Category: Other

Glendale, Calif. (August 12, 2020) — The preeminent Marvel retail celebration ‘Marvel Mania’ makes its anticipated return bringing kids, families and fans new ways to wear, collect, connect and play with Earth’s Mightiest Super Heroes. Now in its fifth year ‘Marvel Mania’ – the only campaign to bring all the Marvel Super Heroes together – offers an exciting suite of global retail activations, new content launches and must-have products for fans of all ages. It all kicks off in Europe this August with the Marvel-sponsored ‘Superhero Series’ sports challenge in the UK and continues with a host of global activity running through the fall.

“What started as a targeted retail campaign in the U.S. has grown into an international celebration with a wide range of retailers and more than a hundred global licensees supporting worldwide,” said Paul Gitter, SVP, Marvel Licensing. “The success of ‘Marvel Mania’ is a testament to the strength, power and diversity our characters represent on screen and beyond with amazing products and experiences.”

Powered by Marvel, the ‘Superhero Series’ is the UK’s largest interactive sporting event dedicated to the nation’s 13.3 million people with disabilities. Six families and their celebrity team captains will be starring in a special shopDisney.com-sponsored Channel 4 programme as they take on this year’s ‘At Home Superheroes’ challenge, due to air on August 15. Supporting the at-home initiative Marvel will bring the energy of its iconic Super Hero characters to participants’ homes and neighborhoods through downloadable games, signs and more to help participants feel like a true Super Hero.

In Mexico, Marvel will be announcing an exciting collaboration with a sporting and cultural phenomenon this October and in the U.S., shopDisney.com will feature an epic, month-long ‘Marvel Mania’ collector event where action-packed products, content and Marvel-themed accessories and apparel will debut. In China, a Marvel ‘Find Your Power’ campaign will launch this fall with additional Asia Pacific region retail touch points, new product offerings, and multiple consumer activations running through 2021. Japan will feature “A Universe of Heroes” exhibition that celebrates the Marvel Cinematic Universe opening in Osaka, Japan from August 10 – November 23 with limited-edition products sold exclusively at the exhibition including BEAMS Marvel t-shirts designed by three local artists.

Supporting ‘Marvel Mania’ will be robust merchandising programs from best-in-class retailers Walmart, Target, Amazon, Kohl’s, Hot Topic, Box Lunch, FYE, Party City, Walgreen’s, Books-A-Million, shopDisney.com and Disney store. In the UK and Europe marquee retailers include Tesco, Sainsbury’s Argos, Smyths, ASDA, Amazon and Carrefour. Fans in Southeast Asia, India and Middle East can look forward to an exciting line-up of Marvel campaigns now through November across the region’s largest online retailers and e-Commerce platforms, such as Lazada, Shopee, Flipkart and Amazon. These campaigns will bring the latest Marvel merchandise online, from kids’ favorite Hasbro & LEGO offerings, to the ultra-affordable-but-chic MINISO for an added touch of “power” to any home and living space. Latin America rounds out the program with support from El Palacio de Hierro, Walmart and Marathon. All participating retailers will feature unique ‘Marvel Mania’ promotions and special offers.

Additionally, an exciting cross-category merchandise portfolio spanning video games, publishing, apparel, accessories, toys and more will give kids, families and fans the biggest, broadest, and most diverse merchandise line ever.

Highlights include:

Marvel FANatics
Offerings for the diehard Marvel fan include collectibles, action figures and more with exciting new additions from X-Men, Spider-Man and beyond:

• X-Men 20th Anniversary collectible toys by Hasbro
• Marvel Zombies FUNKO Pops! collectibles
• Marvel Maglite Flashlights – Captain America, Spider-Man and more
• Reassemble the Earth’s Mightiest Super Hero team with Marvel Avengers toys and collectibles from Hasbro, inspired by the highly-anticipated Marvel’s Avengers video game from Crystal Dynamics, Square Enix and Marvel Games
• LEGO Marvel Studios Iron Man art set
•  Find out which comic books have truly helped define Marvel Comics with Marvel: Greatest Comics: 100 Comics that Built A Universe from DK, a compelling showcase of some of the most trailblazing and inspiring comic books ever created

Marvel Best Bets For Kids and Teens
Kids can immerse themselves in Marvel Super Hero action through toys, roleplay, and apparel that’s the perfect fit for any adventure:

• BattleWorld Thanos Ship Showdown from Funko
• Black Widow apparel and footwear launches from El Palacio de Hierro in Mexico, Marathon in Peru, Adidas in Europe and Disney store
• Spider-Man: Maximum Venom toys including Venom Burst Action Figures and role play from Hasbro, construction sets from LEGO and Funko POPS!
• The third book in the hit Rocket and Groot picture book series by Brendan Deneen, Snow Day for Groot! an adorable, snowy adventure following Rocket, Groot and Spider-Man as they swing through the Big Apple!
• The Marvel Storybook Collection the perfect addition to any young Marvel fan’s collection, made up of 18 original stories that will captivate them with incredible tales of bravery and exciting adventures

