Well, folks, we’re in the final sprint toward Disneyland’s reopening, and the news is coming fast and hot. In the last week, we’ve brought you word of Disneyland Park Reservations (which starts today for some ticket types), Grand Californian Hotel booking (which starts Thursday), new ticket sales (which start Thursday as well), and the opening date for Avengers Campus early this summer. We’ll give you a concise summary of everything you need to know for this coming week. Warning: if you snooze, you lose! Plus we have some observations from A Touch of Disney this week that give us some cause for concern for theme park reopenings. We’ll tell you what to watch out for so you know how to navigate the pitfalls. And, we’ll share some EXCITING ride testing footage from the parks. It’s an update PACKED with Disney goodies…
IMPORTANT DATES: Disneyland Tickets & Park Reservations
Make note of the dates below. This is when each of the following things becomes available. You’ll need both a valid park ticket AND a theme park reservation to visit the Disneyland Resort theme parks from April 30th until further notice.
- DISNEYLAND TICKETS AVAILABLE (April 15th) – Park tickets go on sale April 15th. But a ticket does NOT guarantee you entry into the park on any specific day. For that, you’ll also need to make a park reservation. If you are worried the Disneyland system will be overwhelmed and you’d like to save a few bucks, you can book multi-day tickets through our partners at Get Away Today – Discount Disneyland Tickets and Hotels beginning April 15th, you will then be given a link to book park reservations.
- DISNEYLAND RESORT THEME PARK RESERVATIONS (April 12th & 15th) – This is key info: if you already have valid Disneyland Resort theme park tickets that you purchased before park shutdowns in March of 2020, you can start making theme park reservations TODAY (April 12th). If you still need to buy a theme park ticket, you’ll need to wait until April 15th to do so and can then make a theme park reservation immediately thereafter.
NOTE: EVERYONE and their mother wants one of two dates: either the grand reopening on April 30th or the opening day of Avengers Campus on June 4th. As a result, Disney is doing something a little different for those two days. Rather than letting the folks who are able to book today grab all the good spots before everyone else on the 15th, Disney has created a bucket of availability for both April 30th and June 4th for those booking theme park reservations on either April 12th or April 15th. That’s good news. But no other days will be treated that way, so folks booking today will be much more likely to get their preferred vacation dates (so long as it isn’t April 30th or June 4th).
To book a park reservation, you’ll want to make sure you 1) have a Disneyland.com account, 2) that you’ve linked your ticket, 3) you’ve created a group with any other tickets you want to book with you (family, friends, etc), 4) you are ready to jump online by 8am on either the 12th or 15th (depending out your ticket type, as mentioned above). We already had tickets, so we were able to make our park reservations on April 12th. We’ve created a handy guide for you so you’ll know what to expect on the 15th. Be prepared:
- GRAND CALIFORNIAN HOTEL BOOKINGS – You can start booking the Grand Californian Hotel again on April 15th. The hotel opens on April 29th, but the DVC Villas won’t reopen until May 2nd.
NOTE: Booking the hotel does NOT guarantee you admission into the theme parks. We recommend that you secure a theme park reservation before trying to book the hotel. And, if you’d like to know all your local options at once and get a low MiceChat rate, you can book through our partner link at Get Away Today – Discount Disneyland Tickets and Hotels.
- DISNEYLAND RESORT RESTAURANT RESERVATIONS – Beginning April 22nd, guests can make reservations for table service restaurants. However, you will need a valid park ticket AND a theme park reservation for the park in which you’d like to make a dining reservation. There is a virtual waitlist option in the Disneyland App which you can join on the day of your visit if you’d still like to try for a table even without a prior reservation. (We did this at A Touch of Disney and got into the Lamplight Lounge. The app lets you know if they’ve found you a table.).
But not all restaurants will be open. Be prepared for long waits at quick-serve locations.
34 Disneyland Resort Restaurants NOT Reopening With The Parks On April 30th
BEWARE THE SLIDING PRICES
Now that you know all the important dates coming up in the next few weeks, there’s something else to consider . . . your wallet! We previously mentioned that Disneyland wouldn’t be changing their ticket structure from before the park closures in 2020. And that’s true. A one-day ticket will still range in price from a low of $104 to a high of $154 (for a single-day one-park ticket).
