Yesterday was a very busy day for Walt Disney World news, and sometimes it’s hard to keep up with everything they threw out to us.

If you happened to miss an announcement (or two, or three) don’t worry, we’re here to help recap all the biggest news announcements for you!

Magic Kingdom

A new princess is coming to Magic Kingdom! If you’ve been anxiously anticipating a meet and greet with Mirabel from Encanto like we have, Disney has finally announced that Mirabel will be taking over Merida’s current meet and greet location in the park’s Fairytale Gardens area. The current meet and greet location will be transformed in Casa Madrigal just in time for Mirabel to show us around her home. We’ve seen Mirabel in the park’s Disney Adventure Friends cavalcade, but never as a meet and greet in Magic Kingdom.

If you’re visiting Magic Kingdom later this summer, there’s a good chance you’ll be right on time to see a major change in a theme park attraction. While we’ve been keeping an eye on the construction progress for Tiana’s Bayou Adventure, the installation of the tiara-topped water tower announced yesterday might be the first big visible change we’ll be able to see in the attraction. Disney teased the addition at D23 but it will really be something to see it take form in person.

The latest in the line of TRON news is more info about a new experience separate from the ride and rethemed gift shop. In case you missed it, the former merchandise building known as the Tomorrowland Light & Power Co. will be reimagined and reopened as Tomorrowland Launch Depot and will be home to a unique experience.

The TRON Identity Program will be an opportunity to customize a “program” action figure that will look AND sound like you! It will come complete with a personality chip and will also be pairable to “reprogram” other TRON merchandise such as the interactive Identity Discs and Remote Control Lightcycles. If you’re looking to be one of the first to get in on this new experience they’re going to start on April 4th, and reservations will be open starting March 21st, 2023. The experience and figure will cost $89.99.

EPCOT

It sounds like we won’t have to wait too much longer for the opening of Journey of Water — Inspired by Moana! Disney just announced that they’re anticipating an opening in Fall 2023. We’ve followed this construction for quite some time and can’t wait to see the completed project.

We also have an update on CommuniCore Hall. While the news on this one has been mostly quiet up until now we know that it will be EPCOT’s first building specifically built for festivals.

This building will take on many hats though as it will house galleries, a demonstration kitchen, a mixology bar, and most excitingly a meet and greet for Mickey AND Minnie featured in their 100th anniversary platinum outfits.

The meet and greets don’t stop there! A highly anticipated meet and greet with Figment will come to EPCOT starting this summer. We’ll finally be able to see Figment outside of his ride in more than just his popcorn bucket form.

EPCOT will also be home to a new fireworks show celebrating the 100th anniversary. While EPCOT Forever will take over for Harmonious for a short time, Disney announced that we could see this new show in late 2023. We learned that this is designed to be “a show that will unite us through commonalities of the heart in a dazzling display of fireworks, lasers, music and light.”

From what we’ve seen of the concept art, it looks like Disney is looking to keep similar elements of lasers and fireworks from the center of the World Showcase lagoon all set to a moving soundtrack.

Animal Kingdom

Animal Kingdom will be home to a new princess meet and greet with Moana! Although we don’t know yet whether this will be a meet and greet or a flotilla experience, Moana is officially coming to Animal Kingdom park and will make her first appearance on April 22nd, 2023. If you’re looking to spot her she will be “greeting” us from Discovery Island.

April 22nd, 2023, will mark Animal Kingdom’s 25th anniversary and Disney is looking to commemorate the occasion with a special merch collection.

There will also be a lineup of a few exclusive snacks including the cupcake pictured below that features the Tree of Life.

We’re excited to celebrate this momentous occasion!

Disney Springs

Corkcicle will finally get its first retail location in Disney World! Later this spring we’ll be able to visit the Corkcicle store in Disney Springs and pick up a whole array of bottles.

Disney Springs will also be the home of a new restaurant, Summer House On The Lake. While this isn’t a new name to us (they have a location inside the Orlando International Airport) it’s certainly going to be more convenient to visit!

We recently got a chance to take a peek at their California-inspired menu offerings including Shaved Brussels Salad, the Wilshire Blvd Cobb Salad, and the Costa Mesa Salad.

They’ve also got these ginormous Sea Salt Chocolate Chip Cookies that could rival the neighboring Gideon’s Bakehouse cookies.

Did we help throttle down the firehose news just a bit? If so great, and if you can’t seem to get enough, stay tuned to DFB for the latest in Disney park news!

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