Category: Disney Parks

Disney World Introduces New Digital Key Feature For Keyless Room Entry

Entering your resort room on Walt Disney World property is about to get even easier. Coming soon, Disney will be implementing a new “Digital Key” feature to the My Disney Experience app that will allow guests to quickly unlock their hotel room using a digital key on their mobile devices.

Guests staying at Disney’s Wilderness Lodge will get to test the new technology first, providing them with another seamless room entry option that brings added ease and flexibility to their experience.

Guests can also use their digital key to unlock the hotel entrance gate and common area doors requiring a key, which may include pools, fitness centers, elevators and club level lounges. Arriving travel parties that have checked in online may even use their digital key to bypass the need to visit the front desk, giving them the opportunity to go directly to their room when it is ready and start their vacation even faster.

The feature represents the latest evolution of keyless room entry, which we began offering with the MagicBand, the unique all-in-one device that effortlessly connects the vacation choices guests make in My Disney Experience. Guests may use either or both options to enter their room during their stay.

So how does it work? To use their digital key, guests can opt in and activate the feature on their check-in day through a brief set up process in the app. To enter their room, guests tap the “Unlock Door” button and then simply hold their phone against the door lock. Check out the video below to see a sneak peek of the feature in action.

At Walt Disney World Resort, they are always looking for ways to wow their guests with new technology that enhances the experience. The My Disney Experience app is a perfect example, with recently introduced features like mobile order and online check-in that are providing families and friends with additional choices to make their vacation even more enjoyable and convenient.

Bluetooth-enabled mobile devices with the latest version of the My Disney Experience app are required to take advantage of a digital key for room entry. And don’t forget to wear your MagicBand for all other uses including park entry, FastPass+ redemption, room charges and more.

April 2, 2018
Alien Pizza Planet Landing Soon at Disneyland Park

Oooooooooh – everyone’s favorite Aliens from Disney•Pixar’s “Toy Story” will be invading Disneyland Resort for Pixar Fest, and we are eternally grateful! For the duration of the festival, Redd Rockett’s Pizza Port in Disneyland park will transform into Alien Pizza Planet – “A Better Place.”

The Aliens have sourced the finest ingredients from across the universe to deliver fresh, hot pizzas that are out of this world. A specialty of their home planet Pepperonia is a special pepperoni pizza topped with green peppers and mushrooms.

They’ll also be cooking up a hearty cheeseburger pizza with ketchup, yellow mustard and pizza sauce on a sesame seed crust and topped with cheese, caramelized onions, diced tomatoes, slider patties, a house-made burger sauce, and pickles.

If you’re excited for this fun-filled re-imagination of Redd Rockett’s Pizza Port, stay tuned for more details on the deliciously cheesy menu.

This exciting transformation is just one of the many offerings coming as part of Pixar Fest at the Disneyland Resort, which will run from April 13 through September 3. The festival will span both Disneyland park and Disney California Adventure park, bringing not only creatively-themed food, but also a new fireworks show, “Together Forever—A Pixar Nighttime Spectacular,” the return of the “Paint the Night” parade and much more!

April 2, 2018
Disney Imagineering and NVIDIA Team Up To Develop New Tech For Millennium Falcon Attraction

Walt Disney Imagineering teamed with NVIDIA and Epic Games to develop new technology to drive the Millennium Falcon attraction that will be part of Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge at Disneyland Resort and the Walt Disney World Resort when it opens in 2019.

When it launches, riders will enter a cockpit powered with a single BOXX chassis packed with eight high-end NVIDIA Quadro P6000 GPUs, connected via Quadro SLI.

When the attraction opens next year, park guests will visit the planet of Batuu, a remote outpost that was once a busy crossroads along the old sub-lightspeed trade routes. But you don’t have to wait another year to get a glimpse of it.

An in-progress animated sequence from the Millennium Falcon attraction was unveiled Wednesday. Produced by ILMxLAB and running in real-time, it gives fans the first ever glimpse of the incredible detail and immersion the attraction will offer.

Quadro Sync synchronizes five projectors for the creation of dazzling ultra-high resolution, perfectly timed displays to fully immerse the riders in the world of planet Batuu.

Working with NVIDIA and Epic Games, the Imagineering team created a custom multi-GPU implementation for Unreal Engine. This new code was returned to the Epic Games team and will help influence how multi-GPUs function for their engine.

