Amazing Reasons to Visit Walt Disney World in Every Month of 2020
Now that the holiday season is over, you’ve gone back to the drudgery of your work life. From Monday through Friday, you feel like a zombie, and the only thing that gets you through the day is imagining your next vacation. Spoilers: You should want to go to the Most Magical Place on Earth. In fact, I’ve got 12 great reasons to visit Walt Disney World in 2020.
January – Beauty and the Beast Sing-Along
Yes, we’re doing this by calendar configuration! Walt Disney World will host so many exciting attractions and events during 2020 that you’ll have a reason to visit each month.
For starters, Disney will introduce three new Epcot shows in January. The France pavilion will host the one that’s sure to claim the largest crowds. Everyone loves Beauty and the Beast, and a singalong live show will make this pavilion a priority.
During January, you’ll also find Awesome Planet at The Land pavilion and Canada Far and Wide in Circle-Vision 360 at the Canada pavilion. While Disney overhauls Future World, the company will encourage guests to spend more time at the World Showcase, which is always a fantastic idea.
February – Space 220
Sure, Walt Disney World opens a bunch of new restaurants every year. However, some of them come with higher status and scrutiny than the rest. Two will arrive during 2020, the first of which qualifies as the most daring.
Space 220 will transport guests 220 miles into the sky, where they’ll gaze down on the Earth from outer space. The experience will start when you enter the restaurants as “elevators” with digital projection screens simulate space travel.
You’ll believe that you’ve escaped Earth’s atmosphere before you even get a table for your meal! Even by Disney standards, Space 220’s immersion will blow your mind.
March – Mickey & Minnie’s Runaway Railway
Neither Mickey Mouse nor Minnie Mouse has ever headlined a Disney theme park ride. That statement seems difficult to believe, yet it’s true. Of course, it won’t be true in March, when Mickey & Minnie’s Runaway Railway finally opens.
This attraction takes the place of The Great Movie Ride, a staple of Disney’s Hollywood Studios since day one. As such, Mickey & Minnie’s Runaway Railway will immediately become the anchor at the center of the park.
This ride will enable guests to live out the dream of entering a cartoon, where you’ll help Mickey & Minnie survive a series of perilous predicaments.
It employs something that Disney calls a 2.5D perspective, which is 3D where you don’t need glasses to notice the dimensional effects. Other upcoming Disney rides have gotten more attention, but this one will be a crowd favorite.
April – Drawn to Life
During 2017, Cirque du Soleil closed La Nouba, the longstanding show at Disney Springs. At the time, the company indicated that another presentation would replace La Nouba. Alas, that production has taken several years.
On April 17th, Drawn to Life will open to the public after a few weeks of trial performances. This show represents a first-of-its-kind collaboration between Disney and Cirque du Soleil.
Acrobats will celebrate Disney animated classics through interpretative performances. Cirque du Soleil shows are always wildly popular, but Drawn to Life should garner a lot of attention for Disney Springs.
May — Epcot International Flower & Garden Festival
Disney hosts four different annual exhibitions at Epcot, and I was sorely tempted to include all of them. Each one provides good reason to visit Walt Disney World, as the food kiosks serve delicious international cuisine at low prices.
Most people prefer the event that I’ll discuss for August, but my choice arrives in March and remains until June 1st. The Epcot International Flower & Garden Festival does more than serve delectable dishes and potent potables.
The festival also features impressive shrubbery sculpting. Imagineers turn bushes into your beloved Disney characters, giving you unforgettable backdrops for your family vacation photos.
June – Remy’s Ratatouille Adventure
While a third ride might sneak into the conversation by the end of 2020, we know for sure that two high-caliber attractions will debut during the first half of the year. The one that has received the most headlines is Remy’s Ratatouille Adventure.
People are jazzed about this one because they’ve wanted it for so long. Disneyland Paris opened the original version of the ride in 2014. Ever since then, American Disney fans have clamored for one at Walt Disney World. They’ll get their wish during the summer of 2020 when the France pavilion will open its take on the Remy ride.
