Disney News

Category: Walt Disney World

  • ‘Solo: A Star Wars Story’ Celebration at Star Wars: Galactic Nights on May 27

    ‘Solo: A Star Wars Story’ Celebration at Star Wars: Galactic Nights on May 27

    The release of Solo: A Star Wars Story is less than two months away and at Disney Parks there’s no better way to celebrate the release of the film than to follow-up a showing by attending the Star Wars: Galactic Nights special event at Disney’s Hollywood Studios on May 27. You won’t want to miss the celebration as this one comes with a special celebrity appearance from one of the films actors.

    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 will celebrate the entire Star Wars saga – including the latest film – 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.

    Today, we learned new details on how the May 27th event will feature exclusive “Solo: A Star Wars Story”-inspired content.

    Joonas Suotamo Chewbacca Galactic Nights

    First up, actor Joonas Suotamo who plays Chewbacca in “Solo: A Star Wars Story,” will make a special appearance at the event. The event’s Star Wars: A Galaxy Far, Far Away presentation will debut some new video moments from “Solo: A Star Wars Story.” And the park’s nighttime projection show, Star Wars: A Galactic Spectacular, will debut a new action sequence from the film.

    In addition, guests will also be able to shop for event-exclusive merchandise from the film, taste a Star Wars-themed cupcake with a glowing Millennium Falcon, snap pics with Chewbacca, and more.

  • Disney World Changes Famous Purple Wall Leaving Many Upset Guests

    Disney World Changes Famous Purple Wall Leaving Many Upset Guests

    Walt Disney World is known for many of its iconic rides and attractions but a recent social media trend has vaulted a blank purple wall at Magic Kingdom to the top of the list for photo ops for park-goers. In a strange turn of events, Disney has changed the famous purple wall at the height of its popularity.

    Unfortunately for many who now add snapping a pic in front of the famous purple wall to their must do Disney list will now have a new and different looking wall in their backgrounds. The change has left many guests confused since the park recently started a new merchandise campaign for the wall complete with hats and MagicBands with the phrase “Meet me at the Purple Wall.

    Social media has turned purple with frustration over the change as the entire point of the trend was the fact that it was just a blank purple wall with a shade of purple that was just perfect for that Instagram selfie. But all is not lost…  There is still a section on the side that is solid purple albeit a smaller section. Still plenty big enough to get that coveted #PurpleWall Instagram pic.

    Some fans are embracing the change and going with the futuristic flow.

    Others are outright distraught and are not happy with the change.

    Disney Parks had announced that enhancements were underway for the wall, but the new geometric design was not what guests were expecting. It’s rather futuristic looking which is possibly as part of an advanced re-theming of Tommorowland in advance of the new Tron Coaster coming to the park.

    If you’re looking to get a picture with the newly designed purple wall you can find it just down the ramp from Tomorrowland Terrace toward the entrance to Tomorrowland. Right when you hit the turn into the land, you’ll see the Purple Wall on your right.

    As we mentioned, there is still some purple wall left for your photos so now the wall is a Two-Fur.  Now you get to take a picture with both! #PurpleWall vs. #NewPurpleWall. Let the purple wall battles begin! Don’t forget there are still a lot of other photo worthy walls around Disney parks and there surely be more to come.

  • Disney World Introduces New Digital Key Feature For Keyless Room Entry

    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.

  • Congressman Darren Soto’s Wife Arrested At Walt Disney World

    Congressman Darren Soto’s Wife Arrested At Walt Disney World

    The wife of U.S. Rep. Darren Soto was arrested at Disney Springs on Sunday on charges of disorderly intoxication according to an arrest report from The Orange County Sheriff’s Office.

    Orange County Sheriff’s Deputy Cory Heller saw her “holding … her mother by the straps of the backpack she was wearing in an attempt to keep her from walking away,” according report. Amanda Soto, 33, of Celebration, was apparently in an argument with her Mother at the time near the bus loop.

    Soto and her mother appeared intoxicated and Heller helped them call an Uber vehicle to take them home. The report states that when the deputy helped Amanda Soto and her mother get into the Uber, Amanda began yelling at her mother, the Uber driver and the law enforcement office.

    Heller noted that he attempted to calm her numerous times from her agitated state and she repeatedly said her husband is a congressman, therefore “she could do whatever she wants.”

    The deputy escorted them out of the Uber and Soto was handcuffed and placed in a patrol car, where “she began banging [her] head against the window in what appeared to be an attempt to harm herself. Amanda was further restrained for her safety,” Heller stated.

    Soto who was elected in 2016 and represents Florida’s ninth district said in a statement said his wife has battled depression and recently stopped using her medications.

    “Yesterday, she drank too much and reached an argumentative state with a family member, which led to arrest,’’ the congressman said. “She deeply regrets her actions and takes full responsibility for them. Amanda and her physician will be reviewing her mental health treatment, immediately.’’

