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Expert theme park tips, news, and deep dives. Disney World, Disneyland, and more! www.guide2wdw.com

Guide2WDW is the go-to resource for Disney World beginners and experts alike. With tips on how to save money, advice on when to go, and info on all the attractions and restaurants, we hope to help you make the most of you Walt Disney World vacation. http://guide2wdw.com
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05/21/2026

👀First Look: All 4 New Planets on Millennium Falcon: Smugglers Run

Starting May 22 at Disney World and Disneyland, Millennium Falcon: Smugglers Run is getting an all new mission that sends you across the galaxy. There are now 4 new destinations to visit.

Disney invited me for a special preview of the new Millennium Falcon update, and here’s what I learned.   On your mission with Mando and Grogo, you’ll always take off from Batuu and make the jump to Tatooine. This acts as both a tutorial and kicks off the adventure. You’re there to collect 3 bounties, but they split up.   Then it’s up to one of the engineers to choose which planet to go to next:

- Bespin / Cloud City
- Coruscant
- Death Star / Forest Moon of Endor

Each one has its own surprises, feel, and unique soundtrack that draws from the original trilogy. My personal favorite is Coruscant, but all 3 are great.

Note: Only one Engineer picks the destination, but it can change sides. When I rode, it alternated which Engineer got to pick the destination. So if there’s a planet you really want to see, make sure both Engineers are on board with that pick!

Stay tuned for much more about the updates Millennium Falcon: Smugglers Run, including the brand new Grogu mode!

My thanks to for the invite.

05/21/2026

Scooter belongs in the Animatronic Hall of Fame!

And he technically hasn’t officially debuted yet.

You can see this incredible new animatronic at Rock ‘n’ Roller Coaster starring the Muppets, which officially opens on May 26.

I attended a preview of the attraction today, and I could have just watched Scooter for hours.

Walt Disney Imagineering brought Scooter to life as an Audio-Animatronic by using motion capture technology of the actual Muppet.

And Scooter’s movements (and rods on his hands) are so lifelike. It feels like you’re in the studio with him.

I have a lot more to share about the updated ride, but this animatronic in the preshow was one of my favorite things about the new Rock N Roller Coaster.

Thanks to for the invite

05/14/2026

🤔Whatever happened to Project EXO?

Five years ago at Destination D23 2021, Josh D’Amaro brought out a wild prototype on stage: Project EXO. It was a full-body exoskeleton suit, built with Disney’s biggest characters in mind. Some test limbs included Wampa-looking feet and purple Thanos-sized hands. His direction to the Imagineering team was simple: “move really, really fast.”
And they did.

A year later, Project EXO brought a massive Hulk to California Adventure. But Hulk’s tenure at Avengers Campus was really a brief test run, and then Project EXO went quiet for 3 years.

But Disney didn’t abandon the tech.

Behind the scenes, Imagineers took what they learned from Hulk and kept iterating, pushing the exoskeleton system to go the distance.

The result is the finale of the new Hercules show on the Disney Destiny, where Project EXO brings the Titans to life on stage during the climatic battle.

Here’s why that matters: putting this tech in the finale of Disney Cruise Line’s newest, biggest show is a vote of confidence that this tech is ready for prime time.

And the patents back that up. Imagineering has filed multiple patents on the platform, including one in 2024 for 3D-printed lattice muscles that flex and compress. Imagineer Jonathan Becker described Project EXO as “a foundation to create bold new characters for a wide range of experiences.”

Project EXO is now a character platform for Disney to bring more giant characters to life, in the parks and at sea.

How do you hope Disney uses this exoskeleton tech next? Let me know.

And check out my channel for a full deep dive on all the tech hidden inside the Titans. 🗿🥶

05/12/2026

❄️ Disney’s Frozen Illusion Revealed

The most impressive part of the Anna thawing effect isn’t how it works (and that’s very impressive). It’s the number 15 million.

This is Anna and Elsa’s Frozen Journey at Tokyo DisneySea. You float through the iconic scenes of the 2013 Frozen film, and right in front of you, Anna goes from completely frozen to magically thawed, just like in the film’s climax. That transformation is visually impossible outside of animation.

But Imagineers figured out how to do it in real life.

