2022 Disney+ Day at Disney World & Disneyland
In celebration of Disney+ Day on September 8, 2022, the company announced new guest perks at Disneyland, Walt Disney World, Paris, Hong Kong, and Disney Cruise Line. This post takes a look at the special perks in the theme parks and everything else you should know about Disney+ Day.
This comes ahead of the third anniversary of Disney’s streaming service, to thank fans for their support in helping Disney+ grow to reach over 152 million households. In celebration, Disney+ subscribers can enjoy special benefits including additional time at Disney Parks around the world, exclusive offers, access to fan-favorite content, first-looks on the platform, and more.
The Walt Disney Company hasn’t announced all of the details for this year’s Disney+ Day, but last year a slew of new content debuted and there was a limited time subscription deal for the streaming service. The event also occurred in mid-November, on the actual anniversary of the debut of Disney Plus.
Our guess is that Disney+ Day has moved forward for a couple reasons. First, this puts it one day before the start of the D23 Expo, meaning whatever promotional subscription is released for the day can also encompass that event. Same with surprises and other announcements–the company could effectively turn Disney+ Day into Disney+ Weekend.
Second, it puts Disney+ Day in this fiscal year, and gives the company a chance to juice numbers before their current financial year ends. As the money-losing streaming service is a huge driver of the company’s stock price, that’s important.
Finally, moving Disney+ Day into September puts distance between it and Cyber Monday. Streaming services have historically offered deals for that shopping “holiday” after Thanksgiving. (We’ve paid $.99/month for Hulu several years running!) This gives the company a chance to offer promotions in both September and November and capture new subscribers in separate quarters/years–all without it seeming like the streaming service is perpetually discounted.
Other Disney+ Day details are likely to be released very soon. For now, here’s what we know will happen in the theme parks…
Disney+ Day in the Parks
In celebration of Disney+ Day, Disney+ subscribers with a valid ticket or Annual Pass and theme park reservations on September 8, 2022 will enjoy special benefits at the parks. Disney+ subscribers and their travel party are invited to enter all theme parks at both Walt Disney World and Disneyland Resort 30 minutes before regular park open.
This essentially extends Early Entry at Walt Disney World to off-site guests who are Disney+ subscribers. If you’re not already, we’d highly recommend subscribing to Disney+ just for that 30 minute advance access. It’s worth the one-month subscription cost for your travel party to get a 30 minute head-start.
On-site guests aren’t at a disadvantage on Disney+ Day. Early Entry for eligible hotel guests will start 30 minutes before Disney+ subscriber’s have access to the parks, or 1 hour before official opening time.
This means that on-site guests can enter Magic Kingdom at 8 am, Epcot at 8 am, Disney’s Hollywood Studios at 8 am (be there earlier–Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance might start operating before that), and Disney’s Animal Kingdom at 7 am.
Speaking of which, Disney+ subscribers are the “real stars” at Disney’s Hollywood Studios and Disneyland, with Disney+ character meet-and-greets and cavalcades, “plus” more surprises throughout the day, including special photo opportunities throughout the parks.
For Disney+ subscribers, there will be complimentary Disney PhotoPass digital downloads via the My Disney Experience and Disneyland apps at select locations in Disney’s Hollywood Studios and the Disneyland Resort theme parks that day. Disney+ Day will conclude with a special Disney+ screening at Movie Under the Stars for guests staying at select Walt Disney World Resort hotels.
Over in California at Disneyland Resort, be on the lookout for commemorative chalk art at the Downtown Disney District and at the Disneyland Hotel, ways to “plus” your pics as well as fun and festive food and beverage throughout the Disneyland Resort.
Strike a starry pose at Hollywood Land with a photo op featuring Mater and Lightning McQueen before vrooming over to Cars Land to meet the four-wheeled stars themselves. To end the evening, guests staying at the Hotels of the Disneyland Resort are invited to stop by Disney’s Grand Californian Hotel & Spa for a special movie screening.
