There’s already a lot of excitement happening out at Disney Springs this week with the reopening of the iconic World of Disney store, but we’ve also come across some visitors from a galaxy far, far away. If you spent some time at Disney Springs on Wednesday, you may have spotted some First Order Stormtroopers patrolling the area, on the lookout for members of the Resistance! 

We hear they’re stationed on some balconies these days. If you do see them, it’s probably best to snap a photo from afar and “move along,” as Stormtroopers may not appreciate you getting too close. And, if you’re feeling particularly brave, sport some of the Resistance gear you may have picked up on a visit to Batuu! Of course, if you’re more of a First Order sympathizer and want to fly those colors … well, the Stormtroopers will appreciate that, I’m sure. 

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Disney Springs is in the midst of a phased reopening. The World of Disney store opened its doors Wednesday, along with other Disney-owned and -operated venues D-Luxe Burger (mobile order) and the Marketplace Co-Op. For the latest information about the reopening of Disney Springs, including what you need to know before you arrive, operating hours and a list of open locations, visit DisneySprings.com/reopening. May the Force be with you! 

Now that World of Disney and several businesses have reopened at Disney Springs, Sprinkles has just confirmed they’ll be reopening on Friday, May 29th.

But there are a few things you’ll need to know before you check ’em out tomorrow!

You can check out which cupcake flavors Sprinkles will have available tomorrow as well as place your order here! We’ll be sure to put our order in and share some Sprinkles cupcakes with you (virtually, of course) from Disney Springs tomorrow!

See photos of what it’s like to dine at Disney Springs right now here!

Will you be placing an order for Sprinkles cupcakes? Let us know if you’ll be stopping by Disney Springs this weekend comments below!

I love learning about behind the scenes details at Walt Disney World. I like knowing how things work, and how the magic is made. I know that digging into the backstage side of my happy place comes with the potential of spoiling some of the magic and mystique, but so far, learning the details has only enhanced my love of the parks, and has increased my appreciation for all of the cast members who make the magic.

Just in case you’re like me and you’re sitting at home wondering what’s going on in the parks and resorts during Walt Disney World’s temporary closure, I thought it’d be fun to take a look at a couple of aerial pictures that show us where the Disney Skyliner gondolas have been hanging out these past couple of months.

First, let’s take a peek at the storage supports for the Skyliner gondolas when they’re not in use. The supports are located just behind the Skyliner station at Disney’s Caribbean Beach Resort, and can be seen most clearly upon descent into the station if you’re traveling from Hollywood Studios.

The station at Caribbean Beach Resort serves as the hub for the Skyliner system, so it makes sense that the storage supports would be located there. In the picture above, taken in September 2019, you can see that a few extra gondolas were being stored on the supports.

In the aerial photos of the Skyliner station at Caribbean Beach, we see the gondolas lined up, hanging from the supports. During Walt Disney World’s temporary closure, the gondolas have been missing from the lines, and it’s great to have a peek at them.

As you can see in the picture above, all three Skyliner lines feed into the Caribbean Beach Resort station. If you’re a Joffrey’s Coffee fan, note that the small yellow building to the right of the station is the new Joffrey’s location that features the Skyliner-exclusive Toffee Flight Latte.

Each of the Skyliner stations is themed according to its surroundings. The sunny yellow and teal accents fit the theme of Caribbean Beach perfectly.

Personally, I love that the aerial pictures give us a chance to see the candy-colored gondolas hanging in rows, just waiting to be used again. And I can’t wait to see them moving on the lines again.

If you’d like additional details regarding the Disney Skyliner, including onboard videos, be sure to visit our information page.

Have you taken a trip on the Disney Skyliner? What did you enjoy about your ride on the “Happiest Flight on Earth?”

Source: Jonathan M. Salazar

Disney World proposed their reopening plan yesterday and since then they’ve been working out the details.

Disney is set to introduce a new reservation system for their theme parks and right now, they are no longer accepting new reservations. Yesterday we even spotted that Advance Dining Reservations were unavailable. Well today, something a little surprising is happening for folks who had FastPasses scheduled for July.

Today, members of our team and some of our readers noticed that their FastPasses for July (starting on the 11th when the parks are planning to reopen) were gone!

Strangely enough, with no notice from Disney, FastPasses are disappearing from guests’ plans. Our FastPasses were still there this morning, so Disney must have pulled them sometime late morning or early afternoon. We had FastPasses booked throughout July and now they are all gone.

Of course, we tried to make some new FastPasses to see if we’d be able to but we were met with an error screen.

Our dining reservations are still available in our plans but it sure is weird that all of our FastPasses disappeared. We haven’t heard any statement from Disney on how the reopening will affect the FastPass system, so we are interested to learn more about Disney’s process. Perhaps this is a glitch and the FastPasses will return, but we’re not sure.

