Walt Disney World has launched resort room-only reductions for the rest of 2024, masking journey dates this Halloween and Christmas seasons for most people. This additionally consists of the choice to improve to a free Park Hopper ticket when reserving as a bundle. This submit covers whether or not there’s a catch–since we all the time say there’s no such factor as a free lunch–and why Walt Disney World is doing this within the first place.
Talking of free lunches (or the dearth thereof), this isn’t the one low cost for these journey dates. Most notably, Free Eating is already accessible for a subset of those similar dates. There are additionally reductions of as much as 35% off for residents of Florida and as much as 40% off for Annual Passholders. After all, lots of you don’t reside in Florida or will not be an Annual Passholder–which means you don’t have already got admission–that is your finest guess. And it’s an excellent one!
These new reductions for Halloween and Christmas additionally aren’t the one offers accessible to e-book proper now–there are over a half-dozen completely different affords. For every thing else, see All Present Walt Disney World Reductions in 2024. There are promos accessible for just about all dates between now and Christmas 2024, in order that’s price testing when you’re debating a visit anytime this 12 months, besides the week main as much as New 12 months’s Eve…
Listed below are the official particulars from Walt Disney World: Keep within the magic this fall and vacation season—and save on rooms at choose Disney Resort inns!
- Save as much as 30% on rooms for stays most nights from November 24 to December 25, 2024
- Take pleasure in different financial savings for stays most Sunday to Thursday nights from October 6 to November 21, 2024
Plus, get FREE Park Hopper advantages while you benefit from this supply and improve to a Walt Disney Journey Firm room-and-ticket bundle that features non-discounted 4-day (or longer) date-based theme park tickets! With Park Hopper advantages, you may go to a number of theme parks every day of your ticket.
Not like different reductions–Free Eating being probably the most notable one–there aren’t any different “strings hooked up” to qualify for the free Park Hopper. You don’t need to buy a Disney Eating Plan, improve lodging, or purchase the rest. You merely have to satisfy the minimal length requirement, which I suppose will put some fence-sitting visitors able the place they’re extending from 2-3 days to 4.
Turning to commentary, that is truly a extremely savvy technique on Walt Disney World’s half. It’s additionally a kind of uncommon win-win situations the place each Disney and visitors, for probably the most half, come out forward.
If you happen to’re questioning why Walt Disney World is doing this, it’s not merely a matter of generosity. After they do particular affords, there’s all the time an angle. All the time. As we steadily say, reductions are out of necessity, not company benevolence. Walt Disney World is an especially savvy and complicated enterprise—they maximize income to the best diploma economically possible. There’s additionally greater than meets the attention right here, even when that is the uncommon freebie from Disney.
In a nutshell, Walt Disney World is providing “free” Park Hopper ticket improve as a result of we’re approaching the time of 12 months when working hours and particular occasions throw an actual monkey wrench into attendance dynamics. And that’s in a regular 12 months. This 12 months, there are extra occasions and earlier closings than ever earlier than.
In consequence, it’s probably that Walt Disney World views placing extra Park Hoppers into the arms of visitors is a method of self-regulating crowd dynamics and prevented whole chaos. Common readers probably perceive this proper off the bat, because it’s a subject we’ve mentioned at size over the course of the final decade. For many who are unfamiliar with this phenomenon, let’s take a step again and clarify.
The months of August by December are lovingly generally known as “Celebration Season” at Magic Kingdom round these elements. Throughout this timeframe, Mickey’s Not So Scary Halloween Celebration (MNSSHP) and Mickey’s Very Merry Christmas Celebration (MVMCP) push Magic Kingdom attendance a lot greater on the dates they’re not occurring and decrease on days of the occasions. This disrupts attendance dynamics and creates a “porcupine sample” of wait instances and crowd ranges at Magic Kingdom, and has for years.
Magic Kingdom crowd dynamics throughout Celebration Season have been one of many key dialogue factors of our August by December crowd calendars for ages. It’s truly one of many best “predictions” we make. These are air quotes round prediction as a result of the porcupine sample has performed out predictably and constantly for no less than the final decade. It’s akin to forecasting longer traces for Peter Pan’s Flight and Seven Dwarfs Mine Practice than Carousel of Progress and Nation Bear Musical Jamboree.
For our half, we’ve been strongly recommending that readers go to Magic Kingdom throughout the day on Mickey’s Not So Scary Halloween Celebration and Mickey’s Very Merry Christmas Celebration nights, after which bouncing to a different park at round 4 pm. We’ve extremely beneficial buying the Park Hopper add-on throughout Celebration Season and think about it virtually important from a strategic perspective.
The underlying rationale for that is that many day visitors keep away from Magic Kingdom on MNSSHP or MVMCP as a result of the park hours are shorter and Fortunately Ever After fireworks will not be proven to common visitors. This ends in considerably lighter crowds on days of the vacation events when Magic Kingdom closes at 6 pm.
