BItesize Orlando August 2024 – Issue 38

It’s been a busy month at my job so I haven’t been able to get as much done as I would have liked with the holiday guide rewrite but I have updated my complete guide to Universal’s Epic Universe with the now-confirmed details of what will be coming to the new Wizarding World land currently under construction in the United States newest and largest theme park when it opens in 2025.

This month’s Bitesize Orlando August 2024 catchup I have a bumper batch of Disney-related goodness for you direct from D23, the Disney fan convention which took place in early August. Without further delay let’s get onto the big announcements that have been years in the making.

Disney’s D23 fan convention didn’t disappoint with a lot of substantive details announced for what will be coming to Disney’s theme parks in Florida and all over the world over the next few years.

Nearly a decade on from the closure of the Main Street Electrical Parade which itself was ported from Disneyland to replace SpectroMagic, Disney is FINALLY listening to criticisms and bringing a brand new night time parade to Main Street USA.

“Disney Starlight” will debut sometime in the summer of 2025. Not a few years away. This time next year, we can finally enjoy a nighttime parade in Magic Kingdom. It’s been a long wait but technology is in a completely different era from when Main Street Electrical Parade and SpectroMagic were being designed so I have huge hopes for this particular announcement.

It’s not as big nor as sexy as other news you will be reading this month with all the money that Disney are dropping in their parks, but it is a lot more tangible. The bigger projects you are about to read about will take multiple years to come to life. I’ve really missed SpectroMagic since it was retired. For me, the music of SpectroMagic is as synonymous with a visit to the Magic Kingdom as the fireworks are.

Disney also knows they are going to have to nail Disney Starlight so I would bet a lot of time and effort has been going on behind the scenes to really give visitors a true worthy successor to SpectroMagic and I couldn’t be more excited for my 2025 visit.

The announcement of Disney Starlight was just a prelude to two huge confirmations for Magic Kingdom. The first perhaps a little more left field than the last and its certainly got fans divided but here goes. Magic Kingdom will be getting its very own section dedicated to the popular “Cars” franchise. The two attractions will be replacing what is currently the Rivers Of America and Tom Sawyer Island as an extension of Frontierland. That certainly is a lot of real estate for two attractions although the concept art Disney shared does look impressive. But Frontierland? That’s a bit of a stretch even for “Cars” enthusiasts. The two attractions in Disney’s California Adventure have their own dedicated land. The entrance is a little jarring but once inside you really can believe you are walking through an animation. Quite how Disney interweaves “Cars” into Frontierland in a believable cohesive way could be make or break for this area. I have no doubt the theming will be impeccable and this area of Magic Kingdom will be unrecognisable when Disney is done but it’s going to come down to the feel of it for a lot of fans.

This peaceful area at the back of the park makes perfect business sense. It’s an absolute nightmare to traverse especially around parade time and Tom Sawyer Island is largely ignored by anyone under, well, 40. I guess I’m showing my age there! BUT Disney is sometimes all about nostalgia. Tom Sawyer Island offered some true peace and tranquillity in the middle of one of the most crowded parcels of land on the planet. It is/was very photogenic and I will miss it to a degree but I totally understand that Disney feels a need to reinvigorate this area of the park, especially seeing as Tiana’s Bayou Adventure has just opened to massive crowds.

Now the not-so-good news. This is going to seriously curtail available land in this area possibly making trips to Big Thunder Mountain and Tina’s Bayou Adventure a headache-inducing process for the next few years while construction takes place. This area also acts as the start/end of the parade route making it practically a no-go area for an hour or more every afternoon and now evening following the announcement of “Disney Starlight”.

Disney has kept specifics under wraps for now but has said the headline attraction will feature a thrilling race through mountain trails and mud holes while avoiding erupting Geysers (Mater’s personal favourite). I’m excited about this announcement but I will reserve judgement until I manage to ride it.

An opening timeline hasn’t been shared but vague wording of five years for some projects puts the timeline of Disney Villains land at around 2029 or 2030 if Disney don’t drag their cranes on this one like they did with EPCOT’s “transformation”. Water permits have already been filed so the plan is in place which is hopeful but it’s still a long way off before we see Disney’s villains get the treatment they deserve in a Disney theme park.

Now for final confirmation of Disney’s “Blue Sky thinking” first teased at last year’s D23 event. The backstage area behind Big Thunder Mountain outside the berm of the original park boundary will be transformed into a land-based around popular Disney villains. This news garnered the biggest applause. It is something Dinsey fans have been clamouring for forever and will finally be happening at Magic Kingdom.

Popular Star Wars attraction “Millennium Falcon: Smugglers Run” will be receiving its first mission “upgrade” since the attraction opened. The new mission will be times to tie in with the new movie The Mandalorian Meets Grogu which is slated to hit movie theatres in America in May 2026.

We don’t yet know if the new mission will replace the current one, be integrated into It somehow or whether it could run alongside the current mission adding an unknown element to future rides. The popularity of The Mandalorian on Disney+ kinda made this a no-brainer for Disney and it’s nice to see them adding in some fan service along with pricier entry and now extortionate food and beverage prices throughout all theme parks, not just Disney.

