Disney World News & Rumors: Ohana Noodles, Wait Times Update, Disney+ Attraction Series
We’re back with another weekend Walt Disney World news and rumor roundup. This one covers more reopening news, updates on ‘Ohana and Sebastian’s Bistro (including noodlegate), changes in My Disney Experience leading to more rumblings of FastPass returning or a paid version debuting, plus added and extended park hours through August 2021.
As always, we’ll start with an update on new hours. All four theme parks have had hours for another week added to the DisneyWorld.com park hours calendar. These hours encompass the week of August 22-28, 2021. As with the week before it, this set of dates is typically off-season as school districts start to go back into session. Despite that, the new hours are identical to the previous weeks of summer season:
- Magic Kingdom: 9 am to 9 pm
- EPCOT: 11 am to 9 pm
- Hollywood Studios: 9 am to 7 pm
- Animal Kingdom: 8 am to 6 pm
- Blizzard Beach: 11 am to 6 pm
It’s important to remember that Walt Disney World’s normal practice is to release boilerplate hours before extending those based on attendance and hotel occupancy projections. These are simply placeholder or “lorem ipsum” Walt Disney World hours—the minimum operating hours for those dates. With that said, it’s entirely possible that late August won’t be super busy, and these hours will be close to final…
With this WDW calendar update, we also have a couple of extensions to hours in the near-term. First, Animal Kingdom will be open from 8 am until 7 pm from June 28 through July 3, 2021. Previously, the park was scheduled to close at 6 pm those dates. Due to the Independence Day holiday, that’s likely to be a busy week. Don’t be surprised if other parks have their hours extended, too.
On that note, Epcot is currently the only option for Disney Park Pass reservations a few days that week. If Walt Disney World wants to justify upping the attendance limit, adding another hour at Magic Kingdom would make sense.
The second extension is Disney Springs, which will be open from 10 am until 11 pm on weekdays and 10 am until 11:30 pm on Fridays and Saturdays. This is an hour extension on weeknights and 30 minutes on weekends.
On our recent visits to Disney Springs, it has sure felt like the shopping and dining district is operating at full capacity–and demand. It’s now likely that the only reason operating hours remain shorter than pre-closure is a lack of staffing at the various operating participants. To that point, many stores and some restaurants have shorter operating hours than Disney Springs as a whole, so be sure to double-check wherever you want to visit before heading out to Disney Springs. That’s a mistake we’ve unfortunately made more than once in the last few months!
In more ‘return to normalcy’ news, Walt Disney World has begun the process of reopening arcades and playgrounds in the parks and at the resort hotels. This should be great news for parents and kids with extra energy to burn.
We haven’t been around all of the parks and resorts to independently verify that everything is open again, but it was the case at Magic Kingdom, Epcot, and a couple of those area resorts when we were there towards the end of the week. As with all of these changes, sometimes it takes a few days for the changes to roll out everywhere.
In Walt Disney World dining news, we have a couple of updates on ‘Ohana and Sebastian’s Bistro. As you’re hopefully aware, Advance Dining Reservations dropped for both late last week. With the ADRs opening, menus were also released (beyond just the press release). Here’s the menu for Sebastian’s Bistro and here’s the menu for ‘Ohana.
Note that dinner at Sebastian’s Bistro will cost $29 per adult and $17 per child, whereas ‘Ohana will cost $55 per adult and $33 per child. This significant price difference makes me wonder if the family style meal at Sebastian’s Bistro is not all you can eat.
Even assuming there’s a “popularity tax” with the pricing at ‘Ohana (and there definitely is), that’s a huge difference. To my knowledge, the least expensive all you can eat meal at Walt Disney World is (or rather, was, pre-closure) Trail’s End at $37 per adult and $20 per child.
Hard to believe that Sebastian’s Bistro would be so much cheaper. I hope it is, but feel like maybe there’s a catch or mistake. I’m more excited for Sebastian’s Bistro either way, and even if something about this turns out too good to be true, I’m betting it’ll still be better than ‘Ohana!
