With so many changes coming to Walt Disney World this year, we’re breaking up our reopening content into different focus areas. This post will focus on changes specific to the parks. Read on to learn about the changes coming to Walt Disney World parks…
RELATED POSTS
Other Disney World reopening content can be found on the following posts:
Disney World Reopening — Parks Details (you are here)
Disney’s official page on changes to the parks is here. We encourage you to read it, too. This post largely repackages that information and adds commentary.
It’s tough to get the organization of this post perfect, but here’s what it looks like. We’ll start with Reopening and “Initial Reopening Period”, a quick discussion of the time period this post covers. Then we discuss Reduced Capacity + Park Reservations Required, because there’s no sense in planning for the parks if you can’t get in.
After that we’ve got Changes to the In-Park Experience, which focuses on things like rides and entertainment. We follow that up with a specific look at Safety and Sanitation Changes before closing with our current thoughts on Touring Updates.
Reopening and “INITIAL REOPENING PERIOD”
Magic Kingdom and Animal Kingdom reopened on July 11. Epcot and Hollywood Studios reopened on July 15. The parks have significantly changed from when the closed in mid-march.
All of these changes are for the “initial reopening period.” This is a period of unknown length. So far, all we know is that it covers the reopening dates of the park.
The length is also sort of irrelevant. It’s not as if all these small changes are going to be removed at once. Some will last weeks, some will last months, and some things will never go back to how they were before.
Reduced Capacity + Park Reservations Required
The biggest change for the parks is that capacity is being restricted, and you’ll need a new type of reservation in the Disney Parks Pass System in order to enter the parks. This is not a new ticket or really even related to the tickets—you need a park ticket AND a reservation in order to enter the parks.
We have a separate post focused on the Disney World Parks Pass reservation system if you’d like to learn more about that. Currently, the reservations cover dates through January 14, 2023.
Changes to Transportation and Arrival
Disney transportation is less efficient. Because of social distancing requirements and reduced parks capacity, Disney transportation is going to be less efficient than usual.
In the first week the parks have been open, I’ve seen plenty of complaints about waiting for multiple buses, which is to be expected because the buses are operating at reduced capacity. While I’d probably still take a bus to Magic Kingdom, I’d consider driving or taking an Uber or Lyft to the other three parks.
For the most part, whether your drive or take the bus shouldn’t come down to any sort of park strategy. The parks are pretty easy right now—pick between car and bus based on your budget (e.g. for a rental car) and level of comfort taking a bus with other people. Nothing about the parks should tilt this one way or the other, in our opinion.
No Parking Lot Trams. Disney will not use parking lot trams—you’ll just have to walk. With the parks far below capacity, this is less a big deal than it sounds. The Magic Kingdom lot might tire you, though, on busier days.
Temperature Screening. As with Disney Springs, temperature screening is done via a contactless thermometer before entering the park. Guests with temperatures of 100.4 degrees F or above will not be allowed to enter.
Security changes. This isn’t something to worry about because no policies about what you can and cannot bring have changed. Disney is using new technology and procedures to have more sanitary and efficient security lines.
These changes haven’t been rolled out at every entrance, but, for example, the Animal Kingdom entrance allows guests to keep all items in their bags and simply walk through a detector.
No Fingerprints at Entry. New York Times confirms fingerprint scanners will not be used.
Changes to the In-Park Experience
In this section, we discuss changes to attractions, entertainment, characters, and events / extras. The next section will focus on safety and sanitation, then we’ll close with some thoughts on touring strategy.
Rope Drop Has Changed
“Rope drop” is a fandom term for the procedures Disney uses to get guests to their first ride of the day. In the past, they’d basically open the park in parts, allowing guests to wait in large crowds throughout the park until the rides opened, when guests went into those lines.
With new social distancing requirements, that can’t happen anymore. Instead, Disney has been allowing guests to queue for rides as soon as they arrive at the park.
While we’ve seen a few reports of holdups, for the most part guests will arrive, enter the park, walk to their first ride, and wait in the line for that ride until it opens. Parking lots won’t open and other transportation methods won’t run until Disney is ready to have those guests in line for a ride.
While wait times have been low, you might still put some effort into picking your first ride. Our rope drop posts (linked below) make the following suggestions:
Rope Drop at Magic Kingdom — Seven Dwarfs Mine Train
Rope Drop at Epcot — Frozen Ever After or Test Track
Rope Drop at Animal Kingdom — Na’vi River Journey
Rope Drop at Hollywood Studios — Slinky Dog Dash
New Cavalcades
There are new cavalcades in place of the entertainment and character cuts we’ll discuss below. We have a post that discusses these in great detail—All About the New Disney World Cavalcades—but in short, these are miniature parades that occur at random times throughout the day.
Closed Attractions
Various attractions and entertainment pieces are suspended during the initial reopening phase. It’s tough to manage a complete list of these things. Disney has an official listing of opened attractions here (“Attractions and Entertainment” section).
We’re going to list notable attractions missing from those lists (i.e. we’re expecting these to be closed). We’re not talking about entertainment or characters yet.
Magic Kingdom Closed Attractions. Magic Kingdom Monsters Inc. Laugh Floor; Enchanted Tales With Belle.
Epcot Closed Attractions. (None. Previously, Beauty and the Beast Sing Along was expected to be closed, but it has reopened.)
