Disney World

Joe Flacco is going to Disney World. After helping to lead the Ravens to a Super Bowl victory Sunday, the team's quarterback will be going to Disney World's Magic Kingdom Park on Monday for a celebratory parade, Disney officials announced in a post on their website. "The world just saw quarterback Joe Flacco lead the Baltimore Ravens to a Super Bowl win tonight in New Orleans, so the only question now is what Flacco is going to do next," Disney officials wrote. "Unless you have been stuck inside Space Mountain the last 20 years, the answer is pretty obvious: He's going to Disney World, of course!"

Members of the Blackburn family of Forest Hill didn't attend Sunday's Super Bowl in New Orleans, but they probably experienced the next best thing about the Baltimore Ravens' heart-stopping 34-31 win over the San Francisco 49ers. Scott and Kim Blackburn and their children, Brooke, 9, and Ethan, 5, were visiting Disney World in Orlando on Monday where they saw Ravens quarterback and Super Bowl MPV Joe Flacco make the traditional day after the game appearance at the Magic Kingdom. "It was cool," Scott Blackburn said by phone from Orlando, adding that the family vacation to Disney World this week ended up being perfectly scripted.

Members of the Blackburn family of Forest Hill didn't attend Sunday's Super Bowl in New Orleans, but they probably experienced the next best thing about the Baltimore Ravens' heart-stopping 34-31 win over the San Francisco 49ers. Scott and Kim Blackburn and their children, Brooke, 9, and Ethan, 5, were visiting Disney World in Orlando on Monday where they saw Ravens quarterback and Super Bowl MPV Joe Flacco make the traditional day after the game appearance at the Magic Kingdom. "It was cool," Scott Blackburn said by phone from Orlando, adding that the family vacation to Disney World this week ended up being perfectly scripted.

Joe Flacco is going to Disney World. After helping to lead the Ravens to a Super Bowl victory Sunday, the team's quarterback will be going to Disney World's Magic Kingdom Park on Monday for a celebratory parade, Disney officials announced in a post on their website. "The world just saw quarterback Joe Flacco lead the Baltimore Ravens to a Super Bowl win tonight in New Orleans, so the only question now is what Flacco is going to do next," Disney officials wrote. "Unless you have been stuck inside Space Mountain the last 20 years, the answer is pretty obvious: He's going to Disney World, of course!"

ORLANDO, Fla. -- In the mid-1980s, astute Walt Disney World observers noted that the world's No. 1 resort was moving quickly to duplicate, within its borders, the most successful attractions outside its property.Disney is continuing that strategy, even though one of the attractions from which it has borrowed ideas -- Boardwalk and Baseball near Haines City -- closed in 1990.Across Crescent Lake from the Walt Disney World Swan and Dolphin hotels, Disney has begun site work on Boardwalk, a waterfront specialty-retail and entertainment complex that it's billing as "a classic '30s boardwalk experience."

The Baltimore County Council last night voted to enlist the help of Mickey Mouse to help ensure that youngsters receive their immunizations on time.The council gave its approval for a contest in which parents who have their children fully immunized by 18 months can be eligible to win a trip to Walt Disney World and other Florida attractions.Officials hope publicity about the prize will increase immunizations for hepatitis, diphtheria and other childhood diseases from from 62 percent to more than 80 percent for children younger than age 2.State officials say the immunization rate for school-age children is nearly 100 percent.

"MOM, CAN we go to Disney World?" I'm sure that many parents have been asked this question at one time or another. Justin Jones of Brooklyn Park asked his mother the question in October. Mary Jones' simple response: "The only way we will get to Disney World is if we win tickets." Justin took his mom at her word. Having lunch at a Glen Burnie McDonald's, where a promotional Monopoly contest was under way, 12-year-old Justin opened his game piece, looked at it, and, well, guess what? "He called me at work and told me," Jones said, "but I didn't believe it. I told him that I would check it out when I got home."

The Orioles' six-year search for a permanent spring-training home could be ending soon in the backyard of Mickey Mouse and Donald Duck.Team officials are negotiating with the Walt Disney Co. to move their Grapefruit League headquarters to a planned 100-acre sports theme park at Walt Disney World in Orlando, Fla., according to sources familiar with the talks.The Orioles complex -- including a 10,000-seat stadium and four practice diamonds -- would be built by Disney at no cost to the Orioles, with the parties to split revenues from tickets, concessions and advertising.

ORLANDO -- I am sitting by a fantasy lake at Walt Disney World trying to figure why so many people bother clinging to reality.The perfect aquamarine lake sits inside something called "Disney's Caribbean Beach Resort," which is supposed to be a replica of several Caribbean islands.Having been to several real Caribbean islands, however, I much prefer these fantasy ones. For one thing, everybody smiles at you here when they take your money and they often say, "Thank you."If this happens in the real Caribbean, I must have missed it. I don't wish to be an Ugly American, but if I wanted to deal with surly people who resented my presence, I wouldn't go on vacation.