In any case, why go then when you may go to a day earlier or later and have a ten pm or 11 pm closing? That quantities to staying an additional 4 hours later, seeing fireworks, and attending to benefit from the cooler night hours within the park. In idea, it’s a no brainer!
The issue is that it’s such a no brainer that just about everybody does it. These similar visitors then flock to non-party days in Magic Kingdom. For guests with out Park Hopping (which is a lot of individuals), visiting Magic Kingdom on non-party nights is the apparent, intuitive alternative. For a similar admission value, they get a number of extra hours within the park and get to see the fireworks.
This no-brainer line of pondering is strictly why our zig once they zag suggestion has been to do Magic Kingdom on days of Mickey’s Not So Scary Halloween Celebration or Mickey’s Very Merry Christmas Celebration and to Park Hop elsewhere at round 4 pm, which is when the mix-in begins for these arduous ticket occasions.
This zig once they zag strategy is so counterintuitive that–although we’ve strongly beneficial it for like a decade and the wait instances knowledge clearly bears out that we’re right–the overwhelming majority of visitors nonetheless aren’t doing it. Most individuals don’t learn this weblog and even those that do usually disregard the recommendation as impractical to them (on this case, that has meant no Park Hopper tickets).
Despite the fact that Magic Kingdom has longer hours on non-party days, you’ll usually get much less completed than you could possibly earlier than 4 pm on a celebration day. As long as you’re snug lacking the fireworks or are advantageous watching from a resort restaurant or the TTC, we extremely advocate doing all of your days in Magic Kingdom on celebration dates as a result of considerably shorter traces and decrease wait instances. It’s often so gradual on as of late that utilizing Lightning Lanes is pointless, which additionally means saving cash by not having to purchase the paid FastPass+ service!
For these with the Park Hopping choice, that is the actual no-brainer. You are able to do Magic Kingdom till 4 pm on the day of MNSSHP or MVMCP, after which bounce to EPCOT or Disney’s Hollywood Studios and have dinner and benefit from the nighttime spectaculars in a kind of two parks.
On a non-party day, you can begin out at Disney’s Hollywood Studios and/or EPCOT, after which bounce again to Magic Kingdom within the night hours to catch Fortunately Ever After and nighttime within the park. If nighttime in Magic Kingdom is a should for you (and we do advocate it–nothing beats seeing the park illuminated within the evenings!) that is the optimum strategy for minimizing your publicity to crowds and congestion.
Or moderately, this has been the optimum strategy traditionally. That’s as a result of, once more, most individuals don’t learn this weblog and even lots of those that do don’t buy Park Hoppers.
Now Walt Disney World is throwing us a curveball by freely giving the Park Hopping choice.
The largest winners listed below are apparent. Anybody who qualifies for the free Park Hopper improve with out making any adjustments to their Walt Disney World trip bundle and beforehand had a daily ole base ticket. Congratulations, that is primarily a free lunch from Disney–and we stated there was no such factor!
Though it might seem in any other case at first blush, Walt Disney World is one other large winner. Despite the fact that they’re giving one thing away, they’re principally doing that with one thing that has no value to them–and with a minimal baseline (trip packages that features a non-discounted 4-day or longer date-based ticket).
Extra to the purpose, they acquire the theoretical redistributive impact on attendance from freely giving free Park Hoppers. Which means they will schedule extra early closings throughout Celebration Season, successfully permitting them to promote the park twice. And that’s precisely what they’ve completed!
Magic Kingdom has extra occasions packed into Celebration Season than ever earlier than, and this promo ought to assist guarantee that doesn’t create an excessive amount of of an attendance curler coaster. After having crowd woes on sure dates final October by December, this simply is sensible.
However that’s not all–as Walt Disney World has additionally added extra Jollywood Nights dates at Hollywood Studios. And never solely that, however the park is closing earlier this 12 months on Christmas celebration nights. Which means, in contrast to final 12 months, Jollywood Nights virtually definitely will throw a monkey wrench into attendance dynamics. That’s a double-whammy throughout one of many busiest instances of the 12 months at Walt Disney World!
The largest loser with this free Park Hopper promo is me.
By that, I imply my demographic–Annual Passholders who pay shut consideration to the calendar throughout Celebration Season and go to the parks with the sooner closings. Actually, that could be such a slim group that it’s actually simply me, a class of 1. (Probably not, there are no less than dozens of us…dozens!)
What I imply by this, extra broadly, is that the free Park Hopper promo goes to normalize crowd ranges to a point. Those that have benefited from the Celebration Season zig once they zag early closing technique most likely will discover the Magic Kingdom barely busier on these 6 pm closing days than it was in earlier years. It’ll nonetheless be far much less busy than the ten/11 pm days, however this promo will assist shut the hole to a point. (It’ll be an analogous story at DHS.)
