Park Hopping Rumor?

[Obi-J Kenobi]

So TWDC is making attending the parks more complicated. Maybe this is the new method to reduce crowds at the parks? Make it so convoluted and difficult to understand that folks throw their hands up in the air and shrug their shoulders.

 

[FeliciaB23]

I really hope this isn't true. We are locked into a trip for this November (First time back since December 2019) and this was essentially the only thing left I was looking forward to - the freedom for us to do whatever we wanted after 2pm! They took away the ability to choose our parks the day of, they took away the "complimentary" transportation from MCO, took away fastpasses at 60 days, the dining plan... Yeeeesh. I have never been so anxious about a trip to Disney with all these changes ugh.

 

[SLThomas318]

I really hope this isn't true. We are locked into a trip for this November (First time back since December 2019) and this was essentially the only thing left I was looking forward to - the freedom for us to do whatever we wanted after 2pm! They took away the ability to choose our parks the day of, they took away the "complimentary" transportation from MCO, took away fastpasses at 60 days, the dining plan... Yeeeesh. I have never been so anxious about a trip to Disney with all these changes ugh.

We are doing a big family trip in November with one party who has never been before... all these changes are getting frustrating for us too. They bought 3 day hoppers with the plan to hop after pool breaks... we figured we'd select the hop to park based on what the kids are enjoying or if we don't get to certain attractions in the am. I'm really hoping this rumor is just Disney doing some research! If we have to start reserving the second park then we'll stop buying hoppers. Hey Disney.... this is getting insane!!!!!

 

[DisneyByMarriage]

Honestly it’s a pain in the booty but I’d take making a reservation to PH if that means I can do it before 12. I already know where I want to go and for kids who aren’t thrill riders, we could rope drop, hop and still leave after lunch. And I’d love to RD magic kingdom and then lunch at another park. But I also have a spreadsheet for each trip, so I’m. not. Normal.

 

[loves to dive]

Rumors are rumors and not fact. Who knows where he heard it. I'm not even sure how they would implement it. Make park reservation #1 in advance, have park hoppers do you then have to make park reservation #2 in advance? If you aren't allowed to do that, do you hop on MDE and find the available parks day of? It wouldn't make the 3 or 4 park hop impossible if it's day of but it might make it harder. I'm all for allowing park hopping earlier, like others I hate the 2pm rule but have learned how to work with it. I probably wouldn't even have a problem hopping to say AK instead of MK but if I can't get into Epcot every day, that would be a problem. I can see MK being hard to hop to in the afternoon but that would just mean book MK as reservation #1 for a few days and if you can hop early, just go for a few hours and hop over to whatever else is available. I can also see HS being a problem to hop into since it's usually crazy busy most of the time. Since Disney's IT has problems just dealing with keeping MDE up and running, I can't see it being able to handle even more complicated hits every day.

 

[Pens Fan]

There is a very interesting discussion going on over in the wdwmagic forums. One of their "insiders" is saying this rumor has legs. And then another one is saying there are changes coming but the changes are being misconstrued, leading to this rumor which isn't really true. It's pages long, but if you've got some time to kill and are interested in this, check it out.

 

[snikki]

I can see it being if you don’t have a reservation you could still hop BUT the park you hop to could be closed to capacity. This would be huge on non party nights at MK. Or on days where something special is happening at a certain park and reservations are already sold out like October 1 at MK. Or opening night of harmonious at Epcot. Or you can only stack G+ if you have a PH reservation.

 

[Jrb1979]

There is a very interesting discussion going on over in the wdwmagic forums. One of their "insiders" is saying this rumor has legs. And then another one is saying there are changes coming but the changes are being misconstrued, leading to this rumor which isn't really true. It's pages long, but if you've got some time to kill and are interested in this, check it out.

I've been following it. It sounds like resort guests are going to have less restrictions in regards to reservations. The plebs including AP holders will get more.
Here is the quote from one of the "insiders"


Park Pass (long term) is about maximizing the value/guest ratio in the parks and controlling/limiting access to low value guests

 

[Smugpugmug]

I've been following it. It sounds like resort guests are going to have less restrictions in regards to reservations. The plebs including AP holders will get more.
Here is the quote from one of the "insiders"


Park Pass (long term) is about maximizing the value/guest ratio in the parks and controlling/limiting access to low value guests

Yeah that aligns with current management's low prioritization of AP holders. I told my parents, who are local APs, about the rumor and my mom actually said that if this ends up being true, she might look into getting a Universal AP. We're all planners but this is getting a little ridiculous.

