What’s Not Back & Returning to Disney World in 2022
“When will Walt Disney World bring back ____?” and other questions about the return to normalcy, what’s still closed, unavailable, and reopening are common. This offers an update on the Dining Plan, Fantasmic, Festival of Fantasy Parade, restaurants, resorts, shows, and more. (Updated January 8, 2022.)
We’re going to consolidate the answers to all of those frequently asked questions. We’ll start with the “reminder” that Madame Leota is not employed by this blog, which is to say that we don’t have a crystal ball. Circumstances are fluid and evolving at Walt Disney World.
Months ago, that was due to public health guidance continuing to change. Now, that concern still exists–and it wouldn’t be surprising to see Disney pump the brakes given Omicron–but is not the biggest issue. Its place has been taken by woes in scaling up operations to meet pent-up demand, exacerbated by a widespread staffing shortage. These two things in tandem coupled with a faster-than-anticipated rule relaxation has created something of a perfect storm, with Walt Disney World playing catch-up…
Suffice to say, if you’re looking for definitive answers, you’re embarking on a fool’s errand. Nothing is certain until it actually happens. Even an official announcement from Walt Disney World doesn’t guarantee that, as the company has cancelled and postponed many plans already.
Basically, we’re trying to manage your expectations, so you understand the nature of what you’re about to read. Nothing is 100%, and some of these predictions have a confidence level far lower than that. While some are predicated upon reliable rumors, even those can be–and frequently are–wrong. There are competing plans, circumstances change, etc. With that out of the way, let’s turn to the Q&A…
What’s taking so long bringing things back?
Staffing. If you’re wondering why Walt Disney World has been so slow to bring back something, there’s a 90% chance that’s the answer. (The other 10% is $$$.) There is more than enough demand to bring back everything at this point. The biggest impediment is that operational locations are short-staffed and ones that have yet to reopen need to hire and train new Cast Members.
This is hardly unique to Central Florida or Walt Disney World. You’ve probably seen similar stories on your local news about the hospitality industry having a tough time finding workers. We’ve also discussed it in countless articles. Nevertheless, it’s worth reiterating once again for those who are new to the site.
There was a stretch of several months post-reopening when a lack of demand was the primary problem, but that ceased being the case by spring break. Pent-up demand is off the charts right now, and all health safety restrictions have been lifted. The primary limiting factor is a lack of Cast Members. Unfortunately, the company was caught off-guard by the speed of America’s reopening and labor market realities.
Fortunately, help is on the way! Walt Disney World’s hiring blitz continues and the company is running job opening advertisements, doing job fairs, and even offering significant signing bonuses ($1,000 to $3,000 plus a relocation perk for some positions).
Disney has had some success in hiring, but thousands more employees are needed. It’s not going to be a quick fix. Moreover, there’s a lot of on-the-job learning, and it’ll take some time before all of these new Cast Members have the knowledge/skills/etc. necessary to make a big impact. We hope some of these shortages work themselves out by Spring 2022, but we’re no longer completely optimistic–there are many complicating factors and some of these issues will persist for years.
When will the Disney Dining Plan return?
See above. Restaurant capacity is a necessary prerequisite for the Disney Dining Plan being brought back.
For much more extensive commentary, see When Will the Disney Dining Plan Return?
What about Free Dining?
Free Dining adds another layer to the above analysis, as the annual promotion is a huge driver of hotel bookings. However, Walt Disney World does not need to incentivize those to hit its occupancy targets right now. (See What’s Up with Sold Out Hotels at WDW? for more on that.)
Suffice to say, we are not optimistic about the return of Free Dining in 2022. It’s possible later in the year, but that would require some combination of resorts operating at a higher capacity, demand dropping, or both. Plus, the same for restaurants.
When will face mask rules end?
Walt Disney World gradually relaxed its face mask policy at the start of summer before reinstating indoor mask rules late last summer for everyone. It remains to be seen when this will end, but it’s safe to say not before Omicron subsides.
See When Will Walt Disney World’s Face Mask Rule End? for more commentary and predictions.
When will X resort or Y restaurant reopen?
