Do you have a favorite nighttime show that you MUST SEE every trip? For Frank and I, it was always Wishes. While we enjoy Happily Ever After a lot, I’m not having quite the same emotional response to it that I used to have with Wishes…but I suspect that may come in time…Happily Ever After is SO spectacular and there is SO much going on…I think my brain stays super active, and my heart just doesn’t have time to catch up!
I also have a soft spot for Illuminations: Reflections of Earth, and am sad that I most likely won’t be seeing it before that show is over forever to make way for whatever the next extravaganza will be…
I have seen Rivers of Light at Animal Kingdom several times now, and I really like it. It’s different from the other shows, but really pretty.
And of course, Fantasmic. I’ve always loved that one…but it occurs to me I haven’t made time for it in a few years….Hmmmm….Maybe next trip….
Check out the video below for Disney’s brief summary of the nighttime shows at Walt Disney World currently:
Which show is a MUST NOT MISS? Or would you rather ride attractions during the shows, or get to bed early to be raring to go for the next day? I’d love to hear what your approach is to nighttime entertainment!
Perhaps trying to capitalize on the excitement surrounding this week’s opening of Solo: A Star Wars Story (or to add to the excitement?), Disney Parks has announced the official opening seasons for the Star Wars themed lands, currently under construction at both Disneyland and Walt Disney World.
In a brief article published yesterday on the Disney Parks blog, Disney Parks announced that Galaxy’s Edge will open at Disneyland in the Summer of 2019. Walt Disney World’s version at Hollywood Studios is officially scheduled to open in “Late Fall 2019”. There are no more specifics than that, folks.
“Summer” and “Late Fall”. Which, let’s face it could mean anywhere from May – September for Summer and October – December for Late Fall. And of course…future announcements could be forthcoming should any delays crop up.
I certainly understand their hesitation to announce a specific opening day just yet…a lot can happen in a year…but fans are chomping at the bit to get a glimpse of Galaxy’s Edge, and that anticipation has been growing steadily in the months since Star Wars: The Last Jedi was released–and is likely to get another big bump once Solo: A Star Wars Story opens.
Image from Disney Parks Blog
So far, we know that Galaxy’s Edge is set on the planet Batu, a remote outpost that has become a thriving port for smugglers, traders and adventurers. Initially there are at least two attractions planned: one featuring the Millennium Falcon and one featuring a Star Destroyer. We know there will be a Cantina featured, and that the blue milk made famous by Luke Skywalker in Episode Four: A New Hope will be an offering. We can also count on lots of characters from the Star Wars universe, and of course….LOTS of merchandise. In fact, some Galaxy’s Edge merchandise is already available in the parks today!
Artists’ rendering from Disney Parks BlogArtist’s rendering from Disney Parks Blog
Disney continues to market Galaxy’s Edge as an extremely immersive experience, where guests are put in the middle of the action. Having just returned from a second trip where we spent a lot of time exploring Pandora, Disney’s Avatar-themed land at Animal Kingdom at Walt Disney World, I am even MORE excited to see Galaxy’s Edge. Disney Imagineering outdid themselves with Pandora, and from what Disney’s been saying, they’re going a lot farther with Galaxy’s Edge.
Add to that the incredible multi-media nighttime spectacular Star Wars fireworks show Hollywood Studios showed off on May 4th? (May the Fourth be with you!) We were SO impressed and amazed. I really can’t wait to see what they are doing with Galaxy’s Edge. I suspect it will go beyond anything we’ve ever seen in a theme park before!
You can check out my previous post about Galaxy’s Edge here. Here’s a link to the official announcement: Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge.
So…are you excited to visit Galaxy’s Edge? Are you seeing Solo: A Star Wars Story this weekend?
Happy Dreaming!
Brooke
*Note: if you need help planning your next Disney parks vacation, Disney cruise vacation, or Adventures by Disney vacation, I can help! Contact me at brooke@disneycastledreaming.com for more information.
