As Walt Disney World Resort reopens, there has been wide variety of changes. In this post, we’ll focus on changes to the hotel experience at Walt Disney World.
Related Posts
Other Disney World reopening content can be found on the following posts:
Disney World Reopening — Hotels Details (you are here)
The core of our hotel content is our Guide to the Hotels of Walt Disney World. During the reopening phases, all our hotel content is superseded by this post, though.
“Initial Reopening Period”
All of these changes are for the “initial reopening period.” This is a period of unknown length. So far, all we know is that it covers the reopening dates of the park.
The length is also sort of irrelevant. It’s not as if all these small changes are going to be removed at once. Some will last weeks, some will last months, and some things will never go back to how they were before.
The official hotel updates from Disney are here, but we’ll recap and add commentary.
When Will Disney World Hotels Reopen?
First up, on June 22 Disney Fort Wilderness Cabins and Campground reopened, as did select DVC resorts at Walt Disney World. “Select” is all the DVC resorts except Animal Kingdom Lodge Jambo House.
Next, Disney has announced reopening dates for the following hotels:
(Now Open) July 10 – Pop Century Resort, Contemporary Resort
(Now Open) July 29 – Caribbean Beach Resort
(Now Open) August 24 – Yacht Club
(Now Open) September 21 – Grand Floridian Resort & Spa (part of the NBA restart plans prior to this date)
(Now Open) October 6 – Coronado Springs Resort (part of the NBA restart plans prior to this date)
(Now Open) November 1 – Art of Animation Resort (previously August 12)
March 22, 2021 — All Star Movies Resort (Previously February 9)
May 30, 2021 — Beach Club
June 6, 2021 — Wilderness Lodge
Summer 2021 — Polynesian Village Resort (previously October 4, August 12)
Notably, the following hotels have not been scheduled to reopen: All Star Music and Sports Resorts, Animal Kingdom Lodge (except DVC properties), Port Orleans Resort — Riverside, Port Orleans Resort — French Quarter. Additionally, BoardWalk Inn was previously scheduled to reopen, but has been taken off the schedule.
If you have a reservation scheduled at a hotel prior to its reopening, or if your hotel is not scheduled to open, you can request to modify your reservation.
Hotel Access Requirements
Hotel reservations do not guarantee theme park access. As of this update, resort guests can book almost any park almost any day they visit if they book far enough in advance (e.g. by January/February, spring break dates in March/April started to fill up).
You’ll typically need a room reservation or advance dining reservation to access the hotel. Mobile ordering from a quick service restaurant, or ordering take out from a table service restaurant, will also usually get you access—but you might find security guards won’t let you park sometimes.
Guests dining at table service restaurants will have their temperature checked before entering.
Guests age 2 and up are required to have face coverings. Face coverings are required in all public spaces, except when swimming or dining.
Resort Guest Benefits, Transportation, Parking
FastPass+ and Extra Magic Hours will be suspended. These are the top two perks of staying at a Disney hotel, and also the perks that give select partner hotels the edge over other hotels.
While these are a big loss, I’d still err on the side of picking a Disney hotel if visiting during this time. There’s going to be a lot of uncertainty and you’re going to need things to go as smoothly as possible.
If you have questions about what to expect from the parks, for example, you’ll want to be at a Disney hotel to speak with the concierge. If you want to trust that transportation options won’t be changed on short notice, you’ll want to be at a Disney hotels. And so on.
Disney’s Magical Express service—the airport shuttle service between Orlando International Airport and Disney hotels—will be available. Reduced capacity for the buses would be nice, and presumably overall reduced demand from tourists would help Disney and Mears provide that. So far, they haven’t confirmed the buses will have reduced capacity though.
Bus transportation between the Disney hotels, parks, and Disney Springs will be available. Buses will run at reduced capacity.
I’ve complained about buses a lot (primarily on instagram). I would highly recommend planning to have a car (personal or rental) at Walt Disney World if you’re visiting soon. Parking will be available at the resorts, but valet parking will be unavailable.
The Skyliner has resumed operations. Friendship Boats were previously scheduled to resume operations, but have since be delayed. Minnie Van service will not be available in the near future.
Resort Services and Recreation
There are some small details about cleaning procedures on the Disney page, but I’ll let you read through those as I have no commentary about these.
Copied straight from the Disney page, with some commentary to follow, here’s a list of impacted services:
Bell Services will deliver luggage to rooms, but will not escort Guests
Club-level service will be temporarily unavailable
Deliveries will only be made to occupied rooms
In-room celebrations will not be available
Dry-cleaning and valet laundry services will be temporarily unavailable; self-service laundry will remain available
Shipping services will be temporarily unavailable
Resort airline check-in service may be temporarily unavailable
Club level was a big question mark for us, and it’s not surprising to see it be suspended. The food is all buffet-style, and the other big perk was planning help and FastPass+ services, which aren’t particularly valuable anymore.
Most of the other changes seem to be targeted at reducing unnecessary guest-CM contact. You’ll recall that online check-in remains available and encouraged. You previously could theoretically go your entire stay without interacting with a hotel CM, and Disney seems to be nudging you that direction now.
Pools, Fitness Centers, and Recreation
Pools will be open, and they’ll be subject to reduced capacity. Feature pools will have limited hours, but leisure pools will be open 24 hours. Poolside activities may or may not be available.
Interestingly, Stormalong Bay, the pool at Yacht and Beach Club, won’t be available. I’m puzzled as to this (though I have a few guesses). In any case, guests at Yacht Club and Beach Club can either use their leisure pool, that at Beach Club Villas, or the pools at BoardWalk (10-minute walk).
Fitness centers will be open “in alignment with state and county regulations, and may have reduced hours.” I’ll take this with a grain of salt. They’re expecting to reopen them with the hotels (fitness centers in Florida have reopened), but they could easily encounter problems maining cleanliness in these and decide to close them.
Recreation schedules will be available at the hotel. Hopefully Disney finds a way to keep the hotels active, particularly if guests aren’t able to reliably get theme park reservations each day. Many of these activities allowed for social distancing, but they did have staffing requirements that might prompt Disney to cut back a little.
Other Changes
Package delivery changes. You’ll no longer be able to deliver packages to your hotel or to the front of the park, but you can still ship to your home.
In-room childcare suspended. I’m not familiar with this service, but if you’re traveling with a little one and were planning to use it, you’ll need a new plan.
Fireworks-related cruises are suspended, which is unsurprising if for no toher reason than that fireworks are expected to be suspended as well.
The following are suspended: Arcades, Campfires, Character experiences (one modified character dining experience at Riviera Resort will remain, read more about Disney World Reopening Dining Details), Dog parks, Electrical Water Pageant, Marina rentals, Pin trading (selecti trading boards still available), Playgrounds, Spas, salons and Bibbidi Bobbidi Boutique, Wonderland Tea Party at Park Fare, Hula lessons, and Mermaid school.