After having its original return date bumped, Disney announced that All Star Sports Resort will reopen on March 31, 2022. That’s the only Walt Disney World hotel that’s still closed at this point; we are confident it’ll actually open this time.
Additionally, most restaurants are now open, but some fine dining locations and a handful of other restaurants remain closed. For the status of specific locations in the parks and at the hotels, see List of Open & Closed Restaurants at Walt Disney World (January 2022).
What about dinner shows?
There have been rumors of performers being called back to Hoop-Dee-Doo Musical Revue over the last several months, and the dinner show was supposedly in rehearsals at one point. We cannot corroborate either of those claims, but that was the indirect word according to multiple rumors. Honestly, I don’t know how credible those are or were—I never heard anything directly.
Late last fall, two different Walt Disney World performers—Randy Morris and Yehaa Bob—have indicated during their sets that Hoop-Dee-Doo Musical Revue would be returning “soon.” That’s a pretty ambiguous term, but if accurate, it would likely mean March 2022.
We have yet to hear a single rumor about Spirit of Aloha. At this point, it would not surprise us if that’s gone for good.
When will Disney Park Pass reservations end?
Depends upon who you ask. High level leaders, including the CEO and head of the theme park division, have stated in interviews that they will continue to use certain technology that improves efficiencies when operations are back to normal. Many fans have taken this to mean that Disney Park Pass is here to stay.
For reasons we discuss in When Will Disney Park Pass Reservations End? we doubt that will be the case. With that said, we expect reservations to stick around until Walt Disney World is able to increase park capacity to 100% (again, an issue of staffing not safety) and pent-up demand is exhausted.
When will Park Hopping be allowed before 2 pm?
Park Hopping is dictated by capacity, so those rules could be relaxed literally any time now.
However, loosening Park Hopping rules may not be viewed as a high priority by Disney. Additionally, it might be advantageous for the company to maintain the existing policy to help control crowds and attendance. It also might result in longer visits or length of stay.
Will Minnie Vans return?
No insight into this one whatsoever. New signage has been installed in parking lots that offers a “hint” that Minnie Vans will be back, but there are no credible rumors as to when they’ll return.
While lucrative for Disney, this is probably not high priority in the grand scheme of things. We don’t expect it back until Summer 2022, if ever.
What about parking lot trams?
Thankfully, the overdue return of parking lot trams has already occurred at the Transportation & Ticket Center, which is essentially the Magic Kingdom’s parking lot. It’s still unknown when trams will return for the other 3 parks.
If you asked me then when I thought they’d return at the start of last summer (when they first began testing), I would’ve said “within two weeks.” If you asked me today, I’d say “within two months.” The return of parking lot trams should be days away, not weeks or months–but the same could’ve been said before.
When will the missing shows return?
During the holiday season, Walt Disney World announced entertainment returning in 2022. This includes Fantasmic at Disney’s Hollywood Studios, Finding Nemo: the Musical at Animal Kingdom, plus Festival of Fantasy Parade and an overhauled 50th Anniversary stage show in Magic Kingdom.
Only Festival of Fantasy Parade was given a timeframe: “Early 2022.” Our expectation is that Finding Nemo: the Musical and Fantasmic won’t be back until spring or summer. The new stage show in Magic Kingdom is more of a wildcard.
When will other parades, shows, and entertainment return?
Shows like Voyage of the Little Mermaid, Enchanted Tales with Belle, and Jedi Training Academy are all unknowns. There have been credible rumors about these three in particular never returning. That doesn’t mean the venues will sit empty indefinitely–they might be replaced with new concepts later in 2022.
What about the return of Fantasmic?
There was a point when a heavily-modified Fantasmic was rumored to be the first nighttime spectacular to return to Walt Disney World. That was several months ago, and I have not heard anything credible since. It seems as if Disney opted to undertake a fairly significant refurbishment project to the amphitheater and its infrastructure instead.
Given the performer-heavy nature of Fantasmic, it’s likely we’ll have pretty decent advance notice of when it’s going to return. We do not expect Fantasmic to return until 2022.
Any chance that Rivers of Light will make a comeback?
