Disney World News: Living with Land Closure, 50th Special, Club Cool Update

We’re back with a weekend Walt Disney World news & rumor roundup. This post shares the latest look inside the reimagined and relocated Club Cool at Epcot, the curious case of the disappearing POG juice at WDW restaurants, Living with the Land’s unplanned weeklong closure, and more.

As always, we’ll start with the latest release of new operating hours. All four theme parks have had hours for another week added to the DisneyWorld.com park hours calendar. The current calendar now runs through November 7, 2021. Here are the hours for most dates within the months of October and November 2021:

• Magic Kingdom: 9 am to 9 pm
• EPCOT: 10 am to 10 pm
• Hollywood Studios: 9 am to 9 pm
• Animal Kingdom: 8 am to 7 pm
• Blizzard Beach: 11 am to 6 pm
• Disney Springs: 10 am to 11 pm (11:30 pm on Fridays & Saturdays)

As a reminder, Magic Kingdom closes at 8:30 pm on Disney After Hours Boo Bash nights that are after September 5. That event runs from 9:30 pm to 12:30 am up until that date, and from 9 pm until midnight after that date. Otherwise, no hours changes or extensions to report this week, aside from a continuation of Epcot’s 10 am opening times and 10 pm closings daily during the months of October and November. Given the debuts of both Remy’s Ratatouille Adventure and Harmonious on October 1 as part of the World’s Most Magical Celebration this makes complete sense. If anything, Epcot should see its opening time moved forward another hour. (See our Guide to Walt Disney World’s 50th Anniversary for more details.)

Next, we have more dates for the Extended Evening Theme Park Hours that will allow eligible guests to experience select attractions, shops, and dining after regular park hours–in select theme parks on select nights. As a reminder, we shared Attraction Lists for Early Entry & Extended Evening Hours at Disney World, and that post also has more info about this upcoming guest perk.

Please review the chart below for the current Extended Evening Theme Park Hours schedule*:

With over a month of dates, we’d say the pattern for Extended Evening Theme Park Hours at Walt Disney World is pretty clear. It’ll be interesting to see if dates or parks are added–or anything changes–around the busier Thanksgiving and Christmas holiday seasons.

Speaking of after hours, all dates are now officially sold out online for Disney After Hours Boo Bash, Magic Kingdom’s Halloween-themed event. However, as explained in our Guide to Disney After Hours Boo Bash, you still might be able to purchase same-day tickets for party nights.

Conversely, not a single night has sold out for Disney Very Merriest After Hours. Tickets have only been on sale to the general public for a week, but by this point, Boo Bash had already sold out multiple dates. Normally, Mickey’s Very Merry Christmas Party sees higher demand than its Halloween counterpart.

We’re hopeful that Disney has finally pushed the limit of price increases too far, and fans are voting with their wallets. The cost of Disney Very Merriest After Hours is absolutely absurd, but the only way things change is if people stop buying.

In celebration of Walt Disney World’s 50th Anniversary, ABC News will present a television special: “The Most Magical Story on Earth: 50 Years of Walt Disney World.” This will air Friday, October 1, 2021 (the anniversary itself) from 8 p.m. to 10 p.m. ET on ABC. It can also be viewed the next day on demand and on Hulu, and later in the month on Disney+.

The “The Most Magical Story on Earth: 50 Years of Walt Disney World” will be hosted by Disney Legend Whoopi Goldberg, spanning a half-century and beyond at Walt Disney World in Florida. The special will feature exclusive interviews with actors, athletes, Cast Members, Imagineers, and executives who have all played their part at Walt Disney World. The special will also feature musical performances from Christina Aguilera and Halle Bailey in front of the legendary Cinderella Castle at Magic Kingdom, accompanied by the renowned Orlando Philharmonic Orchestra.

This program will take viewers through Walt Disney World’s humble beginnings in the swamplands of Florida and its evolution into a cultural phenomenon. Through an expansive look into the past, present and future of the vacation destination, footage never before seen on television will showcase the effort to bring the Florida Project to life.

The special will also spotlight Walt Disney World’s pop-culture moments, from sitcoms that filmed episodes in the theme parks to the ubiquitous “I’m going to Disney World!” ad campaign. Plus, how Disney and Make-A-Wish foundation have worked together to make kids’ dreams come true.

Celebrities include Anthony Anderson, John Stamos, Marsai Martin, Gary Sinise, Melissa Joan Hart and Candace Cameron Bure; NFL athletes Tom Brady, Phil Simms and Doug Williams; filmmakers Kevin Feige, Pete Docter and James Cameron; Imagineers including Bob Weis, Mark Kohl and Ann Morrow Johnson; and company executives Bob Chapek, Bob Iger and Michael Eisner, will all share their favorite memories of Walt Disney World.

