Inside the Magic

At Disney's Animal Kingdom theme park, guests can now step onto the "other side" of the safari as part of the Wild Africa Trek. Included in the 3-hour adventure are up-close encounters with hippos and crocodiles, shaky rope bridge walks, and relaxing time snacking in the middle of the Harambe Reserve savannah.

Located inside Hershey's Chocolate World, the Hershey Chocolate Factory Tour is a free Disney-style dark ride that takes visitors on a journey through a simulated version of Hershey's chocolate factory, showing guests how their famous candies are made. This video features binaural audio, so wear your headphones for the full enjoyment!

ElecTRONica premiered on Oct. 8, 2010 at the Disney California Adventure theme park. Seen here is the official portal opening that takes place nightly, kicking off the party.

At a recent Mickey's Not-So-Scary Halloween Party, Disney's Boo To You parade came to a temporary halt for technical difficulties with the Pirates of the Caribbean float allowing me to capture the full Haunted Mansion sequence several times over, including the caretaker and his dog, shovel-wielding butlers, graveyard float, ballroom dancers, and hitchhiking ghosts.

Dive deep inside the psyche of My X lead singer Sylvie and learn about her musical inspiration, haunted past, and what's in store for guests attending her nightly concerts at Busch Gardens' Howl-O-Scream.

Inside the Magic podcast host Ricky Brigante got a sneak peek at the new My X: Revenge Rocks haunted house for Howl-O-Scream 2010 at Busch Gardens Tampa Bay. See the reaction via their infamous Scream Cam!

On Sept. 15, 2010, La Cantina and La Hacienda de San Angel held their joint grand opening at Epcot in Walt Disney World. La Cantina features quick service Mexican food with outdoor seating while La Hacienda offers similar food in an indoor, table service environment.

D23 members and guests were invited after hours on September 7, 2010 to ride Star Tours for its final flight to Endor (or not) before it "powers down" to get remade into Star Tours: The Adventures Continue, reopening in 2011 in 3D. Stormtroopers from the 501st Legion escorted guests to and from the attraction, even riding in the Starspeeder 3000. NOTE: This video contains a full ride on Star Tours with binaural audio, so wear your headphones for the best experience.

On Sept. 1, 2010, the new Best Friends Pet Care luxury pet facility opened at Walt Disney World across the street from the Port Orleans resort offering Disney's guests a chance to board their pets with comfort and convenience.

Hear the new on-ride music recently added to Space Mountain at Walt Disney World's Magic Kingdom in binaural audio! Wear your headphones while watching this video for the full immersive experience. Space Mountain is a nearly pitch-black indoor roller coaster, so most of the ride portion of this video is dark, but you can still hear the new sound effects and music that was added to the attraction.

On August 5, 2010, the Via Napoli Ristorante e Pizzeria grand opened at Walt Disney World's Epcot theme park in Orlando, Florida. The partnership between Disney and the Patina Restaurant Group offers authentic Italian flavors with a focus on Neapolitan pizza.

Three hours before his July 21, 2010 concert at Hard Rock Live in Orlando, we sat down with "Weird Al" Yankovic backstage mainly to discuss his song "Skipper Dan" and its related topics of Disney's Jungle Cruise attraction and theme parks in general.

The first preview showing of Michael Jackson's Captain EO 3D film took place on June 30, 2010 at Walt Disney World's Epcot theme park. The popular film returns 16 years after leaving Epcot in its original run. Included here are interviews with the vice president of Epcot and two Walt Disney Imagineers.

Talking Mickey Mouse made an in-person appearance at the opening event for Disney's new "World of Color" show on June 10, 2010. Here he converses with Disney CEO Bob Iger, songwriter Richard Sherman, and others.

Voice of Ariel, The Little Mermaid herself, Jodi Benson sang "Part of Your World" and "Under the Sea" (joined by other singers and dancers) at the Disneyland Resort during the special "What's Next?" presentation on June 11, 2010.