WALT DISNEY WORLD

New Restaurant replacing McDonald’s

Pollo Campero and Levy Campero have announced that they’re opening a new Latin-themed restaurant at Downtown Disney Marketplace at the end of the year. The restaurant will take the space currently occupied by McDonald’s, which will close permanently on April 30.  The new restaurant will feature Pollo Campero’s signature Latin chicken, as well as a new restaurant concept featuring fresh, healthy food. The full press release can be found here.

New Exhibit at Innoventions

IBM’s redesigned exhibit, called “Smarter Planet,” has opened at Epcot’s Innoventions. The exhibit lets guests take a peek at an energy efficient IBM data center, and they can also create avatars of themselves which become players in a video game based on IBM’s history of computing achievements. Full details here.

Planet Hollywood store closed

Downtown Disney West Side’s “Planet Hollywood on Location” store has now closed permanently. The main store adjacent to the restaurant remains.

DISNEYLAND PARIS

High School Musical Show Cancelled

The popular High School Musical show won’t be returning to Walt Disney Studios Park this year, a move seen a another cost-cutting measure.

New show in the works

A new dance show is coming to Disneyland Paris, according to a casting call recently put out for dancers. “L’Incroyable Rendez-Vous,” which translates as The Incredible Rendez-Vous is advertised in the casting call to run through September 2010. We’ll post more details as we hear them.

DISNEY CRUISE LINE

Walt Disney Imagineer, David Smith, gives viewers a tour of the exciting enhancements underway at Disney Cruise Line’s Private Island, Castaway Cay in this recently published video clip.

DISNEY IN GENERAL

Oscar Nominations

Disney and Pixar have done well in this year’s Oscar nominations, receiving five for UP and three for The Princess and the Frog. It’s only the second time Disney have received a nomination for one of their animated features in the Best Picture category, the first being for Beauty and the Beast back in 1992. Full details and categories are here.