Bitesize Orlando January 2024 – Issue 31

Welcome to 2024, I hope you all had a great new year. With another new year upon us, theme park operators are looking to the future to keep us coming back and I have some exciting rumours along with confirmed plans and a HUGE drop from Universal Creative we have all been waiting for to share with you all to kick off this brand new year in my Bitesize Orlando January 2024 edition.

As I shared in my December update, I have been hard at work updating all my crowd calendar pages for the next 12 months and they are all fully updated for 2024. Each page now has monthly calendars built into the page so they should be searchable, unlike last year. I have also made handy one-page downloads for each park so you can view at your leisure. All parks are now live so just head over to my theme park crowd calendars page and choose your park.

This month my attention will be back to updating my holiday planning guide so I can get some sections live for you to view but now that Universal Epic Universe has been officially announced I want to get an overview page ready for you if you are starting to make plans for your 2025 holiday. Hopefully, I can get the bare bones of an overview page live before the month’s end.

January the 9th was the day! The day that some big changes went live at Disney World.

Starting January 9th you now no longer need a park reservation to enter Disney World’s theme parks (hooray!) One of Disney’s most hated COVID hangovers has finally moved aside (for the vast majority of visitors, but not everyone). Annual pass holders still need to make park reservations as do some other groups like group school outings but standard UK ticket holders are classed as date-based tickets (you have to pick your start date when booking your tickets online) so they are now exempt from park reservations.

Also relaxed on the same day is the hated 2 pm park hopping requirement. You can now park hop whenever you wish and there is no initial reservation there is no longer a requirement to visit your chosen park before you park hop (unless you are an annual pass holder).

These changes have also brought about some changes to Disney’s Virtual Queue system, which is still in place for Tron: Lightcycle Run in Magic Kingdom and Guardians Of The Galaxy: Cosmic Rewind in EPCOT.

You can only have one virtual queue place at a time meaning it’s impossible to book a spot on both attractions when the queue opens at 7 am. If you are lucky enough to get a morning boarding group for Tron and want to head over to EPCOT to ride Guardians in the afternoon, you can join the 1 pm virtual queue for that ride or vice versa. The rule that you don’t have to be in the park to book your 7 am virtual space remains as does the 1 pm rule that you must first be in the park before you can join a virtual queue.

If you are planning on park hopping you now don’t need to wait until 2 pm to book lightning lane passes at your second park. This will likely affect return wait times as people look to book their favourite attractions meaning the most popular rides will also fill up quicker.

Country Bear Jamboree in Magic Kingdom is now closed as Disney works to update the animatronic musical show to include brand new interpretations of classic Disney tunes in various styles ranging from Bluegrass and Pop-Country to Americana and Rockabilly.

When the bears return in the summer, the new show will be called Country Bear Musical Jamboree. Have a peek at a behind-the-scenes recording session I have embedded below which Disney showed to guests at the D23 fan convention late last year.

Disney also teased that more changes will be announced for Frontierland soon, hinting at the possible rumour that Pecos Bill Tall Tale Inn & Cafe could be rethemed to The Princess and the Frog ahead of Tiana’s Bayou Adventure opening later this year. Imagineers were spotted in the area last year and the quality and value of the food has taken a nosedive from its peak, usually a sign that Disney are looking at doing something with the space.

Disney has already opened Tiana’s Palace Eatery in Disneyland ahead of its opening of Tiana’s Bayou Adventure later this year. Could this be the start of a mini Princess and the Frog area within Frontierland? Possibly.

Disney, Universal and other park operators are in the middle of their winter attraction refurbishment schedule which usually sees the majority of water attractions close at some point from early January through to March for annual maintenance.

They do this during a traditionally quieter time of the year to impact the least amount of guests as possible. While it’s always disappointing to find an attraction closed, maintenance is very important to keeping attractions running in the long run. This is especially true of water attractions which can require a lot of maintenance.

Kali River Rapids at Disney’s Animal Kingdom closed for its winter refurbishment on the 8th of January but at the time Disney kept a reopening date to themselves, likely until they knew what would need to be done with the attraction. The reopening date has now been set at March 16th, a full 2 months after it closed. If you are visiting around the time it’s reopening and want to ride the attraction make sure you plan the reopening date into your schedule.

Over in Hollywood Studios, the walk-through historical exhibition “Walt Disney Presents” will be closing for refurbishment from the 12th of February until March 1st.

It’s not the most popular attraction in this area of the park but it is a wonderful retrospective look at the history of Disney and has some wonderful artefacts and models for you to look at. It’s great to see Disney is looking at keeping this around for the time being.

Starting on the 24th of January Disney expanded “Capture Your Moment” photo sessions to Star Wars; Galaxy’s Edge in Dinsey’s Hollywood Studios theme park.

“Capture Your Moment” is already active in all 4 of Disney’s theme parks but only in Toy Story Land in Hollywood Studios, until now. During Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge’s 20-minute photo session your group will have photos taken by a Disney PhotoPass photographer in several locations within Galaxy’s Edge including the Millennium Falcon, First Order Shuttle, Batuuan Ruins, Black Spire Outpost Market and others.

Each 20-minute session costs $99 plus tax and can be booked in the My Disney Experience app. Longer photo sessions can be booked in 20-minute blocks each at another $99. Photos are not included but visitors with the Memory Maker addon will be able to download the photos at no extra cost. All official UK-bought multi-day tickets include Memory Maker as standard. One-day tickets purchased either directly using a VPN or through a third party will need Memory Maker added on. Like other up-charge experiences, “Capture Your Moment” can be booked up to 60 days in advance of your visit.

If you like to get your Disney fix at home, or you want to relive some of that holiday magic on your return, the guys at WDWMagic put some time in on the ground during its opening week to film EPCOT’s rousing new fireworks extravaganza ‘Luminous – Symphony Of Us’ from multiple angles in 4K definition. I have embedded the video below if you can’t wait to get your Disney fix.

Just a few hours before my deadline to publish this article, Universal Creative dropped a HUGE video online that gives us our first official look at Epic Universe.

It’s also the first time we have seen anything confirmed by them since announcing the park way back in 2019.

The 7-minute+ video takes us literally through the front gate, the portal to Epic Universe using some amazing pre-visualisation animation mixed in with interviews from some of the top tier of Universal Creative talent that have been spearheading the project.

If you haven’t heard about Epic Universe this video is going to blow your mind about what you will be able to see and do in Universal Orlando from Summer 2025. If you have been following the progress of construction like I have you will still be blown away. This is how you begin launching a new theme park.

Hopefully, this will be the first in a series of videos released by Universal with each new video focussing on one of the 5 amazing-looking lands. This video is based around Celestial Park, the central hub of Epic Universe. There are 4 more amazing lands to explore but for now, I will leave you with the amazing “Introducing Universal Epic Universe” video courtesy of Universal Creative.

Piggybacking off the Epic Universe Official reveal, Universal Orlando officially confirmed that the Universal Legacy Store closed permanently on January 7th to make way for a new experience which will soon be an interactive preview of Epic Universe.

With the lack of official information, file this one under rumours for the moment, but there is growing internet sentiment that Hollywood Rip, Ride Rockit could close permanently soon. A possible replacement could be a brand new roller coaster similar to “Hollywood Drift” that is currently under construction in Universal Studios Hollywood.

This is the kind of rumour I would love to come true. If you have read my article on the best and worst rollercoasters in Orlando, you know I really don’t like Hollywood Rip, Ride, Rockit. To me, it has always seemed as though Universal shoehorned a thrill attraction into an impossibly tight amount of space without careful consideration of what the ride experience would be like. As I mentioned in the article, there is so much going on in Hollywood Rip, Ride, Rockit in such a short space of time it’s one of the most painful, nauseating and downright unpleasant roller coasters you can ride. Given more space between the elements it could actually be a very good roller coaster but as it stands it’s just painful.

The soundstages that lie just beyond the ride in the closed-off section of the park are no longer as busy with filming as they were when the ride was built. Some of them are home to Halloween Horror Night houses which remain in situ most of the year. Surely there is so much more Universal could so with this space now filming at Universal Studios Florida has all but halted?

Hopefully, if this rumour is true we could perhaps even see the new Minions area creep into this former off-limits production facility which could be anchored by a new Minions roller coaster.

