Pirates & Princesses

Disney Store is closing its Australia and Asia websites on Sept. 30

Derek Gibbs — Mon, 14 Sep 2026 00:46:13 GMT

DisneyStore.com.au and DisneyStore.asia shut down at the end of the month, cutting off direct Disney retail in four countries. Disney has not given a reason, and the timing lands weeks before the holidays.

Disney Store is closing two of its international online storefronts, and it has not said why.

DisneyStore.com.au, which serves Australia and New Zealand, and DisneyStore.asia, which serves Singapore and Malaysia, both cease operations on Sept. 30.

When exactly the Disney Store websites close

The cutoff is precise, and it differs by time zone.

DisneyStore.com.au stops accepting new orders at 11:59 p.m. AEST on Sept. 30, which is 1:59 a.m. NZST on Oct. 1 for New Zealand customers.

DisneyStore.asia closes at 11:59 p.m. on Sept. 30.

Orders placed before the deadline will still be fulfilled from local warehouses. Disney warns that “all orders are subject to availability and delivery delays may occur due to an increase in order volume during this period.”

Returns, exchanges and warranties will continue to be honored after the sites go dark. Both storefronts have published FAQ pages.

Which Disney Store sites are not affected

Most of the network continues unchanged.

Disney Store Japan, United States, United Kingdom, China, Korea, Philippines and Middle East all keep operating past Sept. 30.

Only the four markets served by those two websites lose direct access.

This may be the first time Disney has shut a store site outright

Laughing Place raised a point worth carrying, because the history here is unusual.

Disney’s online retail has been merged and rebranded repeatedly. Disney Store became shopDisney, then reverted to Disney Store. What it has not typically done is close.

The only prior comparable shutdown appears to be DisneyAuctions.com, which was originally powered by eBay, ended that partnership in 2006 and closed in 2009. That domain now redirects to DisneyStore.com.

Why this matters more in Australia than elsewhere

This is the third Disney withdrawal from that market in under a year.

Disney Cruise Line exited Australian waters entirely after the Disney Wonder’s final local sailing in February 2026, with high operating costs cited as a factor.

Disney has separately ruled out ever building a Disneyland in Australia, pointing to the country’s population as too small to justify the investment.

Now the online store closes. Between the cruise line’s exit, no park on the horizon and the site shutting down, direct-to-consumer Disney in Australia and New Zealand is close to gone.

Where Australian and Asian fans can buy Disney merchandise now

Disney’s FAQ says merchandise remains available through “authorized and trusted retailers” in each country.

DisneyStore.com in the United States does ship internationally. Shipping costs and exchange rates make that a hard sell for most orders, and the timing lands directly before the holiday shopping season.

Affected shoppers looking for Loungefly bags, Disney Parks ears, limited-edition collections or seasonal merchandise lose the one reliable route to items that never reached local retailers.

How this fits Disney’s retail strategy

The closure lines up with a direction Disney has been running for five years.

In 2021, Disney began closing more than 200 Disney Store mall locations across the United States and most of Canada, shifting toward its own e-commerce platform, park-based retail and third-party licensed retailers.

In January 2026, Disney closed its Disney Village store at Disneyland Paris after 33 years. That was the last classic Disney Store location in Europe, and the space is becoming a new retail concept called Disney Wonders.

Disney also ran an eCommerce Day during D23 2026, letting fans outside Anaheim buy exclusive event merchandise online rather than in person.

The pattern is consistent. What is different here is that the e-commerce channel itself is being removed rather than expanded.

What to do before Sept. 30

A few practical steps for anyone in the four affected markets.

Place any outstanding orders well before the deadline rather than on the final day, since Disney has already flagged volume-driven delays.

Keep order confirmations. Returns, exchanges and warranty claims remain available after closure, and those records will matter.

Check what local authorized retailers actually stock before assuming an item will be findable. The gap Disney’s own store filled was precisely the merchandise that never made it to those shelves.

Article compiled with the help of the Pirates & Princesses newsroom.

Pirates and Princesses is your destination for Disney news, theme park updates, and the pop culture you love. From Disney cruises and travel tips to Disney fashion, food, collectibles, and movie news, PNP covers it all. Visit us at piratesandprincesses.net for daily coverage. Follow PNP on Facebook and Instagram, and listen to the Pirates & Princesses podcast on Apple Podcasts and YouTube.

Hat Tips:

WDW News Today (September 2026), the closing dates and times, the unaffected markets and the returns and warranty confirmation
Fantasy Land News, the 2021 mall closure context, the Disneyland Paris store closure and the Australian market retreat pattern
Laughing Place, the observation that Disney has historically merged rather than closed retail sites and the DisneyAuctions.com precedent
WDWInfo, the note on international shipping costs from the U.S. site
Disney Fanatic, the customer notice language and the order fulfillment terms

Walt Disney World Railroad closes Sept. 28 and Tiana's Bayou Adventure Nov. 2

Derek Gibbs — Mon, 14 Sep 2026 00:29:17 GMT

The railroad goes down for a month, and Tiana’s takes its first refurbishment since opening in 2024. One of them has already been running at half capacity for more than a year.

Two Magic Kingdom attractions are closing this fall, and neither closure is as simple as the calendar makes it look.

The Walt Disney World Railroad shuts down Sept. 28, about two weeks from now. Tiana’s Bayou Adventure follows on Nov. 2.

Disney expects the railroad back in November and Tiana’s in December, though it has published no firm reopening dates for either.

The railroad has not been a full railroad since 2025

This is the context most coverage skips, and it changes what the closure actually costs you.

The Walt Disney World Railroad has been operating in shuttle mode since July 2025, running only between Main Street, U.S.A. and Fantasyland and back.

The cause is construction in Frontierland and Villains Land. The full loop around Magic Kingdom is not expected to return until those projects finish.

So the September closure takes an attraction already running at partial service and removes it entirely for roughly a month.

Two stations stay open during the closure. Main Street Train Station remains available for parade and fireworks viewing, and Storybook Circus Station stays open for Mickey’s Not-So-Scary Halloween Party activities.

Tiana’s Bayou Adventure has never closed before

The Nov. 2 shutdown is the ride’s first refurbishment since it opened.

Tiana’s Bayou Adventure debuted at Magic Kingdom on June 28, 2024, followed by the Disneyland version on Nov. 15, 2024. It replaced Splash Mountain, keeping that ride’s flume infrastructure and five-story drop.

Two years without a scheduled closure is a long run for a water ride with a heavy animatronic load.

Disney Tourist Blog suggests the timing may reflect accelerated maintenance driven by ongoing Audio-Animatronics problems, and raises the possibility that new Walt Disney World president Joe Schott found the show quality unacceptable.

Why Tiana’s went two years without a refurbishment

There is a scheduling explanation, and it involves a different mountain.

Big Thunder Mountain Railroad was closed from Jan. 6, 2025 through May 3, 2026, a run of nearly 16 months. Buzz Lightyear’s Space Ranger Spin was also offline during part of that stretch.

With two attractions already down, Disney Tourist Blog argues, there was no appetite for taking Tiana’s offline as well. That would make the November closure a delayed winter project rather than an early one.

Should you worry about the reopening date

Big Thunder Mountain Railroad’s closure was scheduled and then ran far longer than expected. Peter Pan’s Flight went down in July 2024 for what was announced as a six-week project.

Disney has not published a reopening date for Tiana’s beyond “December 2026.” Anyone planning a Thanksgiving or early-December visit should treat the ride as unavailable rather than assume it returns on time.

What closes alongside Tiana’s Bayou Adventure

Here the reporting splits, so confirm before you plan around merchandise.

Tiana’s Bayou General, the ride’s exit shop, closes with the attraction. Every outlet agrees on that.

Critter Co-Op is disputed. Several outlets reported it closing too, while Blog Mickey published an update stating it will remain open. That correction is the most recent account.

What is coming to the Diamond Horseshoe

One addition lands between the two closures.

The Diamond Horseshoe in Liberty Square gets a limited-time pop-up beginning Oct. 4, with Disney having already released a first look at the menu.

Disney Eats has also added three new items at select Frontierland locations.

What else is happening around Tiana’s

The whole corner of the park is in motion.

Piston Peak National Park, the Cars-themed land, is under construction just east of Tiana’s, in the footprint of the former Rivers of America and Tom Sawyer Island.

That project includes a new waterway Disney has said will run past Tiana’s Bayou Adventure toward the Frontierland boardwalk.

Big Thunder Mountain Railroad reopened in May after its long closure.

Planning around a fall Disney World trip

The rest of the season’s calendar, for anyone building an itinerary.

Typhoon Lagoon closed for seasonal refurbishment on Sept. 9. The Play Disney Parks app retires Sept. 16.

Mickey’s Not-So-Scary Halloween Party runs select nights through Oct. 31. Mickey’s Very Merry Christmas Party and Jollywood Nights follow in November and December.

Both closures land in months Disney bills as its busiest, which is the part regulars will notice.

Article compiled with the help of the Pirates & Princesses newsroom.

Hat Tips:

Laughing Place, the Sept. 28 through Oct. 29 railroad dates and the confirmation that the ride has run in shuttle mode since July 2025
KennythePirate, the station availability during the railroad closure and the December reopening estimate for Tiana’s
Blog Mickey, the update that Critter Co-Op remains open and the Piston Peak waterway detail
Disney Tourist Blog, the Audio-Animatronics analysis, the Joe Schott reference and the Big Thunder and Peter Pan’s Flight precedents
WDWInfo, the My Disney Experience listing and the Splash Mountain infrastructure history
Resorts Gal, the Diamond Horseshoe pop-up date and the Disney Eats additions

"Star Wars: Starfighter" opens May 28, 2027, 50 years after the original

Derek Gibbs — Mon, 14 Sep 2026 00:25:08 GMT

Ryan Gosling plays Kade Auberon in the franchise’s first film since 2019. The teaser screened at D23 and then vanished, and the poster revives a logo Lucasfilm hasn’t used since 1980.

Ryan Gosling is flying a decommissioned Imperial ship in the first new Star Wars movie in eight years.

“Star Wars: Starfighter” opens May 28, 2027, with Shawn Levy directing and Gosling starring as Kade Auberon.

The date is deliberate. The original “Star Wars” opened that same weekend in 1977.

What Star Wars: Starfighter is about

Lucasfilm has kept the plot tight.

The film is a standalone story, not a sequel or an adaptation, set roughly five years after “The Rise of Skywalker.” It is the franchise’s first theatrical release since 2019.

Gosling described his character at D23. “Kade is a guy from the wrong side of the galaxy, whose fate is intertwined with the fastest starfighter ever built.”

Levy framed the setting as new ground. “It takes place in a period of time that’s never been shown in a Star Wars adventure.”

What was in the Starfighter teaser

The footage screened for the room at D23 and has not been released publicly.

It opens on a boy, played by newcomer Flynn Gray, lifting a tarp off a mothballed starship in a hangar. Kade catches him and scolds him for snooping.

