Disney World News: Hollywood Havoc, Hours Extension & DVC Discount
It’s time for another Walt Disney World news and rumor round-up, and this time we have a range of interesting stories. Everything from a new DVC discount to more Park Pass inventory to an extension of park hours. The most interesting tidbit is our report from a havoc-filled day at Disney’s Hollywood Studios.
First up, yet another merchandise discount. You might recall from our last Walt Disney World news & rumor roundup that Annual Passholders can now receive 30% off merchandise purchases through October 29, 2020. Additionally, Cast Members can now receive 50% off select merchandise now through February 2021.
With the parks operating at significantly reduced capacity, Walt Disney World must have a surplus of souvenirs they want to unload, as yet another merchandise discount was just announced. From now through October 29, 2020, Disney Vacation Club Members can save 30% on purchases at Disney owned-and-operated merchandise locations at Walt Disney World…
A valid Disney Vacation Club Member ID must be presented at time of purchase to receive the discount (meaning those who bought via resale and are not grandfathered in are not eligible). As is typical, there are a ton of exclusions and rules.
Below is a look at where this discount is and is not valid. To my knowledge, it’s all of the same locations as the AP offer. In the name of research, we will be testing to confirm that it’s valid at Karamell Küche in EPCOT’s Germany pavilion. Stay tuned for full details!
Next, in yesterday’s Walt Disney World Crowds Continue Increasing commentary, we pointed to September 19, 2020 as a date to watch, as Disney Park Pass availability was unavailable for all four parks across all three reservations buckets. Our expectation was that availability for the weekend would be “refilled” on Thursday afternoon, which has become the standard drop time for more Disney Park Pass reservations.
As it turns out, we didn’t have to wait that long. Disney Park Pass inventory is back for every park except Disney’s Hollywood Studios on this coming Saturday. To reiterate what was discussed in the aforementioned post, this is not a reallocation. Nothing was available and, as such, there was nothing to reallocate. It’s a quiet increase to park capacity.
That date is not the only one that has more availability, but it’s the most prominent and “interesting.” If you’re an Annual Passholder, you might want to check other days as options have changed throughout September. It’s also potentially worth noting that weekends in October and November are filling up, but I wouldn’t worry too much about that–yet.
If recent precedent is any indication, those dates will be refilled many times over. Booking dates in October and November now only limits your near-term options since you can only simultaneously hold 3 Disney Park Pass reservations. That is, unless you have a resort reservation, in which case this is moot.
If you’re visiting Walt Disney World this Saturday and are wondering which park to visit, our first recommendation would be Disney’s Hollywood Studios. (Keep an eye out Thursday afternoon to see if that’s replenished.) Failing that, it’s hard to say which option is best. Normally, it’d be Magic Kingdom–but that will be the first weekend of Halloween. EPCOT typically sees the biggest increase on weekends as compared to weekdays, so that’s also out.
Animal Kingdom would thus be our pick. Partly for lack of better options, and partly because we suspect more guests will be drawn to it on Sunday.
The reason we’re anticipating a slight bump at Animal Kingdom on Sunday is because Walt Disney World extended park hours there by one hour on September 20, 2020. Previously, Animal Kingdom was open from 9 am until 5 pm. Now, it’s open from 9 am until 6 pm.
No other parks or any other dates have been adjusted. Beyond that, there’s no obvious rationale for this. Part of me wondered if it was a Disney IT error at first, but it’s been that way for a full day now, so it being a mistake seems unlikely at this point. Here’s hoping Walt Disney World extends operating hours at other parks and for other dates–with increased capacity, it’s necessary.
Finally, we popped into Disney’s Hollywood Studios yesterday for what we hoped would be a reprieve from the weekend crowds. Instead, the park was pretty chaotic.
Our initial plan was attempting the Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance afternoon boarding pass drop, further refining our late afternoon DHS itinerary, and eating all of the new Halloween snacks. That went out the window pretty quickly.
For starters, significant issues persist with Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance–for the third day in a row the attraction didn’t manage to get above boarding group 40. We didn’t get a chance to experience it (and haven’t in a few weeks now), but there are reports of widespread technical issues, including one of the elevator lifts being down.
That down elevator is significant, as it would effectively halve the hourly throughput of the already reduced-capacity attraction. As a reminder, Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance had issues with downtime and reliability even before the closure of Walt Disney World (hence the virtual queue system–it never had anything to do with popularity). Given the current policy of one party per ride vehicle on top of the other woes, its hourly numbers are likely pretty abysmal.
