Disneyland Reopening Speculation Superthread

[twinsmama]

Hi all, I’ve just caught up on the last 20 or so pages. I haven’t been on the boards in a very long time.

Living in Cali I would be extremely surprised if they allow out of state guests before July (or later).

my toddler turns 3 in the middle of May and pre-Covid I had planned to take him for his birthday...so now I am stalking for information hoping I can snag tickets. Also hoping a Grand Californian reservation won’t be required at first—the Disney travel planner I talked to this morning mentioned that as a possibility

 

[DisneyJamieCA]

Hi all, I’ve just caught up on the last 20 or so pages. I haven’t been on the boards in a very long time.

Living in Cali I would be extremely surprised if they allow out of state guests before July (or later).

my toddler turns 3 in the middle of May and pre-Covid I had planned to take him for his birthday...so now I am stalking for information hoping I can snag tickets. Also hoping a Grand Californian reservation won’t be required at first—the Disney travel planner I talked to this morning mentioned that as a possibility

They said that an on-site stay might be required to go? If that happens, hopefully it’s gone by the time we go!

 

[TikiTikiFan]

Out of curiosity given the recent reports about safety, when you say "hotel," what are you referring to? I'm considering a solo trip this spring, which I've never done before (usually with DH), so I'm thinking about the safety issue, too.

Hotel with interior hallways vs. a motel with exterior room entrances. Usually I avoid motels when I travel in general- we've never stayed at a motel at DLR before. Not saying they aren't safe, just my general comfort level prefers hotels. Usually I always use the ART (never walk at night) and use hotels and never felt unsafe traveling alone (aside from my kiddo) to DLR before.

I'm used to living near homeless (I live close to a downtown area and they're walking our neighborhoods a lot lately...) so not to say I've never experienced that before. But we've had a lot of crime, more so from roaming transients though that get mixed in, in our town these past few months so I'm a little edgier than usual. I'm on vacation- I don't want to have to worry about it and that sorta thing.

 

[DisneyJamieCA]

Hotel with interior hallways vs. a motel with exterior room entrances. Usually I avoid motels when I travel in general- we've never stayed at a motel at DLR before. Not saying they aren't safe, just my general comfort level prefers hotels. Usually I always use the ART (never walk at night) and use hotels and never felt unsafe traveling alone (aside from my kiddo) to DLR before.

I'm used to living near homeless (I live close to a downtown area and they're walking our neighborhoods a lot lately...) so not to say I've never experienced that before. But we've had a lot of crime, more so from roaming transients though that get mixed in, in our town these past few months so I'm a little edgier than usual. I'm on vacation- I don't want to have to worry about it and that sorta thing.

I’m the same way about hotels. I like indoor corridors, even if it means staying a little further away.

 

[TikiTikiFan]

I’m the same way about hotels. I like indoor corridors, even if it means staying a little further away.

And there's good budget option hotels too... I love my budget Clarion- it's nothing fancy but I always feel so safe there!

Oh! And if you wanted to stay further out, Uber/Lyft is always an option. We used to take ART (Anaheim Resort Transit) buses many, many years ago when we stayed further south of the park but I have no idea the state of the buses more recently.

I love the ART bus! I know it gets some hate but I always use it when we go. I'll be curious to see how it operates once things are open again! I'm sure it'll have to do reduced capacity- wonder how that will impact the reliability of it then? Especially at the end of the day?

 

[disneycat321]

So, how far out does everyone think we’ll be able to make reservations once they open them? I haven’t followed WDW’s closely enough to know what that looked like there. And how many days at once? (I’m assuming no PH, which will be extra weird at DLR!)

 

[brightlined]

So, how far out does everyone think we’ll be able to make reservations once they open them? I haven’t followed WDW’s closely enough to know what that looked like there. And how many days at once? (I’m assuming no PH, which will be extra weird at DLR!)

DL hasn't hinted at all, so it's all pretty up in the air.

My guesses:

1) Definitely no park-hopping, and probably not for a long time, potentially for as long as the capacity restrictions are on. (I believe WDW restricts park hopping on days that parks are heavily reserved, and it's likely that both parks will at max allowed capacity for the foreseeable future.)

2) I think they'll limit park reservations to May and maybe June. I think it'll be relatively limited at first, partially to prevent the system from getting overloaded. (By comparison, Magic Mountain is only accepting reservations right now for April and May, and they could theoretically sell the whole summer if they wanted to.) But limiting it also gives them flexibility to change things up once the parks have fewer restrictions (allowing for different ticket prices / options / etc).

3) WDW limits their APs to three active reservations. While DL won't have APs - given the length of passes that DL most often sells, I feel like three days would be a relatively safe bet. Maybe not in explicit terms - like maybe that's the longest multi-day pass that they initially sell. (I'm wondering if they might not sell multi-day park passes while the park is at 15%, if it's ever open at that level. But WDW allows reservations for the full-length of a multi-day pass, so that wouldn't necessarily be out of the question.) But three park reservations with one-day passes would make sense, too.

Having said that, Disney doesn't seem to have any qualms about letting one person buy eight of a merchandise item that there are only 100 of, so I can't entirely rule out the possibility that they'll let a handful of people dominate the reservation system. But I'm hoping they'll cap it in a reasonable way to spread it out.

4) WDW has a separate reservation bucket for resort guests. It sounds like DL might not do that. But if they do, resort guests might be able to reserve as many as their resort stay (which is what WDW does).