“We worked with NVIDIA engineers to use Quadro-specific features like Mosaic and cross-GPU reads to develop a renderer that had performance characteristics we needed,” says Bei Yang, technology studio executive at Disney Imagineering. “Using the eight connected GPUs allowed us to achieve performance unlike anything before.”

Yang and Principal Software Developer Eric Smolikowski dove into more details during their GTC talk, “Walt Disney Imagineering Technology Preview: Real-time Rendering of a Galaxy Far, Far Away,” and discussed how Disney Imagineering took advantage of the latest NVIDIA technology and the technical modifications they made for the Unreal Engine, which allows eight GPUs to render at unprecedented quality and speed.

March 31, 2018
Toy Story Mania FastPasses Will Not Be Available for a Month Starting April 9

As we reported back in january, the third track of Toy Story Mania was closed to accommodate the ride’s new entrance into the new land. This caused increased wait times and now Stand-by lines are about to get a little longer as the attraction will stop offering fastpasses for a brief time.

As the park makes final preparations for the grand opening of Toy Story Land, guests will not be able to book FastPass+ for the attraction from April 9th through May 7th. Guests will be able to use the stand-by que during this time.

So if you want to get on the ride you may want to be first in line. Disney has announced the highly-anticipated toy-filled land inspired by the beloved “Toy Story” films, will open to guests at Disney’s Hollywood Studios June 30, 2018.

March 30, 2018
8 Things You Need to Know About This Year’s Star Wars: Galactic Nights
Star Wars: Galactic Nights, the one-night special event, will return to Disney’s Hollywood Studios on May 27.

In case you aren’t familiar, Star Wars: Galactic Nights is a thrilling Star Wars-themed event held after park hours from 7 p.m.-midnight. It celebrates the entire Star Wars saga with out-of-this-world entertainment, special photo opportunities, event-exclusive merchandise and F&B, and encounters with rarely seen characters that guests can only experience during Star Wars: Galactic Nights.

Here’s what you’ll find this year:
- The event-exclusive projection show, Star Wars: Galactic Destinations, will debut a new, surprise planet. Keep your eyes open!
- New talent from the Star Wars galaxy will make a special appearance during the event.
- Guests can meet an array of legendary Star Wars characters, many who are available only during Star Wars: Galactic Nights, including Rey, Captain Phasma, the 7th Sister, AWR Stormtroopers, Darth Vader and even EWOKS.
- Fan-made Droids! Droid Builders, the international community of Star Wars fans who build their own replica robots from the Star Wars galaxy returns with new droids to surprise guests.
- The Seize the Saga Scavenger hunt returns with a new immersive photo location. Guests who collect all the clues will be rewarded with exclusive artwork that will enhance their event credentials.
- An exclusive Star Wars: Galactic Nights poster will be given to every guest.
- Limited-edition, event-exclusive merchandise will be available featuring art from the upcoming movie Solo: A Star Wars Story.
- Guests can savor their way through the galaxy with new menu offerings available only during this event. Tasty new items include loaded red curry duck fries inspired by the Battle of Crait and dueling gazpacho inspired by the famous lightsaber duel between Jedi Master Qui-Gon Jinn and Sith Lord Darth Maul.
Park access and all activities will be exclusive to Star Wars: Galactic Nights ticket holders.

Tickets are now available at all Walt Disney World ticket locations and are priced at $129 for adults and $124 for children ages 3-9
March 30, 2018
New Four Diamond Luxury Hotel Coming to the Disneyland Resort in 2021

Construction is set to begin soon on the upcoming New Four Diamond luxury hotel at Disneyland Resort! It will be the first new resort in almost two decades and will transform the west end of the Downtown Disney District and anchor a new gateway to the Disneyland Resort.

The stunning 700-room hotel will feature a sophisticated design and be a game-changer for Anaheim, creating a dynamic dining, entertainment and hotel experience for resort visitors and local residents. Extensive landscaping and water elements will create a resort oasis, showcasing nature on every level of the hotel. The hotel’s location embraces the iconic Disneyland Monorail with a dedicated platform inside the hotel for direct transport into Disneyland park.

Guest rooms, public spaces and gardens will provide views of the Downtown Disney District. In addition, an upper-level restaurant and lounge will give guests a view of the popular Disneyland park fireworks.

The ground level of the hotel will include shops and restaurants opening onto an expansive landscaped plaza complete with playful water features, creating a gathering place for guests and visitors. The new hotel also connects all four Hotels of the Disneyland Resort through lush gardens and beautifully landscaped walkways, transforming the gateway on the west side and creating a welcoming entry for our Disneyland Resort guests.

