Santa Claus will meet guests on Sunset Boulevard, PHOTOS.BURNSLAND.COM
A new Santa Claus meet and greet will be setting up shop in the Once Upon a time store, just underneath the famous Carthay Circle facade. Santa will greet guests 11/14 through 12/24. Santa Goofy will stand in for Santa December 25th through 31st, 2016.
Santa Claus is missing and nd the search-and-rescue mission to get The Big Guy back to the North Pole in time for Christmas Eve is all part of the all-new “Jingle Bell, Jingle BAM!” holiday spectacular coming to Disney’s Hollywood Studios starting November 14. The show comes to life on, above and around the Chinese Theater with state-of-the-art projections, special effects, fireworks and a rousing seasonal musical score. The show will replace Star Wars: A Galactic Spectacular temporarily.
New Jingle Bell, Jingle BAM! nighttime spectacular at Disney’s Hollywood Studios
Led by elves Wayne and Lanny, the duo from ABC/Walt Disney Animation Studios’ animated special “Prep & Landing,” the new fireworks spectacular features memorable holiday moments from Disney films including “Mickey’s Christmas Carol,” “Beauty and the Beast,” “Pluto’s Christmas Tree,” “Bambi,” Tim Burton’s “The Nightmare Before Christmas” and more, all building to a festive finale. It will even snow on Hollywood Boulevard as part of the excitement.
New Jingle Bell, Jingle BAM! nighttime spectacular at Disney’s Hollywood Studios
New Jingle Bell, Jingle BAM! nighttime spectacular at Disney’s Hollywood Studios
New Jingle Bell, Jingle BAM! nighttime spectacular at Disney’s Hollywood Studios
Disney will also offer a Jingle Bell, Jingle BAM! Holiday Dessert Party, which includes reserved viewing, desserts, specialty beverages and more. Each dessert party guest will get a pair of 3D HoloSpex® glasses to use while watching the show. The glasses create holographic illusions of gingerbread men, candy canes, snowflakes and ornaments on any bright point of light.
The new show will dazzle Disney’s Hollywood Studio guests through December 31.
It’s certainly no secret to WDWNT readers and listeners that Disney’s Hollywood Studios is my favorite park at Walt Disney World. Stop asking me why. Seriously.
Anyway, in all my love of Hollywood Studios, I have recently fallen out of love with counter service dining at the park. Since the Backlot Express menu overhaul in 2015 and the closure of Studio Catering Co., I find myself often avoiding counter service meals at the Studios. That being said, I have never been a fan of the menu at Min and Bill’s Dockside Diner (with the exception of the Blue Milkshake, which is indeed still available) in the Echo Lake area of the park. I know it has had several different menus in the last few years, but none of them ever really appealed to me in any way.
Recently, the menu was overhauled, adding items from the popular, yet now closed Echo Lake Eats.
Min and Bill’s Dockside Diner Menu
Min and Bill’s Dockside Diner Menu
Carolina Foot-Long Hotdog ($11.49)
Carolina Foot-Long Hotdog ($11.49)
We didn’t order the new Carolina Foot-Long Hot Dog because we figured it would be pretty similar to the stuff you can find at Casey’s Corner. I happened to see one sitting on the counter, so I pulled an “Inside the Magic” and just took pictures of something I didn’t order.
Carolina Foot-Long Hotdog ($11.49)
The photo on the Disney website is fairly inaccurate (surprise). Not only does in come in a loaf of bread, it’s definitely an entirely different color. That being said, we had something very similar at Casey’s and didn’t think it was too bad.
The loaded nachos are pretty standard, but it’s a nice offering considering other options at the park. Sometimes you are just in the mood for nachos, and if you really are, this is a viable option. All of the prices here do seem a bit hight, but “welcome to Disney World” I guess.
Loaded Chili-Cheese Nachos ($10.49)
The guacamole isn’t all that great, but the sour cream was nice and fresh.
Min and Bill’s Pulled Pork Sliders ($10.99)
Min and Bill’s Pulled Pork Sliders ($10.99)
Again, probably overpriced, but I really enjoyed these. I have never been a fan of coleslaw, but I really think it blended well with the pork in this case. The buns were the highlight though. If any counter service hamburger had these buns, they would be at least 50% more edible. The buns were soft, flaky, and had a buttery flavor that was quite pleasant.
DINOSAUR at Disney’s Animal Kingdom will not open from its lengthy refurbishment as scheduled. The ride was scheduled to reopen on October 17th, 2016.
DINOSAUR at Disney’s Animal Kingdom Theme Park
Guests are reporting that their FastPass+ reservations have been cancelled for anytime in the next 30 days. Disney has yet to announce when the ride will reopen.
