Printable View
Hi all - I’ll be leaving WDW on March 4, the day for the official opening of Mickey & Minnie’s Runaway Train at Hollywood Studios. Am wondering if the parks typically do soft openings ahead of schedule so that I might luck out and get to ride it before the official launch date. Anyone have experience with soft openings in the past?
we caught the soft opening of storytime with Belle a couple weeks before it opened officially. We missed the soft opening of Little Mermaid by 1 day.
It was not obvious STwB had a soft open - we asked a castmember in the area if there was a soft opening going on and we were let into the area to go see the attraction.
They were still doing some construction in the area, so it wasn't as obvious a soft opening was going on.
I have been on many more soft openings at Disneyland - it is usually pretty obvious the ride is open and running and you can just go hop in line just like any other day.
Best of luck! hope you get in
They may. But soft openings are often to allow CMs to get familiar with ride operations and can go up and down frequently as they work out bugs. Often it’s not announced and you have to walk by to see that the attraction is open.
There's a chance, but Soft Openings or General Public previews seem to be happening less often with the latest attractions.
It seems to depend on the readiness of the attraction and how much test & adjust they wish to do with Guests vs Cast. Most recent attractions have seemed to go from Cast Previews to Media Previews to Grand Opening.
As mentioned above, the New Fantasyland attractions had General Public previews (I and a few other INTERCOTee's were lucky enough to catch them during the ICOT15 celebration). At least from current memory this seems like the last time they did a significant "Soft Opening" period.
Just postulating, but the rise of social media may have impacted General Public previews. Disney use to be able to let small groups of Guests on the attractions ahead of the Media and could still keep the attractions mostly under wraps. Now it would be live streamed immediately ....
The most recent soft opening Walt Disney World did was for the NBA Experience and they specifically had to ask that nothing be shared on Social Media until the Grand Opening a few days later.
I caught the soft opening for Avatar, but I think it was announced beforehand they were offering it. The official opening was on a Saturday and the soft opening was the Friday before.
We once managed a soft opening, it was for Stitch's Great Escape, so obviously that is going back to 2004. That was a case of being in the right place on our last day and a lucky conversation with a nearby cast member. :stitch:
My impression (though I may be wrong) is they often come from being in the right place at the right time, so a bonus that you can try and time right but can't rely on.