Disney World News: Encanto Attraction Pitch, Upcoming Crowds, Cast Compliments
We’re back with another Walt Disney World news roundup for February 18, 2022! This one covers the latest changes to park hours, upcoming crowds during Presidents’ Day weekend, improvements to the Cast Compliment app feature, the possibility of an Encanto attraction at Epcot, and more.
As usual, we’ll start with the latest release of new and modified operating schedules. All four theme parks have had hours for another week added to DisneyWorld.com’s park hours, and the current calendar now runs through April 30, 2022. Here are the hours for most dates that are newly-added for Spring 2022:
- Magic Kingdom: 9 am to 9 pm
- Epcot: 10 am to 9 pm
- Hollywood Studios: 9 am to 9 pm
- Animal Kingdom: 9 am to 7 pm
- Disney Springs: 10 am to 11 pm (11:30 pm on Fridays & Saturdays)
Nothing in the way of extensions this week, but as a reminder, there are earlier openings and later closings for February 20-26, 2022. In particular, Magic Kingdom has had its closing extended until 10 pm on those dates (from 8 pm) and Animal Kingdom is opening an hour earlier and closing an hour later (now operating 8 to 8).
This isn’t a huge surprise. It’s the Presidents’ Day holiday long weekend, and next weekend is Princess Half Marathon Weekend plus the lead-up to Mardi Gras. Suffice to say, it’s going to be a very busy last couple weeks of February, and this is following a couple of months that have caught a lot of Walt Disney World guests by surprise.
Disney Park Pass reservations are fully booked for this weekend, with only Epcot having availability next Tuesday through Thursday at present. This is always a busy holiday weekend, so none of this should come as a surprise. (For more predictions, see our February 2022 Crowd Calendar.) Expect this trend to continue without much relief, as spring break season starts soon.
In other calendar news, Walt Disney World has added more dates for Extended Evening Theme Park Hours. The schedule is back to normal, meaning Monday at Epcot and Wednesday at Magic Kingdom. It would thus appear that Disney’s Hollywood Studios is a one-off in the lineup, rather than an expansion of the lineup. (Hopefully that changes when Fantasmic returns.)
See our Guide to Extended Evening Hours at Walt Disney World for more info on this on-site perk, eligibility, strategy, and recommendations for taking advantage of the benefit if you’re on a budget.
On a more positive note, the new Cast Compliment feature in My Disney Experience has been improved! There used to be social media accounts for this, but they’re no longer monitored or utilized.
For accessing this feature, start by looking for the ’50th Anniversary Fun’ section of MDX. To make a Cast Compliment, hit “Explore the Guide,” and then scroll to the bottom of the next page. Previously, only the top section was virtually meaningless, as it only went to the department as a whole.
Now, you can send recognition to individual Cast Members. After choosing a positive sentiment from a drop-down menu, they can enter the cast member’s first name, hometown, and date of interaction. If Walt Disney World can locate them, the Cast Member will be alerted, along with their leader, and they can receive their personalized recognition.
Individual Cast Compliments are significant for internal recognition and career advancement opportunities. They are also presumably a nice morale boost. Way back in the day when I started working at Subway, it would make my week on the rare occasions when customers would say something kind to my boss. (The entitlement people think a $5 footlong buys them is absolutely asinine, so I can only imagine how much worse that is with a $5,000+ vacation.) Highly recommend that you commend the Cast Members who go above and beyond and make your vacation special.
In other news, Orlando International Airport (MCO) is busier than ever. The airport announced this week that it’s now the busiest airport in Florida and the 7th busiest in the United States, up from #9. Approximately 40.3 million passengers total traveled through MCO last year, up by 86% from the 2020 total.
That’s still down significantly from 2019, but the gap narrowed in the final two months of the year. MCO resumed international routes in November, and saw an immediate bump of 2 million passengers as a result, with international traffic up 20% since 2020. To close the year, there were several weeks when MCO’s traffic was almost on par with 2019. Given what we’ve seen thus far to start 2022, the airport is already set to outperform last year.