Living The Marvel Lifestyle
Fans can show their love through new collaborations and games, including:

• Foodies –  BoxLunch Marvel ‘Eat the Universe’ collection featuring culinary inspired home goods, apparel, accessories and collectibles
• For gamers –
  • Products inspired by the Marvel’s Spider-Man: Miles Morales video game, the next adventure in the Marvel’s Spider-Man universe from Insomniac Games, Sony Interactive Entertainment and Marvel Games
  • Products inspired by the highly-anticipated Marvel’s Avengers video game from Crystal Dynamics, Square Enix and Marvel Games

About Marvel Entertainment
Marvel Entertainment, LLC, a wholly-owned subsidiary of The Walt Disney Company, is one of the world’s most prominent character-based entertainment companies, built on a proven library of more than 8,000 characters featured in a variety of media for over eighty years. Marvel utilizes its character franchises in entertainment, licensing, publishing, games, and digital media. For more information visit marvel.com. © 2020 MARVEL

About Disney Consumer Products, Games and Publishing
Disney Consumer Products, Games and Publishing (CPGP) brings the magic of The Walt Disney Company’s brands and franchises—including Disney, Pixar, Marvel, Star Wars, National Geographic, and more—into the daily lives of families and fans around the world through products and experiences across more than 100 retail categories from toys and t-shirts to apps, books, video games, and more. A division of the Disney Parks, Experiences and Products segment, CPGP’s global operations include: the world’s largest licensing business, one of the biggest children’s publishing brands, a leading licensor of interactive games across platforms, Disney store locations globally, and the shopDisney e-commerce platform.

The post ‘MARVEL MANIA’ CELEBRATES FIFTH ANNIVERSARY WITH GLOBAL ACTIVATIONS AND EPIC RETAIL CELEBRATIONS appeared first on Disney Parks, Experiences and Products.

From our friends at dpep.disney.com
Filed Under: Consumer Products

These days I feel a bit like a bouncing ball in a big game. If you feel the same, maybe it is time to think of taking advantage of some Hotwire hidden Hot Rate deals for Disney’s Pop Century Resort!

Once there, you can pretend you are in the world’s largest game of foosball. (Wait, what is a “foos”, anyway?)

With a little detective work over on Hotwire, you can find a nice drop of hidden Hot Rate rooms at Pop for $75 to $89 in both August and September. We haven’t seen rates like that for Pop since some Priceline Express deals dropped for a few weeks in Spring, 2019.

For comparison, I checked one of the $79 deal days: the regular Hotwire and Disney direct rates were both $170, while Undercover Tourist had Pop for $160. The Disney Annual Pass rate for the day was $119, which is still pretty nice these days.

To help you find them, I’ll quickly run through a few techniques to identify the resort, then I’ll add some deal calendars so you can see them all at a glance.

Just like Priceline Express, I always suggest you sort search by price from low to high so you can compare similar rated resorts to each other. You’ll also want to use the search filters to limit results to 3-star and 4-star resorts.

When you’ve gotten the feel of searching on Hotwire you might also want to select the “Hot Rate” tab to only see the hidden deals. But, some people may like to keep “All Hotels” selected so they can compare non-hidden deals right alongside the hidden ones.

Finally, you want to limit things to just the Bonnet Creek and Disney Springs areas, which is where all of the Disney resorts are located. (Remember, there are also other hotels in these spots too, so finding deals there is no guarantee it will be a Disney resort. You’ll want to compare all the factors.)

You can use the Areas drop down in the search filter bar, but I find that a little annoying to use because it is a large pop up menu.

An easier way is to simply click on Bonnet Creek and Disney Springs in the map.

In our Pop Century example, we’re looking for a 3-star resort in Bonnet Creek. When searching hidden deals, some reconnaissance is a good way to help you in the process.

So, I suggest you visit Pop Century’s Hotwire page, where among other things you learn that it is rated 4.3/5 by guests.

Well, whaddya know, there’s a deal right here in the search I just ran!

Now, from much clickety-clicking I have learned that right now on Hotwire there are actually three 3-star resorts in Bonnet Creek that have a 4.3 guest rating. In addition to Pop, the others are Art of Animation and All-Star Sports.

So, we need some more data to bring our possibilities down. If you click “Which hotel can I get?” on the right side of the deal, it will open a window below with additional info.

In non-Disney deals deals you’ll also often see the number of reviews it has – but only rarely appears on Disney resorts. But, the Overview section here will tell you some more detailed guest ratings at the resort – usually the four items shown below.

Guess what? If you listened to my suggestion to go reconnoiter (I have never typed that word before in my life) Pop’s Hotwire page, you’ll find that those sub-guest ratings look pretty familiar.

Now, you might notice there can be a little wiggle-room in these guest reviews – sometimes the hidden deal will have a Room cleanliness rating of 4.4 while the resort’s page is 4.5, as we do above. This is likely due to new reviews that haven’t synced up within the system. Still – it is usually fairly obvious which resort is which since we are comparing an overall rating and 4-sub-ratings.

