Lots of new experiences in the works! (Disney Parks news wrap up!)

     Hey friends, a few weeks ago, Disney had a little mini D23 called Destination D23, it doesn't seem like they had all of the bells and whistles of their normal convention which happens every two to three years, but I could be wrong. In any case, they announced a few nuggets of information about the Disney Parks, and so I wanted to go over those a bit this week, since I haven't done anything about Disney for a while. Before I get started, I know that Star Wars: Galactic Starcruiser, the Star Wars themed hotel/ roleplay experience is shutting down at the end of the month and I want to give a few thoughts based on what I have seen and learned about it. First of all, I have to applaud how cool this idea is, for some fans of Star Wars, I have to imagine that it's incredible to be fully immersed in the universe set up in the films with all of the rules and alien races attached to it. It sounds like the theming is pretty incredible all around, and that the character performers do their very best to help the experience. Honestly I am not terribly surprised that this hotel is already closing down after opening early last year. With the $5000 price tag attached to the whole experience, that's a big no no for most people who are planning on going to Walt Disney World, which is already extremely expensive. The thought of spending three days on Disney property, and being trapped on a ship for that time and not being able to go to parks as you wish seems like another dealbreaker for me. I know you get to go to Star Wars: Galaxy's Edge, the Star Wars themed area of Hollywood Studios, and do a lot of things there, but that still doesn't really feel right to me. Long story short, it's a really cool concept, but it was too niche and too expensive for it to be the lucrative cash cow that Disney was hoping for. Without further ado, on with the main attraction: upcoming Disney Parks news!

Concept art for World Celebration, the new entrance pavilion for EPCOT!

A bit of everything!

    So this report of the show that I've found here is a bit scattered, so I assume it's just a recap of how the show went, and I'm going to talk a little about how excited I am for a lot of this stuff, maybe not all, but we'll see. First of all, they're adding Ahsoka to "Star Tours," which is super exciting for me since I love Ahsoka as a character in general, and I am happy for her inclusion in basically anything! Of course, the question is whether we see the version from the new show, played by Rosario Dawson, or the "Clone Wars"/"Rebels" version voiced by Ashley Eckstein. Either way, I'm excited for the possibility, and I hope that I'll be lucky enough to have her pop up on my next flight. Asha, the main character from the upcoming film, Wish, is coming to Epcot soon, which is not really super exciting, but hopefully people will love the movie and want to meet Asha in person! The Hatbox Ghost is finally coming to the Magic Kingdom in Florida and I just want to say, it's about time! For those not in the know, when Disneyland first showed "The Haunted Mansion" off, there was an animatronic called the Hatbox Ghost, he looked like a normal ghost holding a box, but then his head would vanish and appear in the box. Unfortunately the technology of the time couldn't pull off the illusion of the Hatbox Ghost, but a few years ago, Disneyland added him in as a celebration of the 50th anniversary, and now Walt Disney World is getting it as well! It's an exciting little historical reference, which I always love to see. While we're talking about classic imagineering, we have to discuss the "Country Bears Jamboree." This is an attraction that has had some buzz about being closed down, but apparently that's not the case, as here it was announced that they're making a new act for the bear band to perform that will be starting in 2024. The big thing about this attraction is that according to legend, Walt Disney had one of his last big laughs before he died while watching this show, so it's hard for the park to get rid of it, even if not everyone appreciates or understands the appeal. In addition to these new updates for classic attractions, "Pirates of the Caribbean" is getting a lounge themed after it, which will reportedly "extend the story" of the attraction. It doesn't sound like it's very far in terms of the development, but it's a cool idea for sure! I hope it will be as cool as it sounds!

    The California Adventure park (in California, obviously) is getting a new ride to go in Avengers Campus, and it looks like this is the big one that they referred to a while ago where you fly into the world of Marvel and join The Avengers for a big battle. It sounds like it's going to be pretty heavily screen based, but we got a concept image for the ride vehicle, which looks pretty cool. The official description on the site says that the model "combines Tony Stark's time-suits, Xandarian Jump Points, and Wakandan Technology," which you can definitely see some elements of each in this image. Like the other rides discussed, it seems like this is still a good ways off, but at least there's something tangible for them to talk about here. World Celebration is the name that they're now going with for the front of EPCOT, and is used to tie together World Nature and World Discovery, which used to be Future World East and West. World Celebration is opening in December, and will seemingly bring the massive overhaul of the park to a close, at least on a major scale. EPCOT is also opening "Journey of Water, Inspired by Moana" on October 16, only a few short weeks away! This is a walking path that features "living water" that moves along with you as you walk along. It looks pretty stunning, and I hope that it works really well in execution, though I'm concerned about opening day with it being an attraction that you walk through. Imagine how crowded that path will be. Moana is also going to get a meet and greet space right next to this attraction on the same day, so that'll be a good way for all of your Moana related needs out of the way all at once! In addition to all this EPCOT news, they're getting a new nighttime show, coming only two years after the last one. "Luminous: The Symphony of Us" is premiering on December 5, 2023, and will replace "Harmonious," which replaced "EPCOT Forever" which only came out a year before. I don't know why there's such quick turnaround on the nighttime shows in this park, but they're changing them pretty quick for sure. "Test Track" is another part of EPCOT that's being reimagined, with the ride apparently taking come inspiration from the classic ride: "World of Motion" for the next iteration. The current version of "Test Track" focuses on the design and testing component of car manufacture, specifically testing via computer simulation, meaning that the ride simulates cyberspace. I'm really excited to see what they change, especially since the concept image seems to show a buggy going through a jungle, which is not only a new scene for the ride, but a seemingly new ride vehicle as well.