During a lengthy interview with The Wrap discussing a range of his projects with Disney, Lin-Manuel Miranda was asked about CEO Bob Chapek referring to Encanto as the company’s newest franchise.
To that, he responded, “I’m literally learning from you that Chapek said that. I talked to him and said, ‘I know there’s a world in which this casita lives in a theme park and we get to actually walk through it in real life.’ And that’s really exciting, but the other byproduct of all these characters is that there’s a lot more folks want us to explore and a lot that’s being explored.”
Lin-Manuel Miranda was also asked whether he’d want to see an Encanto theme park attraction in Disney California Adventure or Epcot, and he expressed enthusiasm: “I took my kids to Disneyland for the first time pre-pandemic a few years ago. And we sat through The Little Mermaid thing five times in a row. That’s where my brain goes. It’s like, I want to go in and out of this casita and see those characters and see the house respond because that’s something Disney can do that no one else can do.”
Miranda is referring to the Little Mermaid ~ Ariel’s Undersea Adventure at DCA (known as Under the Sea ~ Journey of the Little Mermaid at Magic Kingdom). You really can’t fault him for not knowing the ridiculous name(s) of the Little Mermaid dark ride. Even I have to Google it every single time I write it out.
Miranda also says that he and Chapek haven’t talked specifics and that the future of the franchise for Encanto is in the “really early days” and he doesn’t yet know what it’ll entail.
In his prepared remarks on last week’s earnings call, Bob Chapek expressed a lot of enthusiasm about Encanto, the breakout Disney+ hit. He covered its popularity in the parks, boasting that merchandise is flying off the shelves, and how proud he was that the franchise was launched by the Disney+ streaming service. Given that alone, it’s clear that there’s more to come for Encanto.
At this point, it’s probably not premature to fire up the “speculation mill” about how and when Encanto comes to Walt Disney World and Disneyland in full form. Every CEO tends to make their mark on the parks, and Encanto is the company’s biggest success under the Chapek regime thus far. His enthusiasm for Encanto sounded genuine on the call, and it’s pretty easy to tell with Chapek because he doesn’t really even try to feign enthusiasm (and when he does, it’s obvious).
I wouldn’t be surprised if there’s an announcement at the D23 Expo. For Walt Disney World, something small could come earlier. Mirabel appearing at DCA but not Walt Disney World means that Florida management likely declined promotional budget from Walt Disney Animation Studios (this happens often) under the mistaken assumption that Encanto wouldn’t be much of a hit on Disney+.
In the near-term, injecting characters from Encanto into entertainment at Walt Disney World should be high-priority. It’s mind-boggling that this hasn’t already happened. As soon as it was clear Encanto was a hit, someone should’ve gotten to work re-working Disney Adventure Friends Cavalcade to feature Encanto characters. That didn’t happen for some reason, so the same should occur with Mickey’s Magical Friendship Faire, the upcoming Cinderella Castle stage show.
If it were the 90s, we already would have a fully-fledged parade with giant inflatables, eclectic performers, and crazy costumes. The company was leaner and things just got done. Unfortunately, in today’s bloated corporate bureaucracy, nothing happens quickly. There need to be dozens of meetings and committees to reach obvious conclusions, like adding a character to a relatively generic cavalcade or stage show. But I digress.
It’ll be interesting to see whether there’s enough time before the D23 Expo in September for Imagineering to design and pitch an Encanto attraction, and for it to be greenlit. That would also be pretty quick turnaround time, assuming Imagineering doesn’t just come up with some quick and vague concept art and settles on the actual ride specifics later. That has actually happened a few times in recent years…but also for a couple of cancelled projects, so perhaps that’s not the way to go.
Although trackless dark rides are arguably now “played out” at Walt Disney World, the concept I’d love to see is basically a Mystic Manor style ride-through of Casa Madrigal. That Hong Kong Disneyland attraction is one of Imagineering’s best creations in the world; it’s essentially a tour of an (ahem) manor that is mystical, brought to life through the magic of music. Sound familiar?
