Everything Park Reservations - Please Read Post 1

[Tom_E_D]

The availability calendar that bffer provides a link for is the one that does not update in real time. To actually try to make a reservation in real time, you have to have a ticket that has a day available for which you do not have a reservation. Yes, indeed, if you cancel a reservation in order to try for a new one, you could wind up failing to get the new one and losing the old one. Nevertheless, it may be worth taking the chance if that calendar shows availability at the park you want to switch to, and availability at the park you're switching from. At least then, if you can't get the park you want to switch to, you may have a good chance to at least get back the reservation you gave up in order to try for it.

As of right now, Epcot appears to be the only park available on both the 24th and the 25th.

 

[JFDIS]

Multiple times now in the last few weeks Disney has increased the number of available park reservations. Just keep checking the park availability calendar. When it goes to all green (for your type of ticket; ‘select resort hotels’ or ‘theme park tickets’) then I would feel safe canceling my existing reservation and getting another for your desired park. You do have to cancel a park reservation to make a new one. I’ve been able to make park reservations when the calendar shows no availability but I wouldn’t chance it if I were you.

 

[MaggieBags]

Thank you all. I guess there is hope with the pattern of adding more reservations. June 13th just randomly went green. I don't think Park Hopper would work with our budget or group of young kids. I'll keep checking. Thank you again!

 

[tpettie]

I just came here to celebrate because no one else understands how big a deal it is. I was finally able to make MK reservations for Oct 1!!! I almost broke down crying I was so relieved. .....I am so happy I will be there!

Just curious what time of day did you check? I'm kicking myself for not booking the Oct 1st. earlier when I was looking and it was open. Now it's all booked up and I'm sad.

 

[wareagle57]

Just curious what time of day did you check? I'm kicking myself for not booking the Oct 1st. earlier when I was looking and it was open. Now it's all booked up and I'm sad.

It was the day they added new spots for resort guests and day tickets. I booked a 1 day stay about a week earlier just in case they opened up availability to more hotel guests but not APs, which sadly appears to be what happened. Hopefully they are still nowhere near 100% capacity for that day booked. I just can’t imagine they are.

 

[DerekV914]

Hi guys,

Between work, COVID and moving cross country, my DW and I have not paid much attention to the goings on at the World since we didn't foresee a trip anytime soon. With that said, we have the itch, and are thinking about a trip in early September of this year. I saw that vaccinated folks are good to go without masks, but can anyone tell me about this park reservation system? Is it done through MDE? How far out to do you realistically need to book these? Is park hopping still a thing? I'm genuinely in the dark on a lot of this and rather than search through thread after thread, I'd figure I'd ask you fine and helpful folk for anything I need to know to decide whether the trip is worth it.

Thanks so much in advance for your help, and excuse my ignorance if all of this is easy to figure out without this pos!

 

[lovethattink]

Please read the ticket pinned post and there should be some park reservation posts that show up in search. If you can’t find it, hop on the Here now, Just back thread for up to date info!

 

[DerekV914]

Please read the ticket pinned post and there should be some park reservation posts that show up in search. If you can’t find it, hop on the Here now, Just back thread for up to date info!

Thanks for pointing me in the right direction.

 

[MaggieBags]

More June dates just opened! Finally secured Magic Kingdom.

 

[momz]

how long in advance to dates open to reserve?

 

[scrappinginontario]

how long in advance to dates open to reserve?

They are currently open through Jan 14, 2023.

 

[CAresident]

I thought with reopening I can just purchase tickets and come down, I am travelling out of town and dont want to run into misery paying for hotels and park to be turned away.
I cant find open reservations for the 4th july, Can i get any advise? I plan to visit the park on 1/2nd of July though and not on 4th.

 

[luv2cheer92]

Park reservations are required

 

[Marionnette]

I thought with reopening I can just purchase tickets and come down, I am travelling out of town and dont want to run into misery paying for hotels and park to be turned away.
I cant find open reservations for the 4th july, Can i get any advise? I plan to visit the park on 1/2nd of July though and not on 4th.

You need a park reservation in order to enter the first park of the day. If you have a park hopper ticket, you can go to a different park (no reservation required) after 2 PM provided that the second park has not reached capacity limits.

You must actually visit the first park and tap in or else you cannot hop to a second park. So, if there are no reservations available at all at any park, you will not be able to go into a park that day.

 

[Southernmiss]

I thought with reopening I can just purchase tickets and come down, I am travelling out of town and dont want to run into misery paying for hotels and park to be turned away.
I cant find open reservations for the 4th july, Can i get any advise? I plan to visit the park on 1/2nd of July though and not on 4th.

Reservations go fast when they open.

The only thing to suggest is to watch the availability calendar for your days to see if anything opens up.

We had to book April 4th for our trip last week as all parks were booking fast. We even added a day to our trip to get into Hollywood studios.

After booking a few dates our week opened, but those dates went fast, too.

Things are changing fast, just keep watching the calendar.

 

[riogirl84]

This may seem like a silly question, but are the park reservations making the parks less crowded? I would love to know how this is looking, we are going in August and I just booked all my park days, but have no way to know how it has been working! Thanks in advance!

 

[TheSouthernBelle]

This may seem like a silly question, but are the park reservations making the parks less crowded? I would love to know how this is looking, we are going in August and I just booked all my park days, but have no way to know how it has been working! Thanks in advance!

No, all park pass reservations do is provide WDW the ability to cap and track attendance by park. In theory, nobody, outside of Disney execs, really know what park attendance is capped at right now but as we get further and further from the days of 20% park capacity, the parks have become increasingly more crowded. I think the last number we heard was 50% but I could be wrong.

Some things to note about the crowds, even now while crowds are limited, some of the parks feel like pre-Covid crowds just because of the fact that there isn't much else besides food and rides to absorb all the people and even though crowds are capped, what parks feel like and how many people are actually there is two very different things.

Hopefully with the return of shows and other entertainment, this will help but to answer your question, as we move further along and disney continues to up park pass capacity, the parks are not less crowded.

 

[katallo]

I'm going to have to read this thread because it's been 2 years and at that time reservations were not needed. We are going in the Fall. Should we purchase tickets first add to our MDE account and then work on reservations? Will the reservation system stay or was that a COVID thing? Thanks

 

[GBRforWDW]

I'm going to have to read this thread because it's been 2 years and at that time reservations were not needed. We are going in the Fall. Should we purchase tickets first add to our MDE account and then work on reservations? Will the reservation system stay or was that a COVID thing? Thanks

You do have to have tickets tied to your account in order to make reservations.

If you know now what days you want to go to each park, I'd recommend getting those nailed down. There's still a lot of availability, but waiting til close to the date when some parks start filling up just adds unnecessary stress and anxiety.

 

[katallo]

You do have to have tickets tied to your account in order to make reservations.

If you know now what days you want to go to each park, I'd recommend getting those nailed down. There's still a lot of availability, but waiting til close to the date when some parks start filling up just adds unnecessary stress and anxiety.

Thanks so much. What happens if (while you are there) you have to change a date? Is that difficult?