Category — w. Most Recent Stuff

WHAT IS FEBRUARY LIKE AT DISNEY WORLD?

Early February 2020 will have some of the lowest crowds and prices of the year, but also the risk of ride closures.

The very end of the month brings slightly higher prices and crowds, but better weather and few closures.

In between–in 2020 the period from Thursday the 13th of February through Saturday the 22nd–we will see high crowds and high prices.

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 WHAT IS JANUARY LIKE AT DISNEY WORLD?

Early January 2020 at Disney World will be dominated by holiday crowds and higher prices, but after the 5th, most days will see lower crowds and lower prices–with upticks around the marathon and the Martin Luther King Day three day holiday weekend.  Because of the Festival of the Arts, which will be returning in 2020, Epcot’s International Showcase can be busy most of the month, and especially on weekends and evenings.

January is not recommended for first-time visitors who may never return, because of ride closures. For returning visitors–and first timers who know they can return–after the first week, January is usually a great time to visit, with low crowds and low prices. If you can, visit after Martin Luther King Day–January 20 in 2020.

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Yesterday I completed updating the key tools for planning a Walt Disney World visit in 2020:

• 2020 Disney World Crowd Calendar
• 2020 Disney World Resort Hotel Prices
• 2020 Disney World Ticket Prices
• 2020 Disney World Week Rankings

All of these except the ticket price calendar had already existed in draft form.

The crowd calendar was updated largely based on the actual school break schedules in 2020 for more than 15 million kids, exemplified by this post. I also revised the July and August crowd predictions to better match the actuals of the past few years.

Resort price seasons are now based on the actual 2020 prices Disney published in June 2019. The biggest differences for 2020 are more, and higher, holiday upcharges, and astonishing ~20% increases in the prices of the Skyliner resorts across room types and across the year–I’ll publish more on that later.

2020 ticket prices by day were also published in June. I would not read too much into them, because since they show an average 2% increase across the year, I expect another ticket price increase by early 2020.

All of these combined with other factors led to my revised list of recommended 2020 weeks. The number of recommended weeks dropped from eleven to ten, and eight weeks I’d formerly forecast with crowds in the high class are now in the moderate crowd class, which in turn shifts these week from “avoid” to “not so keen” in my week rankings.

The long-time travel agent partner of this site, Kelly, can help you book your 2020 Disney World vacation–or your 2019 or 2021 one! Contact her using the form below.

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I’ve color coded the start dates of the various base ticket lengths in Disney World’s date-based ticket pricing system to indicate less and more expensive ticket dates in 2020, compared to available prices in all of 2020.  The prices I show are pre-tax, per ticket day, and rounded to the nearest dollar.

In what follows, basically

• The more and the darker the green, the better
• The more and the darker the red, the worse.

Dates with black text on a white background are everything else–you can think of them as “typical” or “average.” The technical details on how I color coded are at the end of the post.

JANUARY AND FEBRUARY 2020 DISNEY WORLD TICKET PRICES

MARCH AND APRIL 2020 DISNEY WORLD TICKET PRICES

MAY AND JUNE 2020 DISNEY WORLD TICKET PRICES

JULY AND AUGUST 2020 DISNEY WORLD TICKET PRICES

SEPTEMBER AND OCTOBER  2020 DISNEY WORLD TICKET PRICES

NOVEMBER AND DECEMBER 2020 DISNEY WORLD TICKET PRICES

TECHNICAL DETAILS OF COLOR CODING

• The lowest prices for a ticket length have darker green fill and bolded black text
• Ticket prices approximately in the bottom 10% have darker green fill and black text
• Ticket prices approximately in the next lowest 10% have a lighter green fill and black text
• The next approximately 10% of prices has white fill and green text
• Dates with prices approximately in the 70th to 80th percentile have white fill and red text
• Prices approximately in the 80th to 90th percentile have a light red fill and black text
• Prices  in roughly the top 10% for the year have a darker red fill and black text
• The highest price of the year for that ticket type has darker red fill and bold black text
• Every other price in between has black text and white fill.

Note that my work is largely based on the rounded prices Disney published. As a result, the “10%” breaks are not exact. Prices shown are also pre-tax.

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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 FILMS DONE AT DISNEY FEATURE ANIMATION FLORIDA

By Jim Korkis

From 1989 to January 2004, Disney Feature Animation Florida was considered an annex to the official animation studio in Burbank. It was housed at first in Disney’s Hollywood Studios (then known as Disney-MGM Studios) in trailers, roughly where Rock ’n’ Roller Coaster is today, with just forty artists. Later, it moved to its own new seventy million dollar building in 1998, located behind the Magic of Animation pavilion, and soon employed up to four hundred artists during the 1990s.

I had many friends who worked there, and I taught classes to the animation interns on the history of animation and Acting for Animators. Here is a partial list of animation that was done at Walt Disney World.

