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DISNEY WORLD NEXT WEEK: DECEMBER 28, 2019 TO JANUARY 5, 2020

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

For more on December 2019 at Disney World, see this.

OPERATING HOURS AT WALT DISNEY WORLD 12/28/19-1/5/20

The Magic Kingdom will be open from 8a-12MN 12/28 through 12/30, 8a-1a 12/31, 9a-10p 1/1, 9a-11p 1/2 through 1/4, and 9a-9p 1/5

Epcot will be open from 9a-9.30p 12/28 through 12/30, 8a-1a 12/31, and 9a-9p 1/1 through 1/5

Disney’s Hollywood Studios will be open from 6a to 10p 12/28 through 12/30, 6a-12MN 12/31, 7a-9p 1/1 through 1/4, and 8a-9p 1/5

Disney’s Animal Kingdom will be open from 8a-10p 12/28, 8a-11p 12/29 and 12/30, 7a-12MN 12/31, 9a-9p 1/1, 8a-10p 1/2, 8a-9p 1/3, 8a-10p 1/4, and 9a-8p 1/5

EXTRA MAGIC HOURS AT WALT DISNEY WORLD 12/28/19-1/5/20

• Saturday 12/28 Morning: Magic  Kingdom Evening: none
• Sunday 12/29 Morning: Magic Kingdom Evening: none
• Monday 12/30 Morning: Animal Kingdom, Magic Kingdom Evening: Magic Kingdom
• Tuesday 12/31 Morning: Magic Kingdom Evening: none
• Wednesday 1/1 Morning: Animal Kingdom Evening: Magic Kingdom
• Thursday 1/2 Morning: Epcot, Animal Kingdom Evening: none
• Friday 1/3 Morning: Magic Kingdom Evening: Epcot
• Saturday 1/4 Morning: Magic Kingdom, Animal Kingdom Evening: none
• Sunday 1/5 Morning: none Evening: Hollywood Studios

PARADES AT WALT DISNEY WORLD 12/28/19-1/5/20

Magic Kingdom: Afternoon parade: noon and 3p 12/28 through 12/30; 11a and 2p 12/31; 3p 1/1 through 1.5

FIREWORKS AND EVENING SHOWS AT WALT DISNEY WORLD 12/28/19-1/5/20

Happily Ever After and other fireworks at Magic Kingdom: 10p 12/28 through 12/29; 6.30 and 11.50p 12/30 and 12/31; 8p 1/1 through 1/5

Epcot Forever at Epcot: 9.30p 12/28 through 12/30; 6.30 and 11.40p 12/31; 9p 1/1 through 1.5

Fantasmic at Disney’s Hollywood Studios: 9 and 10.30p 12/28 through 12/31; 8 and 9.30p 1/1 through 1/4; 8p 1/5

Star Wars Show and Fireworks 12MN 12/31

Jingle Bell, Jingle BAM! at Disney’s Hollywood Studios: 10p 12/28 through  12/30; 6.30p 12/31; 9p 1/1 through 1/5

Rivers of Light at Disney’s Animal Kingdom: 6.30, 8, and 9.30p 12/28 through 12/30; 6.30, 8 and 11.15p 12/31; 6.30 and 8p 1/1 through 1/4; 6.30 and 7.45p 1/5

SHOW SCHEDULES FOR WALT DISNEY WORLD 12/28/19-1/5/20

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.

DISNEY SPRINGS AND ITS STORIES

By Jim Korkis

Florida has one of the largest concentrations of freshwater springs on Earth, with more than 900 natural springs. Springs served as locations for Spanish missions, steamboat landings, gristmills and more, including reservoirs for irrigating crops. A few springs gave birth to towns, including Silver Springs in Marion County, Green Cove Spring in Clay County, and De Leon Springs in Volusia County.

Inspired by small Florida towns that developed in the early 1900s around these bodies of water, the storyline for Disney Springs–the shopping, dining and entertainment area of the far east side of Walt Disney World–is that Disney Springs also attracted its first settlers “more than a century ago”.

