April low booking availability - Advice req

[jcp888]

We are due to arrive in Orlando on the 7th April and staying just over a week. The current Park bookings availablity for that week (and pretty much most of April) seems to be Epcot only, there is a random day here or there for AK and HWS and only 1 day available for the week we are in Orlando, no MK availability for the entire time we are there either

Ideally we would have had all this booked way in advance but we are coming from the UK, and this is probably the 3rd time we have had to rebook the flights & hotel due to covid and closed borders. We have to take a covid test 24 hours before the flight so essentially we may even get refused entry and hence why we only want to book once we have arrived into Florida.

My dilema is that ive heard that if you have the park hopper option that you can then 'park hop' to another park from Epcot, but only from 2pm onwards, and that obviously its not guaranteed either. So i could be paying just under $2,000 for the passes (2 adults 1 child) for the week and only end up going to Epcot everyday (depending on availability). Just wondering if its looking likely that park hopping will most likely be available as when i've checked previous blog posts and comments about park hopping it seemed like by 2pm all availability for all parks showed up on most days (except maybe some special events).

any advice at all would be much appreaciated. Many thanks

 

[CaptainAmerica]

We are due to arrive in Orlando on the 7th April and staying just over a week. The current Park bookings availablity for that week (and pretty much most of April) seems to be Epcot only, there is a random day here or there for AK and HWS and only 1 day available for the week we are in Orlando.

Ideally we would have had all this booked way in advance but we are coming from the UK, and this is probably the 3rd time we have had to rebook the flights & hotel due to covid and closed borders. We have to take a covid test 24 hours before the flight so essentially we may even get refused entry and hence why we only want to book once we have arrived into Florida.

My dilema is that ive heard that if you have the park hopper option that you can then 'park hop' to another park from Epcot, but only from 2pm onwards, and that obviously its not guaranteed either. So i could be paying just under $2,000 for the passes (2 adults 1 child) for the week and only end up going to Epcot everyday (depending on availability). Just wondering if its looking likely that park hopping will most likely be available as when i've checked previous blog posts and comments about park hopping it seemed like by 2pm all availability for all parks showed up on most days (except maybe some special events).

any advice at all would be much appreaciated. Many thanks

I believe park hopping has only been restricted at Magic Kingdom on October 1 (the day of the 50th anniversary). Hopping to Animal Kingdom and Hollywood Studios has never been restricted.

 

[lockets]

It should be available.

 

[jcp888]

I believe park hopping has only been restricted at Magic Kingdom on October 1 (the day of the 50th anniversary). Hopping to Animal Kingdom and Hollywood Studios has never been restricted.

ah right i see, from what i gathered from the disney guidance that park hopping would only be allowed if they had 'availability' which means it wouldnt be a guarantee that you could get into another park if they deemed it 'full' that day.

"Please note that the ability to visit another park will be subject to the park’s capacity limitations. In the event that the Park Hopper option is unavailable at a theme park, Guests will be notified in real time via a push notification from the My Disney Experience app."

 

[CaptainAmerica]

ah right i see, from what i gathered from the disney guidance that park hopping would only be allowed if they had 'availability' which means it wouldnt be a guarantee that you could get into another park if they deemed it 'full' that day.

"Please note that the ability to visit another park will be subject to the park’s capacity limitations. In the event that the Park Hopper option is unavailable at a theme park, Guests will be notified in real time via a push notification from the My Disney Experience app."

Based on what we've seen, the only time it would be any concern would be something like Christmas Day, New Year's Eve, maybe Independence Day, stuff like that.

 

[lockets]

They are covering themselves just in case but in reality it’s extremely rare to not be able to
Park hop. Also keep stalking reservations! People canx and some might pop up. I think I heard you can try to make an actual reservation and it might go thru even if calendar says full.

 

[lanejudy]

hence why we only want to book once we have arrived into Florida.

As others have replied, Park Hopping has only been restricted the one date and only for 1 park. Based on that, I would expect hopping to be available all of April, though no guarantees.

However, I wanted to comment about your statement above. Do you mean you don't yet have tickets? Or you simply haven't made theme park reservations? Theme park reservations really commit you to nothing, and they can be easily canceled or simply allowed to "expire" unused if you don't end up going. There is really no risk, and I strongly suggest making your theme park reservations sooner rather than later -- you could find yourself blocked out of all parks if you wait until arriving in the US. And that brings me to my next comment -- if you don't yet have tickets, PLEASE get them. WDW will refuse to sell tickets if any individual date during the ticket valid window is "sold out" of theme park reservations. So you could arrive and not be able to buy tickets.

I understand the challenges of traveling now, especially traveling internationally. But leaving it all until you arrive is probably not a good idea.

 

[jcp888]

As others have replied, Park Hopping has only been restricted the one date and only for 1 park. Based on that, I would expect hopping to be available all of April, though no guarantees.

However, I wanted to comment about your statement above. Do you mean you don't yet have tickets? Or you simply haven't made theme park reservations? Theme park reservations really commit you to nothing, and they can be easily canceled or simply allowed to "expire" unused if you don't end up going. There is really no risk, and I strongly suggest making your theme park reservations sooner rather than later -- you could find yourself blocked out of all parks if you wait until arriving in the US. And that brings me to my next comment -- if you don't yet have tickets, PLEASE get them. WDW will refuse to sell tickets if any individual date during the ticket valid window is "sold out" of theme park reservations. So you could arrive and not be able to buy tickets.

