Category — i. Itineraries for Walt Disney World

DISNEY WORLD NEXT WEEK: SEPTEMBER 18 TO SEPTEMBER 26, 2021

The material below details next week’s Disney World operating hours, parades, and fireworks.

OPERATING HOURS AT WALT DISNEY WORLD 9/18-9/26/21

The Magic Kingdom will be open from 9a-9p 9/18, 9a-8.30p 9/19, 9a-9p 9/20, 9a-8.30p 9/21, 9a-9p 9/22 and 9/23, 9a-8.30p 9/24, and 9a-9p 9/25 and 9/26

Epcot will be open from 11a-10p 9/18 and 9/19, 11a-9p 9/20 through 9/23, and 11a-10p 9/24 through 9/26

Disney’s Hollywood Studios will be open from 9a-9p every day

Disney’s Animal Kingdom will be open from 8a-7p every day

EXTRA MAGIC HOURS AT WALT DISNEY WORLD 9/18-9/26/21

Extra Magic Hours will be replaced October 1 by a new Early Entry program.

PARADES AT WALT DISNEY WORLD 9/18-9/26/21

There will be no parades until further notice.

FIREWORKS AND EVENING SHOWS AT WALT DISNEY WORLD 9/18-9/26/21

At Magic Kingdom, Happily Ever After is scheduled at 8.15p every day

At Epcot, Epcot Forever is scheduled at 10p 9/18 and 9/19, 9p 9/20 through 9/23, and 10p 9/24 through 9/26

At Disney’s Hollywood Studios, a minor evening show, Wonderful World of Animation, is scheduled at 9p every night

SHOW SCHEDULES FOR WALT DISNEY WORLD 9/18-9/26/21

See Steve Soares’ site here. Click the park names at its top for show schedules.

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DISNEY WORLD NEXT WEEK: SEPTEMBER 11 TO SEPTEMBER 19, 2021

The material below details next week’s Disney World operating hours, parades, and fireworks.

OPERATING HOURS AT WALT DISNEY WORLD 9/11-9/19/21

The Magic Kingdom will be open from 9a-9p 9/11, 9a-8.30p 9/12, 9a-9p 9/13, 9a-8.30p 9/14, 9a-9p 9/15 and 9/16, 9a-8.30p 9/17, 9a-9p 9/18, and 9a-8.30p 9/19

Epcot will be open from 11a-10p 9/11 and 9/12, 11a-9p 9/13 through 9/16, and 11a-10p 9/17 through 9/19

Disney’s Hollywood Studios will be open from 9a-8p 9/11, and 9a-9p 9/12 through 9/19

Disney’s Animal Kingdom will be open from 8a-7p every day

EXTRA MAGIC HOURS AT WALT DISNEY WORLD 9/11-9/19/21

Extra Magic Hours will be replaced October 1 by a new Early Entry program.

PARADES AT WALT DISNEY WORLD 9/11-9/19/21

There will be no parades until further notice.

FIREWORKS AND EVENING SHOWS AT WALT DISNEY WORLD 9/11-9/19/21

At Magic Kingdom, Happily Ever After is scheduled at 8.15p every day

At Epcot, Epcot Forever is scheduled at 10p 9/11 and 9/12, 9p 9/13 through 9/16, and 10p 9/17 through 9/19

At Disney’s Hollywood Studios, a minor evening show, Wonderful World of Animation, is scheduled at 8p 9/11, and 9p 9/12 through 9/19

SHOW SCHEDULES FOR WALT DISNEY WORLD 9/11-9/19/21

See Steve Soares’ site here. Click the park names at its top for show schedules.

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DISNEY WORLD NEXT WEEK: SEPTEMBER 4 TO SEPTEMBER 12, 2021

The material below details next week’s Disney World operating hours, parades, and fireworks.

OPERATING HOURS AT WALT DISNEY WORLD 9/4-9/12/21

The Magic Kingdom will be open from 9a-9p 9/4 through 9/6, 9a-8.30p 9/7, 9a-9p 9/8 and 9/9, 9a-8.30p 9/10, 9a-9p 9/11, and 9a-8.30p 9/12

Epcot will be open from 11a-10p 9/4 and 9/5, 11a-9p 9/6 through 9/9, and 11a-10p 9/10 through 9/12

Disney’s Hollywood Studios will be open from 9a-9p 9/4 through 9/10, 9a-8p 9/11, and 9a-9p 9/12

Disney’s Animal Kingdom will be open from 8a-7p every day

EXTRA MAGIC HOURS AT WALT DISNEY WORLD 9/4-9/12/21

Extra Magic Hours will be replaced October 1 by a new Early Entry program.

