- Theme Parks in Southern California
have decided enough is enough.
They've been closed for too long
and so nearly every major theme park in Southern California
is reopening in some form or fashion,
although still with no rides.
In this video, I'm gonna run down all the major theme parks
in Southern California and tell you how they're reopening,
how much it will cost if you decide to go
and what they're gonna do when you get there
since there won't be rides.
We're gonna start first with Knott's Berry Farm.
Knott's Berry Farm has announced that they're starting
their food festival, the Boysenberry Festival,
starting on March 5th, running into May.
The Boysenberry Festival tickets are $45.
It includes five food tastings
and there are 80 Boysenberry themed food items
and drinks all throughout the park.
The whole Knott's Berry Park will be open for this
to explore.
They'll have the food venues and the park open
and additional pop-up food venues.
We visited Four Knott's Merry Farm
which was their kind of holiday themed food festival.
It was a great time.
We're gonna be visiting the Boysenberry Festival
on opening weekend.
We're definitely looking forward to this one.
So now let's talk about the other big theme park
in Orange County and that is Disneyland.
Disneyland is reopening Disney's California Adventure
for a food festival called a Taste of Disney on March 18th.
Tickets will be $75 and that includes admission
and $25 of food credit.
Parking is also included as part of the ticket purchase.
Now nearly most of California Adventure
will be open to explore.
In addition to Carthay Circle, the Lamplighter Lounge,
a number of the restaurants throughout the park.
They're gonna have some pop-up booths
similar to the Food & Wine Festivals
that California Adventure often does this time of year.
Now sort of the con about this is that Buena Vista Street
at California Adventure has been free the last few months
to go in as part of Downtown Disney,
but when they start up this ticketed event on March 18th,
Buena Vista Street will now be part of
the Taste of Disney experience.
So starting March 18th if you want to eat
at the Carthay historical restaurant,
you will need to buy a ticket.
If you do wanna eat at one of those sit down restaurants,
mark March 11th on your calendar,
because that's when the sit-down restaurants
open for reservations.
In addition to dining and shops,
they're also gonna have roaming characters
around California Adventure.
The typical ones around Cars Land.
The typical ones around Pixar Pier.
New for this, they're gonna have Mickey
and friends characters on Buena Vista Street.
Now if $75 seems like a lot of money and I think it is,
Downtown Disney is still open with free admission
and there's a new thing in Downtown Disney.
The Rainforest Cafe has been replaced
by the Star Wars Trading Post
because Disneyland is still not open
and I'm sure Disney wants to sell that Star Wars merchandise
so you can get it in this new shop.
Be prepared for long waits though.
I've heard reports of up to seven hour waits
for the Star Wars Trading Post.
So if do you wanna go in there,
probably get there early in the day.
Okay now let's head down to San Diego Theme Parks
before we head up to Los Angeles Theme Parks.
Working our way down south, the first theme park
in the north part of San Diego is Legoland.
Legoland is starting its Build 'N Play Days on March 5th.
Admission is between $20 and $30 depending upon
when you buy your tickets.
Legoland is primarily geared toward the kiddos
in your families, so they have shorter hours
than most of these parks.
They're open from 10:00 AM to 4:00 PM.
The activities available in the park include the play areas
that they, have Miniland USA, which is the really neat area
that they have with Legos building a whole bunch
of US cities.
The Lego shop is gonna be open.
It's the largest store selling Legos on the West coast
of the US and a few eateries are gonna be open.
This isn't really a food, the festival per se,
but if you do go to Legoland,
you'll definitely want to check out
the Granny's Apple Fries.
We had those.
Also around the holidays when Legoland was opened previously
and the Granny's Apple Fries are quite good.
Now, San Diego is probably most well-known for being home
to the SeaWorld Theme Park on Mission Bay.
SeaWorld is currently open.
It's operating as an outdoor zoo and aquarium.
Tickets to SeaWorld start at $60.
You can get kind of an annual pass for the rest
of the year for $95.
At SeaWorld all of the outdoor animal attractions are open,
so you can see the outdoor penguins, the flamingos,
the dolphins, the sea lions,
what SeaWorld calls, 'The Presentations Are Open',
those are the shows.
So the Orcas aka the killer whales, the dolphins,
the sea lion show.
Those are all available with socially distance seating
and on March 5th, this was like the magic day
for all these parks.
SeaWorld is gonna be starting its own food festival
called the Seven Seas Food Festival.
For $60, you can get a tasting lanyard for 10 tastings
at this food festival, which has 25 food items, 75 beers
and 25 cocktails, though that $60 lanyard of tastings
does not include admission so you have to buy park admission
and the tasting lanyard.
This seems like it gets pretty expensive
and I think it does.
Also as part of the food festival,
they're gonna have some special Polynesian dancing.
I should point out that parking at SeaWorld is also $25.
So if you wanna get admission, the food festival
and parking plan for quite a bit of cashola.
Now maybe even more well-known than SeaWorld in San Diego
is the world famous San Diego Zoo.
One of the best zoos in the world.
It is a zoo. It is open.
Most of the animals are outside.
Tickets to the zoo are $62.
The San Diego Zoo has two parts.
The main zoo, which is in Balboa Park
and there's also the San Diego Safari Park
which used to be known as the Wild Animal Park,
that one's open as well, $62 to go in there as well.
The tram that runs around the big outdoor area
is currently not operating, 'cause that's considered a ride.
Now heading up North to Los Angeles,
let's hit Universal Studios Hollywood first.
Universal Studios Hollywood is currently closed,
but they're planning a food festival called
a Taste of Universal.
Tickets are reported to be $44 to $49.
There's no opening date reported for this yet
because it's still kind of just part of the rumor mill,
but you know Universal Studios wouldn't be left out
of the theme park reopening.
Now at Universal Studios,
currently the Universal City Walk is open
which is their Downtown Disney equivalent.
It's the shopping mall next to Universal Studios Hollywood
and if you wanna get the famous Harry Potter Butterbeer,
good news they've got a special shop set up there
for Harry Potter Butterbeer and Harry Potter merchandise.
Now when the Taste of Universal event
is on the ticketed event,
it's just gonna be in Universal's upper lot,
which is the top part of the theme park
that includes the Harry Potter Land
and also the Simpson's Land.
Now, one of the most interesting theme park re openings
is actually coming out of Six Flags Magic Mountain.
This park is known for some
of the biggest rollercoasters anywhere
and obviously they can't open the rollercoaster
since those are rides, but they've opened the park
for a drive through automobile experience.
Six Flags has partnered with West Coast Customs.
There are a hundred automobile exhibits through the park
for 50 bucks.
You get admission for your car and up to four people in it
to take a 30 minute drive through the park
and the drive is narrated on a special mobile app
that they have you download
by the CEO of West Coast Customs himself.
This attraction is open at Six Flags Magic Mountain
until March 14th.
Six Flags Magic Mountain has announced that they plan
to reopen with rides this spring.
Will they really? I'm not sure.
I think they're just putting a stake in the ground.
Now, if you've listened to all of this
and you're wondering,
"But Chris, what do these parks really look like?
What is Disneyland look like?
What is Knott's Berry Farm look like?
What is Legoland look like?"
Well, I've got videos on all of those.
You can click any one of these to watch
or you'll find links to description below.
Well as usual, I won't say goodbye
because I'll see you in one of these videos.