Disney World Reopening Masterpost

Welcome to our Disney World Reopening Masterpost! This post serves as a content hub for the next few weeks or months as Walt Disney World reopens its parks following the lengthy mid-2020 closure.

Retiring This Post

As Disney World has begun its return to normal, we’re retiring this post. As of this last July 3, 2021 update, several major changes remain:

There aren’t any up-close character greetings
Several entertainment offerings remain suspended
FastPass+ has not returned
Masks are required on Disney transportation
Port Orleans and All Star Sports / Music Resorts still don’t have reopening dates

All that said, Happily Ever After and Epcot Forever have returned, single rider lines have returned, most social distancing has been eliminated, and the mask requirement is mostly eliminated.

But the big thing is that at this point we don’t think guests need to be making decisions based on the reopening changes. While I think bringing back Beauty and the Beast Live on Stage would be good for Hollywood Studios, I can’t recommend anyone wait just for that, or for character greetings, or to navigate the return of FastPass+ or some replacement. There are much bigger things to think about the next two years.

Why we have this post

Disney World is now reopen! Due to increased concern over safety and sanitation, the Disney parks have implemented a host of new measures. These impact the entirety of the guest experience. Most important for us—many of our posts will have temporarily inaccurate information.

While we expect some of these changes to remain in place for several months, we also expect the changes to change as time goes on. Attractions may open and close. Virtual queues may be added or removed. Entertainment may be rescheduled or moved. And so on.

With so much uncertainty, it’s a pointless effort for us to try to update all 300+ of our posts every week until thing settle down. So instead, we’re going to have a collection of posts (currently this single post) that we update regularly and that reflect the current status of the parks (the best we can capture it, which will never be perfectly).

This post is the central hub of our reopening content. As time goes on, we’ll be able to direct you from here to other posts (or sections of this post) that deal with more specific issues.

We start where you should start—Making Hotel and Parks Pass Reservations Then we talk about Walt Disney World Parks, followed by Walt Disney World Hotels and Walt Disney World Dining.

We close with a straightforward list of Other Open Questions—issues on our mind that haven’t been answered yet.

Making New Hotel and Park Reservations

Disney World reservations for 2021 and 2022 are now available. We recommend you get a quote from Lauren Quirk at Travel with Character LLC. In uncertain times, it really helps to work with an agent (we almost always book through Lauren, and she’s been super helpful numerous times, even for experts like us).

As discussed next, you also need a reservation to visit the parks. Putting together a new vacation now involves:

Check the parks pass availability calendar.
Buy a ticket for your visit
Book parks pass reservations
Book a hotel for your visit

Of course you can book a hotel first (particularly if you book in a way that easily allows a refund; you could also just book the full package through Disney), but you definitely don’t want to book a non-refundable rate and then wind up forgetting to book days at the parks before the fill up.

What to expect from the Walt Disney World parks

For a more complete picture, check out our Disney World Reopening Details — Parks post. Here are the highlights.

Capacity Reduced, Reservations Required

As part of the reopening, capacity for the parks has been reduced and guests need to have a Parks Pass reservation specifically to visit the park (to be clear, having a FastPass+ or advance dining reservation will not count—there’s a specific new type of reservation for the park that you need).

We have a post focusing specifically on the park reservation system if you’d like more details on that.

Other Changes

Here are the other major changes to know about:

New! Park hopping returning in 2021
Basically all ticketed extras cancelled (dessert parties, tours, dining packages)
FastPass+ suspended
Increased sanitation, various measures to reduce guest/CM contact (e.g. cashless payment)
Parades, fireworks, and other crowd-creating events (most entertainment) suspended
Character meet and greets suspended
New cavalcades in place of entertainment and character greetings
Face coverings required, temperature screenings at entry
“Relaxation zones” to allow people a break from their facial coverings

Water Park Reopening Expectations

Disney expects to reopen a water park in March 2021. It is not known yet whether it will be Typhoon Lagoon or Blizzard Beach.

Walt Disney World reopening — Hotels

We have a post focused specifically on the reopening phase’s impact on the Disney World hotels. Here are the major highlights:

FastPass+ and Extra Magic Hours are suspended. These are two major perks of staying at a Disney hotel, but given the overall uncertainty of heading to the resort, we favor staying at a Disney hotel now more than in the past.

Hotels Reopening. Most Disney World hotels are already reopened. The following hotels are still set to reopen in the future:

March 22, 2021 — All Star Movies Resort (Previously February 9)
May 30, 2021 — Beach Club
June 6, 2021 — Wilderness Lodge
Summer 2021 — Polynesian Village Resort (previously October 4, August 12)

Notably, the following hotels have not been scheduled to reopen: All Star Sports and Music Resorts, Wilderness Lodge (except DVC properties), Animal Kingdom Lodge (except Kidani Village), Port Orleans Resort — Riverside, Port Orleans Resort — French Quarter. Additionally, BoardWalk Inn was previously scheduled to open but has now been removed from the calendar.

Online Check-In Encouraged. You can check in for your Disney stay through the website or My Disney Experience app. If you have a Magic Band, you’ll be able to use that to access your room once it’s ready. Most smartphones can also be used to unlock room doors via the My Disney Experience app.

Walt Disney World Reopening — Dining

For dining information, see our focused post: Disney World Reopening Details — Dining. Major highlights are…

See Table Service Wait Times in App. Wait times for select table service restaurants can now be seen in the My Disney Experience app.

Mobile Order Take Out Expanding to Table Service. Select table service restaurants are being added to a mobile order take out option on the My Disney Experience app.

Advance dining reservation window reduced to 60 days. The 180 day window has been shortened to 60 days. After a temporary closure to sort through existing bookings / guests who had cancelled reservations, the advance dining reservation system is now reopened to all guests.

Dining plans suspended. Dining plans have been suspended, and guests with previously purchased dining plans should contact Disney or their travel planner about refund options.

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Retiring This Post

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