Looks like the park reservation system is here to stay.

[MillauFr]

Should be common sense here.

Common sense would dictate that Disneyland needs to adjust the prices of their annual passes so demand and supply are more in balance. When they resumed selling the annual passes last fall the demand was so high the pass with no block outs sold out in 1 month. People thought $1,400 was a high price but I guess not. Even the next level pass with block outs is sold out as well. Disney is being very careful with their price increases. There is so much pent up demand that Disney has no feasible way of meeting it.

 

[DVC92]

As a DVC member from its inception, my last trip in November was the worst. As someone who doesn't enter a park until early afternoon, FP+ worked great since we got our 3 afternoon rides in. We would then get additional FPs if available or just do some other rides later at night. Worked great. Genie+ is horrible and I have no intent of buying it. Unfortunately, it means every ride has an hour+ wait. Seriously!!!

Also, the reservation system forces everyone to buy passes in advance which puts the bucks in Disney's pockets or you might get shut out. Can you imagine people who aren't familiar with Disney who purchase multiday passes when they arrive and then are told all parks are booked for their stay.

If things are as bad during my upcoming trip as they were in November, I will probably sell my remaining BLT and VGF contracts since the fun is gone.

 

[Miffy]

As a DVC member from its inception, my last trip in November was the worst. As someone who doesn't enter a park until early afternoon, FP+ worked great since we got our 3 afternoon rides in. We would then get additional FPs if available or just do some other rides later at night. Worked great. Genie+ is horrible and I have no intent of buying it. Unfortunately, it means every ride has an hour+ wait. Seriously!!!

Also, the reservation system forces everyone to buy passes in advance which puts the bucks in Disney's pockets or you might get shut out. Can you imagine people who aren't familiar with Disney who purchase multiday passes when they arrive and then are told all parks are booked for their stay.

If things are as bad during my upcoming trip as they were in November, I will probably sell my remaining BLT and VGF contracts since the fun is gone.

I get what you're saying, but I thought I'd mention that last week I used a different G+ strategy a couple of days. Instead of RDing and booking the first G+ for the morning, I booked ILL$ for RotR and the first G+ (MMRR) for the late afternoon. Granted, I had to be on the app, waiting for the time I wanted to come up, but I was lounging in the resort room, so it wasn't too terrible.

Then I set the alarm for 2 hours after that park opened and when I could book another G+ I was able to get TSM for a later time as well. IIRC, I had something like this stack:
G+ for MMRR at 5:15 pm
ILL$ for RotR at 6 pm
G+ for TSM at 6:45 pm

There were still plenty of other rides available but that's all we intended to do that day, so it worked out. It also worked out because all the rides were in working order.

We just needed a day to have a hot breakfast at the resort and hang out before going to the park. It is possible to do.

In case you think this all sounds quite rosy, I'll add the necessary caveat: Doing this requires gambling, which I don't like at all. We gambled that we'd be able to get an ILL$ for Rise at a time that would let us stack the other two rides and then we gambled that those rides at the times we wanted wouldn't be sold out on G+ by the time we could reserve them.

I much preferred FP+. And, weirdly, I also preferred the so-called RotR lottery for BGs even though when it was in place December 2019 we got up at 3 am to get to DHS for the early-morning madness. But that seemed like fun. Booking ILL$ and G+s lacks fun.

 

[CarolynFH]

Can you imagine people who aren't familiar with Disney who purchase multiday passes when they arrive and then are told all parks are booked for their stay.

Disney won't sell a ticket if one or more days covered by that ticket are booked up. So the only way to be locked out would be to buy tickets in advance and then wait to book park reservations. But I can well imagine the disappointment for people (especially kids!) who aren't familiar with Disney now and arrive thinking they'll be able to buy a ticket for that day, then are turned away because the parks are all booked!

Edited to add link to recent post: https://www.disboards.com/threads/tickets-sold-out-what-can-we-do.3875337/

 

[New Mouse]

Common sense would dictate that Disneyland needs to adjust the prices of their annual passes so demand and supply are more in balance. When they resumed selling the annual passes last fall the demand was so high the pass with no block outs sold out in 1 month. People thought $1,400 was a high price but I guess not. Even the next level pass with block outs is sold out as well. Disney is being very careful with their price increases. There is so much pent up demand that Disney has no feasible way of meeting it.

Or they can only sell a pass with blackout dates...

