Best Things That Happened at Disneyland This Year
In 2020, the Happiest Place on Earth closed in March and then never reopened. That says everything about that year, doesn’t it?
Well, things got better in 2021. Here are the best things that happened at Disneyland this year!
Disneyland Reopened
Let’s start with the obvious one. In July of 2020, park officials got the rug swept out from under them.
A surge in pandemic numbers caused California’s health department to enforce strict rules about public gatherings.
Few things in California involve larger daily gatherings than Disneyland. So, after a promised restart date of July 17th, the park stayed closed all year.
In early 2021, hope unexpectedly arrived in the form of two reliable vaccines. As more people took their shots, Coronavirus numbers declined.
Eventually and almost anticlimactically, California relaxed its restrictions. Soon afterward, Disneyland announced its reopening.
On April 30th, the Happiest Place on Earth was back in business, albeit with an asterisk. Initially, Disney could only host in-state guests.
Out-of-state guests wouldn’t return until June 15th. Let me tell you. That was a gooood day for MickeyBlog.
Around the same time, Disney’s Grand Californian Hotel & Spa reopened, allowing guests to stay inside the Disney Bubble during the trip.
Historians and trivia buffs will remember the dates of April 30th and June 15th, 2021, for many years to come.
Avengers Campus Debuted
Here’s one that caught us by surprise. When Disneyland Resort closed, Avengers Campus was only three months away from opening.
In fact, Disney officials had announced the opening date mere days before the world fell apart.
When Avengers Campus failed to open with Disneyland, we naturally wondered whether we would see this place in 2021.
Then, Disney stunned us by announcing that Avengers Campus would debut on June 4th, only about five weeks after Disneyland.
Imagineers had scurried behind the scenes to complete work on the new Marvel themed land during the pandemic. So it was ready at the same time as the rest of the park.
Management chose not to open it in April as a way of suppressing demand. After all, Park Passes had already limited how many people could visit.
Disney had no reason to taunt everyone else until such a time as they could experience Avengers Campus as well.
So, Disney waited until a few days before out-of-state guests could return. It was a trial period to ensure Avengers Campus was ready for a crowd surge.
Thankfully, everything worked wonderfully. The new themed land thrilled us with its new shows and impressive attraction, WEB SLINGERS: A Spider-Man Adventure.
Touch of Disney Debuts
Many of Disneyland’s best stories in 2021 connect together.
To wit, Disneyland could have opened sooner if not for a funny hiccup.
Park officials openly defied California’s health department over the arcane semantics of public gatherings rules.
Someone at Disney realized that the parks couldn’t operate rides. However, a loophole allowed the company to use the same space to sell food and merchandise.
The whole thing is insane because the same people would attend both events. Yet, somehow, one was legal while the other wasn’t.
So, park officials hosted the first-ever Touch of Disney. This food festival proved so popular that it collapsed the entire reservation system.
Within hours, everything had sold out, forcing Disney to add new dates. Unfortunately, I suspect California got its revenge by keeping Disney in the dark about return dates.
By the time management realized Disneyland could reopen, Touch of Disney had already taken several dates in April.
Really, none of the Disney fans cared, though. Touch of Disney proved wildly popular. In fact, I fully expect officials to turn this into a regular event.
Disneyland Becomes SuperSite for COVID Vaccinations
At some point, Disney executives decided they could either be part of the problem or the solution.
With Disneyland closed indefinitely, the company led by example. It turned part of the land into a SuperSite for COVID vaccinations.
Even before Touch of Disney, the campus reopened as a pod wherein people could get their shots.
This SuperSite had delivered more than 233,000 (!) doses to California residents by the time it closed.
That makes Disneyland one of America’s most effective vaccine pod sites during the pandemic!
Annual Passes Return
Okay, I’m treading into dangerous waters here. I realize that some Disneyland fans have expressed their displeasure with the new annual pass program.
Still, I recently went through pretty much every article MickeyBlog published on the topic this past year.
I can confirm that many experts suggested that Disneyland would never bring back annual passes.
The perception was that the program had failed because it discouraged out-of-state visitors while failing to gain enough revenue from Southern California locals.
So, when Disneyland confirmed the debut of the Magic Key program, many people rejoiced.
In fact, so many people wanted it back that the most expensive tier of Magic Key, the Dream Key, sold out in just two months.
Yes, the implementation of the new program has struggled and experienced several hiccups.
Despite those (sizable) issues, annual passes returned at Disneyland. That’s a win, and we shouldn’t take it for granted.
Jungle Cruise Gets a Refresh
Imagineers always face challenges with refurbishments and renovations. Anything they touch traces back to previous generations of park planners.
That statement is doubly true at Disneyland, where many remaining attractions opened at the same time as the park in 1955!
One of them is Jungle Cruise, the ride that Walt Disney famously wanted to include live animals. He also didn’t plan it as a joke ride.
These are stories for another time, though. The point is more that much has changed since 1955. Things we found funny then we recognize as in poor taste now.
So, as part of its implementation of the Fifth Key, inclusion, Disney decided to modify Jungle Cruise.
At Magic Kingdom, the park had already reopened. For this reason, Imagineers had to work under cover of night to renovate the outdated elements.
At Disneyland, park officials took advantage of the closure to make enhancements.
When the Happiest Place on Earth reopened, Jungle Cruise wasn’t ready yet. Instead, guests would wait another two months for the new, story-driven version of the ride.
We’d all agree the changes were worth the wait, though. The new version updates Jungle Cruise for another generation of adoring fans. It’s terrific!
Snow White’s Enchanted Wish Debuts
While Jungle Cruise needed more time in the oven, another re-theming was ready when Disneyland reopened.
The promised update of Snow White’s Scary Adventures debuted on April 30th.
On that date, Disney banished the darkness and embraced the light. Snow White’s Enchanted Wish casts our heroine in a better situation.
Sure, she’s still asleep until love’s true kiss awakens her, but then she gets her happily ever after.
The new version has reinvigorated this ride building. The former Scary Adventures had lost its pizazz, while guests adore the new theming.
By the way, I didn’t count it since the ride’s re-theming won’t finish until early 2022.
Still, the changes already in place at Roger Rabbit’s Car Toon Spin qualify as a huge 2021 highlight as well.
Return of Holiday Events
Finally, I’ll cram together three other significant moments from 2021 at Disneyland.
After a gap year, Haunted Mansion Holiday returned and immediately reminded Disneyland fans of its greatness.
Similarly, the park hosted another Halloween after-hours event, Oogie Boogie Bash – A Disney Halloween Party.
However, the most unexpected development occurred in November and December.
For the first time ever, Disney Very Merriest After Hours provided guests with tons of holiday fun.
Thanks to these attractions, during the last few months of the year, Disneyland finally felt like the Happiest Place on Earth again!