MickeyBlog News for January 15th, 2024
This past week, Walt Disney World returned to normal, and Disneyland annual pass sales did, too.
Also, a popular festival has opened at EPCOT. This is a great week of MickeyBlog News for Disney fans.
Everything New Is Old Again
Last year, Disney executives tacitly admitted that they’d overcorrected during the pandemic.
Disney reset some recently modified policies in 2023 and promised additional updates in early 2024.
Well, that time arrived this past week, and it made the past few years of Disney theme park frustrations wash away.
Good times are here again, especially at Walt Disney World, where Disney has gone back to the future with its offerings.
Disney just reset many of its park practices to pre-pandemic policies.
For example, the real version of Park Hopping is back!
Disney has eliminated the two annoying restrictions, one that required you to wait until 2 p.m. and the other that forced you to enter your Park Pass theme park first.
Now, you can switch parks whenever you want and as much as you want, as long as your admission includes Park Hopping privileges.
As an aside, the fine print suggests annual passholders must still book Park Passes, even though you don’t have to enter that park first.
I don’t claim to understand why this is the case, but I’m definitely not looking a gift horse in the mouth.
Disney has even updated the Park Hopper listing to include details about how bus transportation works.
The Disney Dining Plan is also active once again, as you can tell by all these Magic Kingdom snacks with DDP stickers.
Perhaps most importantly, date-based admission ticket users no longer need to book Park Passes.
Since those are the standard admission tickets, the overwhelming majority of fans no longer need a Park Pass.
As for annual passholders, Good-to-Go Days are now available for booking!
Festival Fun
I’m a huge fan of all the EPCOT festivals, but I have a soft spot in my heart for the EPCOT International Festival of the Arts.
We were among the first people to visit this festival back when it was a weekends-only event.
I’ve taken an odd amount of pride in watching the festival’s ascension, and I can honestly tell you that the 2024 version looks like the best yet.
Our incredible MickeyBlog team chronicled the opening day of this festival, and EPCOT was so active you’d swear it was Christmas again.
We captured pictures of the EPCOT mural (which is smaller than previous iterations), the festival map, the menus, and some photo ops.
No, your eyes aren’t deceiving you. This year’s event allows you to become Mary Poppins and act out the Penguin Dance scene!
During our day of live reporting, we brought you news about this year’s Passport, showed you the new Figment Popcorn Bucket, and much more.
Our reporters quickly displayed this year’s hottest merchandise, including the hottest item, and showed you why Figment is the star of the show.
We also revealed the 2024 Paint by Numbers mural, this year’s Scavenger Hunt, and what I’m told is a BLT. I have my doubts.
Seriously, this year’s event looks amazing, and you can read all our thoughts and opinions here.
Magic Keys Come and Go
If you wanted to buy a Magic Key annual pass at Disneyland this past week, I hope you got one.
I say this because the opportunity has already come and gone.
Management reopened Magic Key sales on Wednesday, and it went about as well as expected.
Tech glitches marred the event and had the ancillary effect of accidentally taking down the digital payment system at the park.
Cast Members asked guests to pay cash when possible, and everyone else headed to Guest Services.
Meanwhile, people online attempting to purchase an annual pass faced a total system shutdown at one point.
Disney offered all four Magic Keys at first, but the Believe, Enchant, and Inspire versions sold out quickly.
After a time, the only options were renewing annual passes for those tiers or buying the Imagine Key.
By the following day, the Imagine Key had sold out as well. So, we’re back to Disney not selling Magic Keys again.
Park officials stress that they’re maintaining the scarcity to protect the value of these annual passes.
Personally, I just wish we could have one thing go on sale at Disneyland without some sort of tech glitch.
Theme Park Miscellany
As usual, Disney theme parks have taken several attractions offline for their typical refurbishment.
Generally, the renovations take somewhere between a few days and a month, but we’ve got some extensive ones for 2024.
For example, Rock ‘n’ Roller Coaster Starring Aerosmith at Disney’s Hollywood Studios will remain offline for several months.
Thus far, any suggestion of a re-theming appears to be rumor and/or innuendo, but it’s an unusually long amount of downtime.
At Disney’s Animal Kingdom, Kali River Rapids has temporarily closed until mid-March.
Also, we just learned that Country Bear Jamboree will close on January 27th. When the attraction returns, it’ll be the new show.
While we’re on the subject of Walt Disney World, a tornado watch caused a few tense moments, but Disney’s Blizzard Beach was the only impacted park.
Disneyland Resort has combined some closures with its refurbishments.
Tale of the Lion King recently held its final performance. Simultaneously, several attractions are currently offline.
That group includes It’s a Small World, Grizzy River Run, Blue Bayou Restaurant, Paradise Garden Grill, and the World of Color – One presentation.
On January 22nd, Inside Out Emotional Whirlwind and Haunted Mansion close for refurbishments.
While they’re down, Disneyland Park will take the unusual step of adding Pirates of the Caribbean to Disney Genie+.
You can read additional details here.
Finally, I should mention that EPCOT has updated its walking paths now that most of its new additions are available.
I’ll really miss that shortcut from Spaceship Earth to The Seas with Nemo & Friends.
Have a great week, everyone!
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