This week in Disney…April 16-22, 2023
Disneyland had one hell of a week, and not in a good way.
On April 20th, 2023 the turnstiles and ticket readers at Disneyland went offline. It lasted for several hours and, as you can see in the website linked below, it lead to a huge crowd. For people already in the parks they were fine. If they left and tried to go into another park or return to that park, they couldn’t. Did I mention that part of the Disneyland park also lost power?
For more info see https://wdwnt.com/2023/04/breaking-disneyland-resort-turnstiles-briefly-down-crowding-and-delays-at-gates/.
But, in what may turn out to be even bigger news, on April 22nd (yesterday as I write this) the animatronic Malifecent dragon, the centerpiece of the Fantasmic! show in Disneyland, caught on fire. There are numerous videos of it happening online. Before you Google it - no. No one was hurt. There are reports of some employees at the scene with fire inhalation but I’m not sure if those are WDW cast members or someone else, like members of the fire brigade. Disney responded today by suspending all “fire effects” similar to this so you don’t expect to see the dragon used in the parade at Magic Kingdom in Walt Disney World, or at least to not see any fire coming from it. The hopes is that this will only be a temporary set-back and that once the technical issue is solved, these sorts of pyrotechnics will return. Disney is nothing if not focused on safety. I’ll keep you updated.
Thanks to Debbie Williams from Mattercamers United on Facebook for letting me use her image! RIP Murphy
As for WDW, the juicy drama between the Walt Disney Company and Ron DeSantis, Republican governor of Florida, continue. Disney posted a new website on April 20th where they give information on the Reedy Creek Improvement District (now known as the Central Florida Tourism Oversight District) and Disney’s role in central Florida. It’s estimated that WDW is the largest single-employer in the United States with direct employees of around 75,000 but if you include contract employees and those who work with Disney that estimate jumps to nearly 500,000 people. That is a staggeringly large number. If you’d like to learn more for yourself, I’ve included the link to Disney’s website below.
https://disneyconnect.com/disneyworld/our-community/the-value-of-disney-reedy-creek-to-florida/
I think we can all expect even more drama to come in the weeks ahead.
In larger news, Disney made an announcement on an affordable housing project. Yes, you read that correctly. Housing. Affordable housing. (Never thought you’d see “affordable” and “Disney” in the same sentence did you? Neither did I). As of now it’s projected to have 1,300 units. Ground-breaking is slotted to be in 2024 with the units to start coming available in 2026. With Disney announcing their projections of over $17 billion in investments in Central Florida, it is unsure if this will likely take up a decent chunk of that or if those funds are slotted only for WDW.
And speaking of places to sleep, Fort Wilderness is about to get a huge update. Fort Wilderness is one of the oldest resorts at WDW. The cabins are going to get a big refresh (if not an outright replacement) and instead of looking like cabins will look more like shipping container-style tiny homes (which I personally love. If anyone has stayed at a Getaway location you’ll know exactly what I mean). Still, that feeling of being in a cabin in the woods will go away. While these cabins will be DVC cabins, they can still be rented out by non-DVC resort guests. There will also be new cabins built. Personally I’m excited about this. I love glamping and tiny-home living so this is right up my alley!