You know we love stopping into Disney World’s flagship park and we did just that recently to check in on ALL the latest news. Now, we’re bringing you some updates on construction and merchandise!
Magic Kingdom Construction Updates
Various Locations
First up, we noticed that most of the trash cans around the park had the lids closed. A few were still propped open, but the change does appear to be in progress.
Trash Cans
The lids have been propped open to reduce touchpoints since the parks reopened last July.
Adventureland Bazaar was open for guests today with some additional seating near the very popular Aloha Isle.
Adventureland Bazaar
Magic Kingdom Merchandise Updates
Emporium
Now let’s talk about merch! The Emporium had a White Purse and Crossbody Wallet covered in little Mickeys.
Purse and Wallet
And we noticed that a Nightmare Before Christmas wall had been added. That’s perfect for Halfway to Halloween!
Nightmare Before Christmas Merch
Crystal Arts
In Crystal Arts by Arribas Bros. we spotted this GLORIOUS Crystal Cinderella Carriage Set for a whopping $1,825.
Crystal Arts
The spot also had some Crystal Wands for $49. So pretty!
Crystal Arts
Frontier Trading Post
Frontier Trading Post had a very sweet new Goofy and Max Graduate Pin for $19.99.
Goofy and Max Pin
Perfect for those grads in your family!
Bonjour Village Gifts
Possibly the neatest souvenir we found today was over at Bonjour Village Gifts. Check out the Castle by Numbers Painting print with 50 hidden characters! Looks like a real in-progress work of art, eh?? Snag it for $39.99.
Castle by Numbers
Fantasy Faire
Annnnnd finally, over in Fantasy Faire we spotted the Luggage Mystery Pin Set for $6.99!
Mystery Pin Set
And that’s all we have from Magic Kingdom this time around! As always, stay tuned to DFB for the latest updates!
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With more than 750 pages, the 2021 DFB Guide to Walt Disney World Dining is full of tips and planning tools developed by Disney World experts over 30+ years of visits. We’ve done the research for you, so you’ll know just which spots will uniquely suit your family’s needs!
With mini-reviews of every single restaurant, bar, lounge, kiosk and more; an entire chapter on the best snacks in Disney World; full Disney Dining Plan analysis (and how to get FREE dining); and a full chapter on discounts and deals; you’ll have everything you need to plan your best vacation yet.
We previously told ya that Jungle Cruise was set to premiere on July 30th, 2021, and that’s still the official release date! And today, the movie’s star Dwayne Johnson hopped onto social media to let us know that it would debut in theaters AND on Disney+ with Premier Access on that day.
If you’re unfamiliar with Premier Accesson Disney+, it involves paying an additional fee to stream a particular movie on the service. We’ve seen this feature used for the live-action Mulanand Raya and the Last Dragon!
Jungle Cruise follows skipper Frank Wolf (played by Johnson) and researcher Dr. Lily Houghton (played by Emily Blunt) on “an adventure-filled, rollicking thrill-ride down the Amazon.” We can expect LOTS of puns and that classic Jungle Cruise humor! We’re excited to finally watch this movie, and we’ll be sure to keep ya posted with any more updates! Stay tuned to DFB.
Walt Disney World guests now have another way to help get assistance with issues at the resort, as the Walt Disney World Guest Service account has returned to Twitter. The account, which can be found at @WDWGuestService, has begun responding to guests again for the first time since March 12th, 2020, the same day the resort announced it would temporarily close due to the COVID-19 pandemic. When resort hotels reopened beginning in June of that year, a virtual chat with […]
From June 1st-September 2nd, the Duffy & Friends Sunny Fun event will take place! We’ll see special decorations, new merch, and even some brand-new eats.
Some of those food options include a new sip with lemon jelly, coconut gel, and mango that will debut on June 10th at Cape Cod Cook-Off! We’ll also see white chocolate mousse with apple jelly, Tea Mont Blanc cake on a souvenir plate, and more.
As far as merch goes…there will be lots of that, too! First of all, we’re getting a TON of new outfits for Duffy & Friends plushes. They all go on sale starting June 1st!
