Walt Disney World Resort
Orlando, FL
---- THE LATEST BUZZ ----
(1/20/2025) Disney Springs Parking To Get More Complicated
(1/18/2025) Walt Disney World: Stormalong Bay Refurb Update
(1/14/2025) Major Walt Disney World Resort Pool Closure
(1/2/2025) Walt Disney World Offering Free Meal Plans and Waterpark Admission For Qualifying Resort Guests
(12/20/2024) A Look at the new Island Tower at Disney's Polynesian Resort
Resort Rehabs - The following information is subject to change:
Typhoon Lagoon - NOW CLOSED through TBD (Likely Spring 2025)
 General Resort News - (1/20/2025) Just a quick FYI for anyone planning to drop in to Disney Springs, the parking situation has gotten a little more complicated than normal. The “Orange” parking structure, which I believe is the largest of all the structures, and also the main structure that most guests planning on dropping into the West Side are likely to use, is now closing off Levels 3, 4 and 5 (out of 5) for refurbishment for an unknown period of time. So before you make your next trip, maybe plan on using one of the other lots so you don’t waste time driving in circles looking for an open spot.
(1/18/2025) Another set of pictures showing off the refurbishment of Stormalong Bay at Disney’s Yacht & Beach Club Resorts has been posted to MouseSteps this week. Things are moving fast, but perhaps one of the most interesting things is that the sand has been removed from the bottom of Stormalong Bay which should allow for some resurfacing work to be done.
(1/14/2025) If you like spending time at the pool when you stay at a Walt Disney World Resort, be advised that the Stormlong Bay and Shipwreck Pool at Disney Yacht and Beach Club Resorts is now closed until at least June 2025. Just a heads up, in case you want to try and switch your reservations.
To see what’s going on, head on over to MouseSteps this week who posted several pictures to show off the closed off pool area.
(1/2/2025) Walt Disney World is looking to increase the crowd levels at their waterparks, or rather, whatever waterpark they have open at any given time. A new promotion from WDW will now give on-site resort guests free admission to a Walt Disney World waterpark, but only on the day of your actual check-in to the hotel, and only if you are staying at one of the “Disney Resort Collection” hotels. This includes all the main WDW Resort hotels, but does not include the on-site partner hotels, such as the WDW Swan & Dolphin.
The good news is that you don’t have to wait until your room is ready to check in and get this offer. If you arrive into town early in the day, you can go to the hotel, do a pre-check-in, leave your bags at the front desk, and head straight to the waterpark.
I’m a bit surprised, as I don’t believe Disney hasn’t really offered waterpark admission for free for a couple of decades. I do remember back in the 90’s, free waterpark admission was offered as a perk for those willing to buy a multi-day pass or 4 or 5 days or more, along with admission to Pleasure Island and the long closed Discovery Island nature area. Perhaps this may be telling us a little bit about how well Disney’s waterparks may be fairing attendance-wise against all the other waterparks in the region, especially since they went down to only offering one waterpark at a time since the pandemic.
 WDW has one more special offer as well to on-site resort guests this year. With the purchase of select Walt Disney World vacation packages in 2025, Disney will include free dining plans. From the look of things, this will only be offered when booked between now and Feb. 10, for most trips arriving either between May 27 to June 26 or July 7 to Aug. 6, 2025.
If you would like more details about these new or other Walt Disney World offers, please feel free to reach out to Kerry Hart at Joyous Adventures who can assist you with all your Walt Disney World booking needs!
(11/8/2024) Ride vehicles from two former Walt Disney World attractions have now been donated to the National Roller Coaster Museum. Freshly delivered is a former ride car from the removed Snow White’s Scary Adventures dark ride in the Magic Kingdom, along with something else I haven’t seen in a long time… one of the former Buzz Lightyear’s Astro Blaster bumper cars that ran inside the closed DisneyQuest attraction at Downtown Disney. The custom bumper cars were unique in that riders sat inside an enclosed plexiglass cabin, because each of the cars was also outfitted with a cannon that could shoot rubber balls at the other cars. As I recall, upon your car being struck by a ball, it would power-down for a few seconds leaving you stranded if you kept getting pelted by the other gunners. Each Astro Blaster car could gather up a collection of new balls to shoot by driving over them on the course, scooping them up into a bin where the designed gunner could reload them into the cannon to shoot at the other players.
(9/7/2024) The hand-off between the two Walt Disney World waterparks is now set to take place in early November, with your last day to visit Typhoon Lagoon in 2024 being Nov. 4th. Blizzard Beach will reopen once again for the next several months starting Nov. 5th, 2024.
