Disney News

Star Designers Bring Expertise to New HGTV Stage

HGTV kicks up the “curb appeal” of the 18th Epcot® International Flower & Garden Festival March 2 through May 15 with a first-time sponsorship featuring weekend appearances by its acclaimed designers and landscaping experts. The star-studded lineup includes Genevieve Gorder, Lisa LaPorta, Kim Myles, Brian Patrick Flynn, Taniya Nayak, Ahmed Hassan, Patti Moreno, Michele Beschen, John Gidding, Frank Fontana, and Vern Yip.

The country’s leading home and lifestyle television brand brings an addictive blend of design, decorating and landscaping inspiration to the enduring, 75-day gardening extravaganza at the Walt Disney World® Resort.

At the Festival Center presented by HGTV, popular celebrity experts will appear each Friday, Saturday and Sunday of the festival on the HGTV Stage. The HGTV hosts will deliver valuable tips to Disney guests on topics including “Mobile Gardens,” “Secrets to Bringing Indoor Style Outside” and “Gardening with Kids.”

“We are thrilled to welcome HGTV and so many of the network’s great Talent to Epcot® this spring,” said Dan Cockerell, vice president of Epcot. “HGTV’s design and gardening personalities add an exciting, and entertaining new element to a festival that reinvents itself year after year.”

As part of the sponsorship, HGTV also will present a new, twice-its-previous-size Bambi’s Butterfly House along the Future World Imagination Walkway. Inside this popular festival stop are hundreds of native butterflies and character topiaries from the timeless Disney classic film, “Bambi.” This year’s display celebrates the upcoming release of “Bambi” Diamond Edition, for the first time on Blu-ray Hi-Def.

“People visit Disney for a memorable experience where they are inspired, enlightened and entertained,” said Jim Samples, president, HGTV. “Our star designers will provide just such an experience for the Disney guest during The Epcot® International Flower & Garden Festival presented by HGTV.  Disney is the ideal venue and destination for us to connect face-to-face with our passionate viewers.”

The HGTV celebrity lineup includes:

Genevieve Gorder, HGTV Design Star and Dear Genevieve (March 4-6)
The Art of Sculpting Space

Lisa LaPorta, Designed to Sell (March 11 – 13)
Design It Yourself: Easy-to-follow Tips for Designing Your Favorite Rooms

Kim Myles, Myles of Style (March 18 – 20)
The 5 DIY Secrets That Can Transform Any Space

Brian Patrick Flynn, Design Happens, HGTV.com (March 25-27)
Mobile Gardens

Taniya Nayak, Designed to Sell and Destination Design (April 1-3)
Adding Value to Your Home Without Breaking the Bank

Ahmed Hassan, Yard Crashers (April 8-10)
Life, Love and Landscaping

Patti Moreno, Garden Girl, HGTV.com (April 15-17)
Gardening with Kids: Fun Seed Starting Projects

Michele Beschen, B. Original (April 22-24)
When Nature Calls: Creative, Back-to-Basics Style for All Things Natural and Decorative

John Gidding, Curb Appeal: The Block (April 29-30, May 1)
The Design Process: Curb Appeal Projects from Concept to Construction

Frank Fontana, Design on a Dime (May 6-8)
Beautiful on a Budget: High Style, Low-Cost Secrets to Bringing Indoor Styling Outside

Vern Yip, HGTV Design Star (May 13-15)
Top Design Trends Made Affordable and Accessible
In addition to its own celebrity stage appearances, HGTV will present the popular twice-dailyDisney Gardening at Home series, where guests can join a workshop and take home projects ranging from hanging baskets to water garden features. The Festival Center’s HGTV Theater will present a special-engagement film featuring tips and hints from HGTV shows.

Dozens of Disney character topiaries are back by popular demand at this year’s festival. Woody, Buzz Lightyear and chief villain Lotso of the Oscar-nominated Disney blockbuster, “Toy Story 3,” make their first topiary appearance in front of Spaceship Earth at the park’s front-entrance garden. Topiary craftsmen also will debut floral versions of Lightning McQueen and Mater, stars of “Cars 2,” to be released in theaters this June.

Flower Power concerts will rock the open-air America Gardens Theatre stage three times each Friday, Saturday and Sunday evening with popular acts like Davy Jones and Chubby Checker & The Wildcats. New-to-the-festival performers will include Melissa Manchester, Marilyn McCoo & Billy Davis Jr.

