Eliminate the Park Reservation Requirements

[shoegal9]

It just doesn't make any sense to me. If its for staffing purposes- but I can easily change my park reservation in the morning- then the staffing adjustment is moot. Same thing if the park hopping time restriction is removed. It would be nice to have carefree vacations where I can wake up and decide where I want to go- perhaps have breakfast at EPCOT and then head over to another park... its just another thing to add to the annoyance list.

That being said- the mouse has all of my money. So I will go no matter how annoying they make it.

 

[ChipnDale79]

i dont like how the park reservations handcuff you to a park. The only park that's available to book on our trip next week is EPCOT. i suspect that when park capacity is fully open, that we wont' have this issue. But planning dining reservations and your day around this system has been a nightmare. I'll put up with it because of Covid and i fully understand the need for it now, but if the restrictions continue and parks are hard to get post Covid, it's another reason to find something else to do.

Planning these trips used to be so much fun, but the past couple of years its just been extremely frustrating. I can't imagine how confusing it is to people that dont go as often as we do.

 

[Corien]

It just doesn't make any sense to me. If its for staffing purposes- but I can easily change my park reservation in the morning- then the staffing adjustment is moot. Same thing if the park hopping time restriction is removed. It would be nice to have carefree vacations where I can wake up and decide where I want to go- perhaps have breakfast at EPCOT and then head over to another park... its just another thing to add to the annoyance list.

That being said- the mouse has all of my money. So I will go no matter how annoying they make it.

Yeah but I don't think enough people will do this in order for it to have much (or any) effect on overall crowd levels. It's more of an indication for them I guess.

 

[Disneylover99]

It just doesn't make any sense to me. If its for staffing purposes- but I can easily change my park reservation in the morning- then the staffing adjustment is moot. Same thing if the park hopping time restriction is removed. It would be nice to have carefree vacations where I can wake up and decide where I want to go- perhaps have breakfast at EPCOT and then head over to another park... its just another thing to add to the annoyance list.

That being said- the mouse has all of my money. So I will go no matter how annoying they make it.

I’m sure there are also regular ticket holders and AP holders who decide not to go and forget or don’t bother to cancel their park reservations.

 

[shoegal9]

Yeah but I don't think enough people will do this in order for it to have much (or any) effect on overall crowd levels. It's more of an indication for them I guess.

Perhaps. But adding the people who do change their mind to the number of people who will park hop and leave that park, I would imagine it would not be insignificant. But just a guess...

 

[Lisse24]

Perhaps. But adding the people who do change their mind to the number of people who will park hop and leave that park, I would imagine it would not be insignificant. But just a guess...

Yes, but I'm willing to bet that Disney is gathering data on this, AND on how often AP people cancel and will incorporate it into their planning to be even more accurate in the future. You're not wrong, I'm just not sure Disney sees it as a problem.

 

[Weedy]

Go back in time pre covid and remember all the post about how crowded the parks were no matter the time of year. There was no slow time anymore.
Because of that I always thought the parks would go to more of a cruise type experience where you book “excursions”. The park you pick for the day is your excursion.
Disney needed to do something to regulate the crowds so the parks stay enjoyable. Change is hard because this isn’t how we’ve always done it but if it improves the park experience it will be worth it.

 

[C&Jx2]

As capacity increases, availability will almost always be open. It won’t be an issue.

 

[OhThePain]

i dont like how the park reservations handcuff you to a park...

You were handcuffed to parks prior to the park reservations. FP+ and ADRs dictated what parks you went to on which days far in advance. If anything, park reservations give slightly more flexibility than FP+ ever did.

 

[Jrb1979]

As capacity increases, availability will almost always be open. It won’t be an issue.

Not if they artificially lower capacity.

 

[ChipnDale79]

You were handcuffed to parks prior to the park reservations. FP+ and ADRs dictated what parks you went to on which days far in advance. If anything, park reservations give slightly more flexibility than FP+ ever did.

Not true at all. i had the option to change my plans if i wanted to. I can let go of fast passes if i wanted to and change them up, or do standby on everything. Those were my choices. I dont have that option now to change parks up.

and to be honest, I was never a fan of selecting your rides 60 days in advance or making dining reservations 6 months ahead of time.

 

[Catlover77]

I miss park hopping whenever you wanted. I’ll learn to live with the reservation system if we must but please bring back park hopping earlier than waiting until 2 pm.

 

[hsmamato2]

I dislike the idea of park reservations personally...but if I had to guess, I'd say they're going to keep this,and eliminate free fastpasses.... go to a paid system (which of course will just make me more annoyed at them) but that's just my guess.

