Disney Springs has been quietly reinventing itself for years. New restaurants keep arriving. Celebrity chefs have become part of the identity. Upscale lounges expanded. The whole area has shifted from the casual, slightly quirky Downtown Disney era into something much more polished and premium. Most of that evolution has been genuinely positive, and the crowds showing up every evening are ...

France at EPCOT used to feel almost secondary compared to the rest of World Showcase. Guests would casually wander through the pavilion, maybe stop for a pastry at Les Halles or grab dinner at Chefs de France, and then continue toward the next country without giving it much more thought. That version of France barely exists anymore. Credit: Erica Lauren, ...

Disney World vacations are usually built around attractions, fireworks, and character moments, but let’s be honest — the food matters just as much now. For a lot of guests, dining has become one of the biggest reasons to visit Walt Disney World in the first place. People plan entire EPCOT days around snacks, book resort reservations months in advance, and ...

The return of the Disney World coffee challenge is quickly becoming one of the most talked-about perks among Annual Passholders this summer. For many fans, being a Passholder is already about more than just getting into the parks whenever they want. It is about feeling connected to the little extras Disney rolls out throughout the year. And honestly, the coffee ...

Liberty Square’s premier spooky landmark is continuing to slip behind construction walls. While Walt Disney World’s Haunted Mansion remains fully operational on the inside, the physical scale of its exterior refurbishment has expanded yet again as the peak summer travel season kicks off. Credit: Disney Guests visiting Magic Kingdom are discovering that even more of the iconic attraction has been ...

A Disney Springs tradition that dates back to the late 1990s is about to disappear — at least for a while. Ghirardelli Soda Fountain & Chocolate Shop has officially confirmed that it will vacate its longtime Marketplace location later this summer as part of a large-scale renovation project. For many Walt Disney World visitors, especially longtime fans, that announcement feels ...

Disney World has been moving fast lately. Rock ‘n’ Roller Coaster Starring the Muppets opened. Cool Kids’ Summer kicked off. Bluey’s Wild World arrived at Animal Kingdom with its own food and beverage offerings, and a Muppets-themed snack stand materialized alongside the new attraction. It has been a genuinely big stretch for the parks, and the energy that comes with ...

Disney World fans have spent months watching Cinderella Castle slowly transform behind construction equipment, cranes, drained water, and repainting crews. While the castle itself has remained open throughout most of the work, the project noticeably changed the entire look of the Magic Kingdom hub area for guests walking into the park every day. Credit: Disney Now, though, one of the ...

Some music is so deeply tied to a specific place and moment that hearing it anywhere else stops you cold. For a generation of EPCOT guests, Gavin Greenaway’s score for IllumiNations: Reflections of Earth is exactly that kind of music. It played over the World Showcase Lagoon for 20 years. It soundtracked thousands of final nights at the park, thousands ...

The old theme park playbook for driving attendance spikes used to be simple: bring out the wrecking ball. For decades, operators relied on flattening old attractions and spending hundreds of millions of dollars to build shiny new rides from scratch. But in today’s economic climate, building a ground-up mega-attraction is an unsustainable financial gamble. Credit: Disney Instead, The Walt Disney ...