Prior to the pandemic, Disney had made several announcements regarding changes to the resort leading up to the 50th anniversary. Two of the theme parks, the Magic Kingdom and EPCOT, were to see the most changes.

Since the Magic Kingdom was the only theme park to open in 1971, it was going to be the focus of this year’s anniversary celebrations. At the 2019 D23 Expo, Disney announced a complete transformation of the EPCOT theme park. However, when the coronavirus pandemic shut down the entire world, many plans at Walt Disney World were either terminated, put on hold, or delayed.

The resort is only four months away from the kickoff of the 18-month celebration, whether it is related to the anniversary or not.

Pandemic related activity

When Walt Disney World began its phased reopening last July it required all guests to wear masks throughout the resort. In order to provide some relief for guests, they set up relaxation stations so guests would have a safe area to remove their masks throughout the day. Since the Center for Disease Control (CDC) relaxed its recommendation of mask wearing for fully vaccinated individuals, Disney stated that the mask requirement for those individuals would be lifted. As such, Disney has closed all the relaxation stations throughout the resort.

In addition, Disney is also in the process of reducing or removing the physical distancing markers throughout the resort. Markers at many of the attractions’ extended queues have been removed completely.

Since last July, attractions whose ride vehicles accommodated multiple guests were either sectioned off with plexiglass partitions or were being seated with one party per vehicle or every other row. This procedure helped guests stay a safe distance from either other, but led to longer waits and less guest capacity. Now, Disney has slowly been relaxing this requirement. They are currently removing all partitions and seating every row including Splash Mountain, The Twilight Zone Tower of Terror, and Journey into Imagination.

On 15 June, the State of California will reopen to all visitors and the Disneyland Resort will begin relaxing some pandemic requirements at that time, including temperature checks for all guests.

Today, during a J.P. Morgan Global Technology, Media, and Communications Conference call, Disney CEO Bob Chapek stated that guest capacity will continue to see “low double digits increases.” He did not give any specific numbers or when each of these increases will occur, but it is expected to continue as the park heads towards its 50th anniversary this October. In addition, he reiterated what Disney Parks, Experiences, and Products Chairman, Josh D’Amaro said last August that the reservation system was “here to stay.”

Avengers Campus at Disney California Adventure

The highly anticipated Avengers Campus at Disney California Adventure will finally open to guests on 4 June 2021. Today, Disney made a few announcements in advance of its opening next week. Today, Disney released a map with the location of every attraction, shop, and dining outlet.

Disney has also announced that WEB SLINGERS: A Spider-Man Adventure attraction will utilize a virtual queue system similar to Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance attraction at Disneyland. In addition, although guests have the ability to park hop, they will not be permitted to hold a reservation for WEB SLINGERS and Rise of the Resistance at the same time and will only be permitted to ride the attraction once per day.

Disney College Program

As Walt Disney World is gearing up to restart the Disney College Program, the new recruits will be housed at the new Flamingo Crossings Village complex. Earlier Disney announced the new housing complex will be gender-neutral. In an email to upcoming participants, Disney stated that Cast Members will be separated by vaccination status. Disney said participants must indicate their COVID-19 vaccination status – whether they currently are or will be fully vaccinated by their start date. Although not required and will not affect their hiring status, Disney told upcoming participants that only fully vaccinated individuals will be able to select other fully vaccinated individuals. Those who are not or cannot be vaccinated will be randomly placed with unvaccinated individuals – based on floorplan.

Disney Transportation

Last week a construction truck struck a monorail beam between Disney’s Contemporary Resort and the Magic Kingdom bus loop. The accident caused some damage to the beam and electrical wiring causing a complete shutdown of the entire system. After an inspection and less than 24 hours later, Disney had their “highway in the sky” up and running again.

Since opening in 2019, the Disney Skyliner has been a popular form of transportation between select resorts, Disney’s Hollywood Studios, and EPCOT. However, they have had a few issues including two collisions – one shortly after opening and another last month. In both incidents, no injuries were reported. Today, a minor incident occurred when one gondola’s door appeared to malfunction and a Doppelmayr employee worked on resolving the issue. Although some Disney blogs tried to make this appear more severe than it was, it was not.

When the Walt Disney World reopened last July, the park implemented a staged reopening. Part of that was limiting guest capacity to the theme parks. As the United States, and the State of Florida, are seeing a gradual relaxing of many pandemic restrictions, Disney has been slowly increasing guest capacity at the four theme parks and throughout the entire resort. As a result of more guests, demand for various services is increasing as well – including the Disney Bus service. As Disney works to hire and train more bus personnel the immediate need has required Disney to hire charter buses to bridge the gap. While some blogs are calling this a less magical experience for guests, having guests wait for long periods of time seems to be even less ideal.

Disney’s Animal Kingdom Theme Park

Over at Pandora: World of Avatar, Disney maintenance has been busy repainting the bioluminescence effects on the ground throughout the land. The paint, which has a short life due to the Florida sun, needs to be refreshed on a daily basis.

Disney Resort Hotels

Walt Disney World is still gradually reopening some of the resort hotels throughout the resort. In addition, they are also renovating some of the resorts in advance of the 50th anniversary celebrations. The two resorts that are seeing the biggest transformation are Disney’s Polynesian Village Resort and Disney’s Contemporary Resort, both of which opened up on 1 October 1971.

The Polynesian is seeing extensive work done on the Great Ceremonial House, the arrival area (lobby level area and the Monorail station area), and the infusion of “Moana” throughout the guest rooms. The monorail station was completely dismantled and a new, modified station is being built in its place. The resort is expected to reopen to guests this July.

At this time, Disney’s Contemporary Resort is seeing its tower guest room being reimagined with new furniture, fixture, and soft furnishings. It is rumored the new guests’ rooms will be themed around Pixar’s “The Incredibles” feature film. In addtion to work continuing on the Contemporary’s park side tower guest rooms, Blogmickey.com is reporting that work on the lagoon tower rooms has now started. At this time, Disney has yet to confirm these rumors. The work is expected to be completed sometime this September.

Disneyland Resort

Following Walt Disney World’s lead, Disneyland is now testing out a recycling program. In addition to plastic, paper, glass, and cans, the resort has now installed food waste receptacles. Walt Disney World News Today (WDWNT.com) says the three receptacles, which are currently only located at the Galactic Grill in Tomorrowland, will have one for trash, one for food, and one will be shared for paper, cans, plastic, glass, and a smaller section for liquids and ice.