Asked what the ship is, Kade calls it a decommissioned G17 Imperial Reaper, “the fastest starfighter ever built,” then covers it back up without explaining why nobody has heard of it.

Gosling wears a black jacket stamped with an upside-down Rebel Alliance crest that reads as a skull at a glance.

Gray’s character has not been identified. Reporting from the room noted the two appear to share the hangar, raising the possibility he is Kade’s son. Lucasfilm has not confirmed it.

The poster brings back the 1977 logo

Attendees left with a piece of design history.

The Starfighter poster handed out at D23 uses the original 1977 “Star Wars” logo, a design that has not appeared on a theatrical poster since “The Empire Strikes Back” in 1980.

For a film positioned as the franchise’s first genuinely new direction in years, reaching back to the 1977 mark is a specific choice.

Who else is in Star Wars: Starfighter

The cast is deeper than a standalone usually gets.

Alongside Gosling and Gray: Amy Adams, Matt Smith, Mia Goth, Aaron Pierre, Simon Bird, Jamael Westman and Daniel Ings.

Kathleen Kennedy produces with Levy. Jonathan Tropper wrote the script. Executive producers include Gosling, Dave Filoni, Mary McLaglen, Josh McLaglen and Dan Levine.

Claudio Miranda, who shot “F1” and “Top Gun: Maverick,” is the cinematographer.

When Star Wars: Starfighter was filmed

Principal photography ran August through December 2025, which leaves roughly a year and a half for post-production.

The project was formally announced by Kennedy and Filoni at Star Wars Celebration in Tokyo, after months of reports linking Gosling and Levy to an unnamed Lucasfilm film.

Levy has cited American car culture, “The Outsiders” and George Lucas’ “American Graffiti” as influences.

What else is coming from Star Wars

The slate around Starfighter has filled in considerably.

“Ahsoka” returns for its second season on Disney+ on Jan. 20, with Hayden Christensen back as Anakin Skywalker.

“Star Wars: The Mandalorian and Grogu” reached Disney+ on Sept. 2 after finishing near $345 million theatrically, a figure Disney CEO Josh D’Amaro acknowledged fell short of expectations.

Lucasfilm separately passed on a droid film pitched by Paul King and Simon Farnaby, who were told the studio needed it to feel more like a Star Wars movie.

Gosling has other franchise work ahead. He is playing Ghost Rider for Marvel in 2028.

Nine months out, and the only footage anyone outside that room has seen is a poster.

Article compiled with the help of the Pirates & Princesses newsroom.

Hat Tips:

StarWars.com, Gosling’s Kade Auberon quote, Levy’s comments on the 50-year anniversary weekend, the full cast and the production credits
Yahoo Entertainment, the report that Lucasfilm scrubbed fan-captured teaser footage within 48 hours and Levy’s release-date remarks
The Direct, the three-character teaser observation, the G17 Imperial Reaper detail and the inverted Rebel Alliance crest
The Playlist, the hangar scene description, Claudio Miranda’s involvement and the possible father-son reading
MovieWeb, the August through December 2025 shooting schedule and the post-”Rise of Skywalker” placement
tbreak, the 1977 logo poster detail
Variety, the standalone framing and the five-year time jump

Harry Potter’s Hogwarts house crests are being redesigned for the HBO series

Derek Gibbs — Mon, 14 Sep 2026 00:20:16 GMT

Warner Bros. revealed new Gryffindor, Slytherin, Hufflepuff and Ravenclaw emblems at Back to Hogwarts. They are simpler than the film versions, and they are not replacing them.

Warner Bros. Discovery put new Hogwarts house crests on display in London this week, and they look nothing like the ones on your scarf.

The redesigned Gryffindor, Slytherin, Hufflepuff and Ravenclaw emblems were revealed at the Back to Hogwarts showcase on Sept. 1, ahead of HBO’s series arriving at Christmas.

They are considerably simpler than the elaborate heraldic shields used in the films.

Are the new house crests replacing the film versions

No, and the distinction matters for anyone about to be upset.

The new designs are made for HBO’s television adaptation. WizardingPress framed them as a new visual interpretation of Hogwarts rather than a replacement for the classic film crests.

The films are not being altered. Existing merchandise is not being recalled.

The crests do appear in one place fans will encounter immediately, which is the redesigned Sorting Ceremony.

The Sorting Ceremony has been rebuilt again

This is the third major version of the official house quiz.

The original launched with Pottermore in 2011. A redesigned version followed in 2019 when Wizarding World replaced Pottermore. The newest arrived for Back to Hogwarts 2026.

The updated experience runs from receiving a Hogwarts acceptance letter through entering the Great Hall, with new animation, new music and a newly animated, talking Sorting Hat.

The new house crests are built into it.

Warner Bros. World Abu Dhabi is revealing three new lands Sunday

The showcase closed with a teaser that has a very short fuse.

Warner Bros. World Yas Island, Abu Dhabi will reveal three new themed lands on Sept. 7, three days from now.

Warner has not said what they are.

A 21,000-square-foot Harry Potter store opens in London Nov. 4

The retail announcement is the largest of its kind for the franchise.

The store opens Nov. 4 at The Ribbon, 134-140 Oxford Street, spanning two floors and more than 21,000 square feet. That makes it the largest Harry Potter store in the United Kingdom.

The design draws on Diagon Alley, and Warner is positioning it as an immersive destination rather than a shop.

A new broomstick experience was also teased, described as more interactive than the existing one at the New York flagship. No details were given.

ICE! featuring Harry Potter uses 2 million pounds of ice

The seasonal attraction returns to Texas with new concept art.

ICE! featuring Harry Potter runs at the Gaylord Texan Resort in Grapevine, Texas, from Nov. 13. Sources differ on the closing date, listing either Jan. 2 or Jan. 3, 2027.

The walk-through is kept at 9 degrees and uses 2 million pounds of ice to recreate 10 scenes from the films.

Newly revealed artwork shows the Hogwarts Express arriving at Hogsmeade Station, Honeydukes-inspired treats, a Hogwarts Castle playground with two-story ice slides, and a Christmas feast in the Great Hall.

Other scenes cover Hedwig, the Forbidden Forest, The Three Broomsticks and a Quidditch Pitch display for the four houses.

What else came out of Back to Hogwarts 2026

Warner’s own recap counted 18 announcements.

The HBO series will appear in the 2026 Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade, which is unusual placement for a streaming drama and reads as a push beyond HBO’s own platforms.

“Wizards of Baking” returns for a third season. The official podcast gets a new season. New illustrated book editions were announced.

On the gaming side, “Harry Potter: Hogwarts Mystery” added new adventures and rewards, and “Harry Potter: Puzzles & Spells” ran countdown events.

Warner Bros. Studio Tour London introduces a seasonal feature called Hogwarts House Spirit, with behind-the-scenes material on memorable house moments and wizarding challenges. Coverage places it either in January or spring.

Where the showcase actually happened

There was no official event at King’s Cross Station this year. The London celebration ran at Old Billingsgate as the HBO Max Platform 9¾ Fan Experience, a free ticketed one-day event.

The showcase itself streamed at 5 p.m. BST, which was noon Eastern, on the official Harry Potter YouTube and TikTok channels.

“Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone” premieres on HBO and HBO Max this Christmas.

Article compiled with the help of the Pirates & Princesses newsroom.

Hat Tips:

Wizarding World, the official showcase recap listing 18 announcements, the Sorting Ceremony details and the Hogwarts House Spirit event
Attractions Magazine (September 2026), the Abu Dhabi teaser, the ICE! specifications and the Sorting Ceremony version history
WizardingPress, the clarification that the new crests supplement rather than replace the film designs
Soap Central, the Oxford Street store details, the broomstick experience tease and the Macy’s parade placement
HeyUGuys, the Old Billingsgate venue and the King’s Cross advisory
Aguamenti, the showcase streaming time and format
Variety (July 2026), the global program overview

Cartoon Network was already taken apart before Paramount showed up

Derek Gibbs — Mon, 14 Sep 2026 00:06:40 GMT

The studio lost its Burbank building, merged into Warner Bros. Animation, shed its executives and watched ad revenue fall 83%. The merger is not the threat. It is the last step.

Paramount’s acquisition of Warner Bros. Discovery has raised an obvious question about what happens to Cartoon Network.

The honest answer is that most of it already happened.

The studio was consolidated in 2022, lost its dedicated building, and has watched the advertising business that funded it collapse by 83 percent.

Cartoon Network Studios does not have its own building anymore

Cartoon Network Studios was founded in 1994. In 1999, Cartoon Network bought a large building in Burbank specifically to house it, at 300 N 3rd Street, opening May 22, 2000.

The point was independence. Cartoon Network Studios existed to create original series while Warner Bros. Animation handled existing intellectual property.

It operated there for more than 20 years. On Aug. 1, 2023, it relocated into shared corporate space at 100 S California Street.

Bloomberg Businessweek later described it plainly: Warner Bros. Discovery closed the Cartoon Network Studios home in Burbank.

The 2022 consolidation merged it into Warner Bros. Animation

The structural change came in a memo.

Warner Bros. Television Group chairman Channing Dungey told staff the company would fully consolidate its television animation divisions, merging Warner Bros. Animation and Cartoon Network Studios into shared development and production teams.

The same week brought 82 layoffs plus 43 positions left permanently unfilled, a total of 125 roles amounting to 26 percent of the workforce across those units.

Sam Register remained president of both divisions and of Hanna-Barbera Studios Europe, which stayed separate for geographic reasons.

Cartoon Network Studios pushed back at the time, calling reports of its disappearance “categorically false” and stating flatly, “We are not going anywhere.”

What Cartoon Brew predicted in 2022

The trade’s read at the time has aged well.

Cartoon Brew argued that once CNS had to share development and production resources with Warner Bros. Animation, it became difficult to imagine the studio’s original output matching its past.

The publication predicted a shift toward reboots of the existing catalog rather than new intellectual property, citing the Powerpuff Girls revival then in development.

The executives who built the brand left

Two departures signaled where marketing authority moved.

Tricia Melton, the marketing chief who led Cartoon Network’s rebranding and launched the Cartoonito preschool label, departed alongside Jill King, a 22-year Warner veteran who helped build The Powerpuff Girls and Steven Universe into global franchises.

Both left as Karen Bronzo, U.S. networks marketing chief, consolidated those operations into the broader company.

Melton’s own memo to staff was direct. “They say the secret to a long life is knowing when it’s time to go,” she wrote. “I know that this is a challenging, turbulent time for everyone.”

Cartoon Network’s advertising revenue fell 83 percent

The number underneath all of this explains the rest.

Annual advertising revenue for Cartoon Network and Adult Swim combined fell 83 percent between 2014 and 2024, according to S&P Global Market Intelligence data reported by Bloomberg Businessweek.

Bloomberg also noted that the brand’s streaming prospects looked no better, with Max having largely failed to become a destination for young viewers.