That original group of settlers discovered a natural spring and a wonderful piece of land near it to settle on in the mid-1800s. They built the Town Center where the residents lived. They even built a water side promenade where they could gather to relax after a busy day.

As the population grew, the town branched out to towards the water with The Landing, which was the transportation hub (for planes, trains and more), and then continued to expand, on either side of the Town Center, with the Marketplace and the West Side.

In the West Side there are remnants of an elevated train trestle that was supposedly built for the fictional 1950 Springs Centennial Expo that is shown on a poster in D-Luxe Burger and at Guest Relations. That Expo had hot air balloons and a big distinctive central structure like most World’s Fairs that later became Characters in Flight and the Cirque du Soleil building.

According to the back story, a Florida cattle rancher named Martin Sinclair and his wife Clara first discovered the water source of the Springs in 1850 and settled there. Sinclair shifted from just being a dealer in beef cattle after he attended the St. Louis World’s Fair and discovered a new treat: a hamburger.

That inspiration resulted in the Glowing Oak Ranch evolving into a small family restaurant. Glowing Oak Ranch became Glowing Oak Restaurant officially on July 24, 1921. The restaurant provided the refreshments for the Springs Grand Centennial Expo in 1950.

Officially, the “current owner, Martin Sinclair VI” re-branded the Glowing Oak Restaurant to D-Luxe Burger on May 15, 2016.

Blaze Pizza took over the space in Town Center at Disney Springs that used to be occupied by the town’s lumber mill – The Buena Vista Timber Company established in 1868.

The restaurant design includes elements reminiscent of the workings of a sawmill, from a prop wood planer to the layout of the dining room where the tables and benches are arranged in rows to suggest logs that have been pulled up to the mill from the springs.

The Ganachery Chocolate Shop used to house the town’s only apothecary shop that supplied the necessary medicines for the inhabitants to cure their ills.

The space was taken over by a South American couple (their photos are on the wall) who turned their love for the cocoa bean, a major South American crop from which chocolate is made, into a chocolate shop adapting the existing pharmacy shelves and equipment to their needs.

An old billboard advertises the passenger train that used to stop in the town. There are some stray rails still embedded in the pathways. STK Steakhouse is the home of the old railroad station and is a reference to a 1889 train station in Downtown Orlando. The Imagineers didn’t need to reference old photos because the station still stands today. It’s Church Street Station.

The Polite Pig was the location of the original farmer’s market for the area. Ancient machinery sits unused next to a weathered sign, which indicates that the apparatus was used for a spring water ice works operation that now houses Sprinkles. The bottling plant was a building reclaimed to house Morimoto Asia.

Many more stories behind the various buildings were created by Imagineers and are awaiting to be rediscovered.

*  *  *  *  *

Thanks, Jim! I don’t much cover Disney Springs on this site, but our book is rich in overviews and dining reviews. See below for how we start.

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: DECEMBER 21 TO DECEMBER 29, 2019

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

For more on December 2019 at Disney World, see this.

OPERATING HOURS AT WALT DISNEY WORLD 12/21-12/29/19

The Magic Kingdom will be open from 7a-11p 12/21, 8a-6p 12/22, 8a-12MN 12/23 and 12/24, 6a-12MN 12/25, and 8a-12MN 12/26 through 12/29

Epcot will be open from 9a-9.30p every day

Disney’s Hollywood Studios will be open from 7a-10p 12/21 through 12/25, and 6a to 10p 12/26 through 12/29

Disney’s Animal Kingdom will be open from 9a-8p 12/21, 9a-9p 12/22, 8a-9p 12/23, 9a-9p 12/24, 8a-9p 12/25 and 12/26, 8a-10p 12/27 and 12/28, and 8a-11p 12/29

EXTRA MAGIC HOURS AT WALT DISNEY WORLD 12/21-12/29/19

• Saturday 12/21 Morning: Animal Kingdom Evening: none
• Sunday 12/22 Morning: Magic Kingdom Evening: Hollywood Studios
• Monday 12/23 Morning: Animal Kingdom, Magic Kingdom Evening: none
• Tuesday 12/24 Morning: Magic Kingdom Evening: Epcot
• Wednesday 12/25 Morning: Animal Kingdom Evening: none
• Thursday 12/26 Morning: Epcot, Magic Kingdom Evening: none
• Friday 12/27 Morning: Magic Kingdom Evening: none
• Saturday 12/28 Morning: Magic Kingdom Evening: none
• Sunday 12/29 Morning: Magic Kingdom Evening: none