And that’s not all. This new hotel creates great benefits for the community, generating approximately $25 million in new taxes in its first five years of operation that go directly to Anaheim’s general fund. It also will create thousands of additional construction and permanent jobs and attract new hotel guests to the resort area.

Construction is scheduled to start in summer 2018, with a grand opening slated for 2021.

March 30, 2018
New Must Have Millennial Pink Ears and Spirit Jersey Arriving at Disney Parks

Millennial Pink is the new Black and now you can sport the trendy shade with a variety of stylish new merchandise from Disney Parks; including Millennial Pink Ears and Spirit Jersey this April and the already released MagicBand.

A millennial pink headband will first debut exclusively at World of Disney in Downtown Disney District at the Disneyland Resort this Sunday.

Additional locations at Disneyland and Walt Disney World Resorts will carry the sequined headband starting in mid-April.

“We experiment with popular color trends when designing merchandise for Disney Parks,” explained Jeanne Lewis from the headwear development team. “With its soft, blush hue, millennial pink is one of the hottest colors in the market, making the new headband an on-trend, must-have item for springtime visits.”

The colors popularity is rivaled only by the rose gold trend, which Jeanne was also the driving force behind. The wildly popular rose gold headband introduced last fall, which inspired apparel, jewelry and even tasty treats created especially for Disney Parks. The new sequin-filled headband gives a nod to the rose gold-dusted original, while setting the stage for additional color-trend headbands arriving later this year.

In mid-April, the headband will be joined by another beloved apparel item at Disney Parks, a new millennial pink Spirit Jersey.

“We know Guests enjoy creating fashionable looks using products designed to complement each other. We closely aligned the launch of [Spirit Jerseys] with the headband so Guests could make fun outfits for spring,” said women’s apparel merchandiser Angelique Vu.

These 100% cotton, pullover tops have theme park logos printed on the front. Pink glitter puff ink lettering of the respective Disney Resort destination is emblazoned across the back of these long sleeve shirts.

Guests visiting Walt Disney World Resort have one additional millennial pink accessory to complete any outfit—a retail MagicBand 2 currently available in select merchandise locations.

With the innovation of MagicBand 2, guests can use this MagicBand and others to unlock the magic of a Disney vacation—from skipping the front desk and going directly to your resort room, effortless theme-park entry, to FastPass+ redemption and Disney PhotoPass association.

While the retail MagicBand is currently available online, look for the millennial pink headband and Spirit Jerseys to be added to ShopDisney.com and Shop Disney Parks at a future date this spring.

March 29, 2018
VIDEO: ‘Together Forever – A Pixar Nighttime Spectacular’ at Disneyland Park Premiering April 13 During Pixar Fest

As we shared in last week’s first look, Disneyland park will light up when “Together Forever – A Pixar Nighttime Spectacular” celebrates the heart of Pixar!

Debuting at the start of Pixar Fest on April 13, this all-new nighttime spectacular will take guests on an emotional journey of friendship with their favorite Pixar Pals—when unlikely characters first meet one another, set out on adventures and overcome adversities that forge everlasting bonds. Learn more about “Together Forever” in the video below.

The stories will come to life through dazzling pyrotechnics, memorable music and colorful projections at iconic locations throughout the park. I hope you can join us to experience “Together Forever” when Pixar Fest kicks off April 13!

March 28, 2018
Disney’s Easter Brings the Start of Tokyo Disney Resort 35th ‘Happiest Celebration’

With the 35th Anniversary “Happiest Celebration!” just around the corner, Tokyo Disney Resort guests can now enjoy the first springtime offerings during Disney’s Easter at Tokyo DisneySea, including a sneak peek of the theme song for the celebration.

Colorful decorations, entertainment, special menus and exclusive merchandise bring this season to life at the resort. Tokyo DisneySea will host an egg hunt for the very first time this year, and guests who find the whimsical eggs themed to Disney characters will receive with an exclusive Bunny Ears hair clip.

At the Mediterranean Harbor, Mickey and Minnie are joined by Disney characters to perform in the renewed Fashionable Easter show celebrating the arrival of spring. Exciting pyrotechnics and the premiere of the theme song for the “Happiest Celebration!” make this show a can’t-miss. Over at Waterfront Park, members of the Tokyo DisneySea Maritime Band are also be dressed in new costumes in honor of the season.

