Latest Disney News: Park Hopping & Dining Plan are BACK, Country Bears Closing, & EPCOT Fest Begins

Latest Disney News: Park Hopping & Dining Plan are BACK, Country Bears Closing, & EPCOT Fest Begins

You can park hop all day long the Disney Dining Plan is back epcot’s Festival of the Arts has started and Disney has announced the closing date for a show that opened back in 1971 with Magic Kingdom all the Disney parks news from the week is coming at you right

Now hey everybody it’s AJ for Disney food blog it has been a big week for the dfb team as we investigated all of those changes to the newly returned Disney dining plan covered all of the new food at Festival of the Arts Park hopped to our hearts content and also finally got

To go to the parks with no park pass reservations but that’s not all that happened this week in the Disney bubble so let’s get started all day park hopping is finally back so park hopping which is hopping between the Disney theme parks has been seriously restricted in Disney World since 2020

But as of January 9th you don’t need to wait until 2:00 p.m. to head to a different Park if you you have a park hopper ticket this means you can go to Magic Kingdom first thing in the morning and then instantly hop over to Epcot to ride Guardians of the Galaxy Cosmic

Rewind right after since park pass restrictions have now been removed for most ticket holders you will be able to try for either Tron or Cosmic rewind virtual Queue at 7:00 a.m. you can only hold one virtual Queue at a time but if one sells out you can always see if the

Other is still available and swap your plans around you still need to be in the park in order to join the queue for the 1 p.m drop but if you were able to ride one of the rides with a virtual que and hop to the next park by 1:00 p.m. or

Before the queue fills up you could feasibly ride both virtual queue rides in one day on most days other than good to go days and after 2: p.m. annual passholders do still need a park pass reservation passholders will still need to visit that first Park before they hop

And if they’re using Genie plus they won’t be able to secure any lightning Lane times before 2: p.m. at their second Park until they scan into their first Park it’s very confusing on days when passholders need reservations you’ll also be limited trying for a spot in the virtual queue for rides only in

The park you have the reservation for at the 7:00 a.m. drop time next surprising update on the park hopping situation buses between the parks will not start running until 10:00 a.m. so you may need to grab a lift or Uber if you need to get somewhere earlier than that and the

Skyline or a mon rail won’t get you to your intended destination now Disney World is huge 43 square miles so give yourself plenty of time to travel from park to park now we know it’s a lot to digest so we made a brand new guide to park hopping in Disney World with with

All the info you will ever need it’s linked for you in the description below and the day has finally come the Disney Dining Plan has returned to Walt Disney World after four very very sad and desolate years now with this plan you can basically prepay for all your meals

So that when you get to Disney World all you have to worry about is where to eat we had reporters out all day covering everything involved with this new Dining Plan so that we can make sure you have all the info you need if you want to

Stay up to date on when big Disney news comes around be sure to follow us on social media at Disney food blog cuz we always make sure to live post all day and we are working on separate videos all about the Dining Plan but for now you can click the link in the

Description below to get all the details about how this new plan is different from the old Dining Plan another Festival kicked off yesterday in Epcot the 2024 Epcot International Festival of the Arts which we call farts as you know runs from January 12th to February 19th

2024 and features 17 plus food Booth so that means 7 food booths plus all the little extra stuff around Park and it also has the Disney on Broadway concert series and artwork around the world showcase along with a bunch of other stuff this Festival ranks high among the

Dfb team since it’s smaller typically a little less crowded and the food is gorgeous we have full coverage of all the food and entertainment over at disneyfoodblog tocom you know that we go and we eat it every single booth on day one of every single Festival our best of

The fest video with our top food picks will be up on the channel very soon as well for you but if you want to be the ultimate Festival Pro and have all of our detailed reviews and tips and food crawls and More in one convenient ebook

We got that over at dfp store.com for you you can pick up a copy of our completely updated for 2024 Guide to the Festival of the Arts our guide to maximizing the Disney Dining Plan or any of our other guides we even offer an everything bundle that’s much cheaper

