Disney Cruise Line will offer families a variety of enchanting vacations in summer 2023, including cruises to new and favorite ports of call around the world. From the majestic glaciers of Alaska to the sun-kissed Greek isles, pink sand beaches of Bermuda and picturesque fjords of Norway, these summer destinations will sparkle with adventure and excitement. Plus, for the first time ever, families will have the opportunity to sail around the Mediterranean and British Isles on the Disney Dream during its first season in Europe.
“We are thrilled to have five ships at sea in summer 2023 with a wide array of destinations for families to enjoy,” said Sharon Siskie, senior vice president & general manager of Disney Cruise Line. “These Disney Cruise Line sailings will take families on summer adventures in ways that only Disney can do, delighting guests of all ages with dazzling entertainment, world-class dining, unique character encounters, the ease and indulgence of carefree days at sea and the uncompromising guest service that defines a Disney vacation.”
Bookings open to the public May 9, 2022. For more details, visit the Summer 2023 itineraries page of disneycruise.com.
Disney is giving Disney Park Guests more opportunities to experience the magic after-hours.
Walt Disney World Resort announced the return of H20 Glow Nights at Disney’s Typhoon Lagoon this summer and Disneyland announced the return of three popular events for the beloved series Disneyland After Dark.
Disneyland After Dark: Sweethearts Nite, Villains Nite, and Star Wars Nite have been huge successes thus far and, now, Disney has announced an additional night to the series with an all-new theme– Disneyland After Dark: Grad Nite Reunion!
It’s time to relive the “good-ol’ days” and celebrate a party for the decades at the first-ever Disneyland After Dark: Grad Nite Reunion! Debuting on select nights this June at Disney California Adventure Park, you can join in a reunion party filled with dancing, fun, and plenty of nostalgia from graduation classes of the last six decades.
From good times to even better dance moves, this separately-ticketed Disneyland After Dark event gives you after-hours access to Disney California Adventure with the opportunity to experience special offerings* not typically available during the day. Enjoy delicious cafeteria-inspired dishes, special character experiences, entertainment, photo opportunities, and some favorite attractions (with shorter wait times!) for four hours of fun. Also included with your ticket, you’ll have three additional hours pre-party to mix-in at Disney California Adventure park!
In addition to these special offerings, you’ll receive a commemorative credential and guide as well as unlimited downloads of Disney PhotoPass** digital photos you take during the party.
Disneyland After Dark: Grad Nite Reunion will be offered on June 23, 28, and 30, 2022. Tickets will go on sale on Disneyland.com, beginning April 28, 2022, no earlier than noon PT.
Here are some of the details for what you can expect at Disneyland After Dark: Grad Nite Reunion.
Enjoy sightings of beloved Disney characters throughout the evening with a few favorites proudly wearing their cap and gown
March-along pep-rally style with some favorite Disney friends
Dance through the decades to hits of today and yesterday
Retro photo opportunities
Unique, cafeteria-inspired food and beverage offerings
Special after-hours access to most of the park’s attractions
Party attire encouraged. Don’t forget to show your school spirit! (Please read the Disneyland Resort Attire Guidelines).
Visit Disneyland.com/DisneylandAfterDark for additional details. Parking fees are not included in the ticket price. A limited quantity of tickets for each event will be available, so be sure to snag tickets as soon as they go on sale!
A couple of Disney employees were recently caught in an undercover sting operation that you won’t’ believe.
It was recently reported that two employees of the Walt Disney World Resort were arrested after unknowingly taking part in an undercover operation. As stated in the sheriff’s arrest report from the Orange Country Sheriff’s office, Walt Disney World pulled a sting operation alongside police that led to two housekeeping Cast Members getting arrested at the Disney Resort.
On March 9, 2022, Disney worked alongside the Orange County Sheriff’s office in order to investigate suspicions regarding ongoing thefts at Disney Resort Hotels.
According to the report, Disney set up a decoy hotel room at the Port Orleans – Riverside Resort after suspicions rose of two Cast Members – Raphmarie Cartagena Torres and Aishaleam Abraham Rodriguez. Once the room was set up, number 8097, sheriff’s detectives covertly watched a live video feed from a neighboring hotel room on Disney property. The hotel room was not used by actual Guests but was set up to look like it was.
According to the arrest report, Torres, 27, was the suspect in a series of ongoing thefts at the property, resulting in Disney being skeptical in the first place.
