Disney just released a ton of announcements about travel in 2024!! All great things! But what does it mean for you planning your trip for next year? Well we are going to talk about all of it today! Good news is that it’s all, well, good news! Everything announced, although details are scarce, has been great news that should make your trip more relaxed and easier to plan in advance. If you are looking to plan a trip for next year, let me know! I can do it all for you!
Park Reservations
The first thing on this awesome list is that Park Reservations will no longer be necessary for date based tickets! What does that mean? That means that when you book your trip and you include your tickets in the package for the dates of travel, you will NOT have to make park reservations for each day!! This is so nice because it means you can just come and go as you please and go with the flow. You don’t have to know what park you want to go to each day in advance you can just get up and decide if that’s your jam!
Disney Dining Plans
If you did family vacations to Disney before the rona you probably used the Disney Dining Plan at least once! Depending on who you ask you will get mixed reviews on the DDP. I personally love it, we used it every time we came to Disney when it was available. It made budgeting and planning easier to me because most of our food was already paid for and we had mastered the art of sharing and stretching our meals out to cover our whole trip. We would usually do two adult meals and one kids meal for the four of us, back then it even included an alcoholic beverage with the adult meals! Huge selling point for us. Hahahaha!
Others will say it wasn’t worth what they charged for it and I can understand that as well. It really depends on your travel party and how you plan to eat while you are here. They haven’t released all the details yet but what we do know is that there will be two options: Disney Quick Service Dining Plan that in the past included two quick service meals and two snacks per person per day and the Disney Dining Plan that in the past included one quick service and one table service meal plus two snacks per day per person.
Plan Ahead With Genie+ Service
This one is huge to me! The Disney Dining Plan is definitely the one I’m most excited for but I feel like this may tie it or be a close second! Again, we don’t have a lot of details on what this exactly means yet but if it means what I hope it means its GREAT!
Right now you have to purchase Genie+ service each day of your trip while you are here. Then you have book selections individually throughout the day as you go. Which equals you being on your phone all day long while you are in the parks unless you have someone like me doing it for you. Thats not good in my opinion. So I’m glad Disney is rethinking this way of doing things! What I hope this means is that you can pre purchase Genie+ when you book your trip and then have a window like they used to do for Fast Passes where you can book a few at a time in advance. Again, we don’t really know what this announcement means right now but I’m hopeful it will be something like that!
More Time In The Parks
This one was really just an announcement that this perk will continue more so than a change. This is already in effect and will remain for all bookings in 2024. Al Disney Resort guests have early theme park entry and guess staying at Deluxe Disney Resorts or Villas will also have Extra Magic Hours in the evenings.
Good To Go Days For Annual Passholders
We also don’t really know what this one is going to look like either. The announcement just says that there will be selected days each month in certain parks that Annual Passholders and Cast Members will not need a park reservation for. I feel like this one may be beneficial for Passholders that don’t live here but for those of us that live here it won’t really feel any different. We can visit the parks after 2pm without a reservation now and I don’t know how I would keep track of what days are good and what days aren’t other than being in the booking calendar already anyway. But it’s a step in the right direction of getting rid of park reservations all together so I’ll take it!
So When Does This Start?
You can start booking vacations that include these new changes on May 31st! They will be for trips beginning January 9th, 2024 or later. If you already have a trip booked, don’t worry you can call May 31st and get this all added to your existing reservation no problem. If you haven’t booked yet, you can go HERE to get a free quote and book with me!
Conclusion
So obviously 2024 is going to be a great year to visit Disney parks!!! No park reservations, simpler Genie+ and Disney Dining Plan!! It’s a dream come true, now if they would bring back the Magical Express. It’s nice to see things going back to the way they were pre covid, things seemed so much simpler and easier back then. Most things were booked in advance and paid for in advance and you could just come and enjoy your time, take it all in. I hate seeing stressed mamas with their faces in their phones trying to make sure they get the Lightning Lanes booked instead of just watching their babies experience all the magic. Thats why I book all that for my clients when they go through me!
As always, I thank you all so so much for being here! I got to celebrate crossing over 2,000 followers on Instagram in EPCOT today and I’m sitting here typing at Spice Road Table watching a toddler splash around in a puddle just as happy as a clam! It’s the best, and I thank you all for supporting me. I hope you all have the most magical day!!!