4. Lightning McQueen's Racing Academy to open March 31, 2019

Image: Disney

It was confirmed this earlier this year that the new Lightning McQueen's Racing Academy show will officially debut in the Sunset Showcase Theater (located adjacent to the Rock ‘n’ Roller Coaster Starring Aerosmith) on March 31, 2019

This new attraction will immerse guests in the world of Cars and bring them face to face with racing legend Lightning McQueen. Taking on the role of rookie racer, guests will cruise into the theater and find yourself face-to-face with this character, who will appear "live" on stage in animatronic form, while giant, wraparound screens that are nearly two stories tall and stretch more than 200 feet from end to end, pull guests into into the action. 

The show will take place after the events of Cars 3, and feature McQueen going through some of his career highlights while testing out a new racing simulator before, inevitably, things go wrong (as they always do in theme park attractions!)

Pathways that lead to this building are now opening back up (they were behind berms for awhile), and soft openings later this month could be possible if this attraction ends up being ready ahead of schedule. 

5. New FastPass+ queue entrance now open at Rock 'n' Roller Coaster

Disney has been redeveloping parts of Sunset Boulevard at Disney's Hollywood Studios over the past few months, and as we inch closer to the opening of the aforementioned Cars attraction, and in an effort to keep traffic flowing freely once this new attraction is open, the Rock 'n' Roller Coaster FastPass+ queue entrance on the far side of this attraction has been moved towards the center of the ride entrance area, where the old paper FastPass distribution machines used to be.