Disney California Adventure to launch food experience in March

[Stevek]

Does everyone think Main Street will reopen along with California Adventure?

RUMOR: Main Street U.S.A. at Disneyland Park to Reopen March 14th, Exactly One Year After the Park Closed - WDW News Today

A daily-updated resource for news and information on the Disney resort around the world.

dlnewstoday.com

It's entirely possible as I believe there might have been a plan to do this at one point. I personally think that given the 1 hour wait to get into DTD on Sunday, there might be enough demand for more shopping and outdoor dining at the 3 restaurants along Main Street. I honestly think it would even drive demand up more...1 hour waits could blossom into 2+ hours just because folks want to get into Disneyland. Logistically it could be a nightmare though. OR, dlnewstoday (Tommy Careless's west coast site) could just be looking for clicks and spreading rumors. He can be right on at times but he's damaged his reputation beyond repair at this point where everything he posts should be questioned.

 

[1HAPPYGHOSTHOST]

Also, as others have pointed out, the wider walkways make it more conducive to social distancing, hopefully they set up as much seating as the Knott's events have.

You know you can quote multiple people at once and respond to them in a single post right?

 

[mickEblu]

If they give Legacy Passholders first crack, the rest of us are hosed. They'll buy up all the available tix.

I’ll hAve to see if my sister who had an AP for 2 months of her life will let me, an AP of 7 years who’s pass expired on 3/4/20, borrow her legacy AP.

 

[Stevek]

I’ll hAve to see if my sister who had an AP for 2 months of her life will let me, an AP of 7 years who’s pass expired on 3/4/20, borrow her legacy AP.

Yeah, we had them for 12+ years but not for the last couple at least. I guess they have to keep it simple as there are tons of legacy passholders that lapsed a while ago.

 

[mickEblu]

Yeah, we had them for 12+ years but not for the last couple at least. I guess they have to keep it simple as there are tons of legacy passholders that lapsed a while ago.

There has to be a cut off somewhere but I think there should be exceptions in some instances... like mine. “ I didn’t renew because I was concerned with COVID 19.”

Not that I care too much. Now if these were some major grandfathered perks that rolled over into the new system, I would be ed.

 

[cmwade77]

You know you can quote multiple people at once and respond to them in a single post right?

It never seems to work quite right for me....most of the time when I try I get past from another thread for some reason.

 

[cmwade77]

There has to be a cut off somewhere but I think there should be exceptions in some instances... like mine. “ I didn’t renew because I was concerned with COVID 19.”

Not that I care too much. Now if these were some major grandfathered perks that rolled over into the new system, I would be ****ed.

There will likely be some exclusive benefits for legacy passholders under the new system, who knows what those may be.

 

[mickEblu]

There will likely be some exclusive benefits for legacy passholders under the new system, who knows what those may be.

The communication from Disney said the new discounts/ perks could be enjoyed until the new membership program is announced but who knows

 

[DisneyEthan]

To be fair, these are probably ideas (out of many) they have thought of themselves, but the logistics, financial reality, unions, Covid-rules, etc is probably why they never did them. Again, we only focus on DL here because we are big fans, but outside of KBF, no other theme parks anywhere in California (or much of the country which I remind people most of the theme parks are still closed as well) is during this because they probably just don't think it will be successful enough.

Sea World BBQ brews festival thing they had over the summer

 

[TP2000]

No one is going to pay $150 just to just shop and eat though.

Where the heck were you in 1997 when Paul Pressler and Michael Eisner approved Disney's California Adventure?!?

They needed your insight badly, and you just didn't deliver.

 

[TP2000]

No, it was me. TP2000 can attest to it and you can go look at my history as to when I came up with everything that they are doing now.

It was him. And he said it early on loud and clear when the rest of us were still freaking out about Covid in general.

@Th3 DUd3 gets all the credit for that idea in my book, and he should get it in everyone else's book too.

I have been told, and from what I can see it's fairly obvious, that TDA is still wrapped up tightly in red tape and bureaucracy that makes them run slow and low. Even after the layoffs and with many hundreds of manager CM's on furlough, there's still enough of the circa 2019 red tape and plodding bureaucracy built into all systems that they can't execute a simple and brilliant idea in 90 days or less. It takes them six to nine months, and even then they're fighting mostly themselves to get it done and into a park.

