New Disney Theme Park reservation system

[CmdrThor]

For those who have a DVC stay booked but do not have park tickets yet, I am in the same boat and just talked with a DVC rep. In order to get park tickets on June 24th, we would have to cancel our DVC stay and book a new hotel stay with a vacation package. This means we will just need to wait until park tickets go on sale for who with a resort stay already booked.

On June 24th though you cannot book a new hotel stay for any time. On June 28th you can book a new package for 2021, and "later this summer" you can book new packages or purchase tickets for 2020 subject to availability.

 

[CanadaDisney05]

I read that AP holders with resort stays will be limited to only 14 days of reservations... If this is true this isn't good. I have 10 days scheduled in Aug, 7 days in Dec and 9 days in May. This is a total of 26 days all with hotel stays in cash or DVC. I can't imagine they will limit AP holders to 14 days of reservations over the next 11 months.

"All Annual Passholders are eligible to make Theme Park reservations for up to 3 days at a time, or Annual Passholders staying at select Disney Resort or other select hotels with valid Theme Park admission are eligible to make Theme Park reservations for their entire Resort length of stay. All reservations are subject to availability and applicable pass blockout dates. " - https://disneyworld.disney.go.com/en_CA/experience-updates/annual-passes/

I read the 14 day rule somewhere too. But this is straight from the WDW site. It seems to indicate that as long as you have a hotel reservation, you can book for the entire length of stay, which seems logical to me.

 

[Drewferin]

"All Annual Passholders are eligible to make Theme Park reservations for up to 3 days at a time, or Annual Passholders staying at select Disney Resort or other select hotels with valid Theme Park admission are eligible to make Theme Park reservations for their entire Resort length of stay. All reservations are subject to availability and applicable pass blockout dates. " - https://disneyworld.disney.go.com/en_CA/experience-updates/annual-passes/

I read the 14 day rule somewhere too. But this is straight from the WDW site. It seems to indicate that as long as you have a hotel reservation, you can book for the entire length of stay, which seems logical to me.

Thank goodness!! THANK YOU

 

[Lumpy1106]

OK, well, I guess I'll save someone some time on hold. I have the "4-Park Magic Ticket with Water Park and NBA Experience" tickets because the plan was to go to theme parks 4 days and a waterpark the 5th day. With waterparks closed we wanted to do a 5th theme park day, and I wanted to clear that up now so I could get reservations for parks on all 5 days on Monday. Chat is down, I sent an e-mail but that is supposed to take 5 days, so I called and waited on hold for about an hour. They can't do anything with it because ticket sales are closed. I might be able to fix it once ticket sales open up again but no telling when that will be. The CM hinted that guest services might be able to do something for me when I get on property - no telling; that is certainly the way things used to be.

I'm up for the adventure (It really does help to keep saying that out loud)

Hoping for a little pixie dust when we get there...

 

[Drewferin]

Definitely alot of info to digest today!! So many angles and lenses to read things through that I'm still figuring out how screwed or golden we will turn out. Chat feature doesn't seem to be staffed right now.

 

[momimouse27]

I posted this on the Rumors board, but I'll throw it out here as well. Here's our sad story (I know - plenty of people have them, but here's ours)

The statement about new ticket sales for 2020 not opening until later this summer is brutal.

Our son and his friends had a May trip planned at Copper Creek using our DVC points to celebrate college graduation. They moved it to June after the free dining offer dropped as we (wrongly!) assumed that meant WDW would be open. When it became clear that wasn't happening he moved it to Aug 1-8 but none of his friends could go that late in the summer.

So - rounded up three more guys, added them to the reservation, and removed the original guys. The new guys decided to wait to buy tickets until they knew WDW would actually be open, which at the time seemed like a responsible decision for three recent college grads with limited funds. Of course, as we all know once Disney finally announced the dates they halted ticket sales. So none of them, other than my son, has tickets. All of the original guys on the reservation have long since asked for and received refunds for their tickets so we can't even go the reassign route.

