Everything Park Reservations - Please Read Post 1

[scrappinginontario]

As of January 9, 2024, theme park reservations are no longer required for date-based tickets. A date-based ticket requires you to choose a start date when you purchase it. Date based tickets are included in Disney resort + room packages. Those tickets do not require a park reservation.

For other admission types, theme park reservations may be required.

Theme Park Reservations ARE Required

• Student group tickets
• Sport and Convention ticket
• Annual Pass
• All other ticket types not mentioned below

No Theme Park Reservation Required

• Date-based 1-day ticket
• Date-based multi-day ticket
• Vacation package with date-based tickets

If there are topics you feel would be beneficial to be addressed in this first post, please add a comment below. Thank you

What we know:

1. Link to Theme Park Reservation Availability Calendar. Note, this calendar is not updated real-time. If you are looking for a park reservation on a date that shows as not available, you may still want to try to book a reservation to determine actual reservation availability.

2. A Park Reservation grants you access to that park from open to close. You may leave and reenter.

3. To try to join a Virtual Queue at 7AM, guests who require a park reservation will require a park reservation for Epcot (Guardians of the Galaxy) or Magic Kingdom (Tiana’s Bayou Adventure (TBA)). Once you have secured/tried for a VQ at 7AM you can change your park reservation to the park you wish to visit first, based on park reservation availability. (At time of writing, return times for Guardians are honoured anytime from your VQ being called until park close. TBA appears to be allowing guests to arrive late for their VQ return window too butwe do not have enough data to guarantee this.)

4. If a park is full, calling WDW or visiting Guest Services will not grant the ability for them to locate space for you. A full park is a full park. It is recommended if you are looking for a reservation at a park that is full that you keep trying many times each day. As people change their plans they will cancel reservations which will open them to other guests. Calling WDW or visiting Guest Services is generally not recommended as many people are looking for reservations in full parks.

5. Guests cancel park reservations up until the day of. Please continue checking often, even up to the date you want to go to a park.

6. It is possible to change park reservations (if available) for only a portion of your party.

7. Once a guest who requires a park reservation has tapped into the park where they have a reservation, they are able to hop to another park.

Park Reservations for Annual Passholders: As of April 18, 2023 Walt Disney World Annual Passholders are able to visit the theme parks after 2 p.m. without needing a park reservation. On Saturdays and Sundays, APs will require a park reservation at Magic Kingdom from park open to park close.

This thread will be updated as updates/ changes are required.

 

[momofmikey]

Sorry if this has been discussed before. We were in Disney in August, go every year, and are heading to Universal at the end of next month for the first time. I originally had no plans of going to Disney this trip. I’m now thinking that once I am down there and so close, it’s going to be hard to stay away LOL. I would only possibly want to go to MK for a few hours, definitely after 2 pm, and right now there’s no availability any day I’d be down there. I have no idea which day or time I’d want to go, if at all, it would literally be night before or morning of decision. Does park availability open up after 2? Meaning could I wait and see day of if MK opens up and then head to gate and purchase day ticket?

 

[luv2cheer92]

Time of day has no affect on park availability. There's a chance an opening could come up between now and then, but if there isn't anything that morning, you probably won't get anything.

 

[AUDramaQueen]

Not sure it would be worth the extra cost or time, but if you got a park hopper and there was a different park available, you could reserve it and go to that park first then hop to MK any time after 2pm.

 

[glocon]

Worst case scenario hit DS if you can't get into a park.

 

[momofmikey]

Thank you!

 

[DduzDis]

This is a little confusing, but why do they have a ‘Select hotels’ list if you have to have a ticket or AP linked to make park reservations anyway? We have a reservation for Feb at BLT and the hotels tab has all parks available. But since I can’t renew my AP until Oct I’ll have to wait to make park pass reservations? I don’t get it. Why have a hotel pass system at all then?

 

[GBRforWDW]

This is a little confusing, but why do they have a ‘Select hotels’ list if you have to have a ticket or AP linked to make park reservations anyway? We have a reservation for Feb at BLT and the hotels tab has all parks available. But since I can’t renew my AP until Oct I’ll have to wait to make park pass reservations? I don’t get it. Why have a hotel pass system at all then?

The hotel category is just the bucket that the reservations are allotted from. I believe since APs are only allotted 3 reservations at a time, without a hotel stay, they wanted to distinguish between AP and onsite/off-site guests so people in each group are able to all go. Otherwise with parks filling up so far in advance now, it'd be difficult without the bucket distinctions for APs to find days to go.

 

[Kingdome8]

Just to make sure. If we have a park reservation I know we can leave the park and come back at night time with the a single day ticket . With People park hopping can the park reach capacity That I can’t get back in with a single day ticket or am I guaranteed to get back in even if park hoppers can’t?

