People clueless about park reservations

[Mackenzie Click-Mickelson]

Which is also my point when its literally peoples job to know the info and they still miss things... something more needs to be done. I think this issue is bigger than folks just dont research. Some people buy from 3rd party sites and never see the wdw page. So if the 3rd party places had a disney made planning psa I think it would help.

Millions of people visit the parks each year (yes the pandemic has skewed that but still). I don't truly get posts about how people need to know more knowledge because you cannot get everyone to know everything. Just how it is.

I bought our tickets from UT and it says "To enter one of the parks, in addition to valid admission, each Guest is required to make a theme park reservation via the Disney Park Pass system. Check to see if your desired date and park is currently available before purchasing."

Respectfully I don't think you understand the true scale. Disney (or any company) just can't be responsible for everyone. It sucks when you get a poor agent, and my comment was to advise the act of using one doesn't mean you'll have all the information.

Have you checked the hundreds of 3rd party planning sites? Actually there's probably thousands. I wouldn't expect any company to spend $$$$ to give to all the sites that they are probably not even aware of exist.

___________
A google search of Disney discount tickets shows top results for UT, then there's
OrlandoFunTickets: "
VERY IMPORTANT:
To enter one of the parks, in addition to a valid ticket, each Guest is required to make a theme park reservation via the Disney Park Pass system.
STEP 1.
Purchase tickets based on the Disney Park Pass availability for your desired park in the calendar below.
STEP 2.
Immediately link your ticket to My Disney Experience and make a Disney Park Pass reservation for your desired date and park."

You have authorized resellers and then not so authorized ones.

I'm not going to go through many sites but for sure there are 3rd party that do make someone aware.

 

[Colleen27]

I agree Disney isn't handling it well - putting the need for park reservations in the second or third bullet point of a mostly covid-related notice on the top of the website is poor planning, because a lot of people will get as far as the part about health & safety guidelines, think it is entirely about mask policy or distancing or whatever, and not read the rest. But as others have pointed out about FP, FP+ (and there are loads more examples, EMH, ADRs, dining plans, etc.), some people just don't care enough to learn the policies of the place their visiting. That's been going on forever. Just look back a couple of years on the boards and see all the people who thought you had to pay for FP or didn't realize they'd need dining reservations to make the most of their dining plan. I'm not sure there is any way to force-feed information to those who see Disney first and foremost as an amusement park and think they can go into it with no more planning than you'd put into a day at Cedar Point.

 

[Mackenzie Click-Mickelson]

This isn't a new problem, however. The park reservation system is just the latest. But in years past, we would cross paths with folks who had no idea they could get fast passes in advance, and when they arrived for their reservation, the 'good' FP's were gone. Or the same with ADRs. Before spending money and traveling anywhere, domestic or international, people need to educate themselves to be sure they understand and also be sure it's a destination they want to spend their money.

And in the past I would tell people here on the Boards when they would complain that they overheard a guest have no clue about FP+ that you want it that way because it works to one's advantage to not have everyone know everything. In the case of a park reservation one less person making a reservation gives you one more opportunity to get that park reservation. On the other hand it is different because without a park reservation you can't get into the park vs just touring without knowing FP exists or that TS requires a reservation so the stakes are higher with the discussion around park reservation system.

 

[StageTek]

In September 2016 I was sitting in the little gazebo at POFQ when a couple in their mid 50's sat down and we started chatting. They had arrived the night before for their first trip together. Both had been to WDW as kids in the mid 70's and not been back since. They were surprised to learn there were four park. They thought - in 2016 - that The World only had "Disneyland" and Epcot. They had purchased their package (resort, tickets, dining plan) from the Disney website and knew nothing about dining reservations or that there were four parks.

I'm not convinced that Disney isn't doing enough to let people know about park reservations. Or that a video sent directly to people buying tickets would make much of a difference.

When you click "Continue" on the Buy Tickets page you get this:

Clicking along the process (type of ticket, how many days, start day) you get the "Check Park Reservations" notice on each click.

 

[thanxfornoticin]

And in the past I would tell people here on the Boards when they would complain that they overheard a guest have no clue about FP+ that you want it that way because it works to one's advantage to not have everyone know everything. In the case of a park reservation one less person making a reservation gives you one more opportunity to get that park reservation. On the other hand it is different because without a park reservation you can't get into the park vs just touring without knowing FP exists or that TS requires a reservation so the stakes are higher with the discussion around park reservation system.

