Piston Peak Coming to Frontierland

 

Disney announced a bunch of new details for the Cars-themed mini-land coming to Magic Kingdom.  This area is now officially named Piston Peak National Park, and there is a ton of new concept art as well as some information directly from Imagineers about this new project.  This post will take a look at all of that, discuss the timing of the closure of Rivers of America and see whether our minds can be changed about this project as a whole.

Piston Peak is NOT Radiator Springs (which we already knew) but IS connected to the Cars "universe" (a term I'll use loosely here) as it was a setting in Planes: Fire and Rescue, which in and of itself is an offshoot of Cars (got all that?).  The version in the movie was influenced by Yosemite and Yellowstone, but the version being built in the park is more like Rocky Mountain National Park, with plenty of peaks, rivers and geysers.

Disney Starlight: Dream The Night Away Debuts July 20

Disney officially confirmed the opening date of the newest entertainment coming to Magic Kingdom, the night parade known as Disney Starlight: Dream The Night Away.  This parade debuts on July 20.  In this post, we talk a little about the parade, discuss the new park reservation quirk and how the holiday parties impact the viewings of this new offering.

I've only mentioned Starlight once in this blog, as part of the D23 announcements last year.  That's not because I'm not interested in it - quite the contrary, in fact.  I think this will be a fun parade that will draw crowds over the summer.  Disney skeptics would say that this isn't really an "answer" for Universal's Epic Universe, an entirely new theme park in Orlando.  But while Disney has plenty of new attractions debuting in the future, most of them won't appear until at least 2027.  In the meantime, new "smaller" entertainment will have to fill the gap here.

Disney to Open New Theme Park in Abu Dhabi

This blog largely focuses on Walt Disney World, as opposed to the Walt Disney Company at large.  In most cases it's because that's the area that I'm most familiar with, but it also has to do with the fact that corporate Disney news can be so vast and I wanted to keep the focus of this blog more localized.  

However, sometimes big news comes along having nothing directly to do with WDW and it still warrants a post here.  Today's big news is one of these.  Disney dropped a bombshell this morning, announcing a joint venture with the entertainment company Miral to build a new Disney park in Abu Dhabi.  This post will take a look at the announcement and try to figure out the why and why now of this groundbreaking news.

Disney World News Round Up March 2025

 

Disney was busy this morning, putting out bits of information on various things coming to their resorts in the (near) future.  We'll take a quick run through of all of this various news and throw in some commentary where it's needed.  

First there are a few discounts coming this year.  Starting tomorrow (March 27), you can get 50% off kids tickets for visits from 5/27-9/20.  There's also a three day, three park ticket starting at $89 for visits from 4/6-9/22 (notably the ticket does NOT include admission to Magic Kingdom - just the other three parks).  Then there are the "traditional" discounts that pop up from time to time - free dining for four night or longer stays on select dates between 6/29-12/22.  And there are room only discounts of up to 30% for select visits from 8/1-10/11.  You got all that??

Virtual Queue to End at Tiana's Bayou Adventure and Guardians of the Galaxy

 

Disney dropped some big news yesterday - the virtual queue system (VQ) that had been in use on both Tiana's Bayou Adventure at Magic Kingdom and Guardians of the Galaxy: Cosmic Rewind at Epcot are coming to an end on February 25.  This post will talk about what that means for each of these rides and parks specifically, as well as whether this is a good thing for guests and the future of VQ in general.

If you're not already aware (though if you're reading this, you probably are), a VQ is a system that Disney (and other theme parks) use in place of a standby line, usually on new/incredibly popular attractions or attractions that have reliability issues.  When a VQ is in place, there is no standby line at all - this means that a guest can't wait for hours to ride one of these attractions, even if they were so inclined.

Tumbleweeds: A Changing Frontierland

 

Walt Disney World is starting to undergo some major refurbishments that will change the landscape of its parks, hopefully for the better, for many years to come.  A lot of this has been talked about for the last couple of years, most notably at the recent D23 event where some of the biggest projects were officially confirmed, including a Villains Land at Magic Kingdom and Tropical Americas replacing Dinoland at Animal Kingdom.

One of the bigger surprises announced there was a new Cars themed mini-land in Frontierland at Magic Kingdom.  The good vibes turned a little sour after it came out a little while later that this would be replacing the Rivers of America and Tom Sawyer Island.  I won't rehash all of that post here, but suffice it to say that my reaction (and that of many others) was negative, as we will be losing a place of calm tranquility in the midst of the world's busiest theme park.

Holiday Crowd Levels 2024

 

We're back, and today we're taking a look at wait times and crowd levels over what is typically the busiest week of the year for Disney, the week between Christmas and New Year.  In this post, we'll pull up the raw data and compare these numbers to last year.  We'll also see if we can figure out whether the recent trend of "soft" crowds at Disney World carried over to the busiest time of year.

I want to define what I mean by "soft" (with those heavy air quotes).  The overall trend for Disney World in terms of wait times in 2024 was down compared to the previous year.  As always, when you visit, how prepared you are, ride down time, weather and just plain bad luck can impact your particular trip.  I'm not saying your individual experience is any less valid - if you went during a school break, for example, and found the place bustling with people, that doesn't mean it didn't happen.  We can only focus on attraction wait times, which is the best indicator of crowds, even if it is imperfect.