No.
Rivers of Light has been permanently retired and there are no rumored or confirmed plans for a new nighttime spectacular at Animal Kingdom. It wouldn’t surprise me if the concept is reborn under a different name, but perhaps not. None of its incarnations were hits with guests.
What about the Kiss Goodnight at Magic Kingdom?
For the many of you who have never heard of this, see our post: “The Kiss Goodnight: Disney World’s Best Thing Few Guests See.” This is a little thing that flies under the radar, and wouldn’t be rumor-worthy.
Our concern is that it flies so far under the radar, it might never be brought back. Or, Disney might wait until after the 50th Anniversary ends in Spring 2023 because the Kiss Goodnight somehow conflicts with the Beacons of Magic.
Will the Tables in Wonderland card return?
No clue. The last we heard anything about Tables in Wonderland, it did not sound promising (that the team previously handling Tables in Wonderland is essentially gone).
However, that was late last year. Our expectation is that a discount card program will be brought back eventually, but not until table service restaurants are operating normally. Even then, it’s unlikely to be high priority so long as dining demand remains high.
Will character meet & greets be back soon?
This is a big wildcard.
Disney has introduced indoor physically distanced one-on-one character greetings, but there are no hugs, autographs, etc. That could pave the way for meet & greets, but again, it has been slow going. We haven’t heard anything credible about this, and wouldn’t expect anything until after Omicron subsides, potentially in Spring 2022.
When will princess meals return?
The first modified “face character” meal has already debuted, with the return of Story Book Dining at Artist Point the week before Christmas.
We have not heard any rumors about the return of additional (fur or face) character dining. It stands to reason that Walt Disney World would attempt to bring back more by Spring Break or Easter 2022, but we have absolutely no credible insight into what or when.
What about Bibbidi Bobbidi Boutique?
Another one about which we’ve heard no credible rumors whatsoever.
Bibbidi Bobbidi Boutique is a close-contact experience between Cast Members and a guest demographic that cannot yet be vaccinated. Even though it’s another thing that’s lucrative for Walt Disney World, we would expect its return to not occur until Spring 2022, at the earliest.
Ultimately, I think that about covers the big things about which readers regularly ask questions. If there’s anything we missed, please feel free to mention it in the comments and I’ll update accordingly. As a final reminder, the above is all subject to change, and based upon a mix of credible rumors and rampant speculation. Some of this will end up being pretty close to accurate, other predictions will be wildly wrong. Do not book a trip to Walt Disney World in reliance upon the timelines above. While we think the totality of these predictions paints an accurate picture of the trajectory of Walt Disney World’s phased reopening, individual elements could return much earlier or much later than we expect.
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 about these predictions for Walt Disney World’s phased reopening? Any surprises on this list for you? When do you expect more restaurants, resorts, entertainment, or anything else to return? Hopeful that Walt Disney World is largely back to normal by Spring 2022? Will you be attempting to visit Walt Disney World this year, or are you waiting until 2023 when things have normalized even more and (hopefully) pent-up demand fizzles out and staffing levels recover? Do you agree or disagree with our predictions? 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!
@Jack yes and what we found was that we had a lot of extra snack credits left over and felt we’d have broken even or saved money without the plan afterwards. I agree that costs have skyrocketed! It’s getting harder and harder to justify, but I did just renew my AP for another year…
Are they still not providing photos to people who’s masks are not on during rides? Not a rule breaker but say I’m on Buzz Lightyear’s Space Ranger spin with my 3 year old by ourselves. Are they still enforcing that? I just want some ride pictures without masks on.
Good question! Unfortunately, I’m not sure.
I’ll try to find out next time we’re at the park and report back. Someone else can feel free to chime in if they have experience as of August 2021.