 

[twinsmama]

They said that an on-site stay might be required to go? If that happens, hopefully it’s gone by the time we go!

That’s what the TA said—but I guess she has no way of knowing for sure so it’s still speculation

 

[TikiTikiFan]

1) Definitely no park-hopping, and probably not for a long time, potentially for as long as the capacity restrictions are on. (I believe WDW restricts park hopping on days that parks are heavily reserved, and it's likely that both parks will at max allowed capacity for the foreseeable future.)

There hasn't been any recorded cases (yet) of park hopping at WDW being restricted even during these past few weeks with the heavy spring break crowds. Some of the folks on the DIS WDW boards have been watching it closely and calling the number frequently- so far no one has been turned away. Some folks were even adding park hoppers to their tickets on the fly to get access to parks (like HS) that had no available reservations.

But I don't see that as necessary meaning it will work the same way at Disneyland, park hopping is too different at both parks to really compare.

 

[DLgal]

That’s what the TA said—but I guess she has no way of knowing for sure so it’s still speculation

Well, Disney's official announcement specifically said that hotel reservations do not guarantee a theme park reservation. It sounds like your TA is just making things up.

 

[DLgal]

I actually think there will be park hopping. I think since there are only 2 parks here, it will be much easier to manage by opening or closing park hopping based on real time capacity as people move back and forth. I think it will work the same way it works at WDW, where you have to make a reservation at one park and go there first and then you can hop after 2pm.

I'm guessing the app will indicate current status so people will know before they hop if the park is open for hopping or not.

The lack of nighttime entertainment will mean that demand will be relatively equal between the parks and there won't be times where there are surges.

 

[TikiTikiFan]

My guess with the park pass calendar is it won't go too far out in the future until they can operate with less restrictions. I think once we see many of those state restrictions lifted, it will be a domino effect on steps towards a more 'normal' covid look like what we see at WDW. Out of state guests welcome, calendar going far into 2022, Avengers Campus date released, opening of the remaining hotel, etc etc.

I know a lot of out of state folks are worried by the time we can come the calendar will be full but I really don't think that'll be the case. They're probably going to do a similar 'bucket' system WDW does to add availability later and not release it all at once. Since I'm planning for the holidays, I'm a little edgy about it since that time of year is popular anyways but I'm hopeful they'll release the calendar in shorter bursts.

 

[TikiTikiFan]

Well, Disney's official announcement specifically said that hotel reservations do not guarantee a theme park reservation. It sounds like your TA is just making things up.

I don't think the travel agents know anymore than we do, honestly. Everything they say should be taken with a grain of salt. I was on the phone with Get Away Today about our WDW trip and we were chatting about Disneyland and she basically told me they're in the dark about most of it just as we are and can only speculate.

 

[DLgal]

So, this was the first weekend of TOD and there were lots of mixed reviews. Lots of "working out the kinks" so to speak.

With that said, if you could score an opening weekend reservation to the parks, would you want to go right away? Or wait a week or two so they can "work out the kinks."

This is what I'm currently debating in my head.

 

[amyg1975]

I want to go on opening day.

 

[TikiTikiFan]

With that said, if you could score an opening weekend reservation to the parks, would you want to go right away? Or wait a week or two so they can "work out the kinks."

Some of this might depend on how covid cautious folks might feel. I know when WDW was first working out the kinks there were more issues with people getting too close together, lines forming in areas that were unexpected (so no ground markers) and so on. I remember reading lots of reports those first few weeks that some folks were uneasy but as CMs learned and were more prepared on how to prevent that from happening, it got better.

If it were me and I lived close, I'd want to be there opening day. If I was planning a visit that won't happen again for awhile, I'd wait until they worked the kinks out... especially with no Fastpass and if rides were breaking down and causing lines to back up (I'm looking at you Indy lol!) that might get tough.

 

[DLgal]

I want to go on opening day.

Too bad it's a Friday. Kids have school.

Although we are considering a stay at GCH checking in Friday and doing the parks Sat and Sun, if we can get reservations both days.

 

[Katiebird]

I’d want to go on opening day, or otherwise wait a couple of weeks for them to work out the kinks.

I don’t know if we’ll be going at all anytime soon, though. Kids have fall break end of September/early October so we may just wait until then. Oldest kid will hopefully be vaccinated by then, too.

 

[DLgal]

Some of this might depend on how covid cautious folks might feel. I know when WDW was first working out the kinks there were more issues with people getting too close together, lines forming in areas that were unexpected (so no ground markers) and so on. I remember reading lots of reports those first few weeks that some folks were uneasy but as CMs learned and were more prepared on how to prevent that from happening, it got better.

If it were me and I lived close, I'd want to be there opening day. If I was planning a visit that won't happen again for awhile, I'd wait until they worked the kinks out... especially with no Fastpass and if rides were breaking down and causing lines to back up (I'm looking at you Indy lol!) that might get tough.

Well, by opening day, 3 of the 4 of us will be fully vaccination protected, so I'm not really Covid cautious at this point. That's not part of the debate for me. It's more dealing with potential aggravations while CMs all work to get on the same page in terms of operations and rule enforcement.

 

[midnight star]

I don’t want to do opening day, but maybe within the first 2-3 weeks of it opening. Just to allow the kinks to be worked out.