Universal executives aren’t done yet with the Studios as another rumour regarding a long-dormant area at the other end of the park in the World Expo section has surfaced once again.

Tucked away between Men In Black and what is now the Wizarding World Of Harry Potter – Diagon Alley (formerly Jaws/Amityville) you will find a covered outdoor theatre, the former home of Fear Factor Live (remember that show!) and before that, The Wild Wild West Stunt Show, a hilarious stunt show with gags, one-liners, slapstick comedy, fire, fights and high falls. It was one of the best stunt shows in Orlando.

Fear Factor Live took over from The Wild Wild West Stunt Show in 2010 and ran until a fateful day in March 2020 when the world shut down. To be honest Fear Factor Live was already on borrowed time; the TV show had long finished and interest in the live show experience was dwindling.

Universal announced in 2021 that the live show had been permanently retired. In the intervening years, the stage has had a couple of close shaves with the wrecking ball but it has persisted, seasonally playing host to Halloween Horror Nights live show, Nightmare Fuel, which concluded its run with last year’s Halloween Horror Nights event.

Once again, theme park follower Screamscape reports that he has heard from internal sources that the stage is once again set for demolition perhaps even as quickly as this March or April to make way for something new.

Its proximity to the Wizarding World and the popularity of that particular area may lead you to think that an expansion could be in the works but Universal are already in the middle of building another Wizarding World as part of their new theme park Epic Universe which is slated to open in summer 2025.

With Epic Universe now so far along in construction, an expansion of an existing area could dilute the audience and alienate Universal visitors who are not interested in the IP (muggles do exist!)

Instead, Lance, owner of Screamscape hints that what he has heard could be coming will be something completely new to Universal Studios Florida and nothing to do with either Harry Potter or Men In Black, the two areas/attractions that bookend the theme park with World Expo area that the stage currently resides.

One thing that regular visitors may not realise is the amount of backstage land Universal has to work with behind Men In Black and the Fear Factor Stage. Epic Universe’s backstage area matches that of the footprint of the park at over 100 acres. Universal could conceivably move some backstage operations from Universal Studios to the new site to free up much-needed land in the North Campus and create an entirely new land, not just one attraction. I’m just blue sky thinking here but it’s exciting what Universal could cook up for this far under-utilised area of the park.

Don’t forget that Universal signed a deal for theme park rights with the Pokemon Company so could we finally see the first physical fruits of this tie-in at Universal Studios Florida? They also have a deal with Nintendo. Nintendo has a vast catalogue of intellectual properties that would work brilliantly in a theme park setting. Mario and Donkey Kong are already either open or under construction in multiple locations. Lance quite rightly points to two other massive properties, Metroid Prime and Zelda that would translate well to theme parks and already bring in huge fan bases.

Yet another rumour gaining traction is that Universal could soon wave goodbye to the Simpsons.

Universal doesn’t own the rights to the Simpsons (nor Harry Potter or Spiderman for that matter plus countless others) but licences their use for attractions within its theme parks.

The Simpsons is now owned by long-time rival Disney (who also now owns the rights to Spiderman). This creates a complicated licensing structure for both companies who want to use their IP in their theme parks to maximise the return on their investment. The relationship between Universal and Disney is a complicated legal entanglement. It’s one reason you won’t find a Spiderman attraction in Disney World but you can in Disneyland. How come Disney can do Guardians Of The Galaxy you may be thinking especially if they can’t use other Marvel characters? I told you it was complicated.

Over the years Universal has licensed many properties for use in its theme parks including Harry Potter (owned by Warner Brothers) after sneaking in with a bid undercutting Disney who had been courting writer J K Rowing for months and thought they had a done deal.

Universal brought The Simpsons to Universal Studios parks on East and West US coasts in 2008 replacing the popular Back To The Future opening day attraction at both parks. The licensing deal pre-dates Disney’s takeover of 20th Century Fox Television in perpetuity as long as Universal meet certain conditions. The deal with The Simpsons is set to be renewed in 2028.

As long as Universal meets certain legal conditions as they have to with Marvel they could carry on using the characters but there are signs that Universal could be looking to refresh this area of the park perhaps even before the official licence runs out.

