If you’re planning to “set sail” on the new Star Wars Galactic Starcruiser experience at Disney World, start getting ready! The maiden voyage is going to be on March 1, 2022!

Bookings for the general public start on Oct 28th! Some affinity group members such as DVC, passholders, and Disney Visa holders can even book in the weeks beforehand.

Booking can only be made over the phone directly with Disney Reservations or thru an authorized Disney travel planner, like me. There are very specific details to the booking and cancellation policies that are very different from the usual Disney resort bookings, so pay attention to the details.

For a quick recap on the Galactic Starcruiser, check out my blog post about it here.

For more detailed information, read Disney’s site page about it.

Feel free to contact me if you have any questions or are interested in booking.

Exciting news! Disney World is bringing back more live entertainment! Meeting characters and seeing live shows are a key part of a Disney visit. That’s what makes these parks so special and different from typical amusement parks.

They’re saying, while we are not ready for hugs and autographs, there will be opportunities for one on one time with characters. I take that to mean that we can at least get close enough where they’ll pose for individual selfies and chat with you, even if from a slight distance, rather than just walking around a balcony or open space in the distance. They are supposed to start becoming available in various meet n greet spots around mid November.

On Oct 1st, they restarted a few shows around the parks. In the Magic Kingdom, there is a new morning welcome show with Mickey & friends on the castle stage and the piano player is back at Casey’s Corner. The Dapper Dans, Main Street band, and character calvacades have been performing already. In EPCOT, the Taiko Drummers are back in Japan, Sergio the juggler is back in Italy, and a band is back on the Canada stage. In Animal Kingdom, the performers around Asia and Africa are bringing music to the streets. In Hollywood Studios, the nighttime projection show and the Indiana Jones Stunt show are returning soon, while the Beauty and the Beast show and the Disney Jr dance parties have restarted already.

Hopefully, this is a sign that more things are getting back to normal soon. Now, we just need the parades back too!

There are so many new shows coming up!

There are two new nighttime shows at Disney World’s Magic Kingdom and EPCOT parks, and a TV special to celebrate the 50th Anniversary.

Search the Disney Parks Blog for the livestream videos – 9pm ET on 9/29 for EPCOT’S Harmonious show and 10:15pm ET on 9/30 for Magic Kingdom’s Enchantment show.

Then, Fri 10/1 primetime on TV, the 50th Anniversary special on your local ABC channel. Check your local listings.

Well, it’s been a nutty month. So many things going on! Here’s a quick recap of some of the recent happenings at the Disney World parks. Feel free to contact me if you want more info.

Early Theme Park Entry

Officially, starting Oct 1st, guests staying at the Disney resorts and certain partner hotels can get into any of the four parks 30 minutes before the stated opening time. I know, 30 minutes may not seem like much, but you’ll be surprised. In that time, you should be able to get onto at least one big ride and maybe in line for the 2nd before the crowds of non-resort guests get there. That’s a big deal to be able to knock out two major rides with lower crowds. Also, starting Sept 26th, guests can start experiencing this as a preview. You still need the usual park ticket and reservation pass to get in, of course. In addition, if you’re staying at a deluxe Disney resort and other select deluxe hotels, you can also stay 2 hours after park closing.

Boarding Groups Paused for Rise of the Resistance

As of this week, you do not get a boarding group to ride Rise of the Resistance anymore. It’s just Standby only, so be prepared to line up early. I’ve heard of several hour waits! They haven’t said how long this will go on for, so double check which method they’re using when you go.

Boarding Groups Needed for New Remy Ride

When the new Remy Ride opens in the France pavilion in EPCOT on Oct 1st, you will need to get a boarding pass to ride it. It sounds like it works the same way as the Rise of the Resistance boarding passes – use the same strategies, try at 7am or 1pm, etc. The crepe restaurant and the entire new section behind the current France pavilion will also open that day.

New Fireworks Shows Livestreams

If you won’t be in the parks next week for their debut, you can watch a livestream of the first preview shows from the Disney Parks Blog site! From EPCOT, Harmonious will stream Sept 29th at 9pm ET. From Magic Kingdom, Disney Enchantment will stream Sept 30th at 10:15pm ET.

Club Cool and Creation Shop Opened

Yes, Beverly is back! Phew! That’s all you wanted to know, right? LoL. All of the other sodas at Club Cool have been changed to new flavors though. I heard there might even be a new Beverly contender. The new store replacing MouseGears in EPCOT, called Creation Shop, has also finally opened.