I can't argue with that point, because it's a good one! Going to Disney without a FP or a dining reservation would not cause nearly as much of a problem as showing up and not being able to even enter any of the 4 parks.

 

[igrsod]

I just want to say, I really hate the reservation system for SO many reasons.
I hope they do away with it. It hasn't been necessary before, it's not necessary now.
I want to be able to have the flexibility to choose where I want to go each day.
Sometimes plans change. Sometimes we want to go our last day to a park that we got rained out of during the early part of the vacation.
Don't get me started on the after 2:00 park hopper. That's silly.

 

[Kae]

There's just some people that don't bother researching anything for a vacation. A podcast had a topic once about researching travel. It said how people will spend hours researching a washing machine, yet they'll just book a trip someplace and be done. Don't look into anything about where they are staying or any sort of pre-planning you need to do. Their point was why would you research a washing machine and not put forth the same amount of effort on a vacation that you are spending alot more on.

I remember our last trip pre-COVID (Jan 2020). There was a couple sitting in the quick service and the husband and wife were fighting as wife planned trip and never knew about getting FP+ so now they sat at Disney without being able to get any FP for the main rides. I felt a little bad for them. But if they spent 5 minutes online researching their Disney trip, they'd know about FP+.

this. I remember with the original FP's and people would say it's for resort guests only or it cost extra. And a few times we would try to give the paper ones to people if we were not going to use it and they would look at you like your were nuts or handing something with Anthrax on it.

Or people that think every resort has monorail service.

 

[thanxfornoticin]

I disagree that it wasn't necessary during the staged reopening during a pandemic. But I also question how necessary it is at this time. It's not clear they're back to 100% capacity, since not everything is open even now, so that seems to be at least part of the reason. But I think Disney found something that works well for them, and it might be here to stay.

 

[dreamer17555]

The park reservation system is terrible. A place that tends to cater to families and then locks them in- not a great plan. Lots of things come up with children, some out of even the family’s control. Say all little Timmy wants to do on vacation is ride Splash mountain and it is down the day you have a reservation for- before you could try the next day without purchasing a park hopper. Or say it was a terrible weather day- some parks handle that better than others or you might decide to swap what day you were planning as a break day. Now you can’t.

The system is doing nothing to limit crowding in the parks- it is just causing frustration.

 

[mom2rtk]

Can’t think of the last time I bought a movie ticket and was turned away at the door. Oh that’s right. You can’t.

Disney could offer a system where this wouldn’t be a problem. Just like they could sell LL spots that didn’t change times. They choose not to.

 

[Mackenzie Click-Mickelson]

I just want to say, I really hate the reservation system for SO many reasons.
I hope they do away with it. It hasn't been necessary before, it's not necessary now.
I want to be able to have the flexibility to choose where I want to go each day.
Sometimes plans change. Sometimes we want to go our last day to a park that we got rained out of during the early part of the vacation.
Don't get me started on the after 2:00 park hopper. That's silly.

Ugh we're going to WDW in several weeks and trying to coordinate at least some plans with some fellow DISers (some local to our area and some local to Orlando) and goodness the not park hopping until 2 pm is annoying as heck.

One of our group got an Oga's Cantina reservation for several of us to go at the same time but the only time available was...1:55pm...so we had to make a park reservation for DHS and spend the morning there regardless which is fine and all but it just was like another wrench in trying to figure out planning plus all of us who wanted to go to the reservation needed to have a park reservation for DHS and we're a combo of CM (just one), us with just park hopper tickets, another couple is DVC APs, another couple is DVC but only 1 of them is an AP holder so the other is using just park hopper tickets and park reservation allocation is different for APs than it is for normal tickets and so then you need to also have the right AP that isn't blocked out that day and see just me typing this with the reservation system is annoying.

The park hopping does help as far as not having to make a park reservation for the park you are hopping to (so long as it's "open" whatever Disney is using to determine that) but the not until 2pm is frustrating, some days in the past we'd park hop around 1 or so but other days not til 3 or 4 but at least we could just decide on the fly..