 

[Alicefan]

I’m wondering if the January/February crowds were due to pent up demand as well. COVID numbers go down, people haven’t been traveling so everyone decided to travel during the “slow season”. Don’t get me wrong, I think there’s some truth to what you’re saying, but I think the ultimate reason for the crazy crowds is less to do with the reservations and more to do with peoples current travel habits

Oh yeah, I agree with you on this completely. I do think that a ton of these people are those that had to cancel their plans over and over again and that there is a surge of rescheduled vacations happening and that it will probably die down or at least I sure hope so! Also, with kids going to school virtually for the first time ever, they can do that from anywhere so people are able for the first time to vacation during other times than Summer and believe me, I'd have taken advantage of Disney in cooler weather too if I were them. But even still, as crowded as it is, if we were all allowed to choose whether to stay or not once we see the crowd, it would make a huge impact. Instead, more and more pile in the gate and hit mainstreet and think, "oh no" but there's nothing you can do at that point. You're trapped. It's really weird to me that they think this is a good plan.

 

[AMartin767]

I don't think the reservation system is in any way controlling crowds. Disney has always had a process (probably a fire code requirement) of shutting off entry to the parks when capacity is reached. And our experience last month was that the system is allowing huge crowds.

I think what it does for Disney is to be able to pre-position supplies (food, beverage, etc.) and staff/CMs to accurately match supply and demand.

No doubt the logisticians and staffing people love the park reservation system. I hate it.

Disney is in no way controlling crowds. It's obvious to anyone that is paying even a sliver of attention to daily park ops. The idea that they can control the crowds with the reservation system is perfectly valid but they are clearly not reducing the volume of people to acceptable levels, nor will they. Disney is now at the point where they simply do not care, in any way, if you are having a miserable experience in the parks as long as you continue to hand them your $. Their new motto is literally becoming - Pay More, Get Less! It's the new reputation they are building brick by virtual brick online and throughout the community. It's beginning to steam-roll and will be a large problem for them in a few years. Do they actually care about the guest experience? I think the last year has been especially salient in demonstrating the complete lack concern for their customers. They are failing and failing hard. Argue what you want about how the crowd numbers prove success... I will continue to argue that the crowds in and of themselves are not a sign of success and are but a symptom of pent-up demand due to the pandemic more than anything. The ability to provide a value added experience for crowds who are actually enjoying themselves and want to return is success... anything else is utter failure in my opinion.

 

[MouseEarsMom33]

I think availability of CMs is definitely a problem and capacity during the week is different from weekends. Looking at current availability for end of March/early April, weekdays are filling up faster than weekends, which I would think weekends would fill up faster as there are more people going into the parks (I would assume). I think capacity likely varies based on staffing issues. As long as Disney has problems rehiring staff, the reservation system is going to be needed.

 

[Brocktoon]

Their new motto is literally becoming - Pay More, Get Less! It's the new reputation they are building brick by virtual brick online and throughout the community. It's beginning to steam-roll and will be a large problem for them in a few years.

It's probably been mentioned many times, but for anyone who's worked in the modern corporate world ... targeting to maximize the stock price short-term while sacrificing everything else longer term is nothing new. I worked for one of the biggest global corporations and watched it collapse around me for years while a rotating group of execs reaped the rewards.

Current Disney leadership doesn't care about the customer as long as they hit their 'metrics' tied to compensation. In a few years they'll all jump ship with their bonuses and do the same thing to another corp. I don't really see a fix or solution. Disney knows this isn't sustainable, but it's more of making sure they are out of the company before it all collapses

 

[NobodyNew]

That doesn’t do you much good if you’ve done an 8:30am rope drop and found the attraction you wanted to do broken or the crowd in that park overwhelming. You’re stuck for five and a half hours with that park.

The park reservation system is all about giving Disney the ability to optimize resources in parks, and I get that.

But for Disney to say it “enhances the guest experience” is tone deaf disingenuous garbage.

Actually I tried on my last trip and it worked:

wife had a migraine and i had reservation for Epcot and went alone- when I got there, it was crowded and miserable, so I went to MdE and changed that days reservation to AK while in Epcot, and at noonish headed over to AK and got in

So, as along there’s availability, you can switch - at least i could in November.