So how did Disney pull that off?

Three elements working together.

First, the digital. Projection mapping covers Anna, her cape, and the scenery with shimmering ice that animates away in perfect sync as she thaws.

Second, the physical. Anna is an animatronic, so the robotics going from perfectly still to animated are the easy part.

The real trick is the cape.

It goes from completely rigid to falling smoothly, in a way that feels impossible without ice magic. The secret is revealed when the scene resets between boats: a top rod attached to Anna lifts up and down, and a series of smaller rods inside pull taut to give the cape rigid structure, then collapse when the top rod drops.

Anna’s cape works like a bat’s wing expanding and contracting.

But that resetting clip reveals the most important element of any great Disney effect.

Third, the effect cycles. Disney doesn’t have to pull off this illusion once. Not even once a night like a magician. This ride operates 12 hours a day, every day. The entire scene resets in 2 seconds. The full cycle runs 30 seconds. That’s 1,440 times a day. Like the Rent song, that’s 525,600 times a year. And because Disney builds rides that last for decades, this is an effect that needs to repeat over 15 million times in the next 30 years.
(Technically 15,768,000, I’m building in a buffer for ride downtime and refurbs. The math isn’t perfect, but you get the idea).

Imagineers didn’t just create an effect that melts minds. They created one that can do it millions of times on repeat.

What Disney effect would you like me to break down next?

05/11/2026

🤖 Disney just reinvented motion capture for robots using AI and physics.

Disney Research’s Zürich lab (the same team behind the free-roaming Olaf) has unveiled ReActor, a system that translates a human performer’s motion onto robots of any shape and size. And it opens up wild possibilities for the next generation of free-roaming characters in the parks.

Hat tip to for bringing this story to my attention.

Imagineers have been chasing robotic motion capture since the earliest days of animatronics. The problem is something called the “embodiment gap.”

Even if a robot is humanoid, its body isn’t 1:1 the same as a human. Traditional robotic mocap causes issues like foot sliding and self-collisions (aka, why are you hitting yourself).

So how does ReActor close the gap?

It works on two levels, both relying on accurate physics simulations. The first level retargets the human reference motion onto the robot’s specific body. The second level builds a tracking policy through reinforcement learning, an AI technique Disney trains across thousands of simulated robots.

So the final movement is something the real robot can actually pull off without slamming into the floor or punching itself.

And the whole thing runs at 88.3 times per second.

That speed is the key. It’s fast enough that an artist can edit a motion and ReActor translates the performance into robotic motion in real time.

ReActor can even work on robots that weren’t built for theme parks at all. Disney Research showed it simulated on ANYmal, a quadruped industrial inspection robot from ANYbotics. Disney has it doing handstands, somersaults, and dancing based on human motion data. The bigger implication: a human performer can now motion capture for a four-legged character.

Which is exactly what you’d need for, say, a free-roaming lion. Imagineering recently hinted to FastCompany about exactly that for the upcoming Lion King land at Disneyland Paris.

And I just can’t wait… to see what Disney Research builds next. 🦁🤖

05/08/2026

🤖 Disney built a mech suit.

I wrote that as a joke at first. But the more I dug into Imagineering’s exoskeleton technology, the more I realized I might actually be right.

These are the Titans in the Disney Destiny’s new Hercules show, towering up to 13 feet over the stage on a moving ship. Imagineers briefly explored using stilts for these characters. Fortunately, they had a much better solution. (Stilts on a cruise ship? Not a great idea.)

So how did pull that off?
�Enter Project EXO. WDI has been developing this for years, designed for massive characters. They briefly tested the Hulk at California Adventure in 2022.

Exoskeletons are used to help transfer the weight of heavy objects. The titan suits weigh around 120 pounds, including the frame, the puppet elements, and special effects.

To solve that, exoframe uses an exoskeleton structure that transfers all of the weight off the performer and onto the ground.

But it gets wilder. Imagineers built the suits using aerospace-grade materials like carbon fiber and Kydex thermoplastic. According to IAAPA, Disney partnered with Robrady to manufacture the exoskeleton — a company that makes industrial products that look like they belong on the USCSS Nostromo.
Feeling very mech-like now.