In the decoy room, Disney left $200 in cash as bait. The sheriff’s report states that “the money was placed in a small black backpack and put in camera view.” Other items were also included in the room such as Apple products and other personal items that could be easily stolen. Around9:50 a.m. on March 9, the Cast Members under suspicion entered the hotel room with instructions to clean the Walt Disney World Resort room. The sheriff’s report details that:
upon entry (Raphmarie) is seen immediately making entry into the front pocket of the backpack, and removing the cash from the interior of the bag. Raphmarie counts out $65, places it on the television stand, and a hand is seen removing the money from the stand. Raphmarie is then seen rummaging through the rest of the bags in the view of the camera.
Once the Cast Members had left the room, sheriff’s detectives confronted the two Disney Cast Members outside. Each had taken $65 in cash that matched the serial numbers from the money left in the decoy room. Both women were arrested and charged last month with theft by an employee, according to Orange Circuit Court records. None of the other items were stolen from the decoy room.
Though it is rare for incidents such as these to happen at Walt Disney World, it is interesting to see how Disney and the police work together to help combat criminal activity. Usually, we see things like this happen with other Guests but according to the report, even Cast Members can engage in illegal activity.
It is always advisable to keep valuable items or cash kept in a safe location if you have to leave them in your rooms. Disney World Resort hotels have a safe that Guests are free to use if they would like.
Walt Disney World Resort is home to many magical attractions and thrilling experiences.
Perhaps, one of the most magical experiences for Disney Park Guests is taking in the Festival of Fantasy parade at Magic Kingdom. The beloved parade, which returned after nearly two years away a few months ago, allows Guests the opportunity to see their favorite characters and celebrate as the parade makes its way through Magic Kingdom Park, including in front of Cinderella Castle and down Main Street, U.S.A.
Disney Park Guests reported a major change in the show on Monday afternoon, however, at the very beginning of the parade.
Princess Tiana and Prince Naveen had replaced Belle and Beast from Beauty and the Beast in the opening float for Festival of Fantasy.
User @sureasliz shared a photo on Instagram from the parade showcasing the Disney princess during the parade.
No word from Disney on if this is a permanent change or if it is just temporary. From time to time, characters are swapped on floats depending on availability
As expected, the family of a teen who fell to his death at an Orlando amusement park in March has filed suit in Orange County, Florida.
According to ClickOrlando, attorney Michael Haggard, who represents Tyre Sampson‘s mother, Nekia Dodd, formally filed a lawsuit against the ride‘s operators in Orange County Court this morning. Monday. The suit was filed in civil court.
Sampson, age 14, died on Thursday night, March 24, after falling from the Orlando FreeFall drop tower attraction at Orlando’s ICON Park on International Drive.
The lawsuit filed on Monday morning in Orange County names three entities at fault in the death of Tyre Sampson: Funtime Thrill Rides, which manufactured the Orlando FreeFall drop tower ride, Slingshot Group, which is the owner and operator in Florida, and ICON Park, which is the company who leased the space for the drop tower ride.
The suit filed alleges that operators of the drop tower ride should have known that those riding the attraction could be “subject to unreasonably dangerous and foreseeable risks and that serious injury and death of the occupants in the ride could result.”
The suit also notes that the Orlando FreeFall ride had no seatbelts and that the total cost to outfit all of the seats on the ride with seatbelts would be only $600.
According to the lawsuit filed, the manufacturer, FunTime Thrill Rides, and the operator, Slingshot Group, should have made sure of the following:
There were visible warnings for riders about height and weight restrictions
The ride should not have been able to function if all riders were not properly secured
No one should have been able to manipulate or adjust proximity sensors
A monitoring system should have been installed to make sure all rider restraints were properly secured
A mechanism should have been installed to stop the ride if a restraint was not properly secured
The lawsuit also states that the Orlando FreeFall drop tower ride could have been manufactured with safer alternative designs that would have yielded a reduced risk of riders coming out of their seats.
During a press conference last week led by the Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services and its Commissioner Nikki Fried, a report from Quest Engineering, the forensics entity hired by the Department to assist in the investigation, was shared, which detailed findings about what led to Tyre Sampson falling from his seat and ultimately losing his life after riding the Orlando FreeFall drop tower ride.
According to the report, the ride operator at ICON Park made “manual adjustments” to two of the seats at the drop tower ride that rendered the attraction unsafe for riders.
Following the press conference, attorneys for Tyre Sampson‘s family said they would likely be taking legal action. Over the weekend, attorneys announced they’d be filing a wrongful death suit in Orange County civil court today.
At this time, no information about the amount of damages sought has been made public.
