We’ve reached the dog days of summer. While temperatures soar in the area, so have crowds in Downtown Disney. Halloween merchandise has swept into town, even though the weather has been sweltering and not at all Fall-feeling. There’s also been an interesting development for Orange County that could pave the way for the reopening of the Disneyland parks. But not all parks are waiting, two SoCal theme parks are getting creative with their offerings so they can comply with state orders. That makes us wonder if Disneyland should do something similar. AND we’ve got new aerial images of Disneyland construction and Downtown Disney news to share with you.
A Door Opens for Disneyland – Orange County Removed from California Watchlist
In early July, California’s aggressive reopening plans were dramatically scaled back in certain counties due to rapidly increasing infections. Orange County, where Disneyland is located, was placed on the state’s watchlist. That included the rollback of indoor dining, closure of indoor malls, certain high-contact services, and the hope that theme parks might reopen. As a result, Disneyland had to cancel their plans for a July 17th reopening. But as of yesterday (Sunday, the 23rd of August), the county has been removed from the watchlist in response to improved statistics. There will be a briefing from the Governor later today with new state guidelines and a new set of criteria counties must meet. It’s unclear how the new guidelines will be different, but we’ll have more information after the briefing this afternoon.
As of Saturday, Orange County’s seven-day testing positivity rate stood at 5.4%. The state requires 8% or less to stay off the watchlist. Other factors include the number of daily coronavirus tests performed, daily hospitalizations, hospital capacity, and availability of intensive care beds and ventilators.
Here’s a snapshot of how Orange County is performing as of yesterday (which also shows that the county is 1 day off of the monitoring list):
What does all this mean? Well, if the Governor doesn’t specifically ban theme parks from reopening, Disneyland could present reopening plans to the county and state in the hopes of receiving approval.
This is the first positive sign for the parks since June. But some parks aren’t waiting . . .
SeaWorld Prepares to Reopen THIS FRIDAY!
SeaWorld San Diego has been given permission by the state to reopen under the same conditions as zoos. As a result, all of the rides, attractions, and indoor operations will temporarily remain closed. However, shops, outdoor dining, outdoor animal encounters, and related outdoor activities which can safely be operated will be open. In essence, SeaWorld will operate as an outdoor zoo, so it makes sense that they are calling the early days of their reopening “Zoo Days.”
We have special discounted Zoo Days tickets (which include 6 food punches!) via our travel partners at Get Away Today: ZOO DAYS TICKETS HERE
SeaWorld isn’t alone in creative reopening plans, Knott’s Berry Farm has expanded a Food and Wine Festival they’ve been running since mid-July to cover nearly the entire park. While no rides are in operation, much of the park’s shopping is open and 27 food and beverage booths have been placed throughout the park for guests to enjoy.
Could Disneyland do the same? We think so. There are a few ways Disneyland could comply with state guidelines. Let us know which of these you’d like to see Disney try:
- Reopen Main Street for shopping. They could potentially just make it part of Downtown Disney operation and allow guests to shop the various stores on the street (using virtual queuing as necessary to limit access).
- Reopen Buena Vista Street for shopping.
- Relaunch the California Adventure Food and Wine Festival, perhaps expanding it to also use all of the quick service windows as Knott’s has done. Guests could buy timed event tickets to ensure limited capacity.
Let us know what ideas you have for Disneyland to partially reopen until they get the go-ahead to resume theme park operations.
Disneyland From Above
It’s been a while since we last took a look at our dearly missed Disneyland. So, let’s take flight and see the progress on the park that we hope to see again very soon.
First, a bit of refurbishment we can see from the Esplanade when visiting Downtown Disney. The Main Street Emporium is getting a little facade-work done.
And from the air, we can see that the work is just superficial.
A cherry-picker in the middle of Main Street allows for easy painting without the need for full scaffolds and scrims as is generally necessary when the park is in regular operation.
Headed up toward the Hub. . .
The projects on two of the Hub’s spokes seem to be mostly complete. The bigger of the two projects was the bridge expansion into Frontierland. You can see that the trucks are gone and just a simple fence keeps castmembers from walking into the zone.