Hollywood Studios Closed Attractions. Star Wars Launch Bay, Indiana Jones Stunt Spectacular, Voyage of the Little Mermaid, Disney Junior Live on Stage.
Animal Kingdom Closed Attractions. Primeval Whirl (Permanent Closure), Finding Nemo -- The Musical, Up! A Great Bird Adventure (replaced with a simpler bird show), Boneyard, Festival of the Lion King (modified version reopening summer 2021)
Pre-ride tweaks
These are going to vary by ride (and maybe even by when you visit), but we’ve seen lots of tweaks to pre-ride scenes. The stretching room at Haunted Mansion is just used as queue space, for example.
The Flight of Passage pre-ride videos are either skipped or shortened. It won’t be worth cataloguing all of these, just know your favorite pre-ride moment might be skipped.
Modified Entertainment and Character Experiences
During the reopening phase, the following have been suspended: Parades and nighttime spectaculars, Character Greetings, Playgrounds. That means no Happily Ever After, no Meet Anna & Elsa, and no Boneyard.
The entertainment cuts are quite deep—all streetmosphere, parades, and nighttime shows have been cut. All character meet and greets have been eliminated as well. As mentioned above, in place of these experiences, Disney has new character cavalcades (basically miniature parades).
Each park will have multiple cavalcades. Additionally, Main Street Philharmonic will continue to perform at Magic Kingdom. Finally, Epcot’s American Gardens Theater will host performances, including by the JAMMitors and Mariachi Cobre.
Our perspective is just to enter with the absolute lowest expectations, and take as a pleasant surprise anything at all. All of these experiences are going to be subject to modification. If you need more than rides, look toward 2021 or 2022.
Events & Extras Cancelled
There will be a modified Epcot International Food & Wine Festival. The Eat to the Beat Concert series will not be held, and we suspect other close-contact things like seminars will not be held, either. Instead, expect mostly, you know, lots of food and wine.
Most everything else that is seasonal / extra / ticketed at the parks has been cancelled in the immediate future. This includes (but is not limited to): Mickey’s Not So Scary Halloween Party, Typhoon Lagoon H2O Glow Nights, Backstage Tours, Dessert Parties, Dining Packages.
The full list of impacted events is here. As for future events, Mickey’s Very Merry Christmas Party and the Epcot International Festival of the Holidays are still up in the air.
Our initial expectation was that Disney will be looking to host very modified holiday celebrations this year. People will pay for special holiday activities, it’s just up to Disney to sort out how to do it safely.
The problem—as we see it—is that attendance for regular park hours has been pretty low, to begin with. Disney could almost just add holiday activities to the regular park days in December in order to draw in crowds. A separate event might be a bit much.
Safety and Sanitation Enhancements
None of the safety and sanitation changes we’ve seen make us less likely to visit the parks. Some of them are frustrating or unsightly, but—unlike the major changes to entertainment and character greetings covered above—they’re not likely to have a huge impact on your trip.
Face masks are required, and we don’t expect that requirement to go away anytime soon. We all have to live with wearing masks in Florida heat if we want to go to Disney parks. That’s by far this least comfortable aspect of the safety enhancements, and it just is what it is, so we aren’t going to dwell on it.
Besides face masks, things like widespread sanitation and social distancing shouldn’t be too much of a drag on guest experience. That is, they’re not going to factor into whether or how we plan trips.
All that said, here are some of the direct safety and sanitation measures you should expect inside the parks:
Temperature screenings at entry
Face coverings required
“Relaxation zones” to allow people a break from their facial coverings (at least one indoor and one outdoor zone per park)
Social distancing markers in queues and throughout park
Plastic barriers where social distancing isn’t possible
Gift shop capacity reduced (virtual queue occasionally in use)
Reduced capacity in the parks and within specific elements (transportation, attractions, stores, restaurants)
Increased sanitation (hand sanitizer widely available, surfaces cleaned more often)
Various measures to reduce guest/CM contact (e.g. cashless payment, enhanced use of app for menus)
Park Touring Changes
The above-linked wait time posts are the best source for our latest thinking on ride order, which is really the biggest factor in planning a visit to the parks right now. But there are a few other things you should know:
Disability access service still available. I’m not sure if there have been any changes, but the service is still available.
Rider switch still available. I’m given to understand rider switch operates more or less the same as it did before.
Extra Magic Hours suspended. Extra Magic Hours, the hotel perk that allowed guests an extra hour or two in the parks, has been suspended. (A new perk, Early Theme Park Entry, will debut sometime during the 50th Anniversary celebration).
FastPass+ is suspended. Disney’s “skip the line” system will be taking a break (and we expect big changes whenever it returns).
Single rider suspended. Single rider lines will also be suspended.
What about virtual queues?
So far, Disney has only used a virtual queue for Rise of the Resistance since reopening.
It’s still possible we’ll see virtual queues show up at Disney World (thought at this point we’re doubting it). We’ve seen both Universal Orlando (not Disney, but their chief competitor) and Shanghai Disneyland use a virtual queue system for popular attractions since reopening. In Shanghai in particular, the parks reopened without virtual queues, but it has been gradually added over time.
Such a system is very similar to FastPass+, but usually would be used in place of a regular line. That is, similar to the Rise of the Resistance boarding passes, we expect some rides may have no regular lines. Instead, you’ll need a virtual queue spot to ride them. This is still speculation, and we’ll update if we hear more.