Disney World Has Completely Changed — Come With Us!

Welcome to 2024, AllEars readers. A new year means many new things, but in this case, it feels like EVERYTHING is changing in Disney World.

As of January 9th, many changes have taken place. The Disney Dining Plan is finally returning, park pass reservations are GONE for date-based tickets, and park hopping time restrictions are also no more! So what does this mean for the parks? How are so many changes affecting guest experience? We were in the parks to tell you all about it!

Disney Dining Plan

What is the Disney Dining Plan? It’s a way for you to pay for all your Disney dining ahead of your trip. You purchase a plan that includes a select amount of dining credits which can be redeemed at select table service, quick service, and snack locations.

You can choose between the Quick Service Dining Plan and the Standard Disney Dining Plan, but guests must be staying at a Disney World hotel to book.

We’ve been browsing around the My Disney Experience app to see how the Disney Dining Plan works there.

When using Mobile Order with the Disney Dining Plan, we noticed a new reminder at the top when ordering certain items.  It says “Don’t Miss Out” and makes sure we know to use the full credit. In this case, we could still add a drink to our quick service meal using the credit!

How to Use the Dining Plan with the Disney World App

No More Park Pass Reservations

For all date-based tickets (which is most tickets with the exceptions of annual passes and large groups such as schools with tickets booked with no set dates), park passes are no longer required to enter any Disney World park.

So this means that anyone with a Disney World ticket for a specific day can go to whatever park they’d like without a reservation, just like old times! But how did this affect crowds in the parks?

So far, it seems pretty calm compared to the recent holiday weeks! We entered Magic Kingdom and we had room to spread out.

ALERT! Park Pass Reservations Are GONE for Most Disney World Visitors!

Park Hopping ALL DAY is Back

And lastly, park hopping ALL DAY is finally back! Previously, you couldn’t park hop until 2PM, but now, you can hop in and out of any park whenever you’d like (as long as you have a park hopper ticket).

This is one of the biggest things that can affect park capacity, since now it’s harder for Disney to see who is planning to be in what park, and if/when they’re planning to park hop.

Park Hopping Rules Have CHANGED in Disney World!

Quincy took on the challenge of hopping to all four parks as fast as she could. How long did it take her? She started at Disney’s Animal Kingdom…

…then hopped to Disney’s Hollywood Studios.

EPCOT was the next stop!

And, of course, she had to finish in Magic Kingdom! It took just over an hour — 63 minutes total. Now that’s impressive!

Virtual queues are also a bit different. It’s easier to join the queue at TRON Lightcycle / Run or Guardians of the Galaxy: Cosmic Rewind because you can try for both — not just the ride in the park where you have (or would have had) a park pass reservation!

Virtual Queues Just Got Less Complicated in Disney World

We do have to warn you about a problem we experienced using Genie+ that impacts Annual Passholders. Although you can park hop at any time now, it was not allowing us to book a Lightning Lane in another park at any time.

It was only showing times for after 2PM, which reflects the old rule.

BEWARE of This NEW Annual Passholder Rule at Disney World

If you’re looking for a travel agent to help with your vacation, we recommend our friends at Mouse Fan Travel. They’re experts in the field with over 20 years of vacation planning experience, and they can help take a bunch of the stress out of the entire booking process for you!

We’re always here to bring you the latest Disney news, so stay tuned to AllEars!

These are the best table service restaurants for the Dining Plan at Disney World for 2024!

Which of these are you most excited about? Tell us in the comments!