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DISNEY WORLD NEXT WEEK: NOVEMBER 23 TO DECEMBER 1, 2019

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

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

OPERATING HOURS AT WALT DISNEY WORLD 11/23-12/1/19

The Magic Kingdom will be open 9a-11p 11/23, 9a-6p 11/24, 9a-11p 11/25 and 11/26, 9a-11p 11/27, 9a-12MN 11/28 through 11/30, and 8a-6p 12/1

Epcot will be open from 9a-10p 11/23, 9a-9p 11/24 through 11/28, and 9a-9.30p 11/29 through 12/1

Disney’s Hollywood Studios will be open from 9a-9p 11/23 and 8a-10p 11/24 through 12/1

Disney’s Animal Kingdom will be open from 9a-8p 11/23 and 11/24, 9a-9p 11/25, 8a-9p 11/26 and 11/27, 9a-8p 11/28, 8a-9p 11/29, 9a-9p 11/30, and 9a-8p 12/1

EXTRA MAGIC HOURS AT WALT DISNEY WORLD 11/23-12/1/19

• Saturday 11/23 Morning: Animal Kingdom Evening: none
• Sunday 11/24  Morning: Hollywood Studios  Evening: none
• Monday 11/25 Morning:  Hollywood Studios, Animal Kingdom  Evening: none
• Tuesday 11/26 Morning: Hollywood Studios Evening: Epcot
• Wednesday 11/27 Morning:  Hollywood Studios Evening: Magic Kingdom
• Thursday 11/28 Morning: Hollywood Studios, Epcot Evening: none
• Friday 11/29 Morning:  Hollywood Studios, Magic Kingdom Evening: none
• Saturday 11/30 Morning:  Hollywood Studios, Animal Kingdom  Evening: none
• Sunday 12/1 Morning:  Hollywood Studios  Evening: none

PARADES AT WALT DISNEY WORLD 11/23-12/1/19

The Magic Kingdom: Afternoon parade: 2p every day

FIREWORKS AND EVENING SHOWS AT WALT DISNEY WORLD 11/23-12/1/19

Happily Ever After at Magic Kingdom:  9p 11/23; 10p 11/25 through 11/30

Epcot Forever at Epcot: 10p 11/23; 9p 11/24 through 11/28; 9.30p 11/29 through 12/1

Fantasmic at Disney’s Hollywood Studios: 9p every night

Star Wars Show and Fireworks replaced for holidays by next item

Jingle Bell, Jingle BAM! at Disney’s Hollywood Studios: 9p every night

Rivers of Light at Disney’s Animal Kingdom: 6.30 and 7.45p; 6.15 and 7.30p 11/24 through 11/30; 6.30 and 7.45p 12/1

SHOW SCHEDULES FOR WALT DISNEY WORLD 11/23-12/1/19

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

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WHAT IS JUNE LIKE AT DISNEY WORLD?

If you must go to Disney World in the summer, the very beginning of June is your best choice for a first visit.

Crowds, while not good, are lower than than much of the rest of the summer, hotel prices are OK, except at the value resorts, ticket prices are average earlier in the month but higher later, and the full weight of summer weather is not yet in place.

(The end of August is the next best summer choice.  Prices and crowds are much better, but you are not only in peak summer heat then, but also the peak of the hurricane season.)

[Read more →]

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

BACK TO NEVERLAND

By Jim Korkis

This year Disney’s Hollywood Studios celebrates its 30th anniversary. I thought it might be nice to look back at some of the things originally there in 1989 that have since disappeared.

Perhaps the most popular part of the tour at the now extinct Magic of Disney Animation pavilion was the short film entitled Back to Neverland. Being a huge fan of animation, I loved this film.

In the film, distinguished news commentator Walter Cronkite turns imaginative comedian Robin Williams into an animated character, one of the little Lost Boys from Disney’s animated feature film Peter Pan (1953), to demonstrate the different steps in animation.

The entire pavilion was outsourced to Bob Rogers and BRC Imagination Arts who had struggled on different variations to explain the process of animation for nine months when animator and director Jerry Rees was brought in to provide a new perspective. Rees directed over a dozen theme park shows including Indiana Jones Stunt Spectacular, the live action sequences for Cranium Command, and more.

Rees suggested using the authority of famed newscaster Walter Cronkite presenting the facts to play as counterpoint against the unbridled childlike enthusiasm of comedian Robin Williams for animation.

It turned out that Williams was a huge fan of Cronkite and ironically, Cronkite was a fan of Williams and they really wanted to work together.

To help sell the project to Williams and Cronkite, as well as then Disney CEO Michael Eisner, Rees brought in famed voice artist Corey Burton who did spot on imitations of both of them for a scratch track (a scratch track is a rough test before professional voices are cast). In fact, when Eisner heard it, he thought it was them. Burton was cast as the voice of Captain Hook in the animated segments.

