With more firms developing the capability of creating Animatronic figures, Walt Disney Imagineering has decided to outsource the creation of simpler Animatronics to allow the Imagineers to concentrate on some of the more complex figures.

According to Imagineering spokeswoman Marilyn Waters:
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I've received a response from Walt Disney World spokeswoman Jacquee Polak regarding the civil rights discrimination lawsuit that I reported in today's Park Update:

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Don't have time to go to Walt Disney World but need that park fix? Now you can go to the parks without leaving your house. Disney and Google have teamed up to present Walt Disney World in 3-D on Google Earth.

You can "walk" through stunningly realistic recreations of the Disney parks & resorts, and click on handy links to get more information, see attraction videos and more.

Go to http://www.disneyworld.com/3dparks to download the required version 4.3 of Google Earth....

Well, they had hoped to have Toy Story Midway Mania in soft-opening status today.

In fact, when I spoke with Imagineers Kevin Rafferty yesterday, they both seemed to be pretty confident that they would be open to the public today. However, the nature of Test-and-Adjust on a Disney attraction is such that it's a sure thing that there are no sure things.

The official grand opening is May 31, and they're still hoping to get the attraction open before that, but there remain...

I just heard from my media contact at the Disney Vacation Club. DVC President Jim Lewis has been called into a meeting and will be unavailable for today's interview, which -- in turn -- had been postponed from yesterday.

I'll be able to interview my media contact about most of the topics that I was going to interview Jim about, but it's still disappointing.

Star Wars Weekends interview coming up shortly. More later.