If you haven’t been keeping up with the latest Disney news, take a seat — there’s a lot to get through!
This past week, Disney held its first Mickey’s Very Merry Christmas Party in Disney World since pre-pandemic times, LOTS of snacks arrived in the theme parks, Tropical Storm Nicole caused some park closures, and we got all kinds of other updates. So sit back, pull up a chair, and get ready for a breakdown of EVERY SINGLE update you need to know about Disney right now.
Mickey’s Very Merry Christmas Party
First up, let’s head to Magic Kingdom, where Mickey’s Very Merry Christmas Party is officially underway! This holiday-themed party is a separately ticketed event offered on select nights now through December, and dates are selling out. During the event, you can see special entertainment, go on popular rides, get exclusive snacks, and MORE.
This year, during the party we grabbed some epic popcorn buckets…
…we tried a BUNCH of the snacks and brought you all kinds of reviews…
…we checked out the entertainment…
…and we shared a look at the crowds.
Basically, we did it ALL! For our complete guide to the party, click here and watch our video below!
More Holiday News
But wait…there’s MORE holiday news to go through! At Disney’s Hollywood Studios, the giant Christmas tree is up, bringing cheer to this merry park.
If you are wondering what holiday popcorn buckets are coming to Disney World this year, you can click here for full details.
In terms of holiday food, over 25 new food items are available now (or coming soon) for the holidays. We’ve already started to grab some festive treats and share our thoughts with you. At Disney’s Hollywood Studios, there’s one snack you’ll want 6 more of! And there’s a spicy cookie (but it’s not spicy in the way you might think). You might also want to be on the lookout for a snack that would horrify Olaf!
Plus over 40 ADDITIONAL holiday snacks are coming to Disney World’s hotels. So there are a lot of treats to buy this holiday season.
See ALL of our holiday snack reviews for Disney World here
Over at Disney’s Grand Floridian Resort & Spa, the iconic gingerbread house has finally opened, and you can click here to see our review of some of the snacks from this spot!
Over at Disneyland in California, the Festival of Holidays booths are up and you can see the FULL menus here. The holiday festival officially starts today (November 11th), but Disneyland opened the booths early so we got a sneak peek at some of the deliciousness!
There’s curry mac n’ cheese, pork belly, and more! We’ll be sharing FULL reviews of all the booths soon, so stay tuned for updates on that.
You can see ALL of our Festival of Holidays reviews here!
And while the Festival of Holidays is great fun, don’t forget that there are other holiday eats at Disneyland Resort throughout the parks and resorts.
See ALL of our holiday snack reviews for Disneyland here
Food News
Not all of the food news from this week is holiday-themed though. Over at EPCOT, Akershus Royal Banquet Hall (in the Norway pavilion) has finally reopened!
This spot features a character meal (with the Disney princesses) with food served family-style.
See our full review of Akershus here!
If you’ll be heading to Disney World around Thanksgiving time, be sure to see our list of every Disney World restaurant with a Thanksgiving menu!
How much money is Disney making and how would it handle a recession?
This past week Disney also held its fiscal full year and Q2 2022 earnings call (and released its related earnings report). As a result of this report and call, we learned a LOT about Disney’s current financial position and some of the Disney executives’ thoughts on the future.
When it comes to Disney+, we got a big update on the current number of Disney+ subscribers. Total subscribers for Disney+ are now at 164.2 million, up significantly from the 118.1 million reported at this time in 2021.
In addition to learning about Disney+, we got to see what’s going on in the theme park world. Disney reported $65 million in Hurricane Ian losses. Disney World’s theme parks closed for 2 days due to the storm, and this now gives us an idea of just how much money that cost them.
Aside from storm news, we heard from Disney CEO Bob Chapek, who indicated that Disney parks demand still outpaces capacity. Disney parks revenues continue to beat 2021 by a LOT, guest spending is up, and (overall) Disney’s numbers show revenue growth.
For various reasons, Chapek indicated that he is “filled with optimism” about Disney in 2023, despite a potential recession impact.
But it’s not as though Disney isn’t thinking about a potential recession. During this last earnings call, we actually got some details about how Disney might respond in a recession. Disney executives are working on a plan to maintain growth and profits during a potential recession and more details are set to be released later.
Discounts could be a tool Disney uses in the future to accomplish this goal. In fact, Disney executives have indicated that they could use discounts to keep demand high.
What about Disney’s annual passes? These have been available to renew in Disney World for some time, but new ones are not available to purchase except for 1 pass type. One Disney executive indicated during this last call that the Annual Pass program could provide “flexibility” during a potential recession. That could mean that the start of a recession could make it more likely that the program will return, but we’ll have to wait and see exactly what the future holds.
Finally, we did want to note that Disney stock values dropped during the earnings call, and have (as of November 11th) continued to drop. We’ll continue to keep an eye out for changes there.
Click here to see more about the Q4 earnings call and Disney’s current financial situation
Tropical Storm Nicole
And finally, our last piece of big news brings us into the hurricane season — which lasts through November 30th. While the majority of the impacts from this specific storm (Tropical Storm Nicole) have ended for Disney World, these things are important to keep in mind if you’ll be visiting Disney World at any point during hurricane season.
Tropical Storm Nicole (which ultimately was upgraded to a Hurricane and then downgraded to a tropical storm again) impacted Florida this past week.
As a result of the storm, the Orlando International Airport closed for a little over a day, but a reopening timeline has been announced and some commercial operations have resumed already. Additionally, ahead of the storm, there was no availability displayed at the Disney World hotels.
Due to the storm, Disney’s Typhoon Lagoon Water Park and Disney’s mini golf areas also closed and Disney Springs also closed. Some resort areas were also set to close. That was later reversed and then some changes were made and certain resort areas did end up closing ahead of the storm.
Some offerings (like Fantasmic!) were also canceled as a result of the storm. SeaWorld Orlando also closed, as did Universal Orlando Resort.
And ultimately Disney announced some theme park closures and updated its cancelation policies. The parks essentially closed early on one day ahead of the storm and reopened later in the day on the next day.
And you can click here to see what Disney World looked like after Tropical Storm Nicole
That’s it for the big news stories from this week! For more Disney news, check out our links below:
- Some fan-favorite characters are back in Toy Story Land in Disney’s Hollywood Studios
- Disney needs to fix this huge problem. Here’s how to avoid it in the meantime
- What’s going on with Tarzan’s Treehouse in Disneyland? We finally have some answers!
Hold up for a sec! Before you plan your next trip to Disney World, you’re going to need this discount code – WDW2022. Use it to save 25% when you buy our DFB Guide Everything Bundle here.
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MORE Disney World Holiday INFO!
Learn About Mickey’s Very Merry Christmas Party
Get the Latest Information About the EPCOT International Festival of the Holidays
We’ll Take This Little Golden Disney Book in Our Stocking, Santa!
Everything You Need to Know About Disney World Holiday Dining and Events
What We Wish We’d Known Before Going to Disney World During the Holidays
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What questions do you have about your upcoming Disney trips? Tell us in the comments.
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