As we head toward the West side of the park, the main project is the Haunted Mansion refurbishment. After all these months, the scaffolds remain up around the facade of the Mansion. You can also clearly see that no construction is happening at Splash Mountain. Disney’s stated goal was for the attraction to reopen as-is with the parks and for the Princess and the Frog overlay to happen at a later date. That appears to still be the plan.
It’s somewhat surprising that we don’t see more scaffolds and work happening in the park as a whole. Most of the lands look as though they are simply awaiting you to return.
One slowly moving, but massive, project is the future Mickey and Minnie’s Runaway Railway behind ToonTown. While we see crews in this area all the time, the site doesn’t advance by leaps and bounds the way Avengers Campus or Galaxy’s Edge did.
Let’s head to the happiest land of them all . . . Fantasyland . . .
You’ll also see that the Fantasyland projects don’t seem to be progressing quickly either. The King Arthur Carrousel project was the standard disassembly, painting, maintenance, and reassembly that they seem to like to do with this ride (and also with several of their other carnival-type attractions which allow such ease of maintenance). However, the ride has been wrapped since the beginning of the year, which shows that this project wasn’t a priority during the closure.
Snow White has similarly been under construction since the start of the year. But this project is much more involved. You can clearly see that the colors on the facade have been significantly lightened up. Bright gem-tones hold their own with the new-ish bright blue of the castle. But it’s the inside of the attraction where the big changes are taking place.
The ride has always been dark and scary. So much so that legendary Imagineer, Tony Baxter, felt it necessary to warn guests by adding the word “Scary” to the title of the attraction in the 80s and make the queue reflect the scary scenes which were to come. The thought being that those who might be too scared to ride would be scared off by the queue and not end up with upset parents at City Hall later. But after decades of complaints, Disney decided to address the darkness of the attraction and give it a happy ending. We’ll have to wait and see how that works out . . . but it’s better than what they did at Disney World . . . rip the ride out and make it a princess meet-and-greet.
And out we go . . . back to the Esplanade and down to the street-level to visit Downtown Disney . . .
Last week we shared the first images of the Qunjet landing in Avengers Campus. It was followed a couple days later by a great image from Disney Parks Chairman Josh D’Amaro.
Josh D’Amaro and Quinjet Instagram post
Downtown Disney Fall and Full
These are extraordinary times, but that doesn’t mean that some old customs aren’t still being observed. Fall colors are now being planted in Downtown Disney, Halloween merchandise is filling the shops, and crowds are arriving in droves. In fact, throughout the weekend, the parking lot had to be closed due to the shopping area reaching capacity.
One thing we’ve noticed is just how many vendor booths have been removed from Downtown Disney. Only two vendors remain on the bridge, the churros, and sunglasses.
All the other booths now sit stacked side by side in the old Lilo parking lot behind the hopelessly shuttered Rainforest Cafe. It appears that 12 booths are being stored here.
There was one new reopening this week. La Brea Bakery has once again opened for dining. A check-in desk has been set up in front of the still closed “Express” side. Guests can order via mobile and then dine on one of two patios or take their items to go.
The largest remaining food service location which is still closed is Splitsville. They have only a small outdoor patio, which is currently being used by the neighboring Black Tap for additional seating.
Sprinkles Cupcakes also remains strangely closed. Although, things are set up for them to reopen when they are ready to do so.
Salt & Straw has resumed their quirky seasonal offerings. This time around their “Camping Series.”
You can now order . . . wait for it . . . “Pancake, Bacon & Eggs” flavor or “Huckleberry Cast Iron Corn Bread” flavored ice cream if you are adventurous. But we have a feeling the “Salted Hazelnut Praline S’mores” will be the most popular new flavor.
Several of the Disney-owned shops have developed very long waits, and therefore use a virtual queue system. During our visit, the Disney Home store, Marceline’s Confectionery, and World of Disney all had waits well over one hour, while the Disney Dress Shop had a wait of about 20 minutes.
However, once you enter Marceline’s, there will be very few other guests in the store. Therefore, the longer the few guests inside take to select their treats, the longer you’ll wait outside.
But with a lackluster selection of items currently being offered in the establishment, it really shouldn’t take guests too long to decide.