This is a developing situation so we’ll be sure to keep you updated as we learn more!

Click here to learn more about the current state of Disney reservations.

Were you affected by this sudden cancelation of FastPasses? Tell us in the comments!

Among the shops now open in Disney Springs as Disney World’s shopping and dining district continues in its phased reopening is The Spice & Tea Exchange in the Marketplace.

The Spice & Tea Exchange reopened yesterday (as did several other locations including the World of Disney and The Daily Poutine, among many others). If you haven’t checked it out previously, we hope you’ll join us as we step back inside this shop packed with herbs, gourmet spices, and lots of fun finds for the tea connoisseur in your life!

Before we step in, a word or two about the new entry and safety procedures…

As you approach the entrance you’ll notice the distancing signs on the ground that are starting to look very familiar around Disney Springs to promote physical distancing as guests wait to enter the store. Traffic flow is directed with doors designated for entering and exiting.

We were able to walk in, though, without a wait. Immediately upon entry, we were offered hand sanitizer.

As we explored the shelves, we were still welcome to open jars.

It’s well worth mentioning that the jars and displays are continuously being wiped down by cast members.

Over 140 spice blends are on offer here, including — but by no means limited to — these Custom Blends for seafood dishes like the Spicy Tuna Rub, a Northwest Salmon Rub, and a Coastal Blend.

And you can sweeten things up with specialty sugars like Salted Caramel, Lemon, and Key Lime!

Oh, and we mentioned fun tea finds earlier, didn’t we? It didn’t take long to fall in love with these animal-shaped tea infusers!

(I’m a bit partial to the flamingo!)

And the crazy cute Float Teas (pool float-style tea infusers) are practically irresistible.

And that’s just a glimpse of what’s in store! You may be surprised by what you’ll find at The Spice & Tea Exchange if it’s not a stop you’ve made previously in a visit to Disney Springs. And if you’d like to find out more about what our recent visits to Disney Springs have been like, you can start by clicking here.

Have you visited The Spice & Tea Exchange in Disney Springs? Please let us know with a comment!

There was another wave of stores that have reopened this week at Disney Springs. We were live yesterday at World of Disney, which drew in huge crowds resulting in wait times of up to six hours to shop!

Today we checked out The LEGO Store, which also opened on May 27. Being a store that was centered around hands-on playing with the Legos, shopping here is pretty different now with the new health and safety measurements in place! 

Currently, there is only one working entrance to access The LEGO Store.

If outdoor queues are necessary, floor markers are present to indicate where guests should stand to maintain a six-foot distance from other parties.

Once inside, guests will see additional floor markings to maintain social distancing from other shoppers.

The store has taken several measures to reduce the number of touchpoints where germs could spread. Their interactive touch screen computers have been turned off. The bins with build-your-own parts for minifigs and Legos for guests to play were also unavailable at this time to reduce touching.

In addition, guests are NOT allowed to approach the shelves or touch ANY products inside the LEGO Store. This is indicated by taped-off sections of the store.

Additional floor markings are present to remind guests to stay on the “yellow” area, in this instance meaning where the yellow floor markings are located. The floor marking reads, “Kindly stay within the yellow area of the floor.”

If a guest wishes to see a product, LEGO Store employees are available to grab the item for them as well as talk about the product and answer any questions the guest may have.

When a guest is ready to check out, the registers are set up in a way so guests are off to the side of the employee instead of standing right in front of them.

Hand sanitizer is readily available for guests and employees to use at the register.

Overall, the health and safety protocol at The LEGO Store are highly visible! With no guests permitted to touch or interact with the products, The LEGO Store may feel a little different than what we’re used to. Having employees on hand to interact with the guests though is a nice touch, and still offers guests the opportunity to learn about the products available for purchase.

Take a look at some of the other health and safety protocol we’ve seen at retail shops in Disney Springs here!

Are you planning on visiting Disney Springs in the coming weeks? Will you stop by The LEGO Store, even with these new distancing and no-touch policies in place? Let us know in the comments!

As of yesterday, several Disney-owned locations reopened in Disney Springs.

And while yesterday there was over a three-hour wait to get inside World of Disney, today we walked right in! Let’s take a look around and see what’s in stock at the moment!

Disney Springs began a phased reopening last week with third-party stores and restaurants, but yesterday Disney-owned stores such as World of Disney and Marketplace Co-Op began reopening as well.

World of Disney has posted its hours as 10AM to 10PM (the same as Disney Springs) so we were a little surprised to see the store was open to guests at 8AM today! A Cast Member we spoke to said they decided to get an early jump on the day in order to “get a better handle on things.” At this time we’re not sure if the store will be changing it’s operating hours because she seemed to imply they are taking things day by day!

