you haven't heard the basic plotline (A destructive little alien crash lands in Hawaii where he is taught the meaning of family by a lonely but spirited little girl), or seen the creative ads (Stitch crashes the most memorable scenes of Disney's modern classics), you must have been living under a rock for the last two months. But what you may not know is just what a quality movie this really is. Take the pastel look of Disney's classic animated fairy tales, a little of the offbeat humor that abounded in The Emperor's New Groove, and add a realistic and emotionally involving story and you've got Lilo & Stitch. This is also the second movie to come entirely from Walt Disney Feature Animation Florida, at Disney-MGM Studios (The first was Mulan). Appropriately, this is Disney's first animated feature in over 14 years to be set in contemporary America. So, this Independence Day, skip the typical mindless summer movie fare (talking dogs, anyone?) and go see the one movie you can come out of knowing you got your money's worth, Disney's 41st animated feature, Lilo & Stitch.1/23/2002
As many of you may know, my uncle Charles Kite ran in the Walt Disney World Marathon on January 6 (See past article). He's been kind enough to write another article for the site, this one describing the actual marathon through his eyes. Congratulations, Uncle Charles!
The alarm went off at 3:00 a.m. but I was already lying awake in bed. The day had arrived. All of the mileage I had run training for the Disney Marathon was about to be put to use.
Like the first time marathoner I was, I had checked and double checked the night before all of the items I was carrying with me in the marathon. Did I had enough PowerGel? Was my timing chip tied onto my shoe correctly? Where did I put my runner's lube stick? Was my race number pinned on? I ate my marathoner's breakfast of a bagel and yogurt, drank my Gatorade, packed my bag of dry clothes for the finish, and headed out the door for the bus at 3:45 a.m.
I arrived at the check-in about 4:00 a.m. Thousands of runners were already there. The temperature was 40 degrees. Thank goodness someone told me to take a garbage bag to wear as a windbreaker. My running partner, Robert VandeLune, and I found a place to sit on the cold asphalt to wait until we were led to the starting line. Around 5:00 a.m., we followed the mass of runners on the 1/2 mile walk to the starting line. I walked along side a runner from Canada. This was his first marathon, also. He handed me a Canadian flag pin and I wished him good luck.
We were told that there were 13,000 runners in the full marathon and another 5,000 in the half marathon. Both runs started from the same area separated by a grass median on the highway in the vicinity of Epcot. Robert and I were assigned to start with the very last group of runners. From our vantage point, the start line looked to be miles ahead of us. I looked around at the other runners and saw several were wearing the same lime green Arthritis Foundation Joints in Motion singlet that Robert and I were wearing. This was a reminder to me that Robert and I were running this race in honor of our friend, Frank Odierno. Frank suffers from Sero-positive Rheumatoid Arthritis and the three of us teamed up to raise almost $10,000 for arthritis research and education programs.
As the 6:00 a.m. start time neared, the runners began shedding their garbage bags, sweatpants, and sweatshirts. These were passed from runner to runner until they made their way outside of the crowd to the shoulders of the highway.
Mickey Mouse and Donald Duck arrived on their bus to officially start the race. The anticipation and excitement of starting my first marathon was beginning to boil. I knew when the fireworks went off to start the race we would all leave running. The fireworks exploded in grand fashion and the Disney marathon had started... or so I thought! It had started, but there were so many runners between me and the start line that it took almost 10 minutes of walking to the start line for my race to begin!
Spectators, who braved the early morning start, lined the highway and cheered us on toward our destination. The first four miles of the race were in and around Epcot. We started the marathon in the dark, but somewhere between Epcot at mile 4 and the Magic Kingdom at mile 10, the sun came up! We ran down Main Street towards Cinderella's Castle with spectators lining the street cheering and high-fiving us along the way. Disney employees and several of the Disney characters stood along the access roads cheering us on and offering photo opportunities for those who brought cameras. Some of the characters I remember seeing included Mary Poppins, Buzz Lightyear, Cinderella, Dopey, Tweedledee and Tweedledum, Goofy, as well as Minnie and Mickey.
Around mile 16, we entered the Animal Kingdom. The parks had opened for business by this time and the race course was separated from the crowd by ropes. We left Animal Kingdom on a divided highway headed for the Sports Complex. The rain started falling around mile 20. Just a light rain at first that felt pretty good, but then the rain started falling harder and the wind was blowing the rain horizontally right into my face. Volunteers manned the water stations every mile along the course and as the rain fell, they continued to hand us drinks and shout encouraging words in our direction. We entered Disney-MGM Studios at mile 23. As I ran past the Tower of Terror fighting cramps in my thighs, I was thinking of the finish line only 3 miles away. I had run only one 20 mile run in my training, so my body was in foreign territory.
