Disney World is full of changes.
Magic Kingdom
EPCOT is undergoing a huge transformation and will include Journey of Water — Inspired by Moana, Communicore Hall, The Dreamer’s Statue, and much more. Even small changes are happening like the Hatbox Ghost coming to the Haunted Mansion. If you are already planning your 2024 Disney World trip, you’ll want to know how staying at a Disney World hotel will be different next year.
1. Closed Pools
There are a few Disney World Hotel pools closed at the beginning of the year and if you have a stay planned at one of the resorts, you’ll want to make note. First, over at Disney’s Port Orleans Resort — French Quarter, guests will be unable to access the Doubloon Lagoon Pool from January 2024 to April 2024. The pool will be undergoing routine maintenance during the closure. Instead, guests can still use the Ol’ Man Island Pool at Disney’s Port Orleans Resort — Riverside.
Port Orleans French Quarter Pool
And over at Disney’s Caribbean Beach Resort, the Fuentes del Morro Pool will be undergoing routine maintenance as well, from January 2024 to April 2024.
Caribbean Beach Resort
During this closure, guests can use any of the 5 leisure pools instead. There’s one in each village, and they provide a refreshing break from the heat.
2. Ongoing Hotel Construction
Disney’s Polynesian Village Resort is currently constructing some new Disney Vacation Club villas at the resort that are set to open sometime in 2024. This will give DVC members some new options for staying at the resort. The new rooms will feature waterfront views with most, if not all, also offering balconies.
New building construction
Disney’s Fort Wilderness Resort & Campground will also see some construction. Disney Vacation Club has announced its plan to redesign the cabins at Disney’s Fort Wilderness Resort & Campground. The proposal calls for more than 350 refreshed cabins to replace the existing cabins at the resort. The proposed cabins will be open for reservations to all guests, including those who are not Disney Vacation Club Members. These are set to open in 2024.
3. New Rooms
All-Star Sports has undergone refurbishments that are still in progress, but should be completed sometime this year — which means all the new rooms should be open by 2024.
Disney’s All-Star Sports Resort
Disney’s Beach Club Resort is also updating guest rooms. The look and feel might be changing, but you won’t feel out of place. The hotel hopes to have the rest of the rooms at the resort upgraded by October 2023, meaning if you have a hotel stay here in 2024, you might be able to stay in a new room.
Disney’s Beach Club Room — A refurbished Club Level Room in June 2023
Room changes are also coming to the Grand Floridian Resort. Disney announced that some of the rooms will be updated with new furniture and color schemes. We’ve already seen many of these updated rooms open up to guests. Lots of the DVC rooms have been updated already with a Mary Poppins Returns theme.
Construction
Finally, over at Disney’s BoardWalk Inn, they are in the process of updating the hotel rooms with new furniture and decor. These new rooms will feature artwork that contains images of Mickey, Minnie, and other Disney pals strolling through the BoardWalk. You can expect to see a refreshed room if you are staying here next year.
4. Return of the Disney Dining Plan
Look, this is probably the BIGGEST change that you’re going to see on this list and the one we’ve been anticipating greatly. The Disney Dining Plan will be returning on January 9th, 2024. For those who don’t know what the dining plan is (especially since it’s been missing from Disney World since 2020), it’s a way for Disney World guests who book a vacation package through Disney to pre-pay for their dining costs.
Full Spread at Docking Bay 7
Two plans will be available: the Standard Dining Plan and the Quick Service Dining Plan — here are FULL details on what each plan will offer and here’s a list of all the Disney World restaurants participating in the plan. This perk is only available for guests staying in Disney World hotels.
5. Hey, Disney!
If we’re talking about changes at Disney World hotels, we also need to talk about a new piece of Disney tech — Hey Disney! This service works with Amazon Echo and Alexa devices and offers “custom voice assistance” to guests staying at Disney World resorts. Through Hey Disney, you can get assistance with room amenities, guest services, planning, weather info, and much more.
Hey Disney!