Here’s the kicker: Exoframe has pneumatic assists built into the joints that compress and release with movement, multiplying the performer’s strength to help them move those heavy arms and legs with ease.

A giant exoskeleton, aerospace-grade materials, and built-in strength augmentation: If that’s not a mech, I don’t know what is.
The only real question is what other larger-than-life characters Disney will use this puppet-meets-mech tech for next. (Other than whether the performers piloting the titans are drift compatible.) 🤖⚡

Comment MECH VIDEO and I’ll send you the link to my full breakdown of Imagineering’s massive characters.

My thanks to and for giving me an up close look at this character tech.

05/07/2026

🫖 Use Code GUIDE2 for 10% off Booking Magician

Is Mother’s Day crowded at Disney World?
I get asked about Mother’s Day at Disney World a lot. And it’s a genuinely great day to go, but know where the crowds are heading. I learned this the hard way last year (and I wish I had known about then).

Here’s the data: recent Mother’s Day wait times at the parks have averaged 29 minutes — about 7 minutes below a typical Disney World day (based on Thrill-Data.com - 2022-2025 WDW average wait time).

The parks and the rides are genuinely fine.

It’s dining where things can feel slammed. Last Mother’s Day, I went to Magic Kingdom with my wife, her mother, and exactly zero dining reservations. My plan: be fun and spontaneous and find something along the monorail loop for dinner.

But there was nothing fun about this plan, and it’s one of the biggest mistakes I’ve ever made at Disney World. Every restaurant we tried had one-to-two hour waits. Some had their wait lists closed for the night entirely.

And let me tell you, going around the monorail loop with two increasingly hungry children and two increasingly disappointed mothers… it was fine, it was fine.

Long story short, our fun and spontaneous Mother’s Day dinner ended up being going through a Pollo Tropical drive-thru at 10:12 pm.

Yes, I know down to the minute because I may never live this down.

Book your restaurants now.

And that’s where comes in. Booking Magician helps you get the tables everybody wants at Disney and beyond. Their system constantly monitors reservations across Disney, OpenTable, and more, and the second a table opens up, they send you a text. Giving you the best chance of avoiding my Mother’s Day fiasco.

Use Code GUIDE2 for 10% off Booking Magician.

Are you going to Disney World this Mother’s Day? 🌸

05/06/2026

📱A Disney Super App isn’t the solution Josh D’amaro is hoping for.

Disney has a legitimate tech challenge. They have more apps than the Cheesecake Factory: Disney+, My Disney Experience, Disneyland, ESPN, Play Disney Parks, DisneyStore, and many, many more. They’ve built so many apps and platforms across different divisions and decades, there is serious complexity, both for users and behind the scenes.

Bloomberg reports that CEO Josh D’Amaro is exploring a super app for Disney: Streaming movies, buying theme park tickets, playing games, all in one place.

Super apps are the white whale of tech right now. Elon Musk wants Twitter (sorry - X the everything app) to handle messaging, AI, and banking. OpenAI is turning ChatGPT into a super app. Bob Iger reportedly chased a Disney super app for a decade.

Everybody wants to build the next WeChat or Fortnite. But 95% of the time, a super app is a bad idea.

It sounds simple on the surface: one app for everything.

Until you actually think about it. Look at the Disney World app right now: dining reservations, Lightning Lanes, wait times, parking spot finder, mobile order, PhotoPass. There are powerful features many guests completely miss. Now add movies, shopping, sports, and a second theme park across the country into the same app.

“This is not product simplification. This is product complication.”�
That’s Daring Fireball writer John Gruber (), discussing OpenAI’s super app ambitions. His broader point is that focused, discrete apps is the best proven way to handle complexity. �
Disney fans need a simpler, more streamlined, more unified experience — upgraded for the future. That doesn’t necessarily mean one app though.�
There’s actually a great version of this idea. On today’s earnings call, D’Amaro talked about creating a “more connected ecosystem” with Disney+ at the center tying it together. That’s the version I’m rooting for. A streamlined experience, not the Bloomberg-reported super app version.

A super app is a bad solution. But there’s a good idea underneath. Let’s hope D’Amaro builds the right one. 🏰

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