I understand the challenges of traveling now, especially traveling internationally. But leaving it all until you arrive is probably not a good idea.

Thank you for this clarification LJ, I havent yet booked the actual tickets (due to our initial concern with travel) but now that you have said this and it is clearly getting closer and closer to the time we are going to book our tickets now.

strategywise, im assuming that if the only available park is Epcot, then i would just book epcot for every day, go to Epcot and then park hop from there after 2pm.

again appreciate everyone who has provided some advice on this thread.

also where would be the cheapest place for me to book for a 1 week ticket, as i believe its pretty much 1 week and get 1 week free via disney direct. just wondered if there was any place that worked out cheaper for the 1 week. Thanks

 

[leiaorgana]

We're from the UK too and normally get ours from Attraction Tickets. Not sure if there's any better deals direct with Disney or not but that's who we use because we've always got a good deal in the past.

 

[lanejudy]

i believe its pretty much 1 week and get 1 week free via disney direct. just wondered if there was any place that worked out cheaper for the 1 week.

Buy 1 week/get 1 week free?! That must be a UK offer, we never get anything that good here in the U.S. and the longest ticket available is 10 days. At best you might find $50 savings or so by using an authorized reseller. So I think your best offer is the one you mentioned.

For theme park reservations -- AK and DHS look to be available on Saturdays and Sundays in mid-April, so you could book those and Epcot on the other days (weekdays).

 

[RoseGold]

You can change your park reservation morning of, it's easier in the app. Who knows, maybe availability will change closer.

There are theories that Disney is messing with the buckets because of the AP lawsuit in California. So, they are holding availability for APs and aren't actually capacity full, so they don't black out APs. Instead, they are blacking out you for now. If that's true, this could change last minute because there is still capacity, and it's good news for you, because it means they aren't actually at capacity.

 

[jcp888]

Buy 1 week/get 1 week free?! That must be a UK offer, we never get anything that good here in the U.S. and the longest ticket available is 10 days. At best you might find $50 savings or so by using an authorized reseller. So I think your best offer is the one you mentioned.

For theme park reservations -- AK and DHS look to be available on Saturdays and Sundays in mid-April, so you could book those and Epcot on the other days (weekdays).

Yeah i've seen this offer on for quite a while on the official disneyworld.co.uk site, it works out £1,447 GBP for 2 adults and 1 child which i think equates to $1,893 USD. which i think if you are there 2 weeks it definetly makes it worth it, whereas because i am only there for roughly 8 days, i dont get to make the most of the 2nd week.

I did know a fried who lives in florida but I think they can no longer buy tickets for guests using the resident passes because the guests also have to be floridia residents too

 

[MakiraMarlena]

we don't get that in the US because US guests generally do not stay that long, we don't get that much vacation time. Disney would like to make it work that our friends from across the pond can spend most if not all of their generous vacation time with the mouse.

 

[lanejudy]

I did know a fried who lives in florida but I think they can no longer buy tickets for guests using the resident passes because the guests also have to be floridia residents too

That is correct. Any adult using a Florida resident ticket must show ID or proof reflecting a Florida address.

 

[gatorlisa]

By the numbers I see, if your UK offer really works out to a total of $1893 USD, you should go with that. I just took a look and 7 day hoppers through an authorized reseller for 2 adults and 1 child, starting April 8 is $2,055.32 USD.

 

[xipotec]

As others have replied, Park Hopping has only been restricted the one date and only for 1 park. Based on that, I would expect hopping to be available all of April, though no guarantees.

However, I wanted to comment about your statement above. Do you mean you don't yet have tickets? Or you simply haven't made theme park reservations? Theme park reservations really commit you to nothing, and they can be easily canceled or simply allowed to "expire" unused if you don't end up going. There is really no risk, and I strongly suggest making your theme park reservations sooner rather than later -- you could find yourself blocked out of all parks if you wait until arriving in the US. And that brings me to my next comment -- if you don't yet have tickets, PLEASE get them. WDW will refuse to sell tickets if any individual date during the ticket valid window is "sold out" of theme park reservations. So you could arrive and not be able to buy tickets.

I understand the challenges of traveling now, especially traveling internationally. But leaving it all until you arrive is probably not a good idea.

Don't you need tickets to book a reservation thou?

 

[MakiraMarlena]

yes, you do need tickets to book a park reservation. They have different options for buying in UK than in the US, so not sure about whether they will refuse to sell them in this particular instance. It is true that once the OP has the tickets, they might not be able to book the parks they want.

 

[lanejudy]

Don't you need tickets to book a reservation thou?

Yes you do. But I wasn't sure if the OP had tickets and simply hadn't made theme park reservations, or if they still needed to buy tickets. Apparently the latter.

 

[jcp888]

By the numbers I see, if your UK offer really works out to a total of $1893 USD, you should go with that. I just took a look and 7 day hoppers through an authorized reseller for 2 adults and 1 child, starting April 8 is $2,055.32 USD.

Oh so the price difference is minimal then, actually works out cheaper to get it direct through Disney in this case and get 7 extra days free (which I can't unfortunately use). Makes sense for me to buy it direct, thank you for looking for me, gives me assurance that I'm not overpaying lol

Wondering if I can pass those other days on to someone else if I can't use them? Assuming it's like a wristband or NFC type system once registered?

 

[lanejudy]

A partially used ticket is non-transferrable. The first time you use it, you will register your finger biometrics (like a fingerprint but not as much detail). You will need to scan your finger each time you enter a park after that.