📀 Turned into a TRON Toy

Happy Friday, everyone!

Landon here, and I’m back from the digital world of TRON. Once again. I wanted to start off this week talking about the TRON Identity Program.

I might have mentioned it to you a couple weeks ago but for those of you who don’t remember, let me enlighten you. The TRON Identity Program is an all-new *paid* experience for guests to take part in at the Tomorrowland Launch Depot in Magic Kingdom. 👨‍💻 During the experience, guests will have themselves digitalized and transformed into a TRON action figure.

Let me start off by saying this experience does require a reservation so, if it’s something you’re interested in, get to booking.

After you check in with a cast member for your time slot, you step inside a Grid Digitization Portal, where you will begin the action figure customizing. Will your Program be an Enforcer or a Combatant? It’s all up to you. The customizing process takes up to 20 minutes. You will design everything from the team color, body type and helmet. The experience also uses your face and voice, which is then put into the action figure. I loved that part.

After you customize everything, Disney gives you a key card that has all your information. Don’t lose this. You will need it to retrieve your action figure when it’s done. Disney said the retrieval time is within 60 minutes. But during my experience, it took about two hours but I was not bothered.

Let me tell you, the presentation to get the action figure was SO COOL. So was it worth the $90? If you’re a huge fan of TRON and want to take home some souvenir that is not a keychain or T-shirt, I’d say DO IT. 👍 Not only that, this action figure comes in a cool arcade style display box. Are any of you planning on doing this experience soon? Do you have any questions? Feel free to give me a holler by emailing me at lmcreynolds@wkmg.com.

Dig a little deeper 🐸

If you visit Magic Kingdom these days, you will see some construction underway at the former Splash Mountain attraction. The iconic Splash Mountain stump that was once on top of the area where you dropped has now been removed. This of course, is to make way for Tiana’s Bayou Adventure. The attraction will open next year but this week, we got a new look at what’s in store. Everyone’s favorite 200-year-old Bayou Fairy Godmother, Mama Odie, will be making an appearance in the attraction.

Disney also shared a couple other details about the “Princess and the Frog” attraction. 🐸

The temple is sealed -- SOON 😲

😨 Someone call Taylor and Professor Elias Baxter— the temple of Poseidon is about to close for good and I don’t want them getting trapped in there. 🔱 This week, Universal Orlando announced the opening day experience “Poseidon’s Fury” at Islands of Adventure will soon close for good. In my opinion, the walk-through experience is something fun to do during a hot summer day. Universal just reopened the experience a year ago following a long refurbishment. The show combines projections onto a screen of water, fire and water effects.

Universal said the show will close to make way for new exciting entertainment in the future. What that new thing is - we will have to wait and see. 😀

Save the date! 📅

Enjoy those flowers at the EPCOT International Flower and Garden Festival while you still can because Walt Disney World is preparing for the next big festival — the EPCOT International Food & Wine Festival. 😋 This week, Disney shared just a couple of small details about the upcoming event - including the dates, activities and entertainment. A whole lot of people enjoyed hearing about this story this week. This is your notice - SAVE THE DATE! 📅

New stories to explore 🗺️

I hope C-3PO and R2-D2 are ready for this next story. Just last weekend, during the Star Wars Celebration in London, Disney announced that it will be adding some new stories and destinations for guests to explore while on Star Tours. ☺️ They said these changes will be coming to Disneyland, Disneyland Paris and Walt Disney World. This is not the first time Disney has added new things to the Star Wars attraction. In 2019, we got a content from Star Wars: Rise of the Skywalker and in 2017, a new segment that featured the small mineral planet of Crait.

In addition to the new information coming to Star Tours, Disney also mentioned some new music coming from the Star Wars: Galactic Starcruiser. Remember that Star Wars hotel experience? Disney said the new 🎶 music will be released on May 4 - Star Wars Day!

👟 Springtime Surprise

If you’re heading to Walt Disney World this weekend, pack a little bit of patience. Thousands of runners are in town for the runDisney Springtime Surprise Weekend. 🏃‍♂️ 🏃‍♀️ The event stepped off this morning with the Disney Pixar Cars 5K. 🚘 I was there bright and early and KACHOW - it was a ton of fun. Dodged the heavy rain showers, mostly. The event will run through Sunday following the conclusion of the Disney Pixar Toy Story 10-Miler. I was among the first people to check out the Disney Pixar-themed merchandise for this year’s event. I also got the chance to hear how the runDisney teams design the medals and merchandise for each of these race weekends.

Speaking of races — did you sign up for the 2024 Walt Disney World Marathon Weekend? In-person races are sold out - but virtual race options just went ON SALE! 🚨

🎼 More music

SeaWorld Orlando is out with some new artists for its Seven Seas Food Festival. There are a couple artists on this list that I’m sure I’ll be heading to. Concerts take place every Saturday and Sunday during the festival at Bayside Stadium and feature a taste of rock, country, Latin, hip hop, R&B and 90s throwbacks.🎵 Check out the new artists here. 🎵 During the Seven Seas Food Festival, guests can not only check out all the exciting rides at SeaWorld, but you can also taste more than 200 food and drink offerings! This year’s festival runs through May 7.

Let it FOAM 🫧

Island H2O water park is now selling some tickets for its adults-only glow foam party. 💦 The limited-capacity event on April 29 will have guests enjoying the park’s wave pool and slides while rocking out to some awesome music from a DJ. We can’t forget all the sudsy bubble 🫧 foam fun throughout. This event is open to adults 18 and older and will happen from 8 p.m. to 11 p.m.

Island H2O is located in Kissimmee. Leaders said this after hours event will sell out - so get your tickets now. ☜

🎠 Smaller thrills

🍳 A new breakfast spot is coming to EPCOT! Reservations are coming soon

🦅 Falcon’s Fury reopens at Busch Gardens Tampa Bay

🌊 Aquatica gives new details on all-new Turi’s Kid Cove

🦥 Disney shares first look at Animal Kingdom 25th anniversary merchandise

🎤 Weekend concerts

🐟 SeaWorld’s Seven Seas Food Festival: Chris Lane (April 15) and The Marshall Tucker Band (April 16)

🌼 EPCOT International Flower and Garden Festival: Blue October (April 15) and Switchfoot (April 16)

Well, that will wrap things up for this week.

Oh, just one more thing. This is your final weekend to check out Universal Orlando’s Mardi Gras event. It will conclude Sunday.

I will talk with you all next week -

Landon ✌️