This week we’ve got a quick personal update, some good links where you can learn about Christmas 2020 at Walt Disney World, and some news from Walt Disney World and the parks around the world!
PREVIOUS UPDATE + WDW MASTERPOST
In case you’re behind (it’s easy to fall behind these days…even for us), our last update was on October 24. If you’re brand new and would just like a thorough look at the Disney World reopening, we have a Disney World Reopening Masterpost that covers the basics and links to our deeper content.
A Quick Personal Update
We’re always sorry to not have more (and more frequent) content for you, but as we shared on Halloween on instagram, we’ve been a bit busy recently:
Updates from Walt Disney World
We’ll start with a handful of updates from Walt Disney World, including the merriest time of year!
Christmas Arrives at Walt Disney World
Fortunately, Disney is still getting into the holiday spirit this year, even if it is a bit tamer than years past. Unfortunately for us, we’re not able to visit quite yet. Fortunately for you, there’s a world a great Disney bloggers who have great holiday coverage.
While I hope you keep reading the rest of what we have to offer, pictures of Christmas at Disney World really are the best way to pass the time right now. So without further ado, here are some great posts about Christmas 2020 at Disney World (links should open in new tabs):
Disney Tourist Blog reports on Animal Kingdom, Magic Kingdom, Castle projections at Magic Kingdom, and Hollywood Studios
BlogMickey reports on Animal Kingdom, the Hollywood Holiday Tower Hotel, and the Magic Kingdom Christmas Cavalcade Schedules
Rise of the Resistance Boarding Pass System Update
In a (mostly) welcome change, beginning November 3, guests with parks pass reservations for Hollywood Studios are able to try to join boarding groups for Rise of the Resistance at 7AM on the day of their visit without being inside the park. (Read the official post from Disney Parks Blog.)
This replaces the 10AM boarding group dump. The 2PM opportunity to join a group will still occur, but you must be in the park at 2PM to try and join a group.
In theory, this should relieve some of the early morning crowds that have plagued Hollywood Studios. Since Rise of the Resistance opened, people have poured into the park at or before opening to join a boarding group. Then, succeed or fail, they go find a ride to wait in line for.
As they no longer need to be inside the park at 10AM to joint a group, we should see a dip in those morning crowds.
So far that hasn’t really been happening (I’ll perhaps offer more analysis later). It’s a bit tough to judge in the first few weeks, because many people don’t know about the changes, or if they do they’re still basing their arrival time on outdated blog posts, like ours.
The bigger problem might simply be that if people are up at 7AM anyways, they’re going to be at the park well before it’s 10AM open. In this case, the impact on morning crowds would be minimal. We’ll hopefully have more analysis to offer soon.
No More Eating In Line at Walt Disney World
Guests are no longer allowed to eat or drink in ride lines at Walt Disney World. Eating or drinking required (or allowed) removing one’s mask, and in the sometimes cramped quarters of the queues, this isn’t a surprising change.
I’m a bit concerned about some long, outdoor queues. The cooler winter temperatures should help some, but some queues at Walt Disney World get long and hot enough that they used to regularly sell beverages in line.
Major Cuts at Disney World
While the number is smaller than the 28,000 layoffs we saw earlier, we got more awful news of cuts at Disney World to end October. We covered the cuts in a separate post, where we also discuss how this change our outlook for planning visits into 2021 and 2022.
New Look at Guardians Ride Vehicles
Imagineer Zach Ridley shared a look at the vehicles for Guardians of the Galaxy Cosmic Rewind on his instgram account. The new roller coaster coming to Epcot was expected to open in 2021, but may be delayed to 2022 due to ongoing budget cuts across Disney parks.
Upcoming: D23 “Fantastic Worlds” Virtual Events
D23, the official Disney fan club, will be hosting a week of virtual events from November 16 through November 20. You can see all the information here, but on our radar are:
Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge – Storytelling through Merchandise (Monday Nov. 16)
Celebrate Mickey & Minnie on Their Birthday (Wednesday Nov. 18)
Walt Disney World: Destination Tomorrow (Thursday Nov. 19)
EPCOT – The Magic of Possibility (Thursday Nov. 19)
Updates from Other Disney Parks
We’ve also got a handful of updates from other Disney parks, starting with some sad news on the west coast.
Disneyland Hotels Stop Taking Reservations
Via BlogMickey, Disneyland’s hotels have stopped taking reservations. This comes after they cancelled all reservations through the end of 2020.
Disney and the theme parks of California continue to wage a PR battle against California’s restrictions on reopening, which are likely to keep Disneyland closed until mid-2021.
Buena Vista Street at DCA Gets Reopening Date
Disney previously announced they would reopen Buena Vista Street, the main street at Disney California Adventure, for shopping. They’ve now announced that reopening will occur on November 19.
So far Disney has not announced plans to reopen Main Street USA at Disneyland. While we’d love to see this happen in time for the holidays, that seems a tight timeframe to sort out the logistics (chiefly the enormous demand you’d expect).
Disneyland Paris Closing Until February 13 (Mostly, Probably)
In a statement, Disney announced that Disneyland Paris is closed October 30 through February 12, with the hopes that the resort can reopen in the middle—December 19 to January 3—for the holidays.
France is in the midst of a surge of cases, so this news is hardly surprising. France’s last week of October saw 4 new cases for every 1000 people, a rate topping Florida (1.29) and California (0.8), and nowhere near the essentially 0 rate of Shanghai, Hong Kong, or Japan. (source).
We’re big fans of Disneyland Paris, and so far all of our visits have been in the fall, when we absolutely love the resort and Paris itself (even the rain!).
Disneyland Paris joins Disneyland (California) as the Disney resorts that are still / again closed.
