Universal Orlando Aerial photos from bioreconstruct show an oversized Peterbilt-style semi truck cab set on a grated steel platform next to one of the first stretches of Fast & Furious: Hollywood Drift track at Universal Studios Florida. Trains will reverse into the ride's first launch and pass it on the way.
Disney World Walt Disney Imagineering shared photos Friday from an in progress rebuild of the Germany Train Garden at EPCOT. There is a clock tower modeled on the Biergarten entrance, a miniature Snow White cottage with a mine shaft, a tiny construction site behind Please Pardon Our Pixie Dust walls, and a blue suited Dreamfinder standing in front of a Tudor building.
SeaWorld Orlando The Howl-O-Scream attractions page shows four named haunted houses and a fifth card labelled RETURNING! with no name and a COMING SOON image. The fine print of SeaWorld's new Front Line Unlimited Scream Pass lists all five of them, and the fifth is Rave Yard.
Disney World Two pieces of benefits news landed last week. A Wednesday memo told US employees Disney is planning an Employee Stock Purchase Plan for later in 2027 and that nearly everyone has to actively re-enroll for next year. Puck reported the harder part: US employees will not be able to enroll a spouse or domestic partner who can get medical insurance through their own employer.
Universal Orlando Universal announced FORTNITEMARES back in July. The build showed up this week, and WDW News Today found the Battle Bus itself parked in Central Park, mechanical arms folded down its flanks and tombstones on the roof. Halloween Horror Nights 35 opens Friday.
Disney World A Disney Enterprises patent application published Thursday describes letting a guest tick off what they want to avoid, dark scary scenes, confined spaces, sharp drops, spiders, and then getting a warning on a phone or watch ahead of that exact moment. On rides that support it, the filing goes further and asks the attraction to turn the effect down, swap in other content, or turn it up.
SeaWorld Orlando A blog post that went up on seaworld.com on Wednesday introduces Pestilence, a new Howl-O-Scream Orlando icon written as Havoc's former partner, the one he left behind. There is no press release, and as of Thursday evening we could not find a theme park outlet that had picked it up. Her infection starts in the Nekrosis scare zone, spreads through the event on the backs of guests, and ends at the Throttle show.
Universal Orlando Guests are being pulled off Fast & Furious: Hollywood Drift at Universal Studios Hollywood for being too tall, after waits of three hours and more. The ride posts a 51 inch minimum and no maximum, its test seat reportedly sits near the load platform rather than the entrance, and a separately designed Orlando coaster of the same name is due at Universal Studios Florida in 2027.
Disney World Disney has set Friday, August 21 as the reopening date for Big Top Souvenirs, the circus tent shop in Storybook Circus that has been closed since February. The teaser image shows a Mickey Churro Caramel Apple, a Dumbo Caramel Apple, a Dumbo Sandwich Cookie, marshmallow pops, cupcakes and Circus Chips.
Disney World Disney's Old Key West Resort is retiring the long brunch at Olivia's Cafe. The last one is October 5. From October 6 the restaurant runs breakfast from 7:30am to 11:00am, lunch from 11:30am to 2:00pm, and dinner unchanged at 5:00pm to 9:00pm. Disney has not posted the new menus yet, but several dishes it is teasing for lunch are already on the brunch menu.
Universal Orlando New aerial photos show Universal has taken the trees off the expansion pad behind Dark Universe at Epic Universe, staged construction barriers along the service road, and left the old Monsters Cafe creature statues lying in the grass. On July 24, Orlando ParkStop looked at aerials of this same plot and said work had not started yet. The trees are down now.
Disney World Waterview Park, the open-air live music venue in The Landing, reopened Tuesday with a permanent shade canopy stretched over its seating area. The venue closed in early May for a project reported at the time to take about a month, and the reopening date on record was May 23. It came back 87 days past that target, with live entertainment scheduled to resume at 6pm on reopening night.
Legoland Florida The park has now published the drone show schedule for the 18-night 2026 Brick or Treat season: October 3, 10, 17, 24 and 31 at 8pm. That leaves 13 event nights without it, including all five September dates. Legoland's page said the show would run every night of the shorter 2025 season.
Universal Orlando The show building that held Poseidon's Fury has been demolished at Universal Islands of Adventure, leaving a few piles of rubble and a freshly graded sand pad where the entrance and courtyard stood. The Treasures of Poseidon gift shop and the first aid station in The Lost Continent are expected to follow. Universal still has not said what is replacing The Lost Continent.
Disney World Three more nights are off the calendar: August 23, October 8 and October 15, taking the 2026 total to sixteen nights gone out of 38. Two of those three were still on sale on Tuesday morning. August is down to the 25th, 28th and 30th, remaining nights run $144 to $224, and WDWmagic says the season is now moving faster than 2025, which sold out completely on September 24.