Than buying the books individually if you want more of a discount and don’t forget to use code YouTube at checkout to get even more money off we’ve got a closing date for The Country Bears jambur refurb Disney imagineers are updating the Country Bear jambur show in

Magic Kingdom with an all new act the Bears are going to be singing Disney songs in new Styles like pop country rockabelly and Bluegrass and the updates are inspired by the oper style shows of Nashville Tennessee in fact Nashville musicians are helping out with the arrangements one of the songs we know

Will see is a new version of bar Necessities in a rockabelly style and the new show will include Easter eggs throughout that nod to the previous show so this will close on January 27th 2024 for refurbishment and it’s going to reopen with the updated show later this

Summer 2024 we noticed some big changes coming to the live entertainment at Magic Kingdom and not only one entertainment offering is changing we notice that the performance times on the My Disney Experience app have been updated for beginning January 16th one of the biggest changes we saw was the

Festival of fantasy parade recently this parade has been happening twice per day that’s going to change beginning on January 16th you’ll only be able to see Festival of fantasy once a day at 300 p.m. we also noted some changes coming to the Adventure Friends cavalcade recently we could only see this

Cavalcade once a day at 510 p.m. and if you want to see this one make sure you head to Main Street USA at 10:30 a.m. or 11:45 a.m. the entertainment going down Main Street USA isn’t the only thing that’s updating we will also be able to see the Dapper Dan at different times

During the day after their normal 9:50 a.m. show Showtime we’ll be seeing them a little later than usual they’ll be back out to perform at 10:55 after this their showtimes pick back up at 12:15 p.m. and are followed by a show at 1:05 2:00 and 3:40 p.m. these aren’t major

Changes but they are still some tweaks that we will see beginning on January 16th so when you go to Disney World if you go to Magic Kingdom be sure to check your My Disney Experience app to figure out when the times are for the entertainment that you want to see cuz

Again these things aren’t set in stone they can absolutely change again finally we’ve seen some changes to the times we can find the Casey’s Corner pianist right now we are able to see him as early as 10:50 a.m. but that will also be changing their first performance time

Will be changed to 12:05 p.m. and we’ll see them out once per hour after that with their last show time being 6:15 p.m. we’re glad we picked up on all these changes and in case you missed it these will be taking place beginning January 16th as far as we know they will

Continue through February 4th but once Disney releases the showtime calendar past that we’ll let you know if the these are here to stay now why does Disney change times for stuff like this well it depends on the crowd levels how many people do they need to kind of

Redirect from the rides and have watch some entertainment so that the lines don’t get too long and it also depends on literal timing things will change based on daylight savings sometimes and they’ll change based on when the sun sets we’ve got a new Disney Thrills ticket announced Florida residents can

Buy a two-day ticket for $199 or a 3-day ticket for $219 these tickets are already on sale and they can be used between now and March 15th you can visit any of Disney World’s parks with this discounted ticket deal and your visits do not have to be on consecutive days

You can use them any two days between now and March 15th now it’s important to note you will need a park pass reservation to use these tickets that means in addition to having a ticket for admission you will need to make a reservation through the Disney World app

For the days you plan to visit the park you may have heard that park pass reservation requirements have been removed for most ticket holders and that’s true but they they are still in effect for non-date based tickets and that includes this special deal Disney’s allowing some add-ons with this ticket

Deal as well so be sure to check out the article on our website for the details back in 2022 Disney announced that its capture your moment service would be added to Hollywood Studios this is basically a photo shoot service when it first launched in Hollywood Studios you

Could choose to have your photo taken at Hollywood Boulevard echol Lake Sunset Boulevard or another beloved spot quote unquote for a while there was one notable exception Star Wars Galaxy’s Edge was not offered as an option well that rule is finally changing beginning January 17th you can book a 20-minute

