Disney World News: Resort Reopening Delay, November Park Hours, Star Wars Stuff
It’s time for another Walt Disney World news round-up. We have an update on November park hours, the reopening plans (or lack thereof) for Disney’s Polynesian Village Resort, hotel construction, restaurant deals for Magical Dining Month, plus the return of fireworks and a night parade…but not at Walt Disney World.
Let’s start with some bad news. Walt Disney World has updated its calendar with park hours through November 14, 2020. This is the second time in as many weeks that the hours have been updated incrementally, so this is essentially only another week’s worth of hours. Unfortunately, Magic Kingdom, Animal Kingdom, EPCOT, and Hollywood Studios all maintain their previously-reduced September and October schedules (see Fall Hours Cut at Walt Disney World).
Last week we wrote this off because November 8, 2020 would’ve been the start of the holiday season at Walt Disney World, including the first night of Mickey’s Very Merry Christmas Party. It thus made sense to release hours up until that point, with a “reset” coming thereafter. Unfortunately, that didn’t happen and this is starting to get a little concerning…
It’s entirely possible that Walt Disney World will start the Christmas season later than normal. There’s at least a 95% chance (probably higher) that Mickey’s Very Merry Christmas Party will be cancelled for 2020. Without Mickey’s Not So Scary Halloween Party, we now know that Walt Disney World is choosing to start the fall season about a month later than normal. (Mildly amusing how the timeframes of ‘seasons’ are party-dependent!)
That makes sense. It’s not just possible–it’s probable–that Christmas will start later than normal. (Maybe Disney will embrace the “turkey before tree” mantra for once?) In which case, longer hours for the holiday season could still be on the horizon. What’s concerning here is that Veterans Day is November 11, and that holiday is notorious for spiking crowds.
While our November 2020 Crowd Calendar for Walt Disney World has been fairly decimated, the general ‘crowd contours‘ remain accurate. Which is to say that the week of Veterans Day will be busier than the week that follows it. Even the first week of November should be busier than the third, despite some events being cancelled or drawing fewer guests.
Not only is this reduced schedule concerning for guests traveling the second week of November, but it suggests these are likely to be the hours for the third week of November as well. It’s possible that Walt Disney World will extend park hours as we near November, but that seems unlikely.
In hotel news, the reopening of Disney’s Polynesian Village Resort has been quietly delayed from October 4, 2020 until “sometime next summer.” This is to accommodate some refurbishment work at the hotel (expected to begin in early October 2020), including enhancements to the Great Ceremonial House and guest rooms. The Villas and Bungalows at Disney’s Polynesian Village Resort will remain open during this refurbishment.
Guests who will be impacted by this should be receiving emails shortly indicating that Disney’s Polynesian Village Resort is “no longer planned to be open” during their vacation. Additionally, the correspondence will contain info about re-accommodating guests at a different hotel at no additional charge.
UPDATE: As this story about the Poly has continued to develop, we’ve shared new details and commentary in our Disney’s Polynesian Village Resort Reopening Delay & Refurbishment Inspired by Moana post.
Walt Disney World isn’t stating as much, but this is almost certainly being dictated by a lack of demand rather than an urgent desire to accomplish the refurbishment. We wouldn’t be surprised to see Disney push back the reopening dates of other hotels, as well. Above is the message you get right now if trying to book Coronado Springs or Art of Animation Resorts for dates they should be open. (H/t to reader Darlene in the comments.)
While it’s clear that Walt Disney World originally over-estimated pent-up demand among tourists, the current course of action is confounding. Travel right now is a non-starter for many people for a number of reasons, and Disney cannot remedy much of that.
However, discounting remains a viable option for filling hotel rooms. We’re not even talking some massive “fire sale” that could devalue the brand–just basic deals on par with historical norms. It was understandable that Disney didn’t do this initially, wanting to avoid negative PR in “luring” people to Florida. With the state’s case numbers steadily declining, that’s no longer the case.
