January 26, 2022
P minus 189
The first official Disney Email of the New Gridding Season
Hello everyone,
And Thank you to Grandma for throwing the "we're going to Disney" switch.
A LOT of stuff has changed, which will affect planning and the trip.
One big change is the risk of global plague conditions, but let’s run on the assumption that they will improve, or at least not worsen.
No matter what, we will be in Disney, it will be awesome and we will have fun. Even just standing there, scratching your butt and thinking happy thoughts is awesome in Disney.
A bunch of stuff that went away from the closing is still gone, some are not scheduled to come back.
FastPass plus is gone, it was replaced by two things
1) Lightning lane, costs a ridiculous $15 a person per day. You don't set them up ahead of time, but on the day of, starting at 7am, and only one at a time. And I don't think it applies to the two biggest rides in each park. We are not doing this.
2) There is a "pay to ride" lightning lane ($8-$15 per person per attraction) for the top two attractions in each park. It’s the same thing, done on the day of starting at 7am. We may (stress MAY) do this for something huge and awesome that has stupid long lines all the time.
[Later edit- We did! For Rise of the Resistance it was worth it.]
Therefore we will be waiting on more lines than we have in the past. Not the crazy long three hour ones, though. On the positive side we will not be trekking/ running from one land to another in order to make FastPass times, so the overall drain/ wait times may be fairly close what we're used to.
[Later edit- It was! YAAY!]
Park Reservations
You now have to reserve which park you want to be in which day since they have capacity caps. We do this as soon as the Grid is created so outside of having to manually do it, this is not a problem. Park hopping cannot happen until after 2pm. In all of our Grandma Sponsored trips, we hopped once on the last night of the last trip, to recover from Lightning McQueen catching on fire in front of us. As only Anabelle gets set on fire twice in Disney World in the same spot, I don't anticipate this being an issue.
Extra Magic Hours are gone
It’s a new system. There are extra late night hours only certain nights and only in Magic Kingdom and EPCOT for people in deluxe resorts (This is not us)
People staying on property in any resort can get into ANY park a half hour early every day. (This is us.)
That may get us to one or two big attractions with minimal waits per day.
The Magic Express bus is gone.
The free busses with Disney decorations and videos that took us to and from the airport are no more.
Mears used to run it, they have their own service that leaves from the same place and does the same thing except for 3 things:
1) It is no longer free.
[Later edit- This was correct.]
2) They show videos about all the area attractions, not only Disney.
[Later edit- They did not.]
3) As of right now, they do not get your luggage for you. They are working on this, however, and may have it when we go....or they may not. I have no idea (this is a running thread).
[Later edit- They did not.]
Character Hugging and Autographs
Characters are at meet and greet locations, in cavalcades (fake parades) and at meals.
However, you interact with them and pose for pictures from social distance away. At the meals that are open, they do give out autograph cards at many of them.
[Later Edit- This improved to fully normal levels in the places with Characters that came back.]
EATING
Yes, we still have to eat in Disney.
The dining plan has been suspended. There are rumblings of it coming back this year but no one knows when, least of all me.
Some restaurants we always go to are closed and we will have to find other places to eat.
Closed -1900 Park Faire (Cinderella and stepsisters dinner, Alice, Mary Poppins and Pooh breakfast) and Akershus (Norway Princess restaurant). Any reccomendations for new places to eat (or old places we haven't been in a while) are welcome. (The Hoop Dee Doo is closed too, before anyone recommends it). 1900 and Akershus may reopen by the time we go ...who knows? (Still not me)
[Later edit- They did not. The Hoop Dee Doo did, but we did not go. It’s more of a “fond memory” place than a “need to return.”]
Mobile order is HUGE now. For crowded days and / or popular spots, we'll need to order online for counter service well before anyone (ok, me) gets crazy hungry. We usually eat at weird times, so this may be less of a problem.
[Later edit- It was FAR less of a problem than I worried it would be. We never used this.]
Many menus have been streamlined. Sorry Grandma but last I checked the Plaza Strawberry salad is gone. Some are unchanged however, The Snow White dinner is almost exactly the same, stringy mushrooms and all.
Meals can no longer be booked 180 days out, they can only be booked 60 days out. The grid will be naked longer than usual
UPDATES
There was a bunch of stuff in progress when the park shut down. Some of it may open this year. Again, who knows?
