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DISNEY WORLD NEXT WEEK: FEBRUARY 22 TO MARCH 1, 2020

The material below details next week’s Disney World operating hours, Extra Magic Hours, parades, and fireworks.

For more on February 2020 at Disney World see this.

OPERATING HOURS AT WALT DISNEY WORLD 2/22-3/1/20

The Magic Kingdom will be open from 9a-10p 2/22, 9a-9p 2/23 through 2/27, 9a-10p 2/28 and 2/29, and 9a-9p 3/1

Epcot will be open from 9a-9p every day

Disney’s Hollywood Studios will be open from 8a-8p 2/23 through 2/29, and 8a-8.30p 3/1

Disney’s Animal Kingdom will be open from 9a-9p 2/22, and 9a-8p 2/23 through 3/1

EXTRA MAGIC HOURS AT WALT DISNEY WORLD 2/22-3/1/20

• Saturday 2/22 Morning: Animal Kingdom Evening: none
• Sunday 2/23 Morning: none Evening: Hollywood Studios
• Monday 2/24 Morning: Animal Kingdom Evening: none
• Tuesday 2/25 Morning: none Evening: Epcot
• Wednesday 2/26 Morning: none Evening: Magic Kingdom
• Thursday 2/27 Morning: Epcot Evening: none
• Friday 2/28 Morning: Magic Kingdom Evening: none
• Saturday 2/29 Morning: Animal Kingdom Evening: none
• Sunday 3/1 Morning: none Evening: Hollywood Studios

PARADES AT WALT DISNEY WORLD 2/22-3/1/20

Magic Kingdom: Afternoon parade: 3p every day

FIREWORKS AND EVENING SHOWS AT WALT DISNEY WORLD 2/22-3/1/20

Happily Ever After  at Magic Kingdom: 8p every day

Epcot Forever at Epcot: 9p every day

Fantasmic at Disney’s Hollywood Studios: 8p every day

Star Wars Show and Fireworks at Disney’s Hollywood Studios: 8p every day

Rivers of Light at Disney’s Animal Kingdom: 7 and 8.15p 2/22 through 2/29; 7.15 and 8.30p 3/1

SHOW SCHEDULES FOR WALT DISNEY WORLD 2/22-3/1/20

See Steve Soares’ site here. Click the park names at its top for show schedules.

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Welcome back to Fridays with Jim Korkis! Jim, the dean of Disney historians, writes about Walt Disney World history every Friday on yourfirstvisit.net.

HOTEL MEL

By Jim Korkis

While today it is acknowledged that Walt Disney World’s Twilight Zone Tower of Terror is an iconic Disney theme park attraction, it was not the first choice when Disney decided in 1989 to expand what was then Disney MGM Studios (now Disney’s Hollywood Studios) to meet the unexpected increased demand when the park opened.

The first idea that was suggested was an elaborate Roger Rabbit Toontown, with several attractions like a Toon Town Trolley simulator, shops, and food and beverage locations.

Then, with hopes that the Dick Tracy Touchstone film would spark a successful and financially lucrative franchise, the idea was discussed to build a 1930s era Chicago street where Sunset Boulevard is today. It would have had an attraction called Dick Tracy Crimestoppers where guests would be riding in vintage cars and shooting tommy guns at gangsters.

In late 1989, CEO Michael Eisner pitched the idea to filmmaker Mel Brooks to collaborate on a new Disney theme park attraction in hopes it would also lead to Brooks producing films for Disney. After several trips to Imagineering, Mel wanted to combine scary and funny into a Castle Young Frankenstein based on his popular comedic film that would have had a Bavarian village area leading to a drawbridge and the castle where the attraction would be.

The idea further evolved into Mel Brooks’ Hollywood Horror Hotel. The Imagineers jokingly referred to the project as Hotel Mel. Guests would have seen this huge abandoned hotel that might be haunted, and through television monitors be informed that Mel Brooks was directing a new comedy horror movie inside.

Guests would be given a chance to visit the “Hot Set” and maybe even get to be an extra in the film. They would have boarded golf carts (guided by a magnetic wire embedded in the floor) and would experience a coven of witches cooking in their cauldron in the hotel kitchen, encounter Quasimodo the hotel “bellboy”, and even visit the men’s room where Dracula is trying to shave himself in a mirror where he can’t see his reflection and the wolfman is combing himself while Frankenstein is in a stall trying to grab the Mummy’s wrappings from the nearby stall to use as toilet paper.

However, the Imagineers could not come up with a coherent story to tie it all together, and the price for creating these elaborate audio-animatronics figures was cost prohibitive.

Other ideas were pitched, including an attraction featuring the various characters that appeared in author Stephen King’s novels, as well as a partially walking tour narrated by Vincent Price (who had recorded the original Disneyland Paris Phantom Manor narration) about a group of movie stars who had been staying at the hotel but mysteriously disappeared. Throughout the tour, guests would discover clues, and when they finally entered the elevator what had happened to those missing people became very clear, but it was too late to get out.

