Sources have announced that The Disney Store located at Seminole Towne Center in Sanford will be closing this month. However, The Disney Store located in Florida Mall, which completed a high-tech renovation last year, will remain open.
The Sanford Disney Store was one of the original tenants when the mall opened in 1995, but a Disney spokeswoman had no information about why the store is closing or whether there are plans to close any additional stores.
The store will close by January 24.
Source

Recently, Walt Disney Co. announced that it will be dropping pensions as a benefit for new salaried employees beginning January 1, 2012. Existing salaried employees will have their current plans revised; Disney’s union workers will not be impacted by this change.
The pension revisions will affect approximately 9,500 of the 62,000 people who work in Florida for Walt Disney World, Disney Cruise Line and Disney Vacation Club. Currently, separate pension plans are maintained for Disney employees and those who work for the ABC Network (which was acquired by Disney in the 1990’s.) Now, …

In collaboration with Green-Up Orlando and Keep Orlando Beautiful, nearly 100 Disney VoluntEARS worked to help “green and clean” a local Orlando neighborhood last weekend.
The VoluntEARS and the City of Orlando planted oak, crepe-myrtle, and magnolia trees along the neighborhood streets, and helped clean up debris and trash – including a few signs from the local waterway, Lake Fran.
The immediate impact of the project was clear, but Disney VoluntEARS and Orlando both wanted to make an impact on long-term preservation of local wildlife and their habitats, as well.
Check out the …

It’s a moment that we’ve all been waiting for:  the Disney Dream is home!
The beautiful and brand spankin’ new vessel sailed up the channel into Port Canaveral before dawn yesterday, arriving to cheers and a pre-dawn fireworks display.  Awaiting her were Mickey, Minnie, and a couple thousand cheering cast members and fans.
With the arrival of the Disney Dream comes lots of changes for Disney Cruise Line.  On Thursday, the Disney Wonder will depart East Coast waters for West Coast itineraries, which will include the Mexican Riviera and a first for …

Disney World has been given reprieve on one of the several accusations of safety negligence that have popped up in the past year. A jury decided on Monday that a Philadelphia man’s lawsuit claiming Disney’s Tower of Terror ride caused his 1998 stroke would not stand. Their verdict determined that there was no “dangerous condition on the tower ride called Tower of Terror on March 28, 1998, about which the Walt Disney World Co. either knew or should have known, by the use of reasonable care… .”
Marvin Cohen, now 80, …

Top high speed train (or bullet train) makers from China and Japan are giving serious consideration to having Walt Disney World one of their stops, and Disney is behind it.
The New York Times is reporting that, “Central Japan Railway and China South Locomotive & Rolling Stock are competing for the $8 billion that President Barack Obama has granted for 13 high-speed corridors across the United States, including a line between Tampa and Orlando in Florida that may include a station at the Walt Disney resort near Orlando.”
Other companies from various …