On top of that, so much remains to be seen between now and Summer 2021. Despite that, it’s starting to feel like Walt Disney World is in some ways writing off the remainder of 2020 and even Spring 2021…which all feels very premature. Time will tell–perhaps Walt Disney World has some savvy strategy here that we simply do not comprehend from the outside looking in.
Also coming next summer is the upcoming addition to the Walt Disney World Swan and Dolphin Resort, which has reached a key construction milestone with the topping off of the project’s top floor. The achievement was honored with the installation of a steel beam on the 14th story.
In addition to that, the new tower has been renamed from “The Cove” to “The Walt Disney World Swan Reserve.” I probably would’ve gone with The Reserve at Walt Disney World Swan Resort,” but that’s just me. Captures the sense of pretension without guests confusing it with a rehabilitation area for waterfowl. (Joking aside, the official new name is definitely better than the Cove.)
The Reserve is scheduled to open in Summer 2021 as a 349-room hotel to complement the iconic Walt Disney World Swan and Dolphin’s two original hotels. Once completed, The Walt Disney World Swan Reserve will offer two presidential suites and 149 spacious suites with floor-to-ceiling windows, aimed at families of 6-8 people.
In brighter (suns!) news, Batuu has now been open at Walt Disney World for one year. It somehow simultaneously feels like this debuted an eternity ago and was only yesterday. (Just the latest sign that time has lost all meaning.) It’s truly been a roller coaster year–we still fondly remember our 20-Hour Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge Opening Day Experience and the great times last September and October during the sparsely-attended Extra Extra Magic Hours (those were the days!).
While we acknowledge it’s not perfect, we are big fans of Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge. We’re looking forward to seeing it evolve over the years with new events, entertainment, and tie-ins. Speaking of which, a few noteworthy developments occurred in the last few days on this front.
First, Electronic Arts announced “The Sims 4 Star Wars: Journey to Batuu,” a new pack for the popular life simulation game. Journey to Batuu sends The Sims to Batuu’s Black Spire Outpost, the bustling hub of galactic activity in Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge.
Check out the trailer above, which teases some of the pack’s features and highlights, from lightsaber building to appearances from Vi Moradi, Rey, and Kylo Ren. I’ve never played the Sims, but the trailer is interesting and it gives Galaxy’s Edge even more of a “lived in” quality than it has. Oddly enough, I’d like to see some of the ideas from the video game find their way to the real land!
Additionally, Target debuted its Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge Trading Outpost with a bunch of new and exclusive merchandise. As you might recall, Disney and Target announced a “store with a store” partnership last year…I guess this is one fruit of that? Either way, there’s some neat stuff–most notably the LEGO Star Wars ITS Transport, which features my ride or die homie, Lieutenant Bek.
While this is the splashier news, Disney also quietly revealed a new version of the Coolest FREE Souvenir in Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge at Walt Disney World and Disneyland!
Turning to dining news, Magical Dining Month is back! There are 10 restaurants at or near Walt Disney World in the Lake Buena Vista area participating in this popular promotional offer. From now through October 4, approximately 73 restaurants in Orlando will offer three-course, prix-fixe dinners for just $35 per person.
We love Magical Dining Month and usually take advantage of it a few times per year. We normally even do a full post breaking down the menu highlights. However, there’s not many locations or menus that interests us this year. We love Jaleo and always highly recommend it–their 5 course menu looks great!
In some Tokyo Disneyland news that could bode well for Walt Disney World, fireworks and one of the park’s light parades are both returning. Disney Light the Night Fireworks and Nightfall Glow will both perform nightly showings as of September 1.
Fireworks are not so much a “spectacular” at Tokyo Disney Resort, as the pyro appears between the two parks for a few minutes with music but without additional in-park elements. No one stakes out a spot for the brief show, which does not result in crowds anywhere and is often cancelled due to sea breezes. (We’ve gone entire trips without seeing it.)
Nightfall Glow is the more noteworthy returning entertainment. This is Tokyo Disneyland’s “backup” nighttime parade (that’s right, they have two night parades to Walt Disney World’s zero) presented on rainy evenings. It’s a shorter parade performed in place of the blockbuster Tokyo Disneyland Electrical Parade Dreamlights.
