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Hellraiser Was Codenamed Tractor and Alien Abduction Was Shuttle: A Lights-On Tour Reveals How Universal Built Three HHN 35 Houses Universal Orlando

Hellraiser Was Codenamed Tractor and Alien Abduction Was Shuttle: A Lights-On Tour Reveals How Universal Built Three HHN 35 Houses

Universal codenames its Halloween Horror Nights houses during development, and this year the theme was transportation. A paid lights-on tour matched three of the leaked codenames to their houses, credited the Hellraiser maze to designer Dylan Kollath, and revealed which small animal the scenic team is using as its hidden Easter egg for 2026.

August 25, 2026 News
Imagineering Is Rebuilding EPCOT's Germany Train Garden, and a Tiny Dreamfinder Showed Up Less Than a Week After D23 Announced His Return Disney World

Imagineering Is Rebuilding EPCOT's Germany Train Garden, and a Tiny Dreamfinder Showed Up Less Than a Week After D23 Announced His Return

Walt Disney Imagineering shared photos Friday from an in progress rebuild of the Germany Train Garden at EPCOT. There is a clock tower modeled on the Biergarten entrance, a miniature Snow White cottage with a mine shaft, a tiny construction site behind Please Pardon Our Pixie Dust walls, and a blue suited Dreamfinder standing in front of a Tudor building.

August 24, 2026 News
From 2027, US Disney employees cannot put a spouse on the medical plan if that spouse's own job offers medical coverage Disney World

From 2027, US Disney employees cannot put a spouse on the medical plan if that spouse's own job offers medical coverage

Two pieces of benefits news landed last week. A Wednesday memo told US employees Disney is planning an Employee Stock Purchase Plan for later in 2027 and that nearly everyone has to actively re-enroll for next year. Puck reported the harder part: US employees will not be able to enroll a spouse or domestic partner who can get medical insurance through their own employer.

August 24, 2026 News
Disney Filed for a Ride Warning System That Tells You Only About the Scary Bits You Personally Flagged Disney World

Disney Filed for a Ride Warning System That Tells You Only About the Scary Bits You Personally Flagged

A Disney Enterprises patent application published Thursday describes letting a guest tick off what they want to avoid, dark scary scenes, confined spaces, sharp drops, spiders, and then getting a warning on a phone or watch ahead of that exact moment. On rides that support it, the filing goes further and asks the attraction to turn the effect down, swap in other content, or turn it up.

August 21, 2026 News
SeaWorld Quietly Gave Howl-O-Scream Orlando a Second Icon, and She Is There to Collect a Debt From Havoc SeaWorld Orlando

SeaWorld Quietly Gave Howl-O-Scream Orlando a Second Icon, and She Is There to Collect a Debt From Havoc

A blog post that went up on seaworld.com on Wednesday introduces Pestilence, a new Howl-O-Scream Orlando icon written as Havoc's former partner, the one he left behind. There is no press release, and as of Thursday evening we could not find a theme park outlet that had picked it up. Her infection starts in the Nekrosis scare zone, spreads through the event on the backs of guests, and ends at the Throttle show.

August 21, 2026 News
Guests Say Fast & Furious: Hollywood Drift Turned Them Away at 6 Foot 4 in Tech Rehearsals, and a Separate Orlando Version Follows in 2027 Universal Orlando

Guests Say Fast & Furious: Hollywood Drift Turned Them Away at 6 Foot 4 in Tech Rehearsals, and a Separate Orlando Version Follows in 2027

Guests are being pulled off Fast & Furious: Hollywood Drift at Universal Studios Hollywood for being too tall, after waits of three hours and more. The ride posts a 51 inch minimum and no maximum, its test seat reportedly sits near the load platform rather than the entrance, and a separately designed Orlando coaster of the same name is due at Universal Studios Florida in 2027.

August 20, 2026 News
Olivia's Cafe Is Serving Its Last Brunch on October 5, Then Splitting the Service Into Separate Breakfast and Lunch Disney World

Olivia's Cafe Is Serving Its Last Brunch on October 5, Then Splitting the Service Into Separate Breakfast and Lunch

Disney's Old Key West Resort is retiring the long brunch at Olivia's Cafe. The last one is October 5. From October 6 the restaurant runs breakfast from 7:30am to 11:00am, lunch from 11:30am to 2:00pm, and dinner unchanged at 5:00pm to 9:00pm. Disney has not posted the new menus yet, but several dishes it is teasing for lunch are already on the brunch menu.

