If you’ve been following our social media posts, you know that the re-opening plan for Walt Disney World Resort was submitted on May 27, 2020. This plan called for a July 11th opening for Magic Kingdom and Disney’s Animal Kingdom, and a July 15th opening for Epcot and Disney’s Hollywood Studios. Of course, that is just the beginning of the many facets of planning and procedures that must be figured out before the parks and resorts are open again. We learned the next part in that re-opening plan tonight.
The major takeaways of this new information are for booked dining, FastPass+ and Experiences (Bibbidi Bobbidi Boutique, tours, etc.). All of these types of reservations currently booked are automatically cancelled.
While we understand this is frustrating to hear, the good news is that guests with existing resort reservations will have priority access to both the new park reservation system as well as guests who had existing cancelled dining, FastPass+ and experiences reservations will receive priority access to rebook dining reservations.
Additionally, WDW will also shift from a 180-day booking window to a 60-day booking window for dining and experience bookings going forward to allow guests to make their plans closer to their visits. Extra Magic Hours are also temporarily suspended.
Lastly, guests who had purchased a Disney dining plan and tickets, or a Free Dining package for between the dates of 5/28/20 – 9/26/20, will receive an automatic cancellation and refund of their purchased dining plan.
We understand these announcements are disappointing and there are still a lot of unknowns. We invite you to reach out to your Mouse Fan Travel agent or Disney’s What to Know Before You Go for the latest info, and while we may not have all of the answers right now, as soon as Disney releases more info, we will be on top of it and share that with you. The way we vacation to a Disney park may be changing right now, to Keep the Magic Safe, and we will keep rolling with these changes and know that a brighter tomorrow is waiting for us.