 

[Mai Ku Tiki]

The reservation system has never been about limiting capacity in the parks. It is give them data to control how much staff needed each day to maximize profits.

In May it was more like how much "under-staffing" they could get away with.

 

[CaptainAmerica]

Requiring reservations wouldn't necessarily mean you have to make reservations in advance. I picture it something like... you're in Magic Kingdom and want to hop to Epcot, so you pull up the app while you're in line for Big Thunder and see if Epcot has hopping reservations available, which it always will outside of maybe Christmas day.

 

[CaptainAmerica]

The reservation system has never been about limiting capacity in the parks. It is give them data to control how much staff needed each day to maximize profits.

People always make this argument, and it makes sense on its face, but Disney has very robust data about what crowds will be like on any given day without Park Pass. They know what their resort reservations look like, they know how many park tickets they've sold, they know how many same-day tickets they typically sell given those other inputs, they understand seasonal demand, they know what the airlines and other resorts in the area are up to. I have a hard time understanding what Park Pass tells them that they didn't already know.

 

[disney1474]

People always make this argument, and it makes sense on its face, but Disney has very robust data about what crowds will be like on any given day without Park Pass. They know what their resort reservations look like, they know how many park tickets they've sold, they know how many same-day tickets they typically sell given those other inputs, they understand seasonal demand, they know what the airlines and other resorts in the area are up to. I have a hard time understanding what Park Pass tells them that they didn't already know.

They simply will know exactly how many guests will be going to each park to better staff

 

[1420Elexismc]

Honestly it’s a pain in the booty but I’d take making a reservation to PH if that means I can do it before 12. I already know where I want to go and for kids who aren’t thrill riders, we could rope drop, hop and still leave after lunch. And I’d love to RD magic kingdom and then lunch at another park. But I also have a spreadsheet for each trip, so I’m. not. Normal.

I 100% have a color coded spreadsheet with multiple sheets for our trip next May

 

[Jrb1979]

People always make this argument, and it makes sense on its face, but Disney has very robust data about what crowds will be like on any given day without Park Pass. They know what their resort reservations look like, they know how many park tickets they've sold, they know how many same-day tickets they typically sell given those other inputs, they understand seasonal demand, they know what the airlines and other resorts in the area are up to. I have a hard time understanding what Park Pass tells them that they didn't already know.

While all that is true they can also limit capacity with this system. It's all about directing guests to the parks they want them to go to and controlling how many off-site and AP holders (plebs) are allowed in.

 

[Jrb1979]

Today is a perfect example of Park Pass losing them potential revenue dollars. The Magic Kingdom crowds are quite pleasant this morning. You'd be surprised to learn that no reservations were available for additional resort guests. Meaning, the thousands of resort guests who may have wanted to visit the Magic Kingdom this morning may have stayed in their room or done some other low cost activity until they could use their EPCOT reservation simply to hop to MK.

This is a quote from someone at MK today. It shows how they are controlling how many people are in the parks at open.

 

[CaptainAmerica]

They simply will know exactly how many guests will be going to each park to better staff

No, they don't know that, because same-day Park Passes are still available.

 

[Jrb1979]

No, they don't know that, because same-day Park Passes are still available.

The park pass is also their way of controlling how many off-site guests and AP holders they let in each day.

 

[Devil13]

Just when you think things couldn't get worse.

This would be the end for me. Already eyeing Universal once my APs expire, but this would make it a no-brainer.

 

[tseitel]

I've been following it. It sounds like resort guests are going to have less restrictions in regards to reservations. The plebs including AP holders will get more.
Here is the quote from one of the "insiders"


Park Pass (long term) is about maximizing the value/guest ratio in the parks and controlling/limiting access to low value guests

I have to say if they are actually calling some people “low value guests” that’s just wrong in so many ways.