Magic Kingdom

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!"

The Havre de Grace High School Warrior Pride Marching Band was chosen to perform in the prestigious Cherry Blossom Parade in Washington, D.C., Saturday, April 13. The marching band auditioned for the parade for the first time and was selected to be a part of a special All-Star Maryland marching band. The Warriors band will be combined with the Westminster High School marching band and the two will have the privilege of leading off the parade, band director Rick Hauf said. The parade travels down Constitution Avenue from the Washington Monument to the White House and is televised live in the D.C. market.

ANAHEIM, Calif. -- Disneyland has ended a 20-year-old event that allowed youngsters with disabilities to enjoy the park at discount prices, a move being loudly decried by some parents and activists.Disneyland decided to discontinue its "Happy Hearts" program, a six-day event that attracted thousands of disabled children and young adults to the Magic Kingdom twice a year.The action is the latest effort by Disneyland to reduce the number of discounted and free admissions to the park. Marching bands, employees' families and others have seen admission policies tightened as park attendance has swelled to an estimated 15 million annually.

THEATER PRINCE'S TOUCH Harold Prince, who won a 1980 Tony Award for his direction of the Andrew Lloyd Webber-Tim Rice musical Evita, has always said one of the musical's central themes is manipulation by the media. Returning to supervise the revival that opens at the Hippodrome on Tuesday, Prince points out that the theme is even more relevant today, considering "how much more media there is now than when we [first] did that show." The account of the rise and fall of the late Argentine first lady Eva Peron is co-directed by Prince and Larry Fuller (who is also re-creating his original choreography)

One outraged taxpayers' group calls it "the 'Fantasia' trip." We call it "the Great Escape."At a time when state budgets are in a sling, legislators from across the country are gathering at Disney World in Orlando, Fla., to hear Vice President Quayle speak at Epcot Center and to attend workshops on ethics and campaign finance reform. There will also be time for fun and games. Pennsylvania legislators ended their budget deadlock in time to attend, triggering a march on the Capitol in Harrisburg by disgusted state workers chanting, "M-I-C-K-E-Y M-O-U-S-E."

ORLANDO, Fla. - There was a big personality waiting to leap out of Michael Phelps. He was just waiting for someone to ask the right questions after he waved to a crowd of fans in a celebratory parade hosted by Walt Disney's Magic Kingdom yesterday. Phelps, of Rodgers Forge, chatted with a row of television reporters. He gave rehearsed answers to the same tired questions. "Has the reality of eight gold medals sunk in yet?" several reporters asked. "When the eighth happened, I had to realize what really happened," said Phelps, who has traveled to Portugal, London and New York in the past eight days.

This is the month to shiver and scream. Throughout the nation, scary or zany Halloween events are being held. Among them: Universal Orlando says its Halloween Horror Nights, running through Nov. 3, may be too intense for younger children, what with the presence of such film luminaries as Freddy, Jason, and Leatherface. Among the attractions are eight haunted houses, four new shows and a Midway of the Bizarre. You can pay $64.95 for a ticket and pick your date, or for the same price you can get admission on 13 selected nights, including Halloween.

At 7, Nyasha Dixon wanted a room of her own. Sharing a bedroom with her 6-year-old brother and 4-year-old sister was getting on her nerves. You'd feel the same way if someone popped the head off your Little Mermaid doll, scribbled on your kitten stickers and threw your stuffed dinosaur out the window in a rain shower.A big sister can only take so much.Lots of kids draw pictures of houses. Nyasha, the oldest of four, drew houses with initials in the windows, always marking one room as hers.

Finnish filmmaker Aki Kaurismaki creates a tiny magic kingdom on a trash heap in The Man Without a Past, an endearing salute to lower-depths fraternity set along the fringes of Helsinki. Thugs beat the memory and almost all the life out of the nameless hero as soon as he reaches the city. But he gradually becomes a valued member of a community that lives, at the low end, in abandoned trash bins and shipping boxes, and, at the high end, in Spartan dormitories. The movie starts out as an apocalyptic farce.

It's almost summertime -- and you know what that means: The theme parks shift into high gear.If you're not a parent, that may not mean much to you. Nor will you care if you are one of those terribly sophisticated people -- you know, the kind who claim to be far above the theme park scene. "Disney!" they sneer. "I wouldn't be caught dead there!"Well, that's their loss. Florida's theme parks can be a hassle during the busy summer season, but they offer wonderful entertainment.Sure, they're selling fantasy.