However, when you go to buy a ticket on Thursday, you’ll see that in the first two months that Disney is currently booking, there are NO TIER 1 ($104) days available.
All Saturdays and Sundays, and all Fridays in June as well, are at the highest Tier 5 price ($154). The lowest price you’ll be able to find are 6 days (all on Tuesday and Wednesday) at $114. So, while in theory, the pricing chart has not changed, it looks like Disney is choosing more of the higher-priced tiers to implement.
To be fair, it’s a demand-based pricing system, and over a year of pent up demand means that the parks are going to see much higher guest interest in the first few months (the completely sold-out $75 A Touch of Disney event was a pretty good clue). As a result, Disney will charge their highest prices (that’s what the system is all about). But it’s also unclear to Disney (or any of us) just how guest demand is going to look once everyone who just can’t wait to see Mickey again has visited the parks at least once. By releasing tickets (and prices) on a rolling basis (approximately two months in advance), Disney can more dynamically adjust the cost to match the demand. But that also means that for the time being, it will be very hard for guests to plan a Disneyland vacation more than a couple of months in advance.
Suffice it to say that the Disneyland experience IS going to be more expensive for most guests . . . at least for now. If demand falls and they can’t sell enough tickets to match their currently limited capacity, we’ll likely see those prices fall and possibly some other incentives pop up as well (SoCal Salute offers of 3 days for the price of 2, etc.). Though, we think it’s a pretty safe bet that Disneyland is going to meet their modest targets with just California residents, followed by another wave of interest when Avengers Campus opens, another when California’s travel restrictions are lifted for theme parks, and yet again when Halloween and Christmas time roll around. So the real test of the new pricing/ticket system will likely come at the start of 2022.
PASSED-OUT! The other piece of the pricing puzzle is that nearly half of Disneyland’s guests in the past few years visited the parks with annual passes. While the annual cost of the passes may have seemed high ($1,200 – $1,500 for the popular least restrictive passes), most passholders visited frequently enough that the actual cost per visit was about half the revenue of a single-day ticketed guest. So, Disney’s revenue per guest beginning April 30th will be their highest average rate per guest in the resort’s history. Though, it’s still going to be hard for them to turn much of a profit with extremely limited guest capacity, and additional health and safety staffing needs in these still challenging times. But, as restrictions ease (possibly by summer), those costs will decrease, guest capacity will increase, and Disneyland will have established a new ticket/pricing model that will be very hard for the accountaneers to give up.
AVENGERS ASSEMBLE JUNE 4TH
Possibly the biggest news for Disneyland beyond the reopening on April 30th is that Avengers Campus will finally open in California Adventure on June 4th (nearly a year later than initially planned).
Cast members have been riding the new Spider-Man attraction for months. Disney is gambling that park capacity will have loosened up enough by June 4th to make the grand opening worthwhile.
And it couldn’t come soon enough in our opinion. With ticket prices set at the highest levels, and annual passes gone, we think Disneyland may reach its daily limits regularly, but California Adventure is much less likely to do so . . . at least until this new land opens . . . then EVERYONE is going to want to go to DCA. One quick fix for that problem would be to simply leave the Touch of Disney booths out in the park and continue to operate the festival daily until at least the opening of Avengers Campus. Similar to how EPCOT has operated a festival nearly every day since Disney World reopened last summer. But it doesn’t look like that’s going to happen here.
Guests may need a little extra push to either add a 2nd day or to add the park-hopper option to visit Disneyland’s 20-year-old little sister. We’d love to hear your thoughts on the best way for DCA to meet its 25% attendance targets until Avengers Campus opens.
Here’s Everything You Need To Know About Avengers Campus
Here’s Everything You Need To Know About Disneyland Resort’s Avengers Campus
CH CH CH CHANGES!
Between now and mid-May you are going to hear about a million little things that have been altered at the Disneyland Resort. The way you visit, the way you reserve things, the way rides operate, how you pay for things, just about everything will be different in some way. And for a guest buying a day ticket at a much higher price than they’ve been accustomed to in the past, the more they know before their visit, the better chance they have of avoiding the problems and focusing on the good stuff. So we are going to keep doing our very best to point those things out to you, the good, the bad, and the magical.
