Housekeeping at Disney World to be Reorganized Due to Degrading Service Quality

Ever since the Four Seasons resort opened at Walt Disney World, Disney has been looking at ways to keep up with the luxury resort, especially since many Disney Deluxe Resorts are priced higher.

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One of the larger problems in recent years has been in the upkeep of a guest’s resort room, with a notable downward trend in the quality and care of housekeeping Cast Members. It is very common these days to find beds unmade, trash on floors, and sometimes even worse inside of your Disney hotel room.

Disney is reformatting the way their Housekeeping works across Walt Disney World to attack this problem over the coming weeks and months. The first major change is a large increase in the number of housekeeping Cast Members across the property, including the hiring of dozens of new managers across all of the hotels. This is all in anticipation of the introduction of the new dispatch system, similar to the one recently rolled-out in Tomorrowland for custodial Cast. This system is said to better dispatch housekeepers to get rooms cleaned more efficiently for the day’s arrivals.

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The last piece of all this is that a rumored third party company, based in the hospitality industry, will be coming in and retraining the housekeeping teams on current industry standards and trends. All of this piled together should create drastic changes in the upkeep and cleanliness of Disney’s hotel rooms.

“Star Wars: Episode VIII” Is Officially Titled “Star Wars: The Last Jedi”

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Lucasfilm has released the official title for Episode VIII and it is called “Star Wars: The Last Jedi”.

From StarWars.com:

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The Official Title for Star Wars: Episode VIII Revealed

Announcing the name of the next film in the Skywalker saga.

We have the greatest fans in this or any other galaxy. In appreciation of the fans, we wanted them to be the first to know the title of the next chapter in the Skywalker saga: STAR WARS: THE LAST JEDI.

THE LAST JEDI is written and directed by Rian Johnson and produced by Kathleen Kennedy and Ram Bergman and executive produced by J.J. Abrams, Jason McGatlin, and Tom Karnowski.

STAR WARS: THE LAST JEDI is scheduled for release December 15, 2017. 

 

Source: StarWars.com

The Wave Introduces “The Seven Seas Lagoon”, 24oz Alcoholic Drink

With tornado warnings in the area, we were looking for some shelter for the next few hours while at Walt Disney World, so we decided to head into The Wave at Disney’s Contemporary Resort. Upon entering the bar area, we were greeted by this…

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The Seven Seas Lagoon at The Wave and Top of the World Lounge, Disney’s Contemporary Resort

Meet “The Seven Seas Lagoon”, a 24 oz shareable drink only available at The Wave and The Top of the World Lounge (in Bay Lake Tower).

In the drink are the following ingredients:

  • Skyy Vodka
  • Parrot Bay Coconut Rum
  • Soda Water
  • Agave
  • Lime
  • Pineapple
  • Strawberry Apple Boboa
  • Swedish Fish
  • Life Preserver Candies
  • A Glow Cube
  • Mickey Straws

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The Swedish Fish and Strawberry Apple Boboa swim at the bottom of the Seven Seas Lagoon.

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Mickey straws are provided, and come with a candy life preserver on them!

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Surprisingly it only costs $22.00. We shared it between 3 people and it was honestly big enough for up to 3 guests to enjoy.

The drink itself is very sweet, but it has a nice sour flavor to counteract it, reminding me of many of the old Star Wars Weekends specialty drinks that were available at Disney’s Hollywood Studios. The soaked Swedish Fish swimming in the drink were quite delightful, as were the boboa.

For the price, fun, and flavor, you will be hard pressed to find a better shareable beverage at Walt Disney World. Now if you’ll excuse me, I need to finish this large drink I ordered…

Flame Tree Barbecue Retiring Signature Barbecue Sauce

Even though I panned it unmercifully in our review, one of the staples of Flame Tree Barbecue at Animal Kingdom has been its signature and exclusive barbecue sauces. Well, one of those sauces will soon be no more…

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According to cast members at the establishment, the regular barbecue sauce is in short supply and should be running out soon. The cast members stated that they were informed that it will not be restocked and instead they will simply be distributing only the Heinz Barbecue Sauce packets. The sweet and spicy sauce made just for the restaurant will remain, however.

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I prefer the sweet and spicy sauce myself, but I know that many will miss this exclusive sauce at Flame Tree Barbecue. Will you?

VIDEO: Take a Creepy Ride on Pirates of the Caribbean with All of the Audio-Animatronics Turned Off

I have seen a broken or immobile animatronics character from time to time on many a Disney attraction, but I’m not sure I’ve ever been on a ride where every single audio-animatronic was turned off. Well, that’s what happened to our Disneyland Reporter Conner Purzycki as he rode Pirates of the Caribbean on Thursday evening:

Pretty creepy, huh? At least he wasn’t riding “it’s a small world” when this happened…

We don’t know exactly what happened to the ride, but it appears it wasn’t anything too major as it reopened shortly after this happened.

VIDEO: Review of Epcot International Festival of the Arts, Monkeys in the Park, The Price is Right and More on WDW News Tonight

Last night on WDW News Tonight…

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Hosted by radio veterans and life-long Disney fans Tom Corless and Nick LoCicero, WDW News Tonight is a live, weekly, audio and video program presented on 105.5 FM, 660 AM, and AM 1520 WBZW in Orlando, Florida, as well as online at WDWNewsTonight.com every Wednesday from 9-11pm EST. The show covers the Walt Disney World Resort and other Disney news. The show combines the latest headlines, comedy, trending vacation topics, call in games, and in-depth discussions to bring Disney fans a one-of-a-kind 2-hour program covering the Disney Parks. While the show is being live-streamed in both audio and video, listeners and viewers also interact via a live chat online. The show is also available on demand as an audio download, online audio stream and can be watched live or recorded on YouTube.

RUMOR: Paint the Night Electrical Parade Still A Possibility for The Magic Kingdom

I know Disney said there were no plans “at the time” for the highly acclaimed Paint the Night Parade to move to Florida, but a lot has changed since the Fall of 2016.

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Drooping attendance at Walt Disney World since last summer has had many an executive at Walt Disney Parks and Resorts examining the idea of moving the Diamond Celebration blockbuster out east to help bolster what they hope to be an explosive Summer 2017 in Orlando.

While Disney’s Animal Kingdom will debut Pandora: The World of AVATAR (and possibly, hopefully, Rivers of Light), the other 3 parks just don’t have a whole lot going on as far as new offerings for this year. Just in case AVATAR isn’t enough to convince someone to go to Orlando in 2017, Disney may want to bring Paint the Night to Walt Disney World. Rumors also persist that a new nighttime show for the Magic Kingdom is in development for a debut later this year.

Now, management at the Disneyland Resort is putting up quite the fight, but the decision will be made above them one way or the other in the next few weeks. I would assume that attendance for the returning Main Street Electrical Parade at Disneyland Park will play a role, but the possibility of the “limited” run for that event until June being extended indefinitely (or glowing away for a Star Wars fireworks show in California) and sending Paint the Night away to the Magic Kingdom seems to be fairly likely.

LIVE STREAM: Main Street Electrical Parade Returns to Disneyland for the First Time in Over 20 Years

Watch live as the Main Street Electrical Parade returns to Disneyland Park tonight during a special hard-ticket event. Be sure to join us at 9pm PT to see the epic return as it happens!

Due to tech issues with our live stream, we instead streamed the parade using Periscope. You can watch it at the link below:

https://www.periscope.tv/w/1ZkKzqARmYXxv

We will have an HD video of the parade’s return up as soon as possible, so stay tuned!