It’s time for everyone’s favorite serving of Disney World, the Rope Drop [dot] Net News Nuggets! There isn’t a lot of particularly juicy news this time, but a few things that I would classify as “transitional” (like the closing of Sum of All Thrills or–essentially–moving all convention space to the Yacht Club.) That said, let’s get to it!
- Extensive park hours updates from September through January – If you have a trip coming, now’s the time to check for park hour updates. (Sadly, Josh over at easyWDW is on vacation. His coverage of schedule changes is usually the best.)
- Rumors of The Sum of All Thrills and Stormstruck Closing and an End of Innovations at Epcot – If Sum of All Thrills is closing too (as rumored), it would seem that Innovations might be added to the list of things that will get an overhaul. That said, with the construction currently going on at The Studios and Animal Kingdom, I would think it would be a few years before they even start things at Epcot.
- Disney’s Yacht Club Resort to Expand Convention Space – This makes it seem less likely to me that the rumors about DVC being added to Yacht Club have any real truth to them.
- Moana meet and greet coming to Walt Disney World? – Sounds like a good addition. That said, I don’t understand why the Zootopia characters aren’t available for a meet-and-greet yet.
- The Jungle Book: Alive With Magic to End September 5 – The show definitely has had “mixed” reactions (most seemed negative.) I really hope this means they’re getting closer to Rivers of Light (October?)
- Disney Offers Annual Passholders Discounted Park Hopper Tickets – $79 for a park hopper? That seems crazy. I haven’t been tracking Disney ticketing too, too long, but I don’t remember anything like this.
- Rumors of Wreck-It Ralph VR Attraction to Replace Stitch’s Great Escape – I heard Jim Hill talking about this, and I thought it sounded like a decent idea (especially with Wreck-It Ralph 2 coming out in a couple of years.) I’d be fine with it. (Good job by WDW NT for crediting the source of the rumor, too.)
- Celebrate Disney PhotoPass Day on August 19 – This strikes me as a weird promotion. Disney does seem to run things during this period in August, though (remember that Studios Villains event they did for a couple of years?)
- New FitBit-style MagicBand design change possibly in development – Interesting. It might make sense to allow for people to move their RFID between different “bands”. Part of me wonders how that would impact the “special” MagicBand sales (like the Christmas themed ones, etc…), though.
- Update to Magic Kingdom’s Evening Extra Magic Hours line-up – Having Splash run while Big Thunder is under refurbishment seems like a no brainier.
- Disney Enhancing Wedding Pavilion With Redesigned Interior – Elyssa really needs to figure out a way to shoot some weddings here.
- James Cameron Will Unveil New Details on the Avatar Theme Park in November – It looks Cameron is going to be at “Destination D” to talk about Avatarland. It’ll be interesting to see what they end up showing.
- Guy Fieri teams up with Robert Earl on new Planet Hollywood Menu – I originally thought this was a joke. I guess they’re going for a different crowd than me.
- Epcot’s “Guardians of the Galaxy” Ride will be a Roller Coaster Attraction – WDW News Today is going all in on this rumor. Again, if they get this one right, that’s a huge feather in their cap. If not, than they’re going to hear about it for years.
- Rumor that the Contemporary Convention Center will be torn down to make room for more DVC. – This kind of makes sense. Expand the Yacht Club convention center and put convention goers closer to Epcot (where they can walk over and grab a drink at the end of the day.) Put in more DVC at the Contemporary so families have easier access to the Magic Kingdom.
- New Hands-On Experiences at the 2016 Epcot International Food & Wine Festival – People love these. They’re just not for me.
- Say ‘Freeze!’ Disney PhotoPass Captures Your Adventure on Frozen Ever After – Maybe now, people will finally give this ride a shot.
- Direct Bus Service From Theme Parks to Disney Springs Begins August 28 – They’re making it easy to get from a theme park to Disney Springs, but you still have to transfer through a resort to get back to a theme park.
- Extending Western Way to Route 545 past Flamingo Crossings – I always like easier traffic patterns, but I don’t want anything that’s going to result in Flamingo Crossing raising its prices (it’s a nice, quaint little place to stay for a night or two at the beginning or end of a trip.)
- Pool at Disney’s abandoned River Country water park being drained and filled in – I still have (vague) memories of going to River country. If they ever built a DVC in that area, I would definitely take a look.
- Disney applies for Copper Creek timeshare license – Speaking of DVC properties that Elyssa and I might have some interest in…
- Les Parfaits Inconnus ending its run at Epcot – Friends of the site Dutch Lombrowksi and Howie from Maryland are surely devastated by this news.
We’ll close out with a video that Disney recently posted of what it’s like to be the eagle at the tail end of the Main Street Electrical parade. Thanks for reading, and enjoy!
