When Disneyland first opened back in 1955 it was unlike any amusement enterprise that had ever been attempted. Not simply because of what you could do there, but what you could not. Walt Disney made his park dry, prohibiting alcohol sales because he felt it could potentially add a bad element if people overindulged. However since 2019, it has been possible for the general public to get alcohol at Disneyland park, and it’s about to become a lot easier.
Disneyland Resort has announced that beginning on September 12, three table service restaurants, Main Street U.S.A.’s Carnation Cafe, Frontierland’s River Belle Terrace, and New Orleans Square’s Cafe Orleans, will have new menus, and those menus will include beer, wine, and specialty cocktails. This completes the expansion of alcohol to all table service restaurants at Disneyland. Fans are split on the issue. While this change doesn’t really surprise anybody, not everybody is in favor of it, with one fan pointing out how alcohol has become a focus at other Disney theme parks, saying...
Who needs “drink around the world”, when you can have drink around Disneyland.
When Magic Kingdom was built in Florida, it was made a dry park as well, as Walt had been intimately involved with its planning. However, all subsequent Disney Parks that were not “castle” parks, starting with Epcot, did allow for alcohol sales. In 2012 Magic Kingdom began selling alcohol at table service restaurants, and by 2022 that had been similarly expanded to include all forms of alcohol at all table service locations. That’s all that’s happening here, as many are noting on Twitter…
Noticed it's all the sit-down restaurants
Because Disney Parks are locations that actively encourage nostalgia, there are a lot of people that wish the parks remained dry simply because it’s tradition and it’s “What Walt would have wanted.” But those in favor of the change point out that a lot of time has passed since Walt’s day…
If you get mad about this pls remember Walt Disney has been dead for over 60 years
When Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge opened at Disneyland in 2019 the new land included Oga’s Cantina, the first location where the general public could get alcoholic drinks. When Disneyland reopened the Blue Bayou restaurant following its pandemic closure, the iconic restaurant also added alcohol. Once that happened, most people realized this point was coming, but that doesn’t mean everybody likes it.
Not surprising (since it's no longer a dry theme park), but...man, adding more alcoholic options sure is A Choice.
The other parks, like Epcot in Florida or Disney’s California Adventure across from Disneyland, have alcohol sales all over the park, meaning guests are free to walk around with their beer or cocktail, and that will still mark one significant difference between Magic Kingdom and Disneyland and the other parks. At those parks, alcohol is only served with your meal, and guests can’t leave the restaurants with their drinks, so they’ll still have the appearance of being dry when walking around. There’s been no indication that will change, but certainly, time will tell.
For the most part, fans seem fine with this news, and, of course, many are quite excited. The fact that this news broke the same day we learned that Fantasmic would not be returning until next year, and not in its original form, was not lost on some people.
Me getting drunk enough to hallucinate a dragon on Tom Sawyer Island https://t.co/ARifyDsaJ0 pic.twitter.com/wcBFyR0G4fJuly 27, 2023
Still, this is the end of an era. Cafe Orleans and Carnation Cafe both opened their doors while Walt was still alive, so they are the first locations of any Disney park to start serving alcohol that Walt himself visited. That will certainly be a big deal for some, though it seems many are looking forward to September when the menu changes.