Rees assured Robin that he was free to improvise lines as long as he got the sense of what was needed to be communicated and landed on the lines that were Cronkite’s cues.

“He gave us a wealth of material,” recalled Rees. “Especially during the metamorphosis scene. That could have been over ten minutes just by itself. We had to be brutal to edit that segment.”

Bruce Smith was working at Baer Animation doing work on Who Framed Roger Rabbit (1988). He later was the creator of the television series The Proud Family (2001) and supervising animator of Kerchak in Tarzan (1999), Pacha in The Emperor’s New Groove (2000), and Dr. Facilier in The Princess and the Frog (2009).

“Bruce Smith had done some test animation of Robin’s character because the voice work had been recorded earlier and flipped it for him when we shot the live action at the Raleigh stages in Hollywood. Robin was just delighted with it. He thought it was magical that it had his personality. When we were filming the live action scenes, I invited the animators to come and hang out and Robin was very respectful and gracious with them,” remembered Rees.

“Jerry Rees was also directing the live action as well as the animation,” animator Mark Kausler recalled. “He knew the Peter Pan feature backwards and forwards, knew every Frank Thomas, Ollie Johnston and Woolie Reitherman scene. We studied a lot of the Peter Pan feature frame-by-frame with Jerry.

“We all took turns animating all the characters. I did a nice close shot of Robin and Tinker Bell that I enjoyed. Tink was a lot of fun to draw. We were on a tight deadline, so we all pitched in and did any scenes that came our way.”

Frans Vischer animated the improvisational sequence in which Robin’s character swiftly changed into many forms, including even Walter Cronkite. The line during the metamorphosis scene where Robin transforms into Mickey Mouse and gleefully proclaims “I’m a corporate symbol” was written by Steve Moore. It stayed in the final cut because Robin loved it so much.

After seeing this short film, co-director of Aladdin (1992) John Musker told Rees that he and co-director Ron Clements wrote the part of the Genie specifically for Robin. As a tribute, at the end of the animated feature, the Genie appears in the same yellow Hawaiian shirt and Goofy hat that Robin wore in the live action beginning of Back to Neverland.

The original Magic of Disney Animation tour ended September 30th, 2003, when it was replaced with a much different version, since the Disney Feature Animation Florida unit itself had been dissolved. The tour now started with the guests seeing a live Disney show artist interacting with an animated Mushu from Mulan (1998) on a screen to explain the process of animation.

The entire pavilion closed July 12, 2014 to make way for the Star Wars Launch Bay.

*  *  *  *  *

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

In the meantime, check out his books, including his latest, The Vault of Walt Volume 8: Outer Space Edition, his recent  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: NOVEMBER 16 TO NOVEMBER 24, 2019

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

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

OPERATING HOURS AT WALT DISNEY WORLD 11/16-11/24/19

The Magic Kingdom will be open 9a-11p 11/16, 9a-6p 11/17, 9a-10p 11/18, 9a-6p 11/19, 9a-9p 11/20, 9a-6p 11/21 and 11/22, 9a-11p 11/23, and 9a-6p 11/24

Epcot will be open from 9a-10p 11/6, 9a-9p 11/17 through 11/21, 9a-10p 11/22 and 11/23, and 9a-9p 11/24

Disney’s Hollywood Studios will be open from 9a-9p 11/16 through 11/23 and 8a-10p 11/24

Disney’s Animal Kingdom will be open from 9a-8p every day

EXTRA MAGIC HOURS AT WALT DISNEY WORLD 11/16-11/24/19

• Saturday 11/16 Morning: Animal Kingdom Evening: none
• Sunday 11/17  Morning: Hollywood Studios  Evening: none
• Monday 11/18 Morning:  Animal Kingdom  Evening: none
• Tuesday 11/19 Morning: none Evening: Epcot
• Wednesday 11/20 Morning:  none Evening: Magic Kingdom
• Thursday 11/21 Morning: Epcot Evening: none
• Friday 11/22 Morning:  Magic Kingdom Evening: none
• Saturday 11/23 Morning:  Animal Kingdom  Evening: none
• Sunday 11/24 Morning:  Hollywood Studios  Evening: none

PARADES AT WALT DISNEY WORLD 11/16-11/24/19

The Magic Kingdom: Afternoon parade: 2p every day

FIREWORKS AND EVENING SHOWS AT WALT DISNEY WORLD 11/16-11/24/19

Happily Ever After at Magic Kingdom:  9p 11/16, 11/18, 11/20, and 11/23

Epcot Forever at Epcot: 10p 11/16, 9p 11/17 through 11/21; 10p 11/22 and 11/23; 9p 11/24

Fantasmic at Disney’s Hollywood Studios: 9p every night

Star Wars Show and Fireworks replaced for holidays by next item

Jingle Bell, Jingle BAM! at Disney’s Hollywood Studios: 9p every night

Rivers of Light at Disney’s Animal Kingdom: 6.30 and 7.45p 11/16 through 11/23; 6.15 and 7.30p 11/24

SHOW SCHEDULES FOR WALT DISNEY WORLD 11/16-11/24/19

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

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EPCOT FOREVER

Note: this show returns to Epcot July 1, 2021, but missing the kites, because the structures for Epcot’s soon-to-open Harmonious are in the way of them.