    According to the jail’s online database she was booked into jail at 10:44 Sunday night. Amanda Soto bonded out of the Orange County Jail early Monday.

    This is the second high-profile arrest Walt Disney World made the news for last week. YouTuber Jason Ethier was arrested at the Ticket and Transportation Center outside Magic Kingdom on charges of trespassing and resisting arrest without violence.

  • Breaking: Hollywood Studios Getting Marvel Land As Disney Regains East Coast Marvel Rights Iger Revealed at Shareholder Meeting

    Breaking: Hollywood Studios Getting Marvel Land As Disney Regains East Coast Marvel Rights Iger Revealed at Shareholder Meeting

    The largest hurdle Disney World has had to overcome in bringing more Marvel attractions to its parks, other than those based on franchises like “Guardians of the Galaxy“, is the fact that Universal Studios owns the east coast rights to most of the Marvel lineup. Well in a shocking turn of events, Disney CEO Bob Iger announced at the most recent shareholders meeting that Disney has negotiated a deal to bring the rights home to Disney and they will officially be adding a Marvel Land to Hollywood Studios.

    “We think this will be a good thing. Marvel belongs home with Disney and we now have the opportunity to tell the stories of these characters in way like only Disney can.” Iger said.  The audience laughed as he joked, “It’s always a little odd when you have to rent back your own property from someone who is renting it from you.” The deal is quite intricate he explained and there are no details on how exactly it was worked out. This comes on the heels of a recent announcement that Disneyland Parks around the globe are already getting Marvel themed lands and now Disney World wont be left out on the super hero action!

    He was tight-lipped about some of the upcoming changes, but he did drop some bombs on what the future of Hollywood Studios will look like with the addition of Marvel Land. First and what will probably be most up setting for fans is that the area will be located around the Tower of Terror area where just like in California, the attraction will be converted to Guardians of the Galaxy – Mission: BREAKOUT! Iger made the announcement as he unveiled the only piece of concept art that he used during his speech as you can see in the photo below:

     

    Guardians of the Galaxy: Mission Breakout!

    The ride is expected to be operational by late 2020, well before construction for Marvel Land is complete. “The new attraction will anchor a broader universe of Super Heroes that will grow over time at Hollywood Studios”, Iger said.

    There will be a Marvel themed restaurant, of course multiple retail locations, and other attractions, but the only other attraction change Iger mentioned during the meeting was Rock ‘n’ Roller Coaster Starring Aerosmith.  The contract with Aerosmith was renewed not too long ago and it’s always a question of if they will continue renewing. Well I guess we have our answer, because in a statement that Iger let Walt Disney Parks and Resorts Chairman Bob Chapek deliver, he said, “Rock ‘n’ Roller Coaster will be transformed into an Ironman themed coaster that will immerse guests in a fantastic new thrilling adventure like never before.”

    Iger said that the project can be expected to be fully completed by 2022 and those rides that will be getting overhauls will remain open for as long as possible to minimize the impact on guests during construction of new addition of Marvel Land. Work will begin on Tower of Terror first and Rock ‘n’ Roller Coaster will close temporarily while construction on the entire new land begins.

    Fans have already been lighting up the internet as they are upset about the changing of more classic rides and it didn’t take long for the petitions to begin either. Change is hard and if you have loved Hollywood Studios since the day it opened in 1989 as Disney-MGM Studios, then this might be a hard one for you, but this is a change that is necessary for “Disney’s vision of the park’s future” Iger said in his final words at the meeting.

    Walt Disney himself knew that his parks would continue to change and evolve. “As long as there is imagination left in the world”, said Walt. He also believed in a good laugh and a good joke so we hope you enjoyed this one. Happy April Fools Day…  Oh yeah and Happy Easter. If anyone happens to be upset that the news isn’t true, don’t worry, there are Marvel Lands that are going to be popping up at nearly every other Disney Park on the Planet.  And if you can’t make it out of Florida, we actually have our own Marvel Land right here…  at Universal Studios. 🙂

  • Disney Imagineering and NVIDIA Team Up To Develop New Tech For Millennium Falcon Attraction

    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.

  • Toy Story Mania FastPasses Will Not Be Available for a Month Starting April 9

    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.

  • VIDEO: YouTuber Jason Ethier Arrested at Disney’s Magic Kingdom

    VIDEO: YouTuber Jason Ethier Arrested at Disney’s Magic Kingdom

    ImJayStation, also known as Jason Ethier, a popular Youtuber with nearly 1.9 million subscribers was arrested outside the ticket area at Disney’s Magic Kingdom on Sunday.

    According to an arrest affidavit, the Orange County Sheriff’s Office took Either into custody on suspicion of trespassing and resisting an officer without violence while he was live streaming.