@MrNico. You make a valid point and I can see the argument that nothing is ever truly free when it comes to Disney. However, for the resort that we chose (Boardwalk Inn) and the arrival date for the first few years when we qualified for the ‘free’ dining (Saturday after Thanksgiving 2016-2018), I did not see any other promotions being offered or room only discounts. We were staying 6-7 days and adding park hopper regardless, so it at least felt like the dining was a free add-on. Maybe they built the cost into the room rate, but free dining was not available to us in 2019 for that week and the cost of our room rate went up even without the dining included. Therefore, we ended up paying a lot more for that trip since the room and ticket package was higher and we paid for all of our meals and snacks out of pocket. I’m sure we may have been able to find room discounts at other resorts or if we changed our arrival date, but the week after Thanksgiving was always our preferred time to go.
@E. I hope you’re wrong about the masks. I really do. Sure, they help slow spread of illness. But they don’t stop it. Neither do the current inoculations. As our immune systems continue to adapt, death rates will go even lower, whether you’ve had the jab or not. They are already in line with other coronaviruses. And look, any doctor will tell you the flu shot is around 40% effective in any given year, but many of us still get one just for that edge over sickness. I was really looking forward to a no-mask visit in 2 months, but if they are required, we’ll wear them. Doesn’t mean we’ll like it! I’m going to a conference in Nashville next week for the American Society of Healthcare Engineers. It’ll be interesting to see how many folks are wearing them there.
@Jack and all, I wish everyone would stop referring to it as the ‘free’ dining plan. It’s not in any way free. If you’re paying the rack rate for rooms (yikes!) the cost is included in those exorbitant rates. We got the DDP once when we stayed at Kidani Village and got the military discount. To us normal folks, room rates at the Deluxe resorts are astronomically absurd. Without military discount or renting DVC points, I doubt I’d have been able to stay at Wilderness Lodge, Kidani V, Treehouse Villas, Beach Club, OKW, BLT, etc. It’s amazing folks will pay much more than a hundred bucks a night for the All-Stars which in my experience are a glorified Motel 6. To be fair, I haven’t stayed in any of them since renovations, but I don’t plan to either. Moderates are more, but far, far nicer.
My family was very fortunate to visit WDW each year from 2016-2019 and we most likely would have visited last year as well until of course Covid changed everything. We would always stay at the Boardwalk Inn and we would arrive on the Saturday after Thanksgiving and stay anywhere from 6-7 days.
Fast forward to June of this year and we were hopeful that we would make a return trip this year and also spend a few days at Universal. However, with the more recent Covid developments and projections for the fall, were not as optimistic that things will return to normal by Nov (standard Fast Passes, non-restricted park hopper, no park reservations, more dining options, etc) and the increase in the cost of the trip and the anticipated crowds make it an easy decision to say No to Disney.
For ‘fun’, I priced out a typical reservation that we would have made in prior years and the cost increase was well over 40%. And that does NOT even include the cost for food! In prior years, we usually qualified for the Free Dining plan and that saved us well over $1K for our family. I understand how inflation works but paying so much more for so much less is not something we are prepared to do. I don’t think prices are going to come down anytime soon, so we may be headed to other destinations in the future, which is fine.
imo mask rules are here to stay: the CDC’s studies were studies they used which were REJECTED at peer review and one event in Massachusetts where 4 people out of 800 were hospitalized. Vaccines work – but you would think the CDC doesn’t believe so, undermining the vaccination program. The sunbelt cases will drop soon like the UK and India did, the latter with minimal vaccination; this is going to happen all the time, forever, until we stop testing everything that moves. We won’t be allowed to live with this endemic virus even though we have 70%+ of the country vaccinated now and it’s mutating to the endemic cold virus we all want it to (delta is very, very mild, check out Public Health England’s studies on it: 0.085% fatality rate, and OG covid they estimated at 1%). We got here last week – masks suck inside but whatever, we are still having fun. Vaccines work, get vaccinated, guys!
I agree with everything you wrote except the first line.
Masks are terrible for Disney’s business–much worse than they were last year. There have been a ton of cancellations since the announcement (although some are undoubtedly due to rising cases). There’s only a vocal minority of people who want masks at this point, and even most of those will almost certainly change their tune once the pediatric vaccine is available. Many others wear them out of a sense of social obligation, but don’t “want” to wear them.
Disney will lift the mask rule once Orange County hits the CDC metric for masks no longer being recommended. I doubt WDW will ever reinstate anything more than a recommendation no matter what future CDC guidance is issued, especially given that the pediatric vaccine will likely be approved before whatever winter wave occurs.
