Author: touringplans.com

Perhaps you know someone who has decorated for Halloween already. Perhaps you are that someone. Ready or not, spooky time is upon us. We’ve already seen tons of Halloween merchandise at Magic Kingdom that arrived over two weeks ago. And, we’ve already indulged in some of the Halloween treats at Magic Kingdom.

We found even more Halloween merchandise at EPCOT’s MouseGear, and a delightful collection of Hello Kitty Halloween merchandise at Mitsukoshi Department Store at the Japan Pavilion.

Up first, let’s look at what our team found at MouseGear.

• Disney Halloween Reversible Sequin Shirt for Women –  $34.99
• Minnie Mouse Halloween Reversible Sequins Shirt for Youth – $29.99
• Mickey Lil Pumpkin Onesie – $24.99
• Mickey and Friends Halloween 2020 Youth Shirt – $19.99
• Mickey and Friends Halloween 2020 Adult Shirt  – $24.99
• Pumpkin Mickey Halloween 2020 Adult Shirt – $24.99
• Disney Halloween Women’s Tank Top – $34.99
• Disney Pumpkin Leggings – $39.99
• Halloween Mickey Sweatshirt – $49.99
• Mickey Halloween Light-Up Bag – $19.99
• Disney Halloween Loungefly Backpack – $75.00
• Mickey Pumpkin Sequin Tote Bag – $24.99
• Disney Halloween Face Covering Masks – $6.00
• Disney Halloween Treats Pumpkin Candle – $19.99
• Mickey Pumpkin Candle Holder – $29.99
• Pumpkin Mickey Wooden Decoration – $24.99

Now, let’s stroll around World Showcase to the Japan Pavilion at check out the adorable Hello Kitty merchandise.

• Hello Kitty Ghost Plush – $11.50
• Hello Kitty Halloween Dress Plush – $26.00
• Hello Kitty Halloween Hair Bows – $8.50
• Hello Kitty Pumpkin Plush – $18.00 (in orange, pink, or purple)
• Hello Kitty Plush Heart Wand – $22.50
• Hello Kitty Magnet – $9.00 (available as pumpkin, witch, or skeleton)

Which of these adorable “treats” would you like to find in your goodie bag?

The post NEW Halloween Merchandise at EPCOT Includes Hello Kitty appeared first on TouringPlans.com Blog.

From our friends at touringplans.com
Filed Under: Epcot, Halloween, Merchandise, Shopping, disney halloween backpack, disney halloween bag, disney halloween merchandise, disney halloween t-shirt, hello kitty, hello kitty halloween

This week’s SATURDAY SIX takes a look at Disney Details You Can ONLY Get From a “Bird’s-Eye View! Grab a Dramamine and buckle up, because today we’re hoping into the blogger high-in-the-sky copter with @bioreconstruct and checking some interesting Disney details that we can only get from up above, starting with…

# 6 – Fantasmic!

While Fantasmic! has yet to have shows since the coronavirus shutdown back in March, over the years Bio has taken some unique photos of the theater where the show is held. Below is a test held during the day for the show’s water screens.

Because the show is currently under an extended downtime, the water that surrounds the stage has been drained.

However, with Fantasmic! drained and us being able to see everything from high above, it allowed Disney fans  to point out something that most guests would never know…

Let’s take another overhead look at the theater…

Showing the spot where Mickey was originally intended to “walk on water” during the show.

# 5 – Hidden Mickey Solar Farm

There are a lot of solar panels currently on Disney property, including many on the newly rebuilt McDonald’s restaurant by the All-Star Resorts and on the upcoming Guardians of the Galaxy coaster at EPCOT, but the most fun collection of solar panels make up the biggest “Hidden Mickey” at WDW.  Right behind the Disney Dolphin and Yacht Club Resorts is a huge collection of solar panels in the shape of Mickey Mouse’s iconic three circle design.

# 4 – Imagineering’s “Tricks of the Trade”

Us guests on the ground often marvel at the incredible work by Disney Imagineers, but like a good magic act, a lot of what we are seeing is an illusion. Take for example the facade for the Dinosaur attraction at Disney’s Animal Kingdom. Guests approaching the building are first going to notice the impressive Aladar figure out front, with the Dino Institute in the back. Looking at the building, we see trees and shrubbery in the near background. This tricks our mind into thinking we’re walking into a building that “can’t” be that big, right?