I guess the only thing we can do now is have our son make his reservations ASAP, then wait until Disney decides to reopen 2020 ticket sales. Fortunately, as our son has tickets he should be able to at least check park reservation availability before asking his buddies to fork out the cash for tickets. Though I'm not too hopeful that there will be much left over after literally everyone on the planet with some type of ticket has already booked their park reservations.

I'm pretty ticked off that DVC allowed members to continue to make room reservations after WDW cut off cash reservations last month. And yes, I know that having a DVC room reservation does not guarantee entrance to the parks - so please spare me the reminder. However, after the whole June 1 Free Dining debacle, I couldn't imagine Disney being so obtuse as to allow DVC members to continue to make reservations knowing it would be very difficult if not impossible to actually get into the parks. We are new DVC members, and right now while I'm trying my best to stay positive, I'm not feeling the Disney or DVC love.

So sorry about your son's situation. As if losing all the fun perks of graduating wasn't enough, now this! We are in almost the same boat. We rented DVC points, for the first time ever, to stay September 26-Oct. 3. Got a 2 BDR Kidani village room with 8 people going. Bought my two daughters and their bff MNSSHP tickets(which are now useless). The plan was to buy our tickets(which are military tickets because my mom and dad both have military credentials) in May and of course bases are closed, ITT is closed and ticket sales have been halted. Now we have no tickets, no Halloween party, and a beautiful resort room to stay in(that we are stuck using for those exact dates because we rented) and no tickets in order to make a park reservation. I have been planning for a year and a half. I picked this time to enjoy Halloween stuff. I'm desperately trying to look on the positive side and be hopeful that we'll still be able to get tickets, and a park reservation but I am super depressed about it right now. IDK who is running the show over there, but they're screwing up an already screwed up situation for some people.

 

[CanadaDisney05]

So sorry about your son's situation. As if losing all the fun perks of graduating wasn't enough, now this! We are in almost the same boat. We rented DVC points, for the first time ever, to stay September 26-Oct. 3. Got a 2 BDR Kidani village room with 8 people going. Bought my two daughters and their bff MNSSHP tickets(which are now useless). The plan was to buy our tickets(which are military tickets because my mom and dad both have military credentials) in May and of course bases are closed, ITT is closed and ticket sales have been halted. Now we have no tickets, no Halloween party, and a beautiful resort room to stay in(that we are stuck using for those exact dates because we rented) and no tickets in order to make a park reservation. I have been planning for a year and a half. I picked this time to enjoy Halloween stuff. I'm desperately trying to look on the positive side and be hopeful that we'll still be able to get tickets, and a park reservation but I am super depressed about it right now. IDK who is running the show over there, but they're screwing up an already screwed up situation for some people.

This is just my opinion, but I think by the time you go tickets will be back on sale. I don't expect the parks will hit their "limited capacity" too often as I assume that number will keep going up provided we don't see any more spikes. I really don't think there will be too many people with resort reservations that won't be able to get into the parks outside of maybe the first month or so.

 

[Meriweather]

I read that AP holders with resort stays will be limited to only 14 days of reservations... If this is true this isn't good. I have 10 days scheduled in Aug, 7 days in Dec and 9 days in May. This is a total of 26 days all with hotel stays in cash or DVC. I can't imagine they will limit AP holders to 14 days of reservations over the next 11 months.

We have 13 days in Dec. and 10 days in March.
Hope they don't limit us for days.

 

[momimouse27]

This is just my opinion, but I think by the time you go tickets will be back on sale. I don't expect the parks will hit their "limited capacity" too often as I assume that number will keep going up provided we don't see any more spikes. I really don't think there will be too many people with resort reservations that won't be able to get into the parks outside of maybe the first month or so.

I hope you're right. That is the little spark of hope I am holding on to.

 

[Doingitagain]

Another issue is the whole "Select a time" portion of the reservation. On top of being limited to know park, which is the correct thing to do IMO, we are also being given a time window that we can be in the park?