The ALL STAR SPORT will reopen in March.
Unknown Attractions-
Guardians of the Galaxy coastery thing in EPCOT
Tron Coaster in Magic Kingdom (which is keeping the railroad from opening)
Moana water...exhibit...thing...in EPCOT
New Castle Stage Show in Magic Kingdom
Return of Fantasmic in MGM and the Parade in Magic Kingdom
Updated Finding Nemo Show in Animal Kingdom
Play Pavilion in EPCOT
New Barbecue Table Service Toy Story themed place in MGM
[Later edit- Most of this did not open, some did. Guess everyone will have to read the trip report itself to find out which!]
MAGIC BANDS
I have no idea what's going on with them. (I know...you're shocked)
They stopped giving any of them out free, but there still are discount ones. Because of Disney Genie (The phone app that coordinates everything) people can use their phones to get into rooms and the park. Considering our family has several flip phones and we all have our batteries die all the time, we should get bands of some sort. I'll dig more on this. There are also supposed to be "Magic Band II" coming out, which are more interactive. Like I said, I'll dig.
That's all I can think of now.
Love
Jeff
Grandma’s answer
SO HAPPY! Just reading this made me overwhelmingly happy. Even if some things are gone and we have to make adjustments being in Disney will be super and we will all have a WONDERFUL TIME. I KNOW IT.
Jeffrey, Thank you for this. It was fun just reading it. Thank you so much for all you will be doing. I know it is a lot. You always deserve congratulations and gratitude for how much you do to make our trip organized, more FUN and GREAT
LOVE TO SEE ALL YOUR SMILING FACES. OXZ
Anabelle- Okay, wow, not the fire slander. Unappreciated.
My answer- I was just stating that no one could equal your feat, not slander.
Oh yeah, and for everyone else…there’s no buffets.
Everything that was is “family style” brought to the table like Garden Grill now.
Uncle Dave’s answer:
Its ok, Anabelle. I feel your pain.
Literally, in my case. You’re not the only one in the family who has been on fire.
Only one who has been on fire at Disney, admittedly, but I have been emitting flames as well.
P minus 189
The first official Disney Email of the New Gridding Season
Hello everyone,
And Thank you to Grandma for throwing the "we're going to Disney" switch.
A LOT of stuff has changed, which will affect planning and the trip.
One big change is the risk of global plague conditions, but let’s run on the assumption that they will improve, or at least not worsen.
No matter what, we will be in Disney, it will be awesome and we will have fun. Even just standing there, scratching your butt and thinking happy thoughts is awesome in Disney.
A bunch of stuff that went away from the closing is still gone, some are not scheduled to come back.
FastPass plus is gone, it was replaced by two things
1) Lightning lane, costs a ridiculous $15 a person per day. You don't set them up ahead of time, but on the day of, starting at 7am, and only one at a time. And I don't think it applies to the two biggest rides in each park. We are not doing this.
2) There is a "pay to ride" lightning lane ($8-$15 per person per attraction) for the top two attractions in each park. It’s the same thing, done on the day of starting at 7am. We may (stress MAY) do this for something huge and awesome that has stupid long lines all the time.
[Later edit- We did! For Rise of the Resistance it was worth it.]
Therefore we will be waiting on more lines than we have in the past. Not the crazy long three hour ones, though. On the positive side we will not be trekking/ running from one land to another in order to make FastPass times, so the overall drain/ wait times may be fairly close what we're used to.
[Later edit- It was! YAAY!]
Park Reservations
You now have to reserve which park you want to be in which day since they have capacity caps. We do this as soon as the Grid is created so outside of having to manually do it, this is not a problem. Park hopping cannot happen until after 2pm. In all of our Grandma Sponsored trips, we hopped once on the last night of the last trip, to recover from Lightning McQueen catching on fire in front of us. As only Anabelle gets set on fire twice in Disney World in the same spot, I don't anticipate this being an issue.
Extra Magic Hours are gone
It’s a new system. There are extra late night hours only certain nights and only in Magic Kingdom and EPCOT for people in deluxe resorts (This is not us)
People staying on property in any resort can get into ANY park a half hour early every day. (This is us.)
That may get us to one or two big attractions with minimal waits per day.
The Magic Express bus is gone.
The free busses with Disney decorations and videos that took us to and from the airport are no more.
Mears used to run it, they have their own service that leaves from the same place and does the same thing except for 3 things:
1) It is no longer free.
[Later edit- This was correct.]
2) They show videos about all the area attractions, not only Disney.
[Later edit- They did not.]
3) As of right now, they do not get your luggage for you. They are working on this, however, and may have it when we go....or they may not. I have no idea (this is a running thread).
[Later edit- They did not.]
Character Hugging and Autographs
Characters are at meet and greet locations, in cavalcades (fake parades) and at meals.
However, you interact with them and pose for pictures from social distance away. At the meals that are open, they do give out autograph cards at many of them.
[Later Edit- This improved to fully normal levels in the places with Characters that came back.]
EATING
Yes, we still have to eat in Disney.
The dining plan has been suspended. There are rumblings of it coming back this year but no one knows when, least of all me.
Some restaurants we always go to are closed and we will have to find other places to eat.
Closed -1900 Park Faire (Cinderella and stepsisters dinner, Alice, Mary Poppins and Pooh breakfast) and Akershus (Norway Princess restaurant). Any reccomendations for new places to eat (or old places we haven't been in a while) are welcome. (The Hoop Dee Doo is closed too, before anyone recommends it). 1900 and Akershus may reopen by the time we go ...who knows? (Still not me)
[Later edit- They did not. The Hoop Dee Doo did, but we did not go. It’s more of a “fond memory” place than a “need to return.”]
Mobile order is HUGE now. For crowded days and / or popular spots, we'll need to order online for counter service well before anyone (ok, me) gets crazy hungry. We usually eat at weird times, so this may be less of a problem.
[Later edit- It was FAR less of a problem than I worried it would be. We never used this.]
Many menus have been streamlined. Sorry Grandma but last I checked the Plaza Strawberry salad is gone. Some are unchanged however, The Snow White dinner is almost exactly the same, stringy mushrooms and all.
Meals can no longer be booked 180 days out, they can only be booked 60 days out. The grid will be naked longer than usual
UPDATES
There was a bunch of stuff in progress when the park shut down. Some of it may open this year. Again, who knows?
The ALL STAR SPORT will reopen in March.
Unknown Attractions-
Guardians of the Galaxy coastery thing in EPCOT
Tron Coaster in Magic Kingdom (which is keeping the railroad from opening)
Moana water...exhibit...thing...in EPCOT
New Castle Stage Show in Magic Kingdom
Return of Fantasmic in MGM and the Parade in Magic Kingdom
Updated Finding Nemo Show in Animal Kingdom
Play Pavilion in EPCOT
New Barbecue Table Service Toy Story themed place in MGM
[Later edit- Most of this did not open, some did. Guess everyone will have to read the trip report itself to find out which!]
MAGIC BANDS
I have no idea what's going on with them. (I know...you're shocked)
They stopped giving any of them out free, but there still are discount ones. Because of Disney Genie (The phone app that coordinates everything) people can use their phones to get into rooms and the park. Considering our family has several flip phones and we all have our batteries die all the time, we should get bands of some sort. I'll dig more on this. There are also supposed to be "Magic Band II" coming out, which are more interactive. Like I said, I'll dig.
That's all I can think of now.
Love
Jeff
Grandma’s answer
SO HAPPY! Just reading this made me overwhelmingly happy. Even if some things are gone and we have to make adjustments being in Disney will be super and we will all have a WONDERFUL TIME. I KNOW IT.
Jeffrey, Thank you for this. It was fun just reading it. Thank you so much for all you will be doing. I know it is a lot. You always deserve congratulations and gratitude for how much you do to make our trip organized, more FUN and GREAT
LOVE TO SEE ALL YOUR SMILING FACES. OXZ
Anabelle- Okay, wow, not the fire slander. Unappreciated.
My answer- I was just stating that no one could equal your feat, not slander.
Oh yeah, and for everyone else…there’s no buffets.
Everything that was is “family style” brought to the table like Garden Grill now.
Uncle Dave’s answer:
Its ok, Anabelle. I feel your pain.
Literally, in my case. You’re not the only one in the family who has been on fire.
Only one who has been on fire at Disney, admittedly, but I have been emitting flames as well.
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