food IS a theme park
We do our best to try to keep up with all the construction, refurbishments, and reopenings at Disney World, so when anything pops up, we want to make sure you’re in the know.
Kali River Rapids
And we just found out about a refurbishment coming up soon that will close one popular ride at Disney’s Animal Kingdom!
Disney recently introduced a new system to replace the FastPass+ program in Disney World — Genie+. This will be the new way to essentially skip the standby lines on rides around the parks.
Genie+ ©Disney
However, now, you can only have a reservation for one ride at a time (compared to the previous 3), and you have to pay to use this feature (which used to be free). Genie+ will be $15 per person, per day and you will now use the Lightning Lane to enter rides instead of the FastPass+ lane. Select high demand rides will not be a part of Genie+, but you will be able to buy access to their Lightning Lanes individually. We’ve seen several Lightning Lane signs go up around the parks over the past week, and we just spotted another new one in Hollywood Studios!
As we gear up for Disney World’s 50th anniversary — which starts in less than a month 🤩 — we’re starting to see all kinds of exciting changes and updates at Disney World.
So many exciting things are happening at EPCOT
Cinderella Castle is looking spiffier than ever, we’ve seen some sneak peeks of some of the new fireworks shows set to debut on October 1st, we have an opening date for the VERY COOL Space 220 Restaurant. And EPCOT has been undergoing a MASSIVE transformation, including getting a brand new flagship shop!
Disney World recently announced a new Annual Passholder Program, and now, those passes are on sale!
Annual Pass
The new program is significantly different from the old one — there are now only 4 types of Annual Passes available, different blockout dates, and new add-ons. One thing the new program also has is more park pass reservations for some Annual Passholders as well as bonus park pass reservations that don’t count toward your overall total number. As passes went on sale today, bonus reservations became available to current passholders!
We are SO excited about the new restaurants opening soon in the France Pavilion at EPCOT!
La Creperie de Paris
Both La Crêperie de Paris and its quick service window, Crêpes à Emporter, will be opening on October 1st, just in time for Disney World’s 50th anniversary celebration. We got a chance to check both out early, and if you’d like to read our review La Crêperie de Paris, you can do so here. But today, we’re checking out the quick-service window, Crêpes à Emporter.
Walt Disney World Annual Passes are back! Recently, we reported that Disney World, alongside Disneyland’s new Magic Key program, would be bringing back their Annual Passes.
An Annual Passholder ticket
Today, we’ve got some big news for you!
Howdy from Magic Kingdom!
Cinderella Castle has been redecorated for the 50th Anniversary!
We’re at the parks alllll the time keeping an eye out for new things to tell you about, so come with us as we share what’s new at Magic Kingdom!
When you think iconic Disney World food, do you think of noodles?
We love you, ‘Ohana noodles
Probably not! While the noodles in Disney aren’t all iconic (that spot is reserved solely for ‘Ohana noodles!), many of them are delicious. Recently, we’ve found some awesome noodle bowls over at The Noodle Exchange for EPCOT’s Food and Wine Festival, and even found a great bowl of rice noodles over at Disney’s Saratoga Springs Resort! But, if you’re like us, you can never have enough carbs in your life, and we just found a way to get a ton of delicious noodles AND donate to a great cause!
Disney recently announced that a new system would be replacing FastPass+ in Disney World soon.
Genie+ ©Disney
Disney Genie+ will be a part of the new Genie planning system in the My Disney Experience app. While Genie is free, Genie+ is a paid service that allows you to make ride reservations in a similar way that you used to be able to using FastPass+. Only now, you will only be able to reserve one ride at a time, and you will enter the queue through the Lightning Lane instead of the FastPass+ lane (it’s the same lane — just renamed!). Today, we found more information about the old FastPass+ system while we were in the parks.
EPCOT has been undergoing a lot of changes lately!
EPCOT
The park is in the middle of a massive transformation that includes new rides, areas, and structures. One of the new things is the Creations Shop, which will be replacing Mouse Gear as EPCOT’s flagship merchandise location. We just learned that Creations Shop will be opening on September 15th, and there will be new and exclusive merchandise for sale!
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