First, some good news:
CALIFORNIA RESTRICTIONS LIFTING JUNE 15TH . . . MAYBE
Last week we shared that although Orange County just reached the tier at which Disneyland could operate at 25% capacity, local officials were hopeful that the county could reach an even less restrictive tier soon, which would allow Disneyland to have 35% guest capacity. (We currently have one foot in each tier with some metrics in Yellow and one in Orange).
Now comes the almost too hopeful to believe word that California could lift most statewide restrictions by June 15 if vaccine supply is sufficient and hospitalizations remain low. Though, the mask mandate and other “commonsense health measures” would remain in place for some time.
“We are seeing a bright light at the end of the tunnel,” Governor Newsom said. “And on June 15, all things being equal and we continue that good work, we’ll have moved beyond that blueprint and we’ll be opening up this economy at business as usual.”
Keep in mind that Disney has been lagging what they ‘could’ do by a month or two all along, so don’t expect Disney to fling the gates open immediately. They are allowed to do indoor dining at 50% capacity right now, and yet they are still having their guests at Carthay Circle and Lamplight Lounge eat entirely outdoors. And although they are allowed 100% shopping capacity right now, they continue to maintain queues not just to get into Downtown Disney, but also their most popular stores. So Disney is taking a slow and measured approach to reopening.
For you non-California residents who are just wondering when you might be able to return, it’s worth it for you to get vaccinated and hold on to those records. The state is setting up new rules for visitors from out of state and out of the country to visit conventions and other high-density activities if they’ve been vaccinated. We may see that rule applied to theme parks as well (or we may not), but it can’t hurt to be prepared if the opportunity arrises.
PARK-HOP or NOT
It took Walt Disney World about 6 months of operation before they brought park-hopping back, but Disneyland Resort will have it right away on April 30th, so long as you have a park-hopper ticket (approximately a $55 premium on top of your one-day ticket). The catch is you can’t actually change parks until 1pm.
We’re curious how guests plan to handle seeing both parks (if at all). Is DCA a must-do for you? Is a park-hopper the way to go or too much of an extra cost? Please let us know how you are likely to visit:
THE FORCE WILL RISE AGAIN
As we’ve discussed quite a bit in recent weeks, indoor theme park attractions will be able to operate given some conditions. Aside from the regular cleaning and distancing rules, the rides will be limited to 50% capacity, no more than 15 minutes in length, and will need to queue guests outdoors. That doesn’t mean you can’t walk through an indoor attraction, you just can’t be held in a slow-moving indoor queue for very long. We think that the general rule of thumb is going to be that the ride and length of time for you to get to it and exit the building shouldn’t exceed 15 minutes.
The good news for most of the Disneyland Resort is that very few rides have either a 15-minute length or a queue that would be very hard to adapt to these rules. However, there are a few attractions which will need to make some changes. Of course, Rise of the Resistance runs afoul of nearly all of those restrictions. The 20+ minute experience essentially turns the queue into an extended preshow, with a shuttle ride in the middle of the queue, two Pepper’s Ghost story moments, and the final trackless ride as the grand finale. Something’s got to give. But the ride WILL be open to guests when the park reopens on April 30th. Just expect some extreme streamlining of the queue and some of the preshow elements in enclosed rooms. You can expect those doors to be left open and for you to walk straight through.
There’s another element of Rise of the Resistance that’s getting a welcome change. The virtual queue (or “Boarding Pass”) system which had all guests arriving at the park before opening in the hope that they might score a spot in line . . . will be refined a bit. The morning rush will still happen, but now there will also be a 2nd opportunity which opens up in the afternoon after park-hopping begins at 1pm.
We hope this means that there won’t be unsafe overcrowding of guests at park opening trying to get those boarding passes. And we do think that Disney should simply open up the reservations for guests with a valid ticket and park reservation to make from home a couple of hours before park opening (not unlike Disney World is allowing their guests to do from their hotel rooms before heading to the park). That way, guests who don’t get an early boarding group can take their time getting to the park and not create unnecessarily crowded conditions. What are your solutions to the early morning boarding pass crush for Rise of the Resistance?
