Magic key reservation calendar

[Epicnemesis]

It’s a pretty crappy feeing to look at a date you want to reserve and even though it’s not blocked out, and even though 1-day and Park Hopper are available, the Magic Key availability says “no reservations”.

Yea, but I bet if they don’t sell that allotment of day tickets they’ll just reallocate 48-24 hours ahead of the date. Disney has a target ideal capacity and they’ll reallocate to capture as much revenue as they can. They’ll over allocate to day tickets since they have the highest margin and then pull from that pool for APs as the date gets closer.

 

[dieumeye]

Yea, but I bet if they don’t sell that allotment of day tickets they’ll just reallocate 48-24 hours ahead of the date. Disney has a target ideal capacity and they’ll reallocate to capture as much revenue as they can. They’ll over allocate to day tickets since they have the highest margin and then pull from that pool for APs as the date gets closer.

I hope you’re right. We’ll see what happens. Currently DL is not available as starting park Saturday and Sunday for APs. We are within 48 hours, and 24 hours will be tomorrow morning for Saturday. It would be lame to lock out APs when 1-day and Park Hopper are available.

 

[Skyegirl1999]

Yea, but I bet if they don’t sell that allotment of day tickets they’ll just reallocate 48-24 hours ahead of the date. Disney has a target ideal capacity and they’ll reallocate to capture as much revenue as they can. They’ll over allocate to day tickets since they have the highest margin and then pull from that pool for APs as the date gets closer.

Exactly.

I maintain that reservations are rarely going to be a big issue if you’re willing to stalk a bit. The tourist types can book right at 90 days. They can release some day-before or day-of if they want for the spontaneous guests. People in between can stalk a sold-out date and snag it sometime it’s available…

I just keep thinking the MK rezzies are going to end up functioning the way the overall park reservations did from April 30-June 15. It wasn’t that hard to grab a day if you really wanted it.

 

[dieumeye]

So, on and off this evening there have been no Saturday reservations available for APs, but DL and DCA have both been available for single day and hopper starting park.

Will they move some availability over to the APs tonight/tomorrow? I hope so. But the implication of how the system works is already clear. I’m really turned off by the whole idea of: “reservations are not at capacity, but we’ve decided we don’t want any more people with YOUR type of ticket in the park.”

I’m conflicted to say the least.

 

[dina444444]

So, on and off this evening there have been no Saturday reservations available for APs, but DL and DCA have both been available for single day and hopper starting park.

Will they move some availability over to the APs tonight/tomorrow? I hope so. But the implication of how the system works is already clear. I’m really turned off by the whole idea of: “reservations are not at capacity, but we’ve decided we don’t want any more people with YOUR type of ticket in the park.”

I’m conflicted to say the least.

What will likely happen is what does at wdw. Reservations open for all buckets by mid day for day of visits.

 

[Skyegirl1999]

I guess I always expected that AP reservations were their own limited bucket, and that AP reservations would run out on days that are available to other ticket holders. That's how Flex worked. Yes, I realize that was the only reservation entry at the time, but's not like the days that "sold out" of Flex were at any danger of an actual capacity closure... they just had a finite number of reservations set aside for "Flex," and that was that. I actually expected APs to "sell out" at least a couple of Saturdays right away, but I never imagined that the regular tickets would be gone for those days.

I was surprised by some timing last night - I checked at 11:55pm, and Sunday was back open to start at both parks, and Saturday was still open to start at DCA. I wondered if more availability would show up after midnight if people were cancelling reservations. Instead, at 12:15am, Saturday was sold out entirely, and Sunday was back to DCA only available to start. (Which is also how it looks now at 7:30am.)

I'll be interested to see if today opens up at some point. Presumably there won't be any more "cancellations" for today since it's too late to cancel, so any availability today would suggest Disney is offering it directly.

 

[Skyegirl1999]

Ok, wait times are looking VERY reasonable at both parks, and they have not opened any more reservations for today that I've noticed as of 10:30am.

Tomorrow (Sunday, 8/29) is also currently completely sold out.

This suggests to me that they have a very restrictive AP cap at the present time. I have a friend at DCA raving about how empty it is and how they're just walking on rides. The app is showing everything but RSR at 20 minutes or less, with many 5-minute waits, and that's even with Toy Story down.

So, that's great from a low-crowd perspective. But if that's the situation with APs sold out, then that's not what I was expecting from an AP access perspective.

