Level99 just swapped out its entire hint system. The place has been open for about two months at Disney Springs.
Some context.
Look, two months is a genuinely short runway before you start changing how your business operates.
And context matters here, because this is not a struggling venue. Level99 has been a hit since the doors opened. Debuted June 29, then extended its operating hours less than two weeks later because demand was outrunning the schedule. That almost never happens. Restaurants, shops, and attractions at Disney Springs open and close constantly, and virtually none of them generate enough sustained traffic to force a schedule change within fourteen days.
So this is a busy venue reacting to how people actually play.
And what they seem to have figured out is that a lot of guests had no idea what they were doing.
What They Changed at Disney Springs
Level99 updated its game system, replacing Hints with Instructions on every game entry screen.
Tap the lightbulb icon in the bottom-right corner of any game's Entry Screen, and you get the Goal, the Rules, and how Stars work.
Completely optional. Want to walk in cold and wing it? Still allowed.
Why That Is a Bigger Deal Than It Sounds
Hint versus instruction reads like a word game. It is not.
A hint assumes you already know what you are supposed to be doing and just need a nudge toward the answer. Perfect when the puzzle is the challenge.
An instruction tells you what you are supposed to be doing in the first place. Huge difference at a venue running dozens of physical and digital challenge rooms, each with its own rules, its own scoring, and its own version of winning.
Walking into a room you have never seen and not knowing whether the job is to climb, sort, race, aim, or coordinate is a brutal way to torch the first two minutes of a timed challenge. Doubly so with your whole group standing there watching you flail.
What This Place Actually Is
Not your standard Disney Springs stop.
Level99 is an interactive entertainment venue built around dozens of physical and digital challenge rooms. You move game to game, racking up stars based on how well you finish each one.
Nobody is sitting down to dinner or shopping. You are participating, and the format rewards teamwork, competition, and coming back to chase better scores or hit the rooms you skipped.
Genuinely different for Disney Springs, which is a big chunk of why it took off.
That Disney Springs Building Has Baggage
Level99 took over the space that most recently held the NBA Experience.
Before that, DisneyQuest. Which still carries real weight with longtime Walt Disney World fans.
Being tenant number three in that building means instant comparisons, and DisneyQuest nostalgia runs deep.
So far, Level99 has been carving out its own identity instead of chasing ghosts.
The Disney Springs Hours
Post-July expansion:
- Monday through Thursday: 11 a.m. to 11 p.m.
- Friday: 11 a.m. to 11:30 p.m.
- Saturday: 10 a.m. to 11:30 p.m.
- Sunday: 10 a.m. to 11 p.m.
It used to close at 10 p.m. on weekdays and Sundays, and at 11 p.m. on Fridays and Saturdays.
More hours means crowds spread out, and it slots into an evening instead of competing with the afternoon crush.
Why It Works Here
The success says something about how Disney Springs has changed.
This place used to be the go-to spot for shopping and dining after a day at the park. Now people burn an entire afternoon or evening here without ever entering a theme park.
Entertainment is why. Live music, specialty dining, bowling, movie theaters, and now interactive challenges give a group enough options that everybody finds something.
Vacationers get something to do without a park ticket. Locals get a reason to keep coming back.
If You Are Headed Over
Instructions are live now, so first-timers get a much smoother start than anybody who went in July.
Use it, ignore it, whatever. That flexibility is the point, and it means a mixed group can play the same rooms in completely different ways.
Given how fast this place adjusted its hours and now its game system, expect more tweaks. Two months in, Level99 is clearly still learning how guests actually use it.
