We have sad news, DFB friends.

The PeopleMover is an iconic Disney World attraction — there’s nothing quite like takin’ in the views above Magic Kingdom! But we’ve been unable to tour Tomorrowland on it for over a year (since March 2020, to be exact). The refurbishment keeps getting extended again…and again…and again. Most recently, the ride was set to reopen on April 4th, but that date has once again changed.

According to Disney World’s refurbishment calendar, the PeopleMover is expected to be closed through April 30th, 2021.

We’re not gonna lie — if you’ve been following the progress on the refurb, this is pretty disappointing. The ride has been tested multiple times (even with people aboard!). Recently, we even saw the ramp up to the loading area running! But it looks like we’ll have to wait until at least May 1st to ride again. That’s when it’s off Disney’s refurbishment calendar once again.

We’ll keep you posted throughout the next month, as the refurbishment continues (and we’ll see if it gets extended again!). Stay tuned to DFB for more Disney news.

Here’s What We Know About the PeopleMover’s Closure!

Join the DFB Newsletter to get all the breaking news right in your inbox! Click here to Subscribe!

Are you excited to ride the PeopleMover again? Let us know in the comments!

The post Is the PeopleMover Doomed in Disney World?! first appeared on the disney food blog.

Last year, we enjoyed a whole bunch of tasty treats, exciting entertainment, and more during the Taste of EPCOT International Food & Wine Festival (although it was a VERY different festival as compared to previous years).

Last year the Food & Wine Festival also lasted for OVER 4 MONTHS!!! Well, this year the Festival is coming BACK and we finally got a look at when we’ll be able to enjoy ALL the food and wine again. Will it be as long as last year’s Festival? How soon will the Festival start? We’ve got all the details here for you!

Earlier today, Disney shared the dates when the 2021 EPCOT International Food & Wine Festival will take place (and we ARE SO EXCITED)! This year, the Festival will begin on July 15th and last through November 20th. And it’s sportin’ a bit of a different name, too! The “taste” part of its name has officially been dropped, and it’s now simply called the 2021 EPCOT International Food & Wine Festival.

We’re getting 4 months of food and wine, entertainment, merchandise, and MORE at the Festival. Get those stomachs and stretchy pants ready!!

We’ve also got a taste of some of the events that will be offered! Emile’s Fromage Montage will serve as the Festival’s snacking scavenger hunt (think the Garden Graze from the EPCOT Flower and Garden Festival!). You’ll sample cheeses from 5 Global Marketplaces, collecting stamps to ultimately win a prize. And speaking of Ratatouille…Remy’s Ratatouille Hide and Squeak will return, too! Lastly, you’ll be able to listen to some tunes by EPCOT favorites like Voices of Liberty, Mariachi Cobre, and the Jammin’ Chefs.

Official menus for the festival booths have not yet been announced by Disney (although we do know some favorite booths like Canada, Greece, Germany, Hops and Barley, and Appleseed Orchard will be BACK), but we are on the lookout for ALL the latest updates. You can check out our video below to see our list of the BEST of the FEST from the 2020 booths!

A lot of the BIG details surrounding this upcoming festival haven’t been announced yet, like will the Eat to the Beat concerts be returning (we might have a clue on that)? Will there be beverage and culinary seminars available? How many booths will be coming back? We’ll be on the lookout for more information and keep you updated as we learn more. Stay tuned for all the latest Disney news!

Click here to see our page full of more information about the Food and Wine Festival!

Join the DFB Newsletter to get all the breaking news right in your inbox! Click here to Subscribe!

 

Will you be stopping by EPCOT to visit the Food and Wine Festival this year? Tell us in the comments!

The post NEWS: Dates Announced for the 2021 EPCOT Food & Wine Festival! first appeared on the disney food blog.

We love an EPCOT festival. And can you blame us?

This morning the dates were announced for the 2021 EPCOT International Food and Wine Festival and we couldn’t be more excited to get eating on July 15th! We might not know EVERYTHING we’ll be eating yet, but we do know a few booths we’ll get to visit!