Due to a mix of the problems with Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance, downtime at other attractions throughout Disney’s Hollywood Studios, and increased park capacity, wait times were high and lines were long throughout the park. Days like this lay bare the park’s lack of crowd-absorbing options. When an attraction or two goes down at Magic Kingdom, wait times elsewhere tick up a bit; when something goes down at DHS, it wreaks havoc on lines throughout the rest of the park.
Even MuppetVision 3D was using its overflow queue, and while I’d like to believe this is because guests have finally come to their senses and are embracing this masterpiece, I’m somewhat skeptical. (In case it’s not clear from the photos, that’s the queue for Tower of Terror extending halfway down Sunset Boulevard and the queue for Rock ‘n’ Roller Coaster spilling beyond that ride’s courtyard.)
After Mobile Ordering all but one of the Halloween snacks we “needed” to eat, we bounced fairly quickly. While our visit was insufficient for a full photo report, I wanted to share brief thoughts and a few photos in the interest of balance. We’ve gotten lucky with a lot of “better than expected!” days at DHS (like the Saturday of Labor Day weekend) that only tell half of the story. This is the other half of that story, and was far worse than expected.
In taking a quick look at My Disney Experience, it appears to be a similar situation today at Disney’s Hollywood Studios. The good news is that other parks aren’t experiencing a similar surge in wait times. We’ll have a report from Halloween at Magic Kingdom tonight (a park with its own physical distancing issues this morning, but no problems in terms of big picture crowds or wait times), so stay tuned for that!
Planning a Walt Disney World trip? Learn about hotels on our Walt Disney World Hotels Reviews page. For where to eat, read our Walt Disney World Restaurant Reviews. To save money on tickets or determine which type to buy, read our Tips for Saving Money on Walt Disney World Tickets post. Our What to Pack for Disney Trips post takes a unique look at clever items to take. For what to do and when to do it, our Walt Disney World Ride Guides will help. For comprehensive advice, the best place to start is our Walt Disney World Trip Planning Guide for everything you need to know!
YOUR THOUGHTS
What do you think of this Walt Disney World news? Concerned about the growing crowds and longer wait times at Walt Disney World? Have you been to Disney’s Hollywood Studios in the last few days? If so, what was your experience? Thoughts on the changes to hours or Disney Park Pass availability? Do you agree or disagree with our assessments? 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!
I just booked my trip to WDW for November 9-13, and then you reported yesterday on increasing crowds. If the crowds and wait times are high, that defeats the purpose of going now, so I’ll probably have to cancel. Since Veterans Day is on a Wednesday, what parks do you recommend visiting each day that week?
I was at Hollywood Studios today, and it pretty much was a dumpster fire! I did take your advice and go to Toy Story land when you arrive. I was able to ride Slinky Dog Dash twice (I would’ve hopped back in line, but the wait was 50 mins by that time) and Alien Swirling Saucers once. I sat down for five minutes to try to score a Rise of the Resistance boarding pass…..I got group 40….and that is when my day took a big spin around the toilet.
Millennium Falcon was down the entire day. This created HUGE lines everywhere else. Rise of the Resistance went down at least three times during the day as well. Same with Mickey and Minnie’s Runaway Railway. Of course that went down while I was standing in line….two and a half hours later, I was able to ride it.
I did everything I wanted to do by 2…even with being stuck is a stupid line. I sat at Baseline for a bit drinking a cider and staring at brown anoles. I started making my way over to Galaxy’s Edge once they got to Group 36….and sat in the sun for an hour, which is not smart because I’m translucent. They finally called my group around 4:30. Rode it. Left.
Took the Skyliner to Epcot and on my walk back to the Beach Club Villas, two people stopped me saying they liked my bag. Talked about Rise of the Resistance since I said I just came from Hollywood Studios…they were still waiting for their boarding group to be called, by this time it was 5:30. I don’t think it would’ve been that bad….if there wasn’t closures of three of their 4 most popular rides.
Honestly, it sounds like your day went relatively well as compared to others who have been to DHS over the last few days. Not to diminish your experience as it definitely was not a good day by normal/objective standards, just not terrible by recent/dumpster fire standards.
