Magic Key reservations vs crowds

[DLgal]

so do you think these new availability is all from people that have cancelled recently? Kind of hard to believe when only minutes ago, there was absolutely zero availability for the entire month.

No, what she is saying is that the initial reservations allotted are not the "final count." They add more when they know they can staff for higher numbers. They have been incrementally increasing staffing with the goal of being back to 100% "by the holidays" (guessing that means mid November).

 

[HIRyeDVC]

No. Not when it’s the full calendar being replenished. That’s Disney releasing reservations they held back.

so would these be reservations held back from the individual day-ticket quota?

 

[HIRyeDVC]

No, what she is saying is that the initial reservations allotted are not the "final count." They add more when they know they can staff for higher numbers. They have been incrementally increasing staffing with the goal of being back to 100% "by the holidays" (guessing that means mid November).

ahh, ok, I see. So the reservations indeed have nothing to do with crowd control and everything to do with staffing. sad pandas.

 

[DLgal]

I believe it's a complete fallacy that Disney wants lower crowds. What they DO want is for the crowds who are there to be paying the most possible per day.

Yeah, so they give regular ticket purchasers "first dibs." Earlier today, if you were buying a multi day ticket, with the exception of the rest of this week, most days for the rest of the month were still available.

 

[DLgal]

so would these be reservations held back from the individual day-ticket quota?

Probably not. Since they go out to the end of the month.

 

[evilmommie]

I see quite a bit of availability. Plenty for Key Holders that just want to "pop" in each month. Or book several days in a row. I check everyday about this time to check the "Disney temp" and usually see ressies open up.

 

[gelatoni fan]

So, this is kind of a story in the local news today. The headline is like "Disneyland Magic Key holders frustrated at lack of reservation availability." Then, when you read the article, the Disney spokesperson says "Our Magic Key holders overwhelmingly feel that they have more access to the parks than they imagined they would."

It's a tale of two worlds, clearly. It's almost comical how Disney is blatantly ignoring ALL the complaints that are all over social media about this issue.

I suspect that Disney surveyed Keyholders in a very specific way so that they could say that to the press. If you ask the question today "Are you happy with the reservation availability?", most keyholders will likely say "no". But if they asked the question in mid-September, "Is reservation availability better than what you expected?" then many may have said "yes" given that reservation availability at that time was OK. They could have even biased the sample by asking the question "Were you worried about reservation availability before buying your key?" as a pre-question so that the only people who thought reservation availability would be bad were asked the follow up question of if actual reservation availability was as bad as expected. Once they get their biased data, they can make the changes they want to the reservation ability and then basically lie to the press with their bogus statistics.

On the note of crowds, Disney may be actually increasing the crowds on busy days due to the reservation system. Keyholders are far more likely to prioritize seasonal or limited time things such as the fireworks that only run on the weekends. So as a Keyholder, I have been prioritizing going to the park on Friday through Sunday and not wasting my reservations on weekdays. This means I'd be far more willing to put myself into long waits for rides on the weekend because I won't be in the park on weekdays when the wait times are lower. This may also convince some keyholders who in the AP era may have just dropped in for a few hours every day, to instead spend an entire weekend in the park and eat more. It hurts everyone's experience but fills Disney's pockets.

 

[Wakey]

It’s all about yield baby!

 

[DLgal]

Perhaps Disney should make the penalty for cancellations more severe so that people will seriously consider reservations prior to actually reserving and hogging up park days. If they were to limit MK passes to locals, then I would think they would HAVETO make it WAY more expensive, which will be very unpopular. Either way, people will find ways to complain. I'll reserve my judgment until I go in a couple of weeks. I was going to upgrade y 5-day passes to MKs at the end of our trip but having seen this story, I'm not so sure anymore.

I'd be okay with this. I admit that I am one of the serial "book just in case, but then cancel and rebook when dates closer open up," but I only do it because that's how the system is set up. I would be absolutely fine with a more severe penalty for cancellations and if that was implemented, I'd only book dates I am SURE of.