by Brittany DiCologero

Meet and greet shuffle, the end of a loved souvenir (and form of payment?) and more news on the opening of the town center at Disney Springs, all featured in this week’s news recap.

Meet and greet changes at Disney’s H0llywood Studios

With a couple of new meet and greet locations now open at Hollywood Studios, Pluto will now be meeting guests outside of Disney Junior. Pluto is filling the empty spot left by Minnie, when her meet and greet was moved and given an updated Hollywood theme in the location of the former American Idol auditions rooms. With Minnie, Mickey will also be greeting guests in the same location portraying his role from the Sorcerer’s Apprentice scene of “Fantasia.”

Disney Dollars to be discontinued

Unfortunately this news does not come as much of a surprise, as there have been rumors regarding the end of Disney Dollars for the past couple of years. The reason for them being discontinued is simply that more guests pay electronically, and when purchasing store credits to use in the parks many more guests would purchase gift cards over Disney Dollars. If you have Disney Dollars, they will still be accepted as payment (though I’d probably just hold on to them if I had any) however they will no longer be available for purchase.

Disney Springs updates

This weekend brings the opening of the long-awaited town center portion of Disney Springs, as well as the completion and opening of the extra garage, and a number of new tenants of shops and restaurants. Among many others, new tenants set to open this weekend include: the Daily Poutine, Sprinkles, D-luxe Burger, Sephora, Na Hoku, Pandora, Sperry, and Tommy Bahama. I would assume that the Disney Parks Blog will have coverage of all the Disney Springs news over the weekend, so we’ll be keeping an eye out there for some more information.