In the festival announcement this morning, Disney confirmed the return of five Food and Wine booths including Canada, Greece, Germany, Hops and Barley, and Appleseed Orchard.

Four of these booths were at the festival last year but Greece hasn’t been a booth since 2019. Ooh! We sure are excited to return to this booth!

The Canada and Germany booths are both known for serving up tasty fare from their respective countries. Looking for great beer? Look no further than Hops and Barley. And cider lovers can stop by Appleseed Orchard for a sip.

Remember, this is only the beginning of festival booth announcements! Last year’s festival featured MORE THAN 25 BOOTHS in total. Will more of our favorites return? We hope so!

Stay tuned to DFB to make sure you’re in the loop on all the festival news! We’ll be sure to keep you updated!

Click here to learn more about this year’s Food and Wine Festival!

Will you be headed to Food and Wine this year? Tell us in the comments! 

The post 5 Booths CONFIRMED for the 2021 EPCOT Food and Wine Festival! first appeared on the disney food blog.

I have had the inner workings of attraction queues on my mind lately. First, we looked at whether or not FastPass should return at all in the Disney parks, with the response being much more evenly divided than I would have expected. By a narrow margin, the ‘return‘ vote had the majority, though most agreed that a variant of the system would be appreciated. This is what leads me to this week’s exploration of wondering if all attractions would benefit from some sort of FastPass or virtual queue system?

It’s a new world mid-pandemic, one where our tolerance for waiting in line is lower than ever and our desperation for the common quick-fix at an all-time high. All options are on the table as Disney works harder than ever to sustain a modern, socially distant theme park world; even technology is evolving, testing facial recognition for park entry. But there is one thing they can’t avoid and instead have to invent new and clever ways to manage. Crowds.

The sheer volume of people who flock to the Disney parks each day is incredible. Regardless of how limited capacity may be at each location, it can be hard to deter people from gathering at those E-ticket attractions. Enter FastPass, FastPass+, and MaxPass, which previously helped distribute people around the area, providing windows for return at the more popular rides. Without these systems, Disney faces the difficult task of managing crowd flow and encouraging people to remain spaced out throughout their days.

After reading all of your comments and thoughts on that previous article, I started to consider the options. It popped into my mind that there might be a case for more, or even all, of the rides to entertain some sort of virtual queue system. It sounds complicated, doesn’t it? At first, I thought the same, but during a series of sleepless nights, my 3am mind pondered this idea a little longer and realized that it actually wouldn’t be all that different in practice. However, the outcome, doing away with traditional physical queueing altogether, would have a significant impact on our health and safety.

You head for the next attraction you are interested in, and instead of standing in the line, you scan your MagicBand for a return time. Not unlike the buzzer at a restaurant, you are alerted when your window has opened then make your way to the ride, all while enjoying food, shops, and other attractions while you wait. Simple enough? Right?

As 5am approached, I started to take this idea to an entirely new level again. Imagine if some of the newer, more immersive lands had a return time to enter them as a whole, allowing you a block of time to explore, ride and enjoy in smaller groups. Staged entry times could apply to lands such as Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge, Toy Story Land, Avenger’s Campus (opening in Disneyland’s California Adventure), or even areas of EPCOT and the different sections of Magic Kingdom. Similar to the way SWGE opened in Disneyland.

When you start to consider the possibilities, you take a deep dive down the rabbit hole of futuristic Disney technology. And yes, I know this sounds ludicrous; there will be people who dramatically say that allowing Disney to schedule your every moment is giving up some sort of freedom. However, to those people, I say, can you imagine telling Disney park lovers of the ’70s and ’80s that there would one day be such a thing as electronic entry and booking a space to beat the rest of the queue three times a day many months in advance? Every advancement starts somewhere. With necessity, the mother of all invention, the need is increasing and the possibilities endless.

Now’s your chance to let me know if my insomnia has pushed me into the deep end or if maybe, just maybe, there is a more scheduled, crowd-controlled Disney future ahead of us that could somehow alleviate both health concerns and the frustration of waiting in lines.

Feature image: Photo by Stone Hood on Unsplash