With Paris, Shanghai, and Tokyo all scaling up their entertainment offerings, Walt Disney World should follow suit and do the same by the holiday season. What could return in the near-term is unclear–projection shows, more elaborate cavalcades, fireworks at EPCOT, and a return of outdoor stage shows are all plausible candidates.
This is not to say any or all of those things will return; at some point it’s going to be less about safety and more about saving money. Unfortunately, Walt Disney World has already gone the cost-cutting route a couple of times–but if the company wants to see business bounce back, they’ll start trying to regain a sense of normalcy by restoring some of what’s been lost.
Planning a Walt Disney World trip? Learn about hotels on our Walt Disney World Hotels Reviews page. For where to eat, read our Walt Disney World Restaurant Reviews. To save money on tickets or determine which type to buy, read our Tips for Saving Money on Walt Disney World Tickets post. Our What to Pack for Disney Trips post takes a unique look at clever items to take. For what to do and when to do it, our Walt Disney World Ride Guides will help. For comprehensive advice, the best place to start is our Walt Disney World Trip Planning Guide for everything you need to know!
YOUR THOUGHTS
What do you think of this Walt Disney World news? Concerned about the November 2020 park hours? Hopeful that Tokyo Disneyland bringing back fireworks and a night parade bodes well for Walt Disney World…or think it’s a matter of money at this point? Thoughts on the Poly’s delayed reopening? Do you agree or disagree with our assessments? Any questions we can help you answer? Hearing your feedback–even when you disagree with us–is both interesting to us and helpful to other readers, so please share your thoughts below in the comments!
Tom, do you think they will keep the modified Food & Wine going through Nov 21?
I don’t have any unique insight into that, but my guess is that the modified festival continues through Christmas. Maybe they’ll retire some booths, change menus, and switch the branding up to Festival of the Holidays…but I wouldn’t bank on it. I think this is probably it for the year.
I think that the Polynesian Village’s closure is huge. It and the Contemporary are the original duo, and although the Contemporary is the most visually stunning, there’s no question that the Polynesian is by far the more popular, and taking into account its time, I’d say that over the 50 years, the Poly has been the most popular of all the WDW resorts.
Sure, the villas are open, but for this resort to be down into summer is a massive sign that there is no real demand for people to fork over massive amounts of cash to visit given the way that WDW is currently operating.
This also indicates that those resorts currently without re-opening dates are going to be off the board for a long time. It could also clue the cancellation of the Very Merry Christmas Party. The monorail resorts are always in high demand, but that demand pops for when there are special events in the MK. Combine that with no opening date for the perfect Christmas resort (other than DVC sides), the Wilderness Lodge, and it seems highly likely that other than Christmas decorations, don’t expect much this Christmas season at WDW.
I think that the other issue that many people are discounting is the fact that the COVID-19 pandemic still has our economy crippled. There are still just under 10 Million people in this country that lost their jobs in March and April and have yet to return to any meaningful employment. Also, for many small businesses, even though they are working full time, the level of production is dramatically less than it was prior to the shut downs. While it is true that some people aren’t going to take a trip to Orlando due to the requirement to wear mask, and some people aren’t going to travel to experienced a diminished Disney experience, there are millions that aren’t going to go to Orlando simply because the discretionary money just isn’t there.
Another thing that can’t be discounted, is that for many American’s our lives are just in turmoil right now due to CV19 restrictions. College and University students are experiencing atypical college experiences, high school and grade school children have disrupted educations etc….. this just has a lot of people placing a vacay to Orlando at the bottom of the list of priorities right now.
I don’t think Disney overestimated the pent-up demand for travel. I think they overestimated the demand to travel wearing masks in the Florida heat, underestimated the demand to travel and spend time mask-free (Beaches and the National Parks have been booming!), and BADLY overestimated the demand to travel to WDW at full, non-discounted prices for a significantly reduced experience.
Disney has had good discounts for Florida residents and AP holders. The rest of us? Nothing. We have never paid full price for WDW. We’ve always grabbed a discount of some kind, which is not difficult to do. Except now there are ZERO discounts available for the rest of us.
