News

Theme Park Bits: 'Incredibles' Prepare To 'Paint The Night,' Donald Duck Draws 600-Minute Birthday Wait

By Joshua Meyer/

In this edition of Theme Park Bits:

  • Velociraptor greetings at Universal's Islands of Adventure just got a tad more interesting.
  • The Incredibles are about to join the "Paint the Night" parade at Disney California Adventure.
  • Watch Epcot's Guardians of the Galaxy concert and learn about another cool Marvel stage show.
  • Get the deets on some FOMO-worthy glamping ... starting with what that means in English.
  • Is there a person (or duck) alive you'd be willing to wait 600 minutes to meet?
  • And more!

    • If Blue's your boy (or girl, in this case, since she's a female dino), then you'll be pleased to know that said velociraptor from Jurassic World is now available to meet at Raptor Encounter in Universal's Island's of Adventure. Loews Royal Pacific Resort at Universal Orlando has some new kids suites with paddock doors and beds like gyrospheres from the movie, too. "Spared no expense."

    Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom is in theaters June 22. The next day, Pixar Pier opens at Disney California Adventure. It's set to be an action-packed weekend.

    Also on June 23, a new Incredibles float will be joining the flow of the "Paint the Night" parade at California Adventure. Disney Parks Blog and Inside the Magic have all the details on how this float will function and bring to life the fight with the villainous Underminer from the end of The Incredibles and the beginning of Incredibles 2.

    Tickets have sold out for D23's Imagineer-led tour of Pixar Pier on June 24. To prepare for the land's opening, FastPass distribution has relocated for the Radiator Springs Racers and Toy Story Mania! rides at California Adventure.

    If you missed our article about it, the ride character Redd has made her flesh-and-blood debut outside the Pirates of Caribbean attraction at Disneyland Park.

    Registration has yet to begin for Grad Nite 2019 at Disneyland Resort but mark your calendars for these dates.

    There's a neat little preview of the Play Disney Parks app online now.

    Over on the East Coast, the "Guardians of the Galaxy – Awesome Mix Live!" concert is now playing at Epcot. You can see Star-Lord and Gamora kick out the jams in the video above.

    If you're familiar with the history of Disney animated features, then you may know how the invention of the multiplane camera enabled early films like Pinocchio to have a more realistic, three-dimensional field of depth. Now Disney has patented a multiplane screen that could be used to give the illusion of depth in real-life windows, thereby allowing guests at Disney World's future Star Wars hotel or Epcot's future space restaurant to feel as though they were really looking out into space.

    See if you're up with enough hip lingo to understand this contest description:

    "For the first and only time, one person and his or her plus one will get the chance to glamp under the floating mountains of Pandora—The World of Avatar, a catered, bespoke and FOMO-inducing experience."

    In plain English, that means you have the chance to win a glamour-camping experience at Disney's Animal Kingdom that will inspire a fear of missing out in others.

    At Walt Disney Studios Park in Paris, the Marvel Summer of Super-Heroes kicked off this week. This event includes a live-action stage show where Thanos makes an appearance on his throne and the Scarlet Witch can be seen levitating cars.

    Tokyo Disney Resort launched its official smartphone app this week, but it's currently only available in the Japanese App Store and as of yet, there's no English language option. The bigger news coming out of that Disney resort this week is the announcement of its $2.3 billion expansion, which will bring Peter Pan, Tangled, and Frozen areas and a new in-park hotel to Tokyo DisneySea. For more details on that, check out this article, where you'll also find mention of Donald Duck recently commanding an insane 600-minute wait time for greetings at Tokyo Disneyland on his birthday.

    Recommended