HAPPY HAUNTS RETURN
While Disneyland was closed, there were some updates to the Haunted Mansion to make your next visit a little more spooky. There are a few additions to the Pet Cemetary, plus Miss April-December has been returned to the portrait gallery, plus a few other changes around the Mansion. Legacy Imagineer Kim Irvine (whose mother is Madame Leota!) takes us on a tour of the Haunted Mansion in the video below.
OPEN or CLOSED?
Everyone wants to know if their favorite ride or restaurant will be open. For the rides, most of the popular ones will return. Though there are a few like Matterhorn and Grizzly which will be under “Refurbishment.” Though, we’ve got to wonder why those refurbishments couldn’t have been handled in the 13 months the parks were closed. If they could build Avenger’s Campus and an entire show building for Mickey and Minnie’s Runaway Railway during the closures, surely they could have done essential maintenance as well. Still, we are pleased to see so much open considering the limited number of guests allowed. Here’s the story on which rides will be open and closed:
28 Disneyland Resort Attractions That Won’t Reopen With The Parks – But Soon Could!
The restaurant situation is less positive. Many high-capacity eateries with large outdoor patios will strangely be closed. The closure of Hungry Bear and the entirety of Paradise Gardens (both restaurants) is baffling. If we’ve learned anything from A Touch of Disney it’s that Disney needs FAR MORE restaurant capacity than they think they do.
Here’s the scoop on restaurants that will be open and closed:
34 Disneyland Resort Restaurants NOT Reopening With The Parks On April 30th
A Touch of Disney Updates
We were able to attend the sold-out A Touch of Disney food and beverage event this past weekend. There have been some significant updates to the event’s operations, some good and some… well, pretty bad ones. Although the event closes exactly a week from today, it foreshadows how Disneyland and Disney California Adventure will run in just a few weeks’ time. Let’s take a look at the changes to the event and what it foreshadows for the resort overall.
We’ve had several staff members visit the festival in recent weeks, some had ease using the Disneyland app to order food, while others became very frustrated with it. The event highly recommends the usage of mobile ordering through the Disneyland app, but it isn’t as straightforward as what you use to order takeout from your favorite local restaurant. The Disney mobile ordering process today is much more convoluted than when it was implemented back at Disneyland a few years ago.
The mobile ordering screen will only allow you to place an order within an open time bracket. If you arrive at opening, everything is available immediately, you can pick your food up right away, find a great spot to sit, and enjoy. Sounds great! But wait a couple of hours and it’s a whole different story.
By the time we entered DCA on Friday at 2pm (a couple of hours after the event started), the earliest time slot to order anything other than beer was over 45 minutes (some items weren’t available for over 2 hours). After placing an order and just wandering through various stores for an hour, the app notified me that my time bracket had opened up and I could now pick up my food. But there’s a catch: you have to notify the app to start “preparing your food” once you’ve arrived. You must then wait for yet another undisclosed period of time until you receive a notification that tells you that your order is ready for pickup. In this case, it was just over 30 minutes after I arrived that the notification finally came that my singular beef skewer was ready.
But wait! Before you can finally sink your teeth into a single bite of food, you still have to wait in yet ANOTHER line of people who all have the same “your order is ready” notification. To put it plainly, I had to wait in three separate queues to order a single item of food. It was extremely frustrating to have so many delays in order to get something to eat. We had just visited Knott’s Berry Farm’s A Taste of Boysenberry Festival a few days prior, and the ease of ordering (and speed with which you get your food) there was like night and day in comparison to Disney’s event. Ordering food shouldn’t have to require so many hoops to jump through.
I consider myself pretty technologically capable, but even I had some difficulties with the mobile ordering interface. And I know that if I had problems, then there are a whole lot of people that simply won’t be able to use mobile ordering at all. As of Saturday, all of the Marketplace booths and Smokejumpers went entirely mobile ordering, getting rid of the Marketplace Cashiers that could take physical payments for those struggling to use mobile ordering. This emphasis on mobile ordering is a move we fully expect to see more of when the theme parks reopen.