And there’s no way I’m going to pay even a regular discounted rate for the vastly reduced experience that is currently available. Attractions closed, no Park Hopper, no waterparks, reduced hours…and right now they’re asking for people to pay FULL PRICE!?!?!?
For just a few hundred bucks more than what we’d have paid for the same amount of days, our family stayed 11 days combined at the beach and the mountains that it’d have cost us for just what we’d have usually paid for just the theme park tickets (with Park Hopper Plus). Right now, Disney doesn’t seem to be aware that many people are still out of work, have permanently lost jobs and/or businesses, and the concerns and issues of those who are still financially fit enough to still travel.
I’ve not a clue as to what Disney is doing right now. I still don’t know why Universal has had a water park up and running since day 1 of re-opening, and WDW still hasn’t re-opened Typhoon Lagoon and/or Blizzard Beach. Mystifying.
11 days of stay, for the just a few hundred bucks more than what we’ve have paid just for theme park tickets.
I completely agree! We are ready to go to disney. But paying $189/night for value resorts is just crazy. If they would offer a little discount, we would consider going.
Amen Paul!
“What’s concerning here is that Veterans Day is November 11, and that holiday is notorious for spiking crowds.”
Once Florida gets the positivity rate below 10% and the positive test rate below 10 per 100,000 residents, WDW will crank out the discounts and this will truly be a JERSEY WEEK to remember!
As a HUGE Disney fan , AP Nd DVC members , we are hoping Disney will follow the rest if the world s confidence and re open fully by year end. I believe the downward trends are a self fulfilling problem as no one wants to put out all the time and money to have half the amenities and short park hours. Our favorite time is evening in all the parks. We are not making any plans until we can experience Disney fully .
Are Jersey schools even going to be in session come November? No need for Jersey week if schools are mostly closed .
The “Cove” name is used at one of the Atlantis Bahamas resorts if I remember right. Although I doubt that would have phased Disney.
The Cove at Atlantis is also owned by Marriott.
Thanks for the info Tom, your blog is my favorite! Odd question do you think thanksgiving crowds will still be high? I haven’t seen anything updated about estimated crowds?
Thanks for the kind words!
I’ll be more willing to make some Thanksgiving crowd predictions after we see how Labor Day weekend goes. My fear is that it’s going to be bad–not as bad as normal in terms of raw attendance numbers, but with as bad (or worse) “feels like” crowds due to physical distancing and reduced hours.
I don’t want to seem like a Debbie Downer but I think the optimism about the possible scaling up of entertainment is premature. Reduced park hours don’t bode well for current attendance projections, and I don’t see Disney adding more entertainment for reduced crowds. I do believe the entertainment cuts were originally introduced in the name of safety, but at this point I think they are primarily about cost savings. If Disney wanted to start reintroducing entertainment for low crowds it just seems like we would have heard some official plans/timeline by now.
Any idea when they will start selling Annual Passes again?
Please let fireworks or parades be back on for the week of Thanksgiving. Also hope the Christmas Decorations be up that same week.
That’s November 21 to the 28.
I keep hoping for the same! Some positivity, something for those of us who will be there, and had trips planned well in advance of the pandemic.
Oh no! We have an Art of Animation stay booked Nov 8-14. Now I’m getting worried about the hotel not opening. When we booked about 2 weeks ago, we didn’t receive that pop-up message. Also, you still think it will be busier that week….what kind of busy are you predicting? Our main motivating factor for going right now was lower crowds. Getting nervous if it will be busier AND we still don’t have fastpasses available. The reduced hours were already a bummer to us after we had booked our trip and got to book our park passes… We were super excited to get back there, now I’m just worried!
I just came back from a day at mk and hs. (8/24&26) I know it’s less hours and no night time show but we did so many more rides than normal and more than once! Totally worth it! Also no fastpasses are amazing as well. You don’t have a set schedule or time to be back! Do it anytime you want! It’s practically like you have a fast pass for everything now!
