Theme Park Bits: Snow White's Scary Refurbishment, Disney World New Year's Parties, And More

In this edition of Theme Park Bits:

Snow White's Scary Adventures is a perennial classic at the Disneyland Resort. It's one of the great dark rides, as you experience the excitement and terror that Snow White goes through after being terrorized by the evil Queen. And next year, it's going to have a very extensive refurbishment, so get in your rides now. The dark ride, per records submitted with the city of Anaheim, is going to get new structural beams, rock work updated, replaced props and scenes, and more. You may be disappointed to see it closed for a while, but better to be spruced up than replaced entirely.

It's almost a new year and decade, amazingly, and if you'll be spending the end of 2019 and beginning of 2020 in the Happiest Place on Earth, you'll have plenty of opportunities to celebrate. Hotels like Disney's Contemporary Resort and Disney's Coronado Springs are going to have unique celebrations tied to their restaurants, and you can count down to 2020 too. The Contemporary will have a Pixar-themed celebration with music, dancing, DJs, and Pixar-themed food. The December 31 event is sold out, but tickets are still available for December 30, so don't delay.

For those of you who want to know more about non-Disney theme parks, I have good news for you. Over at Knott's Berry Farm, an old favorite is returning in the summer of 2020: the Bear-y Tales dark ride will come back in 4-D interactive form. Knott's Bear-y Tales (Get it? Because "Berry" and "Bear-y"...you get it) is replacing the Voyage to the Iron Reef attraction, and will be arriving in just a few short months. You'll now be armed with "jelly blasters" as you go through the attraction, to help out Boysen Bear and Girlsen Bear. This will no doubt be a bear-y good time. See, because...let's move on.

In fact, let's move onto Epcot, where one of the annual festivals is returning in just a couple months' time. The 2020 Epcot International Festival of the Arts starts up on January 17 of next year, and is designed to celebrate visual, culinary, and performing arts. The monthlong celebration will bring back the Disney On Broadway Concert Series, with performers like Gavin Lee, Josh Strickland, and Ashley Brown, all from the original Broadway versions of some big Disney shows. If you're a fan of the arts (or you just want to experience it for yourself), I hope you have tickets for the early months of the new year.

We're wrapping up today's Theme Park Bits with another celebration of history, as presented by the Disney Parks Blog. The theme parks have a rich history, down to the shops in each park. Disney historian Jeff Kurtti dove deep recently on the magic shops in the Magic Kingdoms around the parks, a hallmark of the Main Street, U.S.A. area. If that isn't enough of a selling point to you, you might want to read that post to find out how Steve Martin ties into the whole thing. (Yes, that Steve Martin, and yes, he was a Disneyland Cast Member.) You might pass the magic shops on the way to your next Fastpass attraction, but this kind of blog is a good reminder of the history of even the smallest elements of the parks.