food IS a theme park
The Stretching Room ain’t exactly stretching these days. For now, it’s now just a walk-through part of Haunted Mansion’s queue.
Stretching Room
But now that Momento Mori’s has reopened, we spotted a bunch of new MERCH featuring our ghoulish friends!
We’ve been back in Magic Kingdom this week and there are a lot of changes.
Magic Kingdom
We’ve been visiting the park since it opened last week to see what’s been happening at “The Most Magical Place on Earth” now that guests have returned to the parks.
We took a trip to Downtown Disney in Anaheim today! We had to get back and see what was new since its grand reopening a few days ago.
Downtown Disney!
So we’re back and taking a look at all that’s new in dining and merchandise. Let’s go!!
All four Disney World theme parks have finally reopened after their longest closure in history.
Magic Kingdom
We’ve spent the better part of the last two weeks exploring the parks to show you all the changes that have been implemented while guests were away. From seas of social distancing markers to newly installed plexiglass barriers and temperature screening checkpoints, there’s certainly been a lot of new ground-breaking procedures to cover!
Alright, we have OFFICIALLY been to all four Disney World parks BUT…one of these things is not like the others. While other Disney World parks seem to have smooth sailing with their reopenings, Hollywood Studios is struggling with crowds, pinch points, wait times, and ride breakdowns.
Hollywood Studios
Disney Park Pass reservations are slim when it comes to getting into Disney’s Hollywood Studios — which means it, and its headliner attractions like Rise of the Resistance, the brand new Mickey and Minnie’s Runaway Railway, and Slinky Dog Dash, have been a serious draw for guests since the park reopened on Wednesday. It’s absolutely Disney World’s hottest ticket right now, and that means — despite Disney lowering capacity in the parks — it’s BUSY.
We compared Disney World’s glitziest park’s opening day with all three of the other parks and crowds were definitely heavier. We even went back the next day to see if crowds and pinch points lightened up. Spoiler alert: They didn’t.
With a smaller footprint, fewer open rides, and Disney World’s most popular attraction by far, Hollywood Studios has struggled to reach the same equilibrium the other parks achieved relatively quickly.
We are BACK in EPCOT now that Disney World has started its phased reopening! One of the biggest differences when it comes to planning a 2020 vacation to Disney World is the new rule that states all guests above the age of two MUST wear a face mask.
Orange Bird Wearing a Mini Mask
This requirement has stirred up a lot of questions regarding the logistics of wearing a mask all day in the theme parks. Despite us having the experience of what it’s like to wear a mask all day, we still had some important questions when it came to visiting EPCOT. We’re talkin’ about logistics of EATING around World Showcase, especially with the 2020 Taste of EPCOT Food and Wine Festival now in full swing!
Walt Disney World has been making cuts, delaying construction projects, and making health and safety changes around the parks recently.
Cinderella Castle
This week alone, Disney made an official statement that the Spaceship Earth renovation and the new Mary Poppins attraction are being postponed. We just learned three new attractions that will allegedly close permanently.
Can you believe all four Disney World theme parks are finally open for the first time in many months?
Tree of Life
It’s been a totally surreal experience being back at Disney World, but we’ve been on a mission to see how Disney is addressing the health and safety concerns of every guest and Cast Member inside the newly reopened parks.
There is so much to do and see at Disney’s Animal Kingdom Pandora — The World of AVATAR, it can almost be overwhelming. Everything is just gorgeous there!
Pandora Crowds
But we got to the Windtraders gift shop, all the new merchandise we saw made us stop in our tracks!
You can bet that we spent our morning trying to nab a boarding group for Rise of the Resistance.
Plexiglass Barriers on Rise of the Resistance
Rise of the Resistance is the super high-demand ride in Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge — even in the limited capacity reopening days of Hollywood Studios! If there’s one thing that’s no fun, it’s running into a glitch when boarding groups are loading. Today, when we were trying to grab our spot in the Virtual Queue, we ran into a glitch that’s pretty tiny — but it could mean the difference between you getting a boarding group or not!Â
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