I really blew it - Park passes!!! Help, advice needed!

[Eastern]

This is poor advice and unfair to GS. What if everyone did this? OP made mistake not Disney.

My point is no matter how contrite a guest is Guest services can’t magically make every persons errors right. They can’t pixie dust everyone.

So my reasoning for this advice was that I see all parks available for every day in July, except July 4th, for APs. OP has party of 9 with 6 APs in the group.

I have heard of Disney 'adjusting the buckets' for park pass availability. So by calling GS and explaining the problem I thought there might be a small chance they could help her, as 2/3 of her party could get MK reservations at this point. Did I say it was a sure bet? No. Do I think OP would have a hissy if they told her they could not help? No. I think she would be sad but accepting.

The problem is that you cannot know what GS will say until you call them. So I think my advice to call GS and ask was good advice, not poor advice. And I don't think it's unfair to GS. Screaming at GS would be unfair to them. Stating your problem and asking if there is a possibility that they could help is not unfair to them.

 

[wonderchica]

Just wanted to share in case in makes you feel better, OP- lots of people are making mistakes/not paying attention to park reservations. I was there last week at a AKV-Kidani bus stop and a woman (who had paid for a whole week at Kidani!) was shocked to hear she needed to make reservations. She had none, and was convinced they wouldn’t turn her away as long as she had a ticket. That’s the hard way to learn!

 

[CaptainAmerica]

NOOO DONT CANCEL ANYTHING.

Oy, that's a huge mistake. You're running a huge risk of not getting anything at all. The correct answer is to add Park Hoppers and hop to Magic Kingdom a bunch of times.

 

[Skippyboo]

So my reasoning for this advice was that I see all parks available for every day in July, except July 4th, for APs. OP has party of 9 with 6 APs in the group.

I have heard of Disney 'adjusting the buckets' for park pass availability. So by calling GS and explaining the problem I thought there might be a small chance they could help her, as 2/3 of her party could get MK reservations at this point. Did I say it was a sure bet? No. Do I think OP would have a hissy if they told her they could not help? No. I think she would be sad but accepting.

The problem is that you cannot know what GS will say until you call them. So I think my advice to call GS and ask was good advice, not poor advice. And I don't think it's unfair to GS. Screaming at GS would be unfair to them. Stating your problem and asking if there is a possibility that they could help is not unfair to them.

Isn’t there an issue with APs staying onsite? July 12 MK is booked for resort guests but open for APs but if you are AP and resort guests you are in resort guests bucket. I would just add park hoppers to the3 non AP tickets and just park hop to MK after 2pm

 

[ninafeliz]

I am still seeing all parks available for APs. I would have a talk with the grandparents and explain the situation. I'm sure they don't want their grandchildren to miss out on MK. Maybe they can just tap into the original park and then go onto MK when hopping is available (I think it's 2pm). Probably a lot for them to spend all day in MK anyway. They can sleep in, have breakfast, and join the rest of you later.

This is the go to plan if I can’t get the MK for them but am able to get it for us from the AP pool. We are at Riviera, so they can sky liner over to Epcot and either tap in or just go there for a couple of hours, and then go to the MK at 2. We normally wouldn’t have stayed at the MK until close, but we might have to if the grandparents can only go after 2. I agree it would be a long day for them, maybe this is a decent way to make it a shorter day since it might be the only option. Still not how I want it, but maybe it would end up ok.

 

[ninafeliz]

Doing it the day you made ADRs might not have helped. They could have already been all booked. Park reservations have been filling up quickly for months now. Unfortunately, you just have to bite the bullet these days and make your best guess. Good luck.

Thanks for trying to make me feel better , but I know the day we made ADRs DHS was booked up though most of our week, amd the others were still open. At that time DHS was booking up 60 days out but nothing else was booking up very far ahead, I hadn’t expected the Mk to book this early. Although I realize I’m only 5 weeks out now also, time just flies !

 

[ninafeliz]

NOOO DONT CANCEL ANYTHING.

Oy, that's a huge mistake. You're running a huge risk of not getting anything at all. The correct answer is to add Park Hoppers and hop to Magic Kingdom a bunch of times.

We have park hoppers. I just don’t want to do it that way and was hoping for an alternative. I’m realizing now it doesn’t exist - unless they open more resort guest spots up or redistribute the available park passes (which they have done before), I won’t get the MK. I can’t check without dropping what we have, and having nothing is worse than having Epcot. That’s the biggest problem, I wish they had a change option instead of having to cancel amd rebook! Then I could just frequently check availability
without risking losing all parks.

 

[ninafeliz]

Isn’t there an issue with APs staying onsite? July 12 MK is booked for resort guests but open for APs but if you are AP and resort guests you are in resort guests bucket. I would just add park hoppers to the3 non AP tickets and just park hop to MK after 2pm

I think I’ve read about people being able to dip
Into the AP pool during a resort stay, but someone from Disney had to manually do it- we cannot book because it defaults to resort guest. Maybe I’m wrong, or they just got lucky? I do know we are allowed 3 AP park passes in addition to our resort stay, so why couldn’t they be for a day during our resort stay?

 

[FCDub]

So my reasoning for this advice was that I see all parks available for every day in July, except July 4th, for APs. OP has party of 9 with 6 APs in the group.