Safe to say, this event sounds like a TON of fun. Remember, it starts on June 1st! We’ll keep you posted with lots more Disney news, so stay tuned to DFB.
It’s six months to Magic. Each day has been meticulously planned. Practiced hands have crafted perfect days that strike the balance between flurried activity and required rest. As these plans change from scribbles to spreadsheets there are golden linchpins that hold the entire operation together; what are they? What are those mythic threads that hold together the fabric of a perfect vacation? Experienced Disney travelers and neophytes alike know the answer: FastPasses.
With Disney suspending the FastPass program for the foreseeable future, it has left many people worried they won’t have a chance at experiencing everything in the park. I decided to grab my girlfriend Kelsey for a trip into the Magic Kingdom and see exactly what we could get done in a day without FastPasses.
We started off getting to the parks ~10:00 AM and I can feel the physical cringe from hardcore Disney runners as they see 2 full hours of prime park time wasted. I could try and make an excuse about trying to simulate the unexpected morning delays of a small family, but the truth is that I was tired and decided to slap snooze on my clock. So with this kind of start, I was not hopeful for a very successful speed run of the Magic Kingdom, but I decided to see what I could manage to squeeze out of a walk down Main Street.
We began our day in full force in Frontierland with a walk by wave to the Country Bears on their little balcony; it’s always nice to say hello to Wendel though I always keep an eye out on Liverlips when I have my girlfriend with me. We didn’t stop too long before heading straight to Big Thunder Mountain where our expectations for how the day was going to go began to formulate. We didn’t stop walking in the queue until we were already halfway through the warning signs and the queue clipped at an incredible pace.
We traded gold dust for pixie dust over at Peter Pan’s Flight and though this was the longest line we had all day, we kept happy thoughts in our head and it felt like we floated right through. Pixie dust is only meant to carry you so high, but Tomorrowland has transcended those limits with technology that takes a trip to Space Mountain. It felt like we had rocket jets on our feet compared to some times I’ve waited for Space Mountain and they sped us through the entire queue until dropping us off right at the end of the space exhibits to get a good look at our fellow explorers as they took off. Afterward, once our ship landed safely back on earth, we felt an obligation to protect our planet from the scourge of Zurg and did our tour as space cadets for Buzz Lightyear. (Kelsey squeaked out the win with 420,000 points!) Space travel inevitably works up an appetite so we refueled at Cosmic Ray’s with a classic earth meal of a loaded down hot dog with fries. Using the mobile order feature on the My Disney Experience meant that as we left Space Mountain we could put our order in and more time was spent eating rather than waiting on it to be done. For an efficiency extremist like myself, the Mobile Order system is a gift from above. Feeling slightly closer to a heart attack and an early grave, we made the fitting decision to head over to Haunted Mansion.
The Haunted Mansion was where we really made good time… We didn’t stop walking. From the moment we got into the queue to us being seated for our poltergeist packed escapade, it took less than 10 minutes. In the vein of complete honesty here, I am not a die-hard Haunted Mansion fan. (Get it? DIE hard! Too subtle?) However, I can not think of a single trip into the Magic Kingdom where I have not made the time for this ride. Something about it is so magnetic and so charming, that I simply find myself in the queue each and every time. It was a delight to experience it again.
Our hitchhiking ghost may have intended to follow us all the way home, but it only stuck around long enough to watch some of the cavalcades (I got a bit too excited to see Tigger and my girlfriend cheered suspiciously loud as Gaston rode by on his horse), and I think he took off once he heard we were intending to take on the Jungle Cruise. It turns out ghosts can get scared too! We were only waiting fifteen or twenty minutes for our skipper to pull the boat around and it was well worth the wait. I’d never been on the Cruise before and it’s not a freakin’ savannah, but our guide was fully hilarious. (Anyone else dream about what it would have been like to have Robin Williams as your skipper? I’d never want it to end.) Our travel guide bravely guided us out of the jungle and while we were in the tropics it only seemed right to have the local delicacy: pineapple Dole Whip! (Kelsey’s FIRST!)
