Disney Attraction Closures

Disney World parks have now been reopened for two weeks.  How it’s going seems to depend a lot on who you talk to.  Now that the dust has settled a little bit on the reopening, we wanted to update you on a few announcements Disney has made since the parks reopened.  Disney has announced Disney attraction closures, both temporary and permanent. There are also several highly anticipated upcoming attractions that have been put on the back burner, modified or cancelled altogether.

Resort Opening Changes

Disney has decided NOT to reopen Disney’s Beach Club Resort and Disney’s Boardwalk Inn until further notice.  Disney’s Port Orleans French Quarter and Disney’s Port Orleans Riverside Resorts will both remain closed until further notice.  In addition, the three All Star value resorts and Pop Century resorts remain closed at this time.

Disney has pushed back the reopening of both Disney’s Polynesian Village Resort and Disney’s Art of Animation Resort.

Here is the new schedule of the resorts that are scheduled to reopen this year.

• • • July 29:Disney’s Caribbean Beach Resort
    • August 24: Disney’s Yacht Club Resort
    • September 21: Disney’s Grand Floridian Resort & Spa
    • October 4: Disney’s Polynesian Village Resort
    • October 14: Disney’s Coronado Springs Resort
    • November 1: Disney’s Art of Animation Resort

It is important to remember that all these dates are still subject to change.  Disney continues to evaluate the health situation and what is happening in the state of Florida.

Spaceship Earth Refurbishment

Previously, Disney had planned to close Spaceship Earth in May 2020 for a two to three year refurbishment.  Read about that here.

When the parks reopened, fans were happy to see that Spaceship Earth reopened, right along with the rest of EPCOT attractions.  Shortly after reopening, Disney announced that plans to refurbish/reimagine Spaceship Earth had been paused indefinitely.

At this time, no additional information has been released.  If you’ve ridden Spaceship Earth anytime over the last year or two, you’ve probably noticed that it needs refurbishment.  Some areas of the ride, and many of the ride vehicles look worn.

Why the pause? In short: Money.  Disney lost more than $1 billion during the first month the parks were closed, and when the next quarter’s results are released, that loss will no doubt be mind boggling large.  As a result, it is likely that Disney will be scaling back on planned projects, or even canceling projects to control spending until the parks start to recover financially. This, unfortunately, is likely to take YEARS.

We suspect that Spaceship Earth will close at some point either in 2021 or 2022 for a few months for cleaning and refurbishment, but it is doubtful that the substantial refurbishment originally planned will happen at all.  This is not official, this is just our opinion.  On the upside, if you are planning to visit the parks over the next 18 months, most likely Spaceship Earth will be open.

Mary Poppins Attraction

For as long as Disney has been building attractions, there have been rumors that a Mary Poppins themed attraction would be built.  For many, the very brief Mary Poppins scene in the now-gone Great Movie Ride was a favorite scene.  When Mary Poppins Returns was released in 2018, a resurgence of interest in Mary Poppins was born. When Disney announced that at long last, a Mary Poppins themed attraction was going to land in the UK Pavilion at EPCOT, many fans were THRILLED. While very few details were ever released about the planned attraction, it was officially announced. The attraction was included in the presentation at the Epcot Experience in the Odyssey Events Pavilion.  The attraction has now been removed from that presentation.

Disney officially announced that the planned Mary Poppins attraction has been “postponed”.  In this case, it is likely that the attraction will never materialize.  It doesn’t appear that the attraction had gotten very far down the imagineering road, and given the financial losses Disney sustained this year?  It doesn’t look good for our girl Mary.  Hopefully, we are wrong, and we will eventually see this attraction move ahead.  It is unlikely to happen for several years, however,  and we suspect other properties will be higher priorities by then.

Disney Attraction Closures

Along with announcing postponements, Disney also announced some attraction closures.  For the most part, these were not surprising.

Stitch’s Great Escape

Disney has permanently closed Stitch’s Great Escape.  This controversial ride was (in our opinion) a ham fisted overlay of the failed scary attraction, Alien Adventure.  After many guest complained, Alien Adventure was closed and a new “story” was created to make the attraction less scary and more funny, using the same basic attraction features.  Stitch was stuck into the “story”, assumably to attract younger children and families to try the new version of the attraction.

The attraction was never very popular. In our opinion, it didn’t really work.  The story was neither fun nor funny, and including Stitch didn’t really make much sense.  The ride wasn’t as scary, it was more gross—and while that can be both fun and funny, in this case…it really wasn’t.