More layoffs hit both Cartoon Network and Adult Swim in 2025, confirmed publicly by an Adult Swim voice actor who said a lot of good people were weighing their options.

That round landed while the network was in France celebrating its 25th anniversary at the Annecy International Animation Film Festival.

What the Paramount merger actually changes

Less than the headlines suggest, and that is the point.

The European Commission approved the deal on July 22 with conditions covering theatrical film distribution only. Regulators examined the overlap in children’s television channels specifically and found no competition problem.

Nickelodeon and Cartoon Network are not being forced apart. They are being placed under one owner, and neither is what it was.

Nickelodeon fell 86 percent in viewership between 2016 and 2023. Cartoon Network fell 85 percent.

What is still standing in the way

The merger is not closed.

Twelve state attorneys general, led by California and New York, sued in July to block it. A federal judge in Oakland temporarily halted completion pending a hearing.

The UK Competition and Markets Authority has not ruled.

If the deal does not close by the end of September, Paramount owes WBD shareholders roughly $7 million a day.

Cartoon Network turns 34 this year. It will spend its birthday as a brand inside somebody’s portfolio, which it already was.

Article compiled with the help of the Pirates & Princesses newsroom.

Hat Tips:

Bloomberg Businessweek, via Axios (May 2025), the Burbank studio closure and the 83 percent ad revenue decline from S&P Global Market Intelligence
Cartoon Brew (October 2022), Channing Dungey’s consolidation memo, the layoff figures and the analysis of CNS’s future output
The Hollywood Reporter, the Tricia Melton and Jill King departures and Karen Bronzo’s restructuring
The Ticker, the Cartoon Network Studios statement and the leadership assignments
ComicBook.com (June 2025), the Adult Swim layoffs during Annecy
Wikipedia, the Cartoon Network Studios address history and founding dates
Graphic Policy and Variety (July 2026), the European Commission approval terms and the state attorneys general lawsuit

Nickelodeon renewed SpongeBob through 2027 and canceled Dora

Derek Gibbs — Mon, 14 Sep 2026 00:00:54 GMT

Paramount is consolidating around its biggest franchises and cutting everything else. SpongeBob is the No. 1 kids’ property on any platform, and the strategy is already visible before the Warner merger closes.

Nickelodeon has four seasons of two shows in production right now.

SpongeBob SquarePants Season 18 and The Patrick Star Show Season 6 arrive in the fourth quarter of 2026. Seasons 19 and 7 follow in 2027.

Dora and Tales of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles were canceled.

Why Nickelodeon is renewing and canceling at the same time

Both decisions fit a programming shift that followed the Paramount-Skydance merger, prioritizing top franchises across the Paramount cable brands now consolidated into a TV Media division overseen by chair George Cheeks.

Franchises that perform get multiple seasons ordered at once. Everything else gets cut, including Paramount+ originals.

PAW Patrol and spinoff Rubble & Crew received the same treatment, picked up for 26 episodes each, covering seasons 14 and 15 for PAW Patrol and 5 and 6 for Rubble & Crew.

How big SpongeBob actually is

SpongeBob SquarePants is the No. 1 cross-platform franchise of 2026 to date among kids aged 6 to 11, according to Nielsen data cited by Nickelodeon.

It airs in more than 180 markets, translated into over 30 languages, and averages more than 90 million total viewers per quarter.

The series launched July 17, 1999. It is the longest-running kids’ animated series on television, created by Stephen Hillenburg and produced by Nickelodeon in Burbank.

Three theatrical films have grossed $470.9 million worldwide combined, led by 2015’s “Sponge Out of Water” at over $325 million.

Is Patrick leaving SpongeBob?

Nickelodeon addressed this directly, which means enough people asked.

He is not. The network confirmed it alongside the Season 18 renewal.

The Patrick Star Show is also continuing through at least Season 7.

What Nickelodeon has coming this fall

Several dated items land in October.

Avatar: Seven Havens premieres Oct. 9 on Paramount+.

SpongeBob SquarePants: Titans of the Tide arrives on Nintendo Switch on Oct. 13. Avatar Legends: The Fighting Game gets a physical release on PS5, Switch and Switch 2 on Oct. 28.

HexVets & Magic Pets premieres on Nickelodeon and Nick Jr. this fall after an Australian debut on ABC Kids in June.

Hollywood Arts arrives on Netflix on Oct. 15, with a Nickelodeon television premiere to follow.

Avatar is Nickelodeon’s other franchise bet

The property has expanded into a full production pipeline.

Avatar Studios was formed in 2021 by series creators Michael Dante DiMartino and Bryan Konietzko to expand the world beyond the original series and The Legend of Korra.

“Avatar Aang: The Last Airbender” reached Paramount+ this summer, with Eric Nam as Aang, Dave Bautista, Jessica Matten, Román Zaragoza, Steven Yeun and Dionne Quan, alongside Ke Huy Quan, Taika Waititi and Freida Pinto.

The live-action Avatar: The Last Airbender returned for its second season on June 25.

Nickelodeon is also going into physical attractions

PAW Patrol Rescue Pups: An Immersive Experience, a touring family attraction from Paramount Products & Experiences and Egan Productions, opens in Dallas this fall before expanding to additional cities in 2027.

Presale waitlists are open.

How this compares to Cartoon Network

The contrast matters given that both networks may soon share an owner.

Cartoon Network Studios merged into Warner Bros. Animation in 2022, lost its dedicated Burbank building in 2023, and saw combined Cartoon Network and Adult Swim advertising revenue fall 83 percent between 2014 and 2024.

Nickelodeon is ordering multiple seasons of multiple franchises, releasing films, licensing games and launching a touring attraction.

Both networks have lost most of their linear viewership. Only one has kept a franchise that works everywhere else.

If Paramount’s acquisition of Warner Bros. Discovery closes, the two land under the same roof with very different momentum.

Article compiled with the help of the Pirates & Princesses newsroom.

Hat Tips:

NickALive! (June 2026), the SpongeBob and Patrick Star renewals, the Nielsen ranking, the PAW Patrol pickups, the cancellations and George Cheeks’ TV Media consolidation
Nickelodeon Wiki, the 2026 premiere calendar including Avatar: Seven Havens and the game release dates
NickALive! (August 2026), the Avatar Aang cast and the PAW Patrol Rescue Pups announcement
Deadline, via Yahoo, the SpongeBob theatrical grosses
IMDb, the Avatar Studios formation and creator involvement
Bloomberg Businessweek, via Axios, the Cartoon Network and Adult Swim advertising decline

Cruise lines are adding ships while theme parks report softer attendance

Derek Gibbs — Sun, 13 Sep 2026 23:44:57 GMT

Norwegian just ordered eight ships across three brands. Royal Caribbean has an eighth Icon-class vessel coming. Disney’s expansion is part of the largest simultaneous buildout the industry has seen.

Disney Cruise Line is going from four ships to twelve.

That sounds extraordinary until you look at what everyone else ordered.

Norwegian Cruise Line Holdings committed to eight new vessels across three brands, adding nearly 25,000 berths, with deliveries running from 2026 to 2036.

What Norwegian ordered

The scale of the commitment is a decade long.

Following four Prima Plus class ships delivered between 2025 and 2028, Norwegian Cruise Line takes four ships of roughly 200,000 gross tons each, carrying nearly 5,000 guests, arriving in 2030, 2032, 2034 and 2036.

Oceania Cruises adds two 86,000-ton ships at 1,450 guests each in 2027 and 2029.

Regent Seven Seas Cruises adds two 77,000-ton ships at 850 guests each in 2026 and 2029.

The company is also building a multi-ship pier at Great Stirrup Cay, its private island in the Bahamas.

What Royal Caribbean has coming

The industry’s largest operator is not slowing either.

Legend of the Seas entered service in July, an Icon Class ship with seven pools and more than 40 dining and bar venues.

The next Icon Class vessel arrives in 2028. Oasis-Class 7 has had its keel laid at Chantiers de l’Atlantique, joining a class that already includes Oasis, Allure, Harmony, Symphony, Wonder and Utopia of the Seas.

What else is being delivered

Several lines have ships arriving within a year.

MSC World Asia launches in December, carrying Asia-inspired design alongside the MSC Yacht Club, seven pools and 13 whirlpools.

Carnival Festivale follows in May 2027 with what Carnival says will be the largest onboard water park in its history.

Norwegian Luna was delivered in Europe earlier this year, a 3,571-passenger Prima Plus ship that brought Norwegian’s fleet to 21 vessels.

SeaDream announced a third yacht, SeaDream III, debuting in 2029. Four Seasons put its first luxury yacht into service this year.

Where Disney fits

Disney’s expansion is aggressive but not unique.

Disney Adventure entered service in Singapore this year at roughly 6,000 passengers, making it one of the largest cruise ships in the world. Its three- and four-night sailings originally ran without ports of call, all sea days, with the ship itself as the destination.

Disney Destiny launched in 2025. Disney Believe follows in late 2027, with a livestream reveal set for Oct. 7.

A new class of three smaller vessels arrives across 2029 and 2030, sized deliberately between the classic ships and the Wish class to reach ports the larger vessels cannot enter.

Five additional Disney ships are slated to debut by late 2030.

A note on Disney Adventure’s ports

Cruise Industry News reports that Disney Adventure will add Malaysian ports to its Southeast Asia schedule beginning in late December, sailing to Langkawi on three- and four-night itineraries from Singapore.

Disney’s Fall 2027 and Spring 2028 deployment announcement in August also listed Langkawi as the ship’s first port of call.

Whether these describe the same addition phased differently, or two separate schedule changes, is not clear from the available material. Check the specific sailing before assuming a port stop.

Why every line is building at once

The orders reflect a demand picture that has held despite broader travel softness.

Cruise capacity is booked years ahead, and ships ordered today reflect bets placed on the 2030s rather than on this quarter.

The pattern also differs sharply from land-based attractions. Comcast told investors that Universal Orlando attendance softened beginning in June, and Disney’s own theatrical results have been mixed.

Cruise lines are adding berths at the same time theme parks are reporting attendance pressure.

The smaller operators are growing too

The luxury end shows the same direction.

The Ritz-Carlton Yacht Collection posted second-quarter cruise revenues of $103 million, up 42 percent year over year, with all three of its ships operating together for a full quarter for the first time.

Its adjusted EBITDA remained negative at $5 million, improved from negative $14 million a year earlier.

Launch dates across the industry remain subject to change, and several 2028 and 2029 deliveries are still unnamed.

Article compiled with the help of the Pirates & Princesses newsroom.