Now, who knows how they'll adjust any of that. It's still traditionally one of the most low-crowd times of the year, and they may have decided that they want to show it can be low crowds even WITH APs, since that is a topic that gets so much complaining... but I'm surprised that they're not allowing people with shiny new, expensive APs to visit if the parks are as empty as they look.

ETA: I guess it's only 10:30am, and I forget a lot of APs roll in later since that hasn't been a thing all year! So, maybe this could be a thing that happens where reservations are sold out but those rezzie holders don't materialize until later in the day. We'll see!

 

[dieumeye]

Ok, wait times are looking VERY reasonable at both parks, and they have not opened any more reservations for today that I've noticed as of 10:30am.

Tomorrow (Sunday, 8/29) is also currently completely sold out.

This suggests to me that they have a very restrictive AP cap at the present time. I have a friend at DCA raving about how empty it is and how they're just walking on rides. The app is showing everything but RSR at 20 minutes or less, with many 5-minute waits, and that's even with Toy Story down.

So, that's great from a low-crowd perspective. But if that's the situation with APs sold out, then that's not what I was expecting from an AP access perspective.

Now, who knows how they'll adjust any of that. It's still traditionally one of the most low-crowd times of the year, and they may have decided that they want to show it can be low crowds even WITH APs, since that is a topic that gets so much complaining... but I'm surprised that they're not allowing people with shiny new, expensive APs to visit if the parks are as empty as they look.

ETA: I guess it's only 10:30am, and I forget a lot of APs roll in later since that hasn't been a thing all year! So, maybe this could be a thing that happens where reservations are sold out but those rezzie holders don't materialize until later in the day. We'll see!

As of 12:30 there’s still not open reservations for APs, even though ticket reservations are available. Was hoping they open up same day for APs at some point.

To be fair, it would not have been difficult to get a reservation for this weekend. Basically could have booked Sat and/or Sun all the way up to Friday evening.

However, the completely unknown “AP access” bucket is what troubles me. I don’t know if this is just first-week working it out and they’ll make it easy for APs to reserve going forward OR if it’ll get increasingly difficult to make reservations as more people purchase keys.

Basically, I don’t know what I’m actually buying and I don’t like that. Maybe it’s just me.

I’m at the resort now anyway so if I really wanted to go into the parks I guess I could buy a ticket and then upgrade to a key.

 

[midnight star]

Wait times still look very reasonable for 1:30pm on a Saturday. Cars is 35 minutes

 

[avalon451]

Could somebody explain to me the advantages or disadvantages of when to upgrade to my Magic Key? I confess, I’m a little confused. We have a trip planned Sept 13-15, and we have 3-day park hoppers. However I’ve now purchased a Believe key, just for myself, since I’ll be the one visiting the area frequently. I have park reservations both for our original park hoppers, and I also made them for the same days with my Key. So do I upgrade on the FIRST day of our visit, in order to take advantage of the discounts, or on the LAST day, to extend the expiration date (not super important to me). Either way, I will be able to apply the cost of my park hoppers toward the cost of the key?

 

[SOCALMouseMommy]

Could somebody explain to me the advantages or disadvantages of when to upgrade to my Magic Key? I confess, I’m a little confused. We have a trip planned Sept 13-15, and we have 3-day park hoppers. However I’ve now purchased a Believe key, just for myself, since I’ll be the one visiting the area frequently. I have park reservations both for our original park hoppers, and I also made them for the same days with my Key. So do I upgrade on the FIRST day of our visit, in order to take advantage of the discounts, or on the LAST day, to extend the expiration date (not super important to me). Either way, I will be able to apply the cost of my park hoppers toward the cost of the key?

Hmmmm so you already purchased the Key? I don’t think you can apply tickets once you already purchase the Key.

 

[Wesley815]

Could somebody explain to me the advantages or disadvantages of when to upgrade to my Magic Key? I confess, I’m a little confused. We have a trip planned Sept 13-15, and we have 3-day park hoppers. However I’ve now purchased a Believe key, just for myself, since I’ll be the one visiting the area frequently. I have park reservations both for our original park hoppers, and I also made them for the same days with my Key. So do I upgrade on the FIRST day of our visit, in order to take advantage of the discounts, or on the LAST day, to extend the expiration date (not super important to me). Either way, I will be able to apply the cost of my park hoppers toward the cost of the key?

There is nothing to upgrade as you've already purchased your key. That's why all the confusion and posts back on 8/25 with Disney sending mixed messages about upgrading online, or in person.