So far, the only hotels with Hey Disney! devices are Disney’s Polynesian Village Resort, Disney’s Port Orleans — French Quarter Resort, Disney’s Saratoga Springs Resort, and Disney’s Art of Animation Resort. But, we’ll keep an eye out for more potentially rolling them out soon!
6. Transportation
When Disney’s Magical Express would take you from Orlando International Airport to your Disney hotel for free ended, many guests were upset. Recently, Mears Connect and the Sunshine Flyer announced that they entered into an agreement whereby the companies will MERGE their services into ONE combined service that’ll get guests from the Orlando International Airport to Disney World’s hotels.
©Mears | Sunshine Flyer
The new service has been named Mears Connect Driven by Sunshine. It will keep providing guests with transportation to and from the airport and the eligible hotels “with enhanced booking capabilities, guaranteed 24/7 service, greater operational efficiencies, and a hassle-free experience.” Guests can plan to use this transportation if they are flying to Disney World.
7. Park Pass Reservation System
Alright, next up, you know that all Disney World ticket holders must make a park pass reservation for each day they plan on being in the theme parks. That will change on January 9th, 2024 — park pass reservations will NOT be needed for those who purchase date-based tickets. This means that guests who buy theme park tickets tied to specific dates will not need to make a reservation.
Mickey
However, this change doesn’t affect those with tickets that are not based on specific dates. They will still need to make park pass reservations (i.e. Annual Passholders unless they’re visiting specific parks after 2PM, Cast Members, and other non-date-based ticket types).
8. Genie+ Changes
Moving right along, there might be some good news for those who miss the days of grabbing FastPass+ reservations in advance of their Disney World trip. Disney recently shared that they’ve listened to guests who wanted to “plan with Disney Genie+ service and individual Lightning Lane selections before the day of their park visit.” The company has expressed that is now “working on ways guests may do this for visits in 2024.”
Big Thunder Mountain
However, Disney has not yet revealed any further details on what this means for guests using Genie+, but more details should be released later. Disney did announce a new change to the pricing of Genie+, but we think there are more changes to come in 2024.
9. New Restaurants Opening
We have several new restaurants that will be open in 2024 that are close to Disney hotels. First, a NEW restaurant is also coming to Disney Springs. Summer House on the Lake is set to open in late 2023. The restaurant will serve up pizzas, sandwiches, salads, pasta, wood-grilled dishes, and more. There will even be a weekend brunch.
Concept Art ©Disney
Another new restaurant set to open in 2023 is EET by Maneet Chauhan. The restaurant is a creation by James Beard Award-winning chef and Food Network star Maneet Chauhan together with hospitality entrepreneur Vivek Deora. The restaurant is set to open later in 2023 and could be an exciting NEW addition to Disney Springs.
Disney Springs
Next up for you corn dog lovers, the Blue Ribbon Corn Dogs stand is coming to Disney’s BoardWalk. They already run a stand at Downtown Disney in Disneyland Resort, but now they’ll be making their way to the east coast. An official opening date hasn’t been released yet but it is set to open in 2023, meaning by 2024 there could be a whole new world of corn dog creations for you to try!
10. Planning Ahead
One way you can ensure your Disney hotel stay will be different is by booking with a travel agent. The agents at Small World Vacations know how to save money on your Disney Vacation! When you book your trip with Small World Vacations, their experienced agents monitor your reservation for possible future savings. They also compare discounts and figure out which one works best for your travel party, dates, resort, and touring plans. And, they share expert tips and first-hand advice with you about your magical vacation.
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So one change we noticed on our latest trip was daily hotel room inspections. In past trips we’d put the room occupied sign on the door and weren’t bothered, during this recent stay a cast member entered our room after only 2 knocks and said they were required to do a daily inspection even if we didn’t want mousekeeping service. My husband and I had just showered and weren’t dressed the first time it happened. After that one of us stood guard. Made for a pretty stressful trip. Is this the standard now? Disappointing.
Fantasia pool refurbishment is being move now to early 2025 now. Received an email from Disney on 8/7/23.
Question about Park Reservations for Annual Passholders who are DVC members staying in a DVC resort with family. Family does not need park reservations…. Do members?? This would be problematic to Passholders with non Passholders family. Any info on this specific type case??