Hat Tips:

TipRanks, via The Fly, the Norwegian Cruise Line Holdings eight-ship order, the berth figures and the brand-by-brand delivery schedule
Cruise Critic, the Legend of the Seas details, MSC World Asia, Carnival Festivale and the Oasis-Class 7 keel laying
Cruise Industry News, the Disney Adventure Malaysia ports report, the SeaDream III announcement and the Ritz-Carlton Yacht Collection results
Cruise Passenger, the Norwegian Luna specifications and the Disney Adventure capacity and itinerary structure
Comcast second-quarter earnings (July 23, 2026), the Universal Orlando attendance commentary

Disney is replacing two Space Mountains in 2027, in Tokyo and Paris

Derek Gibbs — Sun, 13 Sep 2026 23:32:24 GMT

Tokyo Disneyland gets Space Mountain Earthrise. Disneyland Paris restores the Jules Verne version. Both arrive next year, and a Tokyo DisneySea attraction closes for good in 10 days.

Disney is rebuilding Space Mountain twice, in two countries, in the same year.

Tokyo Disneyland opens Space Mountain Earthrise in 2027. Disneyland Paris replaces Hyperspace Mountain with Space Mountain: De la Terre à la Lune the same year.

Neither is a refurbishment. Both are new attractions inside the same building shell.

What Space Mountain Earthrise will be

Tokyo’s version is a full replacement with a new premise.

Disney describes guests launching into the cosmos and experiencing the wonder of Earth from a perspective unlike anything seen before in a Disney attraction.

It anchors a broader Tomorrowland transformation debuting in 2027, which includes a new spire icon for Tomorrowland Plaza in front of the attraction.

What Disneyland Paris is doing instead

Paris is going backward on purpose, and fans have wanted this for years.

Hyperspace Mountain, the Star Wars overlay, gives way to Space Mountain: De la Terre à la Lune, restoring the Jules Verne theme that originally defined the attraction.

The name returns. So does the original musical score.

For a Space Mountain that has carried three identities since opening, this is a restoration rather than a reinvention.

Aquatopia closes permanently tomorrow, Sept. 14

One Tokyo DisneySea attraction has 10 days left.

Aquatopia temporarily closed on July 1 to run as Aquatopia “Get Soaking’” Version during Tokyo Disney Resort’s summer season.

It closes for good on Sept. 14, making way for a new attraction and additional development in Port Discovery.

Aquatopia was one of Disney’s earliest trackless ride systems, a technology the company now uses across multiple parks.

Disney has not announced what replaces it.

Buzz Lightyear’s Astro Blasters is already gone in Tokyo

Another closure has already happened, with its replacement dated.

Sugar Rush: Sweet Rescue opens at Tokyo Disneyland in April 2027, an indoor interactive experience built by reimagining Buzz Lightyear’s Astro Blasters, which has permanently closed.

Guests join Ralph and Vanellope inside the candy-themed racing game Sugar Rush as it is attacked by Sugar Bugs, glitches created by King Candy.

Tokyo is also preparing an attraction overlay featuring Marvel characters designed in the style of “it’s a small world.” It will be the first appearance of Marvel characters in a Tokyo Disney Resort attraction.

What Shanghai and Hong Kong are building

Both parks are getting Marvel expansions with different shapes.

Shanghai Disneyland gets what Disney calls the first Disney Parks land dedicated entirely to Spider-Man, with a new roller coaster, Spider-Bots and the Worldwide Engineering Brigade.

MiceChat noted that despite the land framing, everything announced so far points to a compact area built around one major thrill ride.

Shanghai is also expanding Soaring Over the Horizon to increase daily capacity on one of its most popular attractions.

Hong Kong Disneyland is building an Avengers Pavilion housing Avengers Research Testing Labs, plus an Avengers drop tower announced at D23 2024. It will be Disney’s second Marvel drop tower after Guardians of the Galaxy — Mission: BREAKOUT! at Disney California Adventure.

The Shanghai second park still has not been announced

The expected announcement did not arrive.

Industry observers anticipated a second gate reveal at the resort’s 10th anniversary in June, then expected it at D23. Neither happened.

Concept art for a fourth hotel appears to straddle Shanghai Disneyland and an unannounced second park, which is the closest thing to confirmation available.

Reports in March suggested plans modeled on EPCOT, organized into neighborhoods rather than traditional lands. Disney has confirmed none of it, and it should be treated as rumor.

What else is coming to Tokyo Disney Resort

The entertainment slate has already turned over this year.

D-Groovationz4 Live: Happy! Funky! Groovy! Tour replaced Club Mouse Beat, which retired March 31. The show runs roughly 25 minutes, four to five times daily, with four singers and 12 dancers.

It marks the first stage show appearances for Vanellope and Baymax at the resort.

Tokyo Disney Resort opened in April 1983 as the first Disney park outside the United States. It sits 12 kilometers from central Tokyo with two parks and five Disney hotels.

Fantasy Springs, open a couple of years now, has been driving significant attendance at Tokyo DisneySea.

Article compiled with the help of the Pirates & Princesses newsroom.

Hat Tips:

Disney Parks Blog (August 2026), the Space Mountain Earthrise and Space Mountain: De la Terre à la Lune announcements, the Sugar Rush attraction and the Hong Kong Avengers Pavilion
WDW News Today (April 2026), via Wikipedia, the Aquatopia permanent closure date
Disney Tourist Blog, the Sugar Rush details, the Marvel small world overlay and the Tokyo entertainment changes
MiceChat, the Hong Kong drop tower model, the Shanghai Spider-Man land assessment and the fourth hotel concept art
Disney Experiences, the Soaring Over the Horizon expansion and Tokyo Disney Resort background
Inside the Magic (March 2026), the unconfirmed Shanghai second park reports

Sora arrives in Fortnite this week, and he’s bringing three friends

Geeky Sparkles — Sun, 13 Sep 2026 23:19:39 GMT

Epic Games officially revealed the Sora skin and confirmed the Kingdom Hearts crossover launches later this week. Teasers indicate Roxas, Riku, and Kairi are coming too, making the collaboration considerably larger than the single guest skin fans expected.

Epic Games ended seven months of speculation Saturday with a four-word post.

“It’s officially happening,” the company wrote, confirming that Sora is coming to Fortnite this week.

A teaser trailer showed the Kingdom Hearts protagonist picking up a Keyblade, and Epic confirmed the crossover launches “later this week,” putting it somewhere between September 14 and September 20.

Four Kingdom Hearts characters, not one

Following the Sora reveal, Epic teased additional skins, featuring other popular Kingdom Hearts characters.

According to the teasers, the crossover includes:

Sora
Roxas
Riku
Kairi

Four characters from the same franchise in one season is a full collaboration rather than a cameo. Whether any of them include Edit Styles, the alternate looks Epic sometimes builds into premium skins, has not been confirmed.

The Mickey charm is gone

The detail Disney fans spotted in the key art last month is now confirmed on video.

In the games, Sora’s Keyblade carries a keychain at the base, and the default Kingdom Key uses a Mickey Mouse charm. It is the single most recognizable piece of Disney iconography in the entire franchise.

In Fortnite, it has been replaced with a Loot Llama.

That swap has been visible since the season key art dropped in August, and Epic’s trailer shows it plainly.

September 17 is the likely date

Epic has not given an exact day, which leaves one strong candidate.

The Chapter 7 Season 4 v42.20 update is scheduled for Thursday, September 17. Earlier reporting suggested the Kingdom Hearts crossover would arrive alongside the next major patch.

With Epic now confirming it lands this week, September 17 fits. That remains speculation until Epic says otherwise.

This leaked in February

The wait has been long enough that the original leak feels like a different era.

Word of a Kingdom Hearts crossover first surfaced in February 2026. Dataminers spent months surfacing fragments, including a Gummi Ship vehicle for Fortnite and Rocket League, without ever confirming Sora himself.

Precedent existed. Sora appeared as the final DLC fighter in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, a deal that reportedly took a long negotiation to close.

The confusion peaked in August, when Epic’s Override trailer did not show Sora at all, prompting a round of coverage declaring the collaboration dead. The season’s finished key art, released shortly after, showed him standing there in his Kingdom Hearts II outfit.

Kairi’s inclusion follows the loss of Panettiere

Hayden Panettiere, who originated Kairi’s voice in the first Kingdom Hearts in 2002 and returned across several entries, died on September 1 at 33.

Her Kairi is the version most longtime players hear in their heads. Epic has not announced voice work for any of the Fortnite skins.

What Epic still has not said

No exact release date. No pricing for the skins or the bundle. No confirmation on Edit Styles. No word on whether the Gummi Ship vehicle that dataminers found months ago arrives alongside the characters, or whether it comes to Rocket League as originally leaked.

Disney has also said nothing publicly about the crossover, despite spending the summer promoting Epic as central to its games strategy and putting its own island, Smugglers Gambit, into Fortnite in August.

Seven months from leak to launch, four characters instead of one, and a Keyblade with a llama on it. Sometime in the next six days, the argument about whether this was ever happening finally ends.

Article compiled with the help of the Pirates & Princesses newsroom.

Hat Tips:

Epic Games (September 13, 2026), the official Sora reveal trailer, the “later this week” confirmation, and the character teasers
Vice (September 13, 2026), Brent Koepp’s report on the reveal, the release window, the v42.20 update timing, and the four-character roster
HYPEX (September 13, 2026), the teaser images identifying Roxas, Riku, and Kairi
ABC News and Variety (August 2026), the reporting on Hayden Panettiere’s death and her Kingdom Hearts credits

AI Disclosure: All articles are assigned, edited and reviewed by an experienced human editor before posting. Like most modern newsrooms, WebReef Media uses a variety of AI tools to help with accuracy and efficiency. Ways AI may be used in article creation include research, grammar, fact-checking and ideation, as well as occasional AI generated or enhanced thumbnails or graphics. No articles are generated or posted without human oversight or involvement.

Is Disney's new CEO walking back DEI in the parks and movies?

Derek Gibbs — Sun, 13 Sep 2026 22:57:25 GMT

Here is what Josh D’Amaro has verifiably done, what he has not, and where the viral version gets it wrong.

Josh D’Amaro became Disney’s CEO in March 2026, and this week the internet decided to find out what he has been doing.

Much of what is circulating compresses months of separate events into a single dramatic claim. Here is the actual record.

The layoffs are real, and they happened in spring

Shortly after taking over, D’Amaro announced approximately 1,000 layoffs, reported as falling primarily in marketing.

That was reported in May 2026, roughly four months ago.

No reporting I can find ties those layoffs to a stated cultural motive. The framing circulating online, that the cuts were made to restore a particular kind of company culture, does not appear in coverage from any outlet that reported the layoffs.

The park greeting change is also real, and also older

Disney World revived the “Ladies and gentlemen” greeting after years of gender-neutral phrasing, reported by Fox Business on April 15, 2026.

That reversed a change Disney made in 2022, when the company phased out “ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls” across park greetings. PolitiFact examined the monorail greeting question in April and confirmed company leaders had acknowledged implementing gender-neutral speech in 2021 and 2022.

The reversal is documented. Whether D’Amaro personally directed it has not been reported by anyone.

What D’Amaro has actually said

His own public statements are on the record and they are considerably less dramatic than the viral version.

