End of park reservations/ limited park hopping?

[yorkieteacher]

So DoctorDisney reported park reservations would be ending in a few weeks, and park hopping would become easier. I also saw someone tweeted that Chapek had planned this but Igor would get the credit. I’m more excited about park Hopping restrictions ending than reservations, since I am Such a planner anyway, and have dining ressies in the park I scheduled. Do you think these rumors will be true?

 

[Jrb1979]

So DoctorDisney reported park reservations would be ending in a few weeks, and park hopping would become easier. I also saw someone tweeted that Chapek had planned this but Igor would get the credit. I’m more excited about park Hopping restrictions ending than reservations, since I am Such a planner anyway, and have dining ressies in the park I scheduled. Do you think these rumors will be true?

Park hopping will become easier. Park reservations aren't really going away, it's just being simplified When you buy a day ticket you still have to pick the day you're going it's just one step. As far as multi-day tickets rumor is you will still have to pick your first park and the date.

 

[KYMickey]

All of these recent "improvements" to the Disney experience has made a nifty trip more like planning a wargame that is planning a vacation! You're supposed to be able to relax I vacation consider having every minute planned out! Having to pick which park for which day is okay except if the weather changes. You don't want to have your AK day on a day with torrential downpours, etc.!

 

[Tall Todd]

All of these recent "improvements" to the Disney experience has made a nifty trip more like planning a wargame that is planning a vacation! You're supposed to be able to relax I vacation consider having every minute planned out! Having to pick which park for which day is okay except if the weather changes. You don't want to have your AK day on a day with torrential downpours, etc.!

Sure. Weren't you already doing this with the booking of Fast Passes though?

 

[KYMickey]

Sure. Weren't you already doing this with the booking of Fast Passes though?

While you were with fast passes I'm thinking back farther for we had all these stupid preplanning requirements. Back then a trip to WDW was actually a vacation!

 

[yorkieteacher]

OP here. I’ve never minded planning if it saved me time or money. Always had my ADR’s and fast passes and a general Touring plan. I just want to be able to park hop before 2!

 

[Alicefan]

While you were with fast passes I'm thinking back farther for we had all these stupid preplanning requirements. Back then a trip to WDW was actually a vacation!

Yes this! Most of us, when we speak of the good ol days, we're harkening back to the ticket version of fastpass. Give me a rope drop day where I head over and collect my fastpasses myself, over all of this pre planning crap. I think the furthest they should've ever gone with the FP system was to go ahead and make it electronic, but have everyone just get up at 7am or open it up just one day in advance to book your fastpasses for the day and be done with it. That would've eliminated the rope drop dash but also eliminate the ridiculous, trying to figure out where you'll be on whatever day a month in advance. There's just no need for that. Ever.

Yes, the rope drop dash was not great for those that like to sleep in on their vacation, but I find, the people that like to do lazy days at Disney, aren't the type of people that HAVE to ride the latest and greatest new rides either. They tend to be, take it or leave it personalities. It's us commando types that are hell bent on getting on those new rides and we don't have a problem getting up early to make sure we get done all that we want to get done in a day. We are the, "go back to the room and take a nap types". lol

 

[Moliphino]

Yes this! Most of us, when we speak of the good ol days, we're harkening back to the ticket version of fastpass. Give me a rope drop day where I head over and collect my fastpasses myself, over all of this pre planning crap. I think the furthest they should've ever gone with the FP system was to go ahead and make it electronic, but have everyone just get up at 7am or open it up just one day in advance to book your fastpasses for the day and be done with it. That would've eliminated the rope drop dash but also eliminate the ridiculous, trying to figure out where you'll be on whatever day a month in advance. There's just no need for that. Ever.

Yes, the rope drop dash was not great for those that like to sleep in on their vacation, but I find, the people that like to do lazy days at Disney, aren't the type of people that HAVE to ride the latest and greatest new rides either. They tend to be, take it or leave it personalities. It's us commando types that are hell bent on getting on those new rides and we don't have a problem getting up early to make sure we get done all that we want to get done in a day. We are the, "go back to the room and take a nap types". lol

I am not a rope dropper, but I am a park commando type - not lazy at all. FP+ worked great for me. We could wake up at 8, knock out 3 pre-booked rides from around 9:30-12:30 and then have the rest of the day to be spontaneous. It was also great for arrival days, because you could actually get some good rides in even if you didn't get to the park until the afternoon.

 

[Liquidice]

There have been rumors from "insiders" floating around since this summer when it was found in the app that they would have Park Passes starting at a particular time that sometime early next year there would be changes coming for both Park Passes and Park Hopping.

Just rumors at this point until something actually changes.

I will say, I don't mind pre-planning something if it prevents me from having to attempt to plan something at 7am in a panic (i.e. Lightning Lanes). Plus I would much rather wake up early one day and plan all of my Fastpasses at 30 or 60 days out than every day on my trip. Then I can relax going into my trip knowing I at least have 3 rides already setup.

Booking park passes isn't such a big deal - especially at WDW when they are available for all parks most of the time. Especially if you have park tickets or a Disney resort hotel (or one of their approved ones) - you can book length of stay ahead of time generally.

But for an out of town guest who also has an AP - it is annoying when your 7 day trip has 2 unknowns at the end of the week - will I be able to get into the park I want for those last 2 days? I only get 5 park passes unless it is attached to a Disney resort hotel. That is my frustration with Park Passes. For people who live close to the parks, 5 park passes is probably sufficient although maybe not ideal - they can use it to plan 1 day at a time but I'm guessing they don't go to the parks 5 days in a row often. But a lot of APs come in from out of town and 5 really isn't enough - although on a 7 day trip - 2 of those days could be to Universal or another theme park I guess.

I would contend that since I am coming in from out of town, I generally spend as much - if not more than a ticketed guest as well. I generally eat 2 meals a day in the parks (QS for lunch and TS for dinner) and we also buy a ton of merchandise since we can use our AP discount - which we can't usually use online, so we end up buying more while at the parks.

Chapek said it best when he said that the park passes is to benefit the family from Seattle or wherever that is coming. If it turns away a long time customer to gain a new one - Chapek was ok with that because in the short term it would boost profits as the new guest will spend more money on a per day basis than a long term one. The open question was - would that new guest continue to come back and spend money? And I suspect Chapek's bet was worst case scenario that even if they didn't - the long term customers would continue to come back.

I suspect even if park pass changes were coming under Chapek - they will have still prioritized those ticketed guests over AP guests. The rumor I heard was that park passes would go away for ticketed guests and those staying at a Disney resort. But they would stay for APs.

To appease APs, they would allow Park Passes that start at a particular time - to avoid needing to scan into to your original park first and then park hop, you'd just get a park pass that started at a later time.

I'm not so sure if it will be the same under Iger? We'll see I guess.