It’s been a while since we have done a news update at Disneyland and items have stacked up on us! Apparently I’m too long winded to do individual, shorter posts about each item and instead need to combine multiple minor bits of news into one. That brings us here, where we’ll discuss a possible nighttime parade coming to Disneyland, the current state of Magic Key, ticket price increases, and a few things returning and opening.

I’ll give a few details on the bits of news before adding some commentary. Let’s get to it!

Main Street Electrical Parade Returning

In the latest and possibly biggest piece of news, Main Street Electrical Parade is (probably) returning to Disneyland in early 2022. While it’s not official, Disney has teased the news on TikTok and it seems as if it’s only a matter of time before the news is announced. The parade will return for its unprecedented 50th anniversary.

I’m of two minds on this, the first and most prominent being that it will be amazing to have a nighttime parade back at Disneyland Resort. We’re eagerly awaiting news that Magic Happens will return to Disneyland, as well, but for now this will help scratch an itch. There’s also the chance that Disneyland could run a daytime and nighttime parade, which would obviously be ideal. The Electrical Parade returning will bring out locals who love nostalgia and will generate some excitement for the park.

The downside is that no parade should run for 50 years. Main Street Electrical Parade has a timeless soundtrack that will be used in many nighttime shows for years to come but the floats look like they have been around for decades, which they have. Relative to other nighttime parades, Main Street Electrical Parade just doesn’t measure up anymore from a technical standpoint.

All in all, this is very positive news and hopefully a harbinger of other returns. Disneyland could use a wealth of returns to bring some goodwill to restless fans and locals. Main Street Electrical Parade might not signal the return of Fantasmic, parking trams, World of Color or anything else but it shows they’re at least trying!

Magic Key Reservations

Why is there some goodwill needed? Because reservations for the Magic Key (Annual Passes) have become few and far between. When we did an update in September I spoke rather glowingly about the new system, saying how easy it was to get reservations and how I’d recommend it to most anyone. Well, October rolled around and reservations dried up.

I’ve read multiple accounts of Disneyland locals being very frustrated with the system. That local base is incredibly important to Disneyland and I have to imagine that the company will do something to address the problem before long. Maybe this is how they want it, where it’s very hard to make reservations. It means the demand is high, clearly. But dealing with fed up fans can rue its ugly head once pent-up demand is gone.

For what it’s worth, November and January do have plenty of availability at the moment, except for weekends. I think Disneyland will find a new way to distribute the reservations in the future and this is an awkward growing pains stage. That’s my hope anyway.

Price Increase

One of my least favorite things to write about is also a reason for some needed goodwill from the company. Disneyland has raised all but the lowest tier of single day ticket prices as well as multi-day tickets by anywhere from 5 to 10 percent. This isn’t surprising as Disney does this at both resorts every year, generally in the spring. Disneyland was closed this spring so they are making up for lost time.

The resort also raised parking prices by $5 for theme park parking and $15 for self-parking at hotels. Along with that, they announced that the tram from Mickey & Friends will not resume operation until 2022 at the earliest. If that long walk isn’t your thing, we recommend parking in the Toy Story Lot and riding the bus from there.

All of this is a little frustrating when combined with the Magic Key issues. The one that honestly irks me the most is the tram from Mickey & Friends. We’ve heard reports that they can’t get the trams to run and honestly prefer that explanation. That said, it’s a little hard to fathom that one of the biggest companies in the world can’t get some trams to work properly. If the reasoning is safety precautions due to COVID-19 then that’s bogus due to some of the other operations, including enclosed buses. All of this falls in line with Disney cost cutting, which we’ve grown accustomed to unfortunately.

Plaza Point Opens & Disneyland Monorail Returns

Let’s end on a positive note here, as a new shop has opened and the monorail has returned! Plaza Point is a new holiday store on the corner of Main Street next to Plaza Inn. It replaced the antiquated Photo Supply which was always empty and unused. The new shop is cute and offers Christmas ornaments, stockings and a variety of other presents. I like the look of the shop and am always eager to see if this opening will mean that Disneyland will do something different with the other holiday shop space in Fantasyland. That one has become redundant and Fantasyland could use all of the space it can get, possibly for a larger Peter Pan’s Flight queue area. The Fantasyland store is already closed so that will be an interesting story to watch!

The monorail is an excellent addition as it adds some kinetic energy to both parks and offers a great way to get from Downtown Disney or the Disneyland Hotel to inside of Disneyland. Similar to the return of parades, we hope this is a sign that Disneyland is bringing back different things as quick as possible. For now, we’ll just enjoy some time on the highway in the sky!

What do you think of all of this news? Let us know, along with any questions you might have, in the comments below! Planning a trip to Disneyland Resort? Check out our Disneyland Trip Planning Guide to help you out. If you enjoy what you are reading here on Wandering in Disney please share this post with your friends and like our social media pages. You can also subscribe to the blog via WordPress or email. All of those links are on the right side of this page. Thank you for reading, we really appreciate it!