Book 2021 or wait? So many questions

[Jchoma]

We’ve cancelled 2 trips this year and are considering going next year (March/ spring break) instead. I’m on the fence though because I have so many questions about what that trip could look like!

- If fast passes won’t be back then and being able to book them 60 days in advance by staying on site is no longer a benefit, is there any reason/perk to stay onsite? Prices are just so high.

-Do I need to book tickets now and reserve park days this far out? If so, do you have to call to do that?

-I know that no one knows this yet, but without fast passes and potentially virtual ques for rides, won’t wait times just be crazy?

Would love some insights so I can decide whether to book or not.

 

[GPC0321]

1. Guests of WDW resorts seem to have the advantage in these uncertain times when Disney is making choices about restricting park admissions, etc. No one can know what the future holds, but if there were phased closures that allowed some guests admission and others not, being a WDW resort guest would be in your favor. Other than that, there's the obvious perk of free Magic Bands, having things charged to your hotel account and packages delivered back to the hotel, Magical Express if you're flying, and of course free Disney transportation around the property.

2. Edited: You can book 2021 packages now. You'd need to book Park Passes at the same time, and the website prompts you to do this.

3. If the Park Pass system is still in place by the time of your future trip, attendance in each park will be limited and that should mean that crowds are lower and wait times are reduced. Once the threat of COVID has passed or is significantly reduced to the point that Disney feels safe in allowing more guests into the parks, one would assume they'd reinstate things like park hopping and fastpasses.

 

[siren0119]

Right now, the perk is being able to book your park reservations immediately. We don't yet know what may be put in place once they open up regular ticket sales with no reservations, it's a situation we are all watching closely.

I booked a February 2021 trip yesterday, package with tickets and made my park reservations as soon as I had the confirmation number. This is a fairly normal time frame to book what is usually a high volume time period (spring break) because the next year's packages are normally released in June anyway.

Without fastpasses, the lines actually move faster. That was evident when no FP were used (and no virtual queue) for Smuggler's Run. If park reservations are needed, lines won't be crazy because the capacity will be highly controlled. When they eventually lift the capacity restrictions, I expect they will reinstate FP or start using more VQ's to manage the high demand rides.

 

[ArielDreams]

I booked April 2021 yesterday. I have full confidence that things will be better by then (and as people in other threads have said) if it’s not, we have much bigger problems in our country! I think Disney just has to do baby steps in order to level the playing field and make it as fair as possible since so much is unknown. I’d rather book my park days in advance now and hold on ADRs and FPs rather than go through the “oh sorry we’re going to have to wipe the whole system again!” I booked room only and can cancel up until the last minute so I was comfortable booking that way with only a one night deposit at this time.

 

[siren0119]

I booked April 2021 yesterday. I have full confidence that things will be better by then (and as people in other threads have said) if it’s not, we have much bigger problems in our country! I think Disney just has to do baby steps in order to level the playing field and make it as fair as possible since so much is unknown. I’d rather book my park days in advance now and hold on ADRs and FPs rather than go through the “oh sorry we’re going to have to wipe the whole system again!” I booked room only and can cancel up until the last minute so I was comfortable booking that way with only a one night deposit at this time.

Agree! For a $200 refundable deposit I locked in a place to stay and tickets - if they are still operating at limited capacity I'm covered, if I decide we don't want to travel in Feb I can modify, if we don't want to travel at all I can cancel with a full refund. It was a no-lose proposition as far as I was concerned.

 

[sponica]

I booked my late april trip, but didn't book the reserved parks. Because the reality is if it's still one park per day, we're not going.

 

[Jchoma]

I booked April 2021 yesterday. I have full confidence that things will be better by then (and as people in other threads have said) if it’s not, we have much bigger problems in our country! I think Disney just has to do baby steps in order to level the playing field and make it as fair as possible since so much is unknown. I’d rather book my park days in advance now and hold on ADRs and FPs rather than go through the “oh sorry we’re going to have to wipe the whole system again!” I booked room only and can cancel up until the last minute so I was comfortable booking that way with only a one night deposit at this time.