We ran back into Epcot at mile 25. As Robert and I came around the final curve with the finish line in sight, I felt a huge rush of adrenaline. I thought about the reason I was running this marathon. I thought about Frank Odierno and the others who suffer from arthritis. It seemed like the crowd was cheering just for me as I ran down the stretch toward the finish line. Robert and I crossed the finish line together in 4 hours and 22 minutes. 26.2 miles. As I crossed the finish line, I heard my children cheering for their Dad. I had done it.
12/22/2001
Recently, I asked my uncle Charles Kite, a runner-in-training for the January 6th Walt Disney World Marathon, to describe the marathon and tell us a little about how he trained for the event and why he is running in it. Here's what he had to say.
The 26.2 mile marathon course will begin in Epcot and run through Cinderella's Castle at the Magic Kingdom. We will run through Disney's Animal Kingdom, Disney's Wide World of Sports Complex, Disney-MGM Studios, Disney's Boardwalk Resort and finish back at Epcot. Approximately 13,000 runners are expected for the marathon.
I am running with a friend, Robert VandeLune. We are running our very first marathon as members of the Arthritis Foundation's Joints in Motion Training Team.
Robert and I are running in honor of Frank Odierno. Frank is a friend of ours who has been diagnosed with Sero-positive Rheumatoid Arthritis. Due to this diagnosis, he is totally disabled and lives with pain everyday.
Robert, the Odierno family, and I have been able to raise $10,000 through the generosity of friends for the Arthritis Foundation to support arthritis research and local community-based education programs by running in the Disney Marathon.
By January 6, Robert and I will have run over 600 miles since the middle of July training for the marathon. We have followed a schedule provided by the Arthritis Foundation to slowly build our miles each week. Fortunately, we have run injury free during our training. Our weekly schedule has us running Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday with a long run on Saturday. Our longest week consisted of two 5 mile runs, a 10 mile run, and a 20 mile run. The 20 mile run is the longest run we will have prior to the Disney
Marathon.
I have always thought that if I ever ran a marathon, the Disney Marathon is the one I would like to try. I could only imagine the excitement of running past the cheering crowds as we ran through each of the Disney parks. Running for the Arthritis Foundation's Joints in Motion Team has given me the opportunity to help a friend while achieving a dream. If only I can figure out how to keep the ears on my Mickey Mouse hat from catching all of the wind and slowing me down!!
GOOD LUCK, UNCLE CHARLES!
Carrying on, let me tell you what I'm working on for the very near future for the site. I'm going to have two stories for you from a guest at Disney-MGM Studios the morning of the terrorist attacks, and a runner in training for the upcoming Walt Disney World Marathon. I'm also updating the parks section of the site to reflect the parade changes and new attractions for the 100 Years of Magic Celebration, and hopefully before spring I'll debut the new Universal Orlando section of the site, complete with full descriptions of every attraction at both Universal Studios Florida & Islands of Adventure. So, enjoy the holidays, and I hope to see you right back here very soon.
12/20/2001
Happy holidays, everybody. I would like to start out by apologizing for the fact that I haven't updated this site for so long. I just haven't felt like doing anything to the site since the September 11th attacks, partially because I didn't want to take down the message I posted that day, partially because I've been very busy with school, and mostly just because it didn't seem all that important in light of everything that has been going on. But as I'm sure you've heard countless times, the President has urged us to carry on with our everyday lives, so here we are. Better late than never, I guess.
9/11/2001
Normally, the news that all Disney theme parks worldwide have closed their gates would be a major announcement. But, in the wake of what is being called the "Second Pearl Harbor", this hardly warrants mentioning. Hours after hijacked jetliners were used to brutally attack the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, The Walt Disney Company decided it would be best to temporarily close all of its' vacation properties in Florida, California, Tokyo, and Paris in the interest of safety. The act of foreign aggression that caused this development has rocked the foundation of our nation. I would personally like to express my deepest sympathy to the friends and family of the victims of this unimaginable act of terrorism. I would urge everyone around the nation and the world to pray for these individuals, to help them deal with a loss so tragic. In addition, I encourage each of you to do your part to help by donating blood, if possible. To find out how to do so, visit the American Red Cross website at redcross.org, or call 1-800-GIVE-LIFE or your local hospital. You can also contribute money to the Red Cross relief fund by visiting redcross.org or calling 1-800-HELP-NOW. Thank you, and may God watch over us and protect us in the days to come.