The Sorcerer's Guide

Halloween time is one of the most profitable seasons for theme parks. The demand keeps growing, and more destinations are adding events. Disneyland’s Oogie Boogie Bash at California Adventure is a separate ticketed event that allows exclusive access to the park on select nights leading up to Halloween. To accommodate the party, the park closes to regular day guests at 6:00, and that has an impact at the Crowds at Oogie Boogie Bash. Impact on Waits What impact can this have on the lines for rides? There’s a lot that goes into a decision about which park to visit, and what time to be there. Here are some ways that guests behavior changes because of Oogie Boogie Bash. Some people choose to go to California Adventure because they’re going to the party Some people choose to go to Disneyland instead to avoid the extra crowd Some people choose to go to Disneyland instead because they prefer to have their theme park hours later Some people choose to go to California Adventure earlier in the d...

If you haven’t heard about the MagicBand+ that was recently introduced at Walt Disney World, a quick Google Search will tell you that the bands have technical issues. The batteries were advertised to last three days. But for some, they’re dying after just a couple hours. And the show elements are not responsive. It’s clear that some work needs to be put in to improve technology side. But aside from the tech issues, the features are weak and need some work. Disney is clearly aiming to replicate what Universal did for their Harry Potter and Nintendo areas. The biggest issue with Disney’s implementation is that it’s not creative enough. The MagicBand+ itself gives them the right tool, but they need some creative investment to follow through on it. Universal’s Interaction In the Harry Potter areas, you can buy a wand that can be used for interactive elements in the land. Looking through the land, you’ll find displays with a card showing you how to perform a spell. If you perform the spe...

Like many of you we are current Magic Key Holders. Unfortunately, Disney has given us no information on when and even if we will be able to renew those passes. So what’s going on? The passes are only a year old, why aren’t there Magic Key renewals yet? Is Disney going to announce anything? Let’s take a look at what is going on behind the scenes of Magic Key Renewals. History When Disneyland Resort closed in 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic, current Annual Passholders wondered what was going to happen. No one could use their passes, so Disney gave extensions, and then eventually started issuing refunds. They declared everyone who had an active pass when the park closed a “Legacy Passholder”. Disney said they would use the time to revamp and create a brand new program. Surveys from Disney were sent out, and people thought the new passes would end up similar to the old Flex Pass. In August of 2021, after months and months of waiting, Disney finally announced an annual pass replacement p...

In our house, the Main Street Electrical Parade has become known as “the parade that never ends”. This recent run is its 4th at Disneyland; it had a run at California Adventure and 3 runs at the Magic Kingdom. Park guests love the parade, and Disney just can’t leave it alone. So, lets take a look back in time and check out the history of the Electrical Parade and see how far it’s come. Original Debut Electrical Water Pageant in the 1970’s The original idea for a light parade came from the Electrical Water Pageant in Walt Disney World. It consisted of fourteen screens that were decorated with electrical lights and floated across Seven Seas Lagoon. Card Walker, who was Disney’s CEO at the time, and the Disneyland executives were looking for a way to keep people at Disneyland later in the evening. They loved the idea of the lights and so a plan was made that put similar lighting elements on parade floats to give Disneyland a nighttime show. A Chicago-based company was hired to construct t...

Guardians of the Galaxy: Cosmic Rewind opened at Epcot on May 27. A new major attraction will definitely draw crowds, but it will also add ride capacity to the park. So did Cosmic Rewind make Epcot wait times worse? We’ll look at wait times before and after the ride opened. For current wait times at Epcot, check out our RideRouter . In this graph, each point represents a single attraction. The horizontal position represents the average standby wait time for that ride in the 10 days leading up to Cosmic Rewind’s opening (May 17-May 26), and the vertical line represents the wait time in the 10 days after Cosmic Rewind opened (May 27 – June 5). So being in the bottom right means that the line was long before Cosmic Rewind and short after, while the top right means that the line was long before and after the new ride opening. The red dots are the attractions at Epcot. Other colors represent other parks at Walt Disney World, which are included to show how lines are changing as we head into ...