 

[nancipants]

As a local, I hate the reservation system and the restriction on park hopping. But I know I am not Disney's ideal customer (which is silly considering how much money we spend on each visit!). My biggest problem with the reservation system is that it is NOT managing crowds OR resources. The parks ARE bursting at the seams. Lines are always long. But not every restaurant or food stand is open. I've noticed more trash around the parks and overflowing trash cans. Trams are still not operating at all parks (and the walk into Animal Kingdom is BRUTAL). (I am in no way blaming the CMs for this. They can only do what their resources and managers let them do.) Also, how can they say the reservation system allows them to better allocate resources or whatever when you allow park hopping at all? They have no idea how many people are going to hop after 2 pm. And they should KNOW that Epcot evenings during a festival are super busy, and yet they don't seem prepared. Rant over.

 

[Twirly41]

Just another stupid move that makes a vacation at WDW less of a vacation and more like a wargame! A vacation is supposed to be something that you do things today for a moment if you want to change your mind, this certainly prevents that. What if you plan on riding a certain ride and it's down that day? You can't schedule another day in that park before you leave so you are SOL? This is going to disappoint many many people and offers no upside!

Totally agree. I miss the old days of being able to be spontaneous on what you do and where you go. Miss playing bus roulette where you just go to wherever the next bus might be going. Too much planning every minute of your day and having to pay extra money just to be able to ride certain rides. Walt would be so disappointed in how the parks are being run today. Geared solely on upper class who can afford to pay the ridiculous prices on things from souvenirs on up. Good example: $1,000 for Mickey ears. Really??? Not sure I even want to go back anymore.

 

[MillauFr]

Disney is in no way controlling crowds.

So if guests can't get into the parks because there are no reservations available how is that not controlling crowds?

 

[jbharr1]

IMHO, if they were truly concerned about crowds and the experience, they would build a 5th park. and since we know that will never happen....

 

[middlechild]

Park reservations are performing exactly how TWDC wants them to perform. Reservations are allowing John Q. Public to feel that there is room for them at the parks, and that it is OK to go because the risk of being in crowds is being "controlled", and therefore safe. You can plan a month, two months, three months ahead and be assured of entry to a clean well run park based on reputation. Just like in days past. Be assured of that safety blanket holding a reservation implies.

We know from surveys done in the past that a good park day is only three rides on headliners, and assorted other pleasures. This was the basis of Fast Pass. Genie and Genie+ can assure that happens. John Q. Public believes a safe park with three headliners and its a good day, until they experience what that means. And never comes back (as if they would in the past?).

The "learned" group, who know and love the parks, that believes reservations is capping attendance, is keeping the parks free flowing and spacious and cost effective per dollar spent, are horribly wrong. Evidence shows these ideals are the least of which the TWDC, especially Parks & Resorts, is actually doing. John Q. Public is getting burned, never to return. Another American tradition, the implied meaning of a reservation, is trashed by abuse by an organisation so the word reservation becomes meaningless as much as many other traditional word meanings have been trashed of late.

Or perhaps I am just getting quite cynical in my advancing years. If the whole world smells bad, check your own nose!

 

[AMartin767]

So if guests can't get into the parks because there are no reservations available how is that not controlling crowds?

Just because they are setting a limit doesn't inherently mean that the limit they have set is controlling crowds. If I build a room that holds exactly 20 people with no room for anyone to sit down or move freely about and set a limit of 19 people allowed into the room, it's crowded.

 

[Jrb1979]

So if guests can't get into the parks because there are no reservations available how is that not controlling crowds?

The reservation system isn't for crowd control and never was. Its used to maximize profits. With the reservation system they have a great idea on attendance for each park and can staff accordingly. It's not about the guest, it's about money.

 

[Miffy]

Just because they are setting a limit doesn't inherently mean that the limit they have set is controlling crowds.

Not to argue, but, what is the point of setting limits if the limits don't control crowds?

 

[AMartin767]

Not to argue, but, what is the point of setting limits if the limits don't control crowds?

^^^^ Exactly. They COULD set limits for the purpose of controlling crowds but that's not what is happening. They are likely using it solely to stage staff and supplies.

 

[MillauFr]

Just because they are setting a limit doesn't inherently mean that the limit they have set is controlling crowds. If I build a room that holds exactly 20 people with no room for anyone to sit down or move freely about and set a limit of 19 people allowed into the room, it's crowded.

Many people who want to come to the park are turned away since they have no reservations. Attendance is lower than it would be with no reservation system.