With the cancellation of all Mickey’s Not-So-Scary Halloween Party dates in 2020, Walt Disney World has released information on the now-upcoming EPCOT International Food & Wine Festival, and has released a statement regarding two highly-anticipated holiday season events: Mickey’s Very Merry Christmas Party and the EPCOT International Festival of the Holidays.
The full statement reads as follows:
Looking ahead to the holiday season, this may spark questions about Mickey’s Very Merry Christmas Party and the EPCOT International Festival of the Holidays, which includes the Candlelight Processional. We are monitoring our new environment closely, and will make a decision on these events as we continue to learn more from government and health officials. As always, our goal is to explore every option and look at ways in which we can still host events and festivals full of Disney magic, while still operating responsibly with the health and safety of our guests and cast members in mind.
If Disney follows a similar pattern as to what it did with the reopening events, they may decide to cancel Mickey’s Very Merry Christmas Party, while keeping the Festival of the Holidays, albeit with a socially-distanced Candlelight Processional, or no Processional at all.
We expect additional announcements regarding these events to be made the closer we get to the holiday season, possibly contingent on how the initial reopening months progress at the parks.
This is really sad Hopefully things can get better with time so the party can go on in 2021. Praying for that love the parties and everything else Disney. I will miss see u Mickey.
Me too I want to see all the characters and I hope we can’t.
This event is magical witch what makes up Disney lovely thoughts imagination joy happiness I love it
No the magical witch is part of Mickey’s Not So Scary Halloween Party, not the Christmas Party.
Disney so much we ain’t goin
Its ONE year without parties potentially. Not the end of the world people. ONE year. Yes it sucks but it is temporary. Not forever.
Keep reminding yourselves that. This isnt a new normal. this is TEMPORARY.
But also totally happy to enjoy the aesthetics of the parks without so many people. Especially the people who complain about every last detail. Be grateful you get to even go back in the gates.
Unless a vaccine is possible, which I’m hearing is not. I really don’t see how the parks can operate ever again.
What about the Wine and Dine Races? I have heard no new news on whether or not these are still occurring. I can’t imagine they will with other events being cancelled all around the dates due to social distancing concerns but there has been radio silence here.
Cancelled
I can’t get over the fact that the author has a 15 pound cat named Gordo.
It is very sad they are discontinuing the complimentary magic bands
The My Disney Experience App eats your smartphone battery like crazy. This could happen. You have a fast pass and you get through the first checkpoint. Then. Right before you get to the second one your phone dies and you ca t recharge it. Or you get to your room door and as soon as you start to hold your phone to,the door the phone dies.
Yes, not a good idea using phones. Because of the battery life. Why can’t we use a old magic band that wr had from other years.
If the Candlelight Processional cannot be held publicly, or under the same format, I hope they will do a digital version. Like the Dapper Dans sharing their voices from home, the choir could do the same, and then have the celebrity read the story of Christ from their own home (or solitary place of their choice) — I’m not even a religious person, but this is something I look forward to every year. Being “not-religious” doesn’t make me “anti-religion,” and having grown up in the church, I get it. It’s a fantastic tradition.
It’s such a HUGE tradition at both Disneyland and Walt Disney World, and while I absolutely understand the changes happening right now and the fact that this may not be able to happen in a traditional way, this is a thing that CAN be done, even if the virus continues to spread, where people (both guests and cast) can have the experience but in a different and unique way that they will be able to tell their grandkids about.
Things are weird right now, and now is not the time for the petty complaints some are making in the grand scheme of things about changed reservations or FastPass+ or the loss of a dining plan, or them being moved to a nicer hotel than the one they booked, for no extra cost. Disappointment is to be expected and accepted under a circumstance where all of us, including Disney, are doing the best we can with no road map, but some take it too far. I get that. But this is mostly out of Disney’s hands at this point.
But Disney did a GREAT job in the first couple months of the shutdown of keeping us entertained. I hope they are still doing it, and I’ve just missed it. The last one I’ve seen was three weeks ago, when the Dapper Dans sang “When You Wish Upon A Star,” but these were great things that brought the magic to us when we couldn’t visit the magic ourselves.
And while I get that Disney is more interested in the logistics of reopening right now, I would like to see more Disney “voices from home” right about now (and even after reopening, knowing that some cannot get reservations). I could use a happy-cry.
I wish all cast members and guests (and even bloggers) the best as they try to get back to some sense of altered normalcy, and hope that we can all get to normal before too long. But again, these are odd times, and we’re all just doing the best we can under the circumstances.