Here’s hoping “The Most Magical Story on Earth: 50 Years of Walt Disney World” is worthwhile. Since it’s produced by ABC News, it should be a high-quality and informative program. Based on the description, it sounds like entertainment and marketing will be the focus, but hopefully there’s at least some rare footage. I realize puff pieces are what sell to casual, mainstream audiences on ABC, but it’d be great to see an actual 50th Anniversary documentary sometime in the next year on Disney+.

One seemingly-insignificant story that’s gained a lot of traction and concern among Walt Disney World fans in the last couple of weeks is the curious case of the disappearing POG juice. It’s been slowly vanishing from a number of locations around Walt Disney World, which has led to rampant speculation about cost-cutting.

We inquired with Cast Members at a few Animal Kingdom Lodge locations in the last couple of days; distilling those reports, it sounds to us like this is yet another supply chain issue. Being deeply committed to hard-hitting investigative journalism, I poked around and found Disney isn’t the only location experiencing a POG juice shortage–it’s also unavailable at Walmart.

Disney doesn’t make its own POG juice, and has had trouble procuring it from its normal vendor. Like so many other problems of this nature, it should be temporary, but don’t be surprised if the availability of POG juice is hit or miss in the next couple months.

Speaking of things disappearing and returning, finger scanning is back at the turnstiles to enter Walt Disney World theme parks. This is something that fell out of favor shortly before the closure last year (Cast Members began sanitizing the scanner between each guest at the time) and didn’t return at all when the parks reopened last July.

The fingerprint scanners were covered in order to reduce both the touching of surfaces and guests congregating, as use of these readers slows down the entry process. Now, things are totally back to normal–the scanners are being used like they were in February of last year, without sanitizing the stations between each guest.

We’re mildly surprised by this. Walt Disney World tested facial recognition for park entry earlier this year, and as we noted at the time, it is not a new technology. A lot of fans expressed privacy concerns and outrage about the “Big Brother” system, but the reality is that Walt Disney World has had highly sophisticated surveillance systems in place for years. Whatever data people don’t want them to have that’s acquired via facial recognition–they already have it.

In our view, it would’ve been nice if Disney discontinued fingerprint scanning and just quietly used facial recognition. Ultimately, we don’t have a super strong opinion on this either way, but it’s nice to not have long and slow-moving lines at park opening.

In some good news, Walt Disney Imagineering has shared a first look at the reimagined Club Cool, and indicated the “team is busy putting final touches” on this space. Club Cool is located around the corner from Creations Shop, both of which are still slated to open later in Summer 2021. Per Imagineering, that’ll happen “very soon.”

While doing laps around Epcot the other night, we caught some glimpses inside both Creations Shop and Club Cool, and both appear almost entirely finished–in much better shape than even a month ago. Even the nearby counter service dining concept (replacing Electric Umbrella) is coming along nicely. Wouldn’t be surprised to see that spot open towards the end of this year, but who knows.

Living with the Land at Epcot has now been closed for a full week of unplanned downtime, after closing last Friday “for the day.” Cast Members out front of the attraction have indicated that unscheduled maintenance is occurring, and they’re hopeful the attraction will return in the coming days.

There has been a flurry of online speculation regarding the cause, with some wondering if the infamous “cucumber video” has resulted in the installation of fencing or other measures for guest containment. It’s our understanding that this is not the case.

Rather, what we were told is that it’s due to the fire alarm system, which needs to pass inspections before it can reopen to guests.

Living with the Land has also had water and leak related issues in the past few months, so perhaps there’s more to it than that–we only know what we’ve been told, which might be entirely wrong.

This might all sound eerily familiar. The Tomorrowland Transit Authority PeopleMover went down in early March of last year “for the day.” At the time, we were told it needed parts that were difficult to acquire due to factory closures. The PeopleMover’s unplanned maintenance ended up taking it out of commission for just over a year.

On an optimistic note, Living with the Land has been cycling its boats while remaining closed to guests. It truly does not seem like this situation is as significant as what happened with the PeopleMover. To the contrary, these technical difficulties sound pretty minor and should be resolved within days, not months. Knock on wood.

Planning a Walt Disney World trip? Learn about hotels on our Walt Disney World Hotels Reviews page. For where to eat, read our Walt Disney World Restaurant Reviews. To save money on tickets or determine which type to buy, read our Tips for Saving Money on Walt Disney World Tickets post. Our What to Pack for Disney Trips post takes a unique look at clever items to take. For what to do and when to do it, our Walt Disney World Ride Guides will help. For comprehensive advice, the best place to start is our Walt Disney World Trip Planning Guide for everything you need to know!

YOUR THOUGHTS

What do you think about all this Walt Disney World news? Concerned that Living with the Land could turn into another PeopleMover situation with a multi-month “unplanned” closure? Excited for Club Cool’s return? Worried about the future of POG juice at restaurants around WDW? 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!