Bitesize Orlando October 2025 – Issue 52

Welcome to another monthly catch-up of what’s been happening in and around Orlando over the last few weeks. Bitesize Orlando October 2025 has some important attractions and logistical information for your 2026 visits, as parks continue to update their offerings while looking at minimising costs. First, a quick update on what’s been happening behind the scenes here.

I spent the first week of October finally getting a refurbishment calendar live, which has been up now for a couple of weeks. Head on over to my new Refurbishment Calendar page to find out what refurbishments or closures you will face on your next trip. I try to list all official hotel and attraction refurbishments for Legoland Florida, Universal Orlando and Disney World, plus attraction refurbishments for SeaWorld, Busch Gardens. I have also included permanent attraction closures from August 2025, but not before. You will be able to view the next 18 months of scheduled closures at any given time.

Last month, I announced that I was working on a new guide, which is going very well. I will be spending most of my time on it now until I can get it published. Magic Kingdom and EPCOT sections are finished, Hollywood Studios is coming along nicely. Just Animal Kingdom is left of the theme parks before I move on to the final 4 chapters, helping you to plan your trip smarter. I still hope to have this guide ready around the end of the year, hopefully before if possible.

We may still not know when the original version of Rock ‘N’ Roller Coaster starring Aerosmith will be closing, but we do now know when the new version of the attraction will be opening!

The Muppets takeover of Rock ‘N’ Roller Coaster will open in Summer 2026, meaning anywhere probably from Late June through August, as summer in Orlando peaks in July with US school holidays.

We also know that Disney is working on a Scooter animatronic, presumably in the pre-show area, as the band’s manager, along with penguin audio engineers. You can see a pre-visualisation of the scene in the header image above for this month’s article.

As soon as more information is shared, you will find it here, but for now, here is a look at the new poster released by Disney earlier this month.

As is usual every October, Disney World has seen a slew of price rises over the month, including, but not limited to, parking, Lightning Lanes, entrance fees and premium experiences.

First up, single-day park entrance tickets start at $119 for Animal Kingdom, up to $139 for Magic Kingdom (most days will be more than this, though). Our tickets in the UK are only for 7 or 14 days, and Disney heavily discounts them, bringing the average cost of visiting down to a more reasonable £50 per day for the 14-day ticket. Even if you’re not visiting for the full ticket duration, our UK tickets still offer much better value for the vast majority of visitors wanting to stay for 3 days or more. Don’t even waste your time holding out for discounts on US tickets, because single-day tickets are now rarely discounted.

Next, a price rise that we will find hard to swallow. Lightning Lane Multi Pass prices have seen a $4-$6 price increase across the board.

• Magic Kingdom – maximum $45 (up from $39)
• Disney’s Hollywood Studios – maximum now $39 (up from $35)
• EPCOT – previous maximum $37 (up from $32)
• Disney’s Animal Kingdom – maximum now $35 (up from $29)

Single Passes, for the most popular attractions in each park, have also seen more modest increases of between $1 and $3

• Seven Dwarfs Mine Train – now $15 (a $1 increase)
• TRON Lightcycle Run – now $23 (another $1 increase)
• Guardians of the Galaxy: Cosmic Rewind – now $22 (a $3 increase for EPCOT’s most popular attraction)
• Avatar Flight of Passage – now $19 (another modest $1 increase)
• Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance – no change at $25

Other changes that won’t affect the majority of UK visitors include a $20 minimum increase in annual passes and between $5 to $50 increases for all premium experiences such as behind-the-scenes tours, lightsaber and droid building experiences and fireworks cruises.

Interestingly, Premier Lightning Lane passes have seen no increase in maximum costs and stay at the same levels as 2024:

• Magic Kingdom: $449
• EPCOT: $249
• Disney’s Hollywood Studios: $349
• Disney’s Animal Kingdom: $199

Another perk, very popular with US visitors but not so much here because of all the barriers Disney put in place for international arrivals, has also seen the axe this month.