Love this blog. Thank you for keeping us informed. Just read the post from Amy July 15, 2021. That is the nightmare decision we are facing. We made plans earlier this year when things started to appear to be improving. We are DVC members. Last year I had to put my expiring DVC points into RCI, because they were banked from prior year or I would loose them. (probably won’t use them anyway, we bought at Disneyworld because thats where we vacation) So I just passed my booking deadline for banking this years points, tried to get info from DVC about maybe extending the banking window, they replied after my deadline that there is no plan for that. They are not communicating with its members , have you heard of anyone else with similar concerns. Florida is going in the wrong direction with Covid. Not feeling safe. Thanks again.
When will the boats to Port Orleans start running again? Will that happen when the resorts open up?
One of my “BIGGIES” is: Merchandise delivery to my resort. We will be there for 10 days and plan to buy a lot of “stuff”. But – I will not buy as much stuff if I have to “lug around” my packages all day!!! Seems like – if Disney wants me to spend a lot, they should make it more convenient for me.
My family has a trip planned for Jan/Feb ‘22. Here’s my dilemma, we REALLY want to go on ROTR. It’s the biggest selling point for our 15 yo son (it’s hard to get him excited about Disney otherwise). We’ve designated 3 days of our trip for HS/Epcot, with the hope we get HS knocked out the first day & can spend the next 2 days in Epcot (our favorite). But the stupid Park Pass is a real problem. I read advice to get Park Passes for HS for multiple days since it’s the hardest to get & switching the day-of to Epcot usually isn’t a problem. But I worry this may no longer be the case after Ratatouille opens. What would you do? And what on earth do we do with ADR’s? They make switching parks because we didn’t get ROTR impossible.
Park passes are here to stay. Disney loves how it gives them control over attendance. Also based on the fact that dream lights are not being put up because of the anniversary castle projections and if the anniversary celebration is 18 months long, dream lights won’t be put up next year either.
My husband and I are planning to come to Disney World again in 2022. We’ve only flown once and it was our first time to Disney 4 years ago and it was wonderful as we didn’t have to drive as we used the magic bus. This was so wonderful. Our main concern is getting from the airport to Disney World. Will they bring back the Magic Bus?? I’m praying for this
Any news on monsters inc laugh floor? I’ve noticed in the mydisney app it doesn’t even show up as an attraction anymore, but is still visible on the app map.
When is refurb of Polynesian lobby scheduled to be completed
Return of Trader Sam’s
Date for Polynesian monorail stop
Enjoy your blog and Sarah’s pictures
Tom, thank you for all the updates. We have followed you for a couple years. I don’t think the relaxation rules should be uplifted yet, as our son got covid on our recent trip to Universal and Disney July 6th and our trip was cut short by 10 days. Like most parents, we have protected our kids and we would have never guessed this would be what happened our kids first trip to Disney. We were not the only family this was happening to either. Our quarantine driver told us he had already driven another family that day. My husband and I are both vaccinated and we have symptoms also. Florida is not the place to be right now. Hoping 2022 will allow us to redo our trip!!!!
Is it just me or does Disneyland seem to be adding something new every day and Disney World is just opening a restaurant here and there. I thought the college program and hiring blitz was going to lead to some pleasant surprises in July. So far it’s been a huge disappointment.
Tom, I love reading your blog but I would love it even more if when you were updating an old article that you would clearly call out the updates. I’ve read this post already a number of times so it would be nice if I could just jump to the updates that are new.. maybe bolding them? Or making them another color? Just a suggestions but would definitely help!!
A side question I keep wondering about. Plans for later this year (moved from last year’s lockdowns) and I’m looking forward to Animal Kingdom. Haven’t been since Pandora opened. My understanding is there are lights at night … and I want to see them. But AK isn’t open as late as other parks. ??? What am I missing?
Fred: I understand your point. I read legal docs all the time, so I can certainly appreciate concise presentations.. Yet, please also understand there are many of us out there who love Tom and Sarah’s composite style.