Universal Orlando Universal Orlando dated its Dark Arts season on Wednesday: the Hogwarts Castle projection show runs select dates September 5 through November 1 at Islands of Adventure, and Death Eaters roam Diagon Alley at Universal Studios Florida on select dates August 27 through November 1. The castle show has opened in mid-September every year we can document, including its September 14 debut in 2019. The Diagon Alley window matches Halloween Horror Nights 35 exactly, and Universal did not say whether an event ticket is required.
Legoland Florida Legoland Florida's temporary closures page lists seven things shut right now, and three of them carry no end date at all: Pirate River Quest, The LEGOLAND Story and the Minifigure Trading Wall. Archived copies show the boat ride has been on the list since at least September last year, when Legoland's own page dated the closure to August 4, 2025. Four more closures carry dates, three of them starting Monday, including The Great LEGO Race and the full closure of Imagination Zone. One of those four, Deli Takeover, is still listed as a lunch option on the park's new prepaid Dining Packages.
SeaWorld Orlando Discovery Cove has put a Celebrity Weekend page on its site for Friday, December 4, promising 100 reality stars from Survivor, Big Brother, The Amazing Race and The Challenge, with a meet and mingle at Serenity Bay from 2 to 3 p.m. The same page ran a December 5, 2025 edition a year ago, and we found no outside coverage of this year's date. A separate Discovery Cove offer page for the same visit date is still carrying leftover copy from two years ago, and a separate $50 gift card offer closes on Sunday.
Universal Orlando Universal has ten Stranger Things 5 pieces on shelves at Five & Dime in Universal Studios Florida, nine days before Halloween Horror Nights 35 opens. Ten pieces run from a $12 button set up to an $85 spirit jersey, by way of a $50 purse shaped like a personal cassette player with a Hell Fire Lives tape in the window. WDW News Today logged every price, so the list is public before opening night.
Disney World New aerials of Disney's Lakeshore Lodge show themed hardware now standing at Otter Springs, the splash area inside The Wetlands. Several large wood-style animal figures now sit on the concrete pad, with a stylized otter lying across the center right, turquoise slides and crawl-through tubes staged around it, and dozens of pipes waiting on spray effects. The Daydream River loop now reads clearly from the air, palms are planted on its islands, and the Perspective Pond shell is poured on the Bay Lake side.
Disney World Disney published the 2026 EPCOT International Food & Wine Festival Foodie Guide on August 19, eight days before opening, with 221 items across 43 menus and not one price. Disney's own booth listings show India, The Alps, Coastal Eats and Earth Eats do not serve until October 2, and Festival Favorites, the booth holding most of the 30th anniversary throwbacks, waits until September 9.
SeaWorld Orlando SeaWorld Orlando has rebuilt the Howl-O-Sprint 5K page since early July, and its own sitemap dates the latest edit to August 18. The finish-line party with its own bar and live entertainment has been deleted, the race now starts an hour earlier at 7pm, the podium prizes swapped gift cards for a VIP tour and haunt upgrade passes, and the spectator ticket went from an optional $25 to a required $39.95.
Disney World Signage has gone up across EPCOT's Global Marketplace kiosks, photographed on August 18, and those signs name the 2026 Food & Wine lineup while Disney's own festival page has yet to name a single one. Several signs carry a teal Cheers to 30 Years! ribbon, and the country signs photographed so far print the year that marketplace debuted.
Universal Orlando Universal Orlando revealed the Halloween Horror Nights 35 eats and drinks on Tuesday, and the lineup runs from a Pleasure and Pain Brain sitting in red sauce to a Prince of Darkness Cake topped with a bat. The event starts August 28.
Disney World The light strips in World Celebration Gardens have been pulled out and the empty channels are being packed with concrete that matches the pavers, which points to Disney dropping the effect rather than replacing it. The lighting had been breaking since the day after the area opened in December 2023.
Legoland Florida Florida's only fully wooden coaster reopened Sunday on National Roller Coaster Day. Head of ride maintenance Andrew Walker then put a number on the job that the park's own announcement never gave: three years of replacement work, everything from the ground up.
Disney World For more than a year the bag service that lets you skip baggage claim only worked if you were staying at a Value resort. Disney's website now lists Disney's Caribbean Beach Resort too, taking the program to six hotels, and it is the first one that is not a Value.
Disney World The app that turned queue time into game time goes dark on September 16, taking the Star Wars: Datapad, every in-queue game and eight years of digital achievements with it. Disney has not given a reason and has not named a replacement. Disney says Batuu Bounty Hunters survives on a MagicBand+, and DuckTales World Showcase Adventure is left an open question.
SeaWorld Orlando The figure went up on the upgrades page rather than the tour's own page, which is why the running Howl-O-Scream tracker still says pricing is not posted. It is three times the price of the top skip the line pass, which does not include admission.
Universal Orlando The ride took its last guests Sunday night during a passholder after hours event. By Monday morning the name appeared to have been painted over to bare brick, the listing was gone from the app, and the gift shop was running half off signs.