Mystic Manor would offer the perfect template for an Encanto attraction. The casita is one of the best “characters” in the movie, and exploring the enchanted house would open the door for original ideas in the attraction, rather than another “book report” ride. (The Little Mermaid dark ride would be a poor template for an Encanto attraction.)
Plus, with Mystic Manor as the blueprint, the development time could presumably be shorter and something could be built sooner rather than later. It’d be nice to have a Frozen Ever After-esque turnaround time, rather than TRON Lightcycle Run one.
That’s just my take as someone who admittedly wasn’t huge on Encanto. (I really wanted to love it, but it’s no Frozen or Moana for me.) From my perspective, the Casa Madrigal is the most compelling character and is practically tailor-made for a theme park attraction. Encanto is a bit like Avatar in that regard, which the setting made ideal for a theme park land without regard for the movie’s actual plot and characters.
Imagineering could even dust off plans for the almost-announced Brazil pavilion, repurposing some of that for a Colombia pavilion in Epcot’s World Showcase. It could feature Carnival of Barranquilla, authentic exemplars of traditional colonial architecture (in addition to Casa Madrigal), and of course, the obligatory dining options (with alcohol already ubiquitous around World Showcase, maybe it’s time for a ‘coffee cave’).
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YOUR THOUGHTS
What do you think about all this Walt Disney World news? Think an Encanto attraction will be announced at the D23 Expo? Would you prefer it in a Colombia pavilion at Epcot, or South America land at Animal Kingdom? Hopeful that Mirabel or other characters are added to entertainment or as meet & greets in the meantime? Do you agree or disagree with our commentary? Any questions we can help you answer? Hearing your feedback–even when you disagree with us–is both interesting to us and helpful to other readers, so please share your thoughts below in the comments!
Hey! We’re new followers and really appreciate your advice and insight. Thank you
I’m here to ask for help if anyone has any time please. We had an epic fail at Epcot today. We referred to guides for Magic Kingdom, Hollywood Studios and Animal Kingdom and had three great days this week so far. We’re here for two weeks from the UK and this is our fourth attempt at this trip due to various arrangements and travel restrictions!
The day started reasonably well with a fantastic ride at Soarin’ (we are staying at a Disney good neighbour hotel so don’t have access to quite as many lightning lines as we expected) We have Genie+ but didn’t realise Remi’s Ratatouille and Frozen Ever After wouldn’t be options to us.
We headed to Frozen and queued from most an hour and a half before unfortunately the ride was closed. We waited another 15 minutes in line before deciding we should head elsewhere and then waited for another three hours 15 minutes before that ride closed too! The children were getting increasingly hot and stressed so we made the call to come back to the hotel and relax by the pool. I politely asked a cast member if there was anything they could help us out with, i.e. in terms of lighting lines next time we visit but we were told that’s not possible. Can anyone point me in the direction of a good guide to help us have a more successful trip to Epcot next time? Thank you
I love the idea of a mystic manor base, and placing it in Epcot … and I think it’s sorely needed there… but seeing how long everything is taking to complete is disheartening. My 8th grader would be in college most likely before they could open an Encanto attraction, and at that point, basically couldn’t Care less I would imagine. They just move too slow. If universal can open Velocicoaster in one year then I just don’t get what Disneys issue is. ♀️ I mean they haven’t even opened a Moana thing yet. And Moana JUST appeared in the parks this year!!! And how long did that take!? 5 years? My clients kids were clamoring for a Moana meet and greet when they were 5-6 years old, those kids are now 10 and 11! They’ll probably be teens before the Moana attraction opens in Epcot.
if they haven’t gotten Coco into the Mexico pavilion boat ride by now, a literal home run, I doubt we’ll hear anything about Encanto for awhile.
I adore the idea of a Mystic Manor style ride through La Casita. I was so worried that Disney would take the easiest possible route and just re-theme Rancho del Zocalo and add arepas to the menu. (That second part isn’t a bad idea)
Knowing that they are already talking about a ride makes me so happy. Encanto is the first Disney movie in years I have loved and I hope it gets the attraction it deserves.