We’re planning on being there October 18-24 going to the parks mon-fri. We already grabbed our tickets and continue to stay Priceline for a deal. This is our agenda mon-fri with restaurant reservations
AK Yak and Yeti
MK none
EPCOT Spice road
AK Yak and Yeti
DHS Sci-Fi
Tom, I have a 12 day stay at Art of Animation starting November 1 with 10 day park pass. Do you still think Art of Animation will open on time? You seemed to say resorts are empty. You mentioned that WDW has lifted attendance caps. I thought is was capped at 25%. What was it raised to?
I suspect Art of Animation will open as scheduled. Resorts aren’t empty, they’re just not particularly busy–but September is always slow. That should pick up in November and December.
We have a trip planned Thanksgiving week (Nov 21-28), should we just expect all the parks to be a hot mess regarding crowds? We have DHS scheduled for Mon, Wed and Sat, it my youngest’s favorite park…just curious, what do you think capacity is there?
It’s still way too early to say. I’m still holding out a sliver of hope that Disney will see (and hear negative guest feedback) that they increased capacity too much, and make a correction. That, or they’ll increase the physical capacity of the parks by opening more restaurants, resuming entertainment, etc.
I was in WDW Sept 2-12…toward the end of our trip I saw a huge difference in crowd size throughout all 4 parks. The beginning of the trip the parks were pretty much dead and the end of the trip it was very noticeably larger crowds.
Tom…this is off topic but we finally took your advice and went to STK for their burger lunch special. It was fantastic! Hands down the best burger on property, with the exception of the Kobe beef burger at Yak and Yeti (just because they are different in taste but both are absolutely delicious) and how can you beat $9.99 for a great quality cheeseburger and fries at a quality sit down restaurant. I’m just mad we waited this long to try it! Thanks for the great tip!
You’re welcome–glad you enjoyed that burger!
Is it only available at lunchtime? Linz Angus burger $10.99? I love a good cheeseburger. Do you recommend eating there for dinner, if so, what’s good there? I just made a reservation for 6:15 PM. I will have to change it to the lunchtime to get the burger :/
How was the congestion? Doesn’t seem too bad in the few photos.
It wasn’t bad, but we also didn’t arrive until afternoon. Mornings at DHS tend to be worst in terms of actual crowding.
Tom, we’re going in a few weeks and I know you said you have to be at the DHS to get a boarding pass. My question is if there’s a start time to when you can register for said pass? I was thinking of getting to the park an hour before opening to get signed up and then just walking around. Can you, or anyone, help me out?
Here’s everything (and more) you need to know about Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance – https://www.disneytouristblog.com/star-wars-rise-resistance-faq-ride-guide/
So I have a trip planned for October 8-11 and per your advice scheduled DHS for Saturday October 10. If we get there on Oct 10 and the park is crowded and we want to go someplace else, is there any way to get a pass for a different park?
Not once you’re already in the park.
I’d recommend keeping an eye out on crowd reports for the Thursday and Friday beforehand to see if it looks like DHS has any issues those days. If so, change up your plans. If not, stick with them!
We’ll also be there those same dates. Thanks for the tips!
Tom,
Thanks for more “episodes” on the ever-evolving, true adventures of Days of WDW. Honestly, each day I look for the next part of the mystery/adventure. Do you know what the time frame is to grab a park reservation in relation to a current one? If we have one of 3 AP res. on one day, do we have to wait until park closure that day to attempt to get another new reservation? We’ll be trying to grab Epcot next Wed but will have 2 other park reservations expire before then so we’re pretty confident. Just wondering how it works.
I believe midnight, but not 100% sure on that. I usually check at about 7 am the following morning. No real strategy to that time–just my habit.
Hey quick question for you, I saw on the Disney app that millennium falcon Smugglers run was temporary down today, do you know why that was and if it will be back up anytime soon?
I don’t know what the issues have been, but Smugglers Run has had a lot of downtime recently. It’s been a rough few days for DHS.
DHS now has no availability for Resort Guests/Ticket holders Oct 12, 13, and 15. I expected the Columbus Day holiday but surprised by the other two days.
I have a trip planned that week and have been predicting that it will be a busy week for a while. The long holiday weekend and school fall breaks, resort discounts, and increasing capacity are likely going to create the first full week of insane crowds that week. I agree with Tom, Disney is going to have to do something different to accommodate these bigger crowds; and they better do it before the Columbus/Indigenous People Day crowds arrive, The only reason more people are now booking fall and holiday season is because of the lure of shorter wait times reported until very recently. With those gone, people are going to start canceling their plans.
