Do July pass reservations fill up?

[RASRobin]

I'm helping my niece plan a Disneyland stay in July 2024. The pass reservations have just opened up for the dates they are going. Do they need to book everything right away to get the pass days reserved? How soon do July dates fill up?

Thanks for any insights!

 

[Pluto468]

I'd book the park reservations now because you can always cancel if your dates change. Some dates do fill up.

 

[OlliePop27]

Agree with the previous poster. If you have tickets already just go ahead and book park reservations. You can change or cancel anytime. It's unlikely reservations will fill up this far out, but why not?

 

[RASRobin]

They are trying to decide how many days, how it fits into the rest of their trip, whether to buy a package thru Costco etc. In other words, they don't have tickets yet. I'm glad to hear that the park reservations are easily changed, but the hotel and packages mostly aren't and they can't get park reservations without those things decided.

And it looked to me on the AAA website selling multi-day tickets that the dates had to be decided when purchased? Are those easily changed?

 

[PiratesMansion]

They are trying to decide how many days, how it fits into the rest of their trip, whether to buy a package thru Costco etc. In other words, they don't have tickets yet. I'm glad to hear that the park reservations are easily changed, but the hotel and packages mostly aren't and they can't get park reservations without those things decided.

And it looked to me on the AAA website selling multi-day tickets that the dates had to be decided when purchased? Are those easily changed?

If they're still figuring all of that out, I would say to not worry about park reservations at this point. While they may eventually fill, the majority of dates will continue to be available for months. And though people often think of summer as a busy season, and it is to a point, it is less busy/in demand than many dates in the Halloween season, Christmas season, or random holiday weekends.

Once they know, they should lock in their reservations just to get their plans locked in, but if they need not feel like they need to make their decisions immediately or risk being shut out. There's still a lot of time for them to figure their plans out.

RE: tickets with dates attached-I have never bought tickets through Costco, so I can't 100% confirm that this is true of their tickets, but there have been a number of authorized ticket sellers that have asked for dates when I purchased tickets. This does not necessarily mean that the tickets will be locked in only to be used on certain dates though-sometimes it's just because they want to make sure your ticket order is able to be fully processed before you visit the park. If that is the case, the dates you enter don't actually matter as long as they're not after you intend to start your trip. Definitely read the fine print, but there's a fair chance that it's asking for visit dates just to make sure you'll get them in time, rather than to lock anyone in to specific dates.

 

[OlliePop27]

If they're still figuring all of that out, I would say to not worry about park reservations at this point. While they may eventually fill, the majority of dates will continue to be available for months. And though people often think of summer as a busy season, and it is to a point, it is less busy/in demand than many dates in the Halloween season, Christmas season, or random holiday weekends.

Once they know, they should lock in their reservations just to get their plans locked in, but if they need not feel like they need to make their decisions immediately or risk being shut out. There's still a lot of time for them to figure their plans out.

RE: tickets with dates attached-I have never bought tickets through Costco, so I can't 100% confirm that this is true of their tickets, but there have been a number of authorized ticket sellers that have asked for dates when I purchased tickets. This does not necessarily mean that the tickets will be locked in only to be used on certain dates though-sometimes it's just because they want to make sure your ticket order is able to be fully processed before you visit the park. If that is the case, the dates you enter don't actually matter as long as they're not after you intend to start your trip. Definitely read the fine print, but there's a fair chance that it's asking for visit dates just to make sure you'll get them in time, rather than to lock anyone in to specific dates.

Seconding the comments about date requests on ticket purchases through a vendor like Costco. I've been asked many times through third party sellers to choose a starting date and it never matters. Multi-day tickets are the same price regardless of date. Only single day ticket prices fluctuate based on date. I also agree that it's highly unlikely any dates in summer will have reservations closed off until 1-2 weeks before. DLR typically always holds capacity for regular (non Magic Key) ticket holders as long as possible. DLR offering park reservations this far in advance is brand new - they just moved to 180 days as opposed to a couple of months.

A bit off topic, but I always recommend booking tickets and hotel separately. It's often cheaper that way and also allows you to pivot easier if something happens. Tickets from certain third parties can be refunded. Worst case you can hold the value of the tickets even post-expiration and apply towards future ticket purchases. Hotels are usually cancellable until several days before arrival (depending on what hotel and how you book).