2020 will be a year to remember at the Disneyland Resort. There’s stormtroopers, a vibrant new parade, and some favorite superheroes, and that’s just the beginning. Let’s take a peek at what’s coming soon to the happiest place on earth!
Disneyland Park
The original Magic Kingdom is getting some sweet upgrades for the new decade. There will be new and soon-to-be-updated attractions, as well as a brand new parade:
Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance
Opens: January 17th, 2020
The largest expansion in Disneyland history opened May 2019, and with only one attraction, Millennium Falcon: Smugglers Run, it fell a little flat. The second (and most breathlessly anticipated) attraction, Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance, arrives 231 days after the land’s opening. Although Rise already opened in Walt Disney World in early December, the Disneyland version will be open to the public starting January 17th.
Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance is an incredible display of Imagineering’s ability to create innovative and inventive attractions. The 18-minute experience is full of surprises, blurring the lines between pre-show and when the attraction “begins”. The most exciting part features an innovative trackless ride system, with never-before-seen special show effects, animatronics and holograms of favorite Star Wars characters from the latest trilogy.
Rise of the Resistance opens with a virtual queuing system at Disneyland – no standby or FastPasses here. Our recommendation? Get to the park early to join a boarding group. Boarding groups at WDW’s Rise of the Resistance often fill up within an hour or two of park opening – and guests have been lining up as early as 4am.
If you can’t wait to experience the attraction for yourself, check out our Rise of the Resistance article below!
Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance Not-So-Spoiler-y Walkthrough
Magic Happens
Opens: February 28, 2020
An all-new parade will soon be rolling down Main Street, USA!
Magic Happens will feature new parade floats, complete with your favorite Disney characters dancing along to a catchy original song, co-composed by Todrick Hall. The parade boasts a fresh, modern twist on classic Disney stories. After saying goodbye to Soundsational earlier this year, we’re looking forward to this new Disneyland Park parade!
Check out more Magic Happens parade details here!
FIRST LOOK at Disneyland’s New Magic Happens Parade (PHOTOS!)
Snow White Update
Reopens: Summer 2020
The beloved Fantasyland dark ride, Snow White’s Scary Adventures, will be getting a bit of an overhaul in 2020. The current attraction is probably one of the scariest ones in the entire Resort! But that’s long been a problem for many parents. So, it will be getting a brand new ending —one that’s much happier— along with some minor facelifts throughout.
The current ending sequence has a quick and unsatisfying conclusion that manages to kill the Evil Queen, and half a second later tells us “and they all lived happily ever after.”This new ending will help make the attraction more approachable, and hopefully less scary.
The refurbishment is set to begin starting January 7, 2020. It will reopen sometime in the summer, hopefully in time for the attraction’s 65 anniversary on July 17th. For more information about the Snow White refurbishment, check out the article below.
NEWS – Snow White’s Adventures to Be Less Scary at Disneyland
Other Attraction Refurbishments
In 2020, there are a handful of other refurbs to look forward to.
Indiana Jones Adventure
Reopens: TBD
Our favorite archeologist’s attraction will be celebrating its 25th anniversary in 2020. Beginning sometime this spring, Indy will be getting some TLC and replacing a plank bridge, as well as a few other special effects. We’re looking forward to seeing what other changes are coming for this attraction.
It begins its refurb sometime in the spring and will finish by summer.
Haunted Mansion
Reopens: Spring 2020
The Haunted Mansion doesn’t take down its holiday attire with Jack Skellington and his ghouls until January 21st. But after the Pumpkin King goes away for the year, the Mansion will go through an extended takedown of the seasonal overlay to also do some maintenance on the attraction. We don’t know the details about what’s to come, but if anything, it’s probably just a glorified refurb.
Disney California Adventure Park
In 2019, Disneyland had a major expansion with Star Wars land. In 2020, DCA will have one of its own with the opening of a new land!
Avengers Campus
Opens: Summer 2020
Get ready to join the next generation of heroes! Since Tower of Terror’s retheming to Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy, this project has been a long time coming. The Parks & Resorts panel at the D23 Expo 2019 included a sneak peek into the new Avengers Campus, to be located in the former A Bugs Land area of Disney California Adventure.
Mirroring Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge, the new Marvel-themed land will open in two phases. Phase 1 debuts this summer, with a new Spider-Man experience —the first Disney attraction to feature the iconic superhero— an Ant-Man themed eatery and Marvel character meet & greet experiences. The areas within Avengers Campus are each considered as a key address, or campus, bringing the individual Avengers together, forming the next generation of superheroes.
The first key address at the Avengers Campus will be the Worldwide Engineering Brigade, or “WEB”.
From the Disney Parks Blog: “During an open house at WEB, the aspiring inventors are excited to invite you for a test drive of their latest invention: the “Web Slinger” vehicle, which allows you to sling webs just like Spider-Man! The attraction gives you a taste of what it’s like to have actual super powers as you help Spider-Man collect Spider-Bots that have run amok.”
You can grab a large or small bite at Pym Test Kitchen! Just as Ant-Man and The Wasp use “Pym Particles” to grow and shrink just about anything, Pym Technologies is using the latest innovations to grow and shrink food at this new dining location. Who’s excited to see these intriguing dishes?!
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Let’s Hear From You
That’s all for now! What are you most excited for?! What else would you like at Disneyland in the new year? Let me know in the comments below!
Happy New Year!
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