AP Park Res for Resort Guests

[Leigh123]

Do I understand correctly that in 2024 I have to make a park reservation as an annual passholder even if I am a resort guest? Thanks in advance and happy holidays

 

[MinnieMSue]

Yes I had to make reservations for this situation unfortunately. At least they don’t count toward your AP limit

 

[loves to dive]

Yes, but starting early Jan. they will have what they call "good to go days" for AP members. On those days you don't need a reservation. No one is sure how it will work but Disney has said it will show up on the AP calendar and they could appear in advance or day of and can be a day at a time or for entire week(s). Supposedly, if you already have a park reservation for that day, it will be removed and you will then have that extra day to make a reservation on a different day. Not much of a perk for those of us who live out of town and have to book in advance and are staying on property since we can book reservations for entire time of stay anyway instead of the 5 day block. I understand it is supposed to be a version of crowd control. The reasoning seems to be that regular ticket purchases are date based (sort of since you have a one or two day on either side of those if you book in advance) so they know how many people will be in the parks for those. If you have an AP, there is no way to predict that unless you make a reservation. I know a lot of people have said if you are staying in a Disney resort, they can predict from that that you will be in a park but evidently not. Pain in the backside but at least you can park hop all day starting early Jan. so you can just tap into your reservation park and move on from there.

 

[scrappinginontario]

Yes park reservations will still be required for AP guests under certain circumstances.

I would recommend reading this thread to learn about Good to Go Days.

 

[thanxfornoticin]

Sounds like more info on the good-to-go days coming Jan 11 (if I remember correctly)? But at least park hopping restrictions will be gone by then - making a little progress back to pre-Covid park access! Hoping the good-to-go days are way more abundant than the park reservation days.....

 

[mom2missmous]

Do I understand correctly that in 2024 I have to make a park reservation as an annual passholder even if I am a resort guest? Thanks in advance and happy holidays

Yes we do unfortunately and in some rare cases AP have been shut out of parks when others were not due to "capacity in that category!" IMHO real or not , it makes AP seem less valued that 'other" guests. The whole capacity thing just doesn't fly with me lol. Disney has no trouble jamming people in at other times when they can make $. Our recent MVMCP, MK park was very crowded and lines for rides were long at least in the first few hours ( and many event specific merchandise not avail as they 'sold out' at previous parties !) Again, just my opinion, but part of the usefulness of having an annual pass is the flexibitly -at least it was pre pandemic !

 

[1lilspark]

Yes even at a resort you need to make reservations on non good to go days and at this point we don’t know the frequency of when they will be announced or if the amount of reservations available on a given day will be less now that AP/Castmembers/non dated group tickets are the only ones that need reservations


I know for us we are planning to make reservations if there are dates we want to visit in advance (we already made reservations for our April visit as we want to go to Epcot during springtime surprise weekend which is also dapper day)

 

[Leigh123]

I’m thinking for the first time in years ( so many I can’t remember). I am not going the AP route. I get the same merch/food discounts with my chase card. Same hotel discount with my Disney+ membership. Will I end up paying a little more for traditional tickets with Park Hoppers ,maybe. Or will I now go once a year instead of 3 to 4 times and spend those thousands I spend on food, resorts, special experiences and merch elsewhere. Ugh as I’m typing this I’m actually getting angry. As loyal WDW traveller all my life, and as someone who stuck in there with no park hopping, 2 o’clock park hopping, no mousekeeking, partial mousekeeoing, park reservations, the loss of fast passes, paid for Genie+ , loss of magic express, loss of package delivery, and who knows what else that I’m even forgetting…..and now you want to treat me like a second class citizen when 2 APs (incredipass) cost us to over 3k a year……it’s insulting

 

[focusondisney]

I’m thinking for the first time in years ( so many I can’t remember). I am not going the AP route. I get the same merch/food discounts with my chase card. Same hotel discount with my Disney+ membership. Will I end up paying a little more for traditional tickets with Park Hoppers ,maybe. Or will I now go once a year instead of 3 to 4 times and spend those thousands I spend on food, resorts, special experiences and merch elsewhere. Ugh as I’m typing this I’m actually getting angry. As loyal WDW traveller all my life, and as someone who stuck in there with no park hopping, 2 o’clock park hopping, no mousekeeking, partial mousekeeoing, park reservations, the loss of fast passes, paid for Genie+ , loss of magic express, loss of package delivery, and who knows what else that I’m even forgetting…..and now you want to treat me like a second class citizen when 2 APs (incredipass) cost us to over 3k a year……it’s insulting

We’re also out of state incredipass holders & I’m considering the same thing. We’re both retired now & I don’t know if I can keep justifying the cost to myself. I have a few months to decide.

 

[elgerber]

I’m thinking for the first time in years ( so many I can’t remember). I am not going the AP route. I get the same merch/food discounts with my chase card.

Unless something has changed, the AP merch discount is 20% and the Visa is only 10.

 

[CarolynFH]

I agree that passholders with onsite reservations shouldn’t need to make reservations, but we let our APs lapse this year due to changes in our ability to travel, so I don’t have a dog in this fight, as they say. I was just wondering whether y’all have emailed Disney to let them know how this has affected you. The more protests they get, the more likely they are to change things.

 

[elvispursley]

I'm an incredipass holder and will have to renew (if I decide to) when my tentative plans for Sept come about. I don't know if I'll just bite it and renew but there definitely seems to be less of a benefit keeping it. While the discounts are nice to have, I don't know if it'll justify the cost of renewing. We live in Hawaii now and it's SO hard to get to FL now. And now with the park reservations remaining, it might be better for us in the long-run to just buy date-based tickets with PH (although having the ability to have memory maker added for significantly less is nice).
wu

 

[1lilspark]

a part of me wonders also if they will artificially cap AP entry (before 2pm) anyway because on the 9th I went to make reservations for Epcot next week and all parks were open for today (12th) however all parks were apparently sold out today except animal kingdom