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/
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.
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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? 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!
😀 That sounds about right!
It would appear that early entry via Disney+ does not mean early eligibility to purchase Individual Lighting Lanes.
I wonder if this is part of a larger strategy. Disney+ subscriber status is now reflected on My Disney Experience, under memberships. Perhaps there will be additional park perks in the future?
WTF the Baby Yoda filter only works in the US?
Meanwhile the annual price for Disney+ went up $30/year in Canada.
You were not clear about who should use this website : http://www.DisneyPlus.com/DisneyPlusDay
Only new subscribers and people whose subscription had lapsed or also people who have a current active subscription. The website was not clear either.
Any idea which rides will be open at Disneyland for the extra half hour? I see Disney says select attractions which isn’t helpful when trying to plan rope drop that day…
Can’t even begin to calculate all the hours spent planning our trip for Nov 18th. So just about getting to feeling somewhat satisfied with the plans we see all the days we picked for the parks are expected to be most crowded. Of course cant change our park reservations that have dining and special extra experiences attached to them. On top of that our group of 8 have two DAS pass holders which took from Oct 21st to Nov 3rd to get through. Finally did the advanced booking only to check and see it was wrong and had to call and go through it all over. That call only took 9 hours on hold. I’m trying, really trying to find the magic once again. We are DVC members all those perks have disappeared and soon I think we will disappear too. At least for a few years. Thanks for your blog.
Where did you see about the resort guests still getting to go in 30mins before the disney plus guests? On a online chat session with disney they state that resort guest and disney plus guests will go in at same time.
Still no word on the return of the dining plan? Traveling first week of January and love the cost effectiveness of the dining plan.
You’re correct, Maryrose, things are not what they once were and it seems like the older generation (of which I am a proud member) may be required to struggle a bit more than others. No, it is not easy. But the struggle to figure it all out is everywhere, not just at Disney. I mean … remember land phones and typewriters (a “typewriter” what’s that you say? “Google it!” LOL) Still, there is something about WDW that keeps us going back. Is WDW the happiest place on earth? Probably not. But, traveling from home to vacation in a spot that leaves behind some of the cares of this world (however, temporary) and plants smiles on the faces of my child and grandchildren, then that is memory enough for me.
Oh my. This might become one of the most crowded days in Disney history!
It actually should be pretty busy due to the Veterans Day long weekend, but I wouldn’t expect Disney+ Day to contribute to crowds much one way or the other.
Does anyone know if the complimentary photopass downloads are for everything including the rides, or only those select photo ops?
I think going to Disney is stressful booking rides booking lunch and dinner not to mention the cost, I went to the 25 anniversary and the 50 anniversary II am Done
Thanks to my kids who worked the app
Not easy for the older generation
Christine, in the Disney release, it looks like they say it’s best to have the Disney+ app on your phone and be able to show a valid sign-in screen.
🙂 hahaha! how about an individual lightning lane pass for the trams and monorail access after the fireworks..wouldn’t put it past them at this point!
How are they verifying this? Is there something I need to do before heading to park that day? Have a reservation, an ap and already a subscriber
I’m not the sort who calls things out as tacky, but this feels tacky to me. It’s nice when they pull out special extras but geez this is so blatantly corporate, buy our streaming service now! I got sucked into the magic of the Disney bubble years ago when my son was 2, and I used to gush at people about our wonderful experiences at wdw. Lately I feel my lip curling at more than half the things they roll out and nickel and diming is SOP there. I think you’ve hinted at a change in executive management possibly being behind some of this stuff?
I think whether it’s “tacky” will come down to execution. If there are huge Disney+ signs and banners all over the place and the crews for GMA or whatever are obtrusive, then yes. If it’s just a flier and free button, some minimal signage and the extras, then no.
I personally do not like how aggressive the company has been with promoting Disney+, but the most egregious example (to me) was having their network journalists all push D+ back when it launched. It’s one thing to have synergy in the parks–that’s expected. It’s another to have David Muir do a puff piece on World News Tonight. But this is hardly unique to Disney–all of the networks have pushed their streaming services in the exact same way.
Thanks! I have spent so much time planning this vacation and I want everything to quit moving around or add to my stress!
I heard the trams are coming back, but only for those with a valid Disney+ subscription :-).
You joke…but do you?!?
I am hoping this for only one day! We arrive on the12th.
It’s definitely one day only.