How far in advance do I need to make park reservations for 2022

[SweetieinVT]

I just booked our hotel for April break next year (the week after Easter). How far in advance do I need to make park reservations to ensure I have my pick?

 

[Robo]

Nobody knows.
It all depends on what Disney decides to do regarding "percentage of capacity" booking in the future.
(Even Disney does not know, yet.)

 

[Avery&Todd]

I already booked mine for our March 2022 trip!

Makes me a little more excited!

 

[subtchr]

I just booked our hotel for April break next year (the week after Easter). How far in advance do I need to make park reservations to ensure I have my pick?

Did you book a vacation package that includes tickets?

If so, there is zero reason NOT to book parks now.

You can rearrange the schedule of parks anytime before the trip, if you want, subject to park availability, of course. It is probable (close to a certainty) that capacity limits will be at least increased if not removed by then, so availability will probably not be the issue it is right now. But no matter what happens, if you have parks booked, you are all set.

If you do not have a package with tickets, so have to purchase them, that's a little more complicated decision. If it's in the budget and you are sure you are going then, you can go ahead and buy tickets now. That would also hedge against any potential price increases. You can change the dates later, if your plans change, although there is the potential that you'd have to pay more in that case.

 

[JenBush]

I’d book as soon as possible. You can always cancel reservations if you change your plans.

 

[Heather07438]

Personally I’d try to book my parks before December. But I’d also keep an eye out before that to make sure they aren’t already filling. Unlikely but better safe than sorry. Epcot is nice, I just don’t wanna spend my whole trip there lol.

 

[SweetieinVT]

Did you book a vacation package that includes tickets?

If so, there is zero reason NOT to book parks now.

You can rearrange the schedule of parks anytime before the trip, if you want, subject to park availability, of course. It is probable (close to a certainty) that capacity limits will be at least increased if not removed by then, so availability will probably not be the issue it is right now. But no matter what happens, if you have parks booked, you are all set.

If you do not have a package with tickets, so have to purchase them, that's a little more complicated decision. If it's in the budget and you are sure you are going then, you can go ahead and buy tickets now. That would also hedge against any potential price increases. You can change the dates later, if your plans change, although there is the potential that you'd have to pay more in that case.

I booked a package with tickets, so I could make a reservation, but I have no idea yet what we want to do with respect to which parks on which days. I’ll take a look at the schedules and touring plans this weekend and make some park reservations to hold room after that. Good suggestion as long as I can change them if we change our minds. At least we’ll have some time booked.

 

[Heather07438]

I booked a package with tickets, so I could make a reservation, but I have no idea yet what we want to do with respect to which parks on which days. I’ll take a look at the schedules and touring plans this weekend and make some park reservations to hold room after that. Good suggestion as long as I can change them if we change our minds. At least we’ll have some time booked.

It’s pretty easy to change reservations when availability is still good. Cancel the original then go make the new choice. We did this a lot for our last trip. We’re getting tickets and making reservations this week for our trip mid Sept.

 

[subtchr]

I booked a package with tickets, so I could make a reservation, but I have no idea yet what we want to do with respect to which parks on which days. I’ll take a look at the schedules and touring plans this weekend and make some park reservations to hold room after that. Good suggestion as long as I can change them if we change our minds. At least we’ll have some time booked.

Good.

We booked a June stay back in December. I had my tickets purchased and linked (military) a few weeks later. I went ahead and booked parks, just winging it pretty much, just to have something on the books. I am so glad I did, because our week is fully booked for HS and MK now, and most days AK as well.

As I wrote, I don't think that will happen in spring 2022, but better to have something booked just in case.

 

[Shughart]

That's a year from now. I would watch the reservation calendar and just plan out your days as you normally would plan. IE Figure out what day you want to be in what park, or plan whichever ADR for what day. Then make your park reservations accordingly. You can change it if need be. Plus that far in advance you can keep watching the reservation calendar. Obviously you won't get much warning if it fills up, but you can see the days/weeks leading up start to fill up and make yours. I am in the same boat but for December 2022. We bought our tickets through U-T though so I am not linking yet, even though I am pretty sure I have our park days sorted because I am waiting to make sure all guidelines are rolled back and everything back in place (once I add the hard tickets to MDE it's not refundable and I'm stuck with the tickets). Secondly I want to watch the park go through a fall/winter season open with C19 and make sure things go smoothly to make sure we don't need to cancel/refund. But I want to see those tickets in my account so bad I'll be watching the reservation calendar too, but I imagine I won't make it past Feb without pulling the trigger and linking ours/making our res and going ahead and either buying airfare or booking a hotel for the drive (haven't made that call yet).