For the last couple of years, Stitch’s Great Escape has been closed more than it’s been opening. The attraction has opened a few times a year when crowds are particularly high to try and give people another attraction to visit.  Disney’s decision to permanently close the attraction and no longer use it for overflow suggests it wasn’t really working in that capacity either. We suspect even the most loyal Stitch fan will not be sorry to see this attraction go.

We hope this space will be used for a really terrific Tomorrowland attraction at some point in the future.  Unfortunately, this is unlikely to happen any time in the next 2-5 years.

Primeval Whirl

Primeval Whirl is another not-very-popular attraction that is now officially closed, per Disney’s recent announcement.  Located in Dinoland at Animal Kingdom, Primeval Whirl is part of the “carnival” section of Dinoland.  It’s very much an “off the shelf” attraction, similar to basic attractions you’d find at an actual carnival or very basic theme park.  It certainly lacked any “Disney Magic”.

Much like Stitch’s Great Escape, Primeval Whirl has been mostly closed for the last  couple of years.  Disney opened Primeval Whirl occasionally, when crowds were especially high. We doubt there is a plan to replace Primeval Whirl.  Likely, Disney just decided to close it permanently to reduce training and operating costs for a rarely used, unpopular attraction.

Rivers of Light

The announcement that Animal Kingdom’s nighttime show, Rivers of Light, would NOT be returning permanently was a surprise and a disappointment.  Part of the Animal Kingdom expansion when Disney decided the park needed to be a full day “experience”, Rivers of Light was a unique nighttime show unlike anything else on Disney property.

Disney built a gorgeous waterside theater near the Finding Nemo the Musical theater to house Rivers of Light when it was designed.  Because of the animals, nighttime entertainment at Animal Kingdom cannot include fireworks, explosions or loud pyrotechnics like we are used to seeing at most Disney nighttime shows.

Rivers of Light uses hauntingly beautiful music, stained glass floats, dancing waters and water projections to entertain.  It’s a slower, quieter show, but very beautiful to look at and a nice way to unwind at the end of a busy day.

We are disappointed that Disney will not be bringing the show back, but we hope those beautiful floats and that theater will be used for SOMETHING in the future.  Again, due to financial constraints, it is unlikely we will see anything for a few years.  (SIGH).

Projects in Process

There are quite a few projects in process around Walt Disney World.  Unfortunately, we don’t know the current status on most of these projects. We are assuming work is progressing, but we’ve had no announcements.

For example, the Ratatouille themed attraction originally slated to open in “Summer 2020” has not opened.  The signs outside the attraction building that used to say “Summer 2020” have been removed.  The attraction was in fairly good shape prior to the parks closing in March.  We would have thought the attraction would be opening perhaps late summer or early fall at the latest, based on construction delays caused by Covid-19. However, Disney has not made any announcements or been talking about this attraction at all.  We suspect that with the parks opened with limited capacity and the health crisis still looming, Disney has decided to save this attraction for when the parks are welcoming more guests, and they can generate positive buzz for the attraction.  Just speculation on our part, but we think they may want a bigger “good news” announcement than they would likely get right now.

Similarly, Space 220 is a new table service restaurant, originally planned to open late 2019 and pushed back to Summer 2020.  There has been no news on this restaurant for months, so we suspect it will not open this year.  We hope to be wrong as we are very anxious to check this one out.  Unfortunately, we doubt we are wrong.

Big Coming Attractions

The Guardians of the Galaxy roller coaster and the Tron Lightcycle coaster ride are both projects scheduled for completion sometime in 2021.  We’ve had no information on these, but hopefully they are still on track.

We’ve also had no significant updates on the reconfiguring of EPCOT’s main entrance and future world.  This is another project not expected to finish until sometime next year.  This is a project that we think will be scaled WAY back from the original plans.  It will be interesting to see what happens with this fairly massive project over the next 12 months.

Disney Attraction Closures: What About the PARKS???

The big question, of course, is will Walt Disney World close the parks again. We just don’t know the answer to that one.  It is possible, especially considering how fast new cases are emerging in Florida every day.  While we are confident that Disney will do everything in its power to keep from closing down, they also don’t want to jeopardize public health, their image or their bottom line.  There are a lot of things that could (and should) factor into a decision to close the parks again. Hopefully, it will not become necessary.  We will keep you posted as we learn more in the days ahead!

Are you upset or worried by any of the closures or postponements mentioned above?  Please like this post and comment below.

Happy Dreaming!

Brooke