Before Tiana's Bayou Adventure replaced Splash Mountain, Imagineers for The Walt Disney Company were busy planning a backstory for the ride deeply interconnected with Tabasco hot sauce and Avery Island where it is made. Now, Disney is ending Tabasco packets at Walt...
Walt Disney World is in the middle of an unprecedented operational meltdown. A massive power surge has taken out rides and transportation across the resort, with reports confirming that more than 40 attractions are currently down. Even the iconic Monorail system is suspended, leaving guests stranded in long lines outside Magic Kingdom and scrambling to find alternate transportation.
SO…as you’ve no doubt heard by now, the new Six Flags (post-merger with Cedar Fair) has had management shuffles and financial losses and is in the process of combining, re-organizing, and, inevitably, closing some of their parks where the two brands basically “over-serve” a given region of the country. All that was to be expected.
But what’s come out that I find fascinating is something that wasn’t popularly noted in news coverage, at least what I saw, but IS being mentioned as almost an afterthought now when it should be the leading fact in many of these closure stories.
Disneyland Abu Dhabi has been making global headlines ever since Bob Iger announced it as Disney’s first park in the Middle East alongside the Miral company. But behind the glittering promise of a new Disney destination lies a reality that many fans may find startling: this isn’t really Disney’s project.
According to a deeply reported piece by Caroline Reid at Forbes, Abu Dhabi’s Miral is firmly in the driver’s seat.
On August 21, 2025 Disney made the announcement for the opening date of Zootopia: Better Zoogether at the Tree of Life Theater. The new 4D Experience will open on Friday, November 7th, 2025.
While they have not been announced yet, there will likely be cast member and annual passholder previews of the show prior to it’s public debut. While the original Zootopia is now nine years old, this opening date, similar to it’s predecessor, sees it’s debut prior to the release of Zootopia 2, which hits theaters on November 26th.
Walt Disney Imagineering has brought back Imagineer That!, a short-form educational video series originally produced for the Disney Channel. The revived version features the return of Tom Morrow 2.0, a character introduced in the early 2000s as a host and mascot at EPCOT’s Innoventions. The new series debuted on the official Walt Disney Imagineering YouTube channel on August 24, 2025.
Now, in a shift that has been years in the making, Disney appears to be phasing out MagicBands in favor of the company’s phone-centric MagicMobile system. The change hasn’t gone unnoticed, and for many longtime guests, it signals the end of a tangible era of convenience in exchange for one more digital screen added onto your Disney Day.
Universal Orlando Resort has expanded its Express Pass offering at Epic Universe to include two major attractions that had previously been excluded. As of August 22, 2025, Mine‑Cart Madness in Super Nintendo World and Harry Potter and the Battle at the Ministry in The Wizarding World of Harry Potter are now eligible for Express Pass use.
Halloween at Universal Orlando is known for big scares, elaborate sets, and headline-grabbing houses. But this year’s most extreme Halloween Horror Nights addition, based on the cult slasher Terrifier, made headlines on its very first preview night for all the wrong reasons.
Matt Ouimet, former CEO of Cedar Fair and former president of Disneyland, has openly expressed dissatisfaction with the direction Six Flags has taken since its merger with Cedar Fair in 2024. Ouimet served as Cedar Fair’s CEO from 2012 to 2017 and held various senior roles at Disney from 1989 to 2006, including president of Disneyland and Disney Cruise Line.
It’s looking increasingly likely that September 2025 will deliver the lightest Walt Disney World (WDW) crowds since the post-reopening doldrums of 2021. Several hard signals point the same way: multi-month wait-time trends, aggressive late-summer discounts, school calendars, hurricane-season risk, and new competition across town. Put together, they suggest a “Slowtember” that could rival any month since the pandemic period.
Universal Orlando Resort has announced the return of Volcano Bay Nights, a limited-capacity, after-hours event at its Volcano Bay water theme park. The event will be held each Friday from September 5 through October 31, 2025, and features access to select attractions, food and beverage offerings, and live entertainment.
A recent report confirmed that Ben & Jerry’s co-founder Ben Cohen was involved in placing a message about the Hiroshima atomic bombing inside the “It’s a Small World” attraction at Disneyland in Anaheim, California. The message took the form of a handmade doll holding a small sign that read “Remember Hiroshima.”