Every few years we visit Walt Disney World (WDW). My first trip was 1976, just 6 years after the theme park opened in Orlando, we spent our honeymoon there in the mid 80’s,  brought our young children with their grandparents at the turn of the century and in the ;last decade visited with our young adults and other friends for adult vacations.  As a kid, it was a magical place, still small and like nothing I had experienced before.  Part of the magic was that my very practical parents also experienced the magic and turned into big kids when we visited the parks. In my mind, a visit to WDW was magical, hassle free and transportive.  That nostalgia and the colorful entertainment marketed families by the Disney company drives visitors back over and over again with the promise of conjuring magical memories and always promising something new.

At the risk of sounding the “back in my day” horn, sadly, I found some changes make things a whole lot less “magical” and a whole lot more ‘hassle”, especially those ushered in because of a global pandemic. However, some changes can make the park MORE fun for certain constituents.  SO read on about our Jan 2022 trip for a run down of the new attractions and visit management systems at WDW and for how to make plans for a fun visit.

WHAT’S NEW, AND WHAT TO DO ABOUT IT!

Visiting During a Pandemic

As soon as you log onto any Disney platform, you’ll be warned that there are rules for entering the park necessitated by the now 2 year global pandemic. A friend with an annual pass told me, “I feel like WDW is the safest place in Florida” and after visiting Florida for a month recently, I felt safer in WDW for 3 days than in any other part of FL I visited.

Disney has rules (and always check for the latest online, because things can change quickly) and unlike other places, they are enforced. During my visit masking indoors was required and there was a polite, friendly cast member stationed at the door of every building to ensure everyone was wearing one appropriately. Many people wore them outside in crowds and lines, but they weren’t required outside.

One of the biggest impacts for most visitors will be Disney’s need to limit the number of people in each park. This means one big change for now, is the need to pre reserve which park you will visit on each day of your vacation, and should you choose to “park hop” you cannot do that until after 2 PM and then only if Disney determines that the park is not already at capacity. I recommend you consider that before purchasing “Park Hopper:” options on your tickets.

Another significant pandemic necessitated change is that there are no longer any character meet and greets in the parks. Characters glide by waving and kissing from cars or boats at regular intervals are stationed above and away from crowds so children can see their favorites.

Walt Disney World Celebrates 50 Years!

It’s the birthday party of the (half) century that is being celebrated a year and half late!! There are special events, a blue and gold color theme and of course, 50th anniversary merch is everywhere. (special merch is limited to 2 per customer to prevent secondary businesses from wiping out stock in stores and gouging people online.) It’s a fun, nostalgic time to visit if you are a long time Disney fan.

TIP: the biggest selection of 50th anniversary merchandise can be found in Disney Springs at the flagship store, World Of Disney, or at Main St Emporium in Magic Kingdom.

Magic Kingdom has a new Castle Fireworks Show!

The new show in Magic Kingdom is called Disney Enchantment, and featured projections of popular characters on the castle with Disney music and intermittent fireworks.

Tip: Be sure to position yourself in the center near Main St or on the center right side facing the castle (Tomorrowland side) to enjoy the projections on the castle and surprises!

EPCOT is under construction

Cool things are planned including old Universe of Energy being converted to a Guardian of the Galaxy themed attraction For now, getting through the front section of EPCOT is not magical and looks like the construction project it is. But I’ll admit we love to visit during a “festival” Our last visit was during the Garden Festival, and this trip included the Festival of the Arts. The additional entertainment (free!) and food booths (additional cost) really make a visit during these times extra fun.

The new EPCOT show, Harmonious includes popular Disney movies with soundtrack of international style music sung by people from the countries where each movie is set, while projections, fireworks and lasers are broadcast on floating screens and from platforms in the center lake.

TIP: It’s hard to find a good place to watch because light poles and trees block much of the sky view and lake view from most of World Showcase and the screens are positioned so that projections can only be seen from certain angles. Our group found good views by positioning ourselves on the slightly inclined area facing one of the screens at Port of Entry at World Showcase (or at American Adventure on the opposite end of the lake.)

Disney Studios- Star Wars Galaxy’s Edge is an Immersive Experience

We spent half a day in the Star Wars (SW) Galaxy’s Edge section of Disney Studios (DS). The new section is hugely popular and will impact attendance at DS for a while. We loved this themed area, the headliner rides, SW: Rise of the Resistance and Millennium Falcon: Smugglers Run, that put us right in the middle of the action, as if we were part of the SW Universe! The dining and shopping is fully immersive, and even the Aquafina water bottle I purchased had been customized with alien language written on it, as though it had been imported to another planet! Immersive experiences such as creating your own light saber or droid (cost extra) help visitors feel like they are part of the world. Characters greet from high rocks above the crowd or march through the Galaxy’s Edge as though participating in drills.

