Orlando Informer Blog

UPDATE (10:17 am 10.18.17): the Orlando Sentinel has just confirmed that the Walt Disney World Swan and Dolphin Resort will, indeed, be getting an expansion –a third tower that will consist of 350 rooms. You can read all of the original details below. All eyes may be on Pandora: The World of Avatar, the new […]

Disney blew out its resort-wide Christmas celebrations at Walt Disney World today, and it’s easy to see how the company is clearly itching to make this year the biggest – and, quite possibly, the best – holiday season it’s ever had across the destination’s 46-year history. There’s so much going on in November and December, […]

On April 14, 2017, Disney kicked off what has unsurprisingly already become a brand-new after-hours tradition: an all-things-Star Wars celebration called Star Wars: Galactic Nights. Today, the company has announced a second round, scheduled for Saturday, December 16 – just one day after Star Wars: Episode VIII – The Last Jedi hits theaters, incidentally – […]

Everyone points to the new films, television shows, and, of course, theme park lands as to what Disney has been doing with the Star Wars property since it purchased it from creator George Lucas in October 2012. It turns out, however, that arguably the biggest impact the Mouse House has made on the franchise has […]

Last month, Disney unveiled a brand-new bar for its continually-under-construction Hollywood Studios: BaseLine Tap House, a “cheerful corner pub specializing in beer and wines from California.” What was so intriguing about the announcement, beyond the continued revitalization of the former movie-studio theme park, was the reference of yet another brand-new land that BaseLine was going […]

Over the past few months, a particular rumor has started to gain traction all across the themed online community, with it seemingly coming to a boil just over the past two weeks. It initially caught our eye, and we’ve been doing our best to monitor it behind the scenes, checking with our sources along the […]

There has been a recent trend in the themed industry to have theme parks couple the real-world experiences they offer with virtual-reality components – think Kraken Unleashed, SeaWorld’s new VR upgrade to its 17-year-old floorless roller coaster, or Universal’s new slew of patents, which includes a virtual window that can wrap around a building or […]

The Orlando Sentinel is reporting that paperwork has been filed to build a brand-new hotel at Walt Disney World Resort, near Epcot (on the corner of Epcot Center Drive and Interstate 4, to be exact), with the name of JW Marriott at Bonnet Creek. The news is notable not only for the fact that the […]

In 2012, Comcast – which had just finished purchasing NBCUniversal the year before – made what is a now-legendary announcement: it was going to spend $500 million a year on both of its American theme park locations, opening up at least one new attraction, restaurant, and/or hotel each and every year. Although we have yet […]

Yes, we might have known all about Toy Story Land’s three attractions, its placement on the Hollywood Studios map, and a general timeframe for its opening (2018), but that still left quite a bit in the dark. What would the area’s various dining and character meet-‘n-greet experiences be like? What would happen to the next-door […]

Leave it to Disney to find a way to address consumers’ complaints and to increase its revenue stream in one fell swoop. Transportation at Walt Disney World Resort is always at a premium, given the huge number of guests that visit there each and every day and the vast number of square miles that the […]

There were a whole bunch of announcements that we expected Disney to make during its D23 Expo today: a massive new E-ticket for Magic Kingdom (Tron Lightcycle Power Run), Epcot (Guardians of the Galaxy), and Hollywood Studios (Mickey and Minnie’s Runaway Railway) each; new transportation options for Walt Disney World Resort (gondolas and Uber-like Minnie […]

Tron Lightcycle Power Run, which opened with Shanghai Disneyland on June 16, 2016, has long been rumored to be making its way over to Walt Disney World Resort, whether that be in Epcot’s Future World or Magic Kingdom’s Tomorrowland (the coaster acts as Space Mountain’s replacement in the Chinese Tomorrowland). Today, at its biennial D23 […]

During this weekend’s biennial D23 Expo, Disney Parks and Resorts made the long-awaited and -expected announcement: the ultra-successful Guardians of the Galaxy franchise will be landing at Epcot. The rumor that the recently-exploded property would be finding its way to Walt Disney World Resort is an old one, having first appeared shortly over a year […]

On the continued march to Walt Disney World’s 50th anniversary in 2021, Disney has been readying each of its resort’s four theme parks for the big event, refreshing their attractions or expanding them with brand-new lands. So far, Hollywood Studios has been the out-and-out star of this preparatory work, getting such additions as Toy Story […]

This weekend’s D23 Expo has been huge for Star Wars Land; on Thursday night, we got a sneak peek at the absolutely mammoth model Disney brought to the convention floor of the 14-acre area, and, now, we have a whole slew of official confirmations that fans have been waiting for ever since the development was […]

Just because reconstituting half of Disney’s Hollywood Studios into both Toy Story Land and Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge just isn’t quite enough, Disney has gone ahead today and revealed that it’s adding one final piece to the makeover puzzle: Mickey and Minnie’s Runaway Railway, the first-ever Mickey-themed ride in Disney’s history. Guests will be able […]

The big Disney Parks and Resorts panel at this year’s D23 Expo won’t begin until 6:30 pm EST on Saturday, July 15 – a panel which, we’re assuming, many a revelation will be dropped on us, including a lot more information about Star Wars Land – but it seems like we may have gotten one […]

The big, detailed nature of Star Wars Land has been well documented in the two years since the project was officially announced – it’s 14 acres in size, it’ll feature tons of hidden details and Easter eggs, and, we saw just last night, it’ll have multi-story-tall buildings that will dominate guests as they walk down […]

Tonight, at a special press preview event ahead of this weekend’s D23 Expo, Disney pulled back the curtain on its massive, impressively-detailed model of Star Wars Land… and the results are stunning, to say the least. What makes the reveal all the more exciting is the simple fact that Disney, despite having shared several different […]

Disney’s Hollywood Studios is currently facing a whole slew of some pretty massive changes – after all, nearly half the park is under construction, with part of it being transformed into Toy Story Land for next year and the rest eventually rising as Star Wars Land in 2019. A Star Wars-themed hotel is also said […]

The Walt Disney Company, as you may have noticed, is a large enterprise, comprising a wide range of media and markets. The biennial D23 Expo, which is held in Anaheim this year from Friday, July 14 to Sunday, July 16, celebrates it all, with panels scheduled to highlight upcoming films and showcase the latest in […]