Epcot Forever is the current evening show at Epcot, showing most nights at 9p, but at 9.30p during the Festival of the Holidays, at 10p on Fridays and Saturdays during the Food & Wine Festival, and at other times New Years Eve and the Fourth of July.

Epcot Forever replaced the long-running IllumiNations on October 1, 2019, and in turn will be replaced with a new permanent show, HarmonioUS, which I can neither spell nor pronounce, and which I deeply hope will be renamed.

HARMonious is expected to debut in 2020—I have heard October 1, but much depends on the scope and pace of reconstruction needed to support the new show, and also its timely achievement of its technical ambitions.

In the meantime, Epcot Forever is a fireworks, laser, kites and music show on the World Showcase Lagoon that, according to Disney, celebrates “the past, present and future of Epcot through [a] dazzling fireworks and special-effects spectacular.”

This brief description skips the most important part of the show, and elides the other: music and kites. The celebration of Epcot is through new arrangements of music from past and present attractions, introduced or sung in children’s voices, with Walt Disney’s voice here and there, and a surprise finale related to the Morocco Pavilion that sets the stage for Epcot’s future.

The variety and quality of the music is a wonderful reminder of how important music and song is to the Disney World theme parks—a contribution that can get overlooked in their primarily visual environments. There’s a number of standouts, with the Soarin’ theme and Golden Dream (from The American Adventure) serving as particularly apt reminders of the quality of composing behind many of the park’s attractions.

The other distinctive feature of the show is its kites, which are delightful, and need to be seen in person to be fully appreciated.  Images and videos don’t capture their full impact.

Lasers and fireworks are part of the program as well. The night I saw it, it was raining so hard that many fireworks were left out—they were shot off later that evening, after park close, to clear the apparatus. And I got no usable photos of the ones I did see–even by my low standards–but I’ll post photos here after my next visit. In the meantime, you can get a flavor for the new fireworks in this Disney video:

IllumiNations was deeply loved by many, and its own great music—not present in Epcot Forever—has had a life of its own, showing up in settings ranging from Olympics coverage to wedding ceremonies. I was astonished the first time I saw Illuminations, but did not find it overly re-watchable, with a limited fireworks color palette and a marvelous globe that after a few experiences did not much bear the amount of time dedicated to it.

Epcot Forever—and especially its surprise ending—are the first stake in the ground of the transformation of Epcot that we will see over the next few years. Epcot started as Walt Disney’s concept for showcasing the best ways in which urban design could contribute to well-being and better communities, a wildly impractical and mildly totalitarian concept whose scope, in the absence of a practical business model, would have led eventually to its early abandonment had he remained alive. Walt Disney was a man whose fertile imagination yielded many more ideas than good ideas, and like most deeply creative people he depended on the passage of time and the voices of others to help sort the best ones out.

Walt’s concept was largely abandoned by the time the park first opened, and in its place came World Showcase, a sort of permanent World’s Fair, and Future World, an architecturally undistinguished place to celebrate human achievement in general and in particular technological innovation.

The initial business driver of Epcot—in contrast to its thematic drivers—was to be as little like Magic Kingdom as possible, both to avoid cannibalization of that park and also to incent longer stays at the resort. So when it opened, Epcot became the least Disney and least child-friendly of the Disney parks, a distinction it still holds today. Poor reaction quickly led to incorporation of some Disney characters and other playful Disney elements that had previously been banned.

Over the years, Epcot’s edutainment offerings stagnated as they became outdated, and as museums—inspired by Epcot—did a much better job at educating while entertaining. The concept was not wrong, as a visit to any good museum targeted at middle school kids will tell you. So will a visit to Disney’s Animal Kingdom, which does a breathtakingly better job of integrating as much education as you would like within the context of a fun theme park. But the ability to keep the Epcot edutainment good, current, and interesting to many was not there.