TIP:If you aren’t a Star Wars fan, the early morning hours when this part of the park swallows up young adult and adult guests, is a good time to ride the other park headliners: Tower of Terror or Rockin Roller Coaster

Animal Kingdom- Pandora is as Popular as Ever!

To ride both Pandora experiences, Avatar and N’avi River Journey, most guests are headed there first thing in the morning. You can use Genie Plus to book one experience and pay for an Individual Lightening Lane for the other, ( see more about this under Skip The Line Access) but if you aren’t planning to pay extra, you might want to get to the park at opening and head straight to Avatar then go to N’avi River later.

Of course, you can enjoy the rest of the park, especially the animal treks and Kilimanjaro Safaris to see all the animals that call the park home. A new high energy show on the lagoon is being offered, called Kite Tales, features giant kites operated from the back of jet skis and by cast members in the audience with familiar and interactive Disney “animal” songs from Jungle Book and Little Mermaid.

TIP: if you are headed to Pandora first thing in the morning to line up for the standby line for Avatar, be sure to notice where the line STARTS, not where the attraction is on the map…you’ll want to head slightly right once you get to Pandora, look for the cast members encouraging people to line up on the right, instead of following the hordes headed to the regular entrance, where they will be redirected BACK to the extended line start.

Guest Visit Management Systems and Costs Have Changed

The APP

Just writing those words feels less magical. Disney has an app that we needed to download and use frequently during the day to manage our touring and attractions in the park. It’s a great app that allows you to plan and manage your day, but its also an app that you are required to use all day to manage your day if you purchase “skip the line” options. In the past choosing dining and Fast Pass attractions was done months and weeks in advance. Now it’s a process guests must do starting at 7 AM on the day of their vacation, and it puts the group’s the trip planner “on duty” all day long, instead of enjoying the ride.

TIP: Download the app well ahead of your visit (you probably have to do this to “link” your tickets to the app and make a park reservation anyway!) Take time to get to know the app before you go…its jargon filled and seems to be designed for insiders who already understand “Disney Speak”. Like most places we travel, we like to learn a little of the language before we go! And bring a back up battery to recharge on the fly, especially if you are also using your phone for photos!

Tickets

After we purchased our park tickets, (we use Undercover Tourist and have had great experiences, because they have a dedicated CS support line for questions) We had to go on the app and enter the ticket numbers and select the park we wanted to visit each day. Annual Pass holders need to log in and choose their parks too, so it’s a good idea to do this as soon as you know your plans, so you don’t find the park you want full already on the days you plan to visit. You’ll also want to know if you want to try to go to more than one park on any day (Park Hopper) or purchase Genie Plus (Paid Lightening Lane access) before you buy your tickets, so you can pay for those options.

TIP: I would check flight prices for your dates and then order admission tickets and reserve the parks you want BEFORE buying those airline tickets! If you get the tickets and learn the park you want to visit is already fully reserved, you’d be out of luck!

Dining

After reserving a park for the day you may book dining reservations in the parks you have reserved. The app also conveniently allows guests to preorder food from quick service locations and once your order is ready, you’ll be allowed entry to the line to pick up your food. The pre order section of the app worked intermittently for us, occasionally neglecting to inform us by text when our order was ready then texting us that we had neglected to pick up our order. But this system works overall to cut down on the number of people in line and at tables in the quick service restaurants.

Tip: Check your Disney app frequently after placing your order, to ensure you don’t miss a notification.

Using Skip the Line Access/Lightening Lanes (used to be Fast Pass)

Planning the rest of you day depends on what you pay. A new pay structure in place sets up a gamified process of paying to use Lightening Lanes (formerly free Fast Pass) to access popular attractions

Skip the line access to one or two top attractions at each park are only available by purchasing an Individual Lightening Lane (ILL) pass on the app available for purchase, and the prices and attractions covered seemed to be a dynamic with a range of prices depending on the attraction. (We saw prices from $5-$15 for access to top 2 attractions in each park) Disney resort guests can purchase these at 7AM the morning of their reservation, while non Disney resort guests can try to purchase this access at park opening time, if any are still available. (in our case, during a relatively quiet Jan visit, many attractions were not available to purchase as ILL when the park opened)

Another way to access the Lightening Lane for many attractions (but NOT the top two attractions in each park, which are ONLY available as standby or by ILL purchase) is to purchase a daily Genie Plus option to your ticket (we paid about $15 per day per person for this access) This allows you to log onto the app at 7AM and choose a first attraction to ride by joining the Lightning Lane during an hour long window later in the day. So this required someone in our party to wake at 6:50 and start refreshing the app to get a Lightening Lane pass for our preferred attraction. After 2 hours OR after experiencing that attraction, we could book another Genie Plus access to the Lightening Lane.

