Is The Reservation System Really Staying Forever?

[SOCALMouseMommy]

I wonder if the crowding feels worse because they're keeping the staffing at minimum levels. Closed registers at shops & eateries, one queue operating instead of two at a ride, closed attractions (although normal at this time of year) and eateries can 'push' a lot of people onto walkways and/or into the available shops, eateries, and rides. A crowd can feel a lot 'crowd-ier' if there is less space for them to disperse into. When we were at WDW pretty much everything was up and running, so that 'reduced crowd' for the park we were in was spread out over the whole park with plenty to do & places to eat. And the staffing may have been reduced, but if it was it wasn't noticeable. There were crowded areas & some long lines, sure, but they were also the more popular areas and rides so to be expected. Now, if we'd had reduced attractions, eateries, and such it would have felt much more crowded, even with the same number of people.

But I do agree that DLR is going to try to get away with the least amount of staff as it possibly can, limited crowds or no. They're starting to get some bad media publicity because of it, but whether or not that ends up impacting anything, who knows.

I definitely think that could be the case.

 

[ktlm]

I don't mind the reservation system because I'm an out of town guest and plan my trips way in advance, anyway. If I were a local with a MK, maybe not so much, but I'm still such a planner that it may not bother me in that case, either.

Since I'm an out of towner, I'd probably select more likely. I never really considered it before, since I've only been to DL many years ago as a child and WDW only a few times in the last thirty years, all but one during school summer breaks, but I never even worried out showing up and not getting in.
It would be terrible to have flown in, got a hotel, and your kids excited and be turned away.
So now that I realize it's a possibility, I like the guarantee. But I'm a planner on vacation. I like having a plan, at least loosely. And usually plan around baked in must do on vacation. And getting in the park, it's a must do.

Is it really that big a deal, as a local, to make a reservation on the way to the park?

I'm from out of town and we do 5 day hoppers (go to parks partial days on both arrival and departure days). We found the park reservation system and inability to hop awful for our October vacation. It impacts: 1) your lunch ADRS, 2) your ability to hop to the other park for counter service lunch; 3) your ability to change your mind on a park for the next morning when there was stuff you wanted to do and didn't get done, or stuff that was broken down that you missed the day before; 4) in October with the virtual queues in place (thank goodness those are gone) when you got shut out of ROTR for an entire day, you couldn't try the next morning if you had a CA reservation which caused a whole lot of stress; 5) your ability to hop when you realize you made the wrong choice because the lines in DL are extremely crowded and you look on the app and all the lines in CA are extremely short. We saw children crying every single morning we were there with MULTIPLE families because their families were unaware of the park reservation system and had shown up with tickets expecting to take the family to DLR. No reservations were available and they were turned away from the gate. It was heartbreaking. We had friends that came our first day to spend the day with us- and they wanted to add a 2nd day and could not because there were no park reservations available for either park the next day. Our park reservations had to be made long before the ADRs opened-- when the ADRs opened for Oga's I could only get Ogas before 1:00 p.m. on a day we started in CA. Likewise, I could only get Lamplight Lounge brunch for a day we started in DL. It was extremely frustrating. Plus, the way the system is set up, you can not just switch your reservation to the other park. You have to cancel first and then book the other park--- so if you cancel only to find out when you try to book the other park that they are saying there are non available, you are just sunk. At the time we were there, no FP (Genie + now) existed. My DH said we weren't ever going back without some type of FP system in place, and while he wouldn't say never on it he preferred not to go back until the park reservation system and at least the restriction on hopping were gone.

 

[CeCe0906]

From what I've experienced, at least when buying tickets from Disney, they are very clear about needing the park reservation, so I'm surprised people are showing up without them. Unless third party vendors aren't doing the job. I guess people who show up day of on a whim,, thinking to buy tickets at the booth could get surprised though. But that could also happen if capacity is reached also. Which is at least partially what the park reservation system is for, to manage crowd vs staffing. With the reports of crowds and standby lines times, I'm glad they aren't just allowing unlimited entry. I think maybe they should reserve around 5% of reservations for walk up only. . That could benefit early walk up clueless people or allow people to switch reservations at ticket booths.

Most of the complaints you have could be solved by removing the park hop rule or making it earlier in the day. The only reason I can see is that previously there was more of an imbalance of crowds at CA vs DL, and this balances things out more.

Personally, I think all tickets should be combo/hopper tickets, with the 2 parks so close together.


I can't wait for my August trip with my granddaughter!

 

[MonocularVision]

Disney has spent BILLONS on this new system. It really is necessary at DLAND. Crowd control is such an issue .

The new system didn’t cost billions of dollars. It wouldn’t have even been in the hundreds of millions. Maybe low tens.