The fresh treats consist of mostly four varieties of dipped apples, a couple dipped marshmallow sticks, dipped rice crispy treats, and some cookies.
All items are pre-boxed or bagged, including the apples (which are already boxed up in the refrigerated cases).
The caramel apple display case is particularly barren looking.
The case below showed the entirety of the offerings in the early afternoon on Saturday.
The rest of the store has been equally simplified. In fact, you’ll find many items from the Home Store and World of Disney now on the shelves in the place of some of the packaged candies. They’ve even carved out a spot to sell face masks.
Some minimal Halloween decorations have been placed atop the shelves.
There was one thing that set a bad tone. There’s a large window where you can normally watch the candy makers dip and decorate apples and other treats. But during our visit, they were unbagging cookies from a wholesale baked goods company, called Selma’s, and rebagging them in Marcelines wrappers . . . all of this behind a sign saying “Made fresh daily.”
Now, on to the main attraction, World of Disney. . .
But first, you’ll need to figure out how to get in. Guests must walk to the far end of the store, closest to the Esplanade, and then wrap back up along the tram loading station to give their phone number to a castmember.
Once you receive a text message to return, you’ll get in a line that once again has you walking to the far end of the building near the Esplanade. The line can be very long, as it was for us, or sometimes it’s quite short. There’s really no way of knowing until you receive your text to return.
Unfortunately for us, it was about 95 degrees outside during our visit and we waited in this mostly unshaded line until we entered (approximately 20 minutes). It reminded us a lot of being in Florida.
Once inside, you’ll find that a large chunk of the store has become Halloween central.
The entire center of the store has been divided into three Halloween sections. One carries general Disney Halloween merchandise with pumpkins, Mickey, Minnie, and Villain items. Another section has been devoted to the Nightmare Before Christmas, and a third section has been given over to the Haunted Mansion. Let’s take a look:
There’s a lot of orange and purple in the store right now.
Mickey pillows.
A variety of shirts.
Several different types of trick-or-treat (or shopping) bags.
And new Halloween ears.
You’ll also find some Halloween costumes. Will your kids be trick-or-treating this year?
Opposite the items above, you’ll find the Nightmare before Christmas section near the center (currently unused) door of World of Disney.
And across from Jack . . . are the ghosts of the Haunted Mansion.
Have you visited Downtown Disney yet?
It felt a bit too crowded to us this past weekend. Our previous visits have mostly been during weekdays when the crowd levels are much lower. It really is a much safer-feeling experience during the week. We hope Disney can get a handle on helping guests socially distance and making sure that all guests are properly wearing masks over both nose and mouth. We think announcements would help, and at least leave guests with no excuse to say they didn’t know the rules.
There is also a lack of places to sit and eat and drink in the area. We were melting in the heat and stopped by Wetzel’s Pretzels to get a cold drink and a little snack. Unfortunately, all of the planter seating in the area (there are no tables or benches) were either taken or marked off for safety. We had to walk from Wetzel’s all the way to the old AMC theater to find a place to sit. I was completely drenched in sweat and very grumpy by the time we found a spot in the shade. Disney could take some lessons from Knott’s Berry Farm, which has added a massive amount of seating for guest comfort. This is an ASAP need that we hope Disney will address . . . more spots to sit, safety announcements, and consistent enforcement of their posted rules.
Hotel Cancelations Extended
Disney hotel cancelation/rescheduling has been extended through September 12th. If you have a vacation planned before that date, you are likely to receive communication from Disney regarding your stay.
Staying Cool – MiceChat Reader Photos
This week, many areas of California were issued a heat advisory because of high temperatures. And wow, was it hot! Death Valley reached the hottest temperature in over a century, 130º F. While things here in Orange County didn’t get quite that hot, we asked the MiceChat Facebook group to share how they stay cool at Disneyland. Our readers have a bunch of great tips, so keep them handy for when the parks eventually reopen! Let’s take a look at summer tips and tricks from our own readers…
Now, let’s pop across the way to DCA.
Lots of water is always popular in the heat . . .