The main attraction hasn’t been updated or repaired in months and is now beginning to show its age. Theme park news website Theme Park Tourist shared that a now-deleted social media post stated that Universal has stopped new hires for the attraction, diverting them instead to other areas of the park. This backs up a separate article on Orlando Park Stop that claims Universal could be looking at shuttering the attraction as early as later this year.

I for one would love to see something different in this area of the park. I’ve never found the Simpsons all that entertaining or funny and the attraction was far superior as Back To The Future in my opinion. As much as I love the ride system, Universal Creative could do so much more by starting from scratch not relying on yet another reskin of 30+ year-old technology (and certainly not cloning the Spiderman ride system yet again.

Alicia in Orlando Park Stop goes one further in the article above and suggests we could be seeing Pokemon replacing the Simpsons, Zelda taking over what remains of Lost Continent in Islands Of Adventure and Luigi’s Mansion in Epic Universe. Now that’s certainly something to get excited about if it proves true!

Just as I reported last month on the back of Seaworld filing for their first official hotel, a project codenamed Project Starboard, if approved will add a 504-room hotel to the back of the main Seaworld Park with guests being able to access the theme park directly from the hotel by a new path that will be constructed near the Nautilus theatre.

Now Seaworld has filed plans for its second hotel, Project Canopy, a smaller boutique hotel connected to Discovery Cove. The plans confirm a far smaller property at only 250 rooms.

Scouring the official 71-page filing it looks as though the hotel will take over much of the current Discovery Cove car park and adjoining staff car park. To make up for the considerable loss of land here a separate car park is also part of the filing to the west of Discovery Cove, this will likely be a new staff parking area as there are no plans to alter the entrance to Discovery Cove. Part of the existing car park will remain for day guests with much of the new hotel car park taking over an existing undeveloped boundary area. The satellite overlay of the work area below should let you visualise this a lot better.

The hotel will be 6 floors tall compared to Starboard’s 15 floors. All the usual hotel amenities will also be present including an outdoor pool area surrounded on 3 sides by the hotel, a small spa complex with several treatment rooms and a small conference centre. The focus of this hotel is comfort with plenty of suites and bungalows for reservations.

I will be following the progress of both Seaworld’s hole plans closely and will keep you up to date with progress and planning decisions as the months go by.

2024 marks 5 years since Seaworld opened Sesame Street Land in Orlando. To celebrate they have plenty of activities and special celebrations for visitors to take part in from now until Spring.

Mr Snuffleupagus AKA Snuffy is Big Bird’s best friend but in the early days of the popular children’s TV series, the adults didn’t believe he was real because he was hardly ever seen aside from popping up in a 1985 episode. Seaworld has brought Mr Snuffy to meet everyone for a very limited time, limited as in you have until THIS Sunday! The full list of Sesame Street celebrations is:

• Just for Kids Weekend: Jan. 27-28, 2024
• Sesame Street Land’s 5th Birthday: Jan. 27 – Apr. 28, 2024
• Elmo’s Birthday Celebration: Jan. 29 – Feb. 4, 2024

If you aren’t in Seaworld this week you will also have to opportunity to meet other rare Sesame Street characters as part of Sesame Street Land’s 5th anniversary between now and mid-March. The full list of characters and dates are:

• Mr. Snuffleupagus: Jan. 27 – Feb. 4, 2024
• Murray: Feb. 10-11 and 17-18, 2024
• Baby Bear: Feb. 24-25, 2024 and Mar. 2-3, 2024
• Honker and Dinger: Mar. 9-10 and 16-17, 2024

Seaworld also has a limited upcharge character breakfast at Seafire Grille available every Saturday at 9 am until April 28th. Prices start at $35 per adult and $20 per child (ages 3-9) and include a photograph.

Literacy has been a big part of Sesame Street and Seaworld has extended reading time to the park with the opportunity to listen to Big Bird read a story at his nest.

This forthcoming week guests will also have the opportunity to take part in a scavenger hunt as well as join in a dance party.

That’s it for another month. Plenty of developments for you to digest. Thanks for staying with me and I’ll see you next month.