My Resort Hopping Day (Conclusion)

 

This is the second piece of my whirlwind resort tour of Walt Disney World.  You can (and should) read the first part here - otherwise it looks like I just beamed into Disney and started walking around.  I last left off by saying goodbye to the Crescent Lake and Skyliner resorts and heading over to Animal Kingdom Lodge.  Let's pick it up here.

 

I have Animal Kingdom Lodge on my short list of places to stay; my one knock has been that it’s kind of remote and only accessible by bus, the only deluxe resort to have exclusively bus transportation.  The price (especially via DVC points rental) has always been on the lower end of the deluxe properties though, and I wanted to see for myself whether the savanna views would make it worth the inconvenience.

 

My Resort Hopping Day (Part I)

 

I recently had the opportunity to do something at Walt Disney World that I had never done before – spend an entire day resort hopping.  Normally when we get the chance to take a trip, we devote the majority of our time to the parks.  I’ve talked about this in the past, but given the high cost of a Disney trip and the (in)frequency with which we visit, the parks are always my primary focus.

 

But this time was different, mostly because this wasn’t a “real” trip to Disney.  I had gone to Florida for an entirely different reason (family related) but found a way to squeeze in one day to myself in Orlando.  I had originally wanted to spend the day at Epcot by myself, but my family was not fond of this plan and I can’t really blame them.  Disney has been something that we do all together and I didn’t want them to be upset if I managed to have this kind of fun without them.

 

Destination D23 Announcements

 

This past weekend, Disney hosted their bi-annual Destination D23 convention in Orlando.  This is a bi-annual event because it alternates with the larger D23 in Anaheim.  Usually D23 proper is where most of the big parks announcements (among other things) are announced, where Destination events tend to be smaller, fan focused historical presentations.

This was NOT true two years ago, and that fact, combined with an especially huge D23 event last year had many fans thinking that we were in store for more major announcements, regardless of the year or name of the event.  But as the event approached, people noted that there wasn't even a Disney Parks panel listed, so many bloggers and those in the know were warning fans to lower their expectations, as it looked like nothing major would be announced.

Disney World News Roundup August 2025

 

Artwork Courtesy of Disney Parks Blog

Yesterday, Disney put out a few small posts on their blog that provided updates to things that were already in the works.  I wouldn't consider any of these to be earth shattering news, but since there were a few stories in rapid fire succession, I thought we would take a look at them all here and provide some commentary where applicable.

 

The thing I find the most interesting about these tidbits is the timing.  Next week is Destination D23, the every-other-year fan event held in Orlando.  This alternates with the larger D23 events which are held in Anaheim.  Last year was one of the biggest D23 events I can remember, with major announcements affecting all parks in the future.   

 

WDW vs Disneyland Attraction Showdown

 

In a recent post, I talked about some differences between Walt Disney World and Disneyland in terms of everything but the attractions.  So today I figured I'd actually take a look at those attractions and try to determine how they measure up against each other.  

A few "rules" before I get into the heart of it.  If the attractions are exactly the same on both coasts, there's no point in talking about them here (think Rise of the Resistance as an example).  Similarly, if there is an attraction in one park that doesn't exist at the other resort, there's nothing to compare, so I also won't be talking about these.  This includes rides that are similar in lots of ways but distinctly different (Test Track vs Radiator Springs Racers, for example).  I'm also leaving off an attraction like the Jungle Cruise - it is different in some ways, but the experience for this one is largely based on your skipper no matter what park you're in.  Oh, I also have to leave off Tiana's Bayou Adventure.  While there are some differences, I have only had the chance to experience the Disneyland version so far, so I can't make a fair comparison.

Walt Disney World and Disneyland Differences (Non-Attraction Edition)

 

I've mentioned a few times in this blog that the focus is almost exclusively on Walt Disney World, as opposed to Disney news at large.  There are a few reasons for this - one, WDW is our "home" Disney resort and we've done it enough times to have a solid knowledge of things like crowd patterns, attraction orders, etc.  It's also the most popular destination among Disney resorts, and probably has the most interest from readers.  And expanding coverage beyond WDW would be a bit unwieldy for me personally - I don't have a lot of time to update this blog regularly (as you may have noticed!)

But we recently took a trip to Disneyland (that's the one in California, for those of you who don't know) and I felt that I would be remiss without at least making some posts about that resort.  I didn't want to do a full review or even attraction or restaurant reviews individually, as they are not within the scope of this blog.  But there are plenty of things to compare and contrast between Disneyland Resort (DLR) and WDW, so I thought there would be some value in putting this stuff done before I forget about them and it all blurs together.

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.