BURBANK, Calif. (AP) – Walt Disney Co. said Thursday it has taken over the Disney Store chain in North America from Children's Place Retail Stores, and will close about 98 stores in the US and two in Canada. The Walt Disney Company sold the Disney Store chain to Children's Place in 2007 for a decent price, but after Children's Place's recent bankruptcy, the Walt Disney Company has bought the chain back for a low price, making quite a heft sum of money off of the deal.
BURBANK, Calif. (AP) – Walt Disney Co. said Thursday it has taken over the Disney Store chain in North America from Children's Place Retail Stores, and will close about 98 stores in the US and two in Canada.
The Walt Disney Company sold the Disney Store chain to Children's Place in 2007 for a decent price, but after Children's Place's recent bankruptcy, the Walt Disney Company has bought the chain back for a low price, making quite a heft sum of money off of the deal.
This weekend at Disneyland Resort the new Mark VII Monorails will be starting operation. A Cast member preview is scheduled from April 21st till April 28th when the Monorail will be open to all Disneyland Guests. Some of the new changes from the older Mark V trains include a sleek retro design with a stylish gold and red paint scheme, new island style seating configuration, with one row of inward-facing seating at the front and rear ends of each car to give guests a better view of the resort from above. Also there will now be only 3 monorail trains, the colors announced are Red, Blue, and Orange. Red and Blue have already been spotted at the resort.
The OC RegisterThe May 21 closure of Virtual Magic Kingdom, a Disney online social gaming site, is continuing to draw passion from its fans along with an online response from the site’s producer.
We wrote about the online Kingdom’s closing last week. The free site (also called VMK) was designed as an online promotion for Disneyland’s 50th anniversary. Be sure to check out that first post, as it has a poll with so far more than 1,400 votes.
VirtualWorldNews.com has also written about VMK’s ending and mentions that Disney has formed a team dedicated to virtual worlds. That article also links to the VMK newsletter page that has a reaction from Yavn (Seth Mendelsohn, producer for VMK) - his VMK avatar, or online character, is shown at right.
Yavn writes:
“So it’s been a difficult past few days for all of us. I know many of you are upset – some upset with me, some upset with the company, and lots of you just plain upset. Many of you are still struggling to understand the decision we made to close Virtual Magic Kingdom. We hear you and we share your concern and sorrow….Please know that the decision to close VMK was not made without a great deal of thought and discussion – because we loved creating VMK just as much as you loved playing it. We considered many options prior to closing but ultimately determined that VMK had accomplished its goal and then some. VMK was a valuable part of the Disneyland 50th Celebration, but it was never meant to live on forever. It’s now time to focus our resources on our new virtual worlds.”
We also have some new VMK links to share. Here is the summary page for VMK posts on MiceChat. Also, there is another site dedicated to preserving VMK, SaveVMKToday.com (artwork from site at left).
One of the VMK fans involved with the SaveVMKToday site is Jennifer, also known as “ForeverWDW.” She said that as an adult who suffers from severe depression, anxiety attacks and post traumatic stress, VMK is her personal escape.
“Here my friends unknowingly have provided the love and laughter I needed to make it through my darkest hours when I had nowhere else to turn to,” she said.
She also said that her two boys play VMK, and that both are upset about the ending of VMK.
“All I can do is try to tell them that it will all be ok, while inside my own heart breaks in two. Disney fails to realize the importance of this game to so many people worldwide.”
