Sometimes it feels like Disney’s Animal Kingdom gets the short end of the stick when it comes to Halloween. It’s tough to fit some spooky fun into a theme park that’s all about the animal world. But, there are a few Halloween treats available that are worth paying attention to.

Each Walt Disney World theme park has a sweet shop or bakery of some kind. Zuri’s Sweet Shop is easy to miss if you’re not familiar with it, as it is located in Harambe Village. A selection of the standard Disney seasonal treats is available here. We’ve tried practically every Halloween treat at Walt Disney World by now (our field team is ready to move on to gingerbread at this point). But, Halloween sweets at Animal Kingdom haven’t been as widely available.

Yesterday, Ivonne on our team decided she could stomach some more Halloween goodies and ordered the Mummy Mouse Crisped Rice Treat and the Pumpkin Cupcake. The Crisped Rice Treat is coated in white chocolate and is Instagram worthy. It is sugary sweet and is a tasty option if you’ve had your fill of pumpkin spice by now. For $5.49 it’s an okay value.

Speaking of pumpkin, the Pumpkin Cupcake is the perfect sweet treat if you’re still craving fall flavors. It’s perfectly pumpkin in every way with yummy cream cheese frosting on top. Of the two treats, we’d lean toward the pumpkin cupcake if you’re looking for something that is truly a festive fall treat.

While inside Zuri’s Sweet Shop we noticed that packaged crisped rice treats had made their triumphant return! These sweet snacks had been missing from Walt Disney World since reopening due to supply chain issues thanks to COVID-19.

Over at Discovery Island, a quick service favorite, Flame Tree BBQ, offers a Halloween specialty beverage that looks spooky and tastes sweet. The Spooky Apple Punch is, in fact, a little too sweet. A simple combination of Sprite and Granny Smith Apple Syrup, is “plussed” with a rock candy straw, gummy worm, and sugar-lime rim. This is definitely a fun presentation, and may be very apple-ling for kids, but it was too sweet for our field team.

With the Poisoned Apple Glow Cube (available in red or green) the drink is $9.99, and without it, it is $5.99.

There is also the Rotten Apple which is a combination of Angry Orchard Hard Cider and Fireball Whisky. A popular combination at many establishments, in fact, Universal Orlando has their own version year-round at the Wizarding World of Harry Potter. This cocktail may be popular with some folks, but it was not tempting for our field research team.

We have listings of all the Walt Disney World restaurants, with ratings, on our site and in our Lines app so you can know the best places to grab the best bites. Become a TouringPlans Subscriber so can have all our tools and resources and your finger tips.

The post REVIEW: Disney’s Animal Kingdom Halloween Eats and Drinks appeared first on TouringPlans.com Blog.

From our friends at touringplans.com
Filed Under: Disney’s Animal Kingdom Theme Park, Halloween, Snacks, disney animal kingdom snacks, disney halloween

Disney has announced that they will soon be adding another Disney Value Resort to the reopening roster at the Walt Disney World Resort! Disney’s All-Star Movies Resort will be reopening officially on February 9, 2021! This will be the third Value Resort to reopen, with Disney’s Pop Century currently reopen and Disney’s Art of Animation Resort reopening on November 1.

The Walt Disney World Resort hotels that are currently open (or have reopening dates) are as follows:

• Bay Lake Tower at Disney’s Contemporary Resort
• Boulder Ridge Villas at Disney’s Wilderness Lodge
• Copper Creek Villas & Cabins at Disney’s Wilderness Lodge
• Disney’s Animal Kingdom Villas – Kidani Village
• Disney’s Beach Club Villas
• Disney’s BoardWalk Villas
• Disney’s Caribbean Beach Resort
• Disney’s Contemporary Resort
• Disney’s Coronado Springs Resort
• Disney’s Fort Wilderness Resort & Campground
• Disney’s Grand Floridian Resort & Spa
• Disney’s Old Key West Resort
• Disney’s Polynesian Villas & Bungalows
• Disney’s Pop Century Resort
• Disney’s Riviera Resort
• Disney’s Saratoga Springs Resort & Spa
• Disney’s Yacht Club Resort
• The Villas at Disney’s Grand Floridian Resort & Spa
• Disney’s Art of Animation Resort – November 1, 2020
• Disney’s All-Star Movies Resort – February 9, 2021
• Disney’s Polynesian Village Resort – Summer 2021

Future reopening dates of Disney Resort hotels are subject to change and reservations could still be modified to other Disney Resort hotels if needed.

