Will Disney Ever Re-Think Any of These Things?

Over the past five years, Disney has experienced unprecedented changes.

The pandemic forced many of them, as park officials adjusted on the fly to a doomsday scenario.

Seemingly overnight, Disney theme parks that had never closed for multiple days before were suddenly shut down for months.

Left scrambling for solutions, Disney cut the budget, thereby eliminating many of its free/inexpensive amenities.

Now that we’ve all moved on, the prolonged absence of these amenities raises a question.

Will Disney ever bring back any of these things? Let’s evaluate six formerly free offerings that are currently MIA.

Extra Magic Hours

“The moral of the story is, I chose a half-measure when I should have gone all the way.”

Mike on Breaking Bad utters these words to Walter White, thereby setting the latter individual down a dark path.

I don’t mean to be melodramatic here, but the same thing kinda happened at Disney.

For many years, official Disney resorts offered an elite amenity called Extra Magic Hours.

Hotel guests could enter the parks an hour before the facilities officially opened to guests.

There was also a second half to this amenity. Sometimes, the Extra Magic Hours occurred after the parks closed to guests.

I preferred the latter, as the parks were typically ghost towns late at night, allowing me to re-ride all my favorites on a loop.

When Disney reopened in 2020, staffing issues were a problem due to layoffs.

Also, since the parks operated on a tight headcount, Disney didn’t want people staying longer. It messed up the entire calculation.

So, everyone understood why Extra Magic Hours weren’t a thing for a while.

However, when Disney returned to the idea, management modified it into a half-measure.

Nowadays, we have Early Theme Park Entry, which is basically half of Extra Magic Hours, arguably even less.

While great, Early Theme Park Entry qualifies as a half-measure because it’s less than Disney could do.

We had something better in 2019 than we do today. Also, there isn’t an evening equivalent to Early Theme Park Entry.

Naturally, you’re wondering whether Disney will ever bring this back, and my answer is, “Never say never.”

At the moment, I consider this idea an extreme long shot over the next few years, though.

Free FastPass

You’ll understand why I feel that way as we discuss the next three topics, including this one.

At the start of 2020, all FastPasses were free at Disney’s American theme parks.

That statement didn’t apply to places like Tokyo Disneyland, though.

Park officials there were already experimenting with various forms of paid FastPass.

In truth – and here’s the part that rarely gets mentioned – Disney was one of the last theme parks to switch to this upsell.

The company held out more than a decade longer than many primary competitors, who ripped off the idea of FastPass.

Then, they turned around and charged customers for it.

So, you can read articles I wrote in 2019 suggesting paid FastPass was coming.

The pandemic forced Disney’s hand a bit, as the company suddenly needed new revenue streams at the parks.

Disney quickly switched from the formerly free FastPass to something called Disney Genie+.

Everyone hated it, which may have been the point. Executives understood that they could always rebrand the unpopular thing later.

That’s why we have Lightning Lane Multi Pass today rather than Disney Genie+.

But if it walks like a duck and talks like a duck, it’s a duck. Disney now offers paid FastPass by a different name.

Will a free version of FastPass ever return? I actually think the answer to this is maybe, but it comes with a massive caveat.

We aren’t getting anything like that anytime soon. If we ever do, it’ll come in a different form than expected.

Disney would likely employ some sort of new algorithm that creates highly efficient itineraries for guests.

AI would factor heavily into this sort of invention, and it may provide Disney financial incentive to push guests from line to line.

And I consider even this bit of technological optimism rather unlikely.

Using Occam’s razor here, Disney makes too much money from Lightning Lane to give it up.

Free MagicBands

Those of you who weren’t visiting Disney before 2020 may not even know this one.

Not that long ago, Disney gave away MagicBands for free to guests staying onsite.

Management did this to train tourists to utilize the more efficient form of park admission and payment.

The accountants also recognized that people tended to spend more when they used MagicBands.

However, MagicBands were never entirely free. From the beginning, Disney sold more expensive versions.

You could get the basic colors for free. The branded ones with popular Disney characters cost money.

Nowadays, many guests don’t even consider MagicBands a necessity…because they’re not.

Smartphones can do pretty much everything that MagicBands can, and everyone has one.

So, MagicBands are closer to merchandise than giveaway items now.

As such, I doubt Disney will ever include these for free again.

Magical Express

I bring this up from time to time because it’s maddening to me as an out-of-state tourist.

Disney previously offered its guests a dynamic way of traveling to and from Walt Disney World.

Magical Express took care of our bags. We’d drop off our luggage at our airport, and it’d be waiting for us at the hotel that night.

At Orlando International Airport, Disney would shuttle us by bus to our hotel.

Importantly, Disney provided this service free of charge, which made it a premium amenity for tourists.

We lost this one during the pandemic for reasons that had nothing to do with Disney.

The company that handled the actual bus travel, Mears Transportation, laid off its entire staff of drivers.

Once Mears got its act together, Disney had understandably lost confidence. So, Magical Express died.

Many fans like me miss it so much that we’d happily pay for it.

For that reason, I fully expect Magical Express or something equivalent to it to return one day.

The catch is that I doubt Disney offers this service for free from now on.

Modern Disney is a lot more penny-pinching about this stuff.

Resort Merchandise Delivery

Out of everything on this list, I understand this one the least.

In case you’re unfamiliar with Resort Merchandise Delivery, it’s pretty much exactly how it sounds.

You buy something at a store at one of the parks. Then, Disney delivers it to the resort.

You won’t find it at your hotel room. Disney has a special merchandise pick-up area where you grab it instead.

Still, you save yourself the aggravation of lugging around your merchandise all day.

This almost certainly makes you likely to buy more stuff since you don’t need to worry about whether you can carry it.

Along those lines, you won’t stress about losing your new gear on some Disney thrill ride. So, the system was sound.

Alas, Disney stopped doing it during the pandemic, which was completely understandable at the time.

Today, I have no idea why we still don’t have it at Walt Disney World, though. Disneyland Resort brought it back a while ago.

Tables in Wonderland

Here’s the final demonstration of the before times. For a long time, Disney offered a dining discount program.

Tables in Wonderland provided a 20 percent discount on many Walt Disney World restaurants, including Victoria & Albert’s.

The catch was that you had to pay an annual fee to subscribe to the discount program.

I remember paying $75 for Tables in Wonderland one year within the past decade, but it had increased to $150 by the end.

Again, once the pandemic occurred, Disney got out of the cost savings business, aspiring to make each guest pay more per capita.

So, the absence of Tables in Wonderland was a feature, not a bug. That doesn’t mean it’s gone forever, though.

Discount programs like this incentivize loyal customers to visit more often.

Specifically, the most recent version of Tables in Wonderland targeted Florida residents and DVC members.

Those are the people most likely to visit Disney theme parks and dine while they’re there.

If the economy ever struggled to the point that tourists were more cost-sensitive, I could easily envision the return of this.

Tables in Wonderland may not be the name of the next version, but the premise would remain the same.

After all, Disney repeatedly tweaked the old version, doubling the annual price and removing places like Victoria & Albert’s by the end.

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Feature Photo: Disney