 

[Precmom1967]

i dont like how the park reservations handcuff you to a park. The only park that's available to book on our trip next week is EPCOT. i suspect that when park capacity is fully open, that we wont' have this issue. But planning dining reservations and your day around this system has been a nightmare. I'll put up with it because of Covid and i fully understand the need for it now, but if the restrictions continue and parks are hard to get post Covid, it's another reason to find something else to do.

Planning these trips used to be so much fun, but the past couple of years its just been extremely frustrating. I can't imagine how confusing it is to people that dont go as often as we do.

Who doesn’t plan for Disney a few months in advance? Even the website tells you to check availability of the parks before you book your trip. Personally, I am a planner and booked my trip for November in February. Yes, I am locked into those park days but I am not stressing about not having a HS day or a MK day the last day we are there. That makes me happy. My trip looks exactly how I want and I can park hop too!
I also planned a trip last October a week before we went. Times were different. We booked our trip how we wanted using the reservation system and had an awesome time!!
The reservation system will be here for awhile, annual passes will be back at at a 50% price increase and the world will still keep going.

 

[cakebaker]

Go back in time pre covid and remember all the post about how crowded the parks were no matter the time of year. There was no slow time anymore.
Because of that I always thought the parks would go to more of a cruise type experience where you book “excursions”. The park you pick for the day is your excursion.
Disney needed to do something to regulate the crowds so the parks stay enjoyable. Change is hard because this isn’t how we’ve always done it but if it improves the park experience it will be worth it.

Once they go back to full capacity limits, the same crowds will be there regardless of whether they use a park reservation system or not. The park reservation system is for Disney's benefit only by knowing exactly how many people will be in a given park on any given day- it does absolutely nothing to reduce crowd levels at each park. It could help guests by Disney not having to guess with staffing and hours, but it won't affect how many people are actually there. I do think the complaints about not being able to get into parks will go away once they are fully open as the parks rarely hit full capacity.

I'm a planner. I'm all for FP returning (paid or free, don't care), dining going back to 180 days and park reservations. We plan our days out months in advance and select FP's for those days. We aren't changing days once our FP's are locked in. So whether I have a reservation requiring me to go to a particular park on a particular day or not does not matter to me. Reservations are fine with me, no FP is not. I don't even mind the park hopping restrictions- we never hop until early evening anyway.

 

[dclpluto]

I agree with those who say the park hopping limitation is more of an issue than making a reservation. As an AP, I want to be able to jump to whatever park I want at any time. (also, fix Epcot’s opening time.)

epcot opening time sucks. It’s the reason the only time I’m going to Epcot first is when the day we get there. Getting to mco about 8:30 so epcot will be good that day. Probably park hop to epcot a couple times during the week also. There is no way I will schedule a epcot day If I’m already there because it opens so late.

 

[mi*vida*loca]

The park reservations are annoying but I think it’s more annoying because of the limited capacity. Once capacity limits are lifted it won’t be much different than booking ADRs and FP+ and locking yourself into a park since you’ll be able to change your park day easily.

I think Disney would love to be at regular capacity but can’t due to staffing issues.

 

[ChipnDale79]

Who doesn’t plan for Disney a few months in advance? Even the website tells you to check availability of the parks before you book your trip. Personally, I am a planner and booked my trip for November in February. Yes, I am locked into those park days but I am not stressing about not having a HS day or a MK day the last day we are there. That makes me happy. My trip looks exactly how I want and I can park hop too!
I also planned a trip last October a week before we went. Times were different. We booked our trip how we wanted using the reservation system and had an awesome time!!
The reservation system will be here for awhile, annual passes will be back at at a 50% price increase and the world will still keep going.

My wife and I are both Project Managers, our lives are ran by timelines and spreadsheets, so its just the nature of the beast for us. We had printed off spreadsheets with park hours and with our plans for each day on them before there was an app, By the end of the week, because of the flexibility that Disney offered at the time, what we did vs what we planned to do looked completely different.

I want the ability to be able to change my plans.

 

[Bethislucy]

Disney is just becoming more a control freak's paradise I mean pre covid we had to plan fast passes & dinning months in advance so now it's just one more controlled element. For me it just means I'm not buying hoppers anymore it's just not worth it because the perk to that for me personally was I would start at my planned park then hop to where ever I was feeling.

 

[mi*vida*loca]

Who doesn’t plan for Disney a few months in advance?

Plenty of people do. My brother went spring break week. Bought tickets the week before. He would’ve bought them at the gate the day he felt like going but I gave him a heads up on the reservation system. He didn’t even know masks were required outdoors when he got there.

Most people I know do day trips to Disney. They go to Orlando, stay off site, do Orlando attractions, buy tickets at the gate, including Disney. They don’t go on week long on-site vacations with FP and ADRs.