Disney World The AI Overview panel on DisneyWorld.com moved into Cast Member testing on Wednesday. Screenshots of the panel show a thumbs up, a thumbs down, and a disclaimer telling staff to double check anything important with a real person.
Universal Orlando Universal TODAY runs three segments called Walk in the Parks, Let's Eat and Behind the Attraction, and Universal says it plays on YouTube and throughout the theme parks and Universal Orlando hotels. The resort's own blog and NBCUniversal do not agree on when it launched.
Disney World The Imagineer who wrote Star Tours and rose to Chief Storytelling Executive joined WED Enterprises in January 1979. Disney has issued no statement, and the retirement party surfaced only because a Disney artist posted photos to LinkedIn.
Universal Orlando Bob Marley - A Tribute to Freedom in Universal CityWalk will run a Jamaica Independence Day celebration on Saturday, August 8 starting at 3 p.m., with grilled skewers and Ackee & Saltfish served that day only, plus live bands, a steel drummer and stilt walkers. Universal did not attach prices to either special dish, and it is the second straight year the venue has held the celebration on the Saturday after the holiday.
Universal Orlando Universal has confirmed which three Halloween Horror Nights 35 haunted houses open at 2 p.m. for eligible Stay & Scream guests: Stranger Things 5, Hellraiser, and Jack & Oddfellow: Chaos & Control. The Scream Early add-on also moved its entry time up an hour this year, from 3 p.m. to 2 p.m. It starts at $70 per person and does not include full event admission.
Disney World Disney added a Shiki-Sai Fireworks Dining Package at EPCOT's Japan Pavilion on Wednesday, with reservations listed as opening August 27. Ages 10 and up pay $120 before tax and gratuity, or $149.50 all in, and ages 3 to 9 pay $60, or $74.70. AllEars reported the details went up on the Disney World site that morning and were later taken down, and the package page now returns a 404.
Disney World Mayor Brian Winddancer, the horse mayor voiced by Patrick Warburton in Zootopia 2, now opens the Tree of Life Theater show with a speech of his own. The new pre-show sequence debuts today, adds a few seconds to the roughly nine minute runtime, and is the first notable update since Zootopia: Better Zoogether! opened on November 7, 2025.
SeaWorld Orlando Spooktacular runs 26 select dates from August 29 through November 1, and it's included with regular park admission. Here's the full date list (it isn't just weekends), the closing times that swing from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. depending on which date you pick, the trick-or-treat bag you have to buy, and the teal pumpkin allergy option.
Universal Orlando New ground level photos show the Chamber of Poseidon stripped back to bare steel with a catwalk still hanging from the ceiling. A themed directional sign has also vanished from outside Mythos Restaurant, and the Lost Continent restrooms have quietly reopened.
SeaWorld Orlando The new Nekrosis scare zone arrived with a Y2K setting attached, and its description opens by welcoming guests to Howl-O-Scream 2026: a once thriving beach town that never made it out of the millennium. SeaWorld also named The Rewind, a bar built out of VHS tapes, ringing landlines and dial-up.
Disney World Disney’s ferryboat dock and queue expansion has left dry land. A barge carrying a yellow excavator and stacks of wooden cribbing is anchored beside the walkway to Magic Kingdom, and the green construction walls now run underneath the monorail beam.
Disney World Buried in a July 24 board packet, overshadowed by the district's same-day move toward 2045 growth caps, Resolution 687 sells the Central Energy Plant's gas and steam turbines, generators and heat recovery equipment to recycling and demolition firm S&S Recycling & Demolition, which outbid GE Vernova and four others. Everything must be removed and the site restored before March 31, 2027.
Disney World Disney's Animal Kingdom Villas - Kidani Village starts a phased lobby refurbishment on August 17. The main lobby and primary entrance close through October 9, with Community Hall, the arcade, the laundry room and the lobby restrooms going offline in a later window that runs to November 6.
Universal Orlando Universal Orlando's annual thank-you to passholders brings 40 percent off select hotels, 30 percent off Express Pass, $40 off 1-Day Park-to-Park tickets for family and friends, and a teased Revenge of the Mummy magnet at UOAP Nights. Reservations for the after-hours event are already fully booked.