This version of Epcot—great at neither education nor entertainment—will soon be gone, with a reconceptualization of Epcot as a fun—and Disney—park, especially in Future World. Today, Future World is a sea of construction walls (all the rides remain accessible), and from them will emerge three new lands—Disney calls them neighborhoods—that will join World Showcase: World Discovery, World Nature, and World Celebration. This added set of Worlds, by the way, is the reason for the surprise finale to Epcot Forever, and their promise of increased appeal to children is why the voices of children dominate the narration.

The new Epcot has been emergent for more than a decade, but the new emphasis will start to show soon with the opening of the Ratatouille ride, Remy’s Ratatouille Adventure, later in 2020. Disney articulates that the reconceptualization of Epcot will “be filled with new experiences rooted in authenticity and innovation that take you to new destinations, where the real is made fantastic in a celebration of curiosity, hands-on wonder and the magic of possibility.” I can’t wait…

In the meantime, Epcot Forever will run for a year or so, celebrating Epcot’s past through 2019, and the music that added so much to it. And kites!!

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THE DISNEY SKYLINER—A TRANSPORTATION OPTION TO EPCOT AND DISNEY’S HOLLYWOOD STUDIOS

The Disney Skyliner, a new and groundbreaking (at least in theme park resort use) gondola transportation system, opened at Walt Disney World in late September 2019.

From a transfer station at the south end of Disney’s Caribbean Beach Resort, it offers lines to

…A shared station at Disney’s Pop Century and Art of Animation resorts,

…Disney’s Hollywood Studios theme park, and,

…via a station that the north end of Caribbean Beach (closest to Aruba) shares with Disney’s Riviera Resort, to Epcot.

At every station except the Riviera/Caribbean Beach north station, guests must get off and re-board. So a trip from Pop Century to Disney’s Hollywood Studios means a trip to the southern Caribbean Beach station, then getting off and getting on the Studios line.

While not for everyone—and I’ll come back to that—for those it is suited to, it presents a fun alternative to the buses that folks would otherwise use to get among these various points, and is in particular a fun and easy way to get

• From these resorts to Hollywood Studios and Epcot
• From one to another of the pairs of resorts—e.g. for Pop Century guests to try out the yuca bowls at Caribbean Beach’s Spyglass Grill
• From Epcot to the Studios and vice versa, if the boats look backed up and you aren’t in the mood to walk.

CONDITIONS THAT SHOULD HAVE YOU AVOID THE DISNEY SKYLINER

The Skyliner cabins, while not tiny, are small, and (post COVID) you likely will share them with other parties.

While moving, the passive ventilation system in the cabins presents a substantial breeze, but if they stop—not uncommon—on a hot, humid, and breezeless day, discomfort can build.

The cabins swoop and sway in normal operation, and a breeze will yield even more swaying.

All boarding at the Riviera/Caribbean Beach north station requires entering the narrow door of a moving car—the car is moving very slowly, and the gap between the cabin and the stationary platform is very tight, but it is still a moving target. All other stations have a separate loading area where those who need the extra stability—and all ECV folks—can board a stationary car.

The system may stop, for brief or lengthy periods of time, for any number of reasons. If there is lightning in the area, it will close, with guests being required to exit the gondolas at the station Disney assigns. If this station is Caribbean Beach, Disney will add buses that duplicate the Skyliner routes, but this might not happen immediately, and the various buses may take time to arrive.

Those with claustrophobia, fear of heights, motion sickness, or any medical condition that might be exacerbated by either a lengthy stop with no real clarity as to what’s happening, or the possibility, on hot humid, and breezeless days, of stop-related heat buildup, especially if combined with a higher degree of anxiety, ought to avoid the Skyliner.

Those staying at one of the Skyliner resorts concerned about whether their personal conditions might yield a disappointing experience could try (depending on where they are staying) either the Caribbean Beach south to Riviera/Caribbean Beach north route, or the Pop Century/Art of Animation to Caribbean Beach south routes, as a low risk way to test how they will react to the system.

BUSES AND THE DISNEY SKYLINER

Buses run to Epcot and Hollywood Studios at the normal schedule when the Skyliner is not operating, and at a greatly reduced schedule when it is operating.

WHAT’S NEXT FOR THE DISNEY SKYLINER

Before the Skyliner opened, there was much speculation about future routes—for example, a western version was chatted about, connecting (perhaps) the All-Stars, Animal Kingdom Lodge, and Epcot and Hollywood Studios via a Caribbean Beach-like hub at Coronado Springs. An eastern line connecting the Port Orleans resorts, Old Key West, Saratoga Springs, with Disney Springs has also been talked about.

Note that there’s room at the south Caribbean Beach hub to add one more route, which could easily go east or north…

An expansion did not seem imminent even before COVID.  With COVID’s impact on Disney capital budgets, it seems even less likely.

The long-time travel agent partner of this site, Kelly B., can help you book your Disney World vacation in a Skyliner resort or anywhere else–contact her using the form below:

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