The post Disney’s All-Star Movies Resort to Welcome Back Guests Soon appeared first on TouringPlans.com Blog.

From our friends at touringplans.com
Filed Under: News, Walt Disney World (FL), Disney’s All-Star Movies Resort

Let’s face it – not everyone in your group is going to want to ride all the same rides together. Some may be into thrills, while others not. So there may be times when a part of your group goes on a ride while the other part needs to either wait for you or meet up with you later.

If you want to stick with your party, but not ride the ride, you can! Enjoy the queue together, as many are well themed. While in line, browse our Lines app to check out ratings for all the restaurants in the park. Place your lunch, snack, or dinner order through mobile ordering in the MyDisneyExperience app so your food will be ready when you’re done. Then when it’s time to board the ride just let the Cast Member know you’d rather not ride and they’ll show you where you can wait for your party.

Here’s how to find the exits of some of the most popular Magic Kingdom rides so you know where you can meet your party later.

• Big Thunder Mountain exit – Located to the right of the entrance and around the back curve of the mountain. There’s benches near the exit, as well as along the river a few steps from the exit.
• Space Mountain exit – Leads into the gift shop, of course. However, if you’d like you can go through the queue with your party, the Cast Member can point out where to wait, where it’s indoors, cool, and has benches. Otherwise, there are some benches outside to the far right of the entrance, as well as restrooms, that make a good spot to meet your party when they’re done.

• Splash Mountain exit – Here you have one of the best exit areas in Magic Kingdom. It is a little hard to find if you are unfamiliar so don’t be afraid to ask a Cast Member. Just behind the entrance to the ride is a shaded courtyard and in the far right corner of this courtyard is a small play area for little park goers who are too short to ride Splash Mountain. There’s a fair amount of benches and decent shade. Please note, the play areas at Walt Disney World are temporarily closed as a COVID-19 precaution.
• Haunted Mansion exit – Not everyone is into socializing with grim grinning ghosts, and sadly there’s no waiting area immediately near the exit of the Haunted Mansion. There’s an outdoor seating area near the Liberty Square Market which sells snacks, or there is some seating near the Liberty Belle Riverboat.
• Pirates of the Caribbean exit – Sometimes the pirate’s life isn’t for everyone. This ride exits into the merchandise shop that is immediately to the right of the ride entrance. There isn’t much seating immediately near the exit, but there are some benches along the walkway in the nearby vicinity.
• Astro-Orbiter exit – This ride exits at the entrance area and there are plenty of benches in the immediate area.
• Goofy’s Barnstormer exit – This ride exits near its entrance, there are a few benches nearby, or the Casey Jr. Splash Area is a fun place to wait.
• Mad Tea Party exit – The ride also exits near its entrance. There are some benches that line the fence of the Tomorrowland Speedway, which make for a fun view while your party goes for a spin.

Have you ever enjoyed some quiet time while waiting for your party? Or do you prefer to stay on-the-go?

The post Where Are the Exits for the Most Popular Rides at Magic Kingdom appeared first on TouringPlans.com Blog.

From our friends at touringplans.com
Filed Under: Attractions, Dos and Don’ts, Magic Kingdom, Magic Kingdom Attractions, magic kingdom rides, magic kingdom tips

This Crowd Calendar update is a bit of fine-tuning to the Walt Disney World and Universal Orlando.

Walt Disney World

Most of the changes in this update are to EPCOT.  For the October update, we were seeing a strong pattern where weekdays had very low crowds and weekends had very high crowds. It appears that the secret is out and more people switched their EPCOT days to weekdays. Most of the 1s that EPCOT had, are now 2s and 3s. Weekdays still have lower crowds than the weekend at EPCOT.

Animal Kingdom is the only park with a plethora of 1s.

50th Anniversary

October 1, 2021, will be Disney World’s 50th anniversary. We expect that there will be a bump in crowds for this historic day. Disney will be celebrating their 50th anniversary for 12-18 months, so don’t feel left out if you avoid the first weekend of October 2021.

The post October – Mid-Month Crowd Calendar Updates appeared first on TouringPlans.com Blog.

From our friends at touringplans.com
Filed Under: Crowd Calendar, Walt Disney World (FL)