Will park reservations impact people traveling to WDW?

[dmp609]

Now that we finally know the date of my daughter's 8th grade graduation, I started thinking about a possible WDW trip the end of May. But then I looked at the park availability and only EPCOT and Animal Kingdom are available. Is it possible/probable that Magic Kingdom and Hollywood Studios could open up before then? Sorry, I've really been out of the loop on what's been going on at WDW. Thanks!

 

[scrappinginontario]

Now that we finally know the date of my daughter's 8th grade graduation, I started thinking about a possible WDW trip the end of May. But then I looked at the park availability and only EPCOT and Animal Kingdom are available. Is it possible/probable that Magic Kingdom and Hollywood Studios could open up before then? Sorry, I've really been out of the loop on what's been going on at WDW. Thanks!

It could happen but there is no guarantee. It will take a lot of perseverance on your part to check the reservations often. It is recommended to actually try to book rather than rely on the calendar as the calendar is not updated real-time.

There is no guarantee that something will open but it could, even as late as the actual date you wish to go to a park.

Many people are in a similar situation so many are trying to grab availability.

 

[dmp609]

It could happen but there is no guarantee. It will take a lot of perseverance on your part to check the reservations often. It is recommended to actually try to book rather than rely on the calendar as the calendar is not updated real-time.

There is no guarantee that something will open but it could, even as late as the actual date you wish to go to a park.

Many people are in a similar situation so many are trying to grab availability.

Thank you for the reply. That's what I thought. That is probably too risky for us. Serves me right for waiting last minute, but my husband and I also just got our vaccines which I wasn't expecting so soon.

 

[twodogs]

I guess they don't automatically cancel your park reservations when you cancel your tickets/room/package because maybe you just decided not to stay onsite and you are going to book a different hotel and different tickets, and you would still like to keep those park reservations. So I am actually glad that they don't automatically cancel if you cancel tickets.

A point to remember which may come into play: at DLR, with the Flex Pass (an AP that required you to make park reservations 30 days in advance, only 2 days at a time), if you no-showed for more than 3 reservations in a 90 day period (or something like that, can't remember exactly), you were blocked from making more reservations for a period of time. It penalized you for making a reservation, not showing up, and then "wasting" that slot that another Flex Pass person could have booked (because they were often booked up). Maybe WDW will start doing something similar or charging a no-show fee like they do for dining reservations, to discourage people from having unused reservation slots on hold (but then they had better make it more obvious how to cancel them and that they even need to be cancelled!).

 

[SarahC97]

What's really sad is that many people don't seem to understand that they even need park reservations. I'm a TA and I can't tell you how many people I've had come to me recently who want to book trips for this summer and have no clue that park reservations are required and some parks unavailable. Heck, even my BIL and his daughter just showed up one day wanting to buy tickets at the gate and were shocked they couldn't. I imagine that someone somewhere has booked a Disney vacation, bought tickets, and then got there with no park reservations.

 

[Kestryl]

It could affect us in the future if things don’t become less restrictive. We booked “only” three months out before. We were considering a summer trip, but June was completely filled for Hollywood Studios and much of Magic Kingdom, and starting to blur into July. Before, we had some flexibility based around dining reservations- take Oga’s, for example. I could take whatever Oga reservation I could find, and then plan my parks around that. Now I have to decide ahead of time what day, because chances are good I can’t switch. It doesn’t seem like it’s that big of a difference, but it is.

 

[Brett Wyman]

It could affect us in the future if things don’t become less restrictive. We booked “only” three months out before. We were considering a summer trip, but June was completely filled for Hollywood Studios and much of Magic Kingdom, and starting to blur into July. Before, we had some flexibility based around dining reservations- take Oga’s, for example. I could take whatever Oga reservation I could find, and then plan my parks around that. Now I have to decide ahead of time what day, because chances are good I can’t switch. It doesn’t seem like it’s that big of a difference, but it is.

The sellout this year(for resort rooms and park passes) is unprecedented. Even if they keep the park reservation system in place, things will clam down in the months and years to come. Especially when capacity opens up obviously.

 

[subtchr]

What's really sad is that many people don't seem to understand that they even need park reservations. I'm a TA and I can't tell you how many people I've had come to me recently who want to book trips for this summer and have no clue that park reservations are required and some parks unavailable. Heck, even my BIL and his daughter just showed up one day wanting to buy tickets at the gate and were shocked they couldn't. I imagine that someone somewhere has booked a Disney vacation, bought tickets, and then got there with no park reservations.

I don't expect everyone to know all the ins and outs of Disney the way we do on this board.

But I feel Disney is doing everything they possibly can to fully inform guests of what is required to visit. Every step of the way on the website there are reminders and information about park reservations. You cannot buy a ticket without being informed and provided a link to the availability calendar. And then reminded over and over again that both a valid ticket and park reservation are required. Yes, I suppose there are people who walk into your office to try to plan a trip without any prior research, but I know I personally do at least a bit of online information gathering before going to a TA. And in any case, they have you to inform them, so there is that, at least!

As for your BIL, again, even on a day trip, we search where we are going to find out hours, ticket prices, and other pertinent information. I'm sorry he didn't do that, but I would think the number of people in this day and age who don't do a bit of information gathering before a visit somewhere is small.

If someone arrives to Disney after purchasing tickets, and doesn't have park reservations, I would have trouble mustering a great deal of sympathy, with all the information that Disney gives when you buy tickets.

As for canceling park reservations a guest does not need, I do not think the number of no-shows on any given day (people who book, don't go, and don't cancel) is significant. Certainly not significant enough for Disney to do anything about it.