Disney+ Day Perks at WDW & Disneyland

In celebration of Disney+ Day on November 12, 2021, the company announced new promotions and additional content premiering this Friday–including at Disneyland, Walt Disney World, and Disneyland Paris. This post takes a look at the special perks in the theme parks and everything else you should know about Disney+ Day.

This comes on the second anniversary of Disney’s streaming service, to thank fans for their support in helping Disney+ grow to reach over 116 million households. In celebration, Disney+ subscribers can enjoy special benefits including additional time at Disney Parks around the world, shopDisney deals, access to fan-favorite content, exclusive first-looks on platform, and more.

Those who aren’t already members can join the Disney+ community with a special, limited-time offer. From now until November 14, 2021 new and eligible returning subscribers in the United States and select countries can get one month of Disney+ for $1.99 (then $7.99/mo.) by signing up at www.DisneyPlus.com/DisneyPlusDay, making them eligible to join in on all of the Disney+ Day celebrations!

For starters, a ton of new content is debuting on Disney+ for the streaming service’s second anniversary on November 12, 2021:

  • Shang-Chi and The Legend of the Ten Rings
  • Jungle Cruise
  • Home Sweet Home Alone
  • Olaf Presents
  • Frozen Fever
  • Paperman
  • The Ballad of Nessie
  • Feast
  • Get a Horse!
  • The Little Matchgirl
  • Tick Tock Tale
  • Tangled Ever After
  • Ciao Alberto
  • Jeff Goldblum Season 2 (Ep 1-5)
  • Under The Helmet: The Legacy Of Boba Fett (Documentary Special)
  • Marvel Studios’ 2021 Disney+ Day Special
  • The Simpsons In Plusaversary
  • Entrelazados
  • The Making of Happier than Ever: A Love Letter to Los Angeles
  • Marvel Assembled: The Making of Shang-Chi and The Legend of The Ten Rings
  • Marvel Studios Legends: Hawkeye
  • Enchanted
  • Spin
  • Fancy Nancy Season 3

There will also be Disney+ Day celebratory content outside the streaming service. Fans can find out what their favorite on-air talent from the Disney-owned networks are streaming on Disney+ in a series of spots featuring…a lot of different people. Peyton Manning, Brook & Robin Lopez, Sarah Paulson, Anthony Anderson, and Kat Dennings are the only ones who are cool/recognizable to me.

Audiences can also watch for exclusive Disney+ original spots during ESPN’s “Monday Night Countdown” and “Monday Night Football,” test their trivia in a Disney+ category in “Jeopardy!” on Friday, and tune-in this week for special Disney+ Day integrations and in-show mentions in “Dancing With The Stars,” “General Hospital,” “Live! With Kelly and Ryan,” “Wheel of Fortune,” “Tamron Hall,” “The View,” “Jimmy Kimmel Live!,” “Stephen A’s World,” “NFL Live,” “NBA Today”, “SportsNation,” and more.

The celebration will extend to local communities via ABC’s Owned TV Stations with original programming dedicated to Disney+ Day. Finally, “Good Morning America” will celebrate live from Times Square on November 12, 2021 with special guests from Disney+ shows and spotlights on the coast-to-coast celebrations at Disneyland Resort and Walt Disney World!

Disney+ Day in the Parks

In celebration of Disney+ Day, Disney+ subscribers with a valid ticket or Annual Pass and theme park reservations on November 12, 2021 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 ~$2 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 7 am, Epcot at 9 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. These are the earliest opening times for some of these parks since pre-closure!

Speaking of which, Disney+ subscribers are the “real stars” at Disney’s Hollywood Studios and Disneyland, where guests will be welcomed with a blue carpet experience, 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.

Here are the special photo op locations at Walt Disney World:

Fan favorite Disney+ characters are also joining the festivities with appearances around the parks and in motorcades. The fun doesn’t stop there–more surprises are in store for subscribers who visit Walt Disney World or Disneyland Resort on Disney+ Day.

Learn about how you can celebrate Disney+ Day at Walt Disney World Resort and the Disneyland Resort via handy event guides directly in the My Disney Experience mobile app and the Disneyland app. If you’re on your mobile device, you can directly access the Walt Disney World Resort event guide and the Disneyland Resort event guide.

Disney+ Day is coming to Disneyland Paris with a special celebration in Walt Disney Studios Park for all guests to enjoy. Strut the blue carpet in true Hollywood style, stopping along the way for selfies with Disney characters dressed in blue for the occasion. Relax between takes in an eatery reminiscent of the Golden Age of Hollywood at Restaurant en Coulisse, and don’t miss the chance to indulge in a complimentary Disney+ Day-inspired treat offered with each menu item purchase.

Disney+ Day photo locations will plus up your pics with special character appearances, both in-person and virtual. To culminate the celebration in style, Walt Disney Studios Park will remain open for 30 extra minutes so guests can enjoy plussed-up fun as the Twilight Zone Tower of Terror illuminates the night in Disney+ blue.

You can celebrate with Disney Parks from home, too. Step up your selfie game on the My Disney Experience app with a special appearance from Grogu.

This all-new AR feature rolls out November 12, and just for Disney+ Day, you will be able to give it a go right from home.

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, and Walt Disney Studios Park in Paris. 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 burgeoning (but still not profitable!) streaming service. From the sounds of it, Disney+ Day is going to be a bigger single-day celebration than Walt Disney World had on October 1, 2021. (Of course, that day kicked off an 18-month “celebration” with new nighttime spectaculars and more, but the day itself offered almost nothing beyond merchandise.)

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+. Earlier opening times have been necessary in light of crowd levels at various points (and will be again for Thanksgiving and Christmas), but it only happens when there’s promotional budget for Disney Plus. Outside of the last year, theme parks have been 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 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.

Need Disney trip planning tips and comprehensive advice? Make sure to read Disney Parks Vacation Planning Guides, where you can find comprehensive guides to Walt Disney World, Disneyland, and beyond! For Disney updates & news, discount information, and much more, sign up for our FREE email newsletter!

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? Hyped about all the new content debuting on November 12, 2021? 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!

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