If we are limited to one resort, we better at least be able to be in the park the entire day. If not, then the price of tickets better reflect the limited amount of access.

I believe they have starting times to stagger guest arrival and avoid queuing up at rope drop, and to help stagger transportation. Indeed, some could get a couple less hours in the park, which is problematic with the reduced hours already.

Has anyone seen what time the reservations will be available on June 22nd? Is it 7AM EST like all other things?

I have seen 7:00AM EST, and that it is on web browser -- computer or phone -- but not on the app. It was from Twitter, so probably a TA, not directly from Disney. I plan to be ready with both...
People have started receiving emails about booking on June 22, but I haven't yet.

 

[WilsonFlyer]

I'm back to what I said a month ago. There's no way they are going to not allow resort guests (ESPECIALLY DVC members and guests with a resort reservation) to buy tickets for the party staying there. My bet would be further clarification is coming. If they don't , they're going to be shocked at cancellations in the DVC resorts, essentially the only thing that's open. If all they want is local APs, it's all well and fine, but I'm betting a surprising number of DVC members are NOT AP holders and certainly DVC members often bring guests that most certainly are not.

There are going to be a lot of DVC members unwilling to travel that far for a resort-only stay, points lost or not. It's not going to matter. We may be willing, but the Dis is only a small subset of DVC and a very definable microcosm of DVC that is much different from the average DVC member.

Disney missed the boat on their guinea pigs. They may think they have the numbers to back up what they're doing, but my bet is they're going to have to punt on this one.

 

[Pens Fan]

So sorry about your son's situation. As if losing all the fun perks of graduating wasn't enough, now this! We are in almost the same boat. We rented DVC points, for the first time ever, to stay September 26-Oct. 3. Got a 2 BDR Kidani village room with 8 people going. Bought my two daughters and their bff MNSSHP tickets(which are now useless). The plan was to buy our tickets(which are military tickets because my mom and dad both have military credentials) in May and of course bases are closed, ITT is closed and ticket sales have been halted. Now we have no tickets, no Halloween party, and a beautiful resort room to stay in(that we are stuck using for those exact dates because we rented) and no tickets in order to make a park reservation. I have been planning for a year and a half. I picked this time to enjoy Halloween stuff. I'm desperately trying to look on the positive side and be hopeful that we'll still be able to get tickets, and a park reservation but I am super depressed about it right now. IDK who is running the show over there, but they're screwing up an already screwed up situation for some people.

I'm so sorry! That stinks! I just got off an online chat with DVC member services (useless waste of time). She did say that there were many people in our situation and she was sorry about it. Can't say it made me feel any better.

 

[WilsonFlyer]

I'm so sorry! That stinks! I just got off an online chat with DVC member services (useless waste of time). She did say that there were many people in our situation and she was sorry about it. Can't say it made me feel any better.

There are going to be a lot of those calls. See my post above yours. This only serves to further back up what I said above.

 

[Pens Fan]

I'm back to what I said a month ago. There's no way they are going to not allow resort guests (ESPECIALLY DVC members and guests with a resort reservation) to buy tickets for the party staying there. My bet would be further clarification is coming. If they don't , they're going to be shocked at cancellations in the DVC resorts, essentially the only thing that's open. If all they want is local APs, it's all well and fine, but I'm betting a surprising number of DVC members are NOT AP holders and certainly DVC members often bring guests that most certainly are not.

There are going to be a lot of DVC members unwilling to travel that far for a resort-only stay, points lost or not. It's not going to matter. We may be willing, but the Dis is only a small subset of DVC and a very definable microcosm of DVC that is way different from the average DVC member.

Disney missed the boat on their guinea pigs. They may think they have the numbers to back up what they're doing, but my bet is they're going to have to punt on this one.

Up until this morning I would agree with you. Basically what I was told by member services was that they "assumed" we could buy tickets at some date yet to be named, but made zero guarantees on park reservations. It all depends on what's left whenever they get around to reopening 2020 ticket sales.