PARADES AT WALT DISNEY WORLD 9/4-9/12/21

There will be no parades until further notice.

FIREWORKS AND EVENING SHOWS AT WALT DISNEY WORLD 9/4-9/12/21

At Magic Kingdom, Happily Ever After is scheduled at 8.45p 9/4 through 9/6, and at 8.15p 9/7 through 9/12

At Epcot, Epcot Forever is scheduled at 10p 9/4 and 9/5, 9p 9/6 through 9/9, and 10p 9/10 through 9/12

At Disney’s Hollywood Studios, a minor evening show, Wonderful World of Animation, is scheduled at 9p 9/4 through 9/10, 8p 9/11, and 9p 9/12

SHOW SCHEDULES FOR WALT DISNEY WORLD 9/4-9/12/21

See Steve Soares’ site here. Click the park names at its top for show schedules.

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EARLY THEME PARK ENTRY AT WALT DISNEY WORLD

Walt Disney World has kicked off its new “Early Entry” program.

This program, which replaces the previous Extra Magic Hours offering that was cancelled in 2020, allows folks staying at any Disney World owned resort, or at any of fourteen other hotels on (or almost on) the Walt Disney World property (full list here) to enter any of the four Disney World theme parks at least 30 minutes before anyone else can enter these theme parks. (Contrary to some claims from others, the list of eligible hotels is exactly the same as the list of hotels eligible for EMH before the March 2020 close.)

There is no extra cost to taking advantage of Early Entry. However, each person entering a park early will be required to have a valid ticket, a valid reservation, and proof that one is a guest at an eligible resort hotel.

There has been much dismay that the Extra Magic Hours (“EMH”) replacement Early Entry program offers no evening hours, as EMH did—extra evening hours will likely be reserved for those staying at the equivalent of a deluxe resort (I’ll write more about that later) or for those paying extra for after-hours events. The absence of evening hours penalizes those from other time zones, those who prefer to sleep in in the mornings, etc. That said, in the FastPass+ era with its early park closes—especially at Magic Kingdom—compared to previous eras, there was not all that much value to evening EMH.

There has also been dismay that that the Early Entry period is only 30 minutes. (Disney’s initial messaging about this was that it would be “at least” 30 minutes. I expect longer periods may show up—especially over high crowd holiday weeks, and/or as Disney learns more about the impact on this program on guest satisfaction and on occupancy rates at eligible hotels.) However, I expect that this shortening will be more than offset—way more than offset—by the fact that every park will have Early Entry every day. Each week each park will have at least 210 minutes of early entry.

Common non-holiday EMH patterns before Disney World closed for COVID had 180 minutes a week of EMH at each of Epcot and Magic Kingdom, (one 60-minute morning and one 120-minute evening session at each), 120 minutes at Disney’s Animal Kingdom (two morning sessions), and 60 minutes a week at Disney’s Hollywood Studios. See the image above (note that it is for a nine-day period, and the figures above for a seven-day period; weekly history of EMH back to early 2012 is here.) That nets to a more than 50% increase in minutes/week of exclusive access.

At the parks, Early Entry eligibility, a well-planned itinerary and an arrival at least 30 minutes before Early Entry opens ought most time of the year to put eligible guests through at least one ride (more in Fantasyland) and in line for a second before anyone else can make their way into the lines. This, when combined with the possibilities created by Disney World’s replacement for the FastPass+ systems, will put eligible guests who can take advantage of both three to six steps ahead of everyone else—which will yield much lower waits over the course of a day than what guests who can’t, or won’t take, take advantage of these offerings

Even more important is that Disney World Early Access happens every day at every park. In the EMH period, having EMH at each park most weeks of the FastPass+ era only once or twice a week, and most commonly just one park offering EMH on any given day, meant that guests on shorter stays might have missed the EMH most valuable to them entirely, and that some parks could be more crowded all day from the draw to it of morning EMH among the ~75,000 guests in the eligible hotels.

Having Early Entry every day at every park means that not only can eligible guests with any length of visit take advantage of Early Entry at any park they have reservations for, but also that every day eligible guests will be divided over four parks, rather than just one.

Finally, some have noted that the 30-minute Early Entry reduces the perks of staying in an eligible resort compared ot the 60 or 120 minutes of exclusive period during the FastPass+ part of the EMH era.

I suspect that in contrast, Early Entry will be the most valuable perk Disney World has offered to eligible resorts in the time I have covered it. The value of the perk is not just the advantage it offers to eligible guests, but also the disadvantage it confers on ineligible guests.

