Disney makes it to Panama! - sort of...

Panama has become a regular port of call of the Disney cruise ships. Disney Magic holds the record for the highest regular toll paid for passage through the Panama Canal, at $331200
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Disney_Magic

This is the closest we have yet to see a Disney operation being set up in Panama, despite the recurrent story that keeps coming up on the Internet about a Disney resort.

The story first came up in 2006 during the real estate boom. http://primapanama.blogs.com/_panama_residential_devel/2006/01/is_disney_comin.html The then Minister of Commerce Jose Paredes theorized it could be related to the purchase of Hacienda Santa Monica by a group of foreign investors. The Minister mistakenly said that the investors had made a deposit and no further payments, when in fact the investors have been precluded from paying the rest of the price when the seller Wilson Lucom died and the relatives stalled the probate case. And the buyers were not related to the Disney companies.

In 2009 an April 1 "news item" supposedly issued by a non-existent reporter AP called Rodrigo Campos mentioned a Disney park to be located on the Pan-American Highway near the entrance to the resort town of Coronado, the 350 acre park. http://www.panama-guide.com/article.php/20090401154924637

Even a BusinessWeek website http://bx.businessweek.com/foreign-direct-investment/walt-disney-coming-to-panama/6467937499164575937-2516e83dc8dc74e509c929cbbd984b74/ and the El Siglo newspaper were suckered into what was an April Fools joke http://www.panama-guide.com/article.php/20090401154924637

What has become an urban legend or a way of raising depressed real estate prices occasionally makes it back, as the original item remains stored in website cache memories, with some Internet users still believing it...

http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20090422161316AASM8lD
http://www.mouseinfo.com/forums/mousellaneous/89052-new-disney-park-according-papers.html
http://www.panama1.com/foros/showthread.php/725-Walt-Disney-Coming-to-Panama-NOT!
http://forums.wdwmagic.com/showthread.php?t=616557

Disney resorts - unrelated to theme parks - do exist in the Caribbean and throughout the U.S.
http://www.kingdom-travel.com/Walt_Disney_World_Resorts/Disney_Caribbean_Beach_Resort.shtml
http://www.kingdom-travel.com/Walt_Disney_World_Resorts/Disney_Saratoga_Springs_Resort_Spa.shtml

This means that those wanting to visit Mickey will need a U.S. visa or travel to theme parks in Europe or Asia.

Before adopting a child in Panama...

Panama Requirements for Adoption

1. Application through a Panama attorney-at-law stating the intention and the reason to adopt a boy, girl or teenager, and specify and sex of the minor that they wish to adopt,
2. Socioeconomic and psychological studies conducted by an institution certified in Panama,
3. Request for criminal background check,
4. Medical certificate of the parents issued by a Panama government hospital,


Assistants at Divino Nino home for children
5. Evidence of current labor, stating position, salary, seniority and benefits. In its absence, certified copy of the last two tax returns or banking references,
6. Birth certificate and marriage certificate between persons that comply with the requirements of Article 53 of the Family Code,
7. Two extra judicial affidavits by persons that know the parents (for common law marriages, the affidavits must testify to said fact),
8. Postcard-size pictures of the rooms and outside of the home (glued to a white sheet),
9. Recent picture in color of each of the applicants, as well as of the other residents of their home,
10. Written acceptance of a three (3) month inspection from the declaration of adoption, on a basis as regular as the judge considers appropriate,
11. Express acceptance of a temporary living with the boys, girls and teenager to be adopted,
12. For Panama nationals, certificate of having received training as adopting parents. For foreigners, certificates issued by the central authority of his/her country of residence, or as required by the Ministry,
13. For applicants resident abroad, certified copy of all passport pages and authorization to adopt issued by the central authority of his/her country of residence,
14. For applicants resident abroad, certified copy of the authorization to enter the adopted child into his/her country.

Children at SOS Villages
All documents must be submitted in a single folder with documents placed in the same order as in this list.
Non-Panama documents must be certified with Apostille from the state of origin or by Panama Consul in said state.
Non-Spanish documents must be accompanied with translation by a translator accredited in Panama.

Requirements for Adoption by National Directorate of Adoption (tel. 279-0667) under Article 297A of the Family Code translated by Alvaro Aguilar as of December, 2004.

Media reports about the situation of adoptions in Panama appear in Spanish in:
300 Children without Parents http://www.prensa.com/especial/2003/padres/1158106.html
Waiting for a new family http://mensual.prensa.com/mensual/contenido/2005/05/01/hoy/portada/206330.html
Obstacles to adoption process: procedure can last from 7 months to 7 years http://mensual.prensa.com/mensual/contenido/2005/01/29/hoy/portada/119483.html
Adopt me, please! http://www.prensa.com/Actualidad/Bebes/2005/11/28/
2000 abandoned children http://www.prensa.com/t.asp?d=060226p515878
.