It was another busy few days for Disney parks news. Most of the updates related to Walt Disney World, where we’re finally getting to the point where guests have some idea when they’ll be visiting the parks next. Today we’ve got updates on visiting in 2020 and 2021, a major ride retheme, and the delayed opening out west.
Note: This post may be updated throughout June 26. Stories added throughout the day will be indicated here.
Update: Added a reminder that remaining ticket-holders can make park reservations June 28
Update: Added confirmation of NBA to WDW
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 June 23. 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.
2021 Disney World Reservations Now Open
Reservations to visit Walt Disney World in 2021 are now open. We highly recommend you work with a travel agent on 2021 bookings. We personally work with and recommend Lauren Quirk of Travel With Character LLC.
Historically, we booked our own trips. But as we began visiting more frequently, we started working with Lauren. Working with an agent has been incredibly helpful, most notably when our August 2019 trip was cut short by Hurricane Dorian.
Heading into 2021, a lot can change. Changes mean you might need to modify or cancel your reservation. Modifications, in particular, can take hours because they often overlap with everyone else rushing to modify. Save yourself that hassle—work with an agent.
NBA to Disney World Confirmed
This feels like the third or fourth time this has been “confirmed” but not it seems real—or at least as real as you can get in this chaotic times. The NBA will resume its season at ESPN’s Wide World of Sports, at Walt Disney World.
Overall this won’t mean much for guests, beyond the limitation on which hotels will reopen for outside guests. We’ve previously written about the NBA’s expected hotel plans. One lingering question is how dining reservations at these hotels might be impacted.
Annual Passholder Park Pass Reservations Open
Walt Disney World annual passholders were able to make their reservations to visit Disney theme parks beginning today, June 26. (Read more about the Disney World Parks Pass Reservation System here.)
While there have been mixed results, it appears the bulk of passholders found that if they had three or more park reservations as part of a hotel stay, they could not make any more on non-hotel days.
That is, annual passholders fall into two groups—those with reservations at Disney / partner hotels and those without. Those without hotel reservations were able to make up to three reservations for any dates, beginning today.
Those with hotel reservations were able to book visits to the parks for every day of their hotel stay earlier this week. It was unknown (and I guess still is, since we’re seeing mixed results) whether those guests would also be entitled to the three “floating” days. In most cases, the answer is no, but a few people have reported doing both.
I personally was unable to book more than three days. I had a one-night hotel reservation, so theoretically I could have had 2 hotel days and 3 pass days, but it didn’t work out like that—I was capped at 3 total days.
For the most part, this is a niche issue. Locals will just be making reservations three days at a time. Most non-locals book Disney or partner hotels. But if you’re a non-local who didn’t have a Disney or partner hotel booked in 2020, this could be a huge loss in the value of your annual pass.
Reminder: Remaining Ticket-holder Reservations Open June 28
If you previously purchased a Walt Disney World ticket but it was not an annual pass and you did not have a Disney / partner hotel reservation that allowed you to make park reservations earlier this week, you will be able to make park reservations June 28.
While it’s expected the system is scheduled to open at 7AM Eastern, we’ve seen reports of people accessing earlier, and it seems it might open as early as 6AM Eastern.
Splash Mountain Will Be Rethemed to Princess and the Frog
At both Walt Disney World’s Magic Kingdom and Disneyland, Splash Mountain will be rethemed to Princess and the Frog. You can read more at the Disney Parks Blog here.
Disney says work on the project has been ongoing since last year. They’ve also said (not in that post, quoted in the next section here), that the Splash Mountain rides are expected to reopen in their existing forms with Disneyland and Magic Kingdom. It’s unclear when they’d have to close for the retheming.
Other Ongoing Projects…?
As part of a new interview discussing the Splash Mountain retheme, Bob Weis, president of Walt Disney Imagineering, discussed other projects at the parks:
D23: When can we expect to be “goin’ down the bayou” and will this alter any of the timelines for Avengers Campus or Mickey & Minnie’s Runaway Railway at Disneyland? Or perhaps TRON at Magic Kingdom?
BW: We have separate project teams working on these efforts, but we are still evaluating project timelines based on the extended closures we’ve experienced due to COVID-19. While several projects, like Avengers Campus—at both Disney California Adventure and Disneyland Paris—are able to surge forward based on where we were in development, there are others that will be picked back up in stages—like Mickey & Minnie’s Runaway Railway and TRON—and some that are longer-term that we will need more time to assess. We are working with our operations partners now to determine timing for this project to get under way. For now, we know that both Magic Kingdom and Disneyland parks will re-open with the existing Splash Mountain attraction.
So, Avengers Campus, which was originally expected to open in July at Disney California Adventure, is still “surging forward” (albeit now at a new schedule since construction and the opening have been delayed).
TRON, which is planned for Magic Kingdom, and the Disneyland version of Mickey & Minnie’s Runaway Railway sound like they’re still coming, but perhaps at a slower schedule than Avengers Campus.