UPDATE: The closure of DINOSAUR has been extended over a month to November 20th, 2016.
At Disney’s Grand Floridian Resort & Spa for a limited time, guests can enjoy the Garden View Lounge while enjoying from a selection of champagne and wine. A limited small plate menu includes items such as caviar, charcuterie, and seafood. This new dining experience will soft open on October 13, 2016. The Garden View Lounge will be available to Guests from 7-10 p.m.
Garden View Champagne and Wine Lounge at Disney’s Grand Floridian Resort
The Garden View Champagne & Wine Lounge officially opens Friday, October 14 and will operate nightly from 7-10 p.m. through December 2016. Reservations are not available as of yet, so seating is available only on a first come first serve basis.
The closing of Maelstrom at Epcot and the removal of the Earfful Tower from Disney’s Hollywood Studios probably didn’t have quite the emotional impact on guests that the removal of the Sweet and Spicy Chicken Waffle Sandwich from the Magic Kingdom did. Offered for several years, the sandwich became a staple of Sleepy Hollow Refreshments in Liberty Square. Well, after a several month absence, the beloved park snack recently returned as part of the widespread menu changes happening around the resort.
Sweet and Spicy Chicken Waffle Sandwich ($10.29)
First off, the sandwich has undergone a pretty impressive price increase. It’s as if Disney knows that the guests who love this sandwich would pay more for it. I don’t know about you, but in all of the excitement of it being back, $10.29 didn’t phase me. Next time it might.
I’ve seen a lot of Disney fan blogs yelling about the sandwich being much smaller than before. In my experience, the waffle was smaller and that wasn’t a bad thing. I always found the original Belgian waffle version a little hard to pick up and eat. This new version was far more manageable and I though this waffle tasted just as good, if not better.
Was there less chicken? I’m not so sure that they didn’t just luck out once and get two pieces of chicken, but this was about as big as I remember the chicken ever being in this sandwich. It was still just as favorable as before. The arugula was cut from the sandwich though.
The price is high, but I honestly can’t think of another counter service item in this park I would want more, as much as I love the new menu at Pecos Bill’s. Yeah, $10.29 is probably more than this should be, but it is just so good. While the price may be a bit off-putting, I can’t recommend this sandwich enough.
Similar to the test currently running at the Magic Kingdom which has added another guest relations location in Tomorrowland, Disney’s Animal Kingdom is now testing out the addition off a second location where guests can find help with ticketing, reservations, and other issues or concerns.
The new test location is adjacent to the entrance of the Kilimanjaro Safaris attraction. The main Guest Relations is still located at the very front of the park in the Oasis.
The test will be running today, October 13th, 2016, through November 5th, 2016.
DisneyWorld.com today added information on Rivers of Light dining packages
According to dining packages available for the show on DisneyWorld.com, Rivers of Light will officially debut on or around May 1st, 2017. The dining packages offering reserved viewing space for the show will begin to be offered on May 1st, so the show would have to debut by then. Dining packages will be available for booking 180 days in advance should all go according to plan this time.
For some reason, the Tiffins package is not actually listed along with Flame Tree Barbecue and Tusker House, but the official information confirms that 3 restaurants will be a part of the dining package.
Rivers of Light dining package information
Rivers of Light dining package information
UPDATE: The page has since been removed from DisneyWorld.com, so we will have to wait and see if this was an error on Disney’s part or if we are really going to have to wait until May for Rivers of Light to debut.
Our latest photo report brings us to the Magic Kingdom before and after Hurricane Matthew hit. While the storm had little effect on the parks other than a 1.5 day closure, there is still plenty happening around the Magic Kingdom this week.
Hurricane Matthew
Knowing Thursday would be an interesting day to visit the parks, I journeyed to the Magic Kingdom to see how Hurricane preparations were going. If you haven’t seen our popular video of the park getting ready for the storm, you may want to check it out:
Thursday morning was actually fairly nice.
Tarps around the Swiss Family Treehouse (closed through October 20th now) had to be removed for the storm, offering an unusual look at the work.
Flags all around the park were tied up as well.
Some were just removed, like those in Liberty Square.
The Muppets present Great Moments in American History
On Sunday, guests started lining up early for what would be the final Main Street Electrical Parade performances in Florida before it heads back to Disneyland.
Garbage cans were pushed off of the curbs to allow for more viewing space for guests.
I staked out my spot at about 4:30PM just to be safe. I was joined by hundreds of guests minutes later.
You can watch the final Florida parade below if you haven’t seen it yet:
New Souvenir Mug
A really great Be Our Guest Restaurant mug can be found at select locations at the Magic Kingdom. The mug is $7.50 with a drink.