This was a WONDERFUL trip! We had a terrific time, and I learned a few things I hope to incorporate into future trips…
I’ll be doing a detailed day-by-day trip report over the next couple of weeks, but for now, here are some highlights:
Parks: All four parks looked great this trip. We visited Animal Kingdom, Epcot and Magic Kingdom each twice. Hollywood Studios was a blink and you’ll miss it visit this trip—we went in for dinner at the Hollywood Brown Derby (AMAZING!) and caught the nighttime shows after dinner–but that was it.
Weather: We had absolutely glorious weather most days—but we did have a couple days with a LOT of rain. Saturday, our pre-planned Typhoon Lagoon/Disney Springs/Rest Day ended up with torrential downpours that lasted several hours. Fortunately, we still got a few hours in at Typhoon Lagoon before the rain rolled in, and hey, if you’re going to be caught in the rain, somehow it’s better if you’re already in a bathing suit and flip flops with wet hair, right? Our evening at Disney Springs had some sporadic rain showers, but they were fairly light and didn’t bother us hardly at all. Sunday was a little more challenging as it was our last full park day…it rained off and on most of the day. Fortunately, we were prepared with our ponchos, so it didn’t really affect us much…and had the bonus benefit of reducing the crowds a little bit.
The rest of the time, we had lovely blue skies with lots of sunshine. Mid-afternoons to early evenings got pretty HOT and humid. Us northerners don’t do as well in the heat as southerners more used to the heat, and I have to admit, I was a bit of a wilted flower most days around 3pm. But a cold drink, a little A/C, and a little sitting and people watching usually recharged my batteries just fine.
Disney’s Magic Kingdom (Photo: Brooke Hudson)
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Magic at Cinderella Castle! (Photo: Brooke Hudson)
Crowds: Originally, when I booked the trip, crowds were projected in the 3-5 range (out of 10, with 10 being so crowded it’s hard to walk, and parks at or near full capacity) for most days. The closer we got to the trip, the higher the projections went, with crowds projected to be at 6-8’s most of our days. In actuality, I think most days ended up being around 6’s, especially in the afternoons…maybe creeping into seven territory on Monday. Our mornings were especially lovely, and crowds stayed lighter until around 11am most days. Lots of strollers, lots of ECVs, but not unbearable by any stretch. We did not see many big tour groups, either.
Resort: We stayed at Old Key West this trip and really loved it. It’s such a pretty resort, and has the largest studios of all the DVC resorts, with 2 queen sized beds—so it was perfect for us. We had a second floor villa, so thank goodness for the wonderful bell services that helped us with all our stuff! They are in the process of rehabbing this resort, but we saw no signs of construction during our visit. The landscaping here is really lush and pretty; everything looked terrific! We took the ferry to Disney Springs one night, and wow, that was so nice! The ferries come every 20 minutes between 10 am and 11 pm, and it’s a really scenic ride to Disney Springs. Our balcony had a nice golf-course view, and parking for our rental was very close by. The gift shop at Old Key West is a really good one; OKW has some of the best DVC resort specific shirts and related souvenirs of any of the DVCs we’ve stayed at. Cast members were all really nice and very helpful. We had two meals at Olivia’s, the OKW main table service restaurant and they were ok, but not great. The first was a lunch, and we had club sandwiches which were good. The highlight of the meal was sitting out on the patio, though, honestly. The second meal was breakfast on Saturday morning, and it really wasn’t great. The service was very slow, and both of us had issues with our eggs. The biscuits were very good, though. Again, the highlight was our table out on the patio.
Old Key West Resort (Photo: Brooke Hudson)
Old Key West DVC Resort (Photo: Brooke Hudson)
Disney Transportation: We rented a car this trip, so we did not use a lot of Disney transportation; however, what we did use was great, and we never had to wait very long. We used the resort Ferry to Disney Springs, as I mentioned above, and that was a big highlight of the trip for us. We used the Ferry at the Ticket and Transport center to get to and from Magic Kingdom a few times; I love that Ferry! Also did a couple monorail rides—again, not much waiting, and they got us where we needed to go. We rode LOTS of parking lot trams, haha. The only real waiting we had to do there was on Friday when we left the park at the end of the night, along with about 20,000 of our closest friends 😉. We waited about 20 minutes and through 4 tram loads before we got on one, but it wasn’t too bad, considering. We did NOT use Magical Express or any bus transportation this trip.