    YouTuber Jason Ethier

     

    According to the affidavit, Ethier was verbally aggressive with theme park security, because he was upset about his bag had been possibly being taken by another guest. He threatening to sue them if he didn’t get his camera back and was told by the Magic Kingdom’s security that he could check lost and found or try calling guest claims.

    Finally Disney authorities ordered Ethier to leave the property and that’s when he started filming the theme park’s security officers as they escorted him out.

    That’s when things went south for Ethier. The arresting deputy wrote that as he was walking away, Ethier “turned around and began to yell and squared his body towards me.” The deputy took it as an act of aggression and he went to restrain the popular YouTuber, “I went to secure Mr. Ethier and as I grabbed his left arm he yanked and tried to break my grasp. Mr. Ethier was then taken to the ground using an arm bar take down.”

    Of course Ethier sent out some tweets on Monday after the arrest:

    Then in another tweet the Youtuber went on to blame the police for stealing his camera. “Guys @OrlandoPolice stole my camera last night they won’t give it back for 7days! Even tho it was false arrest at Disney! It is all my videos I’ve recorded for YouTube on it!!! Wtffff ima get so much money from Disney and these crooked police it’s not even funny!”, the tweet read.

    Then he topped it off with one more tweet stating, “you are going to get sued real quick… once we get your security footage of your guards stealing peoples stuff in the security”.

    One thing is clear from the videos online. Though he was upset and making a scene while he was being escorted out he was actually exiting the premises of his own free will and was not being forced out.

    Take a look at the video below to hear his side of the story and decide for yourself if you think he was resisting arrest or if he should have been allowed to leave?

  • Pulse Nightclub Shooter Originally Planned To Attack Disney World

    Pulse Nightclub Shooter Originally Planned To Attack Disney World

    According to prosecutors Omar Mateen, the Pulse nightclub gunman, was originally targeting the Disney Springs entertainment center at Walt Disney World in Orlando, but he later decided to attack the Pulse nightclub.

    You can get a full look at him scouting and making preparations in the video below:

     

     

    Jurors deliberated all day Thursday and still no verdict on day two of deliberations. Jurors began deciding Wednesday whether the widow of the Orlando nightclub shooter lied to the FBI and helped her husband in the attack that killed 49 people or was an abused wife who knew nothing of his plans.

    Noor Salman is charged with obstruction and providing material support to a terrorist organization. She faces up to life in prison if convicted of all charges.

    She lied to the FBI about the number of guns her husband had and his internet use, which included watching beheadings and visiting Islamic State group websites and she knew he was buying ammunition for his AR-15 in preparation for a jihadi attack.

    “She does not have to be his equal in the attack, and in fact she is not,” Assistant U.S. Attorney Sara Sweeney said.

    Salman was born in California to Palestinian parents was described by defense attorneys as a simple woman with a low IQ. Her husband cheated on her with other women and concealed much of his life from her and he abused her, they said.

    Attorney Charles Swift said there was no way Salman knew that Mateen would attack the Pulse nightclub because even he didn’t know he would attack the nightclub until after he went to the Disney Springs complex.

    “It’s a horrible, random, senseless killing by a monster,” Swift said. “But it wasn’t preplanned. The importance to this case is that if he didn’t know, she couldn’t know.”

    Salman’s confession was coerced and she signed it because she was tired and scared of  losing her son, he said.

    The statement said in part that “the last two years, Omar talked to me about jihad.” Swift said Salman was not capable of such a discussion because she wasn’t an extremist.

    *UPDATE*
    After three days of deliberation, Noor Salman, the wife of Pulse nightclub shooter Omar Mateen, was declared not guilty on all counts Friday morning.

  • PHOTOS: Disney Skyliner Construction Update

    PHOTOS: Disney Skyliner Construction Update

    After our most recent trip to Walt Disney World we’re back with some updates on the progress of construction for Disney’s new gondola system. We were able to get a good look at the mechanical and aerial components that will make up the Disney Skyliner entrance area at the Hollywood Studios.

    Just past the bus loop, within viewing distance of Tower of Terror, you can see the Dream Builders are hard at work.

    Disney Skyliner Gondola Construction
    One of the poles that will hold up the new transportation system has already been put into place.

    Disney Skyliner Gondola Construction

    And right next it on the ground you can see the actual parts that will attach the gondola to the cables.

    Disney Skyliner Gondola Construction

    The design style of the station at Disney’s Hollywood Studios will fit with that of the park’s main entrance and bus stations. Passengers traveling here from the Disney’s Caribbean Beach Resort station can expect a new aerial perspective of the park’s iconic attractions.

    Disney Skyliner Gondola Construction

    When it’s finished, the transportation system will connect Disney’s Art of Animation, Pop Century and Caribbean Beach resorts and other locations with Disney’s Hollywood Studios and the International Gateway at Epcot.

    There is no official date, but the Disney Skyliner project is expected to be completed by 2019.