IMPORTANT!! Book Park Reservations ASAP!

[scrappinginontario]

How early out?? When I look at the calendar August 2021- Feb 2022 is completely green with the exceptions being October 1 and 31 having limited parks open. Should we really be reserving parks this far out?

There is no harm in booking them as soon as you have your tickets. You can always change them later if you wish to switch your days around if there is availability but at least you have something booked. Almost daily we see posts from people who booked their trip later or forgot to book park reservations and are now challenged with little/no availability. Right now there are very few days showing all parks available 2 months out and many days are fully booked.

Booking early offers you the most options and flexibility..

 

[KNovacovschi]

No it doesn't. I've cancelled 3 trips and months later have gone on mydisneyexperience, noticed my park reservations are still there, and had to cancel them one by one. I just cancelled some today.

Yes they actually are, this is new. It takes up to 48 hours however if you have park tickets separate then they will stay. They closed the loophole to free up more availability.

 

[Frozen2014]

I have mine reserved for my Aug 2022 pre-cruise trip. No harm in doing them early so you know you have them.

Just noticed this thread. We are coming end of August 2022 as well. Should I be booking the days now? Obviously it's hard to plan so far out as we don't know hours or even estimated crowd predictors. (Can use August 2021 but not sure how similar it will be as I'm sure things are limited for this August e.g. no party).

And if I select a park for each day now, is it easy to change around?

 

[Dug720]

Just noticed this thread. We are coming end of August 2022 as well. Should I be booking the days now? Obviously it's hard to plan so far out as we don't know hours or even estimated crowd predictors. (Can use August 2021 but not sure how similar it will be as I'm sure things are limited for this August e.g. no party).

And if I select a park for each day now, is it easy to change around?

I'm doing it so it's done. I know the parks I'm going to want to hit and I don't stress about hours or "crowd levels". There *is* the Boo Bash or whatever they're calling it starting in August of this year. IF that continues next year (or MNSSHP is back and it falls on one of my dates, I'll plan to get tickets and adjust if possible and necessary. But I don't get to stressed about the hours.

I booked my stay and it was on my mind so I did it. This way I know that I've got parks for those days and don't run into what some have where they either thought they would wait or booked Studios for every single day with the plan to change after the first day they got their "my trip is ruined if I don't get it" boarding pass - or change the day of if they don't get it. People are learning the hard way that that's not a good strategy - either they're forgetting to change their park reservations after getting ADRs or they're discovering that the other parks are gone day and week of. By locking them in, you know you have something. If you need/want to change them later and there is availability, no problem. But if you don't book and MK or Studios books up for your stay, you're stuck with whatever is left.

The one caution is you DO have to let go of a park reservation to reserve another park - so depending on how close a park is to capacity it *could* be risky. But if you're doing it far enough out there shouldn't be a problem.

 

[disneymom0104]

Just noticed this thread. We are coming end of August 2022 as well. Should I be booking the days now? Obviously it's hard to plan so far out as we don't know hours or even estimated crowd predictors. (Can use August 2021 but not sure how similar it will be as I'm sure things are limited for this August e.g. no party).

And if I select a park for each day now, is it easy to change around?

I am someone who has used crowd predictors in the past as well. I think for now, pretty much every park reaches the current capacity every day (every day for HS and MK). So, crowd calendars really aren't going to help. Now I realize that the capacity will very likely be increased, or completely open by August so that could change everything, but I kind of selected my parks based on past selections (like MK tends to be more busy on Mondays, Epcot pretty good on Mondays, etc) but at the moment it is the same at every park every day- full capacity. Touring Plans does have crowd predictions going right now but who knows how accurate they are. How can one park be a 5 today and a 3 tomorrow when the capacity is reached both days? It is hard for sure!

It is fairly easy to change later, but you have to cancel first so depending on how long you wait you risk having the other park full and not being able to get your original selection back. But again, that could change as they increase capacity.

 

[PamNC]

someone told me that she gets up at 3 or 4 in the a.m. and can usually find a reservation for some park... not just Epcot which is the easy one to get now... but the other 3 as well. I thought about trying that strategy in the future. She did a last minute trip. Decided on a Wed to go Friday for a long weekend. got up early like I described and got MK and AK.

 

[Frozen2014]

I'm doing it so it's done. I know the parks I'm going to want to hit and I don't stress about hours or "crowd levels". There *is* the Boo Bash or whatever they're calling it starting in August of this year. IF that continues next year (or MNSSHP is back and it falls on one of my dates, I'll plan to get tickets and adjust if possible and necessary. But I don't get to stressed about the hours.