Merchandise: Mom and I both love to shop, and we shopped our hearts out on this trip. Financial limitations meant we didn’t necessarily BUY a whole lot, but we SHOPPED and SHOPPED, haha. Lots of fun merchandise, as always, for the Flower and Garden Festival, but we were a little disappointed. It’s been a few years since we have been to the Festival, but in the past there was a pretty big variety of Festival merchandise, including, usually, several different pins. This year, there was only one pin available, and we found it sold out in many locations—with three weeks still left to go in the Festival! Perhaps there were more options available earlier on? I’m not sure, but there were no special Passholder pins available for the Festival and only the one pin option. Of course we DID buy the pin they had…but I would have liked to see a couple of different options. One of the things I like about Festival time is that there is usually more variety in the shirts, hats, mugs, etc. at the Festival park than you’ll see everywhere else. And that did hold true this year as well, although there wasn’t as much varied merchandise as I recalled from previous Festivals. Other than Festival or Park specific merchandise, most of the shirts, sweatshirts, mugs, toys etc. were found in most shops across all four parks and Disney Springs. The advantage of this, of course, is that you don’t have to buy something when you first see it, as you’ll likely see it many more times during your trip. This is good for me, since I usually buy all my presents and souvenirs at the end of my trip when I think I’ve seen everything and can make a good decision. But the big disadvantage is that the merchandise doesn’t feel as SPECIAL when you see the same stuff over and over and over. Yes, it’s a big pain if you fall in love with the one shirt that you can only find at that little shop in the corner of Adventureland…but that makes it more FUN and more memorable, even if it means having to go back to that park on the last day to go to that little shop in the corner. I have lots of memories of long ago trips when the last day was all about running around to find that special something we’d seen at the beginning of the trip and looked for in every store we went to after that….
Mom and I DID manage to find a very special and unique souvenir, but I can’t tell you about that one yet, as we got one as a present for someone and I don’t want anyone to see it until that person gets to see it. 😊
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One of the things I love about Animal Kingdom is that it has a lot of merchandise that is truly unique to Animal Kingdom—not just shirts and ears and mugs, but really different merchandise that is in line with the conservation and nature missions that Animal Kingdom promotes. Now, there is one merchandise line that really stood out…in a fairly dreadful way, I must admit. I’m just as excited about the upcoming Meghan Markle/Prince Harry nuptials as any self-respecting Disney Princess loving girl could be….but this? This goes just a little too far, even for me:
Tea Towels???
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Nighttime Entertainment: To be honest with you, neither of us are big night owls, especially after a long, hot day of theme-parking. Our nighttime extravaganzas usually entailed whatever nighttime show was at whatever park we were in, followed by returning to the resort, showering off the day and CRASHING 😉. We really enjoyed the nighttime entertainment in each park though. Our very first night, we got to watch Rivers of Light at Animal Kingdom. We had great seats, and Mom loved it as much as I’d hoped she would.
Friday night we did a quick Hollywood Studios visit for dinner and entertainment–once dinner was over, we were just in time for the Disney Movie Magic projection show on the Mann’s Chinese Theater and surrounding buildings, followed by a special Star Wars themed Galactic Fireworks and projection show in honor of May 4 (“May the fourth be with you”). The Star Wars Spectacular was truly SPECTACULAR! The show incorporated video clips and stills from all Star Wars movies released to date and a few from the upcoming SOLO movie (SOLO merchandise was VERY prevalent in the parks and at Disney Springs this visit). It used lights, lasers, pyrotechnics, music, audio clips and fireworks to really dazzle the audience. There were lasers coming out of the screens (buildings) that looked like blasters were firing and lasers coming from the back that looked like shots fired back…. It was pretty immersive and VERY impressive. It was just a taste of what Disney is cooking up for Star Wars fans with Galaxy’s Edge, but I personally found it VERY exciting and can’t wait to see what the future will bring.