Up in the air, we can see that Disney cleverly disguised the massive show building we are about to enter by planting trees on top of the building!

Staying in Animal Kingdom, let’s take a quick peek at Pandora: The World of Avatar. Guests walking into the land are always blown away by the magnificent “floating mountains” and the incredible rockwork behind them.

With an aerial view, we can see that this rock work and design is meant to block the view of a show building that makes the one for Dinosaur look small in comparison!

Anyone familiar with “Hollywood” and the art of movie making knows that when it comes to building a film set, you only spend time on details which will be seen by the camera. The same applies for theme parks if we replace “camera” with “guest.” Take Expedition Everest, one of the most brilliantly themed roller coasters in the world. (At least that’s our opinion. Others consider it a “nondescript coaster themed to India or whatever.”) Every aspect of Everest looks INCREDIBLE to those on the ride or looking at the attraction from inside the park.

However, this aerial photo from behind Everest shows that the back part of the attraction isn’t themed at all.

# 3 – Walt Disney’s Personal Plane

For a time, guests could see Walt Disney’s private plane on display at Disney’s Hollywood Studios on the Studio Backlot Tour. Now that the tram tour has been replaced by Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge, the plane has been moved “backstage” and can’t be seen by guests. However it can be seen by aerial photos.

Walt flew in this plane while originally surveying the land which would eventually become Walt Disney World.

# 2 – Construction

For both safety and secrecy concerns, theme parks do their best to keep construction projects hidden from the view of guests and those pesky theme park bloggers. However, thanks to aerial photos we get a sneak peek of construction projects and major refurbishments. Now, to be honest many guests just simply don’t care about construction projects. “Show me it when it’s finished,” would probably be the most common answer if asked. For others though – and most likely many that would be reading a blog like this – construction updates are one of the things we love the most. To see the incremental changes over time. To whet our appetites for experiences we will have in the near future. A reminder that the parks and resorts we know and love are in a constant state of change, updating themselves for our enjoyment.

# 1 – The Big Picture

For me personally, my favorite aerial photos are the ones that put everything in perspective. The size and scope of both Disneyland and (especially) Walt Disney World is almost impossible to comprehend from the ground. From the air, we can see how all the pieces fit together to make this wonderful puzzle come to life.

Honorable Mention – The Goodyear Blimp over WDW

I don’t care who you are, this is cool.

So there you have it: Six Disney Details That You Can ONLY See From The Air! See you next weekend for the latest installment of the SATURDAY SIX, where we’ll look at something fun from the world of Disney and Universal. If you enjoyed yourself, be sure to check out The Magic, The Memories, and Merch! articles covering the latest from the Disney Outlet Stores. You can also follow Your Humble Author on Twitter (@derekburgan).

If you enjoyed this article, you will surely like the following: 

The SATURDAY SIX Presents: @bioreconstruct’s Favorite Aerial Theme Park Photos

6 Pieces of Disney Merchandise That Don’t Exist (but Totally Should)

SATURDAY SIX Presents: The Disney Signage Hall of Shame

Special Thanks to The Elite Brandon Glover, the bio-est of all reconstructs @bioreconstruct, Captain Cruiseline Scott Sanders of the world famous Disney Cruise Line Blog, my personal protege Hunter “Elvey” Underwood, the SAT SIX Fun Squad of Parkscope Joe and “the Dadalorian” Nick, hot shot Michael Carelli, charter member of the Universal Four @Nitro230, and Hermione Granger’s tutor Megan Stump for their invaluable assistance with this article. The SAT SIX is inspired each week by goofballs Aengus Mackenzie and LitemAndHyde and you Potterheads will  enjoy Meg’s other blog work over at the Central Florida Slug Club.

The post SATURDAY SIX: Disney Details You Can ONLY Get From a “Bird’s-Eye View” appeared first on TouringPlans.com Blog.

From our friends at touringplans.com
Filed Under: Saturday Six, Walt Disney World (FL), aerial photos, saturday six

Background

When it reopened in July, Walt Disney World set limits on the number of people that could be in each theme park each day.  To keep track of that, Walt Disney World requires guests to obtain a Park Pass reservation.