For the first time, every time ineligible guests enter the parks, they will face already existing lines from eligible guests, every day, at every park. The ability of those staying at an ineligible hotel, or coming from home on annual pass, to enter the parks on equal terms to everyone else five or six days a week is just gone.

The current list of rides available during Early Entry is here—it is near identical with the stable of offerings during the last iteration of morning EMH.

A related program, for guests at a a much narrower set of resorts, is the Extended Evening Hours program.

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DISNEY WORLD NEXT WEEK: AUGUST 28 TO SEPTEMBER 5, 2021

The material below details next week’s Disney World operating hours, parades, and fireworks.

OPERATING HOURS AT WALT DISNEY WORLD 8/28-9/5/21

The Magic Kingdom will be open from 9a-9p every day

Epcot will be open from 11a-10p 8/28 and 8/29, 11a-9p 8/30 through 9/2, and 11a-10p 9/3 through 9/5

Disney’s Hollywood Studios will be open from 9a-9p every day

Disney’s Animal Kingdom will be open from 8a-8p 8/28, and 8a-7p 8/29 through 9/5

EXTRA MAGIC HOURS AT WALT DISNEY WORLD 8/28-9/5/21

There will be no Extra Magic Hours anymore.  They will be replaced October 1 by a new program.

PARADES AT WALT DISNEY WORLD 8/28-9/5/21

There will be no parades until further notice.

FIREWORKS AND EVENING SHOWS AT WALT DISNEY WORLD 8/28-9/5/21

At Magic Kingdom, Happily Ever After is scheduled at 8.45p every night

At Epcot, Epcot Forever is scheduled at 10p 8/28 and 8/29, 9p 8/30 through 9/2, and 10p 9/3 through 9/5

At Disney’s Hollywood Studios, a minor evening show, Wonderful World of Animation, is scheduled at 9p every night

SHOW SCHEDULES FOR WALT DISNEY WORLD 8/28-9/5/21

See Steve Soares’ site here. Click the park names at its top for show schedules.

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Walt Disney World has implemented a wreck and rebuild of its former FastPass+ system, with more and different options for accessing its rides, many at an extra fee, for the first time since the days of E Tickets.

The two key parts of this are known as

• “Individual Lightning Lane” (“ILL”)–paid scheduled access, by individual ride, to a small group of rides–and
• “Genie+,” paid access to all of a group of other rides. Genie+ can be purchased for all parks (e.g. for those using Park Hoppers) or a single park.

Below is a comprehensive overview of all the different ways you can access Walt Disney World’s rides and shows–its “attractions.”

Note that I was unable to discuss the new means of accessing these rides without also talking about Disney’s new Early Entry program, a very important replacement for Disney’s former “Extra Magic Hours” program, which was much less flexible and less frequent than the new Early Entry program.

ATTRACTIONS AVAILABLE BY EITHER WAITING IN A FREE LINE OR BY A SPECIFIC “INDIVIDUAL LIGHTNING LANE” PAYMENT FOR THEM

Many of these rides have traditionally had high demand compared to capacity and, often, high waits.

You can access them for free either during Early Entry by waiting in line, or during the regular day by waiting in line. Alternatively, you can purchase individual scheduled access to them–making them “Individual Lightning Lane” or “ILL” attractions.

• At Disney’s Animal Kingdom, currently the ILL offering is Flight of Passage.
• At Epcot, Guardians of the Galaxy: Cosmic Rewind is Epcot’s current ILL entry, but free access is via Boarding Group/Virtual Queue (see below), not waiting in line.
• At Disney’s Hollywood Studios, Rise of the Resistance is the current ILL ride
• At Magic Kingdom, Seven Dwarfs Mine Train and TRON: Lightcycle Run are available via ILL ride. For Tron, like Cosmic Rewind, the free access is via Boarding Group, not waiting in line.

Options for accessing these attractions. The ILL rides in this group that are not Boarding Group Rides may be accessed by everyone for free by waiting in standby lines during normal park hours; most are accessible for free by Disney resort hotel and other eligible guests during Early Entry; and all will be accessible via individual paid access (“ILL.”)

ILL for these rides opens for same-day reservations to Disney World resort hotel guests (and guests at a narrow list of non-Disney hotels on or near property) at 7a, and to everyone else when the park that the rides are in officially opens.

Early Entry eligibility. All these rides except the Boarding Group rides are generally available during Disney World’s Early Entry program—where Disney resort hotel guests, and guests at a limited number of other eligible hotels, can enter any park any day at least 30 minutes before everyone else.