    Animal Kingdom is getting several new updates, including the fact that they're finally getting rid of the terrifying "It's Tough to Be a Bug" show inside the Tree of Life! The short 4D film is based on the Pixar movie, A Bug's Life and features a scene where Hopper, the evil grasshopper in animatronic form, takes over the theater and tries to kill the audience for being humans who kill bugs. He stabs you in the back with sticks, he drops a bunch of spiders down over you, then tries to kill you with bug spray. It's a really sweet attraction that children love I'm sure, not potentially scarring at all. They're replacing it with a Zootopia themed movie, which I'm very excited about! Zootopia really seems like a good fit for the Animal Kingdom, especially since it's about living in harmony with one another and nature, classic staples of the park. The biggest change here is that Dinoland USA is getting rethemed and completely redone into a land that they refer to here as "Tropical America," meaning Central America and the northern part of South America mostly. Not a lot of information is given here, but they mention that Encanto and Indiana Jones themed experiences could be added to this new themed area. We'll have to wait and see how this construction pans out, but I don't think it could possibly be worse than Dinoland USA. While talking about the parks, again they tease all of the construction that's going to take place in the Magic Kingdom and discussed "Beyond Big Thunder Mountain." They said that it's the most ambitious construction that they've done, with immersive theming like Pandora: World of Avatar in Animal Kingdom, or Star Wars: Galaxy's Edge in Hollywood Studios... but it's still very much up in the air to see what they're planning for this, as no concrete developments have been made yet.

Developments overseas!

    While these updates aren't quite as exciting as some of the others, just because they're farther away and I'm less likely to go to them, I think it would be only fair to talk about just a few of the updates in other parks around the world. In Hong Kong Disneyland, they're getting a Frozen themed area called, very creatively, "World of Frozen." The area looks really nice and it is definitely exciting to see the country of Arendelle come to life in even a small way. I'm not sure if there are any attractions or anything planned for this area, but the landscaping alone is very nice. Shanghai Disneyland is getting a Zootopia themed area, which is very exciting, as I already said, I'm a big fan of the movie, and I'm happy that there's some more representation in this park. They're adding a new attraction called "Zootopia: Hot Pursuit", where you're a new recruit in the Zootopia Police Department and you have to find and rescue Gazelle, who has been kidnapped just before her big Zootopia Day concert. It sounds like a pretty cool attraction, and there are animatronics of at least Chief Bogo and Officer Clawhauser, which look really good! No date has been set for the opening of this land, but I'm definitely interested in seeing how it turns out! They announced a Frozen-themed expansion for the Walt Disney Studios park, which is part of Disneyland Paris, and it also looks really pretty, even though it also doesn't mention any specifics as to the attractions to expect there. Tokyo Disneysea showed off more concept art of Fantasy Springs, which I'm very interested in, as it's a land themed after Rapunzel's Forest, Peter Pan's Neverland, and Frozen Kingdom (based on Tangled, Peter Pan, and Frozen respectively). I'm sure that I've discussed this before, so I won't say too much about it, but it looks so cool, and since I love Tangled, I really just want more representation in the parks. I've said it before, and I'll say it again, the Tangled bathrooms in Fantasyland in Magic Kingdom are the best in the park by far. It's a silly thing to be excited about, I know, but that's just how it is.

    While cruises are the least interesting aspect of the business to me, I feel that I should say something about them here. Disney Cruise Line is currently working on three new ships, and recently bought a new island destination: Disney Lookout Cay at Lighthouse Point. They also took this time to announce the title of the seventh ship in the fleet, the Disney Adventure.

    I know there's a lot of information here, and I hope that you're not too terribly overwhelmed by what I've written about here today, but I'm pretty excited about a lot of these developments. It still may be a while until I'm able to get back to Walt Disney World, but I'm excited to see how people enjoy these new additions and changes to the famous parks.

    Thanks so much for reading this, friends! I hope you're having a great week, and I know that this information is a few weeks old, so you may have already heard it by now, but I haven't heard much about it from any of my friends or anything, so I thought it would be worth talking about a bit. Obviously I haven't written about theme parks in a while, so I felt that I should share the news with all of you! Please let me know somewhere online if there's anything in particular that you're excited for, and thanks again for all your support! Until next time, I'm Jonathan, a Self-Proclaimed Disney Park expert, and I'll see ya real soon!