As coronavirus restrictions begin to ease around California, theme parks must find a way to make money while still adhering to the guidelines set by the tier their county is in. Since rides are unable to open, theme parks such as Disneyland have come up with a clever solution to bypass this rule, which is in an event called Touch of Disney.

Touch of Disney is a limited-capacity event that allows for people to “experience some of the sights, sounds, and flavors of the Disneyland Resort” (Disneyland). To compensate for ride closures, the park will be filled with food and beverages from all over the resort, and the Disney characters will be there to add to the fun! There will also be photo locations unique to this event, and people can shop at the stores for all of the wonderful Disney items to purchase. Considering the variety of food that will be sold, much of it will be offered snack-sized so people can enjoy many different kinds of food here and fully experience the cuisine of Disneyland. Also unique to Touch of Disney, a new “curated soundtrack of reimagined Disney songs will be broadcast throughout the park, along with updates and reminders about many can’t-miss experiences” (Disneyland).

Touch of Disney begins on March 18, and you can come anytime from Thursday through Monday starting from noon (Disneyland). People that plan to attend must pre-order a ticket, which is $75 a person and includes “admission, parking for the experience at Mickey & Friends parking structure, unlimited downloads of Disney PhotoPass photos taken during the day of the experience, and a $25 A Touch of Disney dining card valid towards the purchase of food and non-alcoholic beverages” (Disneyland). On March 4 many Disney fans got the chance to buy these tickets, and this event was originally available until April 5, but due to popular demand, it was extended until April 15. Megan Chou (10), who will be going to Touch of Disney, says “I am so excited to finally go back to Disneyland, as I have not been in a few years. I just went to Downtown Disney, and it was such a fun experience, so I can’t wait to see how they will change the park for Touch of Disney.” In addition to the ticket sales, on March 11 people can make dining reservations for Lamplight Lounge and Carthay Circle Lounge. For those that were unable to purchase a ticket on March 4, no need to worry as tickets will be released on a rolling basis.

Due to the current circumstances, we are in, people had to purchase tickets on the Disney website instead of in-person. However, there was no time announced for when it was going to be released, confusing many people as to when the ticket sale would begin. As a result, at midnight on March 4, the Disney site began to crash as it was overwhelmed with so many people trying to go on at once. Unfortunately for those people though, the tickets were not actually released until nine in the morning, frustrating many as they stayed up late at night for no reason. 

At about 8:30 in the morning is when the ticket queue opened, which is like a virtual line that holds your place early before the official line opens. However, even after getting into the queue immediately after it had opened up, I still had to wait over three hours to purchase my tickets, as the website, in the beginning, crashed, making Disney unable to sell tickets for quite a while. Once this issue was finally resolved, my wait time was still over an hour, which was a lot more than I had originally anticipated. Once it was finally my turn to purchase tickets, I was only given a five-minute time limit, so I had to quickly choose a date and amount of tickets before my time was up. Fortunately, I selected my date just before it became the first day of Touch of Disney to officially sell out! With more dates rapidly selling out, by six in the evening, the rest of the tickets sold out as well, proving how popular this event is. 

Given the bad experience and frustrations people faced with purchasing tickets online, it shows the new challenges we keep facing time and time again when it comes to this online world. However, Touch of Disney will be an event many will never forget as they get to step onto the happiest place on Earth once again.