 

[Robo]

Just to make sure. If we have a park reservation
1. I know we can leave the park and come back at night time with the a single day ticket .
2. With People park hopping can the park reach capacity
3. That I can’t get back in with a single day ticket
4. or am I guaranteed to get back in even if park hoppers can’t?

1. Yes.
2. Yes.
3. No.
4. Yes.

 

[Ghost Host 998]

Guaranteed. To date, for re-entry and/or Park Hopping, not a single person has been denied entry to any park. This includes the busiest of times, like Spring-Break.

 

[ENJDisneyFan]

You can always get back into the park you have a reservation for - that is guaranteed. As far as hopping, although not technically guaranteed, to date it has never been restricted even when a park is at capacity.

 

[jasmine1449]

I am noticing on the availability calendar for park reservations, that there tends to be availability day of and next day (for example, today April 27 the calendar is showing availability at Epcot, tomorrow too). Has anyone made plans to go to Disney (booked hotel and everything) without having park reservations, then managed to get them day of? Is that a risky thing to do? I suppose if I get there and can't get a ticket I can spend some time in Disney Springs or at Universal...

Also, if I manage to snag a reservation at Epcot (it looks like it is the easiest to get) and park hop over to AK after 2PM, do you think I will have time to ride Flight of Passage and/or Na'vi River journey?

Thanks in advance for any feedback!

 

[lanejudy]

For me it's too risky. But if you live close enough to drive and are prepared (and willing) to do a non-park visit it could work. Unless you already have a ticket, WDW suspends ticket sales if no park reservations are available. They did announce very recently that they will be purging park reservations people have held without valid admission, so that is likely how more availability might pop-up last minute. I don't know if that will re-open ticket sales or not, though. (It does appear both tickets and park reservations are available today/tomorrow, but I wasn't watching to know if they had been suspended previously and re-opened.)

 

[jasmine1449]

A couple of people have been saying "unless you already have a ticket", how would that be possible? If I purchase a ticket, I have to select a day and I can't purchase unless there is park availability that day, right? Am I missing something? Do you mean like if I had a ticket from the past that I never used? I'm confused.

I keep refreshing, hoping that something will open up for the day I am hoping to go next week.

Also, thank you for taking the time to respond to me.

 

[scrappinginontario]

Just to make sure. If we have a park reservation I know we can leave the park and come back at night time with the a single day ticket . With People park hopping can the park reach capacity That I can’t get back in with a single day ticket or am I guaranteed to get back in even if park hoppers can’t?

Thank you for this question. I have updated post 1 to cover the answer to your question. I appreciate you asking it!

Yes, as others have shared, a park reservation guarantees you may re-enter a park at any time on the day you have a reservation.

 

[PrincessV]

ETA: I gave up after a half hour on hold and just canceled my resort, booked my park day, and re-booked my resort.

Ugh, I just got hit with the AP+ Resort Guest issue of reservations being available for APs, but not Resort Guests. I'm on hold now with the Passholder line, but thought I'd check: is there a different number to call to get park reservations to prioritize my AP? I'm tempted to just cancel my resort reservation, book my park, then re-book the resort to save time.

 

[lanejudy]

A couple of people have been saying "unless you already have a ticket", how would that be possible? If I purchase a ticket, I have to select a day and I can't purchase unless there is park availability that day, right? Am I missing something? Do you mean like if I had a ticket from the past that I never used?

That's correct. You cannot buy a ticket if there are no park reservations available. Some folks have older tickets that were never used for one reason or another, or they previously bought tickets for that date but did not immediately make a theme park reservation.

 

[pdarrah]

I have a trip scheduled for mid to late May and didn't realize early enough that Park Reservations were booking up (we had no trouble with trips in September and January). I have reservations for Epcot and AK for our trip and have been watching the availability chart in hopes of getting an MK or even a HS if possible.

Over the last couple of days I have noticed that when I check in the afternoon, there is suddenly more availability that there was in the morning (or over the last several days) for the CURRENT day. As an example, this morning the only availability was for Epcot. That has been the case for the last few days as I have been watching. I checked at 9am and 10:30am (central time) with the same result. I just checked a little before 11:30am and now Epcot, MK and AK are all available today.

This seems very odd - what is the point of opening up available reservations in the afternoon (11:30 my time is 12:30 at the parks)? Do the reservations actually open up earlier and only show up on the chart in the afternoon?

Part of what is so annoying with this is that DH and I both have APs. This particular trip is for our DS who is graduating college the day prior to our trip. He has a Park Hopper so we will at least be able to visit the other parks after 2pm, but if I had been able to purchase an AP for him, we would have plenty of availability.

 

[FCDub]

I'm not sure anyone REALLY knows all the ins and outs, but one reason spots open up is because people cancel them. The chart is not updated in real time, either. So just because it shows no availability doesn't mean there's truly no availability.