• The Little Mermaid (1989) — Florida artists contributed ink and paint support to the film.
• The Rescuers Down Under (1990) — About 10 minutes of the 77-minute sequel to 1977’s The Rescuers was animated in Florida, as well as 10 minutes of the Mickey Mouse short feature The Prince and the Pauper double-billed with the movie.
• Beauty and the Beast (1991) — Florida animators assisted in the “Be Our Guest” digital scenes of dancing forks, spoons, etc., the Beast bandaging sequence after the wolf attack, and much of “The Mob Song” and the “Something There” song.
• Aladdin (1992) – Mark Henn supervised the character of Jasmine from the Florida studio. There was also had an Aladdin unit overseen by Alex Kupershmidt. (Supervised by Glen Keane in Burbank.)
• The Lion King (1994) — Florida animators provided about 20 minutes of the film, including the “I Just Can’t Wait to be King” sequence. Two characters were supervised from Florida, Young Simba by Mark Henn and Young Nala by Aaron Blaise. Also, Alex Kupershmidt did much of the Hyena animation when Nala and Simba were cubs.
• Pocahontas (1995) — Florida animators contributed about 18 minutes to the film, including scenes involving Pocahontas’ father, Chief Powhatan, supervised by Ruben Aquino.
• The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1996) — Florida animators were only responsible for about 4 minutes of this movie, including scenes involving both Quasimodo and the villain Judge Frollo.
• Mulan (1998) — This was the first animated feature film produced primarily by Walt Disney Feature Animation Florida at Disney-MGM Studios, all while theme park guests watched. It is also the first Disney animated feature made outside of Burbank.
• The Emperor’s New Groove (2000) Additional Animation Production Services.
• Dinosaur (2000) Additional Animation Production Services.
• Atlantis: The Lost Empire (2001) Additional Animation Production Services.
• Lilo and Stitch (2002) — Made almost entirely in Florida, this film was nominated for an Academy Award for best animated feature.
• Brother Bear (2003) — The last major film to be released by the Florida studio. In development at the same time was another feature entitled My Peoples (also known as “A Few Good Ghosts” and “Once in a Blue Moon”), that was cancelled.

Other projects done at the Feature Animation Florida included the Roger Rabbit short cartoons Rollercoaster Rabbit (1990) and Trail Mix-Up (1993), the shorts John Henry (2000), Off His Rockers (1992), How to Haunt a House (1998) for Toon Disney featuring Goofy, and in 1993 “The House meets The Mouse Parts 1 and 2”, a non-Disney project for Warner Bros. Television’s Full House that had an animated Segment for “Joey’s Caricature” and Cameo. Uncredited except for Mark Henn.

Disney Feature Animation Florida also did projects such as “It’s a Small World” for Euro Disney, a Figment interactive attraction for Epcot, and Aladdin animation for the old Sega Genesis game system, and a Manatee PSA (1992). There were many other projects done in Florida by DFA Florida Special Animation that provided animation for TV commercials, theme parks, and video games.

*  *  *  *  *

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

In the meantime, check out his books, including his latest, The Unofficial Walt Disney World 1971 Companion: Stories of How the World Began, 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: JULY 20 TO JULY 28, 2019

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

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

OPERATING HOURS AT WALT DISNEY WORLD 7/20-7/28/19

The Magic Kingdom will be open from 9a-10p every day

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

Disney’s Hollywood Studios will be open from 9a-9p every day

Disney’s Animal Kingdom will be open from 9a-10p 7/20 and 7/21, 9a-9p 7/22 and 7/23, and 9a-10p 7/24 through 7/28

EXTRA MAGIC HOURS AT WALT DISNEY WORLD 7/20-7/28/19

Saturday 7/20 Morning: Animal Kingdom Evening: none

Sunday 7/21  Morning:  Hollywood Studios Evening: none

Monday 7/22 Morning: Animal Kingdom Evening: none

Tuesday 7/23 Morning: none Evening: Epcot

Wednesday 7/24 Morning:  none Evening: Magic Kingdom

Thursday 7/25 Morning: Epcot Evening: none

Friday 7/26 Morning:  Magic Kingdom Evening: none

Saturday 7/27 Morning: Animal Kingdom  Evening: none

Sunday 7/28 Morning:  Hollywood Studios  Evening: none

PARADES AT WALT DISNEY WORLD 7/20-7/28/19

The Magic Kingdom: Afternoon parade: 3p every day

FIREWORKS AND EVENING SHOWS AT WALT DISNEY WORLD 7/20-7/28/19

Happily Ever After at Magic Kingdom 9.15p every night

IllumiNations at Epcot: 9p every night

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

Star Wars Show and Fireworks at Disney’s Hollywood Studios: 9.30p every night

Rivers of Light at Disney’s Animal Kingdom: 9 and 10p 7/20 and 7/21; 9p 7/22 and 7/23; 9 and 10p 7/24 through 7/28

SHOW SCHEDULES FOR WALT DISNEY WORLD 7/20-7/28/19

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

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