@disneyparksOur favorites are back at ‘Ohana! 🤩 #Disney #DisneyParks #DisneyWorld #OhanaNoodles #Ohana #Noodles #PolynesianResort #FoodTikTok♬ original sound – Disney Parks
In related ‘Ohana menu news, the noodles are back on the menu. Walt Disney World made the announcement on TikTok, ending our long national nightmare after a few days.
For those who don’t pay attention to this stuff, there was significant backlash when Walt Disney World announced the reopening of ‘Ohana and the noodles were conspicuously absent from photos and the description of what would be served. This just wasn’t some minor thing among disgruntled fans who will find anything to complain about–it was trending nationally on social media!
Honestly, I did not expect that. I’m generally aware of the popularity of ‘Ohana noodles and know Disney has published the recipe, but I didn’t realize they were that big of a deal to Walt Disney World fans. Granted, I’m not the world’s biggest ‘Ohana diehard (again, I think it’s a fun but overrated restaurant) but I would’ve ranked at least 3 dishes above the noodles in my official ‘Ohana Culinary Power Rankings.
Nevertheless, it was surprising to see the noodles missing from the menu. They are popular and noodles are not exactly crab legs from a cost-perspective. They’re exactly the kind of filler all you can eat restaurants would prefer people eat. It thus seems like an odd choice to cut them. Maybe there was a supplier issue that Disney found a way to resolve once the backlash hit? Maybe it an unintentional oversight? Something else entirely? We’ll probably never know for sure, but it’s still a curious choice.
Next, as covered in Disney After Hours Boo Bash Halloween Party at Magic Kingdom: Dates, Hours, Prices & Info more event dates have been added due to popularity. Also noted there, phone lines have had consistently long wait times, which is a result of demand and the call centers being short staffed. (The latter is not a new problem.) Expect those waits to get even worse once sales open to the general public this week.
Halloween is already sold out, which shouldn’t be a huge shock. It was always the first date to sell out for Mickey’s Not So Scary Halloween Party, and this will have a significantly lower capacity cap. If resale (e.g. eBay and Craigslist) prices for MNSSHP in past years are any indication, Walt Disney World could price a Halloween night event at around $300-400 per person and still sell it out.
In some fun news, Disney+ has announced it will premiere all episodes of its newest original series “Behind the Attraction” on Friday, July 16, 2021. The 10-part series, narrated by Paget Brewster, gives viewers an exclusive peek ‘behind the curtain’ of the most beloved attractions and destinations at parks around the world.
“Behind the Attraction” will delve into the rich history of Imagineering’s greatest creations using archival and never-before-seen footage and photographs to explain how the attractions came to be and how they’ve been refined over the years as new ideas surface and technology evolves.
The Disney+ series will include rare interviews with Walt Disney, as well as Disney Legends, and dozens of past and present Imagineers, including Bob Weis, Jeanette Lomboy, Kim Irvine, Scott Trowbridge, Tom Fitzgerald, Scot Drake, Carmen Smith, Joe Rohde, and others who divulge insider secrets of the parks and how iconic Disney attractions were brought to life.
Here’s the full list of all 10 episodes:
- Jungle Cruise
- Haunted Mansion
- Star Tours
- The Twilight Zone Tower of Terror
- The Castles
- Disneyland Hotel
- Space Mountain
- “it’s a small world”
- Trains, Trams, and Monorails
- Hall of Presidents
We’re really excited for this. If it’s even one-quarter as good as The Imagineering Story, it’ll be an absolute must-watch!
Finally, the possibility of paid FastPass has become a hot topic of conversation among Walt Disney World fans. The latest “clues” that something is on the horizon comes via a couple of changes in the My Disney Experience app. Most visibly, there’s the addition of verbiage indicating wait times are for the standby lines, implying waits in the future could be different for FastPass or its successor.