And now the entire week is booked at DHS. Sigh.
We are checking in November 24. We have been 100’s of times but never during Thanksgiving. I want to make my park reservations today would you recommend this schedule.
Wednesday: Magic kingdom
Thursday: MGM
Friday: Epcot
Saturday: Animal kingdom
I don’t have any good advice for the particular week.
The only thing I’d suggest keeping in mind is that Festival of the Holidays at EPCOT begins that Friday. As such, it’ll probably be at least slightly busier Friday and Saturday. Of course, it’ll also have new entertainment, food, etc. those days. So you have to determine if that tradeoff is worth it to you.
OH my! I appreciate your insight on the current status of the parks. The ups and downs of the rides and the waiting times are not convincing me to go anytime soon.
I’m so hoping for a better future for Disney World. If they do a couple of years more of this marketing plan I will probably never go back. I understand you have to be careful in our times, but I just don’t see enough progress.
I’m disappointed their isn’t more creativity for the holidays coming up, either. I don’t have all the answers but I would like to see more holiday shows and limiting the capacity of people to make it work.
We are visiting Sept 20-24. Our park passes are
Sun- Epcot , Mon – AK, Tues – HS, Wed Univeral, Thurs MK. Should we try to change any of these?
I’d probably swap DHS and EPCOT, but the wildcard there is whatever issues Rise of the Resistance is currently having. Maybe the elevator will be repaired by Sunday…or maybe it won’t but will be mixed by Tuesday.
Otherwise, looks good!
Thanks for the Rise of the Resistance confirmation. Been here since Saturday and have not gotten in on 4 tries. Everyone is talking about it here. I’m here til Sunday and have 1 more day to try. All this que stuff is just causing increased lines elsewhere i feel. Just open it and let us take our chances like runaway railway and smugglers run. I’ve ridden it before. All of us said we know is because of technical issues but makes us all upset by just saying it’s all full. Just say broken and not open and let us stand in line.
Me reading this post with a reservation for Hollywood Studios on Thursday: (°□°)
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We’ll be visiting Oct 14-19 and had planned to DO DHS on Thursday, MK on Friday, and Epcot Saturday. Still up in the air on doing AK on Sunday, but would you tweak the order based on your experiences?
And you mentioned you can only hold up to three park pass reservations unless you’re a resort guest. Is that just for APs or does it hold true for off-site people, too?
I’d swap DHS and EPCOT.
Tom, do you think these crowds are the “pent up demand” you were expecting to see in July/August? Do you think crowds will go down for October?
I think it’s a form of pent-up demand. In response to yesterday’s post, a lot of readers commented on virtual learning making it easier for families to travel this fall. That could be playing a role, but I think this is driven much more by locals.
Every resort stay or visit we’ve done during the last couple of weeks has told a very different story than the parks. If this were primarily driven by tourists, that discrepancy wouldn’t exist. IMO, this is because APs and CMs are finally able to gain easier access to the parks, and WDW has lifted attendance caps.
What was the snack in the report? Was it worth the calories? 🙂 Fun to see fall snacks!!
Top one is an oatmeal cookie from Karamell-Kuche in EPCOT (not worth it–much better options there).
Lower one is the new Pumpkin Cheesecake Cannoli from PizzeRizzo at DHS (worth it, but not the best Halloween snack in the park–stay tuned for more of those reviews).
Hi! I have read several times to visit DHS on the weekend. Why is that? We are planning a trip nov 6-11. We have Mk that Saturday and planned DHS for the 6th. Is DHS slower on the weekends? Thank you
@Tina: the real advice is not that you *should* go to DHS on the weekend, it’s that you should *avoid* the other three parks on the weekend if you can.
Crowd levels are being driven by locals right now, and locals tend to work Mon-Fri and hit the parks on Sat & Sun. As such, the parks are busier on the weekends. *HOWEVER*, because DHS’s Park Pass capacity is so low, it is often “full” seven days a week; even though interest is higher on the weekend, it doesn’t have the capacity to get any busier.
You should switch your planned MK and DHS days. Not because DHS will be any less crowded on Sat vs Fri, but because MK will be MUCH less crowded on Fri vs Sat.
Does that make sense?