Space 220 Restaurant Finally Opened

Finally! This restaurant has been in the works for years and has actually opened! From the vlogger videos that I’ve seen so far, it looks really cool! The food sounds good, but the atmosphere is the highlight here. That space elevator looks amazing! They should just make that a ride! Note, it has a slightly different pricey prix fixe menu for lunch and dinner, but there’s also a lounge where you can get ala carte small bites. Reservations are already gone through December though. If you want to eat here, book it first the second your dining reservation window opens.

Buffets are Back

Buffets are back at Boma, Biergarten, and Crystal Palace. I bet more will be coming soon. They had reopened as table service restaurants for the past few months, but recently, they changed back to their original self serve buffet format.

Polynesian Monorail Station and EPCOT Monorail Opened

The construction of the new Polynesian resort monorail station is finally done and the Magic Kingdom resort monorail now stops at the Poly again. In addition, the EPCOT Monorail is also running again, so you can take that between EPCOT and the Magic Kingdom area.

Fingerprint Scanners Used Again

They started using the fingerprint scanners to get into the parks again, so try to remember which finger you first used.

Steakhouse 71 Coming Soon

This is the new restaurant that is replacing The Wave at the Contemporary resort. The name is based on 1971, the year the resort opened. It is opening Oct 1st but reservations have already been filling up fast. The menu shows typical American fare for breakfast, sandwiches and burgers for lunch, and steaks for dinner, among other choices, of course. It all sounds good though.

Cirque de Soleil Opening Soon

The new Cirque du Soleil® show in Disney Springs is finally opening Nov 18th. You can buy tickets now on the Cirque de Soleil site.

Animal Kingdom’s Nemo Show Being Reimagined

The Nemo show in Animal Kingdom hasn’t reopened since the Covid closure and they recently announced that they won’t be reopening anytime soon. When it does, it will be a new reimagined show, but no other specifics have been given yet.

EPCOT’S Candlelight Professional Returning

The Candlelight Professional is a popular show during the EPCOT holiday festivities where a celebrity narrator reads the Christmas story interspersed with songs performed by a majestic choir. It’s a beautiful show. It will be held most nights from Nov 26 – Dec 30th. No details on the celebrity lineup or dining packages yet though.

50th Anniversary Is Next Week

Yup, it’s going to be October 1st next Friday! September just flew by! So, that means the long anticipated 50th Anniversary of the opening of the Magic Kingdom park is finally here! All of the parks will have special decorations and lighting, Magic Kingdom and Epcot will debut their new nighttime shows, Animal Kingdom will debut a new daytime show, characters will have shiny new outfits and calvacades and make appearances in parks and resorts, golden statues of various characters have been set out around all four parks, and much, much more. There will be new anniversary floats bookending the current floats on the Electric Water Pageant. Of course, they will have tons of new merch and foods too! There will even be a TV show on ABC that night. Check your TV listings. The festivities will go on for the next 18 months, at least, so you’ll have plenty of time to make a trip over there! We plan to join in the fun! Come along!

This is all I can think of for now, but I’m sure more announcements will be coming from Disney. There seems to be something new everyday. There’s so much to keep up with. Some other big changes have already been discussed in my previous blogs, so check those too, if you haven’t already. Feel free to contact me if you want to discuss anything.

Disney World has revamped their annual pass program and just released the details of the 4 new tiers. If you’re interested, they’re going on sale Sept 8, 2021.

They are apparently limiting the number of passholders, so they can sell out. If you’re definitely set on getting them, you may want to do so sooner rather than later.

If you currently have an active annual pass, you won’t switch to one of the new ones until your next renewal, which will still have the renewal discount against the new prices, but you will get the increased park reservation count starting Sept 8th.

From what I’m reading so far, Florida residents can choose between any of the 4, DVC members can choose between 2, and non-residents who aren’t DVC members can only buy 1. Each of the 4 vary with the number of park reservations and block out dates.

The key differences between these and the old annual passes are that you can make up to 5 park reservations now (currently, it’s 3) if you’re not staying at a Disney resort (resort guests still get length of stay), but PhotoPass photo downloads are not included anymore. That is now an add-on that you can buy for the year if you want to get all of your PhotoPass/ride photos. That’s a bummer, but you only need to buy one for your group if you’re all linked in the MDE app. Water parks is another add-on too. But, passes still includes park hopping and various discounts and other perks.

I know the price of annual passes may seem daunting, but if you tend to go to Disney World more than once a year or if your one trip is more than a week, you may want to do the math to see if it’s more cost effective to get an annual pass instead of buying individual tickets. It includes discounts on shopping and dining at certain Disney locations, along with a few other perks that may add up to be enough savings for you to get a pass. You may also consider getting a pass for one member of your group just to get the discounts. If you’ve already bought park tickets for an upcoming trip, you can upgrade them to a pass before the last day of your tickets and apply the cost you already paid towards them.

The chart below summarizes the key points of the four different passes, courtesy of Disney.

You can read Disney’s full article here:

• WDW Annual Passes

I’m not sure if Disney will release more information than this, if there is anymore, but I’ll keep you posted if anything significant comes out. Feel free to contact me if you want to chat about this.

UPDATE 10/7/2021: Bookings will open Oct 28, 2021 with sailings starting Mar 1, 2022. More details here.

Disney just announced tons of details about the Star Wars Galactic Starcruiser, the Halcyon. This will be a 2 night immersive experience on board the “ship”, where you will be a part of a first of its kind Star Wars adventure that includes a stop at Batuu Galaxy’s Edge. Think land and sea cruise experience, but in the Star Wars realm.

It’s hard to describe exactly what it’ll be like since this is brand new, but the theming looks impressive so far. Disney has released some concept photos, and just today, a short teaser video.

The experience will include a 2 night stay in a ship cabin (aka hotel room), meals, a visit to Batuu (in Hollywood Studios, but only that section of the park), and a bunch of activities like lightsaber training and secret missions.

They’re listing starting prices of $4800 for 2 people per cabin to $6000 for 4. These are just starting prices, listed for the Fall months, so chances are, they’ll only go up from there for the peak months and for higher level cabins. Yikes!

They haven’t announced when booking will start yet, but I suspect it’ll be in the next few months if it’s supposed to launch next Spring. If it works like regular cruises, prices will always be lowest when they’re first released and only go up as room inventory goes down, so you’ll probably want to book asap if you’re seriously considering this. Let me know if you would like me to help.

Read all the specifics on the Disney World Starcruiser page, which includes a sample itinerary and pricing. Select from the drop-down menu to view the related pages.

Note: Just based on the sample itinerary, it sounds like this experience will only include the two night stay on the Halcyon ship/hotel and the brief visit to Batuu in Hollywood Studios. You won’t leave it otherwise. So, if you want to go to the rest of the Disney World parks, you will need to book that as a separate experience before or after. Basically, get park tickets and hotel/resort stay like you would a normal Disney World trip.

I’ve finally finished all of the daily recaps for our June Disney World Trip! Come see what it was like!

We had a great time soaking in the magic, doing all the rides, and eating all the foods! It was just good to be back!

We managed to visit all 4 theme parks (some multiple times), Blizzard Beach water park, Disney Springs, and several resorts. We tried several new restaurants too! Yum!

We did a ton of stuff, but it was also pretty chill since we had so many days on this trip. However, there are still many more things that we could do. Next trip!

Despite some short bouts of fierce afternoon storms, we got lucky with the weather in general. It was Florida summer, hot n humid, but wasn’t crazy hot until our last day.

The crowds weren’t too bad either all week. Most rides were less than a half hour wait, but if you know the strategies, like when is the best time to do which ride, you can get alot of them in for less than 15 minutes. We skipped some of the bigger rides that always had long waits, but that was mostly because we didn’t feel like waiting more than half an hour. We’ve done them before. Hopefully, FastPasses will return soon. We would usually get FastPasses for those rides.

Now, if you’re concerned about crowds, know that social distancing is out the window and hardly anyone is wearing masks anymore. You’ll be walking right next to people in stores and walkways, etc, so assess your own comfort level with that. They’re increasing capacity so crowds are getting higher by the week. Of course, if you’re going during holidays or school breaks, expect even higher than normal crowds then too.

We made some minor changes to our plans, but that’s to be expected on any trip. Treat your plans like a rough draft, know your alternate options, and revise as you create your magical story.

A Disney trip is not about racing through rides. Soak in the atmosphere, see the shows, try the restaurants, and explore all of the other features. All of it together form the unique experience of going to these theme parks vs your neighborhood amusement park. That’s what makes these parks so much more magical. Make sure to get the full experience of them.

I hope you get a sense of what a Disney trip could be like from our recaps, and get some ideas for your future trips. Of course, all trips are different. Your trip should be customized to your group’s desires. If you have any questions about the stuff we did, feel free to ask me.

These places are huge, and you can easily miss lots of fun things, and waste a lot of time (thus, money) by not knowing key tips n tricks. I definitely recommend doing your research and talking to a friend who is very familiar with all of these parks. Better yet, talk to a friend who is a travel agent! Hint, hint!

If you would like me to help with your planning, feel free to contact me at adventuresbyanne@gmail.com.

Start reading our trip recaps here or under the Trip Recaps section of the main menu. Have fun!