Theme Park News Update - December 2020

Nuts about Theme Parks

This month's news:

• In American theme parks it’s really been a story of two coasts. California has accepted the worsening Covid situation over the last month while Florida has continued to ignore the fact that anything is happening.

• In southern California, a new Regional Stay Home came into effect, as ICU capacity in the 11-county region has dropped below the prescribed 15 percent. This spelled the end of numerous planned Christmas events including the Taste of Knotts Merry Farm and the Holidays at Legoland event at Legoland California.

• Disney has respond to the stay at home order by moving one of its famous food offerings. The iconic Disneyland hand-dipped corn dog is now on the menu at the Magic Kingdom's Sleepy Hollow.

• Disneyland did share a preview of its newly redesigned Snow White ride in Fantasyland, which will be renamed Snow White’s Enchanted Wish.

• In Florida, all the resorts have increased capacity again, with universal Orlando having 4 days over the Christmas break where they reached full capacity.

• They also did a vehicle reveal for their up coming Velocicoaster.

• They also opened Universal's Endless Summer Resort - Dockside Inn and Suites, adding 2,050 budget-priced guest rooms for visitors to the resort.

• At Epcot they’ve opened the new fountain and entrance plaza.

• They installed the massive new platforms that will help stage the upcoming Harmonious nighttime show on World Showcase Lagoon.

• The woman who started the Ratatouille musical on TikTok was flown from New York to get a sneak peek at the new Ratatouille ride.

• And they announced the "Taste of Epcot International Flower & Garden Festival" will run from March 3, 2021 through July 5.

• In general WDW news, Disney's Blizzard Beach water park will reopen to guests for the 2021 season on March 7.

• Outside the US is also a mixed bag, with Europe largely closed as the second wave hits hard over there. Efteling was the biggest park to close in December as most of the others had already closed.

• In Japan, Tokyo Disney has announced its pricing will increase on weekends and holidays from March 20th.

• Probably the most exciting theme park news for this month was from Universal Studios Japan, where we got our first official glimpse inside Super Nintendo World with a video hosted by the creator of Mario Shigeru Miyamoto. The video was packed with insane details of this much anticipated land, and is very much worth watching.

• The land is also in a soft opening phase, where annual pass holders can preview the land, with strict rules around the distribution of media from the land. The official opening date of the land is February 4th, 2021.