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On January 10th, 2023, Disney released a whole slew of news and updates pertaining to perks for Disneyland Resort guests during the 100th anniversary celebration.
These changes and updates directly affect the park guest experience so if you’re planning to visit this year, you’ll want to keep reading.
Park Hopping Time Changed To 11am
Since bringing park hopping back (and due to the imposed reservation system), Disney has made it to where if you wanted to park hop, you couldn’t do so until after 1pm.
That’s a stark contrast the before times when you could park hop on a whim, all day long. No time constraints to worry about.
It was initially done to help slow the spread of covid when the parks reopened but now, I believe it was kept due to loathed reservation requirement.
While you still won’t be able to do it whenever you want, the requirement of what time you can begin was lowered by two hours to 11am.
While we would all love to return to no restrictions this is, at minimum, progress towards that goal. There’s still hope that a day will come when we won’t have to make reservations.
This new policy goes into effect on February 4th, 2023 so until then, you’ll need to adhere to current time restriction of 1pm.
Complimentary PhotoPass Attraction Photos
Also beginning February 4th, 2023, as part of the Disney100 celebration, guests with a valid park ticket will receive complimentary PhotoPass attraction photos via the Disneyland app.
If you’re unaware of what PhotoPass is, it’s a semi-free service consisting of Disney photographers taking your family photos at key spots throughout the property.
Attraction photos are also a feature of this service. I say “semi-free” because while getting your photo taken costs you nothing, you will need to pay to receive the photos.
*Check out our post about PhotoPass to get more details
Currently, the following attractions throughout both parks offer on-ride photos:
Space Mountain
Splash Mountain
Incredicoaster
Radiator Springs Racers
Guardians of the Galaxy: Mission BREAKOUT!
Note that complimentary photos will be on-ride photos only. Photos taken of you by Disney photographers will still need to be purchased if you want them.
More Opportunities To Purchase A Magic Key
Magic Keys (Disney’s new-ish annual pass program) haven’t been regularly sold in quite a while. This is Disney’s attempt to slow the crowds and raise demand at the same time.
Back in November 2022, sales of magic keys resumed, but it only for about two days before Disney pulled the plug again.
One of the announcements this morning was that there would be more opportunities for non-key holders to purchase one as they become available.
This will likely occur near the end of each fiscal quarter so Disney receives a financial bump that they can report to investors during their earnings call.
This is great news for anyone who’s been wanting to purchase a key. Just be sure to keep your ears peeled for when it happens because it likely won’t last long.
More Days At The Lowest Price
Ticket pricing at Disneyland now works on a tier system. On days that they’re expecting high demand, they’ll charge more. On lower demand days, the cost will be lower.
Currently, the lowest price on a low demand day for a single-day, one-park ticket is $104 per adult. Under former CEO Bob Chapek, there were fewer and fewer of these.
This year, however, two months worth of these “$104 ticket” days will be added to the calendar.
Keep in mind that this only applies to single-day, single-park tickets. Multi-day tickets remain the same price as they do not change based on demand.
Our Thoughts On These Announcements…
There’s really nothing to complain about here. These are great things for park guests. Disney rarely hands out freebies like this so take it while they’re offering it.
We believe this is all from the mind of returning CEO Bob Igar. He knows he has to show good will to Disney fans after Chapek nearly destroyed everything Igar built up.
The park hopper time restriction moving to 11am is the best news. This signals the possibility of Disney moving toward a day where reservations will no longer be required.
That, in of itself, would be great. Personally, I liked the reservation system when it first implemented because it actually controlled crowds and made the park experience better.
Now, there’s no attendance restrictions on Disney, so they can let it hit capacity if they wanted to. So essentially, the reservation system is nothing more than a roadblock.
There will likely be more announcements in the coming weeks. Disney is going all out for the company’s 100th anniversary celebration. So I would definitely expect to hear more.
Your Thoughts…
What are your thoughts on this morning’s announcements? Which one stands out to you the most? Are you excited about the extra two hours of park hopping?
Let us know in the comments below! We love hearing from our readers.
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