Still, Gammiere decided to risk it after reading glowing online reports, booking a nine-day Disney tour called Viva Italia that would take the family to Rome, Florence and Venice. The verdict: "We loved everything about it and so did the kids," she gushed, citing adults-only wine tastings and first-class Eurostar train seats. "And I never once saw a costumed character," she said.

Restraint and sophistication are not words that you would typically use to describe a Disney vacation. In fact, the company has built its $10.6 billion theme park, hotel and cruise empire around the opposite. Pass through the gates of the Happiest Place on Earth and you're encouraged to eat fudge, hug Goofy and wear mouse ears.

All that sweetness is great — an estimated 117 million customers lapped it up at Disney resorts last year — but the company realized a few years ago that it was missing a vast pool of potential customers.

Jay Rasulo, the chairman of Walt Disney Parks and Resorts, says the idea is to "take the magic on the road." In other words, apply some of the company's hallmarks — exceptional customer service, an emphasis on storytelling and safety — to the guided tour market.

Evolving with the traveling public has always been part of Disney's approach to the vacation business. In the 1950s, Disneyland tapped the nuclear family going on vacation in their new cars. Florida's Walt Disney World, built in the 1970s and 1980s, was about the flying vacation. Then came the hugely popular Disney Cruise Line in the 1990s.

Now, with participatory vacations booming and the Internet making international travel less daunting, the company is trying to expand again. Adventures by Disney is designed to take families to places they might be too timid to visit on their own — without loading on the schmaltz. Hiking Machu Picchu with an 8-year-old would be daunting for most travelers. With Disney promising to handle everything, it might seem doable.

Southern California residents Linda and Steve Heck recently booked a Disney tour to Italy for just that reason. They wanted to treat their granddaughter, age 13, to a summer vacation but worried they wouldn't know how to entertain her for nine days in a foreign country. "My husband and I don't want to get to Italy with a 13-year-old and be looking at each other and thinking, '"Great, now what do we do?' " Linda Heck said.

The strong response to Adventures by Disney has caught the company by surprise because it has relied mainly on word-of-mouth marketing. The company dipped its toe in the business in 2005 with two itineraries. In 2008, it booked 17 itineraries in 13 countries, with a total of 370 scheduled tours of up to 40 people each. For 2009, Disney will add eight tours, including one to Africa. Age requirements vary, but most tours accept travelers age 4 to 94.

The push is risky for Disney because its vacation business has always turned on fantasy and on maintaining utter control. But guided tours are about reality. Moreover, the Mouseketeers for the first time have to rely on outside vendors. (The project's code name was OPI, for Other People's Infrastructure.) This is a company whose reputation relies on its family friendliness, after all. What happens if the bus happens to drive by a nude beach?

The company, which has long endured criticism about pushing itself on other cultures, could also set its international efforts back if it comes across as disrespectful.

"It quickly went from a brainstorming session to an oh-my-god-what-have-we-gotten-ourselves-into moment," said Bruce Vaughn, chief creative executive at Walt Disney Imagineering, the company's research and development arm.

Family adventure travel is nothing new, but Disney thinks it can compete by drawing on its resources to provide unique excursions. For instance, a tour of California stops in Hollywood for an exploration of Jim Henson's studio, home to ''The Muppets" and otherwise off limits to the public. In London, guests go backstage at the West End production of ''The Lion King."

Travel agents say the company is also bringing a degree of comfort and attention to detail that is missing from most family tours. Each day, guides surreptitiously take photos of families enjoying activities and slide copies under their hotel room doors during the night. Ice is carted around in Europe to make up for restaurants that lack it. After river rafting in Peru, guides surprise guests with hot chocolate and a warm towel.

"What I liked is that I didn't have to be the mom on this trip," Gammiere said, citing an evening where the kids watched a movie and the adults went to a wine tasting.

As you might imagine, little is left to chance. Each itinerary is tested three times by guides and then Disney stages ''dress rehearsals" using employees as guinea pigs. Heather Killingbeck, director of trip and program development, said trial runs are used to teach local contractors that Disney standards are not flexible. "Sometimes they don't understand that 45 minutes means 45 minutes," she said.

While Disney characters do not populate the tours, the company relies heavily on what it calls ''local storytellers." For instance, in Venice the Disney tour guide might say, ''Some people believe that you can even see the ghost of Marco Polo wandering these streets." Around the next corner, Marco Polo, a local actor in historical garb, awaits.