TIP: Genie + can be worth it, allowing you to wait standby early in the morning for one of the Top 2 Attractions and getting a Genie Plus Lightening Lane pass for more top attraction later in the day, Once 2 hours have passed or when you have ridden the attraction, you can make another, as long as they are still available During busy times they could be out as soon as noon, so decide if the extra money per person is worth it for your party, It might be worth only purchasing it for the members of your family (your 12 yo!) who want to take in all the top attractions that usually get long lines, like the roller coasters and not for others (your 6 YO who is too short or grandparent who doesn’t do coasters) who will be happy with less busy attractions.

TIP: To use Genie Plus Under VIEW MY DAY use the incongruously named “TIP BOARD” tab to find and book your next Genie Plus Lightening Lane pass throughout the day, and use the “MY DAY” tab to see what you already have scheduled- meals and attractions you have Lightening Lane for will show as a bar all the way across the whole screen, things “suggested” for you will be boxed and not go across the screen. If it sounds weird, it’s because it is!

If it sounds confusing, it is! The Fast Pass system used to be included with admission and selections were made months in advance, and now is an upcharge, and it must be done the morning of your visit. This creates a situation where you are on your phone all day. If your party is passive, or consists of small children, one person has to make all the decisions quickly and spend time glued to their phone and not attending to their small children. If you have a tech savvy group with diverse interests and opinions, it turns into an in park debate to decide which attraction to visit at what time and who has the “best window” on their phone, while the Genie Plus time windows evaporate before your eyes.

If you don’t buy ILL or Genie Plus, you can enter the parks and wait in the standby lines, which as expected can be 60 to 120 minutes (or more, during the busy season) for top attractions in each park.

TIP: Disney’s Genie on the app is not the same as Genie Plus. The Genie is a free service where you enter all the information about what you’d like to see and do and the app will optimize your day around when lines are lowest and the things that would interest you. I don’t know about their algorithm, but several times it seemed optimized to benefit Disney by putting me someplace less popular or out of the way where I’d have to spend money. If you’d like geek out with organizing your day, I prefer the original -Unofficial Guides Touring Plans and app, which I’ve used many times with great results. It’s a subscription service but offers a wealth of information and the algorithm seems to skew more towards the user since Touring Plans has nothing to gain by redirecting you somewhere you didn’t indicate was an interest of yours

Visit or NOT? My Opinion

Covid Concerns:

You have to travel to Florida to visit WDW, which means after you leave the airport, you can’t be mandated to wear a mask.  For some that’s delightful, for others its dreadful, choose your vacation based on your level of tolerance for risk. 

The parks are crowded, there is no way to truly social distance from thousands of people a day in a theme park, but if you have to be in Florida (as we had to be for family business) it’s one of the only places in the state with an enforced indoor mask mandate at the moment. 

Grandparents and Parents with Small Children:

In addition to covid concerns for vulnerable older and younger unvaccinated guests, I would not take young children or grandchildren if you aren’t tech savvy. Our group had 3 high tech gurus and one travel blogger who struggled to understand all the rules and restrictions of the current paid skip the lines systems. Spending time with my nose in my phone instead of enjoying (and supervising!) very young kids would be a no go for me. The long lines without Lightening Lane access would be tiresome with toddlers and preschoolers.  Also, with character meet and greets suspended, one of the favorite parts of visits for the youngest children isn’t available.  My choice would be to wait till kids are tweens to visit or at least until more pandemic related restrictions are lifted.

Tweens and Teens:

The whole guest visit management system has been gamified and most kids this age love the challenge of “winning” a lightning lane pass  (though also be aware if your children would find this anxiety provoking, as I did) Using Genie Plus or trying to access paid ILL is like gambling, and the hit and high can be fun for some people.  Instead of being at the park at park opening, one member of the party can select the first attraction for later in the day with Genie Plus, while teens and tweens sleep in.  And they are old enough to wait patiently for long standby or to use single rider lines on their own. Also, The app includes lots of ON line games to play IN line, accessed by QR codes on your tweens and teens phones.

Disney Fans:

Folks who know a lot about the parks and Disney in general have a leg up and because of their knowledge, nostalgia, may have a higher tolerance for the challenges that both the pandemic and complicated paid skip the line access pose. If you love Disney, you probably won’t be bothered by the changes and steps you must take to enjoy the parks.

I’m glad we visited, as always, the entertainment and attractions in WDW are always excellent and memorable, time spent there with loved ones and the nostalgia of trips past has another benefit to boost spirits during times that can otherwise be demoralizing.  If you have the budget and feel you are comfortable with your own steps to reduce covid risk, a trip to WDW could be just the ticket to feeling like things are back to “normal” again