The parks handed us a genuinely busy Sunday!
Start with the good news, because there is some. Disneyland is finally tearing up its last piece of pandemic-era paperwork. Beginning this Tuesday, June 9, the resort permanently kills the 11 a.m. park-hopping restriction, the rule that has made you wait until lunchtime to bounce between Disneyland and California Adventure for more than six years. As of Tuesday you hop whenever you want, all day. The last visible relic of 2020 is going in the bin, and honestly, good riddance.
Now the ride that ruined a lot of Saturdays. Despite some scary-sounding headlines, "it's a small world" at Magic Kingdom is not closing. What actually happened: the boat ride opened normally on June 6, went down around 11 a.m., and sat "temporarily closed" until about 8 p.m., nearly ten hours, before coming back. An unplanned outage, not a farewell. If small world was on your must-do list that day, you have my sympathies, but the happiest cruise is sailing again.
EPCOT, meanwhile, is shifting in tiny ways longtime fans will clock immediately. Club Cool quietly pulled two international soda flavors, Royal Wattamelon from the Philippines and Country Club Merengue from the Dominican Republic. Those famous World Showcase trash cans everyone treats as tables are being swapped for new solar-powered bins, working clockwise around the promenade. And the PLAY Pavilion flag finally came down at the front entrance, replaced by a generic EPCOT logo, with that long-stalled project now staring down a D23 in August. Read into that what you will.
Over at Universal, the future keeps eating the past. As of today, the last visible pieces of Lost Continent, one of Islands of Adventure's original 1999 lands, are vanishing behind walls and demolition prep. The trade-off: Toon Lagoon's Me Ship, The Olive wraps its long refurb on June 9, and over at Universal Studios Florida the Fast and Furious: Hollywood Drift coaster is taking real shape, spike element and speed hill and all. The gap between the two Orlando resorts keeps closing.
Construction and resort watch. The Polynesian hit a milestone on its new arrival experience, a reworked bus and vehicle hub meant to unclog those brutal morning and evening bottlenecks, though plenty of other work there is still ramping up. The Contemporary's exterior refurb has roughly doubled in scope since April. And a fresh Disney patent, filed by a lead Imagineer on the Animal Kingdom Indiana Jones ride, describes a deployable projection surface that could pull off a never-before-seen tornado effect. File that under promising.
For planners, a couple of useful ones. Teachers and educators from the US and Canada can now save up to 25 percent at seven Disney Springs hotels on stays through early September, book by August 31. Starbucks made five of its limited-time flavors permanent, still no pumpkin spice on the list, which is its own kind of crime. And Disney Food Blog counted 27 Disney World restaurants that changed menus this week, with the bigger headline being Harryhausen's, the restaurant headed to the new Monstropolis land at Hollywood Studios.
On the screen side, Toy Story 5 is absolutely everywhere. New meet and greets debuted at California Adventure with Woody, Bo, Buzz, and Jessie in fresh looks plus a brand new character named Lilypad, Virgin Australia wrapped a plane in a Toy Story 5 livery, and Tom Hanks and Tim Allen hit Jimmy Kimmel next week. Less cheerful for Star Wars fans: reports say Pedro Pascal is stepping away from The Mandalorian after a disappointing box office run.
With the country's 250th closing in, Disney leaned patriotic, sharing photos of past presidential park visits and sending Mickey to the National Archives to pose with the actual Declaration of Independence.
A few more worth a minute of your night. D23 added Paige O'Hara, the voice of Belle, to its Beauty and the Beast 35th anniversary screening in Chicago on June 27. WDWNT released the full video of its MuppetVision 3D farewell event, one year after the attraction closed at Hollywood Studios. Gideon's dropped a Strawberry Crunch Cake for summer, and the merch shelves filled up fast: Duffy and Friends at Aulani, a Donald Duck Her Universe collection at Disneyland, a LEGO Main Street mural, and a very on-brand Tow Mater workwear jacket.
That is where things stand tonight. See you at rope drop.