And unlike yesterday, we didn’t have to use the new virtual queue system to go shopping at World of Disney today! Like we said, we simply walked right in because there were hardly any crowds!

While we did see some Cast Members wearing gloves restocking the shelves, we DIDN’T see a few items we spotted yesterday.

See how different Disney Springs looks today compared to yesterday here!

Sold Out

The Baby Yoda Plush for $24.99 has sold out and they don’t know when he will be coming back. 

They had about ten of the left from yesterday when the store reopened, but they’re already flown off the shelves!

Read more about the super-popular Baby Yoda Plush here!

Minnie Mouse: The Main Attraction merchandise is also completely gone.

Yesterday, they had a few February’s Pirates of the Caribbean Minnie Plush and March’s Mad Tea Party stuff left, but it has already vanished!

Read about this SOLD OUT collection here.

There was plenty of other great merch in stock, though! In fact, the salesfloor and shelves at World of Disney today looked just as full to us as they did before the closure. And even though we knew some of it had been around since before the parks closed, there were plenty of new items we haven’t seen in real life yet as well!

Since we were trying to be mindful of not handling the merchandise too much, we didn’t catch prices on all of these items, but a lot of what we saw today has also recently appeared on shopDisney, so we’ll link ’em for you when applicable!

Ink & Paint Collection

We spotted some Ink & Paint merchandise was still in stock along with the adorable Sorcerer Mickey Loungefly which magically had appeared at the parks last February.

It was a much smaller display than we had seen previously, and sadly no Ink & Paint Coffee Mugs are available at this time!

Check out some of the items in the Ink & Paint collection here!

Neon Collection

Previously we’d never seen this collection before, except on our computer screens! We can assure you, these colors really pop in person!

Click here for more info on the Disney parks’ new Neon Collection!

The Neon Mickey Plushes were all lined up, looking for a good home!

And we also spotted the new Neon Walt Disney World Hat with a see-through visor! Very cutting edge!

We spotted some new Youth Neon Shirts…

…as well as the Jerrod Maruyama Neon Mickey Figurine!

There was even a tail-wagging Neon Spirit Jersey for Pets for $36.99! 

Meanwhile, humans were going nuts over the new Neon Loungefly Backpack! Love the little Mickey ears!

The neon straps it has on its back are totally awesome while the rest of the bag is made of a tinted neon blue plastic!

And there were plenty of Neon Crocs for adults still in stock as well!

We also discovered a bunch of the equally-groovy new Tie-Dye Spirit Jerseys were in stock!

Check out how colorful and amazing the BACK is!

But that’s not all the new merch we spotted! In fact, Disney World’s summer line has just arrived!

Click here to learn more about the new Disney parks Tie-Dye Spirit Jerseys!

Summer Collection

Babies — get ready to have some fun in the sun with these adorable new Summer Onesies!

Check out even more items in the new Disney World summer collection here!

And check out its matching Summer Hat which has a reversible design!

If you’re looking for us later, we’ll be lounging poolside with these new Summer Flip Flops featuring colorful fruit designs!

And did we happen to mention how perfect they’ll look with our new Inflatable Minnie Ears? These things are even more GORGEOUS in person!

We also spotted the new Watermelon Hip Bag for $29.99 which is so wonderfully cute!

And we said “aloha” to the new Men’s Summer Shirt which has Dole Whips and Mickey Ice Cream Bars all over it!

This Youth’s Summer Shirt was puttin’ off some sunny vibes!

And even if the forecast calls for some rain, we wouldn’t mind dodging a few raindrops in this adorable new Rain Jacket! It’s also patterned all over with Mickey Ice Cream Bars along with pink flamingos and flowers!

We also spotted a few summer styles that made us feel right at home like this new Summer Shirt!

And for Ladies, we thought this Summer Tank Top said exactly what we were thinking.

We also really liked Summer Hair Kit! It costs $14.99 and it’s packed with the essentials…

…aka colorful scrunchies! We’ve found out you can never have too many hair ties on a hot summer day!

But the new piece of summer merch we’re most obsessed with is this Walt Disney World Visor!

It’s kinda retro and futuristic at the same time!

Class of 2020 Merchandise

Speaking of bright futures, check out the exclusive graduation items we spotted at World of Disney today! We spotted some Mickey Grad Caps embroidered with 2020!

And there were lots of Class of 2020 Socks in stock as well which we had spotted previously in Downtown Disneyland before the closure.

We also spotted these Mickey Graduation Ear Headbands for $29.99! 

If you or someone you know is graduating this year, check out this special message recently sent out from Disney World here!