Discounted Magic Bands are now no more after the $10 discounted limited range has been axed. Magic Bands can still be purchased, but at their full price.

UK and other overseas territories visitors haven’t been able to pre-order discounted Magic Bands for years, even if trying to select pickup from your resort on arrival, but a few visitors did like to buy discounted bands from the US Disney store for pickup from their resorts on arrival. If you want a Magic Band, you’re more than welcome to pay full price, but they certainly aren’t needed to enjoy your stay.

If you are visiting in November, be aware that Mickey’s PhilharMagic will be closed for a lengthy refurbishment beginning tomorrow, before reopening before the busy Thanksgiving break. Rumours suggest that, as well as visual enhancements, the theatre will be receiving all-new seating.

The refurb is already part of my refurbishment calendar. Be sure to bookmark that page so you don’t miss any important attraction refurbishments on your visit.

After an overwhelmingly positive response to the same treatment of the original attraction in Paris, Disney has announced a short refurbishment for Remy’s Ratatouille Adventure in EPCOT.

The attraction will be closed between the 10th and 13th of November, but will reopen with enhanced 2D digital imagery and more physical props to help blend in the screens now that visitors’ peripheral vision won’t be blocked by the cumbersome 3D glasses.

After the not-so-good news, I have some great news to share, especially for fans of Frozen! Ahead of the attraction’s 10th anniversary this coming summer, Disney’s original Frozen attraction will be closing for a refurbishment that will bring enhanced animatronics.

When Frozen opened in 2016, the audio animatronics were groundbreaking, but 10 years is a long time, and Disney wants to “plus” the attraction for its 10th anniversary, taking inspiration from figures seen in the World of Frozen attraction in Hong Kong.

No closure or reopening dates have currently been shared, but, being a water attraction, you can bet Disney will take the downtime as an opportunity to also do some basic maintenance of the attraction itself. The attraction will likely close after the busy winter period, possibly as early as the second week of January, taking advantage of the cooler temperatures and lower demand.

While much of the work can be done off-site, we should still expect the refurbishment to take at least a few weeks once it starts. As soon as the dates are confirmed, you’ll find them on my refurbishment calendar.

Celebrating the United States’ 250th anniversary, Disney has announced a new version of Soarin’, taking flight at both California Adventure and EPCOT in summer 2026.

Soarin’ is known for breathtaking visuals, scents and its emotive score. Disney is currently hard at work capturing more than a dozen breathtaking locations for the new version. Check out the announcement below.

Universal has quietly begun testing single-use Express Passes, perhaps with a view to rolling out the scheme to more attractions across the resort.

The new passes are currently only available for Revenge Of The Mummy in Universal Studios and Skull Island: Reign Of Kong in Islands Of Adventure. Both are decent attractions, but hardly worthy of the steep cost attached to the single-use passes, currently set at $25 per ride.

When comparing that to the cost of the current 1-park Express Pass, which ranges between $120 and $360 depending on the day, the single-use Express Passes could become a compelling option for visitors to choose.

Universal won’t want to cannibalise sales for the full Express Pass but rather keep single express passes at a higher premium cost, filling in capacity gaps and increasing their bottom line while also offering guests something that has been requested for years.

Busch Gardens shook the proverbial tree earlier this month with a sudden announcement that it was to end its long-term deal with Mears to provide free return shuttle transport from Orlando to the theme park.

In an email response to a deluge of disgruntled ticket holders, Busch Gardens cited changing guest behaviours and a reallocation of resources to make other areas of the Busch Gardens experience.

“This decision was made after a review of our operations and guest services, allowing us to focus resources on enhancing other areas of the Busch Gardens experience.

While there are no current plans to reinstate the shuttle, we are always evaluating opportunities to make visits more convenient.”