In When Will FastPass+ Return to Walt Disney World? you can read our full thoughts on the topic. To be abundantly clear, that is speculation and not credible rumor. Although there’s a lot of buzz right now, I do not believe any of it is credible rumor. It’s all semi-informed speculation based upon a totality of the circumstances and what’s plausible.
There have been rumors of paid FastPass for over three years–since well before the closure and reopening of Walt Disney World sans FastPass. This dates back to before paid FastPass+ packages rolled out to Club Level guests; that was viewed as a trial balloon for FastPass upcharges. Then Disneyland launched MaxPass to great success. Disneyland Paris and Shanghai Disneyland also began selling FastPass bundles around that same time.
Then came the D23 Expo two summers ago, and announcement of the Disney Genie app for Walt Disney World. While details remain scant about that app, our view has always been that it only exists to up-sell guests and/or assist in crowd management. There’s almost no other reason for Disney to invest in yet another new app unless it will offer direct ROI.
In other words, all signs point to Walt Disney World offering paid FastPass at some point. But that’s nothing new, those exact same signs have existed for several years. That still leaves a ton of questions about specifics, such as whether there will be a free component, whether select resort guests will receive some degree of line skipping privileges, whether FastPass will return temporarily before the new system debuts, and more. It could end up being FastPass+ plus the option to spontaneously buy more access, MaxPass, or something different entirely. There are a lot of unknowns, and likely will be until something is officially announced by Walt Disney World.
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 latest roundup of Walt Disney World news & rumors? Optimistic or pessimistic about the future of FastPass? Expecting a paid line skipping option? Excited for the upcoming “Behind the Attraction” Disney+ series? Happy to see noodlegate brought to a satisfactory conclusion? Looking forward to dining at Sebastian’s Bistro, ‘Ohana, or both? Feedback or opinions on anything else covered here? 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!
They should offer a true virtual queue that just saves your spot in the line which gives you the freedom to explore the park, shop, dine, interact, or even queue for shorter lines. This should be free to all guests or at least to on site guests. Offer off site guest the option to purchase it.
I would be interested in a ala cart option, in addition to the virtual queue. I can see families leverage this to their specific needs. Some might just want slinky dog, or another family may want to binge on the HM. The option for a paid ala cart system on top of a virtual would let large families that can’t afford to purchase fast passes or max passes. We go to six flags here in GA a lot and it gets old seeing people that can afford to pay to cut in line. For our family of 5, it’s not something we can afford especially as owners of season passes. If there was a virtual queue it would soften the blow and make waiting with kids a thousand times easier. Plus if we had the option to pay ala cart, we would most likely do so on special days and pick specific rides.
I love the MaxPass system in Disneyland, but have worries about how much it would cost my family to use a similar system in Florida. One day of MaxPass can get you on just about every e-ticket in both California Parks, whereas the geography of WDW leaves me to believe you’d need 3-4 days of MaxPass to accomplish the same thing in all 4 parks.
The worst meal I’ve ever had in a restaurant, (anywhere, not just Disney), was at ‘Ohana. Those famous noodles were cold, greasy and flavorless, and the long-anticipated bread pudding dessert was served to us fully frozen. My friend and I felt that we were charged $120 for about $12 worth of knockoff Panda Express. I’m sure that was not the usual experience, but I don’t understand paying $55 a head for what ‘Ohana is offering on their best day.
@Tom Bricker. Do you really think that the new FastPass system will be some sort of a la carte pay system, where you pay for each ride individually (or am I reading too much into your Genie comment above)? I don’t mind paying for all day access, but I think the “per ride” approach could get pricey really fast.
I have never liked FastPass, and other fans that I spoke to recently share this sentiment. Everyone I spoke to recently longed for the days of taking your pass to a kiosk, and getting a return time for the ride.