Since the Disney Skyliner opened, guests have had an easy time tracking the progress of Remy’ Ratatouille Adventure. The gondola system travels right past the host building. As for the ride, you get shrunk down to Remy’s size and must navigate your way through the kitchen scenes from the movie. It’s going to be great!
July – Roundup Rodeo BBQ
The open secret about Toy Story Land at Hollywood Studios is that it lacks restaurant options. There’s Woody’s Lunch Box, and…whatever you bring in from other parts of the park. And the seating at Woody’s Lunch Box is the closest thing to Lord of the Flies that you’ll ever find at a Disney theme park.
In short, Roundup Rodeo BBQ matters because Toy Story Land desperately needs it. To date, all we really know about the restaurant is that it’ll have a Toy Story-themed interior and lots of BBQ. That’s good enough for me!
Our first look at Rodeo Roundup BBQ
August – Epcot International Food & Wine Festival
We still don’t have the official dates for the 2020 iteration of the Epcot International Food & Wine Festival yet. But we know that it’s opened in August each of the past three years.
So, it’s a safe guess that the alpha of Epcot festivals will return this month. Once again, it’ll have food. And wine. What more could you possibly need?
September – HarmonioUS
Disney has stated emphatically that Epcot Forever only temporarily ends evenings at Epcot. It’s a placeholder fireworks presentation while Imagineers work on the actual replacement for IllumiNations: Reflections of Earth.
This fall, Disney will unveil HarmonioUS for the first time. And you’ll want to visit when that happens so that you can say you saw it when the presentation was brand new. IllumiNations ran for almost exactly 20 years, and so there’s every reason to believe that HarmonioUS might do the same.
October – Mickey’s Not-So-Scary Halloween Party
Disney theme parks possess fairly restrictive rules about costumes. Adults get shut out of the ability to dress like their favorite characters. So, they must DisneyBound instead.
When Magic Kingdom hosts Mickey’s Not-So-Scary Halloween Party, the rules change. You CAN wear a costume, and I mean a full-fledged one, not just something that involves color schemes.
Plus, you get to Trick-or-Treat for the first time since before you hit puberty! This ticketed event has become one of the most popular things to do at Walt Disney World all year. You’ll have about 40 chances to catch it in 2020.
November – Holiday Decorations/Candlelight Processional
The moment that the clock strikes midnight on Halloween, Disney flips the switch for the holiday season. The spooky decorations come down, while the yuletide lights and Christmas trees go up. When you time it right, you can combine Halloween and Christmas during the same Disney vacation!
I’d recommend that you visit later in the month, though. Around Thanksgiving, Epcot’s World Showcase begins its holiday run of Candlelight Processional presentations. During these events, celebrity hosts narrate the Nativity Story, while an impressive chorus sings holiday classics.
During a holiday visit, you should also do some resort hopping. All official Disney hotels decorate for the holidays, and some of them go all out.
For example, Disney’s Grand Floridian Resort & Spa runs a temporary holiday cookie store…in an actual gingerbread house. And Disney’s Beach Club Resort somehow operates a gingerbread carousel. You’ll admire these holiday decorations so much that you may make a holiday trip to Disney an annual tradition
December – Mickey’s Very Merry Christmas Party
Speaking of which, Disney hosts another ticketed event over the holidays. Mickey’s Very Merry Christmas Party is precisely what it sounds like. Disney throws parades and special fireworks to celebrate Christmas.
You get the run of the park at a time when it’s closed to regular guests. And some of the rides receive unique holiday overlays that will make them feel like entirely new experiences. Plus, you get festive drinks and snacks with your paid admission!
As you can see, Walt Disney World legitimately gives you good reasons to visit every month in 2020! You should speak with a MickeyTravels agent to decide which dates work best for your family.
