MickeyBlog News for April 29th, 2024
This past week, Disney finally confirmed details about its summer festival and a beloved Disneyland Resort event returned.
This is an exciting week for MickeyBlog News, especially for those who love Pixar.
Better Late Than Never
Disney created a bit of mystery in 2024, as it never announced the dates for the EPCOT International Food & Wine Festival.
That’s kinda like the Easter Bunny not telling which day he’ll visit.
For a time, speculation was rampant about whether Disney might squeeze in a new festival or extend the EPCOT International Flower & Garden Festival.
Instead, we have a simpler explanation here. EPCOT is nearing the completion of a seven-year reinvention.
When CommuniCore Hall & Plaza opens, the split of the former Future World into three Neighborhoods will be complete.
Operating a popular festival during the opening days of CommuniCore would have added needless chaos to the process.
The Dates for Food & Wine 2024
Thankfully, park officials kept this potential bottleneck in mind and provided a gap between the two.
CommuniCore’s new space opens on June 10th. Then, nearly 12 weeks later, the Food & Wine Festival begins.
The official dates for Food & Wine 2024 are August 29th through November 23rd.
That’s more than a month later than the same event opened in 2023. You can consider that the CommuniCore gap.
Disney will provide you with plenty of opportunities to enjoy the new CommuniCore shows and character interactions on their own merits.
Then, as summer winds down, you’ll still get three months of Food & Wine.
Our wonderful MickeyBlog team has compiled a list of everything that Disney has confirmed about this year’s event.
We even received a sneak peek at some of the merchandise coming in August, and if you like Figment, you’re in business!
While we know that Global Marketplaces and the Eat to the Beat concert series will return, Disney was decidedly sparse with other details.
So, you must keep checking back to learn additional details as the festival approaches. It may be a while, though.
I suspect Disney doesn’t want anything distracting away from CommuniCore and Tiana’s Bayou Adventure this summer…
Pixar Fest 2024 Debuts
Ordinarily, when the MickeyBlog crew goes on tour, I’m perfectly content to be a homebody as others travel.
This past week, I must confess to a bit of jealousy, though.
Our team started relaying pictures and videos from Pixar Fest 2024 at Disney California Adventure.
My inner child squealed with delight at several of them, as this year’s event has prioritized some of the newer stuff.
Obviously, we’ve had several previous Pixar Fest events, but the difference now is that everything is complete.
Like EPCOT, Disney California Adventure (DCA) embarked on a prolonged transition into a Pixar/Marvel theme park.
As part of the final touches, San Fransokyo Square debuted last year, followed by the transition of a resort into Pixar Place Hotel.
Now, everything ties together perfectly, and park officials apparently chose to celebrate by making Pixar Fest 2024 the best ever.
MickeyBlog was fortunate enough to get an early look at the food available during the Pixar Fest event.
I highly encourage you to click that link and eat with your eyes because some of it had me salivating.
The Pixar Ball Cake Pop is especially charming, which brings me back to the main point.
The Glory of Pixar Fest 2024
The people who planned this year’s event understand why we love Pixar, and they leaned hard into our passion.
As an example, Onward debuted in theaters just before the pandemic, which truncated its box office and pop culture awareness.
Still, you’ll find the Lightfoot brothers, Ian and Barley, greeting guests at Pixar Fest.
Somehow, that’s not even the best character interaction this year.
Ember and Wade from Elemental are spending part of their happily ever after hanging out with Pixar Fest guests.
Dear Disney: please bring this character interaction to Walt Disney World. And make it permanent!
MickeyBlog compiled the full list of Pixar character greetings available during the event.
There are so many that you could spend your entire park visit hanging out with your Pixar pals!
By the way, if you want the Pizza Planet popcorn bucket we’ve been highlighting on social media, here’s how to win one.
Disney has also updated Together Forever – A Pixar Nighttime Spectacular…and for a very good reason.
Several new Pixar films have debuted since the production team created this experience in 2018.
The modernized version includes characters from recent titles, such as the aforementioned Onward and Elemental, plus Soul, Turning Red, and Luca.
Importantly, Disney has also snuck in the new emotions we’ll meet for the first time when Inside Out 2 comes out in June! How great is that?!
Oh, Better Together: A Pixar Pals Celebration is back as well! Here’s a taste of it we posted on social media this week:
We’re previewing the NEW “Better Together: A Pixar Pals Celebration” parade on the streets of Disney California Adventure! 🎡 #PixarFest2024 #CelebratingFriendshipandBeyond #Disneyland #Hosted pic.twitter.com/gBvlcdGz9U
— MickeyTravels, LLC (@MickeyTravels) April 25, 2024
You should be following us on social media, folks! We’ll keep you in the loop on everything happening at Disney.
Disney Miscellany
We had a couple of milestones at Walt Disney World this past week.
The biggie was the 35th anniversary of the opening of Hollywood Studios.
During those early years when it was still called Disney-MGM Studios Park, nobody was sure it would last a decade.
So, the recent ascension of Hollywood Studios is gratifying for those who stuck with it since the early days of The Great Movie Ride…and little else.
Disney’s Animal Kingdom also celebrated a birthday last week. It turned 26 on Earth Day.
Cast Members always go big during Earth Week to commemorate the park’s remarkable existence. And that was particularly true this time.
At EPCOT, Living with the Land received a subtle but significant update to the rainforest section.
Next, Disney Springs fans will be happy to know that Vineyard Vines has finally opened.
Circling back to Disneyland Resort, Céntrico Bar & Restaurant has also opened. Needless to say, it’s a big week for Disneyland fans.
Finally, in international news, Hong Kong Disneyland is hosting the Marvel Season of Super Heroes right now as well.
This event will run through June 10th and includes a new drone show.
Disney is committing to these drone exhibitions, although they’re not without their risks.
Have a great week, everyone!
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