The following are all rumors, some confirmed, some debunked, and some still nothing but rumor made up by writers looking for hits and page shares. The Main Street Mouse prefers to stick to confirmed fact, not rumor and stories that start with “a CM told me. Why do we do we avoid reporting rumor? Because these rumors do nothing but worry and upset people and stir the Internet drama pot, as well as confuse people to the actual facts and events occurring in the parks and TMSM doesn’t work that way.
I collected a list of the top 10 rumors about Disney I saw on the Internet this year from “news” articles, blog posts, FB posts, posts in Disney related groups and message boards were all used for this little hunt. The majority of the following made me shake my head, because none were confirmed when published, and almost all stirred significant drama and/or created flame wars in the Disney-verse.
Tonight we will be looking at 10-6 of “The Top 10 Disney Park Rumors of 2013”. Come back tomorrow to www.themainstreetmouse.com for part 2 of the list!
10. The Osborne Light:
The Osborne lights are going away or moving, this rumor has been popping up on and off for a while now, and it tends to cause a good deal of reaction. The outcome of the lights varies between they are getting rid of them completely to they are moving to other places. To date there is NO confirmation of this, and with the amount of money Disney has put into the lights, between adding on to them and upgrading them to LED , and their popularity, and the way the Streets of American perfectly handles the traffic caused by the lights I personally can’t imagine Disney moving them any time soon, and I think the statements they are getting rid of them are total bunk.
9. Star Wars Land and Cars Land are coming? Or are they?:
Star Wars land has been a rumor floating on and off since Disney acquired Star Wars. The rumors range from Disneyland’s Iconic Tomorrowland being scrapped and turned into Star Wars Land, to large portions of Hollywood Studios in Florida being torn down to make way for a new land. There has also been the rumor that Cars Land would be coming to Florida. As of right now Disney has confirmed none of these rumors, and while at D23 this summer when I was speaking to one of the heads of the “Avatarland” expansion at Animal Kingdom, it seems no other major renovations will be taken on in Florida until that area is done. What’s even funny is in September 2013 several sites announced the “rumored but not confirmed expansions in Florida have been cancelled”, which I find funny because they were basically reporting an unconfirmed rumor, was just that, but in a way that made their previous articles look supported.
8. Magic Bands Rumors abound:
MagicBand rumor, or more so misinformation about Magic Bands covered the Internet this year. Without getting TOO soap-boxy or pointing out ALL the horrible rumors and misinformation that plagued the new system I will instead point out the FACTS on this one.
~The bands can not be used to steal your personal information, they work the same way the KTTW cards did meaning all your personal data is on a secure server, the band is merely a ID number.
~Disney is not tracking your every move around the park, at least not anymore than they were with KTTW.
~The bands will be available for AP holders at some time in 2014, per the Fall edition of the AP Newsletter the Mickey Monitor. FP+ is not being used to punish people staying off property, it is just currently being tested using resort guests, this is proven by Animal Kingdom opening FP+ scheduling at in park kiosks to none resort guests in the last few weeks.
7. Mickey’s Sorcerer’s Hat is going away, or is it:
It seems to me that on a pretty regular basis someone tries to say the Sorcerers Hat in Hollywood Studios is going to come down. Now I know many of you prefer the Earful Tower as the parks main iconic image (like the Castle, Tree of Life etc), but to me it’s not as centralized as the hat, which you see when entering the park. But until officially confirmed by Disney, the 100 ft hat doesn’t seem to be going anywhere.
Disney’s official statement on the Sorcerer Hat: “The Sorcerer Mickey Hat truly represents the magic of show business and the entertainment wizardry of Disney. This imaginative icon falls in line with the tradition of Cinderella Castle at Magic Kingdom, Spaceship Earth at Epcot and the Tree of Life at Disney’s Animal Kingdom.”
6. The Death of Paper Fastpass:
This rumor is actually a fact and not a rumor , but sources have twisted fact into a rumor for reaction. The whole point to the new FastPass+ system was to replace the paper FastPass system, and this has never been a secret. As early as May 2012, even before the parks OFFICIAL MDE/MB/FP+ announcements, it has been reported that the FP+ option would completely replace the paper legacy FastPass system. Even non-resort guests will use the FP+ system with their RFID enabled park ticket at kiosks throughout the park.
Don’t forget! Come back tomorrow for part 2 of the list!
Michele also contributes theme park news for Fox 35 Orlando 11pm news and on the radio on WDBO.
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