Disney hasn’t said how many Park Passes are available for each day and park. (We estimate it’s between 12 and 15% of the park’s theoretical capacity right now.) We’re told that the number of Park Passes has not increased since the re-opening.  Based on our observations EPCOT and Disney’s Animal Kingdom have more Park Passes than the Magic Kingdom and Hollywood Studios, respectively.

Disney tracks each park’s reservation inventory by splitting the available reservations into three groups:

• Onsite resort guests
• Date-specific ticket holders
• Annual passholders.

In practice, we think Disney gives priority to onsite resort guests and date-specific ticket holders since Disney has said that those two groups spend more per visit than annual passholders.  Because they’re the lowest priority group, passes for annual passholders are “sold out” the fastest.

Which Disney World Parks Run Out of Reservations Fastest?

In general, Disney’s Hollywood Studios runs out of reservations first, followed by the Magic Kingdom. To check the current Park Pass availability go to https://disneyworld.disney.go.com/availability-calendar/?segments=tickets,resort,passholder.

Park Pass Data

We like data, and the Park Pass system has some good data. We were hoping to infer crowd levels based on Park Pass data, on the assumption that the faster the Park Passes sell out, the higher the demand, and the higher the crowd levels. But there’s a limit to what we can infer. When the Disney website says that there is availability, we don’t know if 1% or 99% of the Park Passes have been distributed. In the Park Pass data, we have observed availability returning to a group after showing no availability. We assume in most cases that this is Disney moving inventory from one group to another.

We started collecting data on Park Passes in late July. For this blog post analysis, I will only be looking at data since August 1, 2020.

100% Unavailable

Since tracking the Park Pass data on September 5 and 6, the Saturday and Sunday of Labor Day weekend had all parks for all groups unavailable. September 7, Labor Day, only had Disney’s Hollywood Studios sold out for all groups. We don’t know the attendance numbers for the parks, but we can assume what we saw on September 5 and 6 were peak capacity with the current health and safety measures.

The table above shows that Annual Passholders have been the most affected by the Park Pass restrictions. Besides Labor Day weekend, Disney Resort Guests’, and Theme Park Ticket Guests’ demand has not exceeded capacity. The numbers in the charts show how many days prior that the Park Pass first sold out. Disney has reallocated Park Pass capacity so it is possible, and likely, that Park Passes can become available after they were not. The white cells with a number were sold out at some point, but on the specific date, there was Park Pass availability.

Reallocated Park Pass Capacity

Here is an example of Park Pass capacity being reallocated. On August 27, Annual Passholder and Park Ticket guest Park Passes became available. The availability lasted for a few hours to a few days.

One other part of the Park Pass data is that Disney has restored availability after a park and group has been sold out. In most cases, it appears that Disney is redistributing Park Passes between the three groups.

Here is the same data for Hollywood Studios. On August 27, all groups had no Park Pass availability. Availability was added for all groups, which would mean that the park’s capacity had to have been increased.  Since all groups became unavailable in just a few hours this might have been a mistake on Disney’s side.

Wait Times and Park Pass Capacity

Our hypothesis is that the faster a park’s reservations sell out, the higher wait times will be, and thus higher crowd levels. Since Disney Resort Guests and Park Ticket Guests are rarely unavailable we cannot infer much from that data. Annual Passholder Park Pass reservations do become unavailable. Below are charts showing the relationship between an attraction’s average posted wait time and the number of days prior that Park Pass reservations were not first available. The R-squared (R²) statistical measure that represents the proportion of the variance for a dependent variable that’s explained by an independent variable. R-squared values range from 0 to 1. An R-squared of 1 means that all variance of the dependent variable is completely explained by the independent variable.

Magic Kingdom

EPCOT

Hollywood Studios

Animal Kingdom

The slope of the regression line is positive on most of the charts. This supports the idea that the quicker Park Passes become unavailable, the higher the wait times. The variance is high, so the R-squared is low for many attractions. Park Passes becoming unavailable for Annual Passholders is more a function of the limited availability than demand.

Peak Crowd Levels

Labor Day weekend had the highest crowd levels since reopening. Without Disney increasing attendance levels at Walt Disney World, we do not expect to see crowds much higher in the rest of 2020.