To really help you feel confident in your decision that this is, indeed, a Pop Century deal I’ll assign you some self-study: head over to the Art of Animation and All-Star Sports pages and compare their guest-ratings to the hidden deal as well.

The last tool in the comparison toolbox is the number of guest reviews that have been left for a resort. This one is a little more loosey-goosey (foosey loosey?) lately. Hotwire uses Expedia’s review system on their resort pages and over the last few months many of the review counts have swung wildly around, like me trying to aim the Buzz Lightyear ride vehicle at Zurg while eating a churro.

So, I suggest you use reviews in a pinch to help break a tie, but be wary. Just yesterday I noticed that the Swan had almost 2,800 LESS reviews than the last time I checked! A head scratcher.

Having said that, I’ll offer one last tip: even though Disney resort deals don’t always have reviews listed on Hot Rate deal – when you click on it to show the full listing, it often has the reviews listed as a range. In this Pop Century deal, you can see if the Hot-Rate deal review range compares to those listed on regular deal for the resort. (Yes, 1,287 is between 1,000 and 1,500.)

Now that we’ve finished our quick class on Hot Rate resort identification – here are the Pop Century deals out there in August and September.

If you’re looking for a good deal – these are among the best out there now. If you’ve booked one and/or know exactly what a foos is – let us know in the comments!

The post Hotwire Deals: Pop On Over For A Visit appeared first on TouringPlans.com Blog.

From our friends at touringplans.com
Filed Under: discounts, Resorts, Saving Money, Walt Disney World (FL), hotwire

Sponsored by Storybook Destinations

Ahoy, mateys! I’m Heather, and I’ll be bringing you the up and coming on all things Disney Cruise Line. Welcome back again this week. Let’s see what’s new in the DCL world!

What’s New

Welp. Not all news can be good, so let’s just rip this next bandaid off shall we? Cruise Lines International Association suspended cruising for all member lines through October 31, 2020. Disney has cancelled the entire month, plus a few dates in November as well. Here are the latest casualties:

Disney Magic

• October 12, 2020 5-Night Bermuda
• October 17, 2020 5-Night Canadian
• October 22, 2020 5-Night Bermuda
• October 27, 2020 5-Night Bermuda
• November 1, 2020 6-Night Eastern Caribbean
• November 7, 2020 5-Night Eastern Caribbean

Disney Wonder

• October 4, 2020 5-Night Baja
• October 9, 2020 3-Night Baja
• October 12, 2020 4-Night Baja
• October 16, 2020 2-Night Baja
• October 18, 2020 5-Night Baja
• October 23, 2020 5-Night Baja
• October 28, 2020 4-Night Baja
• November 1, 2020 5-Night Baja
• November 6, 2020 14-Night Eastbound Panama Canal

Disney Dream

• October 2, 2020 3-Night Bahamian
• November 1, 2020 7-Night Eastern Caribbean
• November 8, 2020 5-Night Western Caribbean

Disney Fantasy

• October 10, 2020 3-Night Bahamian
• October 13, 2020 3-Night Bahamian
• October 16, 2020 3-Night Bahamian
• October 19, 2020 4-Night Bahamian
• October 23, 2020 3-Night Bahamian
• October 26, 2020 4-Night Bahamian
• October 30, 2020 3-Night Bahamian

We do need a bit of good to balance it all out! Anyone who has a future cruise credit from a previously cancelled sailing now has until May 31, 2022, to sail on that credit. While the two month extension isn’t much, it’s definitely something! The historical release schedule may be a bit off from what we are used to, but perhaps by September/October of this year we’ll have some more dates to apply that FCC to! It’s also good to remember that placeholders are being extended through March 31, 2022 – so if you have one set to expire, you may want to look into that!

Weekly Specials

With the latest round of cancelled fall sailings, we’ve got quite the reduced specials chart this week. Does this cadaverous pallor betray an aura of foreboding for the fate of the rest of 2020? Consider that the only specials offers left for this year are all on the Dream…could this also indicate that if cruising does make a comeback this year, we’ll only see sailings out of Port Canaveral stopping at Castaway Cay? Things that make you go hmm…

Most every week of the year, Disney Cruise Line releases special offers for Florida Residents and U.S. Military Personnel.  There are also frequently IGT/OGT/VGT rates available for all guests to book.  These offers are extremely limited in availability, and all come with certain restrictions, but the prices are amazing! You can book these online, on the phone, or with your travel agent. These are the current offers available this week:

Thanks to Scott Sanders of The Disney Cruise Line Blog for assistance on this article. “Sea” you next week

The Disney Cruise Line Update is brought to you by Storybook Destinations. Storybook Destinations specializes in Disney travel, is consistently highly rated by our readers, and is owned by our own blogger extraordinaire, Tammy Whiting. Storybook also offers free subscriptions to TouringPlans to clients with qualified bookings.

The post Disney Cruise Line News and Specials — Week of August 11, 2020 appeared first on TouringPlans.com Blog.

From our friends at touringplans.com
Filed Under: Disney Cruise Line, coronavirus, COVID-19, disney cruise line