Artificial limiting of AP park reservations already starting at Disney World?

[thefishoutofwater]

Has anyone else noticed that Magic Kingdom Annual Pass park reservations are already full for this week? The theme park ticket reservation calendar is wide open for this month. September is supposed to be one of the slowest times of the year for the parks and the new pass reservations are already filling up. I hope this isn’t what we can expect going forward, as the parks get into a busier season next month. Can't imagine many passholders will be happy.

 

[OKW Lover]

Looks like all three other parks are available.

 

[ParklandDISDad]

Yepp. MK is unavailable for 9/15 (today-Wednesday) , 9/16 (tomorrow-Thursday), 9/17 (this Friday) , 9/18 (this Saturday), 9/19 (this Sunday), and 9/29 (the Wednesday after next.. and the last day Happy Ever After will show before Disney Enchantment premiers October 1st).

Looks like as long as you are reserving at least a week in advance you should be more than okay.. but we will have to wait and see how that may change after we get into '50th anniversary season'.

Surprisingly, while October 1st through 4th are unavailable for MK, every other date in October is still available for every park for the rest of the month, at this time. I would have assumed that at least 10/9-10/10 (the second weekend after the 50th kicks off) would have been at capacity at MK by now. Huh.

 

[Solo2987]

I haven't bought a pass yet, and this is one of the many reasons. The ability to go on a whim is one of the reasons to hold an annual pass. Now, I accept that some planning is necessary, but how far in advance? Ah, that is the question. One week isn't too bad, but several months would be less than acceptable.

Then again, I keep changing my definition of acceptable every time we get a new 'feature', if you know what I mean...

 

[OKW Lover]

The ability to go on a whim is one of the reasons to hold an annual pass.

You can still do this. You might have to settle for second choice on which park you are going to is the only factor. But that hasn't changed since they introduced park reservations.

 

[Tyler's Dad]

You can still do this. You might have to settle for second choice on which park you are going to is the only factor. But that hasn't changed since they introduced park reservations.

You can still do this. You might have to settle for second choice on which park you are going to is the only factor. But that hasn't changed since they introduced park reservations.

If that even becomes an issue. I would guess, with the exception of some very busy holidays, you could probably pick any park the week before, maybe 2. I would say for 80-90% of the year, you could probably jump on the day before or day of and get all 4 parks.

 

[thefishoutofwater]

Thanks for the comments. I guess what I was originally trying to point out is that there is no way Magic Kingdom today through this Friday is close to true max capacity (refer to crowd tracker sites and the theme park ticket reservation calendar) and yet Disney is already limiting AP access for these days.

Now I'm sure the idea here is to steer APs to other parks to even things out, but if it's going to be like this now at the slowest time of the year, APs are going to have plan weeks, possibly months in advance every time they want to go to their popular park of choice when things get just a bit busier.

Feeling bad for the legacy APs who had it great before the reservation calendar.

 

[unbanshee]

And now they've opened availability back up

 

[Sandisw]

And now they've opened availability back up

Which may mean they have it set for X amount, and then monitor it against the other ones. Seeing that the other bucket didn't fill, they shifted.

 

[ParklandDISDad]

And now they've opened availability back up

Yes. Checked late last night and all four parts were available for AP holders for all dates through the end of the month except 9/29 again, still the case this morning.... AND Magic Kingdom (Sunday 9/19) and Animal Kingdom (Monday 9/20) were listed as bonus reservations, although those are no longer available this morning.

Thanks for the comments. I guess what I was originally trying to point out is that there is no way Magic Kingdom today through this Friday is close to true max capacity (refer to crowd tracker sites and the theme park ticket reservation calendar) and yet Disney is already limiting AP access for these days.

Now I'm sure the idea here is to steer APs to other parks to even things out, but if it's going to be like this now at the slowest time of the year, APs are going to have plan weeks, possibly months in advance every time they want to go to their popular park of choice when things get just a bit busier.

Feeling bad for the legacy APs who had it great before the reservation calendar.

It's certainly interesting to contemplate that Disney is using the system to artificially redirect traffic to parks with fewer reservations before the "at capacity" park is actually at capacity. Wouldn't be surprised though. Will be interesting to see how things play out in the months to come.. but if this weekend/week is any indication it looks like the idea may be to "steer" that traffic to other parks to even things up a few days out when there's an influx of locals and on site guests planning out their weekend and then reopen reservations ahead of those dates after whatever crowd-directing objective has been reached.

We've had our passes since long before the park pass reservation system and maintained them through the pandemic.. I'll be honest, not a fan of the reservation system. I can see the benefits, mostly for Disney co., but it's an added step/thing I have to consider/account for... not that I foresee it having any direct effect on my ability to get into a park of choice in the future because we steer clear during peak times anyhow.

 

[AnnaKristoff2013]

We've had our passes since long before the park pass reservation system and maintained them through the pandemic.. I'll be honest, not a fan of the reservation system. I can see the benefits, mostly for Disney co., but it's an added step/thing I have to consider/account for... not that I foresee it having any direct effect on my ability to get into a park of choice in the future because we steer clear during peak times anyhow.

Given that they are sort of kind of maybe hitting capacity for AP's during the lowest of the low season, on crowd level 1 days per touring plans, I'm not so sure that avoiding peak season means you won't get locked out of parks as an AP holder. It looks to me like they are using the reservation system to optimize staffing and save money, such that you could get locked out on even a not crowded day if they've already made staffing decisions for that day and want to redirect crowds to other parks.