Tom, I was just thinking the exact same thing – this idea has Mystic Manor bones all throughout it. That’s an incredible ride; and an Encanto overlay just seems like a no-brainer. It makes so much sense that undoubtedly it will never come to fruition.
An Encanto ride would be fantastic! It would only help with the Genie plus situation at Epcot.
Encanto was a one and done for me. Too preachy and obvious, though I admit many Disney movies are just that. I liked Bruno. But we don’t talk about him. My daughter has an international nanny from Colombia, and even she was like ‘eh’. Granted she’s 18, but she said the costuming was not super authentic. Too cartoonish and “old fashioned”. She said in her beautiful, thick accent “we dahn’t seeeng dat fahst”
Announcing an Encanto ride and Colombia pavilion would get a lot of goodwill from me! I’d forgive them for almost anything in the lead up lol. Colombia is the last international trip I took pre-Covid, and there’s so much there that would lend itself well to a pavilion and educate people on a country that’s not at the top of a lot of people’s bucket list (but should be!!).
And I love the idea of an Encanto casita dark ride for several reasons. First, I’m OBSESSED. I’ve had the soundtrack on repeat since I saw it opening day, and there are no kids in my house, so that is all me. Whoops… I also feel like Encanto, the Land of the Dead in Coco, and Kumatra in Raya are the recent Disney worlds I most want to experience in person. But as much as I love Coco, I love the classic nature of the Three Caballeros and the suggestions that they redo that to replace it with Coco is a huge NO from me. So I would love for them to focus on Encanto instead!
I will say that I have always found Frozen overrated (I love the ride but in terms of the movie Tangled wins hands down), and I found Moana so boring it took me three tries to get through. And I have to defend Little Mermaid a little. I realized during my last WDW trip that the Little Mermaid is my third favorite ride at MK. The visuals are gorgeous, and that was the last time they used the old style of AAs. The Under the Sea scene leaves me grinning every time, and the way they did Ursula is fantastic!
I am admittedly one of those Encanto-obsessed people, but as soon as I finished my first viewing, I was like “I NEED an Encanto ride at Epcot.” I envision the line heading towards the front of the house (shutters waving) but then veering to the side and being a ramp (disguised as a grassy slope) on the side of the house so that we board the ride on the second floor. After touring through all the rooms (a chance for some of that unused art of Luisa/Camilo/Dolores’ rooms), we start down the stairs and experience the sensation of bumping down the first few steps before Casita transforms it into a slide. Exit out through the kitchen.
I saw soooo many little girls in mirabel costumes last week at Epcot and the massive line for the (what I can only assume was hastily repurposed) encanto food booth was insane. My kids have been recording videos of them singing Bruno for two months. The fact that Disney is still playing catchup on this rather than being ahead of demand makes me wonder if Chapek even watches Disney movies/talks to fans/visits the parks… oh wait, I already know the answer to that.
Chapek is to blame for a lot, but definitely not the lack of Encanto at Walt Disney World. That’s squarely on Team Disney Orlando.
I thought Encanto was okay but I am not in love with it, not like Moana which is my all time favourite. I absolutely love Mystic manor, have been on that ride about twenty times and I never get sick of it. It is truly the most wonderful ride and I think an Encanto ride based on that would be awesome. I haven’t been on Little Mermaid ride yet (visiting DL in late April and will do it for the first time then) but I do think a lot of people give slow boat rides a bad wrap just because they are slow boat rides.It seems more and more people are demanding thrill type rides but everyone needs to remember that Disney parks should be for the whole family and there is nothing that little kids and grannies like more than to sit in a boat and glide past bright colourful scenes with catchy tunes playing in the backgound. I know they are not everyones cup of tea but we do need a balance, if thrill seekers are getting Tron then we slower paced people need another fun ride too. Having said that I think Mystic Manor has just the right blend of both apsects and is a perfect ride for the whole family.
While I liked Encanto, I didn’t love it. If getting this green lighted ends the perpetual Brazil Pavilion rumors, I’ll be thrilled. The country of Columbia is so much a more culturally rich area than Brazil.