Satisfy your sweet tooth with blue dusted churros at Disneyland Resort theme parks this Disney+ Day on Buena Vista Street and Grizzly Peak at Disney California Adventure park, near Sleeping Beauty Castle and Astro Blasters in Tomorrowland at Disneyland park. At the Downtown Disney District, choose from three true-blue cocktails: an Ocean Breeze at Naples Ristorante E Bar, Blue Hawaiian at Uva Bar & Cafe, and a Tropical Margarita at Tortilla Jo’s.
Fans are also invited to join the celebrations digitally by stepping up their selfie game with Disney PhotoPass Lenses for Disney+ Day. Don festive Mickey ears or invite Groot to make a cameo through these limited-time lenses, available to those celebrating in the parks or at home in the U.S. through Snapchat and the My Disney Experience app.
Disneyland Paris will offer a dedicated entertainment program developed for Disney+ Day, in addition to photo opportunities with Disney PhotoPass and a blue-themed chocolate hazelnut donut.
Additionally, Disney+ subscribers and their party with theme park tickets and reservations are invited for the first time to enter Disneyland Paris at 9:00 a.m. (30 minutes before regular park opening) only on September 8, 2022.
Hong Kong Disneyland will also celebrate Disney+ Day…two days later…with guests visiting the park on September 10. No details as to how this will occur. Here’s hoping for a park takeover by Albert Mystic.
During the Disney Vacation Club Member Cruise that sets sail from August 29 through September 5, members aboard the Disney Wonder will be treated to special gifts from Disney+ and 9 exclusive shows and experiences supporting current and upcoming Disney+ programming.
Ultimately, Disney+ Day sounds like it’ll be a good time with a flurry of new content and some in-park fun at Walt Disney World, Disneyland, Disneyland Paris, plus whatever’s going on a couple days later at Hong Kong Disneyland. It’s hard to be “anti-fun and new things,” but we’re Disney fans…there’s always a way to spin a positive into a negative! 😉
While I’m looking forward to Disney+ Day, it bugs me just a little bit to see the emphasis the Walt Disney Company places on the streaming service that lost over $1 billion (that’s billion with a b) in the last quarter. From the sounds of it, Disney+ Day is going to be a bigger single-day celebration than Walt Disney World had on October 1 last year for the 50th Anniversary or this year for EPCOT’s 40th Anniversary. (We’re expecting nothing at all for the latter. Maybe a speech by the park VP.)
We’ve seen something similar at Disneyland Resort with Avengers Campus, where tons of cool characters keep appearing (e.g. Wanda Harkness, Loki, Zombie Captain America), but only thanks to marketing budgets for Disney+. Theme parks are once again the revenue engines for the Walt Disney Company, but are often just treated like cash cows, there for the milking.
Don’t get me wrong–I love that there are Disney+ Day offerings, and a lot of this sounds like it’ll be enjoyable. We’ll be at Disneyland on September 8 and definitely plan on taking advantage of the added hours, characters, PhotoPass, and more. I just wish there were more celebratory offerings in the parks just because–without need for a tie-in to, or funding from, some other division of the company. The days of Limited Time Magic, Year of a Million Dreams, Summer Nightastic, One More Disney Day, and AP Events aren’t that far in the past. Yet it feels like they were an eternity ago, from a bygone era of how Disney used to operate its theme parks.
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YOUR THOUGHTS
Will you be visiting the parks for Disney+ Day? Excited for the 30-minute early entry for subscribers or 60 minutes for on-site guests? Planning on taking advantage of the PhotoPass offer, or trying to spot fan favorite characters? What do you think of Walt Disney Company’s emphasis on Disney+ and other direct-to-consumer streaming services? Disappointed that Disney+ is prioritized over Walt Disney World and Disneyland, or think it’s a savvy business decision? Do you agree or disagree with our assessment? Any questions we can help you answer? Hearing your feedback–even when you disagree with us–is both interesting to us and helpful to other readers, so please share your thoughts below in the comments!
What time does the Mickey and friends parking structure open on September 8th? Will it be open earlier since it’s Disney+day for sunbcribers?
Hi Tom!
So Disney+ subscribers and their travel party can have early entry, but is there a limit of people that can go with each subscriber?
I mean, I am a subscriber but we will be 5 in my party… maybe we are too many?
