What happened to the 20 things we were looking forward to at Disney World in 2020

A year ago, we were looking forward to a busy 2020 at the Walt Disney World Resort — a year filled with exciting new rides, shows and restaurants as the resort started ramping up for its 50th anniversary in 2021.

Welp. You can guess how that turned out.

Disney World had to shut down March 15 to try to help stem the tide of the coronavirus pandemic. When the Florida parks reopened four months later, everything had changed. Gone were the shoulder-to-shoulder crowds we were used to, along with parades and nighttime “spectaculars.” Gone, too, was any kind of certainty about the future.

So what happened to the 20 things we were looking forward to a year ago?

I was surprised to see how many of them opened as expected, before the shutdown. None have been officially canceled, although it wouldn’t surprise me to see Cirque Du Soleil fold and Disney Genie take a few more years. (Cirque Du Soleil filed for bankruptcy protection in June; its losses were mounting even before the pandemic.) Most of the rest were pretty far along in the planning and building process last year, and work on many of those projects continues now.

Here’s a look at the 20 things we were looking forward to a year ago, and where they stand now:

1. Beauty and the Beast Sing-Along:  This new interactive sing-along opened on cue in January in Epcot’s France pavilion. It returned shortly after the parks reopened in July.

2. New Canada Circle-Vision 360: The new film at Epcot’s Canada pavilion also bowed on time and returned when the parks reopened. 

3. Mickey and Minnie’s Runaway Railway: The opening of this whimsical, wonderful Mickey-themed ride at Hollywood Studios may have been the brightest point in this year. The parks closed for the pandemic just a couple of weeks after the Railway took on its first passengers. After reopening, the pre-show was scrapped, and we look forward to that eventually returning. It set the stage nicely for the ride.

4. Mickey Shorts Theater: This theater opened in January featuring “Vacation Fun – An Original Animated Short with Mickey & Minnie.” The theater has reopened.  

5. Disney Genie: Disney had announced plans to debut a new app designed to make planning easier and provide customized itineraries geared to your interests. Since the pandemic hit, we’ve heard crickets on this. Disney has said it will continue, but in the meantime, the My Disney Experience app has been expanding things like mobile ordering.

6. City Works Eatery & Pour House: This new restaurant on the lower level of the NBA Experience at Disney Springs opened in January, and is now one of the few lonely attractions that are open on the West Side of Disney Springs.  

7. Cirque Du Soleil: Set to debut April 17, the new Cirque Du Soleil show was one of the first things to be sidelined by the pandemic. You can now buy tickets to “Drawn to Life” for dates starting Feb. 20, but don’t get your heart set on it — Cirque has delayed the opening more than once and is adhering to guidance from government and health officials. It also seems unlikely that the performers could be ready as soon as February. The Cirque theater has now been dark for three years.  

8. Remy’s Ratatouille Adventure: Oh, the heartache. The new section of Epcot’s France pavilion looks like it’s ready for guests. There were rumors that the new ride would open this winter, but all Disney will say now is that it will debut sometime in 2021.

9. A new crêperie restaurant: This new restaurant next to Remy’s Ratatouille Adventure is supposed to feature the cuisine of celebrity chef Jérôme Bocuse, the mastermind behind the pavilion’s Chefs de France brasserie. Like the ride, we are hopeful the crêperie will open soon.

10. Awesome Planet: This new film opened at Epcot’s Land Pavilion in January and is open now.

11. Regal Eagle Smokehouse: Craft Drafts & Barbecue: Sam the Eagle welcomed guests to his smokehouse in January. The new restaurant at the American Adventure is open again, with a somewhat curtailed menu. Spoiler: It’s yummy, and has plenty of outdoor seating.

12. HarmonioUS:  The new “permanent” nighttime show at Epcot is being touted as the largest nighttime show ever created for a Disney park. It was supposed to open in “late 2020,” and while there are a couple of weeks left in the year, we can confidently say it ain’t gonna happen. Construction on the barges that will be used in the show has been going full steam ahead since summer. File this under “sometime in 2021” too.

13. Space 220: We thought the space-themed restaurant next to Mission: Space in Epcot was within a month or so of opening when the parks closed in March. Progress has continued at a snail’s pace since, but we can be pretty sure there isn’t much left to do. Still, I wouldn’t expect to see the doors open before spring.

14. Roundup Rodeo BBQ Restaurant: Another new restaurant slated to open sometime in 2020, Roundup Rodeo will be a full-service restaurant in Toy Story Land at Hollywood Studios. Construction has been going on since summer, but it doesn’t look like it’s close to opening yet.

15. New China Pavilion Circle-Vision 360: “Wondrous China” did not make it out of the gate before the shutdown, and there is no update on when it will debut.

16. Disney’s DuckTales World Showcase Adventure: Using the Play Disney Parks mobile app, guests will be able to take a trip around World Showcase in Epcot discovering exotic destinations, exciting mysteries, and maybe even a few thieves, villains and supernatural guardians of ancient artifacts. Originally expected sometime in 2020, there’s no news on when this will debut. But we can say that, although DuckTales has been canceled, the game is still on the drawing board.

17. M&M’s Store: The M&M’S experiential store will be moving from Orlando to Disney Springs — sometime in 2021, instead of 2020. Construction on the new state-of-the-art store is well under way on the West Side of Disney Springs near the NBA Experience.

18. New Swan and Dolphin Hotel Tower Construction seems to be going quickly on a new 14-story hotel tower on the Swan and Dolphin resort complex. Originally scheduled to open this year, we would look for the new tower in 2021.

19. JW Marriott Hotel: The new 516-room hotel looked like it was ready to open its doors to guests just before the shutdown, so it was ready to go when the parks reopened in mid-July.

20. D23 Destination D: Fantastic Worlds: The D23 event went fully online rather than return to Disney World in November. D23’s next Expo, meanwhile, has been moved back from 2021 to September 2022.