Session to have your photos taken by a photo Pass cast member in Galaxy’s Edge Photo sessions will be offered daily during regular park hours starting January 24th you can reserve a session up to 60 days in advance Disney also shared that a limited number of same day reservations may be available and you

Can check them My Disney Experience app during your visit so what’s included during your session a photop pass photographer will travel around galaxies with you taking photos at iconic landmarks like the Millennium Falcon A first order shuttle the market in Black Spire Outpost and more oh and you can

Even snap a few photos with props like a lightsaber a capture your moment photo session is $99 and can include up to eight people note that photos are not included with the price of the session and you can purchase Memory Maker separately or opt to purchase photos individually annual passholders with the

Disney photo pass downloads perk can also receive the photos for free if you were one of the hopeful Disneyland fans trying to get a magic key pass over the past few days that’s an annual pass for Disneyland we hope you’re doing okay after several glitches and hours and

Hours of virtual waiting rooms magic key passes sold out in just over 24 hours as of 2 p.m. Eastern all levels of the Disneyland annual pass were sold out and Disney has once again paused new magic key pass sales we don’t know when Disney May reopen new sales but sign up for our

Newsletter and you will be the first to know if they go on sale again Tokyo Disney Tower of Terror is getting scarier now the Tower of Terror at Tokyo Disney sea has always been pretty tame some might even say a little bit lame it’s not it’s fun but it is the Tower of

Terror that a lot of people who won’t ride it in the states will actually ride but things are getting scarier the theme park will run two new versions during set dates this year the first began January 9th and it includes more drops and then the second version will include

Scarier effects guests are then going to be pulled and then they can choose which version sticks around until April 7th 2024 we’ve got some brand new details about the Disney Cruise Line Moana show that’s going to debut this year Disney previously announced that a new Broadway style production Disney the tale of

Moana would be coming to the Disney treasure cruise ship that’s setting sale in December the show is going to feature puppetry including a massive fiery tea that will transform into teiti toward the end of the show a new song has also been written for the show which will be

Featured alongside your favorite Moana songs including your welcome we know the way and how far I’ll go the show will follow the story of the film with Grandma tala as the narrator we’re trying a new drink from laava Del tequila in Epcot and this one even snuck

In a Breaking Bad reference so here’s the backstory doomra Mescal was founded by Breaking Bad Stars Aaron Paul and Brian Cranston the two celebrities actually visited laav Del tequila recently and they were even serving up drinks that’s where the crystal Inferno comes in it was made in collaboration

With the two actors so yes we have a feeling that Crystal Inferno was a nod to Breaking Bad but don’t worry all the ingredients in this cocktail are legal no real crystal in this one the drink is made with doom aspin Mescal Alma Fina orange lur clarified lemon juice spiced

Nectar and it’s got a little pepper on the side Yep this is a smokey drink and although our reporter isn’t usually a fan of smoky drinks this one won her over it’s smooth with a gentle Smoky taste you can try it right now at laava

Del tequila get it to go for 2130 or pay $30 to drink it in house you can also get it with a laava sphere to take home for $70 you’ve probably heard us Rave about the mango pie at yakin Yeti local food cafes well the local food cafes is

A quick service restaurant in the Asia section of Animal Kingdom over there in anandapur and it’s basically the fast food version of the nearby yakin Yeti restaurant we go there for the pork egg rolls the chicken fried rice and that mini Mango pie but this beloved dessert

Went missing in March of 2023 with cast members saying they didn’t know whether it would ever return at all well on January 9th 2024 we found it of course we had to buy one just to make sure it tasted the same and it does it’s silky smooth fruity sweet tart and delicious

With that incredibly thick buttery graham cracker crust the local food Cafe still doesn’t have it listed on its online menu but don’t let that fool you you should be able to order it as long as they don’t run out it is listed on the printed menu and it cost $8.49 note

That we didn’t see the chocolate pie on the menu so that one is still missing and heads up if you don’t want to pay $8.49 for this head to your local Kroger or Publix and see if they have it in stock because they often do and it’ll

