Theme Park News Update - November 2020

Nuts about Theme Parks

• Early in the month, theme parks in the UK joined their European neighbours in closing down as another wave of Coronavirus hit. Some have simply closed early for their winter off season, while others hope to reopen for modified Christmas events. In Europe, Disneyland Paris resort has officially closed until after Christmas.

• In California, 8 mayors including the mayor of Anaheim have joined forces to push Governor Neeson to reopen theme parks. Unfortunately during the month Conditions in the state have gotten worse, with several counties moving back a tier in the states threat system. In a rare bit of good news, Buena Vista street has reopened as a shopping and dining district. Although Disney did reintroduce parking fees at Disneyland resort to coincide with the opening.

• Knowing that their parks won’t reopen this year both Disney and Universal have beefed up their out of park offerings. Disneyland has started selling Spiderbots from the New Avengers Campus ride that they have been unable to open. They are also bringing out their famous Corndog to Downtown Disney, while Universal Studios Hollywood has wheeled out their biggest and most profitable gun, Butterbeer.

• D23 Fantastic Worlds Celebration online event was this month and along with that we got more of a look at some future projects for WDW. We saw more details on Remy’s Ratatouille Adventure and saw yet mor footage of the ride vehicles for the up coming Guardians of the Galaxy Cosmic Rewind coaster.

• WDW has also announced that park hoping is coming back in January. But not as we know it. Guests will still have to make a reservation at their first park, and will only be able to hop after 2 pm.

• WDW also announced an agreement with train company Brightline to have a train line connect Orlando International Airport with Disney Springs. There are many steps before this plan is put into action, so it will be years away but still a positive step.

• The Walt Disney Company has also announced that it will be laying off another 4000 workers.

• In Hong Kong, the new revamped central castle has opened this month for its 15th anniversary. The new castle has been dubbed the Castle of magical dreams.

• Several Holiday events have started this month, with Sea World Orlando bring out the Rudolph characters, and Knotts Berry Farm starting their taste of Merry Farm food festival. The most innovative is definitely Six Flags Magic Mountain who reopened their doors for the first time since March with a Holiday in the Park Drive-thru Experience. Guest drive through the park witness various lights and projection mapping displays.

• We saw POV videos for Iron Gwazi at Busch Gardens Tampa, and a virtual POV for Seaworlds up coming Ice Breaker.

• Possibly the most surprising news for the month was the announcement from Joe Rohde that he is retiring. Rohde is one of the most prominent of the modern batch of Imagineers having been lead designer on Disney’s Animal Kingdom and Pandora the world of avatar during his 40 years with Imagineering. He stated that he didn’t want to stay to retire in the middle of another huge project, and if he took on completing another by the end he would be truely old.