The lineup for the Flower Power Concert Series has been announced!  The concert series is part of the Epcot® International Flower and Garden Festival held every spring in Epcot® at the Walt Disney World® Resort. On Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays during the festival, you’ll be able to enjoy music from the 1960s, 1970s and 1980s during the Flower Power Concert Series at the America Gardens Theatre. Here is the latest lineup of performers*:

• 3/4-6 Jose Feliciano (Light My Fire)
• 3/11-13 The Guess Who (American Woman)
• 3/18-20 Chubby Checker and the Wildcats (The Twist)
• 3/25-27 Melissa Manchester (Don’t Cry Out Loud)
• 4/1-3 Starship starring Mickey Thomas (We Built this City)
• 4/8-10 Marilyn McCoo & Billy Davis Jr. (You Don’t Have to be a Star to be in My Show)
• 4/15-17 Juice Newton (Queen of Hearts)
• 4/22-24 Ricky Nelson Remembered featuring The Nelsons (Poor Little Fool)
• 4/29-5/1 Paul Revere & The Raiders (Good Thing)
• 5/6-8 Davy Jones (I’m a Believer)
• 5/13-15 Herman’s Hermits starring Peter Noone (I’m Henry VIII, I Am)

Epcot® theme park admission is required for the Flower Power Concert Series. The Epcot® International Flower and Garden Festival will operate March 2-May 15.  Showtimes are at 5:15, 6:30 & 7:45 p.m.

*Entertainment is subject to change without notice.

Here are just a few of our favorites to celebrate with the love of your life with the Disney Destinations.  Be sure to tell us where you enjoy going with yourspecial someone in the comments below.

Walt Disney World® Resort
From carriage rides to romantic dinners, the Walt Disney World® Resort is the perfect place to celebrate.  Cuddle under the moonlight in a horse-drawn carriage at Disney’s Port Orleans – Riverside.  Watch the Magic Kingdom® fireworks from the beach at Disney’s Polynesian Resort or while dining at California Grill from the top of Disney’s Contemporary Resort.  Enjoy a quiet dinner in the wine cellar at Le Cellier or under the stars at San Angel Inn and then catch Illuminations: Reflections of Earth on the World Showcase Lagoon.  Stroll hand-in-hand down Disney’s Boardwalk and dance the night away in the Atlantic Dance Hall.  Schedule a couples massage at Disney’s Grand Floridian Resort & Spa.  Parasail together over Bay Lake for a perfect view of the world.  Snuggle together as the haunts fly around you on Haunted Mansion.  Recreate the spaghetti scene of Lady & the Tramp at Tony’s Town Square in the Magic Kingdom. And don’t forget to end your fairytale vacation with a meal inside Cinderella Castle.

Disneyland® Resort
In the place where magic began, you create some magic of your own.  Enjoy a meal on the bayou at Blue Bayou in New Orleans Square.  Experience the magic of Fantasmic!. Enjoy a romantic meal for two at the elegant, and award-winning Napa Rose. Listen to live jazz music at the House of Blues in Downtown Disney®. Watch the sunset from the back of the Mark Twain as it sails around the island. Wait til the park is nearly empty at the end of the night and stroll hand in hand down Main Street U.S.A. taking in the atmosphere. Sneak down the path of the waterfalls of the Disneyland Hotel to steal a kiss. Take a spin on Mickey’s Fun Wheel in Paradise Pier at night. Fly to Neverland on Peter Pan’s Flight in Fantasyland.

Disney Cruise Line®
Get away from the worries and stress of every day life, and enjoy a romantic cruise with your significant other.  Enjoy coffee together at the Cove Café. Watch one of the Broadway-style productions in the Walt Disney Theater. Dance the night away in one of the many night clubs or up on deck under the stars. Reserve a Spa Villa and relax in the personal jacuzzi after your couples massage or schedule a massage in the private beach cabanas on Disney’s Castaway Cay.  Soak in the adult-only pool.  Enjoy a romantic dinner for two with sweeping ocean views in the adult-only restaurants, Palo and Remy. Book excursions to explore exotic locations.  Bask in the sun on Serenity Bay, the adult only beach of Disney’s Castaway Cay.

For more information, please contact your Magic Maker® or click here to request a quote.

Guests will be able to take part in an energetic and fun-filled meet-and-play experience with Phineas & Ferb at Disney’s Hollywood Studios™. Phineas and Ferb (from the popular television show of the same name) “know what they’re gonna do today”: they are going to make a movie all about their crazy adventures.

With the help of guests and movie director Cletus Filmore, they will recreate some of their favorite moments…unless they are taking a break to meet with their adoring fans, signing autographs and taking pictures. The fun will take place near the exit to Muppet Vision 3-D and is scheduled to open in May 2011. It is not known if Perry the Platypus will be joining them at this time.

Since the expansion of Disney California Adventure® park was announced, Toy Story Mania!, Games of the Boardwalk, Mickey’s Fun Wheel, Silly Symphony Swings and of course, the nighttime spectacular, “World of Color” have all opened. Now, Walt Disney Imagineering has turned its sights to the next highly-anticipated opening: The Little Mermaid ~ Ariel’s Undersea Adventure, coming soon in 2011. In this video, Imagineer Lisa Girolami takes you behind the curtain to give you a first look at Ariel’s world. From the drawing board to the incredible scenery, this is an attraction sure to make a splash with guests.

*Ariel’s Undersea Adventure Image: Walt Disney Imagineering Concept Art, actual construction may vary