We go to Disneyland and/or World two or three times every year for years, but we are starting to reevaluate that commitment. The constant price hikes for less and less amenities that used to be included. And 2 years now and still no meal plan return. We love to travel elsewhere as well, beginning to look more at traveling to other places instead
I agree, Encanto is cute and “We Don’t Talk About Bruno” is fantastic but it is no Moana (easily my favorite Disney branded animated film of the last 10 years). I would be a little disappointed if Encanto gets an E ticket ride when Moana is just getting an interactive water fountain.
I wouldn’t at all.
Even though I like Encanto way less than Moana, I think it’s much more conducive to an exceptional attraction due to the house. All of the environments in Moana are oceanic, and that makes it tough for a quality dark ride. (Probably pretty similar to the Little Mermaid one.)
I absolutely agree with you. I’d rather see Disney create a Moana attraction before Encanto.
“If it were the 90s, we already would have a fully-fledged parade with giant inflatables, eclectic performers, and crazy costumes. The company was leaner and things just got done. Unfortunately, in today’s bloated corporate bureaucracy, nothing happens quickly.” Wow. So well said. I miss that about the Beauty and the Beast/Aladdin/Little Mermaid years!
Just wanted to say I love everything you just espoused and would love a Colombian Coffee Cave and a Casita dark ride — done well, with a good Omnimover walkway for better accessibility and people eating.
You know, I didn’t love Encanto on my first viewing either, but now that I’m on my 375th it’s really growing on me!
On a related note, what do you think are the odds that my kids will see some Encanto characters on our Easter week trip?
I was told about a month ago (before Chapek’s effusive praise) that Walt Disney World was “scrambling” to fix their Encanto mistake. I’m not sure why there isn’t something already at this point, so I really can’t speculate as to Easter. I sure hope so!
The Little Mermaid dark ride is one of the most underwhelming in the Disney parks’ repertoire; I’m surprised that was what came to mind for Lin-Manuel when he thought of an Encanto attraction. Perhaps it speaks more to its appeal to small children. It doesn’t bode well for the timeline though if Lin-Manuel has never even heard of the possibility until the reporter told him.
Hopefully we do get the Colombia pavilion at Epcot. There’s certainly enough inspiration from real heritage sites like Cartagena and Mompox, in addition to the Casita. A new World Showcase pavilion is long overdue, plus South America remains the only continent unrepresented. And at least Encanto is set in the actual country rather than a fictional one like Arendelle. Not sure where it could go in DCA though – is there an expansion pad besides the one that’s supposedly reserved for the Avengers Quinjet ride that may or may not be canceled?
At Disneyland Resort, the next areas slated for future development (as of early 2020) were the Fantasyland Theatre and all of Hollywood Land. At one point, Frozen was the leading candidate for Disneyland (similar to the HKDL land being built); I wouldn’t be surprised if Encanto takes its place–not necessarily in that spot, but as a priority.
Which countries are represented from Oceania?
Didn’t think I would like Encanto that much but I loved it! I 100% agree that Mystic Manor is THE perfect template for a Casita ride. Had an OMG moment when I read that. True, trackless dark rides may be played out to some degree, but I love a good dark ride; surely we have room for just one more? 🙂
Lin-Manuel Miranda is one of the people that is so crazy creative, it makes me shake my fist and ask why it couldn’t get spread around a little more? We took the kids up to NYC two weeks ago for the first time and saw Hamilton with them (was their Christmas gift). Truly an incredible show, and mindboggling how someone goes from a biography about one of the Founders to that. It seems like all the music the guy touches seems to turn to gold. I guess he is becoming the next Alan Menken for Disney…
Drew, I thought I’d share a fun fact I recently learned, which is that Lin-Manuel Miranda and Robert & Kristin Lopez (who wrote the music for Frozen and other Disney hits) were actually trained by the same music teacher who taught them how to write music! Amazing talent! Disney should probably try to hire that music teacher as well, haha!