PARADES AT WALT DISNEY WORLD 12/21-12/29/19

Magic Kingdom: Afternoon parade: 2p 12/21 and 12/22; noon and 3p 12/23 through 12/29

FIREWORKS AND EVENING SHOWS AT WALT DISNEY WORLD 12/21-12/29/19

Happily Ever After and other fireworks at Magic Kingdom: 9p 12/21; 10p 12/23 through 12/29

Epcot Forever at Epcot: 9.30p every night

Fantasmic at Disney’s Hollywood Studios: 9p 12/21; 9 and 10.30p 12/22 thorugh 12/29

Star Wars Show and Fireworks replaced for holidays by next item

Jingle Bell, Jingle BAM! at Disney’s Hollywood Studios: 10p every night

Rivers of Light at Disney’s Animal Kingdom: 6.30 and 7.45p 12/21; 6.30 and 8p 12/22 through 12/26; 6.30, 8, and 9.30p 12/27 through 12/29

SHOW SCHEDULES FOR WALT DISNEY WORLD 12/21-12/29/19

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

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Josh and I (well, mostly Josh) have completed the first update of our 2020 edition of The easy Guide to Your Walt Disney World Visit.

The main effort was to incorporate Josh’s perspectives on Rise of the Resistance—the best new Disney World ride in decades—into all of our Hollywood Studios material and guidance.

Note however that things have already changed at Rise of the Resistance since this update–for the scoop see Josh’s post here.

If you bought your version December 16 or later, you should already have the latest. To check, look at the top of page 199.

If what you see is

…then you already have the updated edition, and can chill until we do our next update, likely in the first quarter of 2020.

If instead your version of page 199 reads at the top

Late-Arrival Touring with FastPass+
Use FastPass+ at a Toy Story Land attraction and for two of the attractions

…then you need the update.

See below for instructions on how to sign up for your update!

And please leave a five star review on Amazon—it would really help!

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WHAT IS JULY LIKE AT DISNEY WORLD?

Because pretty much every US schoolkid is on break in July, while shorter periods the rest of the year are more crowded, July overall has traditionally been the most crowded month at Disney World.

The last four summers have been unusually good at Disney World in terms of crowds. However, the new rides that have opened in 2019 and will open in 2020 make me doubt this trend will continue, and I’m expecting a rough-ish summer in 2020 at Disney World.

[Read more →]

THE 4th OF JULY IN 2020 AT WALT DISNEY WORLD

Disney World celebrates the 4th of July at several parks–and likely on July 3rd as well!

Nothing is official yet, but this is what I expect:

On Friday, July 3, 2020, the Magic Kingdom will have a special fireworks show “Fantasy in the Sky” at around 9.15p.

On Saturday, July 4, 2020

• The Magic Kingdom will have the same show at the same time–“Fantasy in the Sky” at 9.15p
• At Epcot, Epcot Forever will likely have a special holiday ending added, and may be shifted from its normal 9p time to 10p
• I would not be surprised to see a special fireworks show at Disney’s Hollywood Studios

Those following this site’s Higher Crowd Itinerary for Walt Disney World should make a couple of changes.

• Those arriving 6/27/2020 have scheduled as their second Saturday to be in Magic Kingdom on July 4.  I’d avoid the Magic Kingdom crowds that day. Instead, do what is written as Second Saturday on First Sunday, and do First Sunday on Second Saturday.  This also solves the problem of an early close at Animal Kingdom on your first Sunday, July 28.
• Those arriving 7/4/2020 have their first Saturday scheduled as Epcot.  World Showcase will be quite crowded with folks meaning to watch the fireworks. But so long as you get the FastPass+ noted in the itinerary’s To-Do list, you should be OK.  Just skip the fireworks if you wish, and see the regular Epcot fireworks show Epcot Forever on Friday night.

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