May was a bit of a wild month as a lot has changed recently! I myself was in Disney World for a week and had an amazing time in the beginning of May. Shortly after I got back Disney World announced they would no longer require masks outdoors. Then booking for the Disney Wish cruise ship opened and many staterooms and sailings booked quickly (I’ll be sailing on it August 1, 2022!). Disneyland announced they would open to out of state guests on June 15th. We had a new movie come out this past weekend and more to come – so Disney is back and busy! Let’s get to our news.
Disney news
- Along with allowing out of state guests into Disneyland on June 15th, the Paradise Pier hotel will also reopen on this date. Disneyland Hotel reopens on July 2.
- The Wave restaurant at the Contemporary resort will be undergoing refurbishment and will be unavailable starting on July 15.
- “Muppets Haunted Mansion” was announced coming to Disney+ this fall – can’t go wrong with anything Muppets in my opinion!
- Broadway will begin to reopen on September 14th, and the Lion King will be one of the first shows returning on that date. Aladdin follows shortly after with a reopening date of September 28.
- Disney World is slowly easing some of their COVID-19 safety measures. Physically distancing has been reduced to 3 feet in some areas and masks are optional outdoors. 6 feet is still occurring in some areas, including restaurants. They are also slowly increasing capacity.
- Everything about the Disney Wish cruise ship looks incredible, but Disney gave even more details on their “first attraction at sea,” the AquaMouse.
- More restaurants at Disney World have reopened or will be reopening, including Cape May Cafe (opened on May 18), Tusker House (reopening “this summer,”) and dinner at Chef Mickey’s (started on May 16).
- The Star Wars Galactic Cruiser will open sometime in 2022 (this is a change from the previously announced 2021 but not unexpected).
- Avengers Campus opens in Disneyland on June 4 and you can get a closer look here.
- Disney Cruise line has cancelled their sailings on the Dream and Fantasy through the end of July, and sailings on the Disney Wonder through July 12th.
- Though it’s not a full Mickey’s Not So Scary Halloween party, a fun “Boo Bash” will be coming in the fall this year to Disney World! Tickets should go on sale sometime this month.
- Hocus Pocus 2 is in fact happening, and Bette Midler, Sarah Jessica Parker and Kathy Najimy will all be returning to their original roles. It’s set to premiere on Disney+ in 2022.
- The Disney Vacation Club is expanding at the Grand Floridian – one of the buildings which currently has “regular” rooms will be converted into DVC studios.
Disney rumors
Cruising // Will Disney cruises be returning soon? Things are starting to look a bit brighter! The CDC is doing away with the requirement for test cruises so long as 98% of the crew and 95% of the passengers are vaccinated, and committed to a July restart. For cruise lines that intend to go forward with simulated voyages, the CDC will now respond to all applications within 5 days instead of their original 60 days. Some Alaska sailings are started with Norwegian Cruise Lines, and Royal Caribbean is going to begin their sailings out of Fort Lauderdale.
Tickets // Could annual passes be returning to Disney World in August? Current annual passholders recently received an email saying they would no longer receive free MagicBands with with Annual Pass purchases and renewals from August 15, 2021, and beyond. It could be that the wording wasn’t careful enough but it does make it sound like purchasing them will be available again.
Epcot // There is still no word on the opening of the Space 220 restaurant, which was originally supposed to open in 2019. It seems like it’s mostly ready, so some of the current speculation is that they are waiting to have more staff and reopen some of their other restaurants before debuting a new one. Perhaps as part of the 50th anniversary celebration?
Other Disney blogs
In the mood for a Dole whip margarita – at home?? Diznify has the recipe based on the drink found at the Polynesian resort and it’s easier to make than you might think! I’ll have to give this one a try.
The Disney Food Blog has the scoop on the new ice cream shop on the Boardwalk that replaced Ample Hills. If you ask me it sounds pretty underwhelming – they are serving Edy’s ice cream and making some basic sundaes – I think you are better off heading over to Beaches and Cream!
Want to read all the details about what I did during my trip this month? I’m awful at writing trip reports but my travel companion, Jenn from Fairest Run of All, has me covered. She has daily trip reports for each day that we were there (9 days!).
And now I’m out of stuff to write about so we need to go back, like, now. ?
Ummm sounds good to me?
Great round-up of the news! I’m so excited to see so many things slowly returning to normal. And I’ve got a new blog to follow! Thanks! -Andrea
Hi Andrea – so glad you found me!
Do you think the Disney cruise line will be affected by the Florida governor’s Executive Order banning businesses from asking patrons if they’ve been vaccinated? Norwegian is considering not using Florida as port anymore.
https://www.wlwt.com/article/major-cruise-ship-company-may-avoid-florida-if-state-doesn-t-permit-covid-19-vaccination-checks/36365514#
Yeah, I’m not sure how they’re going to handle it. Like you said Norwegian may not sail from Florida – Royal Caribbean is but won’t require vaccinations. Not sailing from Florida is probably not an option for Disney just because they have so many cruises leaving from Port Canaveral and do a lot of “land and sea” type bookings where people combine a Disney World trip with a Disney cruise. Of course I’ve also heard that they don’t know if he even has the authority to make that sort of ban and are challenging it legally but who knows how long that all takes.
Reading Jenn’s trip reports and I like her already – another Figment fan!
You two would get along really well – especially bonding over Figment!
I am so glad to hear that Disney is finally opening up! It needed to be done as they didn’t reduce the ticket price but did reduce the activities available.
Yup! They are finally adding back enough to make it feel like it’s “worth it” again.
I’m so excited that Disneyland is reopening to out-of-state guests. I wanted to go for our anniversary at the end of this month, but when we were making plans, it still wasn’t reopened. I’m hoping we can go soon!
Ooh I hope you can go soon! I don’t think I’ll make it until next year but the new Avengers area looks amazing!
I love that you include information about Disney+….that is such valuable information for nearly every family!!
Ample Hills was so good! It’s sad that they have replaced it with something so generic. But Hocus Pocus 2 and Muppets Haunted Mansion both sound like absolute delights, so I’m looking forward to some Disney+ binging coming up! I’ve heard people aren’t super happy about Boo Bash, since it’s a lot smaller but still expensive. I only went to Very Scary once, but it was a lot of fun.
I agree, I’m bummed about Ample Hills 🙁 Though I’ve heard that Salt and Straw may be coming to Florida… now that’s a unique place!