SeaWorld Orlando SeaWorld Orlando's Howl-O-Scream page now carries a third named haunted house, The Crawl Space, set in a tunnel network abandoned after a containment failure. A third all new scare zone, Extermination Order, is on the page too, and it flips the usual setup: the exterminators are hunting you.
SeaWorld Orlando United Parks & Resorts named Brad Gilmour president of SeaWorld Orlando on Thursday, effective immediately, and in doing so quietly undid an org chart it drew up in January 2023. Gilmour has run Aquatica and Discovery Cove since that split; he now adds SeaWorld Orlando, reuniting all three Orlando parks under one president. He succeeds Jon "JP" Peterson, whose departure the company did not explain, and he inherits a soft second quarter and an unresolved union fight.
Universal Orlando Halloween Horror Nights 35 does not open until August 28, and the Tribute Store does not open until August 26, but Universal has already started selling event merchandise at Islands of Adventure and on Shop Universal. UOFan shopped the early drop and photographed the price tags, which gives us an early public price list for the season: the annual house lineup shirt is $35, the matching hoodie is $65, and the refillable Coca-Cola Freestyle tumbler is $28.99.
Disney World Disney teased a nameless Captain Jack Sparrow offering for Adventureland back in June and left every practical question open. Nearly six weeks later the answers landed: it is called Captain Jack's Buccaneer Bash, it takes over the Adventureland stage across from Pirates of the Caribbean, and it runs as a rolling 7 p.m. to midnight window instead of scheduled showtimes. Disney promises a salty pirate band, jugglers and sailor superstitions. It debuts tonight, Friday August 7, on the opening night of Mickey's Not-So-Scary Halloween Party 2026.
Universal Orlando Universal has confirmed festive decor for Super Nintendo World and How to Train Your Dragon - Isle of Berk at Epic Universe this season, plus the return of Grinchmas and Universal's Holiday Parade featuring Macy's, and a separately ticketed Universal Holiday Tour. The season runs November 14 through January 3.
Disney World Jason Fuchs is writing and showrunning a Spaceship Earth pilot for Disney+, inspired by the EPCOT ride, with Michael Waldron executive producing and Lee Toland Krieger directing. The official logline sends teenagers from Earth's past and future after a threat as vast as time itself. Casting is underway, and there is no series order yet.
Disney World Holiday Ever After: A Disney World Wish Come True lands Saturday, November 28 on Hallmark Channel and streams on Hallmark+ the next day. Disney calls it the first original movie Hallmark Channel and Walt Disney World have made together, and it was shot around the resort last winter.
Disney World Disney's August 5 details drop for the 2026 EPCOT International Food & Wine Festival revealed the merchandise line, a brand new Waiter Mickey PhotoPass Magic Shot across five World Showcase pavilions, and firm dates and pricing for both scavenger hunts. Remy's Ratatouille Hide & Squeak runs all 87 days of the festival. Pluto's Pumpkin Pursuit covers only 39 of them.
Universal Orlando The half bear, half zombie mascot that Universal Studios Japan created for Halloween Horror Nights in 2021 will finally greet Orlando guests, inside the Five & Dime store at Universal Studios Florida during HHN 35 event hours. He was slated to appear in Orlando and Hollywood last year but ended up meeting guests at Hollywood, while Orlando got just the merchandise. Universal has not announced appearance times yet, and an expanded HamiKuma collection arrives August 24.
Universal Orlando Universal put the show director and scenic designer for H.R. Bloodengutz Presents: A Halloween Fright-Tacular! on the record, and two of the house's scenes now have names: The Grayscale Graveyard, a fully black and white zombie set piece, and Monster's Night Out, a tiki bar. The actor who originated the character in 2011 has recorded a brand new queue video, and the house is staged inside a WKNB studio that has sat boarded up as a crime scene for 15 years. Halloween Horror Nights 35 runs select nights from August 28 through November 1, 2026 at Universal Studios Florida.
Universal Orlando Inside Universal published a first look at this year's Halloween Horror Nights merchandise on Wednesday, and near the end of it are the Tribute Store details. The store is themed to a traveling sideshow, it opens August 26, and it moves back to its original spot next to Revenge of the Mummy. Annual Passholders get in a day early.
Disney World Disney's website now flags Vacation Fun as temporarily closed from August 9, with a reopening planned only for sometime later this year and no date attached. Two days after it goes dark, the same theater starts handing Annual Passholders a free Kermit the Frog magnet, and keeps doing it through September 24.
Disney World The Ocho returns to ESPN Wide World of Sports on Friday, August 7 with 10 live competitions, free admission and complimentary parking. The published grid runs 10 a.m. to 9 p.m., leaves the 1 p.m. hour open, and includes one event that Disney's own lineup never names.
Disney World Disney says an all new interactive cheese exhibit arrives at EPCOT's CommuniCore Hall on September 18, but the EPCOT International Food and Wine Festival opens August 27. That leaves the exhibit covering 65 of the festival's 87 days and missing the first 22. Last year the same space carried almost no festival theming at all.
Disney World Cleaning it was not enough. Twelve days after guests looked up in Magic Kingdom's left Stretching Room and could not find the hanging corpse, Disney has replaced the scrim ceiling outright. The new one has shading around the triangle and octagon designs, and the figure is clearly visible again. The right room's scrim, where the corpse stayed visible, has not been replaced.
Disney World Disney says a limited time food and drink pop-up will take over The Diamond Horseshoe at Magic Kingdom this fall, previewing a charcuterie board, a prickly pear margarita made with LALO Blanco Tequila, and a hot honey lemonade with a chili-lime rim. The family style holiday dinner the Liberty Square music hall was known for stays next door at Liberty Tree Tavern. Disney has not given an opening date, prices, or a name for the pop-up.
Disney World Disney's fiscal third quarter report Wednesday morning singled out Walt Disney World by name, calling it a stand-out quarter, and CFO Hugh Johnston went on CNBC to say the resort's attendance looked better than the competition's and better than Orlando airport traffic. The Experiences segment posted $9.97 billion in revenue, up 10 percent, and $3.02 billion in operating income, up 20 percent, though a roughly $100 million tariff refund accounted for about four of those points. Posted wait time data from June and July tells a more complicated story.
Universal Orlando The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office granted Universal City Studios a patent Tuesday for a water ride vehicle that carries its own propulsion, using two independently adjustable surfaces dipped into a moving channel of water to accelerate, slow down and steer. Three separate claims cover handing that control to the passenger. The patent names no ride, no park and no character, so the Creature from the Black Lagoon chatter is exactly that.
Disney World Magic Kingdom's Lightning Lane Premier Pass drops to $299 on August 23 and 25, beating the old $329 floor set in October 2024. Both dates are Halloween party nights, so the day ends at 6 p.m. for anyone without a party ticket, but every earlier August party night is still $359.
Universal Orlando Universal Orlando added a #UOFistBump tile to the Helpful Tools section of its resort app, a feature Universal Parks Blog reported would arrive July 28, letting guests recognize a Team Member by name without leaving the app. The hashtag itself is not new, but the in-app shortcut is.
Disney World The new Walt Disney World president started Monday and marked day one with a public message that opens on the Jungle Cruise, where he says he took a part-time job nearly 45 years ago.
Universal Orlando Crews spent the weekend planting Halloween Horror Nights 35 set pieces around Universal Studios Florida, including a grinning clown face beside the Tribute Store and new carnival stages past Revenge of the Mummy.
SeaWorld Orlando United Parks & Resorts reported second quarter attendance of 6.1 million on Tuesday, down 2.9 percent, with revenue off 1.4 percent to $483.3 million and net income down 21 percent. CEO Marc Swanson pointed to two bright spots: Discovery Cove advance booking revenue up double digits, and early Howl-O-Scream ticket sales pacing ahead of last year, with a new Sony Pictures horror deal joining the event this fall.
Disney World Disney's August 4 Letters from Lakeshore update names Moonglade, Bay Lake Provisions, Paint Out Point Bar & Grill and Dandelion Terrace, the first food and drink spaces revealed for the 967 room resort opening in summer 2027.
Disney World Disney posted the Disney Springs Halloween foodie guide on August 4. More than two dozen locations are involved, most starting August 11, five holding off until September or October, and one running its menu through December 31. Prices are missing again.
Universal Orlando Aerial video posted Saturday shows crushed stone laid down and infrastructure staged on the old Eighth Voyage of Sindbad site, while the Poseidon's Fury temple facade and the entire plaza in front of it are now gone. Universal still has not said what is going there.
Disney World Blog Mickey caught the Pueblo Esperanza entrance frame mid-build at Disney's Animal Kingdom on Monday, with one steel beam still suspended from the crane hook as crews maneuvered it into place. Elsewhere on the site, fresh steel columns now stand on a poured concrete wall near the green Encanto show building, and Blog Mickey believes they are the start of Casa Madrigal itself. Tropical Americas is still slated for 2027.
Universal Orlando Aerial photographer bioreconstruct reported the last pieces going in before sunrise Monday morning at Universal Studios Florida. The tall inversion that was still missing its highest segments on Sunday is now closed up, which means every section of Hollywood Drift track is in place. The coaster is due to open in 2027, and the park's other Fast & Furious ride, Supercharged, runs its final day on August 16.
Disney World A Reddit user posted video of a Sunday morning brawl in the Avatar Flight of Passage queue at Disney's Animal Kingdom and said the two groups had been arguing for the entirety of the 80 minute wait. A second angle went up on TikTok overnight, and a public Orange County Sheriff's Office entry logs an 11:21 a.m. battery call on a road that Inside the Magic says matches the approximate address for the attraction.
Universal Orlando New aerials show metal decking across nearly the whole upper surface of the most developed section of the P915 multipurpose building. WDWNT reads the site as suggesting that section may serve Universal Orlando Team Members first, with the private event hall possibly debuting later.