Kitchen Collection

We’ve been spending a lot more time in our kitchens lately, which is why we’re super excited to show you some new accessories to make your meal prep even more magical! We love this adorable new Mad Tea Party Mixing Bowl Set for $34.99!

The set includes three ceramic mixing bowls inspired by our favorite Alice in Wonderland-themed ride!

And how cute will these new Mickey and Minnie Salt and Pepper Shakers look on your dining table?

The set costs $19.99 and each shaker looks like a coffee mug! These would make a great gift for the Disney mug collector in your life!

We never thought we could love a Spoon Rest so much until we laid eyes on this Mickey balloon-shaped one for $9.99!

And we had to ask a Cast Member what this item was since we weren’t really sure at first. It turns out it’s a Mickey Balloon Toothpick Holder for $9.99!

How fun would it be to grill up some burgers with this new Mickey Apron for $29.99?

Don’t worry! If you’re a Disney couple that enjoys cooking together, there’s also a new Minnie Apron for $29.99!

And there are even matching hot pads! Here’s the Mickey Pot Holder for $14.99.

And here’s the Minnie Pot Holder for $14.99 with her iconic red and white polka dot bow. Beautiful!

And check out these new sets of Disney Dishes we just spotted!

Each set includes six unique designs and costs $26.99! Here are the plates you get in the “Pluto” Dish Set!

And for you alphabet lovers, we spotted several ABC Disney Coffee Mugs were still well-stocked!

You can also pick these up online if you’re unable to swing by!

See the entire ABC Disney Collection here!

Other New Merchandise

You didn’t think we were done shopping yet, did you? There’s still plenty left to look at! We spotted this new Sleeping Beauty Journal for $29.99 in the stationary section!

While the cover is bedazzled with jewels, the inside is just as lovely. Check out these illustrations!

We discovered this Cinderella Journal for $29.99 as well featuring some of our favorite animal friends on the cover!

This one also had some beautiful artwork inside as well as lots of blank pages for note-taking.

We can’t wait to try on this new Snow White Headband when we get home, now that our hair is down to our waists, something like this is stylish and practical!

We also spotted this super adorbs Youth Sequin Shirt for 29.99 with a cute little Minnie peeking up from the bottom!

But the sparkles don’t stop there! This new Youth Minnie Purse for $14.99 has lots of glitter and even a rainbow!

Meanwhile, we know our little ones are going to love this new Minnie Hair Tie Set for $14.99!

And can we just say how jealous we are of these Kids Rainbow Light-up Crocs? 

The Neon Crocs are great and all, but they don’t light up like these do! Man, kids get all the best stuff!

Minnie looks so adorable on these new Treat Yourself Journals for 16.99.

There is also a new set of matching Treat Yourself Pens for $17.99 in pretty pastel colors!

Speaking of pretty pastels, check out this fabulous tie-dye Minnie One-Piece! We wish this came in adult sizes, too!

And this Youth Minnie Hoodie for $44.99 is pretty incredible too!

Check out all the BLING it has on the back! So stinkin’ cute!

We also spotted these adorable Minnie Keychain Pouches to clip onto your bag for your Airpods or charging cables.

And these new Minnie Pom Pom Ice Cream Keychains are our newest obsession. SO CUTE!

We also found these adorable Minnie Door Hangers for $7.99.

And this new Minnie Backpack is going to drive our girls crazy! It’s so sparkly and FUN!

Minnie has really been working overtime since the parks closed. She also posed for this new line of Minnie Phone Cases!

We also spotted some new summery Beach Towels (which work just as great as Bath Towels, too!).

And now that our pajamas are getting a little too worn in, check out this new Women’s Castle Pajama Set for $49.99 we’ll be replacing them with!

We also love this super comfy-looking Women’s Little Mermaid Sweatshirt for $44.99!

And just when we thought we might be moving on from Briar Rose Gold, we spotted these miraculous Rose Gold Suitcases for $159! They also had plenty of Rose Gold Loungefly Backpacks in stock!

Check out the newly redesigned Briar Rose Gold Minnie Ears here!

While we’ve been loving the new Ashely Eckstein Designer Minnie Ears, we spotted a few new items in the Her Universe collection today including these Star Wars Leggings and Star Wars Tank Top!

But Ashley Eckstein makes stuff for dudes too, like this Star Wars Shirt! Love the vintage graphics!

And for you Mando fans, even though the Baby Yoda Plush is sold out, there were plenty of Baby Yoda Shirts and Baby Yoda Spirit Jerseys still available!

Learn more about the Baby Yoda Spirit Jersey here!

Well, friends! We hope you had as much fun shopping with us as we had with you! We’ll be back soon to show you more new merchandise soon!

Check out our full experience at World of Disney here including what safety measures they’ve put in place!

What were you hoping to see in World of Disney? Let us know in the comments!