🚝 Dad at Disney Weekly #054 ✨

Hi All,

D23 came and went and Disney emptied the whole announcement drawer — five new lands, a Spaceship Earth overhaul, and Figment finally getting his guy back. Meanwhile Food & Wine opens in eight days and Thanksgiving rooms are quietly disappearing. Let's get to it:

LATEST NEWS

Disney announced five new lands at D23…. The big one for Disney World planners: Villains Land is coming to Magic Kingdom with a Maleficent-inspired coaster and a Magic Mirror dark ride, and Piston Peak National Park brings Cars to Frontierland with a high-speed wilderness rally plus a family attraction. Over at Hollywood Studios, Monstropolis gets a suspended Monsters, Inc. door coaster, with portions of the land expected to open in 2027. Animal Kingdom's 11-acre Tropical Americas lands in 2027 with a new Indiana Jones adventure and Disney Parks' first-ever Encanto ride-through. No opening dates yet for the Magic Kingdom lands. Disney's full roundup is here — it's a lot.

The classics are getting touched too — and this one affects trips…. Spaceship Earth is getting its first major reimagining in nearly 20 years, Carousel of Progress gets updated eras and a Walt Audio-Animatronic in late spring 2027, the Expedition Everest Yeti is expected to move again, and Dreamfinder and Figment are officially reuniting at EPCOT. Translation for planners: expect refurbishment closures to start appearing on 2027 calendars. If you've got a 2027 trip forming, this is the stuff that decides which park gets which day.

Food & Wine opens in 8 days — and the Foodie Guide just dropped…. EPCOT's festival runs August 27 through November 21, included with regular admission, no separate ticket. Disney posted the full 2026 Foodie Guide this morning — booth menus, prices, the whole spread. If you're going this fall, this is the week to lock the room; close-in fall inventory is exactly what the $19/point promo below covers. Taking kids? The festival-with-kids playbook has the booth strategy that keeps everybody fed.

Disney's going big on the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade's 100th…. Disney announced its plans for the parade's centennial — relevant mostly because it's a reminder that the holiday machine has already started spinning. Which, speaking of, is the entire subject of this week's new blog post. 👇

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NEW ON THE BLOG ✍️ 

The Thanksgiving day everyone plans wrong…. Thanksgiving week is one of the five busiest weeks of the year at Disney World — but the peak isn't Thanksgiving Day. It's the Friday and Saturday after (Nov 27–28), and most families fly in Wednesday and walk straight into it. Flip the trip and Monday–Wednesday are quietly the most playable days of the week. I put together the full day-by-day guide — crowds, what's open on Thanksgiving Day, the four Very Merry party nights that fall in Thanksgiving week, and the honest rental math on holiday-week rooms. Short version: the booking window is now, not October.

And the post that explains why that deadline is real…. Fresh on the blog: the best time to rent DVC points. There are two separate clocks — when you book (controls which resorts are still open to you) and when you travel (controls how many points the same room costs). Mix them up and you overpay or miss the resort. It also explains confirmed reservations, which is the tool almost nobody knows about and the correct move if you're already running late.

In case you missed these…. Fall trip forming? The week-by-week October guide tells you which October you're actually booking, and the MNSSHP cheat sheet covers party-night strategy. Still picking a resort? Boulder Ridge vs Copper Creek and Jambo House vs Kidani Village both went up last week.

Starting from zero? The free DVC Savings Guide is the 10-minute head start — and all my money-saving tools live at dadatdisney.co/tools.

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DISNEY DEALS

🔥 $19 points are still live — and holiday dates are the target now…. DVC Rental Store's promo pricing new 0-7 month bookings at $19/point is still running. That window now reaches into the back half of the fall calendar, which is exactly where Food & Wine and the early holiday season sit. Applies to new point bookings only — not confirmed reservations. Browse current DVC availability. (Affiliate link — I may earn a commission at no extra cost to you.)

🗓️ Booking 2027? The calendar's open through early July…. Up to 65% off Disney's Deluxe rates, and with D23 confirming a wave of 2027 openings, next year's demand is not going to get softer. Spring and early summer 2027 sit right in the 7-11 month sweet spot where resort selection is best. See what's open. (Affiliate link — I may earn a commission at no extra cost to you.)

📱 New: the World of DVC app…. DVC Rental Store launched an app this week — browse confirmed reservations, request a quote, and track Keyholder loyalty status from your phone. Free, on both App Store and Google Play. Genuinely useful if you're the type who checks availability at 11pm from the couch. (Which is all of us.)

🚼 The stroller math still wins…. Kingdom Strollers delivers a real Baby Jogger to your resort — free delivery, pickup, and rain cover — for about $100 per week vs $27-31/day renting Disney's plastic doubles in-park. On a Thanksgiving-week trip, where you will walk more than you planned, this isn't close. Check availability for your dates. (Affiliate link — I may earn a commission at no extra cost to you.)

🌧️ The five-dollar item that saves an afternoon…. Fall in Orlando means a 20-minute downpour out of a clear sky, usually right when you've committed to a stroller and a park bag. The Disney Baby universal stroller weather shield fits most single strollers, ventilates so it doesn't turn into a greenhouse, and folds into its own back pocket. Fits rental strollers too.

🍽️ Food & Wine with a toddler, solved…. Festival booths mean standing, sharing, and a lot of "hold this." The Disney Baby Dining Out Bundle 3-pack has a disposable high chair cover, a bib, and a ColorMe placemat per bundle — the placemat is the sleeper item, because it buys you roughly eleven minutes of quiet at a table. 🖍️

💧 Hydration without the $5 cart stop…. These collapsible clip-on water bottles come 10 to a pack, flatten when empty, and carabiner onto a bag or belt loop. Fill them free at any quick service counter. Not glamorous. Pays for itself before lunch on day one.

🎄 Yes, it's time for the shirts…. If you're going anywhere between now and New Year's, the decorations are already up and the photographers are out. The Mickey & Friends Christmas Crew family tee does the job. Though if you'd rather wear something of mine, the Dad at Disney store is right there. 👔

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UPCOMING EVENTS

• Aug 7 – Oct 31: Mickey's Not-So-Scary Halloween Party 2026 (select nights)

• Aug 27 – Nov 21: EPCOT Food & Wine Festival 2026

• September 9: Typhoon Lagoon closes for the season

• October 22-25: Disney Wine & Dine Half Marathon weekend

• November 8: Mickey's Very Merry Christmas Party season begins (25 nights through Dec 22)

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