Disney, Fox and James Cameron to bring AVATAR to life at Disney Parks
Walt Disney Parks and Resorts Worldwide is joining forces with visionary filmmaker James Cameron and Fox Filmed Entertainment to bring the world of AVATAR to life at Disney parks. Through an exclusive agreement announced today by Disney, Cameron’s Lightstorm Entertainment and Fox, Disney will partner with Cameron and producing partner Jon Landau to create themed lands that will give theme park guests the opportunity to explore the mysterious universe of AVATAR first hand. Disney plans to build the first AVATAR themed land at Walt Disney World, within the Animal Kingdom park. With its emphasis on living in harmony with nature, Animal Kingdom is a natural fit for the AVATAR stories, which share the same philosophy.
Villa website updates
Im just winding down the main ‘day job’ for our summer holiday and in pops an email from Nick Cates to let us know an update for the theme used for this website is now available – perfect timing!
So four hours later the publish button has been pressed and hopefully the website is a little easier to use!
The main change seems to be the sub menus now stay open, which is a good thing (especially on the photo pages!).
I’m sure there will be other changes that mean some things work in this browser and don’t in another, but overall it seems to progress. Just contact us if you seem to have any problems!
Andy
The DIBB – Disney with a British Accent
We have just renewed our advertising with ‘The DIBB’, a UK based website with a british perspective on making the most of your visit to the sunshine state.
This will be our 5th year advertising with the DIBB and with the rise of todays social networks and interactive internet it is more relevant than ever as it’s no longer good enough to simply hide behind an anonymous email address, guests expect and should be able to contact the owners and talk to other guests about their experiences.
Unlike traditional advertising locations (which we also use!), locations such as the Dibb give us as owners nowhere to hide! We can upload our advert in the same way as everywhere else, but we cannot control the feedback, good or bad!
Guests renting a villa have the freedom to browse or search the forums and look for comments about the villa, so any villas advertised on the DIBB have to meet a standard or they almost certainly won’t be renewing the following year! The site also has strict rules for owners, for example they check ownership of the home to make sure it genuinely exists and if an owner puts their property up for sale they must notify the DIBB. There are very few sites that do this and we can think of nothing worse than staying in a villa with a ‘for sale’ sign in the window, or worse still not even existing.
You can see our advert on the DIBB here, and if you scroll to the bottom you can see when our advert was first posted, our status on the forum (currently Platinum!). We also have guest reviews on the site.
If our home is not available, or perhaps a little larger than you need the DIBB is an excellent location to find a home that you know the owners care about. You can see how long they have listed on the forum and their status on the forum. Personally we would look at villas that have been on the DIBB for over a year, and have a gold or platinum listing status to ensure the owner is active on the forum, and has been through at least one renewal cycle.
Its not just for the british either or just for villa information, the forum is a great source of information and we hope you find it useful!
A video from a guest!
We have just received an email from a guest that stayed for a week in Eeyores Escape in May with a link to a youtube video they compiled after they got home.
The have given us their permission to share it with everyone, and in their words ‘it’s quite a fun look at the happiest place on earth! You automatically get a smile watching it.’
We agree and after watching the video can’t wait to go back!
We hope you enjoy the video as much as we did.
Andy
Luxury Villas Near Disney – The Benefits
Most of our guests already realise the benefits of renting a villas. Many have stayed in a villa elsewhere and are bringing the rest of the family to Orlando for the ultimate Disney experience so I will not start this post with the usual ‘villas offer so much room’ and ‘imagine breakfast by the pool in your pjs’ etc. Even if it’s your first time i’m sure you will have read this before so it does not need to be said again!
I wanted to share is the benefits of renting villas near Disney that you may not be aware of, but that we have discovered over the years. It doesn’t matter if it’s your first time in Orlando or if you visit every year, there are always things you may not be aware of and this post is about the benefits of staying in a luxury villa, but using the Disney hotel attractions.
Back in the Villa (eventually!)
Well, we got here eventually, but it’s been a long journey this time!
We decided to do a bit of a road trip this time and flew into Philadelphia, then onto Minneapolis, then drive up into Canada, and then back through the States.
It took us three weeks to get here and we drove through Minnesota, Ontario, Michigan, New York, Pennsylvania, West Virginia, Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina and Georgia before reaching Florida!
Cranes on Bellavida
We get a few people asking, because Bellavida is still quite a new resort and they are building some new homes is there a lot of construction work, cranes etc.
These are the only cranes we have ever seen on Bellavida, even when they were building dozens of homes together!
Back at Bellavida
We are back again, and for a little longer this time thanks to my dad who is looking after our home and dog sitting the dogs back in England – thanks dad!
We have moved over to our villa after staying the night in Dave & Debs home. Hayleys Aunties and Uncle, and brother and their kids and their kids friends have all arrived so we have a nice full house!
The house is looking great, I have a short list of things to do as I expected there would be lots more to do, but there isn’t. David & Brenda at the management company, and Sheila who usually does the clean have been doing a great job and the house is looking great.
The photo above is of Davids middle daughter, and her friend taking a few steps into the clubhouse pool. It was freezing as the clubhouse pool heat is not on at the moment (it was freezing – literally – here last week), but our pool is warm so i’m really glad we went for the gas pool heater (until we get the gas bill!).
The weather is lovely now, getting up to about 70 in the day, and then cooling off over night, much better than the snow back at home. You can’t beat blue skies and swaying palm trees!
Zoe posing in front of a guests Harley just down the road.
Probably the only time to kids will go to the gym!
The grass is a bit yellow after the frost, but its recovering and the sky is still blue!
