We will be going straight from the famine to the feast.
Yesterday's announcement that Disneyland will open its reimagined Snow White ride whenever the park is allowed to reopen adds to the logjam of new attractions when southern California's theme parks return.
At least two other new attractions will be good to go on the day that their parks are cleared to reopen, with two more potentially being ready for reopening-day visitors. But will local parks go ahead and open their new attractions right away? Or will they hold back and wait to debut the new stuff until later?
It all comes down to when, and under what conditions, southern California's theme parks may reopen. If capacities are limited — as they are now elsewhere, due to physical distancing recommendations — parks will have to decide whether the new attractions will help expand their limited capacity or overwhelm the parks with additional demand.
After all, if parks can sell only a limited amount of tickets, will they really need new attractions to hit that number for the first few weeks after the parks are cleared to return? If not, maybe it would be smarter for parks to wait to launch their new stuff until it can help their front-gate sales.
But if California's theme parks do not reopen until vaccination is widespread and infection rates fall to near zero, they might not need to abide by capacity restrictions. In that case, promoting new attractions might help them stand out in what promises to be a rush of businesses trying to earn cooped-up consumers' money.
Here is what is on deck in southern California:
Secret Life of Pets was slated to open for annual passholder previews the very day that local theme parks closed due to the pandemic in March. In addition, Knott's Berry Farm has said that its interactive-ride replacement for Voyage to the Iron Reef will be ready whenever the park reopens.
Legoland's The Lego Movie World was scheduled for a big press event debut in late March last year, so it should be ready to go, if not right at reopening, then soon after. And SeaWorld's Bolliger & Mabillard dive coaster was testing prior to the Covid-19 shutdown, so it was just a matter of getting its station ready for guests.
I am assuming that Disney California Adventure's Avengers Campus will not debut immediately when the Disneyland theme parks reopen, but the longer this closure continues, the more likely it becomes that Avengers Campus might be in play, too. But I am guessing that Disney will wait a beat or two after the parks' return in order to mount a big PR push for that new Marvel-themed land.
From a completely selfish perspective, it's hard to imagine southern California's theme parks getting the green light to reopen on the same day... then having to choose from among five different, simultaneous press events to cover their new attraction openings. But let's imagine that all five of these parks do reopen with new attractions. Whether you visit on the day they reopen or wait until weeks later, which destination would be your first choice to visit?
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Having already been to The Lego Movie World in Florida, I'd be in no rush to see that. The Snow White upgrades look nice, but I doubt they'll be extensive enough to generate a whole lot of anticipation out of me. I'm sure Emperor and Knott's Bear-y Tales will be fine rides, but it's The Secret Life of Pets that has me excited the most. Universal hasn't built a animatronic-heavy ride in 20 years, so it's going to be very interesting to see if they have what it takes to do next-level robots on a big scale.
I've heard from a fairly reliable source that Emperor was still at least two months from opening at the time SWSD closed, almost no work has occurred on the ride since then, and that the park won't be resuming work until they have a firm opening date with no possibility of a second closure. Therefore, I'd say best case scenario is a summer opening for that one, not when the park reopens (which will hopefully happen this spring).
Of the other four, I'd say Secret Life of Pets is the most intriguing to me, as I know very little about the attraction other than that it's an omnimover style with mostly physical sets. However, I'm not planning to return to USH until Nintendo opens, so I probably won't be getting to it at any point in 2021. The one I'll most likely visit first is Knott's Bear-y Tales, both because I have a Cedar Fair pass and because I anticipate Knott's Berry Farm will be the first major theme park to reopen once the okay is given.
It will definitely be Secret Life of Pets due to it might open on team member preview before the park opens to the public.
While I'm a Disney guy at heart (and a former Disneyland cast member), it's been a LONG time since I've visited Knott's Berry Farm, and have fond memories of the old Knott's Bear-y Tales. So while a Disneyland trip would probably be first on my list, and I would very likely experience Snow White's Enchanted Wish, the new version of Bear-y Tales would probably be the most likely to pique my interest.
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I’d be most excited to visit Avengers Campus, and the new Spider-Man ride.