Notably left out of Bob’s commentary are Remy’s Ratatouille Adventure and Guardians of the Galaxy: Cosmic Rewind. Both of these were set to come to Epcot. Bob passing by them right now means nothing—he presumably just picked a few examples in answering that question.
Remy’s Ratatouille Adventure was expected to open summer 2020, and it’s a copy of an pre-existing ride (at Disneyland Paris’s Walt Disney Studios Park). It’s hard to imagine this ride being cut. A delay makes sense for all the obvious reasons, plus the fact that Disney might just not see huge marginal returns on opening a new Epcot ride right now.
Epcot will likely see a bigger locals crowd than the other three parks due to the elimination of park hopping. They’re even leaning into this with the modified Food & Wine Festival. Remy’s alone won’t likely move many needles now. If they save it for, say, holiday season, they might be able to draw more curious tourists in.
Then there’s Guardians of the Galaxy: Cosmic Rewind. Guardians was on a timeline similar to TRON, so it’s plausible it will stick to that plan. With Epcot already positioned to get one new ride soon (Remy’s), we don’t expect Cosmic Rewind to be rushed faster than TRON.
As for whether it could get cut entirely…probably not. Substantial work was already done, and Epcot desperately needs it long-term, especially given that most everything else planned for the park is in jeopardy.
Unlike TRON and Remy’s, Cosmic Rewind is not a copy of another ride. This would justify a slower timeline for it, but ultimately we still expect this project to get done.
As we alluded to in discussing Remy’s, part of the challenge for Disney is timing these openings to be most impactful. The original strategy for TRON and Cosmic Rewind revolved around the 50th Anniversary celebrations. Now…with park capacity and tourism traffic uncertain, it’s easy to see why Disney will rethink when it debuts these new rides.
Jambo House Villas Opening Date Cut
The Curious Case of Jambo House Villas continues.
When DVC properties at Walt Disney World were announced to reopen June 22, the villas at Animal Kingdom Lodge’s Jambo House were notably excluded. At the time, we found this unsurpring—those villas share the main building with the rest of the hotel, which isn’t immediately scheduled to reopen.
Then the Jambo House Villas were scheduled to reopen July 10, with the first block of hotels (after the June 22 DVC reopening). This was a little strange, since the rest of Animal Kingdom Lodge wasn’t given a reopening date.
Now, Jambo House Villas have been removed from the July 10 reopening, and they no longer have a reopening date. Read more about the reopening of Disney World hotels here.
New York, New Jersey, Connecticut Introduce New Travel Quarantine Rules
New York, New Jersey, and Connecticut now require anyone traveling from states with surging Coronavirus cases to self-quarantine for 14-days. Currently, that list of states includes Florida. So, if you’re from one of those states, visit Florida, and return home, you’ll need to self-quarantine for 14 days. More here.
Notice this is distinct from the 14-day self-quarantine requirement in Florida for people traveling to Florida from New York, New Jersey, and Connecticut. That requirement is expected to expire July 7.
Disneyland Reopening Delayed
Disneyland’s reopening has been delayed. Originally, the parks were scheduled to reopen July 17 and two hotels were scheduled to reopen July 23—both dates have been cancelled. Downtown Disney will still open July 9.
Disney’s official update is here, and their reasoning comes down to two main points. First, California won’t be releasing guidance for reopening theme parks until July 4, which Disney claims doesn’t give it enough time to plan a July 17 reopening.
Second, Disney makes multiple references to its ongoing negotiations with its Cast Member unions. This isn’t surprising, as some of those unions have been fighting hard against a reopening at this point.
I think the July 4 excuse is nonsense in one regard—it definitely would have left Disney enough time to prepare for July 17. If California allows theme parks to reopen, it’s not as if they have some silver bullet to stop coronavirus that no theme parks around the world have come up with.
The parks are going to look more or less like every park around the world in function, at least. California might have tighter capacity restrictions, which could make the case for reopening a little weaker, though.
But the July 4 update from California will provide Disney with political cover in its fight against the union. It’s plausible that Disney knows sorting out the union agreements and getting Cast Members back to work preparing the park will take more than 13 days.
What Does This Mean For Walt Disney World?
To start with, Disney says its plans to reopen Walt Disney World are still on schedule. This is despite the change in California, and despite some Walt Disney World Cast Members signing petitions objecting to the scheduled reopening.
Unlike in California, state and local authorities at Walt Disney World have already given the go ahead for the parks to reopen. Moreover, a major competitor of Disney’s—Universal Orlando Resort—is operating a nearly identical operation just down the street.
Disney reached an agreement with the Cast Member unions back in May for safety conditions when the resort reopened. That’s a big deal, but conditions have also changed in Florida since May, with cases and test positivity rate both increasing.
There are about two weeks until the first Walt Disney World parks are scheduled to reopen July 11. As we all know by now, that’s a long time these days.