Cost like $3.99 this is made by Kenny’s pies it’s a thirdparty company that Disney just buys the pies from so you can still find this sometimes for a lot cheaper in your home grocery store there’s a new Buffet item at Chef Mickey’s they now have something called croissant beet during breakfast doesn’t

That sound amazing as soon as we heard we immediately booked a dining reservation so we could try them out that’s what we do here at dfv and that’s why you follow us these are exactly like what we’d expect from something that’s both a croissant and a beignet it’s

Basically a beignet made with croissant dough and you know those wonderful buttery layers that make a croissant a croissant then they’re fried into a beet and top the cinnamon sugar it’s just a brilliant marriage now we ate three of these babies before we felt like we’ properly sampled them they are

Relatively small and very sweet and a smidge greasy they are fried after all but they’re a delicious addition to the breakfast buffet at chef Mickey if you want to see our full recent breakfast review you can check it out on our website swirls on the water in Disney

Springs came out with a lot of new treats this week and we had to try them for science of course first is the Dole Whip sampler now we see one of these every season come out it’s usually a brand new Trio always includes the vanilla and pineapple but the other two

Are kind of a jackpot you never know what you’re going to get well the first combo we sampled was do whip cherry and do whip lime with strawberry boba pearls and a Marino Cherry now this is a winning combo the Cherry is more like a black cherry taste so you’re getting a

Hint of bitterness with the kick and tartness of the lime next up is that Dole Whip lemon with pink cotton candy soft serve lemon curd on top and cotton candy the lemon and cotton candy flavors work really well together super sweet super tart and we were surprised just

How good the cotton candy soft serve is however that particular one melts super quickly and the third sample was that classic do with pineapple with vanilla soft serve and a pineapple wedge this is pretty standard but it’s a classic for a reason now that Trio is going to be

$7.49 which is pretty cheap our second treat is The Little Mermaid float this one’s $6.49 it’s Dole whipped cherry and lime swirled into Sprite with strawberry boba pearls rock candy seashells and an edible arel little white chocolate token the addition of the Sprite and boba pearls makes it feel almost like a

Holiday punch drink we’re not complaining about it we really really liked it and we’re still not done though we got one more do whip treat to go this one is the Rapunzel cone which we’ve had before but it’s changed a little bit previously it was made with d whip lemon

And raspberry swirled in a lavender cone topped with sugar flowers now it’s made with do whip lemon swirled with cotton candy soft serve so that’s right that’s one of the trio swirls that you get in a lavender cone with sugar flowers so we’ll be honest we like this version

Better the cotton candy flavor really adds some much needed sweetness to counter The Zing of the lemon it’s a better balance of flavors in our opinion now this is the treat you get when you want to add some new content to your Instagram account cuz if you’re just

Just after these flavors they’re also available in the sampler minus all the fun decorations so yes big day at swirls on the water thanks of course to our reporter who had to go get all of this stuff when it was really cold outside Festival of the Arts isn’t the

Only Disney Festival starting this month Lunar New Year kicks off in Disney California Adventure on January 23rd and runs through February 18th Disney’s Lunar New Year Festival is a tribute to chinese vietnamese and Korean cultures full menus have been released for the food booths at the festival as as well

As several other specialty snacks around the resort you can find all the details you need at disneyfoodblog tocom some bad news from Downtown Disney tortilla Joe’s has announced it will permanently close on March 31st 2024 in Disneyland’s Downtown Disney there is also a takaria attached for those who want a quick

Drink or bite and that’s set to close on April 13th 2024 Downtown Disney is currently going through that massive refurbishment with lots of new restaurants and Shops coming soon like Porto’s Bakery and din thaun so definitely check out the information at the link here there’s going to be so

Much change over there in Disneyland’s Downtown Disney this year okay here’s what you need to know if you’re in Disney World this week crowds are definitely down in Disney World after the tail end of the holiday season and the Disney World Marathon Genie plus has been staying around $23 for the multiple