Magic Kingdom isn’t the only park to be getting some love (and it isn’t the last). Disney’s Hollywood Studios will be receiving a brand new area themed around Monsters Inc. We don’t yet know what it will be replacing. The Muppets Courtyard area has been high on the chopping block for a while and rumours have been swirling about the fate of the expensive Indiana Jones Epic Stunt Spectacular Arena. We know Hollywood Studios won’t be getting an Indiana Jones theme attraction thanks to another announcement just below but the arena and backstage plot could be an ideal spot to place Monstropolis and it will help to break up crowds in the congested Toy Story and Star Wars areas by building another popular area and attraction on the opposite side of the park.

The new land will be anchored by another first for Disney; The first suspended roller coaster attraction in any Disney theme park Worldwide. It will be themed around the climactic “doors” chase sequence that saw Mike and Sully precariously dangling through the factory as doors went flying past. This sounds as though it is going to be one of the most heavily themed suspended roller coaster attractions ever attempted but if anyone can pull it off it will be Disney.

Other concept art for the area shows Mike walking around Monstropolis with visitors surrounding him. Monstropolis, and this attraction in particular will make Hollywood Studios even more popular potentially adding to Hollywood Studios’ capacity woes even though it could bump capacity marginally depending on what attraction and/or area it is going to replace.

We have known for a year now that Disney has been working on a replacement for the Tree Of Life 4D show currently based around “It’s Tough to Be A Bug”. The show, although impressive in execution has been criticised for not being popular enough with today’s young audience plus being a tad scary given the source material.

Disney announced last year that a new show based around Zootopia will replace “It’s Tough To Be A Bug” and now we know the name; “Zootopia: Better Together”.

The replacement makes perfect business sense and I think it is also a win for visitors. Zootopia is far more popular than “It’s Tough To Be A Bug ever was. From a business standpoint, Disney will shift a lot more Zootopia merchandise and visitors will get a show that resonates more, especially with the younger crowd that Animal Kingdom is aiming for. Check out the poster for the new show below.

First teased last year this Animal Kingdom “Blue Sky” idea is now confirmed! Tropical Americas featuring Encanto and Indiana Jones will be replacing the Dinoland USA area of Animal Kingdom. This could be the first of Disney World’s major projects to get underway with construction slated to begin in phases later this year.

As we bid farewell to the gaudy Dinorama and underestimated DINOSAUR we welcome brand new attractions and areas themed to “Encanto” including a real-life depiction of Casa Madrigal and a new fictional area, Pueblo Esperanza that pays homage to the central American roots of the areas and movie in which these fictional areas are based.

Animal Kingdom will welcome the first ride themed around “Encanto” plus an outdoor carousel. DINOSAUR will get re-themed to an Indiana Jones adventure, similar to what is already at Disneyland but using today’s more modern techniques and technology which is available to imagineers. This is the easiest win for Disney. DINOSAUR and Indiana Jones Adventure share an almost identical ride system and layout yet the two experiences are complete opposites of each other.

I’m not just talking about the source material either. Indiana Jones is one of the most popular and most recognised franchises in cinema history. DINOSAUR is a thinly veiled attempt at tying into an obscure late 90’s animation of the same name that hardly anybody cares about nor remembers.

Indiana Jones Adventure is a thrilling chase through an abandoned temple but much of DINOSAUR takes place in almost complete darkness instead relying on sharp changes in direction and jump scares throughout its almost identical circuitous route around the show building.

Universal surprised us towards the end of the month by dropping 2 videos dedicated to Epic Universe’s in-park Premier level hotel Helios Grand. I’ve embedded the fly-through video below for you to enjoy. For a more in-depth introduction to the hotel, my dedicated Epic Universe preview page will be updated soon with the full introduction video.

Labor Day this year will mark another milestone closure as Busch Gardens Tampa bids a permanent farewell to it current longest-running roller coaster, Scorpion. The now 44-year-old roller coaster is the last permanent example of a Schwarzkopf Silver Bullet model that originally opened at the park in 1980. It took the reigns of the oldest coaster at Busch Gardens with the closure of Python in 2006.

No new attractions have been announced by Busch Gardens but if the last few years are anything to go by we won’t have to wait long to find out. Announcements and builds on the last few attractions have been rapid although we’re getting a little late in the year possibly for a 2025 attraction opening but I could be wrong.

Legoland Florida is going big for this year’s Brick-or-Treat Halloween celebration. 2024’s event marks the first time that Merlin, the owner of Legoland and countless other parks is embarking on their own drone show.

During this year’s Brick-or-Treat celebration, the sky above Legoland Florida will be filled not only with fireworks in time to a rousing score but they will be joined by 500 drones in Legoland’s first foray into drone technology, a first for any Legoland park worldwide.

Remember-Brick-or-Treat won’t cost you any extra above your entrance ticket unlike Universal’s Halloween Horror Nights and Magic Kingdom’s Mickey’s Not So Scary Halloween Party (MNSSHP) which are both separately ticketed events.

Brick-or-Treat will run on September 13th, 14th, 21st and 28th and weekends during October.

That’s it for this month, thanks for reading. I’ll be back in 4 short weeks with another update.