August 20, 2026 News
The Monsters Cafe Statues Are Lying in the Grass Behind Dark Universe, Where Universal Just Cleared the Trees Universal Orlando

The Monsters Cafe Statues Are Lying in the Grass Behind Dark Universe, Where Universal Just Cleared the Trees

New aerial photos show Universal has taken the trees off the expansion pad behind Dark Universe at Epic Universe, staged construction barriers along the service road, and left the old Monsters Cafe creature statues lying in the grass. On July 24, Orlando ParkStop looked at aerials of this same plot and said work had not started yet. The trees are down now.

August 20, 2026 News
Disney Springs' Waterview Park Is Open Again 87 Days Past Its Target Date, With a Permanent Shade Canopy Over the Seating Disney World

Disney Springs' Waterview Park Is Open Again 87 Days Past Its Target Date, With a Permanent Shade Canopy Over the Seating

Waterview Park, the open-air live music venue in The Landing, reopened Tuesday with a permanent shade canopy stretched over its seating area. The venue closed in early May for a project reported at the time to take about a month, and the reopening date on record was May 23. It came back 87 days past that target, with live entertainment scheduled to resume at 6pm on reopening night.

August 20, 2026 News
Poseidon's Fury Is Completely Gone, and Crews Are Already Grading Sand Where Its Entrance Used to Be Universal Orlando

Poseidon's Fury Is Completely Gone, and Crews Are Already Grading Sand Where Its Entrance Used to Be

The show building that held Poseidon's Fury has been demolished at Universal Islands of Adventure, leaving a few piles of rubble and a freshly graded sand pad where the entrance and courtyard stood. The Treasures of Poseidon gift shop and the first aid station in The Lost Continent are expected to follow. Universal still has not said what is replacing The Lost Continent.

August 20, 2026 News
Mickey's Not-So-Scary Halloween Party Has Sold Out 16 Nights, and Only Three August Dates Are Left Disney World

Mickey's Not-So-Scary Halloween Party Has Sold Out 16 Nights, and Only Three August Dates Are Left

Three more nights are off the calendar: August 23, October 8 and October 15, taking the 2026 total to sixteen nights gone out of 38. Two of those three were still on sale on Tuesday morning. August is down to the 25th, 28th and 30th, remaining nights run $144 to $224, and WDWmagic says the season is now moving faster than 2025, which sold out completely on September 24.

August 20, 2026 News
Universal Set Dark Arts at Hogwarts Castle to Start September 5, Nine Days Earlier Than the Show's 2019 Debut Date Universal Orlando

Universal Set Dark Arts at Hogwarts Castle to Start September 5, Nine Days Earlier Than the Show's 2019 Debut Date

Universal Orlando dated its Dark Arts season on Wednesday: the Hogwarts Castle projection show runs select dates September 5 through November 1 at Islands of Adventure, and Death Eaters roam Diagon Alley at Universal Studios Florida on select dates August 27 through November 1. The castle show has opened in mid-September every year we can document, including its September 14 debut in 2019. The Diagon Alley window matches Halloween Horror Nights 35 exactly, and Universal did not say whether an event ticket is required.

August 20, 2026 News
Pirate River Quest Has Sat on Legoland Florida's Closure List for More Than a Year With No Reopening Date, and Three More Went Dark Monday Legoland Florida

Pirate River Quest Has Sat on Legoland Florida's Closure List for More Than a Year With No Reopening Date, and Three More Went Dark Monday

Legoland Florida's temporary closures page lists seven things shut right now, and three of them carry no end date at all: Pirate River Quest, The LEGOLAND Story and the Minifigure Trading Wall. Archived copies show the boat ride has been on the list since at least September last year, when Legoland's own page dated the closure to August 4, 2025. Four more closures carry dates, three of them starting Monday, including The Great LEGO Race and the full closure of Imagination Zone. One of those four, Deli Takeover, is still listed as a lunch option on the park's new prepaid Dining Packages.

August 19, 2026 News