Having them available during early entry is both a valuable perk for Disney resort guests, and also a way to drive up the value of paid individual access for these rides—because at the “everyone else” park opening time, many of these rides will already have a line….

Pricing. Standby lines and Early Entry access are free. Individual paid access is paid per person, and varies by ride, date, time of day, phase of the moon, etc. Prices typically are >$10 and <$30, with the higher prices at the more popular rides and on more popular dates.

Logistics, limitations, constraints

All guests will be able to book via individual paid access each day no more than two of either this class of rides or the “Boarding Group” class discussed below, and these two can’t be the same ride. Pricing is per person, and you will not have to buy it for all in your party—only for those who wish to use it. Those with park hopper tickets will be allowed to book their two rides in two different parks, so long as the timing complies with whatever park hopper policies are in place the day of booking—and availability exists…

Genie+ (the third class, discussed below) is NOT required to access these rides, and these rides are NOT a part of Genie+.

You can book the time to come to the attraction that you wish from among those offered–that is, unlike the Genie+ rides noted below, you are not stuck with the next available time.

No cancellations or refunds will be available except for those related to ride closures. A temporary ride closure during your window will result in an “anytime” pass allowing you to re-enter when you choose. If the ride is closed at your return time, and never re-opens that day, you will automatically receive a refund.

You do not need to be physically present in a park or even on Disney World property to book.

Best for: Those staying at a Disney-owned or other hotel eligible for both 7a paid virtual access and also for Early Entry, and for whom this day/this trip/their entire life would be powerfully harmed by missing out on the attractions in this class. Such folks will be pretty likely to be able access these rides, via Early Access and/or by signing up for paid individual access at 7a.

Worst for: Everyone else.

ATTRACTIONS AVAILABLE BY EITHER A FREE BOARDING GROUP/VIRTUAL QUEUE OR BY A SPECIFIC “INDIVIDUAL LIGHTNING LANE” PAYMENT FOR THEM

Attractions in this class are very popular rides for which long standby lines are not attractive to Disney, for reasons of queue space, ride unreliability, or both.

Guardians of the Galaxy: Cosmic Rewind at Epcot and TRON: Lightcycle Run at Magic Kingdom are in this class.  You can access these one of two ways: by paying for Individual Lighting Lane access, or by successfully signing up via your My Disney Experience app for a free “Boarding Group.” Numbered Boarding Groups are called to the ride in numeric order to experience it, and until then, you can enjoy the rest of the park.  This is called a “virtual queue.”

Boarding Group sign-up begins at 7a, and availability typically is exhausted very quickly. A second set of boarding group options will be available at 1p, but for this group–unlike the morning group–guests must first have tapped into the park the ride is in.

So there is no traditional “standby line” option for accessing these rides –at least during regular park hours. Guests eligible for Extended Evening hours can try to garb a special boarding group opportunity for Guardians of the Galaxy: Cosmic Rewind or Tron just for them beginning at 6p (that is, the sign up begins at 6p–not the ability to ride).

ATTRACTIONS AVAILABLE BY EITHER WAITING IN A FREE LINE OR AS A GROUP BY A SINGLE PAYMENT FOR THAT ENTIRE GROUP OF ATTRACTIONS–FORMALLY KNOWN AS “GENIE+”

Attractions included.

When Disney’s free FastPass+ shut down in March 2020, ~65ish attractions were available for FastPass+ booking or headed that way: ~25 at Magic Kingdom, ~15 at AK, ~15 at Hollywood Studios, and ~10 at Epcot.

This free option has been replaced with a paid option. Disney calls the program that lets you buy access to this entire group of rides, or those in just one park, for a day for a single fee “Genie+.”

The current list of rides available for both individual purchase (i.e. in one of the two classes above) or in Genie+ is here. Almost everything that used to be FastPass+ is now Genie+ (or ILL).

The Genie+ rides are collectively attractive enough to enough people that there will be some value to paying for the entire group to either avoid lines or assure access, but not so attractive compared to their capacity to otherwise generate the kind of lines that might warrant individual paid access.

You can buy access to either all rides, or to the rides in a specific park. Buying access to all rides, or to Magic Kingdom rides, is typically the most expensive, and buying access to Epcot or Disney’s Animal Kingdom the least expensive.

Options for accessing these attractions. Attractions in this “Genie+” class are available to experience both for free by waiting in line, or as a group for special scheduling for a flat per-person per day fee—that is, one payment will grant you access to the ability to try to schedule any of the rides in the program, with no additional individual attraction payment required. Many will also be available for free during Disney World’s Early Entry program. Note that buying Genie+ does NOT guarantee you will be able to book any specific ride.  It just gives you a chance to do so.

Early Entry eligibility. Almost all of these rides will be available during Early Entry.  The major exception is Magic Kingdom rides that are not in Fantasyland or Tomorrowland, as those are the only two lands open during Early Entry. The only other major ride I can think of that is on the Genie+ list but excluded from Early Entry is Kilimanjaro Safaris at Disney’s Animal Kingdom–I believe ruminant union rules are the issue here.

Pricing. Access to Genie+ for this group of rides is available by the day, either for all parks (useable in more than one park in a day only if you have a Park Hopper ticket)  or for one specific park. Pricing varies by date and will range from $15/person/day (plus tax) to ~$30/person/day. Per day pricing is per person. You will not have to buy it for all in your party—only those who wish to use it.

Capacity allocated among access options. Disney has reversed its earlier policy claimed that it will not stop selling Genie+ on any given day—that is, that the program itself will not “sell out”–and now notes that it will be “subject to availability.” The first Disney World sell-out of Genie+ happened on February 19, 2023.   So far, on very high crowd days, access to popular rides has booked out early, greatly diminishing the value of Genie+ on days when folks might want it most…

The language Disney now uses re Genie+ is “On average, guests can enter 2 to 3 attractions or experiences per day … if the first selection is made early in the day.”  While most of you will do better than that except perhaps at Hollywood Studios, it’s a good way to set expectations.

Logistics, limitations, constraints

The way Genie+ works is similar to the old paper FastPass days. You will be able to book one Genie+ attraction at a time, and then book your next as soon as the first of the following conditions is met:

• When you tap in at the second tap in point in the old FastPass+ return line (now called the Lightning Lane, and used not only for Genie+, but also for individual paid attractions, a point of massive confusion), or
• If the park is scheduled to open after the time you booked, after two hours pass after park open
• If the park is open when you book, after two hours have passed since you booked

You can only pick the “next available” slot for any specific Genie+ ride–that is, for a specific ride, you cannot pick your time among various possibilities, but rather must book the next available time.

At the moment, Genie + for the day will be available for purchase beginning a tick after midnight, and the first bookings of an attraction can be made by everyone who has already purchased Genie+ at 7a for that day’s touring—whether a Disney resort guest, someone staying off-site, or an annual passholder booking from Jacksonville.

Best for: Because everyone who has bought Genie+ can book beginning at 7a, Disney World resort guests (and others eligible for the first two classes and for Early Entry) don’t at first glance have much advantage in Genie+ compared to everyone else.

However, there is a nuance to this. Because Disney World resort guests (and others eligible for Early Entry) will be able—if they arrive early enough—to see one or two Genie+ rides during Early Entry, and be in line for another before anyone else can get in the park, with a well-designed itinerary, such guests can remain two to four steps ahead of everyone else over the course of their day. This can have a substantial impact on both waits and the availability of good Genie+ return times.

Worst for: Those not eligible for Early Entry will have the other side of the coin. In the best case these folks will inherit pre-existing lines in the most attractive rides, be a couple of steps behind on the highest-demand rides, and will be likely many days of the year to move from rough line to rough line to rough line.

ATTRACTIONS AVAILABLE ONLY BY WAITING IN A FREE LINE

Disney World has on the order of 100 attractions. (“On the order of” because people can disagree on whether something is an attraction or not. Is the petting zoo in Animal Kingdom’s Conservation Station an attraction? Is the Boneyard? What about the China Pavilion at Epcot? The vehicles on Main Street? Fantasmic? My answers: yes, yes, no, no, yes.)

Among these (at least as I’ve defined them), there’s about 40 attractions at Magic Kingdom, and about 20 each at the other three parks. Subtract 4 or so paid individual access ILL rides, and 60ish Genie+ rides, and you’ve got 35ish attractions that will be available only via waiting in line. Think Country Bears, Tiki Room, Carousel of Progress, Tomorrowland Transit Authority PeopleMover, etc.

All guests will have nominally equal access to these attractions–show up, wait in line–and most of the time waits will be reasonable. That said, for the reasons noted above, a lower proportion of Disney resort hotel (and other eligible) guests) will be in long standby lines, so they will have more time, if they choose, to clot up Country Bears…

About a dozen of these “no-pay” rides are also available in Disney’s morning Early Entry program.

HOTEL ELIGIBILITY FOR PERKS

Various hotels are eligible for various perks related to reducing wait times.  I keep confusing myself regarding which can book ILL at 7a, which are eligible for Early Entry, and which are eligible for Extended Evening Hours.

The following chart illuminates this.

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