Disney World The Passholder lounge at Restaurant Marrakesh, the free Woody and Buzz magnet, the Joffrey's coffee crawl and up to 40 percent off at a dozen restaurants all stop on July 31. The dining discount only runs Monday through Thursday, so Thursday July 30 is really the last call. Disney teased the next magnet on Tuesday morning.
Universal Orlando The scanners that let guests highlight fossils on the Discovering Dinosaurs rock wall are gone, and WDW News Today reports black scrim now covers the signs of the removal. Universal has not announced the change, and it lands while Jurassic Park River Adventure sits closed until November 20.
Legoland Florida Legoland Florida's family wooden coaster has been closed since January 5. Laughing Place reports it returns August 16, National Roller Coaster Day, after a rebuild that replaced the entire wooden structure and is meant to keep the ride going another 20 to 30 years.
Disney World Animal Kingdom's only Single Rider line lost its sign for a few days, then got it back on Monday. WDW News Today was told the dedicated queue will close soon. Blog Mickey predicted the same thing that morning, then revised after the sign returned. Either way, solo riders are not saving the time they used to.
Universal Orlando The park calendar now has Universal Epic Universe closing at 8 p.m. on 28 of September's 30 days, an hour earlier than summer. Because the new nighttime spectacular runs at park close, Universal Celestial Goodnight moves with it, less than two months after it debuted.
Disney World The 21-year-old western lowland gorilla arrived from the Saint Louis Zoo in June and spent about a month settling in behind the scenes. As of Monday, he is finally on view along the Gorilla Falls Exploration Trail, taking over the troop from Gino, the beloved silverback who died last September.
Disney World The 2026 lineup lands online July 27 with select pieces heading to the parks, from a skeleton Mickey and Minnie plush to a glowing Mickey wreath, while a wider wave of Halloween merch has already hit Walt Disney World shelves.
Disney World The sliding blast doors between the standby queue and the Hondo Ohnaka preshow room stopped working soon after Star Wars: Galaxy's Edge opened. Enthusiasts say that as of July 26 they are once again closing behind each group before admitting the next, restoring a piece of the ride's original theming.
Universal Orlando Orange County has issued the building permit for Project 680, the long-teased structure behind Dark Universe, and the paperwork calls out a ride maintenance bay on the first floor. That single line answers the question Universal has dodged since spring: the mystery building is a ride, not a show.
Disney World Disney Vacation Club's annual Welcome Home Weeks are back from July 22 through August 26, and this year the headline perk is a Mondays through Thursdays dining deal: 40 percent off food and nonalcoholic drinks at eight table-service restaurants, plus free ice cream, Disney Springs treats, and a members-only character meet at the BoardWalk.
Disney World Crews used a boom lift to lower the framing for the top of the carousel into place at Disney's Animal Kingdom, the latest visible sign that the Tropical Americas land is taking shape. When it opens in 2027, the ride will carry hand-carved Disney animals, including Kevin from Up, rather than the usual horses, at the heart of a new village called Pueblo Esperanza.
Disney World Blog Mickey photographed what looks like the first section of a tower crane at the Piston Peak National Park site on July 25, standing just past the new wall that separates Frontierland from the Cars-themed land going in where Rivers of America used to be. Disney still has not given an opening date.
Universal Orlando When Universal teased Killer Klowns from Outer Space returning to Halloween Horror Nights 35 last week, it would only say the Klowns were coming to the streets, with more details promised soon. Now those details are here. The scare zone is called Downtown Clowntown, it takes over the New York area of Universal Studios Florida, and it adds a second horror-movie clown to the mix in Art the Clown from the Terrifier films.
Disney World As sunset arrives earlier, Fantasmic! shifts to 8:30 p.m. nightly from August 23 and Happily Ever After moves up to 9:30 p.m. from August 31. Happily Ever After also goes dark on Not-So-Scary party nights.
Universal Orlando Aerials posted Friday evening by bioreconstruct show Hollywood Drift track dipping directly behind Music Plaza Stage and threading the soundstage row, while roughly half the concert lawn in front sits stripped for turf replacement and utility work, with the coaster itself targeting a 2027 debut.
Disney World Crews pulled a large tree from a fenced work site near Backlot Express this week. Permits filed since spring put the project, known as Project Fedora, mostly in the hands of Disney's facilities team, but Disney has not said a word about what is coming.