In his first memo to employees, he wrote about his own history with the company, recalling riding Peter Pan’s Flight with his father. He said “great storytelling and creative excellence” would be Disney’s “North Star.”

“At its best, Disney creates stories, characters, and experiences that people connect with deeply and carry with them for a lifetime,” he wrote.

He has not made public statements about eliminating gender-neutral language.

The DEI changes started before he became CEO

Disney dropped its “Reimagine Tomorrow” program from the diversity section of its 2024 SEC 10-K in February 2025, more than a year before D’Amaro became CEO. That happened under Bob Iger.

But D’Amaro was in charge of theme parks.

Disney also rebranded its Employee Resource Groups from “Business” to “Belonging” ERGs and revised content disclaimers on its streaming platforms during that same period.

Where Disney’s business actually stands

U.S. park attendance declined roughly 1 percent during 2025, with criticism about the cost of visiting continuing to rise. For many families, a Disney trip stopped feeling financially accessible.

More recently, Disney reported Experiences segment revenue of $9.97 billion, up 10 percent, and raised its full-year guidance for that division.

D’Amaro came up through the parks. He ran Disney Experiences before taking the top job, which is the division currently carrying the company.

What is still unresolved

Several things about D’Amaro’s tenure genuinely have not been settled.

The company is navigating whether to position itself as more traditional or more representative, and the answer will be tested against audiences with different expectations by generation. Coverage describes that balancing act as a defining challenge of his leadership.

Separately, Disney notified more than 200,000 employees that beginning in 2027, they will not be able to enroll a spouse on the company health plan if that spouse’s job offers any coverage.

Nothing is directly attributed to D.E.I.

That is worth knowing whichever way you feel about the underlying changes, and both sides of that argument have been made loudly.

Article compiled with the help of the Pirates & Princesses newsroom.

Hat Tips:

Google Trends (August 28-29, 2026), the search volume figures
Colombia One (May 8, 2026), the approximately 1,000 layoffs and the attendance decline
Fox Business (April 15, 2026), the “Ladies and gentlemen” greeting revival
PolitiFact (April 17, 2026), the gender-neutral speech timeline and company acknowledgments
WFMD (March 2026), D’Amaro’s first employee memo
Inside the Magic and HR Grapevine (February 2025), the Reimagine Tomorrow retirement under Iger
WDW News Today (August 21, 2026), the spousal healthcare change

Doug turns 35, and its creator just shared art from the Doug Kids sequel that never happened

Derek Gibbs — Sun, 13 Sep 2026 20:58:45 GMT

Jim Jinkins posted repurposed concept art showing Doug Funnie and his friends grown up with kids of their own. The proposed Doug Kids series never made it off the ground.

Doug Funnie would be about 46 now.

That is the math Laughing Place ran when Jim Jinkins, the creator of Doug, marked the series’ 35th anniversary by sharing repurposed concept art from a sequel that never got made.

The art shows Doug and his friends as adults with children of their own.

What Doug Kids was going to be

The project was called Doug Kids, and it never quite made it off the ground.

Per Laughing Place, which reported the post on August 28, Jinkins created the concept art several years ago for the proposed sequel series. He repurposed it into an anniversary image rather than a pitch.

He has talked about the idea publicly before, discussing a potential continuation of Doug in a 2023 YouTube interview.

Nothing about the post suggests the project is active. It reads as a creator marking a milestone with something he made and never got to use.

What Jim Jinkins said

“It was 35 years ago, August 11th, 1991 that ‘Doug Bags A Neematoad’ premiered on Nicktoons,” Jinkins wrote. “Happy belated Birthday!”

Doug had two networks and two voices

The show’s history is more complicated than most people remember, and it involves a lead actor swap.

Doug premiered on Nickelodeon as one of the original Nicktoons on August 11, 1991. That run ended in 1994.

It returned in 1996 as Disney’s Doug, running through 1999. Billy West, later of Futurama, voiced Doug on Nickelodeon. Thomas Lyons of Law & Order took over for the Disney seasons.

Walt Disney Television Animation and Buena Vista Pictures Distribution also released a theatrical film, Doug’s 1st Movie, in March 1999.

Why Doug still lands with people

The show worked on a premise most kids’ animation avoided.

Doug was a new kid in Bluffington who processed everything by writing in his journal, narrating his own anxieties rather than having adventures. The stakes were social. A school dance, a misunderstanding, an embarrassing moment replayed at 2 a.m.

Patti Mayonnaise, Skeeter Valentine, Roger Klotz, Beebe Bluff, and Porkchop filled out a cast built around ordinary middle school rather than fantasy.

And when things got overwhelming, Doug imagined himself as Quailman, which is a coping mechanism disguised as a superhero bit.

A sequel about those kids raising their own kids has an obvious appeal to the people who watched it, who are now roughly the age Doug would be.

Why Doug Kids probably will not happen

Nothing in the post indicates otherwise, and it is worth being clear about that.

Jinkins shared old art, not new development. No studio has announced anything. There is no cast, no network, and no production.

Concept art surfacing on a creator’s social account is a nostalgia post, not a greenlight. Fan coverage of these frequently reads more into them than the artist intended.

If something changes, it will be announced by a studio rather than an Instagram caption.

What Disney Television Animation is actually making

For anyone wondering what the division has in production right now.

Big City Greens premiered its fifth season. A new Kiff special is coming to Disney Channel and Disney+. The Doomies star in the latest installment of Disney Channel’s How Not to Draw.

Separately, Disney announced at D23 that an original Kingdom Hearts anime series is in the works for both Disney Channel and Disney+.

Where to watch Doug now

The rights situation splits the series, which trips people up.

The Nickelodeon episodes and the Disney episodes were produced by different companies, and they have historically landed in different places rather than as one continuous library.

Anyone hunting for a specific episode should check which era it came from first. The Billy West seasons and the Thomas Lyons seasons are effectively two different shows for licensing purposes.

Doug’s 1st Movie is Disney’s.

Thirty-five years on, the sequel exists as a drawing on an artist’s phone. Which is roughly where most of them end up.

Article compiled with the help of the Pirates & Princesses newsroom.

Hat Tips:

Laughing Place (August 28, 2026), Mike Celestino’s reporting on the concept art post, the Jinkins quote, the series history, the 2023 interview, and the Disney Television Animation slate
Jim Jinkins Instagram, the anniversary post and caption

Dragon Ball's owner says it never licensed France's new theme park project

Derek Gibbs — Sun, 13 Sep 2026 20:55:43 GMT

Emmanuel Macron announced three parks near Paris at a scale he compared to Disneyland Paris. Toei Animation says nobody asked permission, and the concept art came from Saudi Arabia.

The French government announced a 6 billion euro theme park development last month and compared it to Disneyland Paris.

Then the company that owns Dragon Ball said it had no idea what anyone was talking about.

Toei Animation published a statement on Aug. 31 titled “Our Position Regarding Reports of a Dragon Ball Theme Park in France.” It was short and it was not friendly.

What Toei Animation actually said

The company left no room for interpretation.

“Some media reports have recently stated that it has been decided that a Dragon Ball theme park will be built in France,” the statement read. “However, neither Toei Animation nor the other companies that hold rights related to the property have granted any license for such a project, and we are not aware of any facts regarding the matter.”

Toei went further on the images circulating alongside the reports.

“All of the theme park concept images and footage used in these reports were originally used in the joint announcement made by Qiddiya Investment Company and Toei Animation on March 22, 2024,” the company said. “They relate to the theme park planned for construction in Qiddiya City, Saudi Arabia. These images and videos have no connection whatsoever to the reports in question.”

What Macron announced near Paris

The underlying project is real. The Dragon Ball part is the piece that came apart.

President Emmanuel Macron hosted Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman in late August. The two announced a Qiddiya Investment Company development at Cergy-Pontoise, in the Val-d’Oise, northwest of Paris.

Macron laid out the numbers on X: “Three theme parks will be created in Cergy Pontoise. An investment of 6 billion euros. Creation of 22,000 jobs. A scale not seen since Disneyland Paris.”

Reuters reported the idea came out of a 2025 meeting between the two leaders, both of whom are admirers of Akira Toriyama’s work.

Nobody official ever said Dragon Ball

The detail that unravels the whole story is what the announcement left out.

The joint statement issued by France and Saudi Arabia describes a multi-park destination with up to three major attractions. It does not name a single franchise.

Macron did not name Dragon Ball either, though he did nod at the general territory. “You know my interest in manga,” he wrote.

Media outlets filled the blank. Once the Qiddiya name attached to the project, reporters reached for the Saudi company’s most famous announced attraction, and the Dragon Ball concept art from 2024 was sitting right there.

How this compares to Disneyland Paris

Macron’s benchmark is doing a lot of work, and the geography is worth understanding.

Disneyland Paris sits at Marne-la-Vallée, east of the city in Seine-et-Marne. Cergy-Pontoise is northwest, on the opposite side of Paris, about an hour’s drive apart depending on traffic.

Both fall inside Île-de-France. A guest could theoretically do both on one trip, which is exactly the tourism math a French government would like.

Disneyland Paris opened in 1992 and remains Europe’s most-visited theme park.

What Disneyland Paris is building right now

The timing lands during an unusually busy stretch for the Disney resort.

At D23 last month, Disney announced that Star Wars Hyperspace Mountain closes in 2027 and reopens as Space Mountain: De la Terre à la Lune, restoring the ride’s original Jules Verne theme and 1995 score.

The resort is also building a Lion King land at Disney Adventure World, with a water ride featuring three drops including a 16-meter descent from Pride Rock and the debut of a Scar animatronic. Wilderness Explorers Sky Swings, inspired by “Up,” opens next year.

None of it has an announced opening date beyond the Sky Swings.

Is a Dragon Ball park happening anywhere

Yes, and it is not in France.

The Qiddiya City project in Saudi Arabia was announced in March 2024 under a license from Toei Animation and the other rights holders. That one is real, formally announced and moving forward.

Qiddiya has described it as the world’s first Dragon Ball theme park.

For the French project, no franchise has been publicly confirmed for any of the three parks. Qiddiya has a licensing relationship with Toei for Saudi Arabia, and Toei has now said in writing that nothing similar exists for France.

Which leaves 6 billion euros, 22,000 promised jobs, three unnamed parks, and a very expensive lesson in reading past a headline.

Article compiled with the help of the Pirates & Princesses newsroom.

Hat Tips:

Toei Animation official statement (Aug. 31, 2026), via ORICON News and Anime Corner, the full text and the Qiddiya clarification
Automaton West, the Élysée Palace announcement and the Reuters reporting on the 2025 Macron and bin Salman meeting
Essential Japan, the confirmation that the joint France and Saudi statement never named Dragon Ball
Emmanuel Macron on X, the investment figures, jobs number and Disneyland Paris comparison
Disney Parks Blog and Blooloop (August 2026), the Disneyland Paris projects announced at D23

Disney Believe's full reveal comes Oct. 7, and the Grand Hall is Moana

Derek Gibbs — Sun, 13 Sep 2026 20:50:06 GMT

The next Wish-class ship gets a livestream reveal on October 7, 2026. Guests on one specific Disney Wish sailing get a stage show nobody else will see, plus a gift in every stateroom.

