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Disney is canceling two main benefits at Walt Disney World Resort. They are ending the Magical Express Bus and are putting an end to Extra Magic Hours in the Disney World Theme Parks.
Check out the Travel Nerds Video Explaining the Magical Express & Magic Hours Cancelation
RJT Travels learned that Disney made the announcement that they are ending the service for the Magical Express bus service at the Orlando International Airport.
The Disney Magical Express Bus was an easy way for guests to get to and from Orlando International Airport and Disney World Property. Anyone who booked a vacation package with Disney was able to take advantage of this free service and get round-trip transportation to and from the airport and their resort.
Now it is no secret that a lot of people did not like the magical express because it took a long time to register and get onto a bus then drive to the property and the busses stopped at multiple resorts so if you were not first you had to keep waiting, even RJT Travels recommends that you take an Uber or Lyft to your resort because it is so much faster.
The Magical Express will remain open for 2021, it is not canceled until January 01, 2022
A Disney representative was quoted in the official Disney Blog saying “Vacationers have more options to choose from than ever for transportation, including ride-share services that save time and offer more flexibility to go where they want, when they want,”
This really makes you wonder how many people were signing up for the Magical Express versus booking an actual vacation with Disney. I am curious what those numbers look like, knowing Disney this had to be a major money loss for them to totally cancel the service without replacing it.
Another major change that Disney announced was the cancelation of the Disney Extra Magic Hours into the Disney Theme Parks.
The Extra Magic Hours were the ability for anyone to stay in a certain park for an extended amount of time, so when all the parks close at 10 pm the extra magic hours at EPCOT would keep it open until 11 pm
Disney will begin to let its hotel guests into any park 30 minutes before opening time. This will be available every day and not on a moving schedule like the Magic Hours are currently
The extra magic hours were nice to have because you could squeeze a little extra magic out of that Disney day and get to ride that extra time around space mountain or see the Fantasmic show one last time. It would let you plan the days of your trip a different way to get the most out of your trip.
To be honest we don’t think this will really be missed as much as people think, generally the only thing people did on the extra magic hours was riding an extra ride. The hours are normally an hour earlier in the morning or later at night, so for the most part you don’t get anything extra like special character meet and greets or an exclusive show. Most people would use it to get into dining early or stay later to ride a ride, but this was not something that had any super extra benefits to it and would not ruin a Dinsey Vacation not having it.
Overall no one Likes Change, but these are things that will be missed but won’t have a huge impact on your next Disney Vacation. We already recommend using an Uber or Lyft instead of the Magic Express, and yes the Magic hours were nice but they rotated and you never relyed on those hours, the parks are still going to be open.
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