Visiting the Hyperion was also a popular choice:
Not to be outdone by the theme parks, there’s a few great options to beat the heat at the hotels on Disneyland Resort property!
Thank you to everyone who shared a photo with us this week! These were just a few of the pictures from our Facebook request post. To see the full gamut of photos and ideas, be sure to join the MiceChat Facebook group!
Food for Thought
Knott’s Berry Farm launched a whole new festival and spread of boysenberry goodies this past weekend. With 27 food booths and an expanded event space that includes the majority of the park, it felt like a serious upgrade from their previous fest, Taste of Calico.
The new Taste of Knott’s festival will run on weekends (Friday through Sunday) until September 13 with a bonus day on Labor Day (September 7).
To ensure a limited crowd size guests must buy a tasting card for the day they wish to attend. Tickets are only available online. The tasting card costs $30 and includes 5 food or beverage items. While no rides are running, there’s great food, light entertainment, plus craft products and shopping throughout the park. It really was a berry good time!
We absolutely loved returning to Knott’s, even if just to do a little shopping, wandering around, and sampling the comfort food. We’re definitely planning on returning, and hope that they’ll continue with a Halloween food festival once this version ends in mid-September!
For more about Taste of Knott’s, take a look at our article below.
New Knott’s Berry Farm Food Festival Now Open – Let’s Take a Taste
With Knott’s having two successful festivals and providing a safe atmosphere for theme park fans, we’re wondering if Disney should be doing something similar. Taste of Knott’s (and previously Taste of Calico) provides Knott’s an opportunity to make some money, clear out some freezer space, and give their fans a chance to walk the park after months of being closed.
This & That
And now for a quick roundup of some other theme park/Disney news.
Halloween Merch has Arrived!
If you’re looking for some not-so-spooky decor or a little something to wear in the spirit of Halloween, your search has officially ended. Take a quick look at the new merchandise available now at Downtown Disney and on shopDisney in the articles below.
Tricks AND Treats – Halloween Merchandise Hits Downtown Disney
Jolly Holiday’s Tomato Basil Soup Copycat Recipe
Our runaway hit article of the week took us by surprise. Disneyland fans are really missing their magical place, and our creative maven, Donna, shared the perfect fix. . . a recreation of Jolly Holiday’s iconic Tomato Basil Soup. Click through to the article for the recipe!
How to Make Disneyland’s Jolly Holiday Tomato Basil Soup – Copycat Recipe
Let Us Help
Theme parks are reopening, and whether you are ready to travel yet or not, there’s no better time to lock in low rates on future travel. But waiting on hold and not knowing what questions to ask isn’t the magical part of a vacation. That’s why MiceChat has partnered with Get Away Today to handle all the difficult stuff for you . . . all for no extra cost. That’s right, they do all the work and it doesn’t cost you extra.
Our travel partners at Get Away Today are here to help you with your theme park booking and rescheduling plans. We know you’re as uncertain about the future as we are. That’s why Get Away Today is offering the most flexible Disney travel options available. Ask about:
Price Protection – If a better special comes out after you have booked, you’ll get the better deal.
Peace of Mind – Make hotel changes, reschedule dates, drop nights, change ticket vouchers and more, as many times as you’d like for a small, one-time fee.
Layaway Plan – Lock in your 2020 or 2021 Walt Disney World Resort vacation for just $175 down. By booking early, you secure your availability and have the flexibility to pay as you go. Make as many interest-free payments as you’d like, whenever you’d like, with final payment due just seven days prior to travel.
Give your family something to look forward to:
- Visit Get Away Today HERE
- We are expecting high call volume as Disney resumes hotel bookings and tickets sales. So, please fill out our request form and a vacation advisor will call you back: Vacation Information Request Form HERE
Let’s Hear From You
Do you think Orange County being removed from the California COVID Watchlist will open the door for Disneyland to reopen? If all goes well today, we think Disneyland could have some good news to share very soon. Did you spot anything we missed in the aerial images above? Do you have your own tips for visiting Disneyland on a very hot summer day? Let’s hear from you below!
I Don’t Want It To End!!!
Looking for more info about theme parks? We’ve got you covered with the articles below:
Stay cool everyone!
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