Disney Cruise Line has been unusually quiet about its next ship.

That ends Oct. 7, when Disney hosts a livestream reveal for the Disney Believe, the fourth vessel in the Wish class.

One group of guests gets it early, and they did not sign up for it.

The Disney Wish sailing that gets an exclusive preview

Anyone booked on a specific October cruise landed in the middle of a marketing moment.

Guests sailing the Disney Wish on the Oct. 5-9 itinerary will see a one-night-only stage show showcasing new experiences coming to the Believe.

Every stateroom on that sailing also receives a commemorative gift marking the occasion.

The livestream reveal follows on Oct. 7, mid-cruise.

The Believe’s Grand Hall is themed to Moana

The centerpiece detail Disney has released is the most specific thing known about the ship.

Like the Wish, Treasure and Destiny, the Believe’s Grand Hall serves as the central gathering space. This one draws on Disney Animation’s Moana films.

A bronze cast statue of Moana, accompanied by Pua and Heihei, anchors the venue, gazing toward new horizons.

Renderings hint at the South Pacific setting layered with artisanal Polynesian finishes intended to honor the region’s cultural traditions.

Tinker Bell is on the bow

The exterior follows a different property entirely.

Tinker Bell appears on the Believe’s bow, flanked by silhouettes of Peter, Wendy, Captain Hook and other characters flying amid a swirling design.

Every Disney Cruise Line ship carries unique character artwork on its hull. The Grand Hall theme and the hull art are separate traditions, which is how one ship ends up with Moana inside and Peter Pan outside.

Onboard experiences will draw on “Encanto,” “Frozen,” “Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs,” “Moana” and “The Little Mermaid.”

What “promise and possibility” means

Each Wish-class ship is built around a motif that shapes everything from entertainment to décor.

Disney Wish is enchantment. Disney Treasure is adventure. Disney Destiny is heroes and villains.

Disney Believe is promise and possibility, focused on characters who believe in themselves and pursue their dreams.

CEO Josh D’Amaro announced the name and theme at the 2026 Walt Disney Company Annual Shareholders Meeting, on his first day running the company. Disney described the name as honoring “the dreamers and doers who dare to pursue their own happily ever after.”

When Disney Believe sails

The ship debuts in late 2027.

It was originally scheduled for 2025. Pandemic-era shipyard closures, supply chain delays and financial setbacks pushed the entire Wish class back, with Wish arriving in 2022, Treasure in 2024 and Destiny in 2025.

Meyer Werft in Papenburg, Germany, is building it. The Wish-class ships are LNG-powered, identical by design, and run 144,000 gross tons, up from the 135,000 originally planned.

Bob Chapek announced the three-ship program in July 2017.

Disney Believe was missing from the Fall 2027 itineraries

The ship’s absence from a major announcement last month is worth noting.

Disney released Fall 2027 and Spring 2028 itineraries on Aug. 25, covering the Wish, Destiny, Magic, Wonder, Fantasy and Adventure. Believe appeared nowhere in it.

Disney Tourist Blog read that as the ship being destined for a separately announced Florida-based schedule.

Oct. 7 may answer it.

How big the Disney fleet is getting

The expansion has been steep and it is not finished.

Disney operates eight ships now. Believe makes nine in 2027, and a new class adds three vessels across 2029 and 2030, sized between the classic ships and the Wish class specifically to reach ports the larger vessels cannot enter.

Five additional ships are slated to debut by late 2030.

For a line that ran four ships as recently as the early 2020s, that is a fleet roughly tripling in under a decade.

Article compiled with the help of the Pirates & Princesses newsroom.

Hat Tips:

Disney Parks Blog, the Moana Grand Hall details, the bronze statue and the hull artwork description
Mickey Visit, the Oct. 7 livestream date, the Disney Wish stage show and the stateroom gift
DCL Fan, the “promise and possibility” theme and the shareholders meeting announcement
Cruise Lines International Association, Disney’s naming rationale and the Wish-class motif structure
AllEars (Aug. 16, 2026), the Tinker Bell bow details and the onboard story influences
CruiseMapper, the Meyer Werft construction, tonnage figures and the delivery timeline
Disney Tourist Blog (Aug. 25, 2026), the observation that Believe was absent from the Fall 2027 itineraries

Animation lost the jobs it feared AI would take. Researchers say AI wasn't why

Derek Gibbs — Sun, 13 Sep 2026 20:44:56 GMT

Image created by Grok because it was fitting for this article.

A union-commissioned report predicted 118,500 entertainment jobs would vanish to AI by 2026. The jobs went. Otis College researchers found the roles most exposed to AI actually grew.

The Animation Guild commissioned a study predicting that 21.4 percent of American film, television and animation jobs, roughly 118,500 positions, would be consolidated, replaced or eliminated by artificial intelligence by 2026.

That year is now. The jobs did disappear.

Researchers say AI is not what took them.

What the Otis College research found

Researchers at Otis College, whose work was reported by The Hollywood Reporter, found that the roles considered most exposed to AI, including writers, software developers and artists, grew in number.

The causes they identified were cost-driven displacement of lower-paying roles and structural change in how the business operates.

Jobs disappeared. The pattern does not fit AI displacement.

What actually caused the animation job losses

Three forces show up repeatedly, and none of them is a language model.

Kids commissions fell 18 percent. The category that employed a large share of television animation contracted.

Production moved. Steve Kaplan, business representative at the Animation Guild, described the pattern directly: “What we are seeing is a desire to take more of the work away from California, where it’s not incentivised, and move it to states or regions, both in the US and outside, that provide government subsidies for the work.”

“Moana 2” was reportedly the first Disney feature to split animation between Los Angeles and the company’s Vancouver facility.

The streaming boom ended. Studios that spent aggressively for years began optimizing budgets rather than growing headcount.

The layoffs were real

None of this means the industry has been stable.

Named studio animation cuts since 2023 total well over 1,000 roles, spanning Netflix Animation, DreamWorks Animation, Pixar and Aardman.

Disney announced roughly 1,000 layoffs on April 15, with Marvel Studios’ Visual Development department hit hardest. Forbes attributed the cuts to a reduced Marvel slate and cost-cutting.

Visual development artists are the people who design what a Marvel film looks like before anything is built.

What the Animation Guild contract actually won

The 2024 negotiation produced a deal members are still arguing about.

The guild ratified its 2024 to 2027 contract with 76.1 percent in favor, after reaching a tentative agreement on Nov. 23 following three months of bargaining.

It secured protections preventing AI-generated work from undermining member pay or credit, plus studio notification obligations.

Members did not win the right to opt out of using AI. They did not win the right to keep their work from being used to train AI models. They did not win minimum staffing levels.

They did win a minimum of three writers on animated television shows, with exceptions, and pay equity provisions for color designers, a traditionally female-dominated craft.

The disagreement inside the union

Two people on opposite sides of the same deal, both quoted at ratification.

Shion Takeuchi, creator of Netflix’s “Inside Job,” argued the agreement contained “no substantive protections” against AI. “In this MOA there is nothing to stop the studios from gutting the staff,” she said. “We are chattel to them.”

Teri Hendrich Cusumano, a union vice president who served on the negotiating committee, described the limits differently. “We did the best we could. It was definitely a long, drawn-out process. From my point of view, it felt like we bled them dry at the table. There really wasn’t much left to gain.”

Animation writers make less than half of WGA scale

One figure explains a great deal about the industry’s labor position.

Animation writers work to a minimum of $2,126 a week. Writers covered by the Writers Guild agreement work to $4,515.

Animation scale is less than half, per TheWrap.

The demand for animation has never been higher

Animated titles took the top two worldwide box office slots in 2025, and the most-streamed title in America two years running was animated.

The generative-AI animation market is growing fast, from $2.37 billion in 2025 to a projected $3.23 billion in 2026, with AI handling in-betweening, rotoscoping and clean-up work that once filled a large share of production schedules.

Jeffrey Katzenberg, the former Disney studio head and DreamWorks co-founder, has said a major animated feature once “took 500 artists five years to make,” adding that he does not think it will take 10 percent of that within a few years.

Jeanette Moreno King, the guild’s president, was asked about her 17-year-old daughter wanting to work in animation. “I can’t promise her that that’s going to be possible.”

Article compiled with the help of the Pirates & Princesses newsroom.

Hat Tips:

Vidico (August 2026), the compiled industry statistics including the Otis College findings, the ratification percentage, the pay scale comparison and the studio layoff totals
Otis College researchers, via The Hollywood Reporter, the finding that AI-exposed roles grew
Variety, the full contract terms, the Takeuchi and Cusumano quotes and the AI opt-out limitations
Screen Daily, Steve Kaplan’s comments on production incentives, the Katzenberg remarks and the Moana 2 split
The Hollywood Reporter (August 2024), Jeanette Moreno King’s comments
Forbes, via Elite Animation Academy, the April 2026 Disney layoff figures and the generative-AI market sizing

Disney World closures in 2026: what's permanently gone and what's temporarily closed

Derek Gibbs — Sun, 13 Sep 2026 20:33:58 GMT

A whole land disappeared in February, a water park closes in five days, and no, an entire Disney World park is not shutting down. Here is the accurate list.

The most searched question about Walt Disney World closures this year is whether a park is closing permanently.

None are. All four theme parks and both water parks are operating.

What did close permanently is a land, and the confusion is understandable once you see what went with it.

What closed permanently at Disney World in 2026

DinoLand U.S.A. and DINOSAUR shut down for good on Feb. 2, 2026.

The land is being replaced by Tropical Americas, opening at Disney’s Animal Kingdom in 2027 with three attractions: Antonio’s Fiesta de Encanto, Indiana Jones and the Myth of the Jade Serpent, and El Carrusel de los Animalitos.

That closure followed Chester & Hester’s Dinosaur Treasures, Fossil Fun Games and TriceraTop Spin, which all closed permanently on Jan. 12, 2025.

At Magic Kingdom, the Liberty Square Riverboat closed permanently on July 7, 2025, clearing space for the Piston Peak Cars land now under construction.

Sprinkles closed all locations on Jan. 1, 2026.

What is closing at Disney World this month

Two dates matter if you are visiting soon.

Typhoon Lagoon closed for seasonal refurbishment starting on Sept. 9. Blizzard Beach remains open for 2026 and is expected to close in early 2027.

The Walt Disney World Railroad closes Sept. 28 through Oct. 29.

Which Disney World rides are closed right now

Several projects are underway with no fixed end date.

Walt Disney’s Carousel of Progress closed July 6 and reopens in late spring 2027, gaining Disney World’s first Walt Disney animatronic and new voices from Jamie Lee Curtis and Bryan Cranston.