 

[maltdizzy]

Book your Park Passes, now just to have something reserved. You can change them anytime you want, as many times as you want, as long as there is availability. Capacity should will be much higher by then, but don't end up like some are right now that have little or no availability going all the way into early July.

 

[dmband]

Personally I’d try to book my parks before December. But I’d also keep an eye out before that to make sure they aren’t already filling. Unlikely but better safe than sorry. Epcot is nice, I just don’t wanna spend my whole trip there lol.

Agree
in my view and research, three months is more then enough.
even yesterday, July 4th week had every park available although the week prior was filled at some

 

[Tattylou]

I already booked mine for Feb 2022.

 

[auntlynne]

I’d stop reading this post and book them now.

 

[auntlynne]

Did you make your reservations yet?

If not (or you did and now can think about modifying), some thoughts:

Based on reports from this year, Spring Break will be in full swing. If you haven’t done so, read the “Here and Now” thread with posts from that same time period this year.

This year, the parks were full. Every day. I think that is fairly true every year during Spring Break, pandemic or not. The locals don’t need to wait for the weekends to go to the parks, as the FL schools are on break, too. So weekend vs weekday may not be so important as during low-to-moderate seasons.

Just figure out how many days you want at each park and put them in the order you like. If you are the type who wants to begin and/or end your visit at MK, that’s a no-brainer. Is there a park or ride you really want to do, do it early.

EPCOT will always be the latest open and closes late. Animal Kingdom and Magic Kingdom open earlier. AK usually closes first. I try to do a later opening park following a day with a late closing park.

Flower and Garden Festival should be in progress at EPCOT and Remy ride should have opened in Oct 2021.

 

[scrappinginontario]

I book mine as soon as possible to ensure we have something booked. We can always move them around later but it gives peace of mind knowing we have something reserved. (E.g. We booked our park reservations for Aug 2021 trip in Sep 2020)

 

[BayGirl22]

I'm debating this too, but haven't bought tickets yet for our Feb/Mar 2022 trip. I'm itching to book parks but hesitant on buying tickets this far out. I still feel like everything needs to be cancellable these days, since I've cancelled so many other vacations in the last 18 months for various reasons.

Probably need to just buy park tickets direct from Disney to feel "safer" because I know they can be postponed if needed. Also we're DVC and I kind of want to see if Gold APs come back (although I know I could upgrade). Our trip is long - 12 days - so its going to be be a lot of reshuffling if ADRs don't match up or our dates somehow change.

 

[auntlynne]

I'm debating this too, but haven't bought tickets yet for our Feb/Mar 2022 trip. I'm itching to book parks but hesitant on buying tickets this far out. I still feel like everything needs to be cancellable these days, since I've cancelled so many other vacations in the last 18 months for various reasons.

Probably need to just buy park tickets direct from Disney to feel "safer" because I know they can be postponed if needed. Also we're DVC and I kind of want to see if Gold APs come back (although I know I could upgrade). Our trip is long - 12 days - so its going to be be a lot of reshuffling if ADRs don't match up or our dates somehow change.

With that many days, I’d be thinking about APs, too.

Are you staying at a Disney resort, though? Wouldn’t that only require a refundable deposit? If a room + tickets package, could you make park reservations?

If not staying at a Disney resort, aren’t APs limited to 3 days of reservations?

... Tickets bought by discounters can also be moved / postponed. if dates are changed.

 

[BayGirl22]

With that many days, I’d be thinking about APs, too.

Are you staying at a Disney resort, though? Wouldn’t that only require a refundable deposit? If a room + tickets package, could you make park reservations?

If not staying at a Disney resort, aren’t APs limited to 3 days of reservations?

... Tickets bought by discounters can also be moved / postponed. if dates are changed.

Staying at DVC. We have most of our trip booked at the 11 month window and will book the rest at the 7month in July (split DVC stay). I have a placeholder reservation through MDE in the meantime. Even with a resort reservation you still need to have a valid ticket to make park reservations.

We need 10 park days, and that's slightly less than the old price of Gold APs. Buying from a discounter is only slightly cheaper too.

The question is at what point I commit the $, knowing neither option is fully refundable (movable, but not refundable) and a big outlay of cash. I've been thinking of waiting until July, at the 7 month mark. I don't think they will fill that far out and I actually think we'll no more in the 2nd half of the year whether they will even be a thing in 2022.

 

[PaladinButters]

We booked ours for 2022 the day the good people at Dreams Unlimited booked our package. Years of months-in-advance panic clicking to grab dining and FP have trained us to have a plan for everything before we even book the trip!