What really ticks me off is that they are STILL selling AP's as we speak. So if my son's friends could afford and had a use for (no on both accounts) AP's they could buy them, link them on MDE and make park reservations Monday morning. But because they can't do that, Disney won't sell them a 7 day ticket - only an AP. That stinks. It stinks badly.

 

[Doingitagain]

It sounds like they are allowing everyone currently with tickets to get reservations, then they will make a decision on allowing more 2020 tickets to be sold. They will be monitoring capacity and availability. Thinking through it, at this point, what else could you do? Offer refunds for tickets if your whole party can't get in -- are they doing that?

ETA: It really is not fair that they are continuing to sell APs!!!

 

[ajksmom]

I don’t see a problem with them still selling APs at this point. The problem is paying that price for a reduced product!!

 

[kboo]

OK, well, I guess I'll save someone some time on hold. I have the "4-Park Magic Ticket with Water Park and NBA Experience" tickets because the plan was to go to theme parks 4 days and a waterpark the 5th day. With waterparks closed we wanted to do a 5th theme park day, and I wanted to clear that up now so I could get reservations for parks on all 5 days on Monday. Chat is down, I sent an e-mail but that is supposed to take 5 days, so I called and waited on hold for about an hour. They can't do anything with it because ticket sales are closed. I might be able to fix it once ticket sales open up again but no telling when that will be. The CM hinted that guest services might be able to do something for me when I get on property - no telling; that is certainly the way things used to be.

I'm up for the adventure (It really does help to keep saying that out loud)

Hoping for a little pixie dust when we get there...

I like your attitude! I've been on hold for 30 minutes so far, after a chat session that was unhelpful. 3 of the 4 of us have APs that have now been extended to Feb 15, 2021. My 4yo, who started with her AP off-sync with us because of when she turned 3, only got her AP extended to August 15. Our August stay starts on August 29. The chat session implied, but did not say, that we should make reservations for the 3 of us who have APs, and then hope (?) assume (?) that once we renew her AP (which of course can't be renewed now) we can add her on to our park reservation. I guess it's that or we tell her to go do EP and F&W by herself. She's pretty precocious and she'll be almost 5, so that should work out fine, especially since I'm guessing that MK will be the park most likely to book up.

Of course, I just booked a Feb 2021 trip and the remaining 3 of our APs expires in the middle of that trip. So then I suppose the 5yo can reserve all the parks she wants and we will have to wait until January sometime and hope we can reserve the same parks? What a mess.

ETA: It really is not fair that they are continuing to sell APs!!!

This makes me wonder if I should just aim to get all 4 of us on the same AP schedule by renewing/buying AP to start in February. Maybe we'll just tell our 4yo that, for her, August is a resort-only trip while the rest of us go to the parks.

I'm back to what I said a month ago. There's no way they are going to not allow resort guests (ESPECIALLY DVC members and guests with a resort reservation) to buy tickets for the party staying there. My bet would be further clarification is coming. If they don't , they're going to be shocked at cancellations in the DVC resorts, essentially the only thing that's open. If all they want is local APs, it's all well and fine, but I'm betting a surprising number of DVC members are NOT AP holders and certainly DVC members often bring guests that most certainly are not.
...

DVC guests coming from afar are more likely to spend while on site, too. I hope more clarification comes next week.

I'm so sorry! That stinks! I just got off an online chat with DVC member services (useless waste of time). She did say that there were many people in our situation and she was sorry about it. Can't say it made me feel any better.

Yep. Chat was unhelpful. Not sure an actual call with MS will be any more helpful. Luckily I was able to make some DVC reservations for February, but maybe we will wait until April 2021.

 

[Drewferin]

Just got off the phone with Disney after a 1 hr wait on hold... They couldn't completely answer any of my 3 questions.
1) Can Gold APs make theme park reservations during black out dates (Planning on upgrading to Platinum)
2) Can unused 2 day park tickets still be used toward the upgrade from Gold to Platinum APs
3) Aug 4th checkin for a cash resