We’ve said it before—it’s been a weird year.
2020 has proven a historic year for unexpected changes, from the COVID-19 pandemic, to unprecedented hurricane activity, to a contentious election in the US. At the time of this writing, we are rolling into November, and it wouldn’t be surprising if these last two months of the year hold even more twists.
For fans of Disney parks, it’s been a particularly strange season…
It seems safe to say that most of us never expected the sweeping changes we’ve seen at Disney theme parks across the globe. Over the course of one year, Disney has been forced to navigate some of the most challenging setbacks in their history, as well as managing one of their most staggering successes. Here’s just a few of the things that took place in Disney parks during 2020 that we never saw coming…
1. Disney’s Hollywood Studios becomes Walt Disney World’s most popular park
2019 was a strange enough year in and of itself—in many ways, a year of massive growth for Disney parks. Many of these change were made surrounding the highly anticipated opening of Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge at Disneyland and Disney’s Hollywood Studios. Disney made every preparation possible for a massive jump in attendance, but fans were surprised to see the land’s opening mired in controversy. Galaxy’s Edge opened without the attraction that was supposed to prove its biggest draw—Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance. Crowds at Disneyland seemed weirdly sparse through those early months, and though the Walt Disney World opening did better, people still questioned if Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge was ultimately a flop.
That is, until December of 2019…
The opening of Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance proved an overwhelming success—to the point that the ride sort of broke Walt Disney World. On opening day at Disney’s Hollywood Studios, so many people showed up that Disney had to open the park early for safety reasons, and every spot in the ride’s virtual queue was gone before the officially posted opening time even arrived. This kicked off a series of ever-shifting changes that carried into the beginning of 2020 as Disney tried to manage unprecedented crowds arriving as early as 4:00 AM to try for a spot on the ride.
In essence, Walt Disney World’s least-popular park became its most popular basically overnight.
Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance proved a win on almost every level for Disney. Disney’s Hollywood Studios had been written off for years as a half-day park. The opening of Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance changed that by not only drawing a regular local fanbase of Star Wars-loving Passholders but by giving Disney guests a truly spectacular attraction to rival some of Universal Orlando Resort’s biggest wins. Indeed, Rise of the Resistance proved so popular throughout the early months of 2020 that Disney had to set up Guest Experience Teams to manage those visitors who didn’t manage to get onto the ride while kinks were still being worked out in the virtual queue. To this day, the ride remains the biggest draw at Walt Disney World, and Disney’s Hollywood Studios currently remains the resort’s most popular park.
2. Crowd calendars become almost useless
The opening of Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance had another strange effect, one that experts had expected to coincide with the original Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge opening… it completely threw off established crowd patterns.
Crowd tracking is a big deal for Disney parks regulars—after all, in most cases you can expect a more enjoyable trip if you visit when crowds are low. Lower crowds means less time in lines, easier access to reservations, and a major reduction in the usual stress connected to visiting theme parks.
Crowd trends have been shifting for years, but the beginning of 2020 marked the biggest changes guests had seen yet. It seems that many guests who had wanted to experience Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge held off on vacations until after the ride opened. While the ride’s opening definitely had an effect at Disneyland Resort in California, the changes in crowd trends were much more pronounced at Walt Disney World. The January and February “off-season” for Walt Disney World vanished with attendance surging at unlikely times as more and more people wanted to experience the new ride. The result was that it looked like crowd trends from 2020 would be turned completely upside down…
Little did we know how right this would prove… just not in the way anyone expected.
3. Disney parks across the globe shut down
In January 2020, Hong Kong Disneyland and Shanghai Disneyland both shut down in response to the coronavirus outbreak. That early in the year, concern about the outbreak wasn’t too high in the US, even if the world was starting to pay attention.
We’re all familiar with how things played out from there. By March 2020, COVID-19 had become a full scale pandemic, and companies around the world started cancelling major events and gatherings. Disney executives were forced to make some difficult decisions. For one thing, longtime CEO, Bob Iger, had just stepped down and handed the reigns of the company to Bob Chapek. Within weeks, Iger stepped back into an active role on the board so the full weight wouldn’t fall to Chapek his first month on the job.
On March 16th, Disney parks around the world shut down out of abundance of caution. It would prove the longest closure of Disney parks in history, and we are still feeling the effects today. By May, hopes had waned that the coronavirus pandemic would be a quickly passing inconvenience, and Disney started to feel the financial strain of the extended closures. Ironically, it appears their decision to launch Disney+ in 2019 may have saved the company from total financial ruin as lockdowns drove new subscribers to the service in droves.
4. Disney downsizes the magic
Early in the pandemic, reopening Disney parks seemed impossible–how do you open a theme park while a highly contagious virus is on the loose? Many Disney regulars can attest that theme parks are easy places to get sick.
As COVID cases started to wane in parts of the world, Disney eyed options for reopening. Hong Kong Disneyland and Shanghai Disneyland attempted a reopening in May but promptly had to shut back down when cases surged again across China. California remained locked up tight, but restrictions started lifting in France, Japan, and Florida. Disney worked with local governments to find a halfway point where guests could return to the parks with increased safety measures.
By July 2020, Disney had made a way for the majority of their parks to reopen… but doing so would come with some significant costs.
Who could imagine visiting Walt Disney World without nightly fireworks, up close character meet n’ greets, or even the presence of cultural representatives at EPCOT’s World Showcase? These were just a few of the changes Disney had to institute. Capacity limits meant the institution of a new reservation system, a jarring change for local Passholders used to last minute visits. Reservation limits meant park hopping also had to go (hopefully a temporary measure), and resort transportation options were adjusted accordingly. Other more obvious changes included mandatory temperature checks and mask requirements for all visitors.
These were just a few of the unexpected changes required to make a Disney parks reopening possible. While not all of these changes were bad (more on that in a bit), one adjustment really caught some visitors by surprise…
5. Stand-by lines make a comeback
We weren’t particularly surprised when Disney announced the end of the Fastpass+ program as part of their reopening. While Fastpass+ has long been a favorite feature for guests, the system came with a lot of problems. In particular, Fastpass+ threw off Disney’s crowd control strategies—a major problem for their reopening. It seemed likely that virtual queues similar to the one used for Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance might end up replacing the system.
Instead, Disney decided to return to the old fashioned method for managing crowds.
Particularly at Walt Disney World, Disney has not used a stand-by-lines-only crowd management policy since the 90’s. Stand-by lines are a powerful tool for managing crowd flow because they act as “sponges”—the more guests are sponged away into stand-by lines, shops, and restaurants, the less congestion you have from people wandering on the streets. While Fastpass+ felt more convenient for guests looking to avoid long waits, the unprecedented situation Disney faced with reopening in the midst of a pandemic meant there really was no better solution. Guests can be easily monitored and distanced in queues in ways that just aren’t possible when people are wandering freely through the park.
While the return of stand-by lines is a little bit of a bummer for those who were fans of Fastpass+, we appreciate the effect this choice has had on crowd congestion. With the exception of unusually busy days (like holidays) and certain spots in the parks where bottlenecks are common, getting guests out of main thoroughfares and into lines has made for a less stressful park touring experience.
6. The return of empty parks
The opening months of reopening at Walt Disney World were marked by record low attendance. While this wasn’t great news for Disney, it proved fantastic for those guests who opted to visit. Guests reported being able to walk onto E-ticket attractions with zero waits as well as to explore the parks with hardly any crowds. Guests also found unprecedented access to private experiences thanks to social distancing—most attractions only loaded one party at a time, meaning you could fly the Millennium Falcon or ride Splash Mountain all by yourself. On one pre-Labor Day visit to Disney’s Hollywood Studios, we had the entire cantina room of Star Wars Launch Bay to ourselves for nearly 45 minutes during a rest break.
While crowds have increased across all of Disney’s parks, capacity remains capped at 25%, meaning that even on the busiest day, crowd levels are well below 2019 levels—if nothing else, this is a change we have enjoyed during this strange season.
7. Mass layoffs and furloughs
It’s not surprising that with the financial hit Disney took due to closures that mass layoffs and furloughs of cast members became a reality. Citing the continued closure of Disneyland Resort as a key factor, Disney has looked to cut costs wherever possible, from closing unprofitable restaurants to cutting entertainment acts.
Sadly, this hit cast members the hardest.
We weren’t surprised that Disney downsized—what has surprised us are some of the cast members who have been hit by layoffs, as well as that the closure of Disneyland affected cast members at other parks in such record numbers. Entertainment cast got his particularly hard, even some cast members who have been with the company for decades like the members of the Grand Floridian Orchestra and long-time performers like Yehaa Bob Jackson (from Port Orleans). Over 18,000 workers in Florida alone have lost their jobs, and that’s just a fraction of the company’s overall cuts. The company has indicated hope to bring some cast members back eventually, but for now, the future looks bleak until Disneyland reopens and the company secures some new revenue streams to get back on track.
8. Disneyland to stay closed until 2021
This one was probably the biggest shocker of all, but after the seeming success of Walt Disney World’s reopening (no major resurgences of COVID-19 have been connected to the park thanks to the safety measures), we honestly expected news to arrive that Disneyland Resort in California would at least reopen before the end of 2020.
This hasn’t happened… and it’s looking likely that Disneyland will not reopen until well into 2021.
At this point, theme park executives remain at a standstill with the California state government. Without going into divisive politics, California has taken a stricter approach to try to beat COVID-19, and the restrictions for theme parks to reopen has left basically all but the smallest of California’s parks closed. The overall impression is that Orange County has to be almost completely COVID free for Disneyland to be able to reopen the way Walt Disney World has. Needless to say, there has been a lot of tension between Disney executives (and those from other theme parks) and the California government, and we don’t have any signs to indicate when Disneyland will fully reopen except that it likely won’t be until 2021.
9. Disney guests still find the magic (despite the pandemic)
For those guests who have returned to Disney parks, the response has been surprisingly positive… Indeed, Disney fans are finding new ways to enjoy the magic during this time.
Aside from the benefits of low crowds, guests have reported enjoying some of the new features in the parks, like character cavalcades that bring back random parades to all four of Disney’s parks. Merchandise from Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge has found its way out of the parks both to Disney Marketplace at Disney Springs and Downtown Disney in Anaheim (Ashoka Tano actress, Ashley Eckstein, even showed up to autograph new lightsabers recently). Disney managed to keep the heart of the Epcot Food and Wine Festival alive with a dialed back version of the festival, and low crowds mean a more peaceful pace for exploring the parks on many days. Despite the weirdness, families are still finding joy together at Disney parks.
It’s been a strange year, but in a season like this, we find ourselves appreciating the magic of Disney even more—even if that magic is a little dialed back for the time being.
Enjoy this article? Keep reading to learn how an eccentric Bavarian king paved the way for Walt Disney’s theme parks… or what Disney’s Hollywood Studios is like right now!
