Now that California has held off on issuing guidance for theme parks to reopen, the Disneyland Resort has taken its first baby step toward using the loopholes that other local theme parks have employed to resume partial operations.
Disneyland reopened its Downtown Disney shopping and dining district this summer, but the resort has not allowed the public inside its theme parks — until today. But now Disneyland is allowing fans to enter one building inside Disney California Adventure for a pop-up shopping experience.
The "Disneyland Resort Backlot Premiere Shop" is now open inside DCA's Stage 17 — a flex space in Hollywood Land that Disney often uses for press and cast events and that long, long ago was the home for the "Who Wants to Be a Millionaire" attraction. Disney has stocked the Premiere Shop with much of the Halloween Time merchandise that Disneyland and Disney California Adventure would have been selling inside the parks, had they been open.
California has issued reopening guidance for dining, retail, and zoos, which Knott's Berry Farm, Legoland California, and SeaWorld San Diego have used to resume partial operations through separately ticketed special events. There's no charge to enter Stage 17 at the Disneyland Resort, as Disney is playing this as an expansion of the Downtown Disney district.
As a result, you won't enter the new shop through the DCA gates, but through a former "backstage" entrance. The extra shop should help take some of the pressure off the often-crowded World of Disney store and provide an alternative to the pop-up shop that Disney has offered in the old ESPN Zone space on the other side of Downtown Disney. But what it won't do is offer fans a view into the park, as Stage 17 does not have windows.
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