There are still kinks. One media executive who took his family on the China trip called it ''Mao's long march," complaining that it covered too much ground. Disney, which has since tweaked the China itinerary, has also learned not to over-promise in brochures. "The opportunity to wander a vast glacier frozen in time" on the Canadian Rockies tour, turned out to be, in one customer's words, "more like the chance to look at a dirty patch of snow." The tour has since been canceled.

Karolee Glassman said she sought out the tours because the family was outgrowing Disney's theme parks. ''We would go as each grandchild hit 3 or 4, but we haven't gone as much in recent years," she said.

The company certainly has her business back: Glassman, 70, and her husband Sandy, 85, have booked upcoming tours for their extended family to Italy and Ireland. In March, the New Jersey couple went on a Disney tour to Costa Rica, where they painted gourds with local artists, soaked in volcanic hot springs and soared through the rain forest on a zip line.

In a financial filing on Wednesday, Disney disclosed that it has been in talks with the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region over financing arrangements to allow its newest park to pay off the commercial loans of about $329 million.

In talks with the Hong Kong government, Disney "has expressed its willingness to replace the facilities with loans from the company" and "to provide additional investment" in the park, which has been criticized as too small to draw long-term stays and repeat business.

But Disney has not reached an agreement with the joint venture to resolve the loan, raising the possibility that the joint venture would turn instead to a tight commercial credit market for potentially onerous terms and saddling the company with potentially unfavorable financial disclosures.

The company was "disappointed that both shareholders in the joint venture hadn't yet been able to reach an agreement," Disney spokesman Jonathan Friedland said.

Disney believed its loan offer would give the joint venture "financial breathing room" needed to maintain the Hong Kong park's recent operational gains and set it on a firm financial footing, Friedland said.

"We are totally confident and committed to the continued growth of Hong Kong Disneyland as a premiere tourist destination in the region, demonstrated by the company's offer to assume the loan," he said.

Last year, the joint venture was forced to amend its loan agreements after the Hong Kong park failed to meet semi-annual performance targets.

The amended agreement removed the performance targets and decreased the amount of a revolving credit facility but also shortened the loan due date to Sept. 30, 2008, from Oct. 15, 2015.

As part of that amendment, Disney waived management fees and deferred royalties for fiscal 2008 and 2009 to support the park, whose attendance has lagged expectations since its 2005 opening.

The 310-acre (126-hectare) park is expandable to a total of 457 acres (185 hectares) to accommodate future phases, according to Disney.

The Hong Kong government, which owns 57 percent of the park, has taken political heat for the park's missed attendance target and has branded its performance as "unsatisfactory."

Eight new destinations plus 2 new signature offerings combine with 15 returning trips to give travelers even more choices for their next vacation.

Disney Preps Additional Phineas and Ferb Episodes

World Screen - Disney Channel has ordered an additional 13 episodes of the Emmy-nominated series Phineas and Ferb, bringing the show's second season to a total of 39 episodes.

Phineas and Ferb, which premiered in February, ranks as the number one animated series in the U.S. among 6- to 11-year-olds and 9- to 14-year-olds. The comedy is one of Disney Channel's top ten series among key kid demographics in most territories, and among the top five in 12 territories. In the first quarter of 2008, the show ranked number one in its primary time period in Australia, Italy and Canada.

The series centers on Phineas Flynn and his stepbrother Ferb Fletcher who set out to make every day of their summer vacation count. Their sister plots to get them into trouble while the family's pet, Perry the Platypus, leads a secret life as Agent P.

The show, a production of Walt Disney Television Animation, was created by Dan Povenmire (Family Guy) and Jeff "Swampy" Marsh (The Simpsons, Rocko's Modern Life) and is executive-produced by Povenmire and co-executive produced by Marsh.

Disney magic for Rachel

Doncaster Free Press - A Bright 21-year-old graduate from Cantley has landed the job of her dreams working for Disney in Florida.

Rachel Wilson, who recently graduated with first class honors in management from Lancaster University, has already worked and studied in Texas, London and the Philippines and in October she is set to make the move stateside.

Working for Disney in Florida will also see her study for a Masters in People Management from the University of Central Florida.

But despite being barely out of her teens, Rachel, who studied at the Hayfield School, is mindful of further developing her promising career.

Talking about her time at university Rachel said: "I managed to meet people from all over the world and I built a multitude of practical and theoretical skills from the study and the work experience.

"Overall, I can say this experience has been invaluable."

Sue Cox, the dean of the management school at Lancaster University said: "We are delighted with Rachel's result. This is an excellent performance and a reward for her hard work. The skills she has developed will be very much in demand as she progresses through her career."