VISITING DISNEY
All attractions are included in the entry price to each theme park. (Disney has four of them in Orlando: Disney's Magic Kingdom, Disney's Hollywood Studios, Epcot and Disney's Animal Kingdom).• Tickets: One-day, one-park tickets cost $71 age 10 and up, $60 ages 3-9. Florida residents are offered a variety of discounted tickets good for multiple days, including the Play 4 Days Pass for $159.• Info: 407-939-1289; www.disneyworld.com.You knew a Toy Story ride had to be coming. When it opens late this month, the toys will take over Andy's new Midway Games Play Set, and chaos will reign in the form of Toy Story Mania! -- a 3-D ride through the carnival. Cars are armed with spring-action shooters that let the riders rack up the points as they ''hurl'' pies, ''toss'' rings and ''launch'' eggs -- all virtual, of course. An animatronic Mr. Potato Head plays barker.
Toy Story Mania! is set in Disney's Hollywood Studios -- the park formerly known as Disney-MGM Studios -- where it joins most of the other new offerings from Disney this season.
Already open are three shows that encourage park-goers to join in the action.
Block Party Bash is a parade that freezes floats, dancers and characters from Pixar films on Hollywood Boulevard. Here are Green Army Men from Toy Story, Mike and Sully from Monsters Inc. and Flik and Atta from A Bug's Life, all getting down tonight and doing the macarena. Kids are invited to jump up and join in for YMCA -- which of course they all seem to know.
High School Musical 2: School's Out brings the stage-and-celluloid smash to the park with a stage that rolls up to Mickey's massive Sorceror's hat. A dozen wildly energetic performers sing and dance their way through summer jobs and Wildcat Fever, urging young guests to join them as they dance in the streets -- giving every girl the chance to be a cheerleader.
Even the tiniest toddlers can get into the action at Playhouse Disney -- Live on Stage! -- a 22-minute show featuring Mickey, Minnie, Pooh and Roo in a lighthearted story with some serious messages about friendship and the value each person brings to an effort. Handy Manny and Little Einstein join in and encourage little ones to clap, sing and dance.
If you find yourself at Epcot, stop in at Spaceship Earth. This gentle ride through the ages of man now has been refreshed -- the story line used to end about 1980 -- with the addition of touch-screen interaction and a new voice-over by Dame Judi Dench. But the most fun may come in the ''post-show'' at the ride's end called Project Tomorrow, when parkgoers can make postcards based on photos shot during the ride, explore the human body via a 3-D game and find out what happens during an auto accident -- courtesy of technology by Siemens.
-- JANE WOOLDRIDGE
