Disney announced today the addition of three new ports and unique itineraries for the Disney Cruise Line that will open in 2012.

The new port cities are New York, NY; Seattle, WA; and Galveston, TX. The Disney Magic will sail 20 cruises from NY beginning on May 25, 2012 and will have three itinerary options. The Disney Wonder will sail 7-night Alaskan cruises from Seattle beginning May 28, 2012; and beginning September 22, 2012, the Disney Magic will sail 7-night cruises from Galveston to the Western Caribbean.

See below for more details on the itinerary options. Bookings for the new 2012 itineraries open on April 8, 2011 by phone [calling Disney Cruise Line at (888) DCL-2500] and through disneycruise.com.

A new interactive queue is coming to The Haunted Mansion attraction at Magic Kingdom Park at Disney World Resort in Florida.

Disney Parks Blog has released a video sneak peek at the ride’s queue, which you can watch here below.

If you’ve ever visited this popular haunted attraction, you’ll recall seeing grave stones and other spooky elements throughout the queue that leads to the ride. Now, the Imagineers at Disney have taken some of those familiar elements and placed them throughout the area, and they’ve also added new features that not only introduced never-been-used concepts, but also make them interactive.

There’s lots of renovations going on right now at Disney World‘s Magic Kingdom in Orlando, FL, especially with the Fantasyland expansion.

Nearby in Adventureland there’s some new stuff too, like the refurbishing of El Pirata y el Perico Restaurant into what is now called Tortuga Tavern, named for the pirate island seen in the Pirates Of The Caribbean films.

Check out the image of the eatery’s new sign and entryway here above, taken by GDPinvestigator.

Star Wars creator George Lucas visited Disneyland Park in California today, giving a thumbs up on the progress being made on the theme park’s newly revised Star Tours attraction.

The picture above is of Lucas posing with the audio-animatronics figure of C-3PO in the motion-simulated ride’s Starspeeder 1000 cockpit. Lucas, along with Star Wars producer Rick McCallum, took some test runs on the ride aboard the Starspeeder, which will now “travel” to several Star Wars worlds.

The artist Shag will be at Disney World in Orlando today (Monday, January 31, 2011) signing deluxe art prints of his Disney World 40th Anniversary Map. This is the only day the print will be available until Shag’s entire Walt Disney World 40th Anniversary art collection is unveiled later this summer. The sneak peak and signing will take place today at the Main Street Gallery at the Magic Kingdom from noon to 2PM. The Deluxe Print dimensions are 16×20 inches, complete with double mat, and retail for $35.

The Disney World 40th Anniversary Map artwork, which you can view above, incorporates elements from the Magic Kingdom, Disney’s Contemporary Resort, Disney’s Polynesian Resort, and Disney’s Fort Wilderness Resort & Campground, all with Shag’s original style.