January 8th Is a BIG Day in Disney World and Disneyland — Here’s What You Need to Know

Go ahead and mark January 8th, 2024 on your calendar because, for Disney, it could be a doozy.

Magic Kingdom

As you know there are a TON of changes happening at Disney World on January 9th, 2024, but there could be a lot of issues that will make things really hectic on the 8th for Disney.

So, what’s happening on January 8th and is it only happening at Disney World? Let’s go over it!

Rock ‘n’ Roller Coaster

Rock ‘n’ Roller Coaster in Hollywood Studios is a fun, fast-paced coaster that features music (and a pre-ride show) by Aerosmith. We saw that starting January 8th, 2024, the ride does not have any open times available.

©Disney

Right now, the Disney World website shows that the closure will last as far as the calendar goes, and we haven’t heard any sort of official announcements for a reopening date, which makes it entirely possible that the closure will go longer than expected. For context, early in 2023, the ride was closed for nearly three full months. If the 2023 timeline is any indication, we could see the ride remain closed through early April. We are keeping an eye on the calendar and will let you know as soon as we have more reopening details.

World of Color — ONE

World of Color — ONE will close for refurbishment in Disney California Adventure starting January 8th, 2024. Remember that this closure will be for over a month, so go ahead and set your alarm for February 29th. In the meantime, we’ll definitely update you if there are any changes to the refurb schedule!

©Disney

Grizzly River Run

Grizzly River Run is also temporarily closing for a refurbishment starting January 8th; however, Disneyland hasn’t shared an end date for this closure just yet.

Grizzly River Run

Jungle Cruise

Now this one isn’t a “closure” per se, but rather a re-theme. According to Disney, Jingle Cruise will be running until January 8th, 2024 — the last time showing on Disney’s website.

©Disney

Starting on January 9th, the website shows that the regular old Jungle Cruise will be back in action, so make sure to check it out beforehand if you’re hoping to see it with all of its festive additions!

©Disney

Kali River Rapids

Kali River Rapids in Animal Kingdom will close for refurbishment on January 8th, 2024. There is no end date currently listed for this closure.

Kali River Rapids

January 9th Changes

All of that was taking place before the truly huge changes that will happen on January 9th.

Welcome Back Disney Dining Plan

The Disney Dining Plan is returning. It hasn’t been available in Disney World since 2020, but as of January 9th, 2024, you’ll be able to use it again.

The Disney Dining Plan is returning!

There are some changes to it though (of course). To start with, only the Standard Dining Plan and the Quick Service Dining Plan are coming back at that time. Also, prices have increased for the adult plans and Disney recently revealed that credits will be a bit more restricted.

Learn more about the changes to see if it’s worth it for you or not here.

You’re Going to See Different Park Pass Rules

Next, park guests with date-based tickets won’t need park passes to get into the parks. In other words, people who buy theme park tickets that are tied to a specific date or set of dates won’t need park passes to get into the parks at all.

Scanning in!

Visitors with other types of tickets like Annual Passes will still need to make those reservations.

Park Hopping Is FINALLY Back to Normal

All-Day Park Hopper Access will finally be back, meaning guests with a ticket with park hopper benefits or an annual pass will be able to visit another park any time during the day (subject to capacity limitations)!

You could park hop to EPCOT via the Monorail quickly from Magic Kingdom

We won’t know how all of these closures and rule changes will affect you specifically, but we would expect there to be higher crowds and a potential for some outages or other tech issues that could arise on January 9th due to all of the changes.

©Disney

Also, since we don’t have definitive dates on when some of the attractions will open back up, we’d recommend keeping it right here for the latest info so that you can plan accordingly. In the meantime, don’t forget to check back to DFB for more Disney updates.

You Might NOT Want To Fly to Disney World in 2024

Are you going to Disney World or Disneyland in 2024? Let us know in the comments!

The post January 8th Is a BIG Day in Disney World and Disneyland — Here’s What You Need to Know first appeared on the disney food blog.