The Walt Disney Company has updated its federal suit against Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis to include new statements about his motivation for taking over Disney World’s governmental district. 

The amended complaint to the original April 26 suit begins with a May 5 quote from DeSantis saying, “[T]his all started, of course, with our parents’ rights bill.” He was referring to the “Don’t Say Gay” law, as it was dubbed by its critics, which forbids discussion of sexual orientation and gender identity in Florida public school classrooms and Disney publicly opposed last year. 

Disney’s argument is that the governor sought to unconstitutionally punish the company for speaking out against the law. The updated suit says those kinds of remarks — plus actions by the Republican-dominated Florida Legislature to void a developer contract enacted by the district’s Disney-controlled predecessor  — are “patently retaliatory, patently anti-business, and patently unconstitutional.”

“The State’s actions over the last two weeks are the latest strikes,” Disney said in its amended complaint.

The DeSantis-appointed board now overseeing the Disney World district has a countersuit pending in state court. 

Disney World bringing back Disney Dining Plan, loosening reservations

Two pandemic-era changes to a Walt Disney World vacation are being altered, Disney announced Monday. 

First, the resort is bringing back the Disney Dining Plan. The add-on allows guests to prepay for meals and snacks as part of a vacation package. While Disney did not announce what restaurants would be participating or how the program will be altered from its pre-COVID iteration, it will be available for bookings made after May 31 for any stays on Jan. 9, 2024, and beyond.

The second change involves Disney World’s theme park reservation system, which was introduced in July 2020 after the resort’s COVID-19 shutdown. For any Disney World stays after Jan. 9, 2024, guests buying date-based tickets will no longer have to separately get a reservation to get into a park. The change won’t apply to open-dated tickets. 

For annual passholders and Disney World employees, reservations will still be required for most dates. However, Disney said that starting in 2024, there will be select “good-to-go” days where park reservations will not be required. 

Zambezi Zinger begins testing at Worlds of Fun

Kansas City’s first new roller coaster in 14 years has entered the testing phase.

Worlds of Fun showed off testing footage of Zambezi Zinger, the wood-and-steel hybrid coaster built by Great Coasters International and Skyline Attractions. 

The coaster doesn’t have an opening date set yet, but is listed on the Worlds of Fun website as opening “later this spring.”