TDA is a mess. Knott's Berry Farm and their former TDA exec John Storbeck is showing the entire SoCal industry how it's done correctly and quickly and efficiently.

TDA with their stifling bureaucracy and random President-Du-Jour is only proving they are slow and three steps behind in a new era that requires them to be one step ahead.

 

[cmwade77]

The communication from Disney said the new discounts/ perks could be enjoyed until the new membership program is announced but who knows

Yes, but it also said there would be something given to legacy passholders under the new program once it starts, but that could be as simple as a magnet or something major like a 50% discount of the first 5 years, who knows?

 

[Stevek]

There has to be a cut off somewhere but I think there should be exceptions in some instances... like mine. “ I didn’t renew because I was concerned with COVID 19.”

Not that I care too much. Now if these were some major grandfathered perks that rolled over into the new system, I would be ****ed.

Absolutely...and just for clarity, I wasn't suggesting that I feel I should be eligible for these perks.

 

[Stevek]

It was him. And he said it early on loud and clear when the rest of us were still freaking out about Covid in general.

@Th3 DUd3 gets all the credit for that idea in my book, and he should get it in everyone else's book too.

I have been told, and from what I can see it's fairly obvious, that TDA is still wrapped up tightly in red tape and bureaucracy that makes them run slow and low. Even after the layoffs and with many hundreds of manager CM's on furlough, there's still enough of the circa 2019 red tape and plodding bureaucracy built into all systems that they can't execute a simple and brilliant idea in 90 days or less. It takes them six to nine months, and even then they're fighting mostly themselves to get it done and into a park.

TDA is a mess. Knott's Berry Farm and their former TDA exec John Storbeck is showing the entire SoCal industry how it's done correctly and quickly and efficiently.

TDA with their stifling bureaucracy and random President-Du-Jour is only proving they are slow and three steps behind in a new era that requires them to be one step ahead.

Which is incredibly pathetic. A company like Disney should be nimble and leaders, not followers. They should have been well ahead of Knotts pm this concept and were either too slow or playing the wait and see game. To their credit, they did open BV street eventually and were probably making decent money off food sales but likely not at the level Knott's was after selling every weekend out for their offering.

 

[Th3 DUd3]

It was him. And he said it early on loud and clear when the rest of us were still freaking out about Covid in general.

@Th3 DUd3 gets all the credit for that idea in my book, and he should get it in everyone else's book too.

I have been told, and from what I can see it's fairly obvious, that TDA is still wrapped up tightly in red tape and bureaucracy that makes them run slow and low. Even after the layoffs and with many hundreds of manager CM's on furlough, there's still enough of the circa 2019 red tape and plodding bureaucracy built into all systems that they can't execute a simple and brilliant idea in 90 days or less. It takes them six to nine months, and even then they're fighting mostly themselves to get it done and into a park.

TDA is a mess. Knott's Berry Farm and their former TDA exec John Storbeck is showing the entire SoCal industry how it's done correctly and quickly and efficiently.

TDA with their stifling bureaucracy and random President-Du-Jour is only proving they are slow and three steps behind in a new era that requires them to be one step ahead.

Thanks TP2000. Appreciate the support.

 

[el_super]

Which is incredibly pathetic. A company like Disney should be nimble and leaders, not followers. They should have been well ahead of Knotts pm this concept and were either too slow or playing the wait and see game. To their credit, they did open BV street eventually and were probably making decent money off food sales but likely not at the level Knott's was after selling every weekend out for their offering.

I don't necessarily disagree that Disney needs to stay nimble, but in this particular case, I think hindsight is playing a bigger role in criticizing their decisions than it should be. Disney is a much bigger company and they pay their Cast Members much better than Knott's does. Disney, through the benefit of union contracts, is also required to have more CMs with differing job classifications doing the same job. That is an absolute benefit for the people that work at Disneyland, but it makes changes like this more difficult to navigate, gain approval from all interested parties and far more expensive to pull off.

