Disney World Annual Passholders Can Now Register for “Passholder Play Time” in Toy Story Land in September

by John Epcot, Planning

Disney has started sending out emails to annual passholders so that they can sign up for the special “Passholder Play Time” event in September. Disney is advertising the event as AP holder-only access to Toy Story Land, including all 3 attractions and Woody’s Lunch Box.

The event is offered Tuesday through Saturday in September, with time slots of either 7:00am to 8:00am or 8:00am to 9:00am. When I signed up for my selected time slot a few minutes ago nearly the entire month of September was still available (though, I ended up picking a slot at the end of September, anyway.)

Good luck to everyone who wants to register! I hope you get in before it fills up!

Disney Parks Blog to Live Stream the Dedication of Toy Story Land at 10:55am Eastern Today

by John The Studios

Wow. Is it really the opening of Toy Story Land, today? That kind of snuck up on everyone, huh? I would have thought Disney would promote something like this. ¯_(ツ)_/¯

Anyway, Disney Parks blog has announced that they are going to live stream the dedication of Toy Story Land today at 10:55am Eastern today. As always, I recommend you go to the Disney Parks Blog about 15 minutes before the start of the event to find the post with the video embed. I’ll also try to update this post if I am able.

Good luck and godspeed to anyone trying to visit Toy Story Land on opening today. Maybe the lack of promotion will mean it’s not too crowded!

UPDATE: Here’s the post and here’s the video:

We've always been Pixar fans. — We’ve always been Pixar fans.

Disney World Summer Entertainment Announcements – EMERGENCY News Nuggets

by John Animal Kingdom, Dining, Disney Springs, Epcot, Magic Kingdom, The Studios

The Disney Parks Blog exploded this morning with news about what’s coming this summer to Disney World. There is so much information that it seemed appropriate for a very special EMERGENCY EDITION of the Rope Drop [dot] Net News Nuggets!

First, we learned that near the end of May (i.e., Memorial Day Weekend), we’ll be getting:

New Nighttime Entertainment at the Animal Kingdom. – As expected, Rivers of Light is not ready yet, but Disney is going to be showing a temporary Jungle Book show as a place holder. There was a preview of this entertainment last night, so you can see The DIS’ Tree of Light nighttime projection and Rivers of Light preview videos, or Inside the Magic’s Rivers of Light preview video, if you’re interested. Personally, I’m most excited for Kilimanjaro Safari’s “After Dark”, and WDW Magic, and Inside the Magic already have preview videos up.
Tiffins – Grr. I was hoping this one open 1 weekend in advance so I could go. Maybe they’ll be doing a “soft open” that week.
Finding Dory Characters at Turtle Talk with Crush – I’m once again surprised at how quickly Disney was able to integrate new characters into the park. This is even before the movie comes out.
A third track on Toy Story Midway Mania – I know this doesn’t sound exciting, but adding 50% more capacity to one of the most popular attractions at a theme park that needs attractions for people to ride on during construction is important.

A couple weeks later, in June, we’ll be getting:

Frozen Ever After – Say what you want about Frozen, but this is going to draw people to Epcot in a way that hasn’t happened for months (years?).
Mickey’s Royal Friendship Faire. – The previous Magic Kingdom stage show had been around for so long that I can’t even really remember watching it. I’m interested to see what they do with this one.
Soarin’ Around the World – Speaking of things to draw people to Epcot. Going into The Land pavilion the past few months has been eerie. I’m looking forward to Soarin’ re-opening, and I have high hopes that the new video is going to be great.

Disney also announced that new princess Elena of Avalor will debut at the Magic Kingdom in August and posted another rundown of the new Disney Springs elements opening this summer.

Lastly, Disney shared some more details about the upcoming Toy Story Land at The Studios. Personally, I’m less concerned with the attractions coming to this land, and more interested into how intricate the theming is. I really hope I feel like I have been “shrunk[en] to the size of a toy” while I’m there."

Disney also released some concept video of the Slinky Dog Dash coaster, and that seems like an excellent way to end this post: