What to Know if You Haven’t Been to Disney World in the Past 2 Years

Naturally, with the restrictions of the Pandemic, Disney had to make some adjustments so visitors could continue to visit the Park. We all remember the days when some Disney Parks closed entirely temporarily. Since then, policies, programs, and new features have been added to the Parks, along with some technological advances that you’ll want to take note of if you haven’t been to Walt Disney World since before 2020.

You need to make Park reservations.

This is perhaps the biggest change that we are all still trying to get used to. Gone are the days that we could just randomly pick a day and show up at the gates of Disney World. Now, Park reservations are required across the Disney Park Universe. It can be tricky to get reservations on specific days sometimes, so now we just need to start planning our trips a bit further in advance.

The good thing is, if you are Park Hopping, you only need to make a reservation for the first Park you will visit that day.  But there are some new rules on Disney World Park Hoppers that you need to know as well…

Park Hoppers can only be used after 2:00 p.m.

It’s true. Gone are the days of freely hopping between the Parks before 2 in the afternoon.

Here’s the low down. When you purchase a Park Hopper, you must have a reservation for the first Park you plan on visiting that day. Once 2:00 p.m. hits, you can hop over to the next Park, but you must have already visited that first Park you initially made your reservation for. It’s a bit confusing, but you’ll get the hang of it…

Mobile food orders are taking over.

Walt Disney World Resort has introduced mobile ordering at Park eateries via the My Disney Experience App. In one respect, it’s nice not to have to wait in lines to order our food, and we have more time to browse menus, but it’s also one more new thing to get used to in this new era of Disney World.

Fast Passes are a thing of the past.

Gone are the days of clinging to your Park ticket like your life depended on it so you could use that ticket to get Fast Passes from the machines. Disney World has a new system called Genie + (which is currently under quite a bit of public scrutiny). With Genie +, you can pre-book times to hop on a ride via the Lighting Lane. You will have to jump on Genie+ first thing in the morning to make your first ride reservation, and you cannot have more than one reservation at a time. On average, you’ll be able to get on 2 or 3 rides via the lighting lane using Genie +

There’s an array of other new things Walt Disney World Resort has introduced in the past two years, but these are the four main things you need to know if you’ve been out of the loop for a while!