Parks or Magic Kingdom option with abcot averaging $17 per person per day Studios is at 21 and animal kingdoms at 15 we expect those price trends to continue into next week with the exception of Martin Luther King Day 3-day weekends can mean big crowds in Disney World and

While this isn’t the 4th of July schools having a day off always mean more people are going to be in the park so plan for longer wait times through the 15th and even 16th we had some pretty windy weather last week and storms are in the forecast for several days coming up

There are a few nights that will dip into 30° territory in Orlando so bring those layers and maybe a pair of gloves I always find that a scarf helps a lot as well Disney’s going to sell them if you forgot them but you’re going to pay

A lot as for ride closures Rock and roller coaster is still closed and will be till the summer klie River Rapids is closed as well as it gets some annual maintenance Big Thunder Mountain Railroad will be closed this week from the 16th through the 20th for some maintenance the Skyliner will also be

Closed this coming week now I know that’s not a Disney ride except it kind of is but the full line will be down from the 16th to the 21st and the line between Riviera and Epcot will remain closed through the 27th if you’re staying at Art of Animation Pop Century

Caribbean Beach or Riviera there will be bus service to Epcot and Hollywood Studios instead in merchandise news there’s a new Starbucks Magic Kingdom tote and this one seems to be on everyone’s wish list right now it has some of our favorite Magic Kingdom icons on it like Cinderella Castle spaceship

Earth Dole Whip Tinkerbell the Dapper dance even Sunny eclipses on there and can we talk about those contrast tote bag handles that shade of blue adds the perfect pop of color we had to hunt it down but we found it at the Emporium in Magic Kingdom right on Main Street USA

However this bag literally sold out while we were standing there taking photos of it so if you’re headed to Disney World keep an eye on it so you can grab it the minute you see it it’s $29.99 also there’s a companion tumbler for this tote bag if you’re interested

In that as well and if you’ve ever visited the Germany Pavilion in Epcot you may know that sometimes you can find a beautiful souvenir Stein at the beer and snack spot well a new signin is now available and it is gorgeous this one has some things you might recognize from

Cot’s Germany Pavilion oh and does that shape at the top look familiar it’s a Mickey pretzel we obviously approve of Disney food in the design the phrase warm welcome in German is at the top and under that it says Germany the bottom has the Epcot logo with World Showcase

Written around it if you want to pick one up for yourself you can find it at the Germany Pavilion at Summerfest the pretzel cart or beer line it comes with the choice of three different beers beex pillner for $19 shoper offer pink grapefruit half weisen for 2025 or wor

Steiner Dunkle for 2070 5 and by the way this is on mobile order as well all right so that’s the latest news for this week if you want the latest news on more days then just Saturday be sure to sign up for our newsletter it’s totally free

The link to sign up is in the description below and I hope you’ll join cuz a lot of time and effort goes into that and it’s really really valuable and helpful information so thanks for listening everyone and thanks for watching as always this is AJ for Disney

Food blog and we’ll see you real Soon

The Disney Dining Plan is BACK and you can park hop all day long! EPCOT’s Festival of the Arts has started and Disney has announced the closing date for a show that opened back in 1971 with Magic Kingdom. All the Disney Parks news from the week is coming at you right now. 

NEW Guide to Park Hopping in Disney World

Everything That’s DIFFERENT About the Disney Dining Plan in 2024

[Subscribe for more Disney Food Videos!]
http://bit.ly/1rqUGbh

[Join our Newsletter]
http://disneyfoodblog.com/the-disney-food-blog-newsletter

Want to support the channel? Check out our line of Disney Dining Travel Guides at http://DFBStore.com.

Purchase our DFB Disney themed t-shirts and more http://DFBStore.com.

Get tips, tricks, reviews, and budget advice at http://DisneyFoodBlog.com

[Social Links]
Tweets by DisneyFoodBlog
http://Facebook.com/disneyfoodblog
http://Instagram.com/disneyfoodblog