 

[mgarbowski]

It's disappointing to see so many posts blaming the consumer here. The people who who do not understand the reservation system are being completely rational, because Disney has set up a ridiculous double-reservation system.

When you buy tickets, STEP 1 is to pick your dates and you are advised the tickets only work on those dates. At this point any rational thinking person understands they have made reservations for those dates. Because they have in fact made reservations.They just have not made all the reservations.
Step 2 is to decide between SIngle Park tickets, which are explained to be good at any one of four parks but only one each day, or Park Hoppers which are also good at all 4 parks and you can go to any 1 to 4 parks each day.
Step 3 is to be told you have to make reservations and people think "I already did that" because in fact, they did already make park reservations by selecting their dates when they bought the tickets. But at Disney you have to make 2 reservations for every day of every park ticket and that is a recipe for confusion. The idea that you can buy tickets good only on certain very limited dates and then be refused admission because you did not make a secondary reservation for specific parks on specific dates is a step too far. It's not impossible to understand but at some point people decide that they've done what can reasonably be expected of them and they stop looking for traps that might ruin their day.

Frankly I'm amazed it does not create more confusion than it does.

ETA: I agree that adding videos and pop-ups or other more intrusive forms of communication won't necessarily help. Some amount of people just won't notice. But my position is Disney has made it too complicated and at some point it is Disney's fault if people cannot follow all the hurdles.

 

[NannyBeBe]

I am an old lady and I was able to figure out the reservation system after reading through it a couple of times. But it upsets me that I pay an exorbitant sum for park hoppers but cannot hop until Disney tells me I can. And I haven't been able to make dining reservations for our party of eight anywhere. The system stinks.

 

[bakerworld]

We've seen people standing in front of the covered FP machines confused and upset, not even realizing the machine weren't covered because the FP's were gone but because they were no longer in use.

I am not the most alert person but I don't see how park tickets can be purchased and not understand the need for park reservation.

 

[cheryl.UK]

I doubt it will matter how many times Disney puts it out there. 'You can lead a Horse to water...' as they say. I work in a school and we are dramatically changing how the day works. We have put things in the newsletter, spoken about them at staff meetings, had a full day of INSET, had several short training sessions, given the staff their TT 4 weeks ago and yesterday, 3 days before it kicks in, a member of staff emailed me to say "What's this about 100 minute lessons?". I give in and I'm sure Disney feels the same.

 

[cheryl.UK]

The system is ridiculous. Forcing people into other parks just so they can park hop. No wonder crowds are huge. Scrap it!

I never even thought of that. We often don't go to a park until 5, especially MK. Under the current system, if there is no availability, it will force us to go a second park first, adding to the crowds when in the past we would just have taken the place of someone who went back to their resort early.

 

[Skippy918]

Does Disneyland require reservations as well?

 

[mom2rtk]

Does Disneyland require reservations as well?

Yes.

 

[dreamer17555]

I doubt it will matter how many times Disney puts it out there. 'You can lead a Horst too water...' as they say. I work in a school and we are dramatically changing how the day works. We have put things in the newsletter, spoken about them at staff meetings, had a full day of INSET, had several short training sessions, given the staff their TT 4 weeks ago and yesterday, 3 days before it kicks in a member of staff emailed me to say "What's this about 100 minute lessons?". I give in and I'm sure Disney feels the same.

Disney has this needlessly complicated system of paying for tickets based on dates and still having to make reservations after you already selected dates for your tickets.

The reservation system does nothing to help guests- it’s not limiting crowding at all, all it is doing is harming. Also Disney is a multi billion corporation- they don’t get to just shrug their shoulders and say ‘I give up’.

 

[Christine]

Disney has this needlessly complicated system of paying for tickets based on dates and still having to make reservations after you already selected dates for your tickets.

The reservation system does nothing to help guests- it’s not limiting crowding at all, all it is doing is harming. Also Disney is a multi billion corporation- they don’t get to just shrug their shoulders and say ‘I give up’.

I don't think it's meant to limit crowding. I think it helps Disney, and only Disney, deal with their staffing shortages. They know how many employees they have and how many they need to staff a park on any given day. Apparently, they are not staffed up enough to handle a surge attendance any any of the 4 parks on any given day. Reservations control that.