It was one of the busier weeks for news in recent memory, with updates on Halloween, a major hotel refurbishment, monorail news, and new deals available through December 25. Let’s start with the most festive news—Halloween is coming to Magic Kingdom!
PREVIOUS UPDATE + WDW MASTERPOST
In case you’re behind (it’s easy to fall behind these days…even for us), our last update was on August 25. If you’re brand new and would just like a thorough look at the Disney World reopening, we have a Disney World Reopening Masterpost that covers the basics and links to our deeper content.
Halloween and Fall Coming to Magic Kingdom
With Mickey’s Not So Scary Halloween Party cancelled, many people wondered whether Disney would still put up Halloween decorations, and now we have our answer! Here are the key things to know about Halloween at Magic Kingdom (from the full Parks Blog post here):
Decorations September 15 - October 31. In the past, fall / Halloween decorations haven’t been extensive, but they add a nice hint of the season to the park.
New Halloween Cavalcade + Other Character Experiences. This was a change we expected as soon as the cavalcades were announced. Guests who visit during this time will get to see a new character cavalcade featuring Mickey, Minnie, Pluto, and others dressed for Halloween. Other characters may appear in Halloween outfits throughout the park.
Costumes Allowed. Guests—even adults—will be allowed to wear costumes to the park during this time. Guests should remember to follow the Disney costume policies.
Special Food & Merchandise available. As always, seasonal food and merchandise will be available. For more on the food, check out the Disney Parks Blog Foodie Guide.
Polynesian Reopening Delayed, Refurbishment Coming
Disney’s Polynesian Village Resort, previously scheduled to reopen October 4, will now reopen in Summer 2021. During this time, the hotels will see a refurbishment and new rooms inspired by Moana. The DVC rooms at Polynesian will remain open during this time.
Here’s what we have to say about the current Polynesian rooms in our review of the hotel:
I just can’t bring myself to enjoy these rooms, and they’re among my least at Walt Disney World. To me they show where the muted design trend can really go wrong.
We go on to conclude that while the hotel is overall amazing, the rooms don’t do a great job of justifying a stay—a visit for a meal or just as an escape from Magic Kingdom is a fine way to experience the hotel.
As you might figure, we’re excited about the hotel getting new rooms. These rooms were part of an era when Disney swung too far minimalist, cutting too much theme from rooms without much added function.
Yacht Club and Animal Kingdom Lodge have both gotten more modern redesigns. We love the Yacht Club rooms, and while we preferred to older Animal Kingdom Lodge rooms we enjoy the new rooms, too.
We’ll have to see how the Moana theming plays out, but we expect it to play well with the luxury aspect of the hotel—this won’t be The Little Mermaid rooms at Art of Animation.
Monorail News…More Than Meets The Eye?
Along with this closure, Disney will be suspending monorail service to Polynesian beginning early October. Guests at the DVC rooms can walk to Transportation and Ticket Center to catch the monorail or Ferry Boat to Magic Kingdom there, or they can take a bus (which will be offered beginning early October).
I think there could be more than meets the eye in this news. When fully operational, the monorail runs three lines:
Express Line between Transportation and Ticket Center and Magic Kingdom
Resort Line stopping at TTC, Polynesian, Grand Floridian, Magic Kingdom, and Contemporary
Epcot Line between TTC and Epcot
The Epcot line is currently closed. Polynesian will soon be cut from the Resort Line. Contemporary has a walking path to the park. And, the kicker—the pathway between Grand Floridian and Magic Kingdom is expected to open soon.
Not all guests will want or be able to utilize the pedestrian paths, but if Disney provides limited bus transportation to/from those hotels, they could theoretically shut down monorail service entirely, leaving only buses from the hotels and ferry boats from Transportation and Ticket Center. Even running the monorail only from TTC might be a cost effective way to simplify operations.
I absolutely have not heard any rumors to this effect, but looking at the current trend (cuts) and the low demand, this seems a natural way to simplify operations without much impact on the guest experience. If I’m being pessimistic, we’ll see a close of the monorail system for several months until demand at the parks rebounds.
If I’m being super optimistic, maybe it even creates an opportunity for much-needed monorail upgrades. Disney World’s monorails were last upgraded in 1989 to the Mark VI model. The Disneyland Monorail System uses the Mark VII, following a 2007 upgrade.
We’re not monorail enthusiasts, as you might gather from our relatively quick pivot to “maybe they should just shut it down” when we heard they were pausing service to one hotel. But we follow the news and guest reports enough to know the monorails have been a sore spot of the guest experience more frequently the last few years.
It’s hard to imagine Disney making any significant new upgrades at this point. Costs on ongoing projects are probably already a huge financial strain in light of the tourism downturn.
But monorails aren’t really an optional capital project. They’re a core of the infrastructure and concept of the resort during busy times. There’s never a good time for monorail service to be interrupted by upgrades, but this would certainly be the best time Disney will have for years.
New Disney World Deals Available Through Christmas
You can view the full details of these offers at the Disney website here.
New passholder room discounts. Passholders now have access to up to 40% off deluxe rooms through December 25, with moderate and value hotels having discounts of 35% and 30%.
These deals for passholders aren’t uncommon. While we might have expected to see something a little deeper with the drop in attendance, passholders also might be more inclined to visit hotels than in the past.
Disney’s hotels provide a good opportunity for a “staycation” is a trying time. Plus, passholders who want to have expanded parks pass access can book hotels to access the “Resort Guest” availability rather than the more limited passholder availability.
New southern US discounts. Similarly, residents of Alabama, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, Virginia or West Virginia have access to discounts of 15% to 30% through December 25.
New Room-and-Ticket Package Discount. The “Magic is Here” package discount, available to all guests, offers $60 to $500 off a four-night room-and-ticket package depending on your hotel tier:
$60 for Fort Wilderness Campgrounds
$100 for value hotels
$250 for moderate hotels
$500 for deluxe hotels
This is roughly equivalent to a 25% discount on the room, except that you’ll have to buy tickets with the package, rather than buying them from a discount broker. This means a family of four will be out a few hundred dollars, so the package might not even make sense at the value and moderate levels.
In any case, be sure to compare pricing when booking directly through Disney with pricing when booking hotels and tickets through discount brokers.
New Interview With Josh D’Amaro
I recommend watching this interview with head of Disney parks, Josh D’Amaro, about the reopening of the Disney theme parks: