Whew, there’s been a LOT of news in Disney World lately!

Disney World

From the announced return of Fantasmic! in Disney’s Hollywood Studios and the Festival of Fantasy Parade in Magic Kingdom to a new quick-service restaurant in EPCOT, we’ve got a lot coming at us. But, there’s some news we DIDN’T see coming! Here are the three most unexpected things that happened in Disney World last month!

1. Pause on Annual Pass Sales

We were pretty surprised when Disney World paused most Annual Pass sales in mid-November. Disney paused the sales of the Pirate, Sorcerer, and IncrediPass until further notice.

Annual Pass

The Pixie Pass currently remains available. This pass is $399 plus tax and it’s only available to Florida Residents. The pass can hold three park reservations at once but has the most block-out dates of all of the passes. ALL other passes cannot be purchased at this time.

Disney World Annual Pass

Disney stated that this pause was to help manage capacity. At this time, existing Passholders can renew into any of the four pass types, but new Passholders have limited options. Annual Pass sales resumed relatively recently after being completely paused after the park closures, so it came as a surprise that they are partially paused again.

Click here to learn more about this pause.

2. Character Surprises

November brought with it some surprising developments when it comes to interacting with characters in Disney World! We got the announcement of the first full returning princess character meal with the reopening of Story Book Dining at Artist Point at Disney’s Wilderness Lodge Resort on December 16th.

Storybook Dining at Artist Point

The spot will feature an updated menu when it does reopen. Now, a restaurant reopening isn’t that surprising but one with princesses is! All of the currently-open character meals feature fur characters instead of face characters. Cinderella’s Royal Table has reopened with a stop-in from Cinderella, but not the full character dining experience. What a surprise!

Evil Queen at Artist Point’s Storybook Dining

We also got some fun character interaction on Disney+ Day at Disney’s Hollywood Studios! It was surprising to spot Russell, Dug, and Mr. Fredricksen from Up, Moana, Tiana from The Princess and the Frog, and Darth Vader from Star Wars!

Also, character dining interactions have changed in Disney World.

Donald

You can now get closer to take your photos with the characters. Get all the details here. 

Want to learn more about the Story Book Dining reopening? Click here!

3. Supply Chain Effects on Disney World

We had a less pleasant surprise with supply chain issues having a surprising effect on Disney World. In mid-November, we spotted that a store in Disney’s Hollywood Studios was closed due to not having enough stock to fill the shelves!

Beverly Sunset Boutique

Heading into December, it appears the supply chain issues have yet to go away. We’ve seen incorrectly branded materials and even missing chicken tenders as potential results of the supply chain crisis.

Click here to learn more about the supply issues.

As you can see, November was QUITE the unexpected month. But, hey, Disney World sure does like to keep us on our toes! As always, keep an eye on DFB so you don’t miss ANY of the surprising news.

To see more of the Disney+ Day characters, click here!

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What surprised you last month in Disney World? Tell us in the comments!