Theme Park Bits: Huge ‘Toy Story’ Land Domino Maze, Fantasyland Recreated In Home Basement, And More
In this edition of Theme Park Bits:
Here’s something cool, viaThe Disney Blog. To celebrate the opening ofToy StoryLand at Disney’s Hollywood Studios this year, “Walt Disney World invited a domino chain-reaction maze artist to build a basketball court-sized colorful domino maze involving more than 30,000 intricately placed pieces and then knock it all down.” Check it out in the video above, and if you missed it, be sure to check out ourphoto tour ofToy StoryLand, as well.
Walt Disney World Annual Passholdersgot first crackat some special Halloween goods this year in the inaugural “V.I.Passholder Pop-up Merchandise Event” at the Magic Kingdom. A limited-release Haunted Mansion Hitchhiking Ghost Plush Set, Dooney & Burke’s Villain Ear Hat Collection, and some Tim Burton’sThe Nightmare Before Christmasmerchandise all went on sale early at the Emporium gift shop. If you didn’t get yours, not to worry: these items are now available to all park guests.
Disney’s Animal Kingdom is making some cuts and closures, starting with live actors, whowill no longer be appearingas shamans in theRivers of Lightshow. This will certainly alter the dynamic of the show:Rivers of Lightwas never the liveliest nighttime spectacular, to begin with. When I saw the show last year, I thought the lantern barges during the Parade of Animal Spirits were beautiful, but other than that, I was mostly underwhelmed.
AsDisney Tourist Blogpoints out,Rivers of Lightis the kind of show where, “if anything, photos do ittoo muchjustice.” One commenter over there dismissed it as, “just a bunch of floats squirting water into the air while changing colors,” and while that sounds like a harsh assessment, he has a point. Now those floats will be bereft of humans, left to sail the lagoon empty while the sedate water effects of fountains and mist screens go off around them.
BREAKING: Rafiki’s Planet Watch at Disney’s Animal Kingdom to Close in Octoberhttps://t.co/FHopalAs5Mpic.twitter.com/7aSGOfVytW
— WDW News Today (@WDWNT)July 14, 2025
Also on the chopping block at Animal Kingdom is Rafiki’s Planet Watch. News first broke of its impending doom through an announcement to Cast Members and now Disney haspublicly confirmedthat the area will close permanently next month.
As of June 28, 2025, meet-and-greets with characters at Rafiki’s have already ended, so alas, it’s too late to shake the titular baboon’s paw one last time. The rest of the facilities, including the Wildlife Express Train, Conservation Station, and petting zoo, will all close after October 20, while the animals remain under veterinary care behind the scenes.
Math can be mind-numbing but as you’re able to see from the tweet above, theme park pundits have found a useful application for it: they’re using it to calculate the hourly ride capacity for the upcoming Millennium Falcon attraction inStar Wars: Galaxy’s Edge. That’s right, kids. Mathisimportant. You will need it. Stay in school or else you won’t make it to Grad Nite at Disney.
The next Epcot Flower and Garden Festival will be held from March 6 to August 12, 2025. Good news for live music fans: the Garden Rocks Concert Series will beexpanding to seven days a weekduring the festival.
Walt Disney World Resort Introduces New Online Destination For Vacation Planning, Date-Based Tickets:https://t.co/pMlIcSS8mppic.twitter.com/kauQRFdVoj
— Disney Parks (@DisneyParks)August 10, 2025
How much you pay for a park ticket at Walt Disney Worldwill soon dependon what day you decide to visit. The resort’s new date-based model for ticket pricing is set to go into effect on July 24, 2025.
At Disneyland, mobile orderingis now availablefor Edelweiss Snacks, Refreshment Corner, Royal Street Veranda, and Stage Door Cafe.
Naples Ristorante e Pizzeria has opened anew upstairs dining roomas part of the ongoing renovations of the Downtown Disney District.
Why settle for just visiting Fantasyland at Disneyland when you can build afaithful recreationof part of it in your basement? That’s what one man, a railroad engineer named Travis, did, using “thousands of reference pictures collected from the internet.” Let’s get some more determined, Disney-obsessed engineers together and see what we can do about rebuilding the great attractions of yesteryear like the original Journey Into Imagination. Crowd-funding campaign, anyone?
If you need some fresh incentive to visit Universal’s Islands of Adventure, there’s always this: TripAdvisor has named it the number one theme park in the worldfor the fourth year in a row.
Moving abroad, Tokyo Disneylandhas announceda new special event for next year, Donald’s Hot Jungle Summer, which “will feature a stage show after dark in front of Cinderella Castle for the first time in six years.” DisneySea’s version of Soarin', dubbed Soaring: Fantastic Flight (see the concept art above), will also open next summer, along with a new show called “Song of Mirage” in the port ofLost River Delta.
Finally, at Walt Disney Studios Park in Paris, theCinéMagiquetheater show — a beloved opening-day attraction that closed last year after a decade and a half — isreturning for a limited engagementfrom August 04, 2025, to June 09, 2025.