Disney could have pursued this last year, but I think their efforts were more focused on just reopening the whole park. I think I mentioned last year that there would be concerns on the Disney side about bringing back CMs and creating a food festival, that would be priced appropriately to be competitive, and I think those concerns are still true. It's probably not a coincidence that we haven't been told what the pricing for the Disney event will be. It's also somewhat suspicious that Disney is announcing this, while Knott's has not announced any additional food offerings, when their boysenberry festival should be right around the corner.

If Disney made any mistake here, it was putting all their eggs in the reopening basket back in June of last year, when they literally had no authority to reopen. Even that though, is a mistake I think they should be forgiven for.

 

[Th3 DUd3]

I don't necessarily disagree that Disney needs to stay nimble, but in this particular case, I think hindsight is playing a bigger role in criticizing their decisions than it should be. Disney is a much bigger company and they pay their Cast Members much better than Knott's does. Disney, through the benefit of union contracts, is also required to have more CMs with differing job classifications doing the same job. That is an absolute benefit for the people that work at Disneyland, but it makes changes like this more difficult to navigate, gain approval from all interested parties and far more expensive to pull off.

Disney could have pursued this last year, but I think their efforts were more focused on just reopening the whole park. I think I mentioned last year that there would be concerns on the Disney side about bringing back CMs and creating a food festival, that would be priced appropriately to be competitive, and I think those concerns are still true. It's probably not a coincidence that we haven't been told what the pricing for the Disney event will be. It's also somewhat suspicious that Disney is announcing this, while Knott's has not announced any additional food offerings, when their boysenberry festival should be right around the corner.

If Disney made any mistake here, it was putting all their eggs in the reopening basket back in June of last year, when they literally had no authority to reopen. Even that though, is a mistake I think they should be forgiven for.

I agree that Disney thought that Disneyland would be treated the same as WDW, but these are two different states run by two different ideologies. They simply didn't believe that the health and safety of people is more important than 30 pieces of silver they were trying to use to get out of it.

IMO I really don't think they need to charge for this event. Charging money for this event will simply hurt their bottom dollar as they would get more interest on multiple days(aka weekdays) and more money by not doing so. If there is a safety concern for the amount of people, they can control that at the door of DTD. They can also have the carts in the esplanade, main street, and DCA spread out.

The thing I hurt the most about is that we could have had lots of cast members still working under safe conditions with a phased roll out of my suggestions.

Now if they call it a Homecoming/Hometown Revival & Buena Vista Revue and charge........ I deserve at least a personal cheapo invite.

 

[Darkbeer1]

Well there is the answer to Knott's finally. This tells me Disney likely feels that pandemic trends make this a longer term possibility i.e. they don't think there will be another shut down. Will be interesting to see how they handle relative to the current BV street opening. I would suspect that BV will no longer be open to the public and will instead be included as part of the extra admission price. I also wonder how it will be priced relative to Knott's. Disney fans will likely pay higher so I would not be surprised if it's at a slight to moderate premium over Knott's.

Knott's new Taste of Boysenberry Festival from March 5th through May 2nd is $45, 10% off for Passholders.

Knott’s Berry Farm adds Taste of Boysenberry Festival in March

The Taste of Boysenberry Festival craft beer and food event will run on 29 select dates from March 5 through May 2 at Knott’s.

www.ocregister.com

 

[Darkbeer1]

I think it has more to do with DCA being able to offer Alcohol as to why at DCA and not DL. I also think that even if they think the park could open as early as Late May or Early June, as that would still give a potential for a couple of months.

But Disneyland offers alcohol now at Galaxy Edge, so not much of a stretch.

Heck Disney is looking at the Golden Horseshoe and a couple of NOS restaurants, even rumors about Tomorrowland.

 

[Darkbeer1]

It has more to do with Disneyland's No Alcohol policy to why DCA is doing this fest and DL is not. Also, DCA has the infrastructure for festivals they do 2 per year now. Idk why they would do it in Disneyland.

DL serves Liquor Wine and Beer to its guests. Currently limited to Galaxy's Edge, but plans to expand.