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Sunday night, the last night of our trip, we actually left Magic Kingdom about an hour before the fireworks and hopped a Monorail over to the Contemporary and went up to the Top of the World Lounge at Bay Lake Tower. Available exclusively to DVC Members staying at a DVC Resort, the Top of the World Lounge features a large bar and several indoor seating areas, surrounded by a very large patio area with a spectacular view of Magic Kingdom. We had drinks and appetizers here, and I popped out to take pictures of the show from the unique “Top of the World” perspective, while Mom watched the show from her seat at the bar inside. They pipe in the music, which is great, because the music adds SO much to the show. Of course, you can’t really see all the castle projections that are an integral part of the Happily Ever After show, but the music and the fireworks are pretty fantastic, even without the projections.
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Another highlight: On Saturday evening while we were at Disney Springs, we caught two different groups performing on the main stage there. The first was a group of high school kids from Rome, New York. They danced and sang, and were really terrific. The second was a dance troupe, and each song was danced by a different group of kids–it seemed to be primarily by age groups. They were very fun to watch, especially the littler kids. 😊
Needless to say, I could go on for DAYS (and probably will!! 😉 ) about our trip, but I’m anxious to get this quick summary posted, so I’ll stop here.
Epcot International Flower & Garden Festival. (Photo: Brooke Hudson)
Bottom line: The trip was WONDERFUL! The parks looked terrific, we had some really wonderful cast member interactions and some AMAZING meals. I’m so glad we went, and I can’t wait to go back!!
Excitement moved throughout the world of Disney and Star Wars fans yesterday as Disney released a “Flyover” video showing construction progress at the new Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge “land” currently being built at both Disney’s Hollywood Studios in Orlando, Florida and at Disneyland in Anaheim, California.
I don’t know about you guys, but I think it looks pretty impressive. I’m especially excited about the descriptions Disney has posted so far about this “land”. It sounds like they are really going for something truly immersive, and I suspect it will be unlike anything we’ve seen from Disney so far. Scheduled to open in 2019, Disney hasn’t released a whole lot of details about this project yet, so this video is VERY exciting to see.
Technology keeps improving so quickly, and Disney certainly takes advantage of those gains as they design and create new attractions and experiences for Disney fans worldwide. I was so impressed by Pandora when we visited Animal Kingdom in November (read about that visit here), and I think what Disney has planned for Star Wars is light years beyond what they did with Pandora.
Even if you’re not a Star Wars fan, I suspect Galaxy’s Edge will still capture your imagination!
Check out this short video that Disney released last year featuring Disney Imagineers talking about the project.
My stepdad took us to see the original Star Wars movie way back a million years ago when it first came out and I can still remember what an impact it had on all of us! We’ve all been fans ever since (well…there were that unfortunate group of THREE movies 1999-2005 that I hated, but otherwise….), and it is so much fun watching the kids of today getting into Star Wars now just as much as we did when we were kids!
I’m really looking forward to seeing Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge when it opens, and I’m even MORE excited to visit with my step-dad and brothers because I know they will be AMAZED and thrilled. I just can’t wait!
Take a look at this concept art that Disney released last year:
Does that look out of this world amazing??
How about you? Are you loving the recent additions to the Star Wars franchise? Are you excited to plan a trip to Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge??
Big news from Walt Disney World today! They have officially announced opening day for the highly anticipated Toy Story Land at Hollywood Studios! Toy Story Land will open June 30, 2018!!