Unfortunately, the troubles don’t end there. Although mobile ordering is a method to allow for social distancing and crowd control, in application, it does very little to handle either problem. People naturally crowd together to wait for the “your food is ready!” notification, clogging up pathways until they can wait in the final queue to pick up the food. Additionally, seating has been spread out and excess tables and chairs have been removed in order to allow for social distancing. The downside to that is there are significantly fewer places to eat.
While we were scouring the Pacific Wharf for a spot to sit (usually, there are PLENTY of open spaces there) we couldn’t find a single table for two after fifteen minutes of searching (this is after over an hour and a half of waiting to eat a single little beef skewer). We weren’t alone in this problem and even saw people sitting on the ground to eat their food because there was no table available. We sincerely hope that this problem is figured out by the time Disneyland and DCA are back to full operation as the tiny capacity of this event will be dwarfed by the number of guests who return when the parks open, but the number of restaurants really isn’t going to increase by much. We see the problem coming, we hope Disney does as well.
But it’s not all bad news from our visit. In fact, aside from the process of mobile ordering (which was, unfortunately, a significant part), we had an enjoyable time walking around DCA and seeing characters and all the attractions testing.
Although there were no riders on any of the attractions (Universal Studios decided to just let the guests ride during their food festival this past week), we just enjoyed watching them in motion. It added a lot of kinetic energy to the atmosphere; it really felt like being in a theme park again.
Additionally, when we were there, it was the first day of operation for Flo’s V8 Cafe since the park’s shutdown last year. It sure was nice to enjoy some fried chicken overlooking the Radiator Springs Racers cycling.
And the myriad of Disney characters around the park really made it feel special. Although they were all distanced away from onlookers, the characters still felt present and entertaining for guests of all ages.
It’s so much fun to see the rides in motion:
This week, the Incredibles characters were out for the first time during the event’s run. The last time we saw the Incredibles was for Disneyland’s public safety campaign.
Here’s some live action characters and ride testing from the photos above:
Downtown Disney Updates
There’s so much news today folks. Before we wrap up, let’s take a quick look at Downtown Disney.
We noticed it felt busier this week around Downtown Disney. Lots of people eating, shopping, or just hanging out. It almost felt like 2019. The downside to that is if you enter Downtown Disney through the west-side entrance, you’d better be prepared to wait.
As usual, we recommend parking at The Anaheim Hotel with the special MiceChat rate and walking across the street to enter from Harbor. This side usually has a very little wait, and usually, you can walk straight into Downtown Disney. As we approach the end of the month, be sure to keep in mind that the $10 MiceChat parking rate is good through April 30!
As you walk around Downtown Disney you’ll find that you can just about walk into any store that you’d like. Though there are a few exceptions: the Disney Home store, Marceline’s, and a short wait for World of Disney.
It’s been a tough year for Splitsville Luxury Lanes. They were closed for the better part of the year, only reopening for a brief week-long period, just to go back into shutdown again. But as of this week, there will be signs of life for the bowling alley/restaurant. Splitsville will be reopening on April 14.
Strangely, the company hasn’t updated any of their social media regarding their Downtown Disney location reopening— it is only communicated through their website and not entirely easy-to-understand. It’s unclear if the reopening of Splitsville will be solely al fresco dining as it was for the week they operating in December or if it will be full operations including bowling.
The other location in Downtown Disney that hasn’t shown any signs of life is Sprinkles Cupcakes. Sprinkles closed back in January with Christmas decorations still hanging on the walls.
Sprinkles Cupcakes’ social media accounts insist that the Downtown Disney location is a temporary closure and that more information will be around soon. We just hope someone can take down those stockings and candy canes…
We appreciate your love of our DTD bakery, please stay tuned for updates regarding the re-opening.
— Sprinkles Cupcakes (@sprinkles) March 22, 2021
There is a lot of new Disney merchandise you can find around Downtown Disney. From an assortment of mugs, a new houseware collection, and a couple pairs of Minnie Ears for you collectors out there. Here’s a little sneak peek:
To see all the newest Disneyland Resort shopping finds take a look at the latest Merchandise Update:
Finally, we’re leaving Downtown Disney to see a little something special from the front of Disneyland’s gates. Several months ago, the park installed plastic partitions identical to what is used across the way at DCA.
We’ve seen a lot of activity recently as the park is preparing to reopen. A work crew was painting the fencing of the Mickey garden at the front of the park when we visited.
Plus, the Disneyland Railroad has been cycling. It’s okay to feel a bit emotional seeing that good ol’ train make her way through the Main Street station.
There’s also a little something extra we noticed. A new attraction poster for Snow White’s Enchanted Wish has been hung in the tunnel between the front gate and Town Square. The attraction is a complete revamp of the classic Snow White’s Scary Adventure attraction and will be open to guests starting April 30.
While we were in front of Disneyland’s gates, we also noticed a few other things. We spotted the Omnibus driving around Town Square.
After the Main Street vehicle drove away, we saw that the animated windows of the Emporium have been uncovered.
This & That
We know that we’ve already covered a lot this week, but here are just a few more stories that we think you’ll find interesting.
Bringing Back the Magic
Disney Cast Members are very particular about their nametags. It not only says who they are, where they’re from, and what languages they speak. But as the Disneyland Resort reopens, CMs will be getting a new set of nametags (one to wear and one to keep) with a tagline that celebrates that Disneyland CMs are “bringing back the magic.” It’s a thoughtful gesture on behalf of Disney, so be on the lookout for these new nametags when you’re in the parks!
Theme Parks Reopenings Ahead!
It’s been a long time since many of us have been on a proper theme park attraction. Well, luckily, that won’t be the case for much longer. With the reopening of Six Flags Magic Mountain last week, Universal Studios Hollywood and SeaWorld have got some exciting news.
Uni Studios will be hosting preview days for its Annual Passholders this week. Plus, the currently-running Taste of Universal food festival is allowing guests to ride most attractions around the park.
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And further down south, SeaWorld San Diego has been operating as an outdoor aquarium without its rides and roller coasters for the better part of a year. But as of today, you can now visit the park as a theme park again!
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This just in, Knott’s Berry Farm has announced its Grand Reopening will take place on May 21. The park will be celebrate its 100-year anniversary (that had to be postponed last year due to the closure) with a brand-new attraction: Knott’s Bear-y Farm: Return to the Fair. Tickets and reservations will be available starting April 26. Season Passholder previews will begin May 6. PLUS you can purchase a Season Pass now starting at just $101. We can’t stress enough how much we’ve loved visiting Knott’s over the past year.
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For updates on the rest of SoCal’s theme park reopenings, take a look at the article below.
Disneyland Shanghai Celebrates its 5th Anniversary
On the other side of the globe, the newest Disney Park, Shanghai Disney Resort, just kicked off the year-long celebration of its 5th anniversary. With a new nighttime spectacular (featuring the first time Marvel characters have been projected on a Disney castle), new costumes, and more, it looks like it’s going to be a fun year.
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More Disney Travel Deals
(Discount Theme Park Tickets and Travel Packages)
It’s time to give the family something to look forward to. Our travel partners at Get Away Today are here to help you with that by planning a future theme park vacation. There are all sorts of new theme park tickets and travel deals, including a 2 free days offer at Walt Disney World, hotel discounts, ticket deals to various theme parks, and SOON TICKETS TO DISNEYLAND: More details and to get a quote (HERE)
Disneyland Deal: Special MiceChat Hotel Offer
We’ve worked with our partners at Get Away Today and the Howard Johnson Anaheim Resort to reserve the lowest rate on rooms across the street from Disneyland FOR YOU!
All you need to do is follow our link and then use the special code mentioned below.
- Use Code: HOJO to get an extra $20 off (for as low as $129 + tax).
- Be sure to select the MiceChat rate.
- You can only get this special rate if you click through the MICECHAT HOJO BOOKING LINK, and use the promo code HOJO.
Let’s Hear From You
One of these days we’ll have an update that doesn’t take you an hour to read. But with all the news and changes ahead of Disneyland’s reopening, today was not the day to do that. If you made it all the way here, we seriously appreciate you! Are you hoping to be one of the attendees for Disneyland’s April 30th return? Just how hard do you think it’s going to be to get tickets? How do you feel about a primarily mobile order-based Disneyland dining system? We’d love to hear your thoughts on how Disney can make the system more user friendly.
If you enjoyed reading today’s Disneyland Update, we would really appreciate it if you could take just one extra moment to share it on your social media!
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