We’re a little late on this week’s update (usually they’re on Fridays), but here’s the latest reopening news for the Disney parks around the world.
Walt Disney World Updates
Disney released a batch of new information about hotels and dining during the reopening. Since this information is all new, we’re going to direct you to our two new posts if you’d like to read more:
And our Disney World Reopening Masterpost will be updated shortly.
Disney World also updated their change/cancellation policy. Now, for arrivals through October 3, change and cancellation fees will be waived.
Another small note…via BlogMickey, Disney is asking guests with hotel reservations between June 22 and July 4 what they’d like to do about their reservations (response by June 12).
June 22 is the date the DVC properties are reopening. Presumably, some guests with reservations at other hotels might decide to modify to the DVC hotels even though the parks (and their originally booked hotel) aren’t open.
The July 4 date is a little strange. The parks don’t reopen until July 11, so why isn’t Disney looking at dates July 4 to July 11 yet? My pure speculation is it has something to do with possible park previews or a reopening of other hotels during that period.
Shanghai Disneyland
While Disneyland and Disneyland Paris (both discussed next) are higher priority for most of our readers, there is a small, highly relevant bit of news out of the Shanghai Disneyland reopening.
Shanghai Disneyland reopened on May 11, and this week they rolled out a new feature—the Disney Standby Pass. You can read more about it at OC Register, but the key takeaway is that this is a virtual-queue style system (like Boarding passes).
We don’t have any word on whether such systems will be used at Disney World and Disneyland, but this reinforces a frequent point of ours—expect changes after the parks reopen. We know lots of sites will be making an effort to keep you informed, but keep in mind changes are going to sometimes be quicker than anyone can keep up with.
Disneyland Updates
Last week we saw several California theme parks begin to plan their reopenings, this got us hoping we’d hear something from Disneyland soon, but that hasn’t happened. To date, no Disneyland reopening date has been confirmed by Disney.
The OC Register has a good recap of the most recent updates, which boil down to Universal Hollywood (a major Disneyland competitor) looking at a July 1 reopening, while Disneyland reservations are now only available for July 15 and later.
The new-reservation date at Disneyland is something of a red herring. Most guests to the parks don’t stay in Disney-operated hotels, so it’s possible their reopening timeline could diverge from the parks’ timeline.
Given the next update (ony Disneyland Paris), mid-July does seem like a distinct possibility for Disneyland, though.
Disneyland Paris Updates
WDWNT reports internal communications indicate Disneyland Paris is targeting a July 11 reopening. This follows last week’s update that the park would be allowed to reopen as soon as June 22. The July 11 date has not been confirmed by Disney.
July 11 is also the date that Magic Kingdom and Animal Kingdom are reopening at Walt Disney World. There’s no obvious reason the different Disney resorts would need to be on the same reopening—we spent much of this time going on and on about how different all the resorts and locations are.
At the end of the day, it might simply be that local governments are converging on a similar timeline for allowing reopenings. The parks are all similar in size and the amount of new features (e.g. social distancing marking, QR code menus, etc.) they’d have to develop.
In that regard, a timeline that placed these three resorts all opening around the same time—mid-July—makes sense.
Tokyo Disneyland and Hong Kong Disneyland
There weren’t any substantive updates on Tokyo or Hong Kong Disneyland this week. These resorts are quite different and in different locations, but they share a core feature at this point—they don’t need much advance notice to reopen.
Hong Kong Disneyland has reportedly been preparing to reopen for weeks. The best explanation for them remaining closed is the chaotic situation in Hong Kong, as protests ramped up just as pandemic fears declined.
Hong Kong Disneyland doesn’t have particularly high attendance, so timing the reopening is a challenge. It seems like they’re pretty close operationally though, so notice of a reopening could still be pretty short.
The Tokyo parks are more like Disneyland (California) in terms of demand. I don’t think anyone can speak to how much pent-up demand in any location will convert to actual attendance, but I wouldn’t be surprised to see them announce a reopening on short notice.