The Haunted Mansion has exterior and interactive queue work running since Jan. 20, though the ride itself has stayed open throughout.

The Diamond Horseshoe closed May 16 and returns in fall 2026.

Big Top Souvenirs in Storybook Circus closed Feb. 20 and is expected back later this year. Pete’s Silly Sideshow closed Jan. 4.

Grand Floridian Cafe closed in mid-July with an October return expected.

Disneyland ride closures in September 2026

The California side has its own list, and several items land this week.

Indiana Jones Adventure closed Sept. 8 with no reopening date announced.

Plaza Inn Character Dining is unavailable through late September, though the restaurant itself stays open from 10 a.m. to 10 p.m.

Disney’s Grand Californian Hotel & Spa is under refurbishment through 2026, with noise limited to daylight hours.

What is coming back and when

Bluey’s Wild World opened at Animal Kingdom, and everything in Rafiki’s Planet Watch and Conservation Station has returned except the Animation Experience. Affection Section reopened under the name Jumping Junction.

Big Thunder Mountain Railroad has reopened. Cinderella Castle finished an extensive refurbishment that drained the moat and restored a color scheme inspired by its 1971 appearance.

The Little Mermaid – A Musical Adventure replaced the permanently closed Voyage of the Little Mermaid in 2025.

Looking further out, the Monsters, Inc. door coaster in Monstropolis carries an estimated arrival of 2028, after the land opens in phases starting 2027.

Resort work that could affect your stay

Closures are not limited to rides, and a few of these are long runs.

Disney’s Beach Club Resort has visible exterior maintenance through late 2027, which may affect views and require alternate walking routes.

Caribbean Beach Resort Barbados buildings 31, 32 and 33 began exterior painting and column repair on Aug. 31, running through early February 2027.

The Fantasia kiddie pool at All-Star Movies is closed from Sept. 8 through late October. The kiddie pools at All-Star Music and All-Star Sports remain available.

The Disney Skyliner closes Jan. 24 through 30, 2027.

How to check Disney closures before your trip

Disney adjusts refurbishment dates in both directions and closes attractions without notice for weather, maintenance, technical issues or operational needs.

The My Disney Experience app is the authoritative source on the morning you visit. Third-party refurbishment calendars update weekly at best.

One item to watch: a construction permit filed for Rock ‘n’ Roller Coaster Starring The Muppets expires Nov. 4, 2026. Nothing has been announced, and there may not be a closure involved at all.

Article compiled with the help of the Pirates & Princesses newsroom.

Hat Tips:

WDW News Today refurbishments and closures calendar, the Walt Disney World Railroad dates, the permanent closure list and the Rock ‘n’ Roller Coaster permit expiration
Disney Tourist Blog 2026-2027 refurbishment calendar, the Typhoon Lagoon and Skyliner dates and the Rafiki’s Planet Watch reopenings
Undercover Tourist, the permanent closure dates and the Disneyland September schedule
WDWInfo, the Caribbean Beach, Blizzard Beach and Big Top Souvenirs details
Blog Mickey, the All-Star Movies pool closure dates
Ziggy Knows Disney, the Diamond Horseshoe, Haunted Mansion queue work and Monsters Inc. coaster timing

Mahershala Ali on Blade: “I’m done with that”

Geeky Sparkles — Sun, 13 Sep 2026 17:17:55 GMT

Speaking at TIFF, Mahershala Ali said he is finished with the Blade role he was announced for in 2019. He also thanked Marvel for funding more than a year of training that he ended up using in a film for a rival studio.

Seven years after Marvel announced him as Blade, Mahershala Ali was asked whether he is truly finished with the character.

“I’m done,” Ali told Deadline at the Toronto International Film Festival. “I’m doing this and anything moving forward. I’m over that. I’m done with that.”

The “this” is Your Mother Your Mother Your Mother, an action thriller from Amazon MGM Studios that premiered at the festival.

Marvel paid for training he used somewhere else

The more interesting answer came when Ali was asked whether he had actually trained for Blade.

“Oh, absolutely. For a year, yeah. A little more than a year,” he said. “I’m actually really grateful. They helped pay for our movie, so thank you. I got to go train for a year, so at this point, I’m so grateful that they made a wonderful contribution to our film.”

Ali is describing the physical preparation Marvel financed for a movie that was never made, which he then carried into an action-heavy film for a competing studio.

He framed it as gratitude rather than a complaint. Marvel effectively subsidized the conditioning for someone else’s picture, and the actor thanked them for it on camera.

The director is the one who was supposed to make Blade

Your Mother Your Mother Your Mother was directed by Bassam Tariq, who was attached to direct the Blade reboot before departing the project.

So the actor and the director originally paired on Blade went and made their own movie together, at a different studio, using training Marvel paid for.

Blade never got past the announcement

The project’s timeline explains why this ended the way it did.

Ali was announced as the MCU’s Daywalker at San Diego Comic-Con in 2019. The pandemic arrived the following year and pushed Marvel’s plans back.

What followed was a long churn of writers and directors. Aaron Pierre, now starring in HBO’s Lanterns, was among the actors linked to the production at various points.

The release date moved repeatedly:

November 3, 2023
September 6, 2024
February 14, 2025
November 7, 2025

All four passed without a film. Marvel eventually shelved the project, and Ali confirmed his exit earlier this year.

Blade did appear in the MCU, just not like this

The character has surfaced a few times, none of them the way anyone expected.

The closest Ali came was a voice cameo in the post-credits scene of Eternals.

Wesley Snipes, who originated the role across three films beginning in 1998, reprised Blade in Deadpool & Wolverine.

And Marvel Zombies featured a version called Blade Knight, whose design clearly drew on Ali’s appearance. He was voiced by Todd Williams.

So the role Ali was cast in seven years ago has been played on screen by two other performers, while he provided a few lines from off camera.

Marvel has not responded

Marvel Studios has not publicly addressed Ali’s comments, and the company has not announced whether it intends to develop Blade with another actor. Everything about the project’s collapse has come from the people who were working on it rather than from the studio.

Ali himself has been measured about it. His quotes read as someone closing a chapter rather than settling scores, and the gratitude appears to be genuine, if pointed.

What he is doing instead

Your Mother Your Mother Your Mother is Ali’s immediate focus, and his answer about being done was delivered in the context of promoting it.

He has two Academy Awards, for Moonlight and Green Book, and came to Marvel already having played Cottonmouth in Netflix’s Luke Cage.

A year of training, seven years of waiting, and a finished film at a different studio. Whatever else Marvel got out of the Blade reboot, Ali walked away with a physique and a thank-you note.

Article compiled with the help of the Pirates & Princesses newsroom.

Hat Tips:

Deadline (September 13, 2026), the interview with Mahershala Ali at The Deadline Studio at TIFF 2026, including his comments on being done with Blade and Marvel funding his training
ComicBookMovie (September 13, 2026), the report that surfaced the interview, the Blade release date history, and the Eternals, Deadpool & Wolverine, and Marvel Zombies appearances

Mickey and Minnie Holiday Loungefly Pieces Now Available

Geeky Sparkles — Sun, 13 Sep 2026 17:02:31 GMT

Loungefly has two Mickey and Minnie Mouse Christmas collections now available. One collection features vintage holiday ornaments, and the other looks like vintage wrapping paper.

Loungefly has two holiday collections featuring Mickey and Minnie Mouse. Even though it’s only September, the holidays will be here before we know it.

Mickey and Minnie Holiday Ornaments

Mickey & Friends Exclusive Holiday Ornaments Mini Backpack - $90

This mini backpack is a web exclusive.

Mickey and Minnie Mouse are featured on the front with a stack of gifts and ornaments, while Pluto is on one side of the mini backpack and Chip and Dale are featured on the other side.

The bag features Metallic saffiano faux leather, adjustable shoulder straps, and embossed, embroidered, and printed detailing.

Minnie Mouse Exclusive Holiday Ornaments Crossbody Bag - $75

This bag is a web exclusive.

Minnie Mouse is featured on this crossbody bag. There are 3D Minnie Mouse ears and a bow on the top flap.

It features metallic saffiano faux leather, an adjustable crossbody strap, and embossed, embroidered, and printed detailing.

There was also a matching wallet but it has sold out.

Mickey Mouse Holiday Collection

This collection reminds me of a cross between old wrapping paper and it’s a small world.

Mickey Mouse Holiday Mini Backpack - $90

This mini backpack features padded debossing with several holiday symbols, including holly, wreaths, stockings, a Christmas tree, and a Mickey-shaped ornament. The front pocket features an appliqué of Mickey Mouse!

Mickey & Friends Holiday Convertible Backpack & Tote Crossbody Bag - $90

Who doesn’t love a good two-fer bag?

This convertible tote bag can switch between a tote and a backpack, so you get two for the price of one!

The front features Mickey Mouse and Minnie Mouse sledding with Pluto. The rest of the bag features repeated padded debossed holiday symbols.

Minnie Mouse Holiday Crossbody Bag - $75

Minnie Mouse takes center stage with this crossbody bag.

The bag features the same all-over pattern the other pieces have, along with her ears on top, but the best part is the cool Minnie Mouse bow at the top!

Mickey & Minnie Holiday Wristlet Wallet- $42

Mickey and Minnie Holiday Ear Headband - $30

The bow is removable.

These pieces are available now!

Article compiled with the help of the Pirates & Princesses newsroom.

Guest Strips to Fight at Guardians of the Galaxy: Cosmic Rewind in Walt Disney World

Geeky Sparkles — Sun, 13 Sep 2026 16:06:25 GMT

Videos have surfaced showing a profanity-laced, physical exchange between guests waiting in line for Guardians of the Galaxy: Cosmic Rewind at Walt Disney World. Reportedly, it was a two-hour wait for the attraction, and an altercation broke out when one guest tried to push through the line to rejoin his party, leading to a fight.

Two men got into a fight in the line for Guardians of the Galaxy: Cosmic Rewind at EPCOT on September 12, and it took a security guard stepping between them to end it.

Videos from two separate TikTok users captured the start and the end of the confrontation.

What the first video showed

According to a video by Divinevalkyrie_ on TikTok, A man in a white tank top is seen trying to get past a family, and they will not let him go by.

He then starts throwing punches.

Other guests try to stop him, as he pushes through the crowd trying to get to his family, who were just in front of the guest who tried to stop him.

The man in white starts spewing profanities, asking to be let through, and he rejoins his family.

Where the man in white continues to yell profanities at the other men about touching his daughter.

It doesn’t stop there.

The second video by MeluskiO shows the continued altercation

This video was the more widely shared one, but it only showed the second half of the altercation.

In this video, the man in the white tank top is now chest to chest with a man in a blue shirt as the confrontation continues.

A Disney Security Guard approaches the two men to break it up.

While the security guard stands in between the men telling them to stop, the two keep pointing at each other and talking. At one point, the man in the white tank top takes his shirt off to come at the other person.

Then they keep yelling at each other with security in the middle.