 

[FeistyDisneyMom]

From what I've experienced, at least when buying tickets from Disney, they are very clear about needing the park reservation, so I'm surprised people are showing up without them. Unless third party vendors aren't doing the job. I guess people who show up day of on a whim,, thinking to buy tickets at the booth could get surprised though. But that could also happen if capacity is reached also. Which is at least partially what the park reservation system is for, to manage crowd vs staffing. With the reports of crowds and standby lines times, I'm glad they aren't just allowing unlimited entry. I think maybe they should reserve around 5% of reservations for walk up only. . That could benefit early walk up clueless people or allow people to switch reservations at ticket booths.

Most of the complaints you have could be solved by removing the park hop rule or making it earlier in the day. The only reason I can see is that previously there was more of an imbalance of crowds at CA vs DL, and this balances things out more.

Personally, I think all tickets should be combo/hopper tickets, with the 2 parks so close together.


I can't wait for my August trip with my granddaughter!

I totally agree - many problems would be solved by eliminating the 1pm hopping rule, or even moving it up to noon or 11, so people can hop for lunches. I'm hopeful the hopping rule will go away, but I think reservations are likely to stay as-is for the foreseeable future.

 

[StormyCA]

I totally agree - many problems would be solved by eliminating the 1pm hopping rule, or even moving it up to noon or 11, so people can hop for lunches. I'm hopeful the hopping rule will go away, but I think reservations are likely to stay as-is for the foreseeable future.

I think it would be better if they had a more flexible system, one in which you could hop after you've been in your entry park for a certain period of time, maybe 4-5 hours or at the 1pm limit, whichever is earlier. So if you entered at 7am you could hop at 11 or 12, but if you entered at 10 am you still could hop at 1pm. This would avoid the 'mad rush' all at once and stagger the people moving to their 2nd park.

They know if we try to use a LL too early or if we try to enter the 'wrong' park so I'd assume it'd be easy enough to tweak the system to know if you tried to switch parks too soon. They could even have an alert on the app 'Good to hop' or something.

 

[gelatoni fan]

I think it would be better if they had a more flexible system, one in which you could hop after you've been in your entry park for a certain period of time, maybe 4-5 hours or at the 1pm limit, whichever is earlier. So if you entered at 7am you could hop at 11 or 12, but if you entered at 10 am you still could hop at 1pm. This would avoid the 'mad rush' all at once and stagger the people moving to their 2nd park.

They know if we try to use a LL too early or if we try to enter the 'wrong' park so I'd assume it'd be easy enough to tweak the system to know if you tried to switch parks too soon. They could even have an alert on the app 'Good to hop' or something.

They need to drop the restrictions, not complicate them. A common thing is to want to rope drop one ride in a park but prefer the other park in the morning. For example, I'd love to rope drop Web Slingers, ride Midway Mania and then spend the rest of the morning at Disneyland. Now, I'm forced to either rope drop Web Slingers or watch the cavalcade in Disneyland because it's not possible to do both.

It's also very common for rides to be down in the morning. I may have been planning to do Fantasyland but if half the rides there were closed, I may have preferred to do Pixar Pier in the morning instead.

There are already restrictions that prevent you from entering the parks twice in too short of a period of time. I think 15 or even 30 minutes is reasonable. But Disney should make it possible to rope drop Rise of the Resistance and also get to Animation Academy by 9AM to draw Mickey Mouse.

 

[TsWade2]

I guess the reservation system is forever. I guess I'll just have to live with it. But, I'll be okay.

 

[LizzyS]

I definitely understand the want for more flexibility and the complaints associated with the current system's restriction of that.

We don't go back and forth between the parks a lot even when we have hoppers, so the 1pm rule didn't bother us as much as it does others.

 

[CeCe0906]

"There are already restrictions that prevent you from entering the parks twice in too short of a period of time."
What do you mean by this? I plan to have a backpack in a locker, with some snacks and backup clothes for my granddaughter( she can sometimes be picky about something getting on clothes, or even if we get too wet on a water ride). Would I have a problem leaving the park to access the locker and return right away?

 

[LizzyS]

I'm not sure what that means, either!

 

[gelatoni fan]

"There are already restrictions that prevent you from entering the parks twice in too short of a period of time."
What do you mean by this? I plan to have a backpack in a locker, with some snacks and backup clothes for my granddaughter( she can sometimes be picky about something getting on clothes, or even if we get too wet on a water ride). Would I have a problem leaving the park to access the locker and return right away?

If you try to enter twice in like 15 minutes (maybe 30?), you will get an error at the turnstiles and a manager will have to come over to approve you to be allowed in. The typical way I get locked out is if I walk into Disneyland, take a photo of characters at the train station and then try to hop over to DCA.

In your scenario, you may have a potential problem if you went in from the California Adventure entrance, walked on to Grizzly River Run with zero wait, went back to the Grand Californian where your friend handed you a bag of new clothes and you tried to enter again right away. But if you've already been in the parks for over half an hour before you got on the ride or took time to get changed before re-entering the park, you shouldn't have any problems.