Disney World WDW News Today reports Disney Legend Bob Gurr is advising on the reimagined ride, and Imagineers spent a year hunting down three books just to dress one shelf beside the new Walt Disney animatronic.
Disney World Echo Lake, the lagoon near the front of Disney's Hollywood Studios, has been pumped down to a stained concrete basin with a hose lying across it. Disney has not said how long the work will take or what it involves. Dinosaur Gertie's Ice Cream of Extinction, up on her planted mound at the lake's edge, is still open and serving.
Universal Orlando Halloween Horror Nights 35 opens August 28, and Universal Studios Florida is already dressed for it. One New York street now holds a Santa stage dressed like a mall meet and greet, castle turrets and a flocked Christmas tree included, and the staging points to the Terrifier slasher Art the Clown. A demolition van is parked alongside it.
Disney World Disney said at D23 that the rest of Monstropolis will open at Hollywood Studios in 2027 while work continues on the door coaster. That leaves the 2027 debut as a theater show, two dining spaces and a shop, with the land's only announced ride arriving at a date Disney has not given.
Disney World At its D23 parks showcase Disney gave official names to both Cars attractions coming to Piston Peak National Park at Magic Kingdom: Cars Ridge Run Rally and Miss Fritter's Daredevil Spin-Along. Imagineering said the rally ride's vehicle is built not to simulate an off-road car but to be one, with tires and suspension that react to the terrain. Neither ride has an opening date.
Disney World Disney confirmed the official name of the Encanto attraction at Animal Kingdom during its D23 parks showcase: Antonio's Fiesta de Encanto. Imagineering also said the ride will carry guests through Casita on vehicles built from the house's own furniture, will feature more than 50 animals, and will have no height requirement. Disney still has not given the ride an opening date.
Disney World Disney said at its D23 parks showcase that Spaceship Earth will be reimagined around human connection rather than human communication, its first update since February 2008. It did not announce a closing date, a reopening window or any concept art. Disney also announced a Spaceship Earth overhaul in 2019, with a May 2020 closing date, then shelved it.
Disney World Disney used its D23 parks showcase to give the Animal Kingdom Indiana Jones attraction a name, Indiana Jones and the Myth of the Jade Serpent, and to confirm that Harrison Ford is the model for its Audio-Animatronics figure. Disney says it is the first time Ford's face will appear on the character at any of its parks. The ride opens in Tropical Americas in 2027, on the site of DINOSAUR.
Disney World Thomas Mazloum interrupted Neil Patrick Harris at D23 to say the Yeti is coming back to life at Disney's Animal Kingdom. Disney gave no timeline, so the strobe light keeps flashing for now.
Disney World Disney closed its D23 showcase with a reveal it had never teased: Dreamfinder is coming back to EPCOT alongside Figment, in a new version of Journey Into Imagination. Neil Patrick Harris walked out in full Dreamfinder costume, and Disney Experiences Chairman Thomas Mazloum made the announcement. There is no attraction name, no concept art and no timeline yet.
Legoland Florida Legoland is adding a Halloween overlay to Galacticoaster, the indoor space coaster that opened in February, letting riders bolt spiderwebs, bones and a Jack-O-Lantern onto the spacecraft they design before boarding. Attractions Magazine confirmed with Legoland Florida that the overlay is coming to Winter Haven too. The dates in circulation are Legoland California's, and Florida has not published its own.
Disney World Walt Disney Imagineering used the D23 Disney Experiences showcase to confirm the name Villains Land, tell the story of a cursed Wishing Well that poisoned the forest, and describe both headline attractions in real detail. The coaster trains look like black dragons. The dark ride is an ornate boat into the Magic Mirror's realm. Disney compared the land's size to Star Wars: Galaxy's Edge.
Disney World Walt Disney Imagineering put its 19-by-19-foot Piston Peak National Park model on the D23 show floor, and WDW News Today found four tributes to Tom Sawyer Island and the Rivers of America built into it: Fort Langhorn, the Mike Fink Keel Boat dock, Harper's Mill with a giant tire for a water wheel, and the barrel bridge. Imagineers say they intend to reuse parts of the real bridge, if the law allows it.
Legoland Florida Legoland Florida posted its 2026 Brick or Treat food and drink lineup on Saturday: eight limited-time items across eight venues, two of them served in souvenir LEGO Minifigure head bowls, available on select event dates from September 5 through October 31. No prices are listed yet.
Universal Orlando Twenty months after Universal Orlando announced its first specialty license plate, the $33 pre-sale vouchers hit Florida's 3,000 minimum ahead of an October 14 deadline, and the plate is now approved for production. Proceeds benefit Give Kids The World Village in Kissimmee.
