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Hey friends,

Hope you've had a great week! We are in the middle of Spring Break around here, both for the local schools. and for tourist season. The actual Spring Break season is more like 4-6 weeks as people have different breaks across the world, but since a large percentage of visitors are locals, the week that Orange County is on break gets the busiest.

There's a breakdown from Blog Mickey on comparing wait times for this last weekend when parks were at capacity, to the holiday season at-capacity days. Basically, wait times really haven't been bad at all, considering, and they definitely seem to be sticking to the same 35% capacity restrictions they were in 2020. The parks may feel more crowded, and the distancing means queues stretch super far and wrap around open areas, but the wait times show that we are still low for this time of year. Of course, we don't have Fastpasses to help us shorten the waits on a few key rides, so definitely still plan on arriving one hour before park opening time to get in a few popular ones before waits go up. Also remember that the posted wait is generally always higher than the actual wait. 

Note that even though there are no park passes available for this week, you can definitely still check often as people change plans and cancel. Also just because park passes are at capacity doesn't mean park hopping is- so far since hopping came back on January 1st, there haven't been any days that park hopping closed. I'll let you guys know if it happens this week. 

Let's get into this week's news!

This Week's News 

Ratatouille Opening Date: We got an opening date for the next new attraction! Remy's Ratatouille Adventure will be opening at Epcot on October 1st of this year. From what we've heard the attraction is pretty much done, but Disney has decided to open it the same day the 50th anniversary celebration begins across all of Walt Disney World. Pushing it back to fall will likely give them more time to be able to increase park capacity by then as well. This ride is already in Disneyland Paris and I had the chance to ride it there. It's a trackless ride system similar to Runaway Railway, moving you through real sets combined with 3-D screens. I would say it has a similar vibe as Runaway Railway as well and will be an attraction the whole family can ride together. Epcot is getting two new attractions, with the other being Guardians of the Galaxy Cosmic Rewind. Since that one will be an intense thrill ride, Ratatouille is the perfect attraction to add at Epcot. We need more kid-friendly activities there and it will join Frozen as a must-do for families. We'll also eventually be getting a new pavilion called the Play! pavilion, that's supposed to be more for families and kids too, with interactive games and characters. We don't have too many details on that yet, but all of this will really make Epcot more fun for little ones. More details and video on this over on Disney Parks Blog

New Mobile Service: Disney announced this week a new tool called MagicMobile. Soon you'll be able to enter a Disney park using your smartphone. Basically, your smartphone will be able to do all the functions of a Magicband or park entry card. From park entry to scanning a Photopass photo. This will be released in phases later this year, starting with just Apple products. You will still be able to use a MagicBand however, this is just another option to use. You'll also still be able to use your Disney app to enter your resort rooms too, they aren't removing any previous functions, just adding a new one. I would imagine eventually we'll be doing everything on our phones, and the cost of bands and cards won't be needed anymore. Disney has already stopped automatically including Magicbands with your vacation packages, instead of giving you the option to buy one, or use an existing one. With so many of us having many bands at home (I have a drawer of them myself), this definitely makes sense. Look for this to come later this year to Apple devices. 

Anniversary Decor Begins: As we talked about a few weeks ago, the 50th anniversary celebration will include new additions to Cinderella Castle, and they've already begun. The first pieces of decor have been added to the castle this week. The moat is currently drained as well, for some type of repairs or construction as they get ready for it. There are some photos on the Disney article here




In case you missed it:

Flower & Garden Festival Guide: Since this festival is going to be around until July 5th of this year, we've got lots of time to visit. I imagine it will be here while many of you visit Disney World so a good guide will be helpful to get the most out of your time. I put one together and I'll be adding to it as I find more tips or options. You can find that here: Festival Guide

St. Patrick's Day Treats: Disney has a foodie guide to all the special items that will be out for St. Patty's day at all parks and Springs. Check that out here. 

Upcoming Events 


Mar. 3rd- July 5th: Epcot's Flower & Garden Festival

Mar. 22nd:: All Star Movies Resort reopens

May 30th: Beach Club Resort reopens

June 6th: Wilderness Lodge reopens

Oct. 1st, 2021: Disney World's official 50th Anniversary begins

 
Thanks as always for reading and I'll see you next week!

Serena 

✨🏰✨

PS: Archive of past emails is here

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