The morning of the Bandell-Strachan wedding dawned cloudy and gray.By mid-afternoon, as the bridal party assembled at Walt Disney World's Grand Floridian Beach Resort, the talk was of rain.The air was misty as the guests were shepherded onto a triangular lawn bordered by the ornate, white tiers of the Victorian-style hotel, the soaring concrete arches of the Magic Kingdom monorail and the willow-dotted shores of Seven Seas Lagoon.A languid breeze stirred the white cloth covering a boardwalk that led between rows of gold chairs to a low platform.

Last fall, FX's "American Horror Story" burst onto the scene as one of television's best drama miniseries and was nominated for 17 Emmy Awards . This season, co-creators Ryan Murphy and Brad Falchuk flipped the script by changing characters, plotlines and the show's setting from the “Murder House” to the dank and chilling Briarcliff Manor mental asylum. Over the next few weeks b will post Q&As with cast members of "American Horror Story. " So far, we've talked with Chloe Sevigny and Evan Peters . This time we caught up with Sarah Paulson.

For Jimmy Cornell, it was all about freedom. Early in his adult life, it came from fleeing communist Romania and finding his way to England, where he worked as a radio correspondent for the BBC. After he got married and began to help his wife, Gwenda, raise their two small children, it came in finding his way to the sea. It took until his early 30s to get there. "I was, to be honest, a hippy and I did not want a career in the BBC. I did not want to become a rich man when I was 50, I didn't care about this," Cornell recalled.

Military discounts for Walt Disney World What's the deal: Orlando, Fla., is a great vacation spot for members of the U.S. military, thanks to a number of discount offers. These discounts allow active military members to go on vacation without breaking the bank, and many deals are also available for retired military. Active and retired service members or their spouses can purchase up to six four-day military promotional tickets to Walt Disney World starting at $138 each.

Free Disney dining plan from Southwest What's the deal?: Book a Southwest Airlines Vacations package, including flight, hotel and Magic Your Way Tickets, for three or more nights at the Walt Disney World Resort in Orlando, Fla., and receive the Disney Dining Plan free or 50 percent off the Deluxe Dining Plan. What's the savings?: The dining plan includes one table-service meal, one counter-service meal and one snack per guest per night at Disney World restaurants. The dining plan covers a family of four, including two adults and two children.

Gathering sports media notes two-by-two and measuring them in cubits while waiting for the next downpour: It's a big weekend for ESPN/ABC, with the NBA Finals having begun last night and the Belmont Stakes run tomorrow. The playoffs have scored well for the corporate brother networks. Overall, ESPN's playoff audience was up 38 percent over last year for an average 3.3 percent of the available audience, and ABC's playoff games increased 28 percent to a 3.7 rating. The five Eastern Conference finals games on ESPN were up 47 percent (4.7 rating)

LAKE BUENA VISTA, Fla. -- OK, boys and girls, including all you chiffon-wearing princesses - it's time to go to your rooms and close your eyes and dream of whatever it is little darlings dream about these days. They gone? Good. Fellow adults, we're going to spend the next couple of pages talking about Walt Disney World for grown-ups. There are people, and you know who you are, who only come to Disney World hauling kids with them. Nothing wrong with that. I've done Disney with kids and lived.

Any day spent at Walt Disney World is bound to be a good day, but last Friday proved especially nice for one lucky musician in the Mount Hebron High School marching band. In Orlando, Fla., to perform in Disney's Magic Music Days festival, the 165-member band was marching along Main Street, U.S.A., when the drum major signaled them to halt. A stage had been wheeled into the middle of the road, blocking the band's path. As band members wondered what was going on, senior Tracie Ervin's name suddenly was announced as the 2-millionth student performer at Disney World since the festival began in 1985.

It's no fairy tale. Your coach -- or monorail or boat or bus -- will whisk you to the ball -- or theme park -- and it won't turn into a pumpkin at midnight. The ride is convenient, clean and friendly. Talk about a magic kingdom.This transit utopia, of course, is Walt Disney World, where, for 25 years, more than 100 million people have come to find the extraordinary is routine and the fantastic is to be expected."I love this job," says John, the monorail driver. "Everywhere I look I see a picture postcard scene."

Any day spent at Walt Disney World is bound to be a good day, but last Friday proved especially nice for one lucky musician in the Mount Hebron High School marching band. In Orlando, Fla., to perform in Disney's Magic Music Days festival, the 165-member band was marching along Main Street, U.S.A., when the drum major signaled them to halt. A stage had been wheeled into the middle of the road, blocking the band's path. As band members wondered what was going on, senior Tracie Ervin's name suddenly was announced as the 2-millionth student performer at Disney World since the festival began in 1985.