Yeah, I actually liked the idea of no fastpasses with the lower crowds, but if veterans day week is going to be busier, that worries me to not have them. I would just hate for it to be way more crowded than what they’re seeing now, and have these long wait times with only standby lines. The shorter ride times were really the selling point for us going right now. I hate the idea of paying so much for a trip, if that whole week will be busy….that leaves us with literally no positives to go right now with all of the reductions in the parks. Paying the normal price for a trip with so many things missing from the trip was fine if the crowd levels were still going to be so low, as that is a huge benefit to us, since we have already been so many times. I guess I will have to keep checking the park pass calendar and see how those dates fare as we get closer.
So much… We have a trip planned in October which was rescheduled from March. We were still 100% going until they changed the park hours again. I can’t justify the flight and cost for just 9 hours at MK! Plus the castle at night is everything.
I think Disney is underestimating demand for the holidays. Of course everything could implode and back to school season could be a COVID-19 disaster, but I tend to think by December many families will be ready to find some warm weather and a place to escape. Our tentative plan is to visit the first week of December and hope for some more reasonable park hours and more and more restaurants and entertainment starting to come back. Also, bummer about the SPACE 220 restaurant delay…. I was really looking forward to checking that out.
WDW execs are really out of touch. I am an out of state visitor that comes once or twice a year. I just cancelled the Christmas resort stay in favor of a Universal resort stay. Universal is acting like they want visitors by offering discounts and specials. Disney is lowering their offerings and sticking to 2019 price strategies. Maybe we will look at a Disney trip when WDW offers some incentives beyond name recognition.
Agree! We would still go on our October trip if there were some type of cost incentive. I can’t justify the cost structure with limited hours and activities.
Universal has just furloughed more of their staff as well as ended their plans for another park. My son’s friend, a mechanical engineer for Universal, was just let go about a month go.
We are contemplating doing a trip the week of Thanksgiving and when I did a mock booking, Art of Animation and Coronado Springs both came up as being available. That would go with your thoughts that opening is delayed by a few weeks but will be opening. Of course if we move forward with booking, I wouldn’t be surprised if we got a choose another resort email prior to us leaving.
So “concerning” for the second week of November? As in it’ll be a 2-3/10 instead of the 1/10 things are now? Or worse??? Our Sept Labor Day trip moved to 11/9-11/14. Please tell me my one oppourtunity to see walkable parks is not gone!
Thanks for the blog posts, Tom. Really excited to hear that fireworks/parades may be in the near future.
We just booked our 3rd trip in 2 two years for Feb 2021 and I always keep up with your posts so I can know what to expect when we get there. I think I remember seeing that you are you planning on putting out a “Modified” Trip Planning Guide? Any timeline on that?
Thanks!
Austin
Can you opt for a regular menu at restaurants doing magical dining? My kids won’t like what’s on it at the restaurant we have an ADR for.
Yes! The magical dining menu is just an option those restaurants are offering.
We have a DVC rental stay booked at the Poly villas in April. I’m trying to decide if the resort side being closed is a good or bad thing for me. What do you think, Tom?
omg im devistated the main reason we wanted to come in spring was to experience the polynesion resort now im not even sure i want too 🙁 this makes me so sad
Since a warning message comes up if you try to book Art of Animation or Coronado Springs from November 1 – 14 saying the opening may be delayed, I agree that it is looking like these 2 resort openings will be delayed at least 2 weeks.
Thanks for the heads up–I had not seen or heard that. Just independently replicated your results and updated the post accordingly!
Also for Dec. I was just looking at Coronado Springs from the 12th-18th and the same window popped up. I wonder if they really have no plans to open this year. hm…
When making my Park Pass reservations for our October trip, I noticed the wording on the Disney website: “Select Arrival Window – show up anytime during this time frame to enter the park”.
Of course right now the only button to click on is “Park Open – Close” but I wonder if they’ve designed this page in such a way that (at some point down the road) they will be able to add a drop down menu of different time slots?
Do you think this may be any kind of foreshadowing bringing back Park Hopping?*excited squeal* Although thinking through that, I’m not sure how that’s feasible because when people “check-in” to a park for the day there’s not really a way for them to regulate guests leaving if they have an afternoon reservation at a different park…