Do you need to book a package though to reserve park dates? I would have guessed you need tickets versus room-only to book.

Also, do y’all think that if I go ahead & book but then change resorts if rates change or open (like POR), and I’ve already chosen my park dates, that I’ll have to do so again? Meaning if we book CSR now, reserve park dates, but then decide to switch to another onsite resort, we still keep the dates? Asking because it is our strong preference to stay at Port Orleans Riverside or animal Kingdom Lodge, neither of which are showing availability right now.

 

[sponica]

Do you need to book a package though to reserve park dates? I would have guessed you need tickets versus room-only to book.

Also, do y’all think that if I go ahead & book but then change resorts if rates change or open (like POR), and I’ve already chosen my park dates, that I’ll have to do so again? Meaning if we book CSR now, reserve park dates, but then decide to switch to another onsite resort, we still keep the dates? Asking because it is our strong preference to stay at Port Orleans Riverside or animal Kingdom Lodge, neither of which are showing availability right now.

My best guess is that it will be like FPs, as long as the entitlements that make you eligible for the park pass reservation are there, you'll be fine. But I could be wrong

 

[kniquy]

We’ve cancelled 2 trips this year and are considering going next year (March/ spring break) instead. I’m on the fence though because I have so many questions about what that trip could look like!

- If fast passes won’t be back then and being able to book them 60 days in advance by staying on site is no longer a benefit, is there any reason/perk to stay onsite? Prices are just so high.

-Do I need to book tickets now and reserve park days this far out? If so, do you have to call to do that?

-I know that no one knows this yet, but without fast passes and potentially virtual ques for rides, won’t wait times just be crazy?

Would love some insights so I can decide whether to book or not.

Only the magic 8 ball has the answers. Only kidding! It is a real tough time to plan a trip, spend so much money and not know if it will really happen. You could take a couple routes.

You could go ahead now and book your hotel, tickets and your park reservations now and hope that it happens. You can book and have a back up plan that if things still don't look great maybe you have a back up trip - something not WDW which you can fall back on.

As for staying on site vs off - I think they are only selling tickets as packages with hotel reservations. This is their way to monopolize right now and get people to book. As for tickets being sold otherwise I don't know if they have said anything. I think even DVC owners can book their DVC hotel reservations but are still not being allowed to buy tickets. So at this point staying on site is the only way to ensure you have park ticket.

 

[rotlex]

Question on this too. Just cancelled our August 2020 bounce back trip.

I have booked bounce backs for the past 10-15 years and never had to make changes so this may be a dumb question. If I book a 2021 package now at full rack rate and a discount becomes available for my dates\resort is it possible to apply that discount\deal to the existing reservation? Thanks!

 

[sponica]

Question on this too. Just cancelled our August 2020 bounce back trip.

I have booked bounce backs for the past 10-15 years and never had to make changes so this may be a dumb question. If I book a 2021 package now at full rack rate and a discount becomes available for my dates\resort is it possible to apply that discount\deal to the existing reservation? Thanks!

If there's inventory in the discount that matches what you booked.

 

[tinkerbelletreasure]

You have plenty of time to make modifications. Spring Break is so busy, I’d go ahead and book it now. You can make changes as things change. I’ve had the same thought about what are the “perks”. For now I have a late May trip booked at CBR. If EMH, Fastpasses, and such don’t come back by then, I’d wait until I’m ready to buy tickets and cancel the package and make offsite reservations somewhere. I’d have done that for our August trip this year except I paid for everything with gift cards so if I cancel, it just goes back on the cards and I can’t use it to rebook off-site.

 

[ArielDreams]

Do you need to book a package though to reserve park dates? I would have guessed you need tickets versus room-only to book.