Feeling properly refreshed, and once again taking advantage of Mobile Order’s time saving efficiency, we had a pretty crucial decision to make. Splash Mountain would complete the mountain triangle, but it did have one of the longest wait times (only second to Seven Dwarfs Mine Train) or we could take advantage of the newly reinstated add-on: park hopping. We ended up in Hollywood Studios. We tore through Galaxy’s Edge, Toy Story Mania, Rock ‘n’ Roller Coaster, Tower of Terror, Slinky Dog Dash AND another round of Toy Story Mania all in the second half of the day with enough time to stop by Starbucks for a nice Strawberry Acai Refresher.
Not only was I surprised at all I was able to accomplish in the day, but the change in my mentality was shocking. It felt great to remove the clock from the equation and feel free to enjoy the parks at our leisure. I’d always approached my time in the parks with militant efficiency, but now I saw everything as a spontaneous opportunity. It was amazing…
But I’m local. I realized my attitude was possible because my only barrier to entry into the park is a ticket. I’m not traveling from across the country or having to take time off work or having to plan around an entire family’s schedule! It made me see the security that a FastPass provides to a family who knows that their most precious resource at Disney is time. The parents are working hard to make every minute count because they don’t want their children to even notice. FastPasses aren’t just a shorter line to the best rides, they are a guarantee. A guarantee for a family traveling from around the world that they will have a minimum foundation of magic to build their vacation upon.
My day without FastPasses was an absolute highlight with time spent on some of my favorite rides, a park hop to Hollywood Studios and even being there for Kelsey’s first Dole Whip. We ran around like children. It felt like how a day at Disney should be experienced. No stressing about time or scheduled rides and instead getting to make decisions spontaneously and enjoy the little pieces of magic around the kingdom. However, I know that FastPasses are a necessary form of crowd control born out of Disney’s unbridled desire to increase ticket sales. The passes are a slipshod solution to a systemic problem: park capacity. They have used densely packed queues to disguise the fact that there is not enough space or attractions for the amount of people they accept into the parks. Three hour queue times are not a sign of success, they are a sign of greed.
I got a glimpse into the past of how the parks used to thrive and the potential of what they could strive to become. However, I fear that Disney now will never prioritize fixing these problems and instead focus on only mitigating them to the point where people are willing to endure them. They will increase capacity until it becomes unbearable and then bring FastPasses back to “solve the problem” and may even try to incorporate a pay structure with their return. It will give people just enough control over their vacations that Disney will be seen as providing a generous service, rather than fixing a systemic issue with their capacity limits. I hope that Disney uses this time to discover a solution for the long queue times that is guest focused, rather than profit forward. If they don’t…the problem of too many people might go away, but it won’t be the way Disney wants.
As we creep closer to October 1st, the 50th anniversary of the Magic Kingdom, refurbishment projects are ongoing across the park. Repainting continues around Storybook Circus at both Dumbo the Flying Elephant and Casey Jr. Splash ‘N’ Soak Station. Let’s take a look at the newest progress. The shield crest atop the center of the tent at Dumbo the Flying Elephant is in tip-top shape now, having received a fresh coat of paint. The gold paint had been flaking and […]
Kayi Ushe has been introduced as the new Simba when The Lion King returns to the London stage this summer. What’s Happening: Disney on Broadway announced that Kayi Ushe will play the role of Simba when The Lion King comes to London’s West End starting July 29, 2021. Ushe has performed in The Book of Mormon, Motown […]
We have a release date for the new Jungle Cruise movie! We also answer the burning question: Disney+ or movie theaters? Jungle Cruise movie Jungle Cruise is a classic ride at both Disney World and Disneyland. Disney has transformed several of their iconic rides into block buster movies. The next ride to be transformed into […]
With more than 750 pages, the 2021 DFB Guide to Walt Disney World Dining is full of tips and planning tools developed by Disney World experts over 30+ years of visits. We’ve done the research for you, so you’ll know just which spots will uniquely suit your family’s needs!
