From January 21 – February 13, 2022, Disney California Adventure Park will celebrate Lunar New Year! Join the celebration with wishes for health, luck and prosperity throughout the Year of the Tiger, featuring Chinese, Vietnamese and Korean cultures.
Highlights include:
Mulan’s Lunar New Year Procession
Appearances by Disney characters dressed in festive attire
The months of January and February are usually when the Universal theme parks like to do annual maintenance on their rides, especially water rides. Make sure to check each parks’ refurbishment calendar when planning your trip dates to make sure a favorite ride won’t be closed.
Below are just some main ones that I’m seeing as of this writing. In the calendars, scroll down to the Temporary Ride Closures section of each park, for the days that you’re considering. You have to open these in a browser, not the Universal app, for the Closures information to show up. They’re listed right before the calendar.
At Universal Orlando, the Revenge of the Mummy ride at Universal Studios and some of the water rides at Islands of Adventure have closed for refurbishment. Shrek 4D has closed permanently.
Check the calendars often, especially if your trip is still several months or even weeks away, since closures and dates for their reopening can fluctuate often. Closures do happen year-round, not just on January and February.
Of course, this applies to any other theme parks, or any other attraction/location, that you may be interested in going to as well. Always check their websites before you lock in your travel plans and before your trip dates, for any closures and changes. Or, you can use a travel agent, like me, who will stay on top of any changes for you. 😁
Let me know if you want any help figuring these out.
The months of January and February are usually when the Disney theme parks like to do annual maintenance on their rides, especially water rides. Make sure to check each parks’ refurbishment calendar when planning your trip dates to make sure a favorite ride won’t be closed.
Below are just some main ones that I’m seeing as of this writing. In the calendars, scroll down to the Closed for Refurbishment section of each park, for the days that you’re considering.
These calendars also show the scheduled times for the numerous shows and fireworks too (of course, subject to change), so it’s good to check them if you want to plan dining reservations or ride times around certain ones.
At Disney World, some notable closures include Expedition Everest at Animal Kingdom and Splash Mountain at Magic Kingdom. Additionally, the Magic Kingdom railroad and a few shows still haven’t reopened. Blizzard Beach is also now closed, but Typhoon Lagoon has reopened.
At Disneyland, the monorail will be closing permanently and Toontown is slated for a major refurb in the coming months. Currently, Splash Mountain and the Finding Nemo Submarine Voyage rides are closed.
Check the calendars often, especially if your trip is still several months or even weeks away, since closures and dates for their reopening can fluctuate often. Closures do happen year-round, not just on January and February.
Of course, this applies to any other theme parks, or any other attraction/location, that you may be interested in going to as well. Always check their websites before you lock in your travel plans and before your trip dates, for any closures and changes. Or, you can use a travel agent, like me, who will stay on top of any changes for you. 😁
Let me know if you want any help figuring these out.
Universal Studios Hollywood has announced that beginning Oct 7, 2021, all persons ages 12+ must be prepared to show proof of full FDA or WHO approved COVID-19 vaccination (a full 14 days after final dose was administered), or a negative test taken within 72 hours of visit, prior to entry to the theme park. Persons ages 18+ must also show photo ID. Guests under the age of 12 are not required to provide proof of full vaccination or a negative COVID-19 test. Verification will take place when required based on theme park attendance. This is to comply with LA County’s recent Public Health department requirements.
Everyone aged 2+ are required to wear face coverings at all times, both indoors and outdoors, when visiting the theme park. At Universal CityWalk, face coverings are required to be worn indoors.
Disneyland California just announced several new holiday parties, called Disney Merriest Nites! The parties will consist of unique holiday themed activities such as character appearances, parades, food, merchandise, and of course, access to certain rides and attractions with lower wait times. Several Disney characters – Mickey, Miguel, Tiana, Elsa, Lilo & Stitch, and Buzz – will host mini-parties around the various lands within the park, so it’ll be like 6 parties in one.
As of now, there are 5 available nights, but I wouldn’t put it past Disney to add more dates as these sell out. The parties last from 8pm til midnight, but guests with a party ticket can enter the Disneyland park at 5pm to enjoy the regular park activities first. Tickets cost $165 for all nights (11/16, 11/30, 12/7, 12/9) except the first one for $175 (11/11), and will be available to purchase on the Disneyland site or app starting September 14th.
For more details on the party, check out the official Disneyland page:
UPDATE 07/24/2024: The Genie+ service has now been retired at Disney World in Orlando. View my Lightning Lane page to learn all about the new service. The Genie+ functionality at Disneyland California remains the same, just renamed to Lightning Lane.
UPDATE 10/8/2021: Disney just announced that the start date of these services will be Oct 19th. Check out my more recent blog post for the list of rides included in each park and pricing info.
Disney just announced the new Genie service that will appear in the Disney World MyDisneyExperience app and the Disneyland app. This will include some new features, plus the new paid replacement for FastPass+/MaxPass that has been rumored for awhile now.
Here’s my summary of everything as I understand it right now. There are tons of articles out there about this, so I’ll try to boil it down a little here.
From what I have read/seen so far, it sounds like an “assistant” type feature within the app that’ll give you recommendations on which rides to do next based on ride times and your defined interests. You can specify if you like princesses, Star Wars, and a few other things (they haven’t shown all the things you can specify yet, but it’ll probably be things like thrill rides vs tamer rides, etc) and the Genie will form a suggested itinerary of rides you might like, along with their current wait times. It’ll work together with all the features in the app now, like booking dining and such, so everything will be all in one place. This part of the app enhancement will be free. Everyone can just use this Genie “assistant” by using the Disney apps for each park. It’ll be there by default.
Then, there will be two additional premium features that you can add on.
Genie+: For a given fee per person per day, you can turn it into a Genie+ (note the plus sign) service. This is basically a paid version of FastPass+ and MaxPass that used to exist in both parks and works very similarly. This enables you to pick the ride time window for your next ride and not have to go to the ride until that time, rather than standing in a long line in that queue.
When it’s time to go to that ride, you will go through the “Lightning Lane” instead of the usual Standby line, so you’re not waiting in a line. They’ve basically just renamed the old FassPass/MaxPass lines to now be called “Lightning Lanes”, so don’t let this info confuse you. Just equate Lightning Lanes to FastPass/MaxPass entrances and Genie+ to the old FastPass+/MaxPass system.
Like before, you can only hold one time selection at a time, so you have to wait until you ride that one before you can pick your next one. The exception is that if the return time is more than 2 hours away from your selection time (or 2 hours after park opening time), you can pick the next ride after 2 hours so it’s not like you’re stuck with a huge block of time where you can’t pick anything. There’s no limit, so you can select rides all day as long as times are available, but you can only pick each ride one time throughout your day.
If you intend to park hop that day and want to use the Genie+ service at the other park too, make sure you buy the one that let’s you use it at multiple parks instead of the specific park one.
When you buy the Genie+ service, it also includes some additional features, like photo downloads at Disneyland and VR Snapchat filters at Disney World. Unfortunately, it does not include the actual photo downloads at Disney World, so you will still have to buy the Memory Maker package separately if you want the photo downloads.
You can buy this Genie+ add-on starting at midnight of the day you intend to use it, and then pick your first ride starting at 7am of that day.
Individual Lightning Lane Selections: The second add-on feature is the ability to select ride times for up to 2 rides per day that belong in this category. These are the really, reeeally popular rides, like Mine Train and Radiator Racers, that aren’t included in the above Genie+ category. The cost of these will vary by availability. Their prices are listed in the MDE app where you go to buy them.
You do not have to buy the Genie+ service in order to buy these Individual Lightning Lanes, so you can pick and choose if you just buy one or the other or both, depending on which rides you think you need them for.
As a benefit to guests staying at a Disney resort, if you’re buying the Individual Lightning Lanes, you can make that first selection at 7am each morning, without needing to be in the park. The 7am head start is especially helpful since these will be the really popular rides that may run out of times quickly. If you are not staying at a Disney resort, you can make your first selection at park opening time for the park whose ride you’re buying it for.
They will continue using the current Virtual Queue system for some reeeally, reeeeeally popular rides that come along. Check the MDE app to see which ones currently have Virtual Queues. If they have a Virtual Queue, most likely, that means you cannot just walk up to it and wait in a Standby line. Virtual queues are still free. It sounds like these rides will be included in the Individual Lightning Lane category as well. So, if you aren’t able to get a virtual group or choose not to go through the stress of even trying, you would be able to just pay for an Individual Lightning Lane pass for it.
So, essentially, the rides will be divided into 4 categories – ones that are usually pretty low waits that they don’t even include any passes for, ones with moderate waits that you can buy Genie+ to get passes for, ones with high waits that you have to buy specific Individual Lightning Lane passes for, and ones with super high waits that you have to join a Virtual Queue to ride.
Of course, you can just use the free Standby queue to ride any of the rides still, besides the ones with only Virtual Queues. It just depends on your wait tolerance level and which rides you want to ride. You have the flexibility to decide how you want to make use of this depending on ride times for that day. It comes down to a time vs cost decision – so whether it’s worth it will differ for each person.
All of these features are supposed to roll out this Fall, though they didn’t give a specific date, so I guess we’ll see if they reveal more details before then. There are still some unanswered questions too. Who knows? Even some of what they’ve revealed so far may change between now and then. Once it rolls out, we’ll see for sure how it works and what other features are included. I’ll keep you posted if there are any major changes. It’s not that far away.
In the meantime, if you want to read the full article and watch a video from Disney revealing this new enhancement, go to the sites here:
Disney just announced a new program called Magic Key that will be replacing the annual pass program at Disneyland and California Adventure.
There will be 4 levels of the program with different amounts of allowable park reservation days, discounts, and other benefits, so you can see if one of them makes sense for your group. Read all of the details carefully on the Disneyland site’s Magic Key page.
I know the initial cost of an annual pass, or now a “key” (is that what we’ll call them now?), seems daunting at first, but do the math on how many days you’ll be going in a year, along with the discounts that may apply to you. With the increasing cost of individual day tickets, you may be surprised. If you do long trips or several short trips a year, it actually may be more cost effective to get one. Or see if it makes sense for at least one member of your group to get one just for the discounts. Again, do the math on that. It still could work out if you spend alot on dining and shopping.
On the other coast, Disney World has also confirmed that the Passholder program will be available for sale again before the 50th Anniversary on Oct 1st. More details are supposed to come out by the end of the month, so stay tuned.
Well, it looks like the recent spike in Covid cases caused by the unvaccinated folks has ruined things for everyone. Disney World and Disneyland California just announced that masks will be required again, starting July 30th, at all indoor settings and attractions. Here’s the text snippet from the Disney site:
Beginning July 30, face coverings are required for all Guests (ages 2 and up) while indoors and in Disney buses, monorail and Disney Skyliner, regardless of vaccination status. This includes upon entering and throughout all attractions. Face coverings remain optional for all Guests in outdoor common areas.
This was just announced for the Disney World and Disneyland California locations, but I’m sure the same will be applied to other Disney locations and other theme parks soon, unfortunately. Hopefully, this won’t lead to further restrictions or even another shutdown.
Let’s hope that everyone gets vaccinated soon and stops the spread!
Update: As of Thursday, August 19, 2021, masks are now optional, not required, on outdoor parts of ride queues and outdoor rides, like Dumbo. I have a feeling this will be a constantly changing situation, so always check for the latest information on the official Disney sites listed above.
New things are being announced and existing things are changing literally every day at the Disney parks. It’s hard to keep up. Here’s a quick summary for you, at least of some of the big things as of mid June. There are too many to list every single thing.
Disneyland Paris has finally reopened, so all Disney Parks around the world are now open.
Disneyland California has reopened to out of state guests too.
Most important: Park reservations are still needed in all parks, in addition to your park ticket, and they do run out fast! Check for availability before you buy your park tickets or lock in hotel or flights incase you need to adjust your dates based on availability.
PhotoPass photographers are now allowed to use your phone/camera to take pictures for you again. Though, there is also a relatively new 1 day PhotoPass plan if you want a limited, cheaper plan.
They are no longer providing free MagicBands for resort guests. You can still buy them for $10+, or use a previous one though.
For Disney World FL, you can set up Mobile Pass on your phone now, like a digital version of your MagicBand, if you don’t want to wear a MagicBand. It can be stored in your digital wallet and tied to an Apple watch so you can scan that instead of your phone everywhere where you’d scan your magic band.
Disney World FL advanced dining reservations now start booking at 60 days before your check-in date.
Disney World FL nighttime shows are returning on July 1st at Magic Kingdom, “Happily Ever After”, and Epcot, “Epcot Forever”.
Disney World FL announced the Boo Bash after party event, which replaces the Mickey’s Not So Scary Halloween Party this year. Tix on sale now.
Disney World FL has announced events opening Oct 1st for the Magic Kingdom 50th Anniversary – Magic Kingdom “Disney Enchantment” nighttime show, Epcot “Harmonious” nighttime show and new Remy ride, Animal Kingdom “Kite Tails” daytime show.
Many favorite restaurants and resorts are finally re-opening again.
All previously buffet style restaurants are serving food platters to your table family style instead but still all-you-can-eat.
Menu items at all restaurants may still be reduced, though starting to expand again, so check the posted menu on the actual Disney site or app for the latest n greatest to make sure your favorites are there.
Masks are optional for guests and cast members in all park areas besides the Disney monorail, buses, and Skyliners.
Social distancing restrictions and plexiglass dividers have been removed in most stores, queues, and ride cars.
Ride pre-shows are returning.
Disney rides and transportation are loading at full capacity, including multiple parties together.
Single rider lines are returning on most rides also.
Mobile ordering is strongly encouraged in most quick service restaurants. It’s great actually, cuts your wait time tremendously.
FastPasses and dining plans are still not back, so plan your ride and food strategy accordingly.
Rope drop is available at most parks again, where they are likely to let you in the parks almost an hour before park opening.
Parking lots may not let you in as early if you’re not using Disney transportation though, so use Disney transportation if you’re rope dropping.
Learn the strategies for getting boarding groups for rides with virtual queues beforehand – Rise of the Resistance in FL and CA and the new Spiderman ride in CA.
The new Marvel land, Avengers Campus, has opened in CA.
Disney World’s Magical Express will no longer mail you a confirmation letter for check-in. As long as you’ve added your flight info to your resort reservation, you can just use your magic band to scan into the Magical Express check-in at the airport. If you don’t have your magic band yet, they can look up your reservation there. If you have a magic band from a previous trip that you haven’t deactivated, then you can still use that.
Magical Express is ending at the end of 2021, but there will likely be another transportation option to the resorts.
Disney Cruise Lines has revealed more details about their newest ship, the Disney Wish. Inaugural sailings will start in June 2022 and sailings through Dec 2022 are open for booking now.
OK, this list got pretty long and there are more. See, there are just so many recent changes. Feel free to contact me if you want more info about any of these points, or anything else.
Disneyland parks in California finally reopened to state residents last month. And starting June 15, 2021, they will be open to out of state residents as well!
There are still some restrictions though, so be sure to know before you go. Most notably, you will also have to make park reservations, in addition to buying your tickets, so plan ahead.
Also of note, if you’re into Marvel, the Avengers Campus is opening tomorrow!!
Adventures By Anne 