Finally, the shirtless man rounds the corner.

The guard speaks into his walkie-talkie, possibly calling for backup, while other guests approach him, apparently trying to explain what happened. Another cast member is visible on a phone nearby.

Was anyone trespassed?

It is not known whether either guest was removed from the attraction or ejected from the park. Disney has not issued a statement, and no law enforcement involvement has been reported.

The comments are gold

“Don’t Busch Gardens my Disney” - Blue Collar Emo

“I would’ve yelled “KISS” 😭 bc why do men gotta be all up in each other face like that lol” - Lacey

“At least security made it in time for this one. I need people to count to 5 before they realize they are about to get a in a fist fight on a roller coaster line where a raccoon launches you into space.” -laterallikater

“Now this is the Disney I want to go to… solid 6 flags meets carnival cruise behavior 😂” - Brent Robertson

“the security guard saying “i’m telling you right now” while shaking his finger like a disappointed father in between two grown men ready to square up is killing me 😂😭” - ash

“I'd rather get a root canal then to even get into a misunderstanding at Disney. Just walk away and live to be able to go to Disney another day.” - Quontrellius Bopwell III

This is the best comment in my opinion.

“Should have just yelled out “Dance off bro!”” - RandomComicbooktalk

This is not the first queue confrontation this year

Walt Disney World saw a similar incident in August, when two groups fought in the Avatar Flight of Passage queue at Disney’s Animal Kingdom after reportedly arguing through most of an 80-minute wait.

Fights over “line jumping” keep happening

This is not the first argument that turned physical over guests cutting through the line to rejoin their party.

In this case, his party was right in front of them, and none of this exchange should have ever happened.

Yes, sometimes those saying they are trying to “rejoin their party” is a hack to move up in line, but usually, people are simply trying to get back to their group after a bathroom break or because they got separated.

It’s best to let them pass you and go about your day.

Disney has not announced any changes to queue procedures, and the attraction is operating normally.

Article compiled with the help of the Pirates & Princesses newsroom.

Hat Tips:

WDW News Today (September 13, 2026), Shannen Ace’s reporting on both videos, the sequence of events, the September 12 date, the queue location, and the unanswered questions about ejections
TikTok users who filmed and posted the footage, engagement not independently verified
WDW News Today (August 2026), the earlier Avatar Flight of Passage queue incident

What is replacing The Lost Continent at Universal? The rumor is more Nintendo

Derek Gibbs — Sun, 13 Sep 2026 01:14:14 GMT

Treasures of Poseidon went behind construction walls this week. Poseidon’s Fury is already gone, the Sindbad theater is cleared, and Universal still has not said what replaces any of it.

Construction walls moved forward at Universal Islands of Adventure this week, closing off the Treasures of Poseidon gift shop.

It is coming down.

Poseidon’s Fury is already rubble. The Eighth Voyage of Sindbad theater is cleared ground. Mythos Restaurant closes permanently next year.

The Lost Continent is nearly finished.

What is happening at Treasures of Poseidon

The gift shop closed months ago. The walls arrived this week.

Treasures of Poseidon permanently closed on May 27 but remained visible to guests until crews pushed the construction barrier forward, taking a bit more of the walkway with it.

It will be demolished the same way Poseidon’s Fury was.

Across the path, the walls beside Mythos have moved back slightly to give guests as much room as possible. Crews removed a snack stand and several trees from that area.

Poseidon’s Fury is completely gone

The demolition finished last month.

The attraction opened with Islands of Adventure on May 28, 1999 as an original opening-day experience, and ran nearly 24 years before closing in May 2023.

Demolition began in late July. The temple facade came down in early August. By the morning of Aug. 13, the show building was fully demolished, exposing the Universal Studios Florida soundstages behind the site.

The giant trident is gone. Aerial photographer bioreconstruct documented most of it on X.

What happened to the Sindbad theater

It outlasted its own show by eight years.

The Eighth Voyage of Sindbad closed in 2018. The theater sat dormant until this year, when crews cleared and graded the site almost entirely.

Mythos Restaurant is closing next year

The last major piece of the land has a timeline.

Mythos remains open and is scheduled to operate into 2027 before closing permanently.

Construction walls already curve past its entrance doors.

Thunder Falls Terrace in Jurassic Park will convert to a full-service restaurant to fill the gap Mythos leaves behind.

What is replacing The Lost Continent

Universal announced in May that the land would close in phases to make room for a new themed area.

The company has not identified the property, the attractions, the construction schedule or an opening date.

That silence has left fans to speculate. One persistent theory places a Legend of Zelda land in the space, driven by Zelda imagery appearing inside the Nintendo Super Star Store at Epic Universe.

Pokemon has also been rumored for the area.

Universal has confirmed none of it. Epic Universe executive creative director Steve Tatham responded to questions about a Zelda land with a flat no comment.

Treat the Zelda theory as a rumor, because that is all it is.

Why fans are taking this one hard

The Lost Continent was one of the park’s six original themed islands, and it was strange in a way parks are no longer built.

Poseidon’s Fury was a walk-through with a water vortex tunnel and a live fire battle between gods. It was ambitious, odd and difficult to categorize, and the reaction to its demolition has reflected that.

The Mystic Fountain, an interactive talking fountain that has heckled guests for decades, also has construction walls around it. Whether it survives is unclear.

What this means for visiting Islands of Adventure

Guests moving between Seuss Landing and Hogsmeade now pass construction walls along an altered path, with little reason to stop.

Mythos remains a draw, and remains open. Beyond it, the area functions as a corridor rather than a destination.

What else is changing at Universal Orlando

Several things are in motion at once.

Halloween Horror Nights runs at Universal Orlando through Nov. 1, a record 49 nights.

Comcast told investors in July that Orlando attendance softened beginning in June and continued into the third quarter, while crediting Epic Universe with a strong guest response.

Universal has said the Lost Continent replacement will be entirely new. Everything past that is guesswork.

Article compiled with the help of the Pirates & Princesses newsroom.

Hat Tips:

WDW News Today (September 2026), the Treasures of Poseidon construction walls, the Mythos closure timeline and the Thunder Falls Terrace conversion
bioreconstruct on X, the aerial documentation of the Poseidon’s Fury demolition throughout August
Disney Fanatic, the Aug. 13 completion timing, the original 1999 opening date and the guest impact assessment
Inside Universal (May 27, 2026), the original report of the Treasures of Poseidon closure
Inside the Magic, the Mystic Fountain construction walls and the fan reaction
WDW News Today (July 2026), the Mythos construction wall placement

The Muppet Show won four Emmys exactly 50 years after it premiered

Derek Gibbs — Sun, 13 Sep 2026 01:10:07 GMT

The Disney+ revival took four Creative Arts Emmys on Sept. 5, the anniversary of the original’s 1976 debut. Disney still has not ordered more episodes.

The Muppet Show premiered on Sept. 5, 1976.

Fifty years later to the day, the Disney+ revival special won four Emmy Awards.

Nobody planned that. The Creative Arts Emmys just happened to land on the anniversary.

What did The Muppet Show win?

Four categories at Saturday’s Creative Arts Emmys.

Outstanding Variety Special (Pre-Recorded), Outstanding Writing for a Variety Special, Outstanding Production Design for a Variety Special and Outstanding Picture Editing for Variety Programming.

The special earned six nominations total. It lost Outstanding Sound Mixing for a Variety Special to the Apple Music Super Bowl LX Halftime Show starring Bad Bunny.

Is Kermit still up for an Emmy?

Yes. Matt Vogel remains nominated for Outstanding Character Voice-Over Performance as Kermit the Frog.

That category is decided at a later Creative Arts ceremony.

Did Sabrina Carpenter win an Emmy?

She did, and it is her first.

Carpenter served as executive producer and guest star on the special, which means the Outstanding Variety Special win goes to her as well.

She already has two Grammy Awards, for Best Pop Solo Performance and Best Pop Vocal Album. That puts her halfway to an EGOT, needing only an Oscar and a Tony.

Carpenter posted a Polaroid of herself standing between Kermit and Miss Piggy, thanking the Television Academy and crediting what she described as a lot of love, hard work and diva fights.

Who else was in The Muppet Show special?

Maya Rudolph and Seth Rogen both appeared. Rogen executive produced through Point Grey Pictures.

Alex Timbers directed.

The writing team that took the Emmy included Albertina Rizzo, Gabe Liedman, Nedaa Sweiss, Kelly Younger and Andrew Williams. Denise Pizzini won for production design, with Kelly Lyon taking picture editing.

20th Television, Disney Branded Television and The Muppets Studio produced alongside Point Grey.

When did The Muppet Show special air?

Feb. 4, simultaneously on Disney+ and ABC.

It brought the Muppets back to their theater for a fresh round of sketches, songs and celebrity chaos.

The special earned a rare 100 percent score on Rotten Tomatoes ahead of its premiere and reached 7.58 million viewers within its first week.

Is Disney making more Muppet Show episodes?

Despite a perfect critical score, 7.58 million viewers in a week and four Emmy Awards, Disney has not ordered a full season or announced any additional episodes.

The special was a one-night event. It has now outperformed nearly everything reasonable you could ask of a pilot, and there is still nothing on the schedule.

What else did Disney win at the Emmys?

Beyond the Muppets, Disney properties took wins including Welcome to Wrexham, Ocean with David Attenborough and Tucci in Italy.

Across the opening weekend of the 78th Emmy Awards at the Peacock Theatre at L.A. LIVE, the company collected more than ten awards. Eyes of Wakanda, Star Wars: Visions, The Bear and Who Wants to Be a Millionaire all won.

What was the original Muppet Show?

The series that made Jim Henson’s characters a global institution.

It ran from 1976 and introduced audiences to the format the revival recreated: a variety show constantly falling apart backstage, hosted by a frog holding it together, with a different celebrity guest each week.

Miss Piggy, Fozzie Bear, Gonzo, Statler and Waldorf and the rest of the ensemble all came from it.

Disney acquired the Muppets in 2004.

What else is happening with the Muppets?

The characters remain active across Disney’s properties.

Rock ‘n’ Roller Coaster Starring The Muppets is now running at Disney’s Hollywood Studios, replacing the Aerosmith version and putting the Electric Mayhem in the driver’s seat.

Muppet*Vision 3D closed permanently in June 2025 to make room for the Monstropolis expansion, which remains under construction with no announced opening date.

Article compiled with the help of the Pirates & Princesses newsroom.

Hat Tips:

WDW News Today, the 50th anniversary timing, the full category list and the sound mixing loss
Laughing Place, Dirk Libbey’s tally of Disney’s seven first-night wins and the note that no season order has followed
Gold Derby, Sabrina Carpenter’s EGOT status and her social post
Television Academy, the full nominee credits for writing, editing and production design
What’s On Disney Plus, the complete Disney winners list across the weekend
MickeyBlog, the Maya Rudolph and Seth Rogen appearances and the premiere details
Deadline, Carpenter’s full statement