I have heard of Disney 'adjusting the buckets' for park pass availability. So by calling GS and explaining the problem I thought there might be a small chance they could help her, as 2/3 of her party could get MK reservations at this point. Did I say it was a sure bet? No. Do I think OP would have a hissy if they told her they could not help? No. I think she would be sad but accepting.

The problem is that you cannot know what GS will say until you call them. So I think my advice to call GS and ask was good advice, not poor advice. And I don't think it's unfair to GS. Screaming at GS would be unfair to them. Stating your problem and asking if there is a possibility that they could help is not unfair to them.

Why not ask for free admission then? Doesn't hurt to ask, right?

 

[ninafeliz]

Why not ask for free admission then? Doesn't hurt to ask, right?

Oh come on, common sense. Everyone’s points have made sense, and people with common sense get what they are saying. If someone doesn’t, then so be it.

edited for grammar/typo/autocorrect - it drove me crazy once I saw it and I had to correct it haha.

 

[FCDub]

Oh come on, common sense. Everyone’s points have make sense, and people with common sense get what they are saying. If someone doesn’t, then so be it.

Yes, it's hyperbolic. But there's a slippery slope to "call guest services" for stuff.

 

[CaptainAmerica]

We have park hoppers. I just don’t want to do it that way and was hoping for an alternative. I’m realizing now it doesn’t exist - unless they open more resort guest spots up or redistribute the available park passes (which they have done before), I won’t get the MK. I can’t check without dropping what we have, and having nothing is worse than having Epcot. That’s the biggest problem, I wish they had a change option instead of having to cancel amd rebook! Then I could just frequently check availability
without risking losing all parks.

Where are you getting that you can't check availability without dropping what you have? Of course you can.

 

[ninafeliz]

Yes, it's hyperbolic. But there's a slippery slope to "call guest services" for stuff.

Again, the vast majority of people get that and are in the same ballpark with what they ask for/expect/complain about/etc.. Those that aren’t are the problem outliers, and won’t change based on sarcastic social media posts. There is some grey area, which is where the huge online arguments come from, and that’s where Guest service CMs have to deal with it on a case by case basis.

 

[ninafeliz]

Where are you getting that you can't check availability without dropping what you have? Of course you can.

How? I know there are the availability charts, but I’ve read repeatedly that they aren’t kept up to date and you should try to go through with booking regardless of it showing as available. If I have a park pass for a day it won’t let me check another day. It says you already have a park pass for a different park, and that I have to remove them from the party to continue. That’s before it tells me if it’s available or not. Am I missing something else? If so that would be great.

 

[MomOTwins]

Where are you getting that you can't check availability without dropping what you have? Of course you can.

When a park is showing as “sold out” on the availability calendar, it often means “close to sold out.” It does not seem to update in real time, so when someone cancels a pass, you may be able to pick up a pass through trying even though the calendar says no availability. Many people have had success booking passes this way. However, you would not be able to try this if you are already maxxed out on passes, so you have to cancel one of your other passes to try and then try to remake them right away if not successful.

 

[ninafeliz]

When a park is showing as “sold out” on the availability calendar, it often means “close to sold out.” It does not seem to update in real time, so when someone cancels a pass, you may be able to pick up a pass through trying even though the calendar says no availability. Many people have had success booking passes this way. However, you would not be able to try this if you are already maxxed out on passes, so you have to cancel one of your other passes to try and then try to remake them right away if not successful.

That’s what I thought. I really want the MK, but having Epcot is way better than having nothing, so I can’t just cancel Epcot to repeatedly try for the MK. I know many people say they get what they want that way, but if we didn’t and all parks filled up that would really, really mess up our trip. If they keep this park pass permanently, I hope they add a change park pass option, or a way to ensure the second is available before cancelling the first. Like when ADRs overlap, they ask if you want to make the new one and it will cancel the old one after the new one is confirmed.

 

[chasgeese]

Is EPCOT showing sold out for the dates you want to try switching to MK? If not, I doubt you should have too much trouble getting those reservations back if you give them up to see if MK is really sold out and then immediately go get them back if it is.

 

[ninafeliz]

Is EPCOT showing sold out for the dates you want to try switching to MK? If not, I doubt you should have too much trouble getting those reservations back if you give them up to see if MK is really sold out and then immediately go get them back if it is.

No it isn’t, and I have done that a few times. It’s a little nerve wracking, but I agree it’s not likely to suddenly switch to unavailable if it isn’t getting close on all of the days yet. it’s just much more time consuming to have to cancel, then look, then rebook. My usual MO when I’m stalking something is to just leave the page up and hit refresh as often as possible. Some days I can do it hundreds of times, other days a few times. But I can’t do the cancel, check, rebook hundreds of times.

Again, I know it’s my own fault so I have no one
to blame but me that I’m in this boat, and beggars cannot be choosers, but it still sucks and makes it a lot harder to keep checking.

 

[supersnoop]

Where are you getting that you can't check availability without dropping what you have? Of course you can.

You can't check actual availability. The calendar view doesn't accurately reflect the ability to actually book a park reservation. Availability can and does change at a moment's notice.

 

[ellbell]

Honestly, by booking all 10 days at HS with no intentions of actually going to HS everyday you take your chances. This is going to be a major problem going forward because people are going to monopolize park passes and keep them from other people "just in case."