Can you believe the end of 2024 is almost here? It’s been an exciting year for Disney, with more to look forward to on the horizon in the coming years. In the meantime, we’ve still got some interesting news and rumors from the past month!
Disney news
- Disney announced a Monsters Inc roller coaster coming to Hollywood Studios, and now we’ve finally found out where they’ll put it… in place of MuppetVision 3D. That means the closure of MuppetVision sometime in the next year.
- The Muppets will get a new presence in Hollywood Studios though, with Rock n Roller Coaster being re-themed from Aerosmith to Muppets.
- A new Disney resort will be opening in 2027! It will be called Disney Lakeshore Lodge, located near Fort Wilderness, and is “inspired by the majesty of nature and its enduring influence on Disney artists.” It will be part of DVC as well. This is the newest version of the previously announced resort “Reflections – A Disney Lakeside Lodge.”
- A number of Disney World resorts will be undergoing some refurbishments next year. Most of these will be “soft goods” refurbs within the rooms, and should have minimal interference. This includes Pop Century, Wilderness Lodge, and Port Orleans (both French Quarter and Riverside).
- The Disney Treasure sets sail later this month, and it looks like a really awesome ship! We got a sneak peek at the new themed restaurants and menus, including a Coco restaurant, and the lounges (Haunted Mansion inspired and more!).
- It was previously announced that Dinosaur would close, to be replaced by Tropical Americas. Disney recently shared a blog post in which they stated “2025 is your year to visit before it goes extinct!” Sounds like an early 2026 closure is on the horizon.
- Epcot’s Festival of the Arts will be back this winter, and they recently announced the performers for the Broadway concert series.
- Lightning Lane Premier Pass, which was previously only available to deluxe resort guests, is now available to all Disney resort guests.
- Two lions at Animal Kingdom, Dakari and Kamari, are retiring to a different facility (this isn’t a euphemism, they are being transferred to a different conservation haven in Florida that is AZA accredited). A new group of young lions will soon be joining the Safari, but they will need some time to get settled in first.
Disney rumors
Hollywood Studios // With the announcement of Monsters replacing Muppets, many people are upset – and a little confused – as to why they didn’t put Monstropolis in Animation Courtyard, which is mostly empty right and underused right now. Some people are speculating that this could be because they actually have other future plans for that area, and we could get another announcement of a big expansion in the next 5 years.
Magic Kingdom // It looks like we got a sneak peek of the new Cars attraction eventually coming to Magic Kingdom. LaughingPlace.com got this preview experience, which looks like they are going for an outdoor trackless ride.
Resorts // With a number of refurbs happening, it seems likely that resorts which don’t have the pull down beds will be getting those soon. That seems very likely at Wilderness Lodge in particular (Pop Century already has them).
Other Disney blogs
Over at Fairest Run of All, Jenn has a post about how to deal with pre-race anxiety – very useful if you’re doing any of the upcoming RunDisney events!
The D23 Expo is a great place for fun Disney fashion, and I’m so glad that Jenmarie from Anakin and his Angel shared her Star Wars inspired looks from this year!
The D23 blog shared a really neat article about some of the staff’s favorite items in the Walt Disney Archives. As a librarian, this is my dream job!
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