I booked my stay and it was on my mind so I did it. This way I know that I've got parks for those days and don't run into what some have where they either thought they would wait or booked Studios for every single day with the plan to change after the first day they got their "my trip is ruined if I don't get it" boarding pass - or change the day of if they don't get it. People are learning the hard way that that's not a good strategy - either they're forgetting to change their park reservations after getting ADRs or they're discovering that the other parks are gone day and week of. By locking them in, you know you have something. If you need/want to change them later and there is availability, no problem. But if you don't book and MK or Studios books up for your stay, you're stuck with whatever is left.

The one caution is you DO have to let go of a park reservation to reserve another park - so depending on how close a park is to capacity it *could* be risky. But if you're doing it far enough out there shouldn't be a problem.

Thank you....I will figure out a general plan then and book within the next few weeks. We are still 15 months off so I assume no major rush (and who knows if they will still have park capacity at current numbers by next summer). The days as well are based on ADRs etc. I am guessing the MNSSHP will be back next summer, but not sure at this point if we would attend or not....and if not, if park hoppers or not (don't have now). So lots can change but can come up with a basic plan to just make sure we get the parks that we want. I do know what we want the following bookings: 2 MK, 2 EP, 1 AK, 1 HS so it's just a matter of figuring out what days when.

 

[Frozen2014]

I am someone who has used crowd predictors in the past as well. I think for now, pretty much every park reaches the current capacity every day (every day for HS and MK). So, crowd calendars really aren't going to help. Now I realize that the capacity will very likely be increased, or completely open by August so that could change everything, but I kind of selected my parks based on past selections (like MK tends to be more busy on Mondays, Epcot pretty good on Mondays, etc) but at the moment it is the same at every park every day- full capacity. Touring Plans does have crowd predictions going right now but who knows how accurate they are. How can one park be a 5 today and a 3 tomorrow when the capacity is reached both days? It is hard for sure!

It is fairly easy to change later, but you have to cancel first so depending on how long you wait you risk having the other park full and not being able to get your original selection back. But again, that could change as they increase capacity.

Thank you. Good point about crowd limits so if full, doesn't matter. Our trip is next August, not this August so I expect things closer to normal. Not sure if they will even have such restrictions but sounds like it's a good idea to book now just to be sure we get the parks we want, even if not on the preferred day.

Your post really helps as I am debating on what day to do MK vs EP. We are repeating these two parks (only) and so would most likely have them at the start of our trip and at the end, with HS and AK in the middle. And...our first park day is Sunday....so helps decide which one on which day. i.e. MK on Sunday and EP on Monday

 

[friedela]

I have mine reserved for my Aug 2022 pre-cruise trip. No harm in doing them early so you know you have them.

The harm is buying tickets then having them go on sale at a later date. In the past we have relied on the Canadian resident deal, which is hundreds of dollars in savings. But there is no way of knowing if it will be offered again and typically it wasn't announced until September which is probably way too late to wait.

 

[Frozen2014]

The harm is buying tickets then having them go on sale at a later date. In the past we have relied on the Canadian resident deal, which is hundreds of dollars in savings. But there is no way of knowing if it will be offered again and typically it wasn't announced until September which is probably way too late to wait.

If you purchase tickets as part of a package, can't you adjust it for any sales (room discount, Canadian tickets, or free dining)? This is what we did and is my understanding.

 

[disneymom0104]

Thank you. Good point about crowd limits so if full, doesn't matter. Our trip is next August, not this August so I expect things closer to normal. Not sure if they will even have such restrictions but sounds like it's a good idea to book now just to be sure we get the parks we want, even if not on the preferred day.

Your post really helps as I am debating on what day to do MK vs EP. We are repeating these two parks (only) and so would most likely have them at the start of our trip and at the end, with HS and AK in the middle. And...our first park day is Sunday....so helps decide which one on which day. i.e. MK on Sunday and EP on Monday

I wouldn't worry at all about August 2022 yet! If I was in your shoes I would wait to see what happens this fall and early next year. August 2021 is still fully open at the moment. I think parks will begin to fill for this August this month. Even if they keep the reservation system in place I would be willing to bet it will be more for their information, not due to limiting capacity!

Or- like you were planning, just grab the parks to have them and then change them around later.

 

[friedela]

If you purchase tickets as part of a package, can't you adjust it for any sales (room discount, Canadian tickets, or free dining)? This is what we did and is my understanding.