Eisner suggested making the hotel an actual in-park Disney resort themed to a “film noir” murder mystery revolving around a hotel manager who had gone crazy, that would have included costumed staff interacting with guests and a haunted elevator experience.

Imagineers realized they might be able to incorporate a freefall idea into the haunted elevator. Since Disney MGM Studios was themed to the Hollywood of the 1930s and 1940s, it seemed logical to have a classic Hollywood hotel from that era be the focus of the attraction.

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Thanks, Jim! And come back next Friday for more from Jim Korkis!

In the meantime, check out his books, including his latest, Disney Never Lands, and about planned but unbuilt concepts, and Secret Stories of Walt Disney World: Things You Never You Never Knew, which reprints much material first written for this site, all published by Theme Park Press.

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DISNEY WORLD NEXT WEEK: FEBRUARY 15 TO FEBRUARY 23, 2020

The material below details next week’s Disney World operating hours, Extra Magic Hours, parades, and fireworks.

For more on February, 2020 at Disney World see this.

OPERATING HOURS AT WALT DISNEY WORLD 2/15-2/23/20

The Magic Kingdom will be open from 9a-11p 2/15, 9a-10p 2/16, 9a-9p 2/17 through 2/21, 9a-10p 2/22, and 9a-9p 2/23

Epcot will be open from 9a-9p every day

Disney’s Hollywood Studios will be open from 8a-8p every day

Disney’s Animal Kingdom will be open from 9a-8p 2/15 through 2/22, 9a-9p 2/22, and 9a-8p 2/23

EXTRA MAGIC HOURS AT WALT DISNEY WORLD 2/15-2/23/20

• Saturday 2/15 Morning: Animal Kingdom Evening: none
• Sunday 2/16 Morning: none Evening: Hollywood Studios
• Monday 2/17 Morning: Animal Kingdom Evening: none
• Tuesday 2/18 Morning: none Evening: Epcot
• Wednesday 2/19 Morning: none Evening: Magic Kingdom
• Thursday 2/20 Morning: Epcot Evening: none
• Friday 2/21 Morning: Magic Kingdom Evening: none
• Saturday 2/22 Morning: Animal Kingdom Evening: none
• Sunday 2/23 Morning: none Evening: Hollywood Studios

PARADES AT WALT DISNEY WORLD 2/15-2/23/20

Magic Kingdom: Afternoon parade: 3p every day

FIREWORKS AND EVENING SHOWS AT WALT DISNEY WORLD 2/15-2/23/20

Happily Ever After  at Magic Kingdom: 8p every day

Epcot Forever at Epcot: 9p every day

Fantasmic at Disney’s Hollywood Studios: 8p every day

Star Wars Show and Fireworks at Disney’s Hollywood Studios: 8p every day

Rivers of Light at Disney’s Animal Kingdom: 7 and 8.15p every day

SHOW SCHEDULES FOR WALT DISNEY WORLD 2/15-2/23/20

See Steve Soares’ site here. Click the park names at its top for show schedules.

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Disney World ticket prices increased yesterday, February 11. If you’ve already bought your tickets, you are fine, but those who have not yet bought their tickets will pay the new prices.

I’ll gather, enter, and analyze the 3,000 or so new prices as soon as I can. When I’m done, you’ll find the results here and here—hopefully by March.

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WHAT IS SEPTEMBER LIKE AT DISNEY WORLD?

September at Disney World combines lower crowds with low prices, and typically also has nice deals as well.

This makes it a great month for returning visitors.

But it has lousy weather, combining continuing summer heat and humidity with the peak of the hurricane season, making me not so keen on the month for first time visitors who may never return.

Note also that picking the right park to visit each day is critical at this time of the year.  See this, and use the comment form below to ask me about your specific dates!

[Read more →]

MNSSHP DATES IN SEPTEMBER 2020

While as of this morning, Disney World’s official calendar only goes through August 17, September dates are beginning to leak.

One unofficial calendar that I have found to track quite well with actual operating hours shows the Magic Kingdom closing at 6p on the following September dates:

• Tuesday September 1
• Friday September 4
• Monday September 7
• Friday September 11
• Sunday September 13
• Tuesday September 15
• Friday September 18
• Sunday September 20
• Tuesday September 22
• Friday September 25
• Sunday September 27
• Tuesday September 29

The odds are pretty high that these  represent September 2020 dates for the 2020 version of Mickey’s Not-So-Scary Halloween Party (“MNSSHP”—for more on this party, see this), as they are fully consistent with the 2019 and 2018 patterns.

OPENING DATE FOR 2020 EPCOT INTERNATIONAL FOOD AND WINE FESTIVAL

I should have noted this when I published about possible August 2020 dates for Mickey’s Not-So-Scary Halloween Party, but analysis of the same sources suggests that the 2020 Epcot International Food and Wine Festival will open the week of 8/23 in 2020, likely on 8/27 or 8/28.

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