The actual query is “to what diploma?” That’s unknown and unknowable till Celebration Season begins, because it’s inconceivable to say: 1) how many individuals will benefit from this promo, and; 2) what number of will perceive the best way to leverage Park Hopping technique throughout Celebration Season.
My guess is that the reply to the primary query is “so much, however most likely fewer than you would possibly assume.” Walt Disney World followers massively underestimate the recognition of single day tickets, and even after that, 2-3 day tickets are extra standard than longer length ones. So most visitors gained’t find yourself qualifying for this.
To reply the second query, even most of those that do gained’t assume to make use of this zig once they zag technique. Once more, it’s simply so counterintuitive that it’s undesirable until you’ve examine it or reviewed wait instances knowledge. Who actually desires to depart Magic Kingdom at 6 pm and miss fireworks? There’s restricted enchantment, even for visitors with Park Hoppers.
Circling again, Walt Disney World undoubtedly has different causes for providing free Park Hopping upgrades and, I assume, I’d be remiss if I didn’t no less than contact on these. I’ve centered on the Celebration Season angle as a result of, admittedly, it’s most fascinating and probably impactful to my technique. It’s additionally a kind of ‘golf clap’ moments the place I’ve at hand it to the corporate for getting intelligent.
One more reason for this particular supply might be getting visitors to improve to longer ticket durations, resort stays, and trip packages. There are undoubtedly going to be some visitors who don’t fairly qualify, however will spend a bit extra on their bookings–including days/nights–to be able to qualify. It additionally will persuade some individuals to e-book who wouldn’t within the absence of this supply, boosting occupancy numbers (which have been lagging in 2024) within the course of.
This can assist Walt Disney World hit these coveted per visitor spending marks, which have been beginning to decline in current quarters. That is exactly why Disney does Free Eating, so the identical logic might be prolonged to this supply–regardless of it double-dipping on resort and ticket financial savings.
The truth is, I’d be prepared to guess somebody stated in some assembly (paraphrasing), “nicely, even when the attendance redistribution gambit doesn’t repay, no less than we’re locking them into no less than 4 days and rising per caps within the course of!”
Lastly, it prevents individuals from buying different ticket offers. Which means not shopping for from approved third events that provide superior financial savings, and lots of of which have their very own particular affords. (See our Information to Low cost Walt Disney World Tickets.) It additionally means probably forgoing future particular affords which are launched straight by Disney.
As an illustration, proper now there’s the Low cost Multi-Day Magic Tickets at Walt Disney World for Spring to Fall 2024, which runs by September 22. This low cost debuted final 12 months and ended round roughly the identical time–it was not prolonged for October by December. Ticket offers for the center of the Halloween and Christmas seasons are pretty unprecedented–we wouldn’t count on to see them once more. However that doesn’t imply there’s no probability–something is feasible as Walt Disney World pulls its “levers” to entice visitors to return throughout this post-pent-up demand interval.
Past that, there are most likely different motivations for Walt Disney World providing free Park Hopper upgrades throughout the busy Halloween and Christmas seasons, however it’s early and this low cost simply dropped–so I haven’t had time to contemplate each angle. One factor that I actually hope Walt Disney World has thought-about is the potential for this to backfire and be counterproductive. This will not end in greater attendance on 6 pm park closing days in any respect. As a substitute, extra individuals having Park Hoppers may imply much more visitors crammed into Magic Kingdom for these exceedingly uncommon and intensely engaging 11 pm closings.
Planning a Walt Disney World journey? Find out about inns on our Walt Disney World Accommodations Opinions web page. For the place to eat, learn our Walt Disney World Restaurant Opinions. To save cash on tickets or decide which kind to purchase, learn our Ideas for Saving Cash on Walt Disney World Tickets submit. Our What to Pack for Disney Journeys submit takes a singular have a look at intelligent objects to take. For what to do and when to do it, our Walt Disney World Journey Guides will assist. For complete recommendation, the very best place to start out is our Walt Disney World Journey Planning Information for every thing you could know!
YOUR THOUGHTS
What are your theories as to why Walt Disney World is freely giving free Park Hopper upgrades to visitors who purchase 4 day or longer base tickets? Assume it’s to redistribute crowds throughout Celebration Season, improve per visitor spending, some mixture of each, or one thing else solely? Does this persuade you you could, from an goal perspective, come out forward by doing celebration shortened days at Magic Kingdom? Do you agree or disagree with our evaluation? Any questions we will help you reply? Listening to your suggestions—even while you disagree with us—is each fascinating to us and useful to different readers, so please share your ideas beneath within the feedback!