Yes you can, but we aren't doing a package, we are staying off site. We seriously considered doing a package and staying at the Dolphin but then we found Bonnet Creek and were sold. We will probably just take the risk and buy tickets in the next couple weeks. If Disney offers a CDN res deal then oh well. At this point I just want to get back, lol.

 

[friedela]

There is no harm in booking them as soon as you have your tickets. You can always change them later if you wish to switch your days around if there is availability but at least you have something booked. Almost daily we see posts from people who booked their trip later or forgot to book park reservations and are now challenged with little/no availability. Right now there are very few days showing all parks available 2 months out and many days are fully booked.

Booking early offers you the most options and flexibility..

Do Disney park passes ever expire?

 

[lanejudy]

Do Disney park passes ever expire?

Theme park reservations [passes] are only valid for the specific date.
Theme park tickets -- most do have an expiration date based on the designated "start date" you choose when buying tickets. However, any fully-unused ticket retains it's value as a credit towards a future ticket purchase.

 

[Mambo Junkie]

Does Disney ever adjust the prices of tickets? I know they price up depending on if they anticipate it to be a busy time. Reason I'm asking is we still have tickets from last year, which will expire before we go again. We're trying to decide to take the kids out of school or wait for Spring Break (undecided but leaning towards Spring Break, especially since the breaks will be all over the board next year with Easter being so late). Anyway, the cost difference is roughly 100.00-120.00 per ticket. Would it do any good to wait? I'd like to get the reservations ASAP, since April will be a busy month.

 

[lanejudy]

Does Disney ever adjust the prices of tickets? I know they price up depending on if they anticipate it to be a busy time.

Tickets are priced based on dates, with the more popular/crowded dates higher priced. The highest priced dates are at year-end. I would not expect pricing to go down, but you can likely find different dates are priced lower than spring break time if you can be flexible with your travel.

 

[busymomma123]

Will the reservation system change once they go back to full capacity? We are booked for March 2022 and I can't fathom how my planner husband is going to handle having to pick which park on which day already.

 

[jpakstis]

Just noticed this thread. We are coming end of August 2022 as well. Should I be booking the days now? Obviously it's hard to plan so far out as we don't know hours or even estimated crowd predictors. (Can use August 2021 but not sure how similar it will be as I'm sure things are limited for this August e.g. no party).

And if I select a park for each day now, is it easy to change around?

We went in mid-April and made our park reservations way back when they first opened them up (June I think?). Yeah, its weird as a concept to plan what days you're going where 10 months in advance, but it was helpful to have that all sorted out when every park reservation was "open." And actually when we were there it was pretty easy to change reservations the day before, although we had mainly made park reservations at MK and HS since those filled up fastest. It was easy to switch those to EP and AK when members of our party wanted to. In fact, if I remember correctly, one part of our group was able to switch from AK to HS the day before, but don't use my (creaky) memory as gospel!

The bottom line is that it wasn't as strenuous in practice once we were there. But it helps to book them up now as opposed to waiting and going on a wing and prayer.

 

[jpakstis]

Will the reservation system change once they go back to full capacity? We are booked for March 2022 and I can't fathom how my planner husband is going to handle having to pick which park on which day already.

We pretty much alternated between MK, HS, and AK before we went a little more than a month ago. We put one EP day in there just to be safe (that park wasn't a traditional draw for our younger kids). However, the day before, or even day of in some cases, we were able to switch from MK/HS to EP/AK.

As a far-out planner, I actually kind of liked the structure that making park reservations created. When it came time to make ADRs we could focus on the park where we had reservations. We also had park hoppers so that might have alleviated some concerns, although in some respects it was a small hassle (on one day, members of our party had to go tap into MK where they had park reservations so they could "hop" to AK where we were).

 

[Frozen2014]

We went in mid-April and made our park reservations way back when they first opened them up (June I think?). Yeah, its weird as a concept to plan what days you're going where 10 months in advance, but it was helpful to have that all sorted out when every park reservation was "open." And actually when we were there it was pretty easy to change reservations the day before, although we had mainly made park reservations at MK and HS since those filled up fastest. It was easy to switch those to EP and AK when members of our party wanted to. In fact, if I remember correctly, one part of our group was able to switch from AK to HS the day before, but don't use my (creaky) memory as gospel!

The bottom line is that it wasn't as strenuous in practice once we were there. But it helps to book them up now as opposed to waiting and going on a wing and prayer.

Thank you. I think I'll come up with a basic plan and just book. Very far off for us, but no harm. I do have a general plan since 2 days MK and EP, and 1 day the others....so start and end for the doubles. And you're right...it will help with planning for ADRs, etc. Good to hear that you had no issues changing your reservations close to the actual date.