I would be fine for the FastPass becoming an add-on like Universal as well. I think Disney has created a wait-time issue with the pre-pandemic FastPass, and the powers that be would be wise to follow the lead of other theme parks and either charge for it or use it as a benefit for on-site guest, which makes more sense. Disney has basically made most benefits of staying at a WDW resort disappear in a cloud of pixie dust over the last few years. Making the FastPass a benefit for on-site guest and an upcharge for all others could reduce wait times created by an equal access reservation system, add a perceived value for resort guest, and provide a revenue stream with high profit and low cost.
Of course, this opinion is coming from someone who thinks that Disney using only the virtual line for ROTR was a dumb PR move. That basically insures that the family staying off-site that may only get one chance to experience Disney and is not researching the strategies will not have any chance to experience the flagship attraction.
Hi Tom
I’m on the Uk and when I go to park reservations it takes me to the uk version for booking and July still has all the parks except MK available to book.
I’m wondering are Disney allowing uk to book on the assumption if international flights are allowed again parks will go to max capacity admission?
I don’t know if that’s a think it’s just weird that when you are reporting the reservation availability it doesn’t correlate with what I see (and I know you aren’t lying) so there must be some weird duel planning taking place?
I dislike FP+ though I have to admit as a Disneyland local I would use it during very crowded times though summer 2019 was such an aberration in being fairly quiet. I admit as we only go to WDW once a year (maybe 2-3 times now that we live an hour plane flight away) I would probably pay for the convenience, but it still annoys me. I am a hypocrite?
Trying to get Ohana dining as I’ve always wanted to eat those noodles. But alas. So I set up alerts. See, Tom, without your blog I wouldn’t know WHAT to do or WHAT is going on and I would end up starving at Disney and my kid would hate me forever except maybe that’d be okay since he’d just live on Mickey Bars.
The only FP+ upcharge that would make sense to me is if they pull back FP+ (free) access for only guests staying at WFW operated resorts. So free for guests who are already paying huge premiums to be on-site, with a paid option for other guests. That’s pretty similar to how Universal hotels work.
Granted, I still don’t love the idea of it. Free FP+ makes sense for WDW because everything–hotels, food, tickets, souvenirs–is far more expensive than any of the other Disney parks in the world. We were lucky enough to visit Tokyo Disneyland/DisneySea a few years back, and we were shocked at how much cheaper food and souvenirs were in the parks…and much better quality.
We’ll see where Disney fans start to draw a line.
1) Okay, noodles, fantastic. My question is when will they replace shrimp casserole with literally anything else? I know it’s cheaper bc casseroles use so much filler, but come. on. Some things should just not be casserole’d.
2) I’m honestly surprised wdw hasn’t already converted to something like Universal’s express pass system. My guess is they would put off an announcement about theoretical paid fast pass as long as they possibly could, to make the inevitable uproar too little, too late for a system they’d basically have implemented already.
Looking forward to the Behind the Attraction series, and very glad that they didn’t include anything super recent. We loved the first 5 episodes of The Imagineering Story, and mostly rolled our eyes at the 6th one. They were honest documentarians in the “historical” episodes, but then talked about Shanghai & SWGE in ep6 like they were the pinnacle of Imagineering achievement. I’d love to see a doc on the making of SWGE & RotR, but not until enough years pass that they could be honest about budget cuts and construction problems.
The exclusion of Splash Mtn is expected, but no Pirates episode?!? Makes me wonder if major changes (i.e. removal of Depp/movie elements) may be coming before too long…
@FloridaDisney I think your predictions of paid fastpass creating a “mob scene” may be overblown. WDW is the *only* place where everyone gets equal-ish access to the ride reservation service. Literally everywhere else (including WDW’s main competitors and other Disney resorts), ride reservation access is purchased and/or upgradeable with $$$ and/or exclusive to on-site hotel guests.
If you’re TDO right now and you have the opportunity to redefine FP from a clean slate, how could you NOT try to make it a driver of revenue and/or hotel bookings?
Have you noticed how the park reservation system takes a weird turn on June 29th and beyond = all the sudden Magic Kingdom is fully booked and Hollywood Studios is not? At least it isn’t for hotel guests and ticket holders. Why would MK be hitting its capacity first, when all this time HS has been the first to book completely? Just wondering if that meant something – especially if it was the return of FP+ or the fireworks that week? Or will the college students be trained by then and that will help with staffing? Thoughts?