Originally scheduled to end on November 3rd, barely a month after the original announcement, guest dissatisfaction must have been swift and direct, as the booking page now lists availability up until February 1st.

The free shuttle may have had a stay of execution, but the message Busch Gardens is sending is loud and clear. If you are visiting next year, you definitely need to think about the logistics of getting to and from the park if you don’t want to drive and pay the $35 parking charge.

Beginning November 8th and running on select nights between 6 pm and 10 pm until January 31st 2026, Aquatica, SeaWorld’s water park, will debut a brand new nighttime experience: Illuminate – A Lantern Festival.

The new nighttime experience adds five immersive realms filled with larger-than-life lanterns, immersive surprises including dynamic sounds and captivating scents and festive culinary delights. The 5 realms are:

• AquaLuma
• Candy Cascade Falls
• Enchanted Lagoon
• Myst Wood Waters
• Rivers of Discovery

The event will run typically on Friday, Saturday and Sunday evenings with a scattering of midweek dates. The full list of event dates is:

• November: 8th, 9th, 15th, 16th, 21st, 22nd, 23rd, 25th, 26th, 28th, 29th, 30th
• December: 5th-7th, 12th-14th, 19th-21st, 26th-31st
• January: 1st-4th, 9th-11th, 16th-18th, 23rd-25th, 30th & 31st

The focus on this event is solely on dry land, and the slides and pools in Aquatica will not be open. More information and prices can be found on the events page of the Aquatica website.

As the busiest airport in Florida and one of the busiest airports in the continental US, Orlando International Airport (MCO) is many visitors gateway into the United States.

Over the next decade, Orlando International Airport will transform all areas of the airport with an aim to drive economic growth, enhance the customer experience, and innovate on the airport experience. MCO is looking to partly become a destination in itself.

Of note for visitors, the modernisation program will bring biometrics, including facial recognition technology, to all parts of the airport experience, streamlining processes and speeding up our journey through the airport.

By 2035, Terminal C will have completed a phase 2 expansion and all terminals will be reclassified as Terminals 1, 2 and 3 to improve clarity and consistency.

By 2030, they aim to have a fully functional FAA-approved on-airport AAM vertiport, an area dedicated to multiple operators of small vertical takeoff and landing vehicles that are seen as the future of air mobility over shorter distances.

The informative video below outlines many of these changes, but the highlights are:

• Enhanced flight information systems and way navigation for real-time updates
• Facial recognition to streamline customers’ journeys
• The introduction of autonomous wheelchair technology
• Personalised retail areas
• New dedicated lounges and calming spaces to take a break or work before your flight
• Immersive family play areas featuring virtual and augmented reality technologies.
• Re-imagined dining and concession spaces
• Smart, modern restrooms

Check out the video below for all the details.

For an airport that will break the 60 million annual passengers ceiling in the next couple of years, this investment has been a long time coming., Orlando International hasn’t been providing the welcoming, next-level introduction that visitors deserve for many years. The airport is crowded, too crowded; its current customer offering is subpar considering the number of passengers it serves. Unfortunately, we will have a few more years of growing pains before we start to see the real benefit of this investment, but it will be worth it.

The long, drawn-out build of the new Blue Man group theatre is heading in the right direction after months of delays and planning niggles. Now we know the new theatre on the Universal Boulevard side of ICON Park will be joined by a brand new immersive art installation called Arte Museum in 2027.

A bespoke 30,000 square foot building is expected to break ground in the coming weeks. When it opens, it will feature multiple galleries with installations designed for a Central Florida audience, including illuminated skies, serene forests and towering waterfalls, created using projection mapping, immersive soundscapes and bespoke scents. It will invite visitors to slow down and connect with nature in new ways.

As of last month, the other 8 Arte Museum locations around the globe have welcomed over 10 million visitors.

Thanks for reading. That’s it for this month. I hope you’ve had a great Halloween and you’re ready for Christmas. The parks will be decked out in their finest in a couple of days! See you next month.