Opening Toy Story Land will give a much needed boost to Hollywood Studios, which has felt a bit…well, decimated over the last couple of years as attraction after attraction was closed to make room for both Toy Story Land and the still under construction Star Wars themed land. When we visited in November, it definitely felt like there wasn’t a whole lot to do at Hollywood Studios. We took advantage of the extra time we had and watched the Streetmosphere Players a lot (they are TERRIFIC!)…but we missed the Great Movie Ride, the Animation Academy, the Lights, Motors, Action! Extreme Stunt Show, and even…dare I say…American Idol! Does anyone else remember Sounds Dangerous with Drew Carey? That’s been gone longer, but I still miss it. But I digress….[what else is new?] Read more about our November visit to Hollywood Studios here.
Toy Story Land capitalizes on one of the most popular attractions in Hollywood Studios, Toy Story Mania, as well as the very popular Pixar Toy Story movie series. The idea is that when you enter Toy Story Land (much like when you enter the queue area for Toy Story Mania), you have shrunk down to “toy” size, and you are all set to play with the other toys. Toy Story Land’s superstar new attraction is a roller coaster called “Slinky Dog Dash”. Disney released a video of a test run on this attraction, check it out :
Another new attraction is called Alien Swirling Saucers, which sounds a little like that Mad Hatter’s Tea Party to me…the Disney Parks Blog describes it as aliens “swirling about in their flying saucers with guests in tow…”…So swirling? Sounds like spinning, but I could be wrong. I guess we’ll have to wait and see!
They’ve also added a third track to the VERY popular Toy Story Mania, along with a new game-themed entrance…this will hopefully help the ride move more guests through each hour, making it (fingers crossed) easier to get fast pass plus reservations for this attraction, as well as reducing the overall standby line. I love this attraction, and am always happy when I can ride it more than once over the course of the day.
Wedding Trip: Toy Story Mania (Photo: Brooke and Frank)
Super Patient Kids Waiting in Line (Photo: Brooke Hudson)
Finally, they’ve added a new quick service restaurant called “Woody’s Lunch Box”–which is, you guessed it, Andy’s lunch box turned on it’s side. It’s a walk up window type restaurant, so I’m assuming we’ll see outdoor seating, or perhaps a covered seating area?
The whole land sounds super cute…with lots of toys all around. I can’t wait to see it. I’m guessing our trip at the beginning of May will be too early to have any hope of a soft open or a passholder preview, but you never know! If I can catch any glimpses, I’ll be sure to take pictures and share when I get back.
Otherwise, it will most likely be next year before I’ll get to explore Toy Story Land. I can’t wait to see it, though. I bet it will be lots of fun to explore and will have a ton of great photo spots. All those bright colors and “life-size” toys? I think it will look spectacular. Dare I hope for more green Army men? I love those guys!!
I’m so sorry I haven’t been able to update since our trip. I can’t believe how busy it has been since we got back! Between being sick and working LOTS of extra hours trying to earn a little Christmas money, it’s been NUTS!
Getting back on track though. With that said, here’s the first of several posts about our trip.
Hollywood Studios
I have to tell you, I really feel like Disney has upped their game in the Holiday celebration arena in recent years. They’ve always done a good job decorating each resort and they always decorated Main Street at the Magic Kingdom. And they had the Osborne Spectacle of Lights at Hollywood Studios, but unfortunately that closed a couple of years ago. With that gone, other than Christmas Trees at Hollywood Studios, Epcot and Animal Kingdom, they didn’t do a LOT of decorating in the past at the parks.
I feel like that has changed. During our trip, I felt like the holiday spirit was EVERYWHERE. The Holidays were much more in evidence everywhere we went. If you needed help getting in the Holiday Spirit, Disney is definitely the RIGHT place to be, that is for sure! Going relatively early in the season gave us a nice kickoff to our 2017 holiday season.
Hollywood Studios was where I noticed the biggest change: It looks like Hollywood Studios is really trying to attract crowds this year with their Holiday decor and activities, perhaps partially to make up for all the attractions that have closed to make way for the upcoming Star Wars land and the expansion of Pixar Place? Whatever the motivation, it really scored with us!