After eight hours of trying and 2 1/2 hours on hold we were able to get Boo bash tickets for our September trip. I have never heard of people reselling tickets on craigslist or eBay for Disney Extra events. But then again I have never really looked and I believe you if you say they did. The very polite and helpful CM that I spoke, to when I bought my tickets, actually gave me a two minute mini lecture that the tickets were not transferable under any reason. I hope this stops people buying more than they need and then trying to resell them for scalper type prices.
Logic of why Sebastian’s may be cheaper yet still all you can eat: It’s a moderate resort restaurant. It’s got a very limited menu, even compared to the new menus at the former buffet restaurants.
Cape May is $42… so $13 cheaper than Cape May.
Sebastian’s 1st course: rolls. Cape May: rolls and salad.
Sebastian’s 2nd course: 3 dish combo. (And plant alt). That’s it. Cape May does the seafood boil + turf platter + lobster Mac &Cheese. Cape May dies assorted desserts, Sebastian’s just 1 dessert.
In other words– Sebastian’s is an extremely limited offering, at a moderate resort. Makes sense for it to be significantly cheaper.
As to Boo Bash – I think it’s very good news that Halloween sold out so quickly, when only available to resort guests by long phone hold. Hopefully, it indicates there remains a very low attendance cap. My fear was they would try to sell too many tickets. With capacity truly limited, should be a very pleasant experience even when sold out.
What are the chances of Disney releasing more Park reservation availability for Magic Kingdom for July 1 and after?
Pretty good. Even if there’s not another inventory dump/refill between now and then, you can often find what you need by refreshing and getting one someone else has cancelled. For that, don’t even bother looking at the availability calendar as it lags behind real time inventory–just try to book via the system.
Paid FastPas is a horrible, revenue generating idea, on par with paid airline elite status via airline branded credit cards. It will create a mob scene.
Keeping the FastPass system the way it is keeps everyone on an even keel and keeps the opportunities for FastPasses the same for all guests (sans Disney Resort guests).
Nevertheless, if they implement paid FastPass, the parks will turn into airline terminals, with people who can “afford” (or at least pay with a credit card) FastPasses, crowding the lines.
I’m waiting patiently for Riverside to open!
You and me both! 🙂
Thanks, Tom! Great post. Love Disneyland’s MaxPass. While I liked (not loved) Disney World’s paid early entry / late stay options, it just did not match up to the all-day ability to pay for some level of express access. A paid FastPass option, maybe beyond the first 3 for free, makes a lot of sense. But what also makes Disneyland’s MaxPass so nice is the ability to “book” that next ride the very moment you’ve used your current pass.
Thoughts on why Sebastian’s is closed Tuesdays and Wednesdays? Any hope of it being opened those days by the end of the summer? We’re going at the end of august and I was hoping to go there on a Tuesday.
My guess is a mix of insufficient staffing and anticipated demand. Don’t know for sure, though.
the moment genie was announced, i too immediately thought “this is going to be a paid tiered thing”. it sounded too much ala touring plans subscriptions and i think disney is hoping people will pay a premium for an “official” service. my guess is the more you’re willing to pay, the more perks.
I’d be shocked if Genie is a membership type of thing. My guess is the TouringPlans style portion of the app is free–it would behoove Disney to offer something like that to redistribute crowds to its advantage. They’ve done exactly that in the past by offering FastPasses for attractions that didn’t need FastPass. It’s a savvy move.
I think Genie will be monetized by offering the option to buy your way out of lines, so to speak. “Oh, you want to do Seven Dwarfs Mine Train right now? Well you can…for $20 per person! Click here to purchase a FastPass 4-Pack!”
Counting down to September!!!! Hopefully dining plan comes back!!!!
We don’t mind if Fast pass isn’t available. Although we hope it is in Some form.