Long before Blizzard Beach or Typhoon Lagoon, there was Disney’s River Country. It was the first water park ever built at the Walt Disney World Resort. For those Disney guests of a certain age, remember heading down to the old watering hole and spending the day cooling off at River Country. 💦On June 20, 1976, Disney's River Country water park ...
Read More »Author Archives: Rick Lye
Chapek’s First Public Comments Post-Firing: Hints at Disney’s Financial Strain
It’s been nearly 18 months since Disney CEO Bob Chapek was relieved of his duties, only to be replaced as the head of the Walt Disney Company by his predecessor, Bob Iger. Since that time, Bob Chapek has maintained a relatively low profile. However, for the first time since his firing as Disney CEO, Bob Chapek sat down for an ...
Read More »Florida Attorney General Issues Urgent Travel Warning for Disney World Spring Break Visits
Even though we like to believe that Walt Disney World is a world apart, we tend to bring our problems with us when we go, especially if that problem happens to be an addiction to drugs. As it turns out, Florida leads the nation as the state where people die the most from a drug overdose during a vacation. During ...
Read More »Disney Faces Lawsuit After R-Rated Incident Leads to Customer Threat
WARNING: The following article mentions and/or discusses topics that may be distressing for certain audiences. Viewer discretion is advised. There are times when simple misunderstandings can lead to unanticipated consequences, especially when alcohol is involved. Disney fan and Florida lawyer Greg Abaray finds that out the hard way. After a misunderstanding about his bar order at Jellyrolls Piano Bar at ...
Read More »Donald Trump Joins Legal Battle: Sues Disney, Latest Republican to Take Action
Former president and presumptive Republican nominee for president, Donald Trump, has become the latest member of the GOP to sue the Walt Disney Company. Trump is suing Disney-owned ABC and ABC News This Week anchor George Stephanopoulos for defamation. Trump claims that by repeating on air that the former president was liable for raping write E. Jean Carroll, ABC and Stephanopoulos harmed ...
Read More »Tragic Loss: ‘General Hospital’ Star Found Dead at 64
The body of a former General Hospital star was found in an open field behind a business in San Jacinto, California, according to the Riverside County Sheriff’s Department. Robyn Bernard starred in 145 episodes of the ABC soap opera from 1984 to 1990. She played Terry Brock, the daughter of David Groh’s D.L. Brock, during her run on the daytime drama. Remembering ...
Read More »Calls for Boycott: Pro-Palestinian Voices Target Taylor Swift’s Disney+ Concert Film
It’s been more than five months since Hamas terrorists invaded Israel, and Israel responded by invading the Gaza Strip. In that time, more than 30,000 Palestinians and 1,400 Israelis, most of them civilians, have been killed. The Walt Disney Company has found itself in the middle of this conflict. After donating $1 million to the Magen David Adom, an affiliate of ...
Read More »Key Figure in Disney’s Legal Battle Now Heads DeSantis’ Disney District
In 2021, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis and the Florida Legislature crafted a wide-ranging law that would allow the state to punish social media companies for removing posts or refusing to publish posts from certain media companies or political figures, even if those posts violated the company’s rules on hate speech, violent incitements, or disinformation. DeSantis used Twitter and Facebook’s bans ...
Read More »Unlikely Pairing: Website Content Shifts from Controversial Topics to Disney Links
The Walt Disney Company owns a little bit of everything. Either through its own design or through purchases, Disney owns a good portion of the media industry. In the past 20 years, mostly under current CEO Bob Iger, the Walt Disney Company went on a spending spree, buying up competitors including Pixar, Marvel Studios, Hulu, and 20th Century Fox Studios. ...
Read More »Disney’s Imagineering Department Faces Leadership Vacuum at Critical Juncture
At a crucial time for the Walt Disney Company, it is losing one of the people who is responsible for creating and expanding Disney’s theme park operations. In an announcement on Linkedin and Instagram this morning, Barbara Bouza announced that she was leaving as President of Walt Disney Imagineering. Bouza had been in the job since 2021, when she replaced ...
Read More »