I have to add that we LOVED the Osborne Spectacle of Lights that used to be on the Streets of America at Hollywood Studios, and were heartbroken when it closed due to all the refurbishments. We were lucky enough to visit it one last time on the last night of our wedding trip, and I’m so glad that we did! The display was festive and magical and very fun…and we DEFINITELY missed it this year!
The Studios is really trying to still be a destination for visitors wanting Holiday Magic, though…They have added a lot of Holiday decor throughout the park, and they’ve added a new Jingle Jam Jingle BAM show in the evenings that is outstanding. While we still missed the Osborne Spectacle of Lights, we really felt that Hollywood Studios held its own as a Holiday destination with the new additions.
Check out the recently refurbished Echo Lake area at Hollywood Studios! Even Gertie the Dinosaur got decked out for the holidays with the addition of some snow and a giant Santa Hat. There are floating Christmas ornaments all over the lake and a gorgeous holiday tree at one end. It was fun and festive and looked really great at night, too.
One of our favorite activities at Hollywood Studios is to watch the Streetmosphere Character Actors. They come out several times a day, mostly on Sunset Boulevard, in various groupings and do crowd-interactive, at least partially improvisational, performances. And they are TERRIFIC. If you don’t take time to check them out when you visit, you are really missing out!
The Streetmosphere players really embraced the Holiday spirit as well. In one scene we watched, they were a group of singers, trying to get on the Bing Crosby Holiday Radio Show. They did a hilarious version of the 12 days of Christmas, with a few members of the audience participating.
Another really funny one we watched was a riff on the Holiday Parade Celebrity Hosting idea. They basically pretended everyone walking by was part of the parade and they threw out jokes and interacted with various “participants” as they went by. Some people really played with them too, it was really funny. It happened to be Dapper Day, so they had a fashion parade at one point, really letting those folks shine!
The Hollywood Studios Streetmosphere players are so talented, and they think so fast on their feet! They really added to our enjoyment of the day, that’s for sure!
Sunset Boulevard has gotten a festive update, and at night…wow. Disney has really embraced their projection technology all over the World and boy is it everywhere at night at Hollywood Studios during the Holidays! The Tower of Terror is the canvas for several themed festive vignettes, set to themed music and coordinated with projections on nearby billboards as well. It’s overwhelming and a little disconcerting to be honest…you see all this festive happy Holiday magic on the Tower…and then people are screaming up at the top of the Tower. You don’t see them, but you hear them, at least a little bit. It was a little odd..but still really really cool. Disney even used the old snow machines that used to over at the Osborne Lights display to make it snow on Sunset Boulevard (I’m assuming they are the same ones…maybe they’re new 😊!). Unfortunately, none of my pictures turned out — the low lighting on the street combined with the quickly moving images on the Tower turned out a big blurry mess on my camera.
Here’s a picture of the Tower from Disney’s website:
And another:
Like I said, it was pretty astonishing. What really blew our minds, though, was the Jingle Jam Jingle BAM show at the parks original landmark, the replica of Mann’s Chinese Theatre.
Much like the shows over at the Magic Kingdom that use the Castle as a giant projection screen, Hollywood Studios uses the Chinese Theatre and surrounding buildings as giant screens for all kinds of holiday magic. Coordinated with music, lights and fireworks, the show is festive and fun.
The crowd around us really seemed to enjoy it, too. Lots of oooo’s and ahhh’s. It was super bright, colorful and to be honest…kinda dazzling!
We really enjoyed seeing Hollywood Studios decked out in her Holiday glory. This park is fairly limited at the moment, as so many areas and attractions have been closed to make way for upcoming attractions…I wasn’t sure we’d be able to make a full day of it. But we had a great day, and it was pretty action packed, too. I’ll give you a full day recap in my upcoming trip report, but I’m happy to say Hollywood Studios during the holidays is a definite MUST-DO if you’re at Disney. There’s still quite a few attractions and activities and the Holiday decor and nighttime entertainment is well worth a visit during your next holiday trip!
