A Disney Festivus Celebration for the Rest of Us! 2025

The tradition continues... for better or worse.

It’s December 23rd and that can only mean one thing: Happy Festivus! As we’ve done in years past, we thought we’d celebrate the Festivus season by reflecting on the year in Disney in a way that would make Frank Costanza proud, including the traditional Airing of Grievances, the Feats of Strength, and a celebration of Festivus Miracles. It’s a Festivus for the rest of us!

The Airing of Grievances

“I’ve got a lot of problems with you people! Now, you’re gonna hear about it!"

The tradition of Festivus begins with the airing of grievances. While we admire most of what The Walt Disney Company does over the course of a given year, there is always room for error and bad decisions. Here are some of the ways Disney let us down in 2025:

Cheaping Out on Disneyland Resort Hotel Perks

In the New Year (starting January 5, to be exact), those staying at a Disneyland Resort hotel will no longer enjoy early entry to the theme parks. Instead, they'll receive Lightning Lane access to one attraction that falls under the Multi Pass program. That might not sound so bad... except that this new perk is per stay, not per day!

Really? You couldn't go one step further to make this an actual replacement perk? Instead, unless you're staying for a single night, this seems laughable.

Messing Up Their Own Nomenclature

Speaking of "one Lightning Lane entry to a Lightning Lane Multi Pass attraction," Disney has been making some unforced errors when it comes to their nomenclature — and causing confusion in the process. Beyond this Disneyland example, look to the ESPN streaming service called, um, ESPN. Well, really, it's ESPN All Access, whereas what was ESPN+ has been minused to ESPN Select, except in places where it's still referred to as ESPN+ for the time being. Makes total sense.

Oh, and don't think we didn't notice the little switch you made from AstroFizz to Astrofizz. Technically, the sign reads more like AstroFIZZ, so which is it really? As a classic animated commercial voiceover, once said, "The world may never know."

More ESPN Confusion

Okay, we're not done talking about ESPN. We understand that Disney wants to grow the appeal of sports and reach new markets. Thus, it makes sense that they'd want to launch ESPN-branded offerings on Disney+ such as SC+ and Vibe Check. However, through this whole bundle thing, it's completely unclear which programs and events those at various tiers have access to. This also makes it impossible for those who enjoy these programs to recommend them because there's always a chance that their friend may not have all the bundle intricacies in place to allow them to watch.

On the other hand, though, stop calling it a "Disney+ exclusive" if it's going to air on ESPN2! Do you know what "exclusive" means?

The Kimmel Debacle

Enough said.

The Feats of Strength

And now, as Festivus rolls on, we come to the feats of strength. 2025 once again saw Disney flex its muscles at home and abroad:

Another Year of Box Office Wins

As it currently stands, Disney has the top two Hollywood films of 2025 worldwide (yes, Ne Zha 2 is actually #1 worldwide while A Minecraft Movie remains tops domestically). Plus, there's always a chance that Avatar: Fire and Ash could join Lilo & Stitch and Zootopia 2 on that list in time. So while there were some bombs (Snow White, Elio) and some also-rans (Brave New World, TRON: Ares), Disney still managed a pretty good year at the box office.

A Big Screen Debut

This morning, Marvel released a teaser for Avengers: Doomsday online. But, if you saw Avatar this weekend, you already saw it. Yes, this is the way it used to be — but Disney is bringing back some of that big-screen hype. What's more, rumors suggest a few other Doomsday teases will screen ahead of Fire and Ash in the coming weeks. If true, that's a mighty power move (that is somewhat undercut by the fact that we now know they will also put them online, but we'll allow it).

Festivus Miracles

What other explanation can there be? These were truly Festivus miracles:

Disney Doubles Down on Taylor Swift Collaboration

Love her, hate her, or somewhere in between, you cannot deny that Taylor Swift is one of the most famous people on the planet. So, it's impressive that Disney was able to not only secure her latest concert film but also the buzzy, TV-MA-rated Eras Tour docuseries. Heck, this partnership even brought Eras outfits to Disney's Hollywood Studios, which must have felt like worlds colliding for many fans.

Unexpected Attraction Updates

New rides and attractions are great — but sometimes showing some love to some existing offerings is even better. That's why we're thrilled that Buzz Lightyear's Space Ranger Spin is getting a welcome update and that Frozen Ever After will soon install the superior Audio-Animatronics (as seen in Hong Kong Disneyland) to EPCOT. But most unexpected and exciting of all? The beloved Carousel of Progress is set to introduce a Walt Disney AA among other additions, surely extending the life of this perennially "on the bubble" attraction. Miracle!