Oh, how the good times have come… and gone?

One would think that as time goes on that the services offered or amenities at an establishment would steadily increase in value. To that end, we’ve seen new attractions ideas pop up and plenty of new merchandise being offered at Disney World. But what about the resorts? How have their benefits been over the years? Let’s find out together. The answer may have you asking why anyone would stay at a Disney Resort.

So let’s do a little retrospective and think about this for a minute. Let’s start with the Extra Magic Hours.

Extra Magic Hours

These were when select Disney Parks would stay open late OR open early exclusively for people staying at Disney World-owned resort hotels and several good neighbor hotels nearby.

The perk was usually offered at one or two parks per day and it was a great opportunity for people to experience rides with significantly shorter wait times due to the parks being less crowded! It also was a nice way to enjoy the parks in lower temperatures than during the normal day, because the hours were either early in the morning or late at night. Now let’s see what we have in 2023.

Early Theme Park Entry and Extended Evening Hours

Early Theme Park Entry is available for guests of all Disney World hotels and offers people an extra 30 minutes in all four parks each day.

Extended Evening Hours are offered on select days of the week — but ONLY for those staying at Disney Deluxe Resorts and Villas. Depending on the night, resort guests can spend a few extra hours experiencing the parks and riding attractions with little to no wait.

Do you see the difference? It’s subtle, but those evening hours are not available for all guests at a Disney Resort.

Now, the next three have all gone the way of the dinosaur. Let’s just have a quick reminder about what they were:

Disney’s Magical Express

The Magical Express was a shuttle service that provided transportation between Orlando International Airport and Disney World. Guests staying at a Walt Disney World resort were able to reserve seats on the free transportation to get them from the Orlando International Airport directly to their Disney World Resort. Guests were even provided with special luggage tags, which meant that they didn’t need to collect their luggage at the airport either; these tags enabled Disney to collect guests’ luggage and deliver it to their resort later in the day.

However, as of January 1, 2022, Disney World discontinued the Magical Express airport transportation service.

There have been a couple of replacement services that are available. Mears Connect and Sunshine Flyer both emerged with paid services that provide a similar charter bus experience from the airport to your Disney resort — but now with the added benefit of not exclusively serving Disney World resorts. These shuttles can also provide service for other select hotel guests. And it was just announced that these services are merging!

There’s also the option of a car service, a rideshare, or even taxi. These will provide more direct experiences without multiple stops along the route, but may be more expensive or even not an option if you’re traveling with small children who require car seats or large groups that exceed the passenger limit.

Advance FastPass+ Reservations

FastPass+ was a free service included with your Disney World theme park admission which allowed guests to reserve a specific window of time to ride an attraction without having to wait in the full line. Guests booked a FastPass+ for a certain window of time and headed to the ride sometime during that window. A designated FastPass+ line allowed these guests to bypass the regular standby line, and have a very short wait before boarding the attraction.

The direct replacement for this is in the Genie+ and Individual Lightning Lane Attraction Selections. The Disney Genie Plus base-price option allows guests to select the next available time to arrive at an attraction (similar to the previous FastPass+ time windows) and enter that attraction’s Lightning Lane. Individual Attraction Lightning Lane Selection is a pay-per-ride service. Guests pay a fee to utilize the Lightning Lane for an individual, in-demand attraction.

Complimentary MagicBands

Back in the day, Disney World Hotel guests would receive a complimentary solid-colored MagicBand. However, Disney discontinued FREE MagicBands in January 2021.

Now, all of the same basic functionality can be found within the My Disney Experience app on your smart devices like allowing guests to unlock their rooms using their smartphones. So, MagicBands are no longer offered for free, but you may be able to get a discount on a new one if you have an annual pass or another discount.

Now the only thing that cannot be directly compared is that currently, resort guests can make 7 AM Genie+ reservations. We’ll leave it up to you to decide if that makes up for the other things missing from the benefits list as you make your Disney trip plans. Until then, keep it right here for all the latest Disney news!

Click here for more on the hotel perks that will extend through 2024

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Whether you’re a rookie or a seasoned pro, our insider tips and tricks will have you exploring the parks like never before. So come along with us, and get planning your most magical vacation ever!

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How do you feel about the current benefits offered for staying at a Disney resort? Let us know us below!

The post How Disney World Hotel Perks Went from Awesome to Awful first appeared on the disney food blog.