Based on the current operational pattern established since the pandemic, Blizzard Beach will likely remain open until sometime in Spring 2025, when they would swap parks again and reopen Typhoon Lagoon for the warmer months of the year, which always seemed a little counter to the theme of Blizzard Beach as the whole concept of the theme was to enjoy an arctic blasted waterpark in the warm summer season.
Even though they say Walt Disney World has returned to pre-pandemic performance numbers, the one thing they have not done is gone back to operating their two waterparks at the same time in the Spring and Summer seasons. Prior to the pandemic, both waterparks essentially had year-round operations, but would each close for about a 2-month long period in the late fall through early Spring for refurbishment.
With the rise of so many other high quality waterparks in the Orlando area, especially Aquatica and Volcano Bay, the rumor is that Disney running both waterparks at the same time either barely made back their operational budget, or were possibly even operating at a loss. If true, then much like the loss of the free FastPass program, the pandemic gave Disney the perfect excuse to shake things up and change how they were going to operate their waterparks going forward.
(6/14/2024) It has been confirmed that the Florida government and Walt Disney World have come to an agreement over a new 15-year master plan of development that will see up to $17 billion in new developments added to the theme park resort property. This seems to have finally brought an end to the angry stand-off between Florida’s Governor DeSantis and the state’s biggest tourism revenue generator.
As part of the deal, Disney has agreed to fund $10 million in ‘attainable housing projects’ in the area, and ensure that at least 50% of their construction work will be contracted out to Florida-based companies, which is also great for the local economy.
Ticket Pricing Updates - (10/26/2024) With Disneyland having raised their ticket and annual pass prices a few weeks ago, you just knew it was only a matter of time before Walt Disney World did the same. While the Florida resort already raised their 2025 ticket prices that could be pre-booked earlier this year, they did choose this week to increase the price of their annual passes instead, with the various tiers rising anywhere from $30 to $100 for the year-long pass.
(3/2/2024) Disney fans will need to prepare themselves to pay more for their visits to Walt Disney World in 2025. Yes, I said in 2025. While previously Disney’s price increases were just sort of slammed in overnight, with little to no warning and effective from that moment forward, the new era of Disney ticketing, with surge-pricing in effect for busy days now allows them to add in their price increases over a year in advance.
According to Blooloop, based on ticket prices they are finding for 2025, it appears that most ticket prices will rise from $10 to $15 per day, based on the current prices listed for 2024. According to the report the cheapest day/tier tickets offered for Disney Animal Kingdom will jump from $109 to $119, Epcot will rise from $119 to $129, Disney’s Hollywood Studios will rise from $129 to $139 and tickets to visit the Magic Kingdom will rise from $129 to $144 in 2025. You can also expect a $5 to $20 price increase for passes with Park Hopping.
2027 - Disney’s Lakeshore Lodge - In Development - (11/28/2024) The former “Reflections - A Disney Lakeside Lodge” DVC Resort project for Walt Disney World that was put on indefinite hold shortly after starting the initial site clearing due to the pandemic is now back… kind of. Disney has spent the years revising the concept and has announced a new project on the same site (where the old River Country water park used to be) that will be called Disney’s Lakeshore Lodge. New permits have been filed and work has restarted with the goal of opening this new resort sometime in 2027. Beyond that, few details are known, other than it will be similar in size and scope and theme to the original Reflections concept.
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 ???? - New Magic Kingdom Resort - (10/23/21) Is Walt Disney World planning some kind of new resort for the Magic Kingdom area? New permits filed by Walt Disney World for a “World Drive Phase III” now show plans to move the existing Floridan Way road as it approaches the Grand Floridian. The roadway will turn to the left and cut through a small section of the Magnolia Golf Course that will essentially wipe out Hole 16 to get around a backstage work and parking area and then head North again with an all new road to eventually reconnect with the existing road at the intersection of Maple Rd.
I drew up a quick graphic showing the approximate location of the new planned route for Floridian Way and how it would open up a rather large piece of land just to the north of the Grand Floridian along an undeveloped section of the Seven Seas Lagoon. Well, almost undeveloped… you may recall that Disney management FINALLY completed the “decades in the making” walkway from The Magic Kingdom to the Grand Floridian resort with the construction of two bridges and a pathway. While the pathway was announced a long long time ago, the reveal of this new piece of the puzzle makes me wonder if they finally had a good reason to finish this pathway after all these years to provide walking access to the Magic Kingdom from any possible new resort they might choose to put there. (The distance isn’t far enough to bother with adding yet another monorail stop between the park and Grand Flo…)
Now don’t go expecting to see a new building rising in the next year or so. This is a fine example of Disney’s long term strategy at work here, and I think they’re just setting the stage for something special to come in the future… but not until they are ready.
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