Also, do y’all think that if I go ahead & book but then change resorts if rates change or open (like POR), and I’ve already chosen my park dates, that I’ll have to do so again? Meaning if we book CSR now, reserve park dates, but then decide to switch to another onsite resort, we still keep the dates? Asking because it is our strong preference to stay at Port Orleans Riverside or animal Kingdom Lodge, neither of which are showing availability right now.

1) I already have separate park tickets from my doomed April 2020 trip so I didn’t want to do a package - but yes I would think you’d need to have tickets linked in order to reserve a park.

2) I would assume they’d be flexible with changing eventually - it just might not be as easy as it was in the past.

 

[brockash]

We're waiting. We won't book at rack rate, so we're waiting to see if any discounts come out...if they don't so be it, we'll head somewhere else, but we're not going to boom at rack rate just to book to hope to be "lucky enough" to get a park reservation etc.

 

[siren0119]

Do you need to book a package though to reserve park dates? I would have guessed you need tickets versus room-only to book.

Also, do y’all think that if I go ahead & book but then change resorts if rates change or open (like POR), and I’ve already chosen my park dates, that I’ll have to do so again? Meaning if we book CSR now, reserve park dates, but then decide to switch to another onsite resort, we still keep the dates? Asking because it is our strong preference to stay at Port Orleans Riverside or animal Kingdom Lodge, neither of which are showing availability right now.

You have to have tickets to book park dates. The ability to book room-only for 2021 dates is open, but you won't be able to book park reservations without tickets.

I think as long as your dates stay the same, you won't lose park reservations (the same way your FP reservations stay intact if you modify a reservation and are staying onsite the whole time).

Question on this too. Just cancelled our August 2020 bounce back trip.

I have booked bounce backs for the past 10-15 years and never had to make changes so this may be a dumb question. If I book a 2021 package now at full rack rate and a discount becomes available for my dates\resort is it possible to apply that discount\deal to the existing reservation? Thanks!

As long as the room category/dates match whatever discount is available, you can always have the package modified to be under the discount rate. Or, you might find a better room under the discount and be willing to modify to a different resort. We booked in Feb at current rates with the intent of keeping an eye on discounts and modifying if needed.

 

[cjlong88]

I booked a trip during my birthday (August 2021) with the full understanding that we might push it back, either because of COVID or choosing to wait longer for all of the new construction to finish.

I think it's all about having a plan, but being mighty flexible.

 

[NJ Goofy]

We are DVC members and had a May 2020 trip scheduled which was canceled, we then booked an August 2020 trip, which we canceled (masks, no fire works one park per day, etc.) and we now have a trip scheduled for May 2021. We hope by then, as others have said, we are back to a new normal and the parks will have FP's, late hours and park hopping will be reinstated. As you can tell by my name, we are from NJ, at least for now, the worst is over for us and it took about 3 months, so we're hoping by next Spring COVID-19 has calmed down quite a bit throughout the whole country. By the way, we live in Southern NJ, about 20 miles south of Philadelphia, it never got bad here with far less than 1% of the population contracting the virus.

 

[No_strings]

Always best to reserve the trip you are willing to take. If the restriction due to Covid improve you are set, if discounts come out you can modify, and if it gets worse you can cancel. Better to have optionality for a refundable $200 deposit IMO. Plus it is fun to book and have something to look forward. I think Disney will be pressured to offer significant discounts in 2021, especially with reduced demand from international and group travel.

 

[Jadyreen1282]

We booked full rack for GF and YC for two dates next summer. Willing to pay it on the OFF chance the world is not still on fire.

 

[sagosto]

We have a Oct 31st reservation that we are 99.9% going to cancel. It's my 2 year olds birthday and our last trip till after Epcot is completed so we are scrambling. I have a 8 day stay at AOA and tickets purchased from GetAwayToday that are linked to my Disney Experience. Disney will let me reschedule my Oct to 2021 but I simply won't go with masks, no parades, etc. Do we know how this has impacted Epcot and the existing refurbish schedule? Maybe next November (late 2021) is safer?