If you hear someone say they've "upgraded" their current tickets, that means they basically traded in their current park tickets to go towards cost of MK- not a refund after the fact.

You can also reach Magic Key guest services at: 714-781-7277

 

[dieumeye]

Well, so much for opening up excess reservations to APs. It’s 5pm and Sat & Sun are unavailable despite availability for tickets.

But what has me concerned now is that NEXT Saturday is already starting to do that “flicker” between available and DCA only. So I’m curious if that means No Reservations is around the corner.

And what’s double concerning is that only Dream & Believe keys aren’t blocked out next Saturday. (Enchant was available this weekend, but is not available next weekend).

Does anyone else also think this makes the AP bucket seem disturbingly small?

Who knows what will happen, but after this weekend I’m not confident that they’ll open up more AP reservations as time goes on.

Maybe I’m in the minority on this. I do want to buy a Dream Key, but I just don’t yet know what to make of this AP bucket situation and what’s happening doesn’t make me feel good about how it’ll go.

Watching with caution.

 

[scoobdoo]

And what’s double concerning is that only Dream & Believe keys aren’t blocked out next Saturday. (Enchant was available this weekend, but is not available next weekend).

Does anyone else also think this makes the AP bucket seem disturbingly small?

Especially since overall crowd levels are at an all-time low now since the new restrictions were brought back in 4 weeks ago. 35 minutes wait for Cars on a Saturday afternoon??!

 

[Skyegirl1999]

As of 9:20pm, tomorrow (Sunday) is currently available to book at DL.

Next Saturday and Sunday are both DCA-start-only.

 

[Skyegirl1999]

ETA: Oops, I thought I was on the general Magic Key thread. I guess I'll leave it here, too, but I'm putting this over there.

Ok, so, a couple of notes:

1. If you have a day reserved, it won't let you reserve that day again (which makes sense). But that means that since I have next Saturday, Sept. 4 reserved for a DCA start, it's just a slash on the calendar - if DL opens up to start, I can't see that, and I can't switch to it. Presumably I could use the calendar linked here, see DL open, cancel DCA, and book that, but that's a lot of steps and also a gamble. Just an interesting note. (Also, I can see confusion with people thinking days they're booked are sold out since they show up with a slash mark the same way - for a minute, I thought that Saturday was sold out because of the slash, but it's just because I booked it!)

2. Our Magic Keys disappeared from my account earlier, so it wouldn't let me make any reservations. But it showed me my existing reservations, which are linked to those passes! I had to go back and find the confirmation email and pull up the printable tickets to get the bar codes, re-link them, and then I could make new rezzies.

 

[kelmac284]

@kelmac284 Can you upgrade the 3 day ticket on the last day for that one and then upgrade the other 2 tickets on their last day? It is a PIA for sure, but at least you would take advantage of the upgrade discount for each ticket..

That is what I am hoping

 

[kelmac284]

So it is looking like we are going to have to upgrade my daughters hopper on Monday after all. I was hoping it wouldn't sell out so she could do it on Sat to make sure she could get Tues and Wed but I guess I get it being labor day. As of right now Sat is available but sunday is sold out which means she can't upgrade till Monday. My question is Monday is her last day what if IT sells out. It is her last day so she HAS to do it that day BUT can she then still get in the park since she will lose her hopper reservation for that day? Or is that once she has gotten in with the hopper even if she upgrades she can still go? I am so confused.

 

[Skyegirl1999]

For tracking purposes, as of 7:30am on Tuesday morning, this coming Labor Day weekend is as follows:

Saturday, Sept. 4 - sold out
Sunday, Sept. 5 - sold out
Monday, Sept. 6 - DCA-entry only

No other days on the calendar are restricted at all. So far, every day that's sold out has first dropped to DCA-only. So there is a bit of warning on those, at least. Since they currently are treating all Magic Keys as hoppers, you still get DL access on those days after 1.

I have been surprised that since Saturday and Sunday sold out, I haven't personally caught them popping back up yet. I was hoping for/expecting a lot of movement on the reservations. But, I have all four weekend days reserved - Friday, Saturday, Sunday, and Monday - because I'm not sure yet which day we'll go. I'm definitely throwing 2-3 of those back in, but not until later in the week. So maybe there are a lot of people like me.

 

[Epicnemesis]

There will be availability Thursday or Friday when they reallocated unsold ticket reservations to passes.