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WDW Magic Kingdom: General Discussion

Pleasure Beach Valhalla said:
Can someone please just remind me what rides have been opened and closed over the last 5 years?!
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Just at the Magic Kingdom or all of WDW?

Nothing new at Magic Kingdom in the last five years off the top of my head. Seven Dwarves Mine Train is about 6 years old.
They added a Muppets history show and then closed it again.
Stitch's Great Escape closed permanently.
Tron will open but probably in 2022.

At the other WDW parks, Pandora (Avatar) and Galaxy's Edge (Star Wars) are the biggest additions with Ratatouille due to open at Epcot this year (2021) and Guardians of the Galaxy Coaster coming later 2021 or 2022.
Maelstrom at Epcot changed to Frozen around seven or eight years ago.
The Backlot tour at the studios and the moters action show closed to make way for Star Wars.
Primeval Whirl at Animal Kingdom has closed.

There are some other closures (particularly live entertainment) for Covid but they should return at some point.
 
We have been planning to go to Florida as a family for the first time in 2022 for a few years as my son will then be 8. I have been 3 times before he came along though.

Do people think 2022 is going to be crazy busy? It will hopefully be the first year that the world has got Covid under control plus it's still the 50th anniversary of WDW. I imagine a lot of people who were planning on going in 2020 and 2021 will have changed to 2022 now. It does put me off booking a little. I can imagine the parks will be absolutely stupid busy in last two weeks of August when we intended to visit.
 
I am sure will be busy as it most of the time now (apart from currently!) last two weeks of august are actually now actually one of the quietest times to go, American schools go back second week of august. We plan 2022, although will have to go for the first time in August, having always been in autumn before. There there will still be a lot of people putting off travel and also the fact that many peoples finances will have taken a hit, so wouldn't think 2022 will be much busier than say 2018 and 2019. It will be likely 2023 before things start getting fully back to previous attendance levels. Plus it is rumoured Disney are now not planning to open Tron until fall 2022 (hope it opens in summer though) as they are spreading the new attractions out to have biggest impact (Guardians coaster should open in spring/summer 2022). Think i read Disney told investors that it will be at least 2023 before they see a full recovery.

Over recent years Disney and universal have done a great job at changing when people visit and attracting people on what 10 years ago was classed as quiet time. October is now generally busier than a lot of summer time, November has also got increasingly busier. The busiest times now are March & April (Spring break and Easter), End of May until start of august, October, 2nd half of November, mid Dec through to start of Jan.
 
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Last 2 weeks of August is a great time to visit; we always loved going around that sort of time, and crowds aren’t usually too bad (in Orlando terms). As @Maelstrom says, the kids have usually gone back to school by then (on my 2016 holiday, I remember seeing a local news broadcast about the kids going back to school just after we arrived). If you don’t mind very hot temperatures (routinely 30+ degrees, often above 35) and the odd bit of “inclement weather”, then August is a great time to visit, in my opinion.

By comparison, our last holiday in April saw the crowds at what felt like considerably higher levels. The temperature was noticeably cooler (which seems to appeal to many British tourists more) and it also coincided with American spring break.
 
Our last trip was during April and it was incredibly busy in all the Orlando based parks. Only quiet day we had was at BG Tampa.

Think we will still end up going though. Need something like this to look forward to.

Be gutted if Tron isn't open though.
 
We’re hoping to go to Florida in 2022 too, provided all is OK on the COVID front.

Unlike you, though, we’re not actually planning on doing any Disney parks (bar possibly Hollywood Studios, because my dad is a huge Star Wars fan and wants to see Galaxy’s Edge); we’re thinking of going for the same bundle we did in 2016 and doing Universal and the SeaWorld parks.

We had 14-day tickets to all 4 Disney parks on our last holiday, and while we had a brilliant time, our whole family seemed to agree that we personally preferred the Universal and SeaWorld tickets on the whole; I think Universal is more our sort of thing these days, because we’re all practically grown up (for reference, I’m the youngest in the family, and I turn 18 in July).

I can imagine that the Disney parks are absolutely fantastic if you have younger children and are into all the shows and character meet’n’greets and such, however; I’m sure your young son will have a fantastic time @Benjsh! From what I saw when I was at the Disney parks in 2019, I think he’ll be the perfect sort of age for them, especially the likes of Magic Kingdom!
 
I can't see that 2022 will be any busier than any other year, in fact, it could be quieter. With the impact of the coronavirus on economies far and wide, a lot of people just won't have that kind of disposal income posy pandemic. Having said that, there is a lot changing at Disney and new rides at MK and Epcot.

I can actually see that Disney and Co might have to actually reduce prices and introduce more special offers to get people through the turnstiles at least for a couple of years post pandemic.
 
There are a lot of unknowns here. One question is how quickly we recover from the virus itself. That depends on how effective the vaccination programs are. How many mutations will there be? How long will immunity last for? Does the vaccine stop us spreading the virus, or just stop us from getting symptoms?

The other question is how will all of this effect the theme park industry. In some ways regional parks might have an advantage, as global travel is like to be a high risk activity for a long time.

The other questions is how will the economic fallout effect the Orlando parks? I’m not sure which way this will go. Clearly the pandemic’s had a massive impact on the global and American economy. However, it does seem to have affected the poorest much harder than the richest. Disney World is a premium product, where I suspect a lot (but not all) of their visitors are at least reasonably wealthy. It may be that the demographic who goes to Disney World are the ones who have been least affected. They may even be better off, if they’ve been able to carry on working, but have saved more because they’re not going out or having holidays.
 
We haven't ruled out delaying our trip to 2023 yet. Obviously means we have to wait even longer but it would be worth it. He'd be 9 then too so might be more keen on the Busch Gardens Coasters.
 
I knew people who booked for summer 2020 who rolled the holidays over to 2021, so if they roll over again to 2022. Coupled with people who'd originally anticipated going in 2021 or 2022 it could end up being pretty busy.
Let's not forget though Floridas main tourism draw is Americans so as soon as more consumer confidence increases in America as the vaccine rolls out I'd imagine people will be wanting to take those holidays again.
 
Disney done a lot of cost cutting over the past year due to the virus so it’s really put us off staying on site with just the half hour park entry the only thing offered currently but universal my son won’t be tall enough for most of the rides.
It was the free dinning plan which draw me to stay at Disney.

2016 Frozen and soarin around the world
2017 Pandora
2018 Toy Story land
2019 Galaxy Edge
2020 Mickey and Minnie runaway train
2021 Ratatouille maybe Tron coaster
2022 GOTG coaster, Play Pavilion, Tron if it’s delayed
 
The original plan was for ratatouille and the new nighttime show harmonious to open in 2020 and GOTG cosmic rewind to open by summer 2021. This has been pushed back a year with ratatouille expected to open in spring and harmonious will open at some point this year. Currently it’s expert cosmic rewind will open by summer 2022, TRON will likely be fall 2022 (unlikely to be any earlier than this as disney have stated it’s not planned to open during their financial year covering their 50th, Disney financial year runs from October to October)

Other Epcot future plans have either been paused (marry poppins ride and spaceship Earth makeover) or downsized (new festival centre). As there was originally others new additions etc planned for 2022 and 2023.

Despite universal pushing ahead with The Jurassic coaster which will open this summer. They have also paused other future additions. Epic Universe is on hold and I understand any other high capital future additions that planned for 2022 onwards for the existing universal parks are also on hold.
 
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