Magic Key Program

[joseph821]

The language about the holidays seems suspect to me. Makes it seem like even without blackouts, they may not offer reservations on say, Christmas or NYE to key holders.

Yes I agree. It is not a guarantee!

 

[AndrewC]

Ugh, Disney knows how to price it JUST to where I have a hard decision to make!

I'll be doing 8 days in October... Two of those are Saturdays so even with the Believe Key I would have to buy a two day ticket.

The cost for park hoppers (a 5 day and 3 day) would be $780... do I spend another $619 to upgrade to the top end Dream Key so I have no blackout dates? If luck holds up I'll use it again next October at least the week before it expires and I'll get another ~$600 value out of it. So that's a wash... but if I can make it down there (live in Washington state) once more in the spring for three days than I'm saving $365.

 

[whoever]

Still seems underpriced to the point that excess crowding will be an issue, but we shall see.

 

[abent]

Ugh, Disney knows how to price it JUST to where I have a hard decision to make!

I'll be doing 8 days in October... Two of those are Saturdays so even with the Believe Key I would have to buy a two day ticket.

The cost for park hoppers (a 5 day and 3 day) would be $780... do I spend another $619 to upgrade to the top end Dream Key so I have no blackout dates? If luck holds up I'll use it again next October at least the week before it expires and I'll get another ~$600 value out of it. So that's a wash... but if I can make it down there (live in Washington state) once more in the spring for three days than I'm saving $365.

I am in a similar situation. I have 2 trips planned, one in October and one in December. The top tier is the only one that makes sense due to blackout dates and will cost an additional $500 from my park hoppers . It also means I might as well make an additional trip or two sometime during the year from Utah.

 

[DontSpamMe]

Still seems underpriced to the point that excess crowding will be an issue, but we shall see.

Agreed. This may curb some of the over crowding from the spur of the moment people, but not a substantial decrease. We'll go for the $649 tier and see how it goes.

I'm curious if staying at a Disney hotel with a magic key allows you to make a reservation for blocked out days.

 

[PirateBrigade]

The language about the holidays seems suspect to me. Makes it seem like even without blackouts, they may not offer reservations on say, Christmas or NYE to key holders.

Yeah this worries us.

I agree. I read it that way too. Seems like no guarantee.

This isn't any different from the original AP, though -- carrying an AP never guaranteed you entry into the parks. At least we will know X days ahead (reservation calendar) and not driving down the 5 and seeing the electronic signs telling us (or even worse -- at the gate itself).

 

[Skyegirl1999]

Agreed. This may curb some of the over crowding from the spur of the moment people, but not a substantial decrease. We'll go for the $649 tier and see how it goes.

I'm curious if staying at a Disney hotel with a magic key allows you to make a reservation for blocked out days.

I sure hope so, at those prices.

 

[PirateBrigade]

I'm curious if staying at a Disney hotel with a magic key allows you to make a reservation for blocked out days.

I can't see them adding this as a unfunded liability of a perk since it wasn't present in the previous AP program.

 

[Skyegirl1999]

This isn't any different from the original AP, though -- carrying an AP never guaranteed you entry into the parks. At least we will know X days ahead (reservation calendar) and not driving down the 5 and seeing the electronic signs telling us (or even worse -- at the gate itself).

That line about holidays is a weird line, though.

I can't see them adding this as a unfunded liability of a perk since it wasn't present in the previous AP program.

But now that they have the “hotel bucket” already in place for reservations…

 

[SarahWI]

But now that they have the “hotel bucket” already in place for reservations…

Is it confirmed that there a hotel bucket of reservations?

 

[PirateBrigade]

Agreed. This may curb some of the over crowding from the spur of the moment people, but not a substantial decrease. We'll go for the $649 tier and see how it goes.

It will very slightly reduce crowding... it's still super affordable. If I still lived in the area, I'd buy the top tier and reserve every Saturday that I could. Assuming (a) the booking window is 120 days and (b) that every Saturday is booked within a few days of release, my visitation would literally be 6 weeks on, 12 weeks off (as I reserve the next available Saturday each time I visit and one falls off). In this scenario, me "going every Saturday" under the old pass is curtailed to 1/3 of of my previous visits.

If I had flexibility, I'd keep 2 of my 6 reservations close-in and floating around...Wednesday here, Friday there. I can increase the # of visits this way.

Someone needs to mathematically model this, like... likely maximum # of raw visits using a Monte Carlo simulation with 6 reservations, 120 days, and a variable availability calendar!

 

[PirateBrigade]

That line about holidays is a weird line, though.
But now that they have the “hotel bucket” already in place for reservations…

Hmmm.... good point. I still don't think you can book a blockout date completely, but it makes sense to me that hotel guests get a different bucket, no matter the type of entry media they use.

Is it confirmed that there a hotel bucket of reservations?

Yes, I've booked on it before. After I linked my DVC reservation in May, I had access to a more robust calendar when reserving park admission.

 

[Skyegirl1999]

Hmmm.... good point. I still don't think you can book a blockout date completely, but it makes sense to me that hotel guests get a different bucket, no matter the type of entry media they use.



Yes, I've booked on it before. After I linked my DVC reservation in May, I had access to a more robust calendar when reserving park admission.

Yeah, there’s currently a whole different reservation button if you’re a hotel guest.

 

[SarahWI]

Yes, I've booked on it before. After I linked my DVC reservation in May, I had access to a more robust calendar when reserving park admission.

Hmmm…then maybe the Magic Key would give us a park ressie booking advantage.

 

[evilmommie]

 

[PirateBrigade]

@Skyegirl1999 I take that back, check out August and flip between "1 park per day" and "hotel guest"

It's like the hotel guest bucket is WORSE. Ahh!

https://disneyland.disney.go.com/av...ts=ticket,ph,resort&defaultSegment=ticket

 

[DizneyMommy]

I agree -- I'm used to the DVC bloodbath that occurs at the 7 month mark, I hope this isn't the case.

IIRC -- when flex pass came out, the ability to make reservations was really easy and I really did not need to get up early to do it... but as time went on and the uptake of the passes was higher, it became more and more challenging to pick up reservations.

My backup plan was always to upgrade to a deluxe pass which provided an unrestricted entry, but my fear is I'm able to reserve the Saturday of a weekend trip, but not the Sunday... and I have no recourse anymore (upgrading to the highest level won't get you in because it's the reservation that limits you). Granted, I'll have a 90 day advance notice that we can't get in the parks.

I never had any proclem making flex reservations even the weeks and months before the closure. I was in the park the day before the shut down snd had only booked that day a week before.

 

[PirateBrigade]

Hmmm…then maybe the Magic Key would give us a park ressie booking advantage.

I think it would be the opposite... ticketed visitors would get an advantage since they're paying full freight.

I never had any proclem making flex reservations even the weeks and months before the closure. I was in the park the day before the shut down snd had only booked that day a week before.

I didn't either, but now you have every ticket and every AP on a reservation system, whereas with flex, you were just competing with other flexers.

 

[njchris]

I never had any proclem making flex reservations even the weeks and months before the closure. I was in the park the day before the shut down snd had only booked that day a week before.

Me too, but we don't know how many reservations will be available, or if they are limiting by pass or by some other metric.

 

[dieumeye]

Is there clarity on whether a Park Hopper reservation counts as one reservation or two?