Thanks, I love your blog and hope to see you there too!
“The days of Limited Time Magic, Year of a Million Dreams, Summer Nightastic, One More Disney Day, and AP Events aren’t that far in the past. Yet it feels like they were an eternity ago, from a bygone era of how Disney used to operate its theme parks.”
This is so TRUE!!! All of that seems SO long ago.
Good memories. Fun times.
I canceled my Disney + sub. I’ve got enough TV entertainment as it is and being as I’m angry at Disney for its bad attitude toward we it’s patrons. I feel to much of my money is going to fatten up the mouse. After this up coming WDW vacation I’ve already booked and paid for I’m not so much as buying another single thing “Disney” until that shiny headed man sitting in the Disney thrown gets a much needed attitude adjustment.
To clarify, on site guests can enter 1 hour before park opening regardless of being a Disney+ subscriber?
Half hour I believe. I wish it was an hour
We get a 30 minute head start over off site guests so have your running shoes on and ready. That and bus transportation and the retarded genie are the ONLY perks we get for staying on property now. If the park opens at 9AM you get to enter at 8:30AM. And you get to be up before 7AM to start your day all stressed out from dealing with a retarded genie and a phone app that must have been designed by a disco Yeti. I hope you are a morning person.
On this day on-site guests get into the park half an hour before Disney+ guests, an hour before everyone else.
According to Disney resort guests get a 30 minute early entry and on the Disney + day if they are subscribers they get an hour early entry .https://disneyworld.disney.go.com/guest-services/early-entry/
Free stuff that WDW is forced to use is a good thing. the only problem is it isn’t better. I’ll take the Disney+ Light at Night Parade, even if it doesn’t involve Baroque Hoedown.
Last year in November we were at Animal Kingdom for Disney+ Day and it was a complete dud! First of all, I’d misinterpreted it as simply Disney Day and thought there’d be something unique, such as actual character meet and greets (at that time those hadn’t been brought back yet). We were given a Disney+ pin and told to look for special magic shots, which could be taken without a photo pass. We waited in a very long line, and the result was an “empty” shot with me and my husband feigning astonishment at something that never appeared in the downloadable photo. We still laugh at that one, and try to imagine what should have been there—a yeti? a giant Simba balloon? Anyway, it was very disappointing, and we hope they’ll do better this year!
It sounds as if it’s going to be scaled back as compared to last year.
Question- how will they know if you are a disney+ subscriber??
It comes up in the “Memberships & Passes” in your My Disney Experience app
Do you think that the park would be more crowded? For some reason I can’t imagine someone visiting a Disney park but not having Disney plus. I keep on imagining every person in the park being able to access Early Park Entry, making it just a regular park day. Do you agree?
“Do you think that the park would be more crowded?”
At Walt Disney World, absolutely not.
There will be more bloggers, vloggers, and perhaps a handful of regular locals. Otherwise, it’s a weekday in September. The parks will be dead.
Disneyland is a different story, but that’s due to the D23 Expo–nothing to do with this.
Love Disney+ and any extra perks I can get are great. Thanks for the update.
They should let people choose their own Disney plus day- this is honestly kind of pointless
Wanda Harkness? It was Agatha all along!
While it sounds like it could be fun, I’m betting it will very busy and not worth it.
I also agree that it would be nice that Disney could get away from all the Disney inspired everything and go with just because themes. Remember when Disney had original ideas and didn’t have to be inspired by a movie or TV show?
hi tom, any idea how we show proof of subscription to access early entry? we’ll be at DCA that day! if we happen to pass you in our time at DLR would it be weird to say hello?
I’m interested in this answer too!
The fine print on Disney’s website says subscribers may be required to show the signed-in home screen on their phone. Hope this helps!
@Laura:
1) Jess is correct. I think last year we just flashed that for our party at Early Entry and that was it. Painless.
2) ALWAYS feel free to stop us to say hello! If it’s just me, which happens from time to time, just please be aware that I’m a bit introverted. (Sarah is always very cheery and outgoing.) As such, meeting me might end up being a disappointment–to whatever degree you find this blog engaging, I’m less so in real life. 🙂