Disney World Walt Disney Imagineering brought the Encanto attraction to D23 with ride vehicle maquettes fronted by a piano and a dresser, a cutaway model of a birthday party inside Casita, and a fully furred animated figure of Antonio's capybara friend Chispi. Tropical Americas is set to open at Animal Kingdom in 2027.
SeaWorld Orlando SeaWorld Orlando's shark-tank restaurant is running Visit Orlando's Magical Dining from August 14 through September 30. Three courses for $60, $2 of every meal goes to local nonprofits, and no park ticket or parking fee required. One asterisk is worth reading before you book a dinner on a Howl-O-Scream night in September.
Disney World Walt Disney's Carousel of Progress has been closed since July 5, and until this weekend the reimagining had been shown mainly in concept art. At D23 this weekend Imagineering has the physical pieces on display: two costumes, two maquettes, Rover the family dog, and a new Tomorrowland poster.
SeaWorld Orlando SeaWorld Orlando is putting Sony Pictures Animation's Hotel Transylvania into its daytime Halloween event for the first time. Drac and Mavis have taken over SeaFire Inn as the Monster Dread & Breakfast, a separately ticketed buffet seating at 9 a.m. on event days, and for a limited time every child reservation comes with a souvenir cup.
Universal Orlando Matt Selman said at D23 that work is about to start on bringing Treehouse of Horror to Universal, likely food first and an experience later. He also said he could not announce it, Universal has announced nothing, and nobody on stage said which resort.
Disney World Walt Disney Imagineering gave D23 the first full-scale look at Magic Kingdom's Cars land ride vehicle: a foam model of the off-road rally race vehicle, with published dimensions and a note that this is the last step before production. Imagineering's D23 presentation also revealed the Goat-Carts, Ranger J. Autobahn Woodlore, and an overhead look at the layout for Miss Fritter's attraction.
Disney World The steakhouse and Italian restaurant at Four Seasons Resort Orlando, plus the Goofy character breakfast at Ravello, are bookable in Disney's own reservation system as of Thursday. WDWMagic reports that until now you could only book them through Four Seasons or OpenTable. The dining plans still do not apply, and you are still arranging your own ride.
SeaWorld Orlando The Dark Net turned up on SeaWorld Orlando's Howl-O-Scream page with no separate announcement or coverage anywhere else we can find, completing the four all-new houses the park's event page promised. The neon Byte Bar arrived the same way, staffed by cyborg vampires. The returning fifth house is still unnamed.
Universal Orlando Universal Nights went on sale Thursday for two October Saturdays, with three hours of park time after close, starting at $179.99 plus tax. The event page fills in what July's announcement left blank: berry-flavored Celestial Popcorn, crispy Kimchi Bao and refills from any Coca-Cola Freestyle location, plus a passholder discount that stops at six tickets per pass.
Disney World Walt Disney Imagineering is bringing the Society of Explorers and Adventurers to D23 on Friday, along with a crate Disney says has stayed shut for at least a hundred years. Disney published the group's global headquarters map at the same time, and the Florida pin is marked with an airship dock, a nautilus dock, a rocket launch bay and a time train station.
Universal Orlando Universal told passholders on Instagram that UOAPs get priority seating at Epic Universe's dragon show throughout Passholder Appreciation Days, which run August 15 to September 30. Show up 15 minutes early, bring separate Epic Universe admission, and know that the show goes down for refurbishment for six days in September.
Disney World A Walt Disney Imagineering patent application published Thursday describes making guests feel a ride vehicle rise or fall while the track stays perfectly level. The whole trick is set design: scenery built on a slant so it aims at a second, false vanishing point. Blog Mickey thinks it could fit the Encanto attraction under construction at Disney's Animal Kingdom, though it calls that link speculative.
SeaWorld Orlando The Ultimate Challenge runs Sunday, August 16 for National Roller Coaster Day. Ride all eight coasters, collect a punch for each, and a poster and lanyard go to the first 1,000 participants. A 2026 shirt goes on sale that day while supplies last, and the pass member Mako lanyard is a separate item entirely.
Universal Orlando Universal detailed its Halloween Horror Nights 35 hotel takeovers Wednesday. Frankenstein and the Invisible Man turn up in the decor of a mid century modern tiki hideaway at Royal Pacific, Stella Nova and Terra Luna join the lineup as new, and The Keyholder Bar opens to the left of the Music Plaza Stage inside Universal Studios Florida.
Disney World Behind the Castle Walls: My Thirty Years at the Happiest Place on Earth runs 272 pages from Gallery Books, co-written with Don Yaeger. Cinderella Castle is on the jacket, and the publisher's description promises the pandemic shutdown, the shifting political landscape and his ousting.