The first Tokyo Disney Resort 35th Anniversary merchandise is now on sale alongside dozens of new Easter designs, including the fan-favorite Bunny Ears Headbands and Easter “Bunny” Bonnets. Delicious new food and drink items are available at Café Portofino, New York Deli, Barnacle Bill’s, Sebastian’s Calypso Kitchen and Tropic Al’s.

Disney’s Easter will be at the resort until June 6, and the “Happiest Celebration!” begins on April 15. Stay tuned for more updates from Tokyo Disney Resort!

March 28, 2018
Enchanting New Springtime Disney Foodie Delights at The Magic Kingdom

Walt Disney World Resort always has the most amazing food all year round, but Disney Foodies will be going crazy over these new delicious eats. With Spring upon us, Disney has just sprung some new Foodie Delights on us that you can find being cooked up at Magic Kingdom! There’s an enchanting array of new offerings now available and even more coming soon.

Perfect for the season, they have a brand-new Flower Crown Cupcake available at Main Street Bakery. This beautiful vanilla cupcake is filled with raspberry buttercream and topped with a buttercream flower crown and hard candy Minnie Ears. This yummy treat is the perfect spring snack, and even makes for a good photo opportunity. Just grab some Crochet Floral Minnie Ears from your favorite Disney shop and pose for the camera with your flowery cupcake in hand!

Just across the street at Casey’s Corner, you’ll find a brand-new refreshing beverage – a Mint Julip Lemonade Slushy! This non-alcoholic lemonade slushy comes with mojito-flavored syrup, and a garnish of cherry, mint and lemon wedge. And don’t forget about the popular Hot Dog of the Month. While there’s only a few days left in March, don’t miss your chance to try the Greek Hot Diggity Dog! And for April’s Hot Dog of the Month, you’ll find the Cuban Hot Diggity Dog, topped with Mojo pork, relish, swiss, and mustard. These special “of the month” toppings can even be added to an order of fries!

At Plaza Ice Cream Parlor, March’s Ice Cream of the Month is Dulce De Leche, and April’s flavor will be Cookie Dough – yummy! But the ice cream doesn’t stop there – a Brownie Sundae and an Apple Blossom Sundae have also been added to the menu! Right next door at The Plaza Restaurant, you’ll find March’s Milkshake of the Month: Coffee Mint – with mint chocolate ice cream, coffee, chocolate sauce, whipped cream and a cherry. And for April, the Milkshake of the Month will be a Caramel Turtle Milkshake with vanilla ice cream, hot fudge, caramel sauce, and walnuts.

In Fantasyland, Pinocchio Village Haus has added an Italian Cream Cake to the dessert menu. This lemon cakes comes topped with cream cheese icing, toasted coconut and a white chocolate piece featuring everyone’s favorite Conscience – Jiminy Cricket! As for the Flatbread of the Month – March’s flatbread is Buffalo Chicken. And since April is National Grilled Cheese Month, the April Flatbread of the Month will be a Grilled Cheese Flatbread with ricotta, mozzarella, Parmesan, swiss, and cheddar and served with a side of tomato-basil soup for dipping!

Be Our Guest Restaurant has an exciting new dinner menu coming this summer, and now here’s the scoop on the fabulous dessert trio. This trio will have a raspberry macaron with lemon filling and fresh raspberries, a whole maraschino cherry dipped in dark chocolate with hazelnut topping, and a white chocolate Chip cup with our signature Grey Stuff! It will also be exclusive to the dinner menu.

At Gaston’s Tavern, you’ll find a new Ham, Brie, and Grain Mustard Sandwich as well as a Smoked Turkey, Swiss and Cranberry Aïoli Sandwich.

In Tomorrowland, Sonny Eclipse has a new dessert at Cosmic Ray’s Starlight Café – a cookies & cream cheese cake topped with chocolate, galaxy sprinkles, and a white-chocolate piece featuring the amazingly-talented Sonny Eclipse himself. And over at Liberty Square, you’ll find a crisp new Shrimp Wedge Salad at Columbia Harbour House.

And finally, in Adventureland, they have a fruit-tastic update to the menu at Sunshine Tree Terrace. The famous Citrus Swirl, the classic frozen orange juice slushy twisted with vanilla soft-serve ice cream, has been joined by the new Orange Cream swirl! This new swirl twists together vanilla soft-serve ice cream with Orange Dole Soft-Serve to create a tasty new citrus-flavored treat. Both of these swirls are now available in a cup or as a float with refreshing orange soda.

So there you have it. Magic Kingdom Park is buzzing with tasty excitement this spring, so get out there foodies and try all of those delicious new offerings!

March 28, 2018