	Resort Wide	Magic Kingdom	EPCOT	Hollywood Studios	Animal Kingdom
September 5, 2020	2	2	4	1	2
September 6, 2020	2	2	5	1	2
September 7, 2020	2	2	4	1	1

EPCOT had the highest crowd levels. This is not due to EPCOT being the most popular park, but a large park with more space for guests to social distance.  Conversely, Hollywood Studios was only a crowd level of 1 all weekend. This is due to the park being small and having less space for social distancing.  I expect Disney is evaluating how Labor Day weekend went and will adjust capacity limits. I suspect Disney will increase capacity for the Magic Kingdom, Hollywood Studios, and Animal Kingdom.

Crowd Calendar Update

With knowing that Epcot can hit a 5 with current health and safety measures, we expect other traditionally busy times will have similar crowd levels. Also believing that Disney will increase capacity we are going to raise our crowd level predictions for select dates.

Have any questions or thoughts for the stats team? Let us know in the comments.

The post Deep Data Dive into Park Pass Availability appeared first on TouringPlans.com Blog.

From our friends at touringplans.com
Filed Under: Walt Disney World (FL), data, Disney Park Pass System

Summer is winding down at Disneyland Resort and while Disneyland and Disney California Adventure still have no reopening date in sight, a steady stream of new merchandise has been arriving at World of Disney in Downtown Disney. Let’s take a look at all the new goodies.

The temperatures outside have been hitting the triple digits so these fans are perfect to cool off with. They’re surprisingly affordable at $9.99.

Other styles include this one with Dr. Facilier from The Princess and the Frog.

Orange Bird may be a Walt Disney World thing, but time and time again his merchandise appears at Disneyland Resort.

This Oogie Boogie nutcracker ($64.99) was selling like hotcakes. I saw dozens of people purchasing one while I was at World of Disney.

Fans of 90s Disney movies, rejoice! There’s a ton of new apparel for you to buy. The Hercules jacket is $49.99, while the shirt on the right was $36.99.

More Hercules shirts. Both the Hades and Megara shirts are $36.99 each.

You don’t see Hunchback of Notre Dame merchandise very often. These were also $36.99 each.

This hooded shirt featuring Percy and Meeko can be yours for $44.99.

I’m sure someone out there will find this $36.99 sleeveless Pocahontas shirt appealing. Anyone?

Wrapping things up we have these “it’s a small world” leggings and a shirt to go with them. Unfortunately I forgot to take note of the price on these.

Are you planning on getting any of these items? Let me know in the comments below.

The post Downtown Disney Merch Report: Fans, 90s Disney Movie Shirts, and Oogie Boogie Nutcracker! appeared first on TouringPlans.com Blog.

From our friends at touringplans.com
Filed Under: Disneyland (CA), Merchandise, Disneyland, merchandise, World of Disney

Today is September 11 and on this somber day, we honor and remember the lives we lost 19 years ago. We will never forget their sacrifice.

This week, learn what Disney Parks/Disney+ show you’re not going to want to miss, find out which holiday event got cancelled, and more.

In Case You Missed It – Disney and Universal Orlando News and Rumors

Well, this weekend was certainly a busy one for Walt Disney World and Universal Orlando, as the parks officially hit capacity.

Sad news. Disneyland has cancelled their version of Candlelight Processional this year.

Well, it’s something. Disney expects to have reopened a little over 50% of its hotels by the end of the fiscal year.

Ever wonder how Eric Idle filmed the moon scene as part of Journey Into Imagination? He shared the details on Twitter.

D23 is going to hold the D23 Halloween Mousequerade! It will be a virtual costume contest where contestants can create their best Disney-themed, original costume and enter for a chance to win a $500 Disney Gift Card! Sounds like fun! Who’s ready to get creative?

Disney is pleased with the viewership of the live action Mulan, given the fact that it’s the first time they’ve ever released a film like this. However things are not as smooth as they had hoped they would be with the release. Did you catch the film this past week?

This has me excited! A Disney+ show that takes us behind the scenes of Disney’s Animal Kingdom?! This is the content I signed for Disney+ for! I am 100% all in on this one! What about you?

Clouds, an original movie for Disney+ will be streaming on October 16. Take a look at the trailer and let us know what you think.

The female version of Doogie Howser, called Doogie Kameāloha, M.D. will officially hit Disney+ in the future.

The post In Case You Missed It: News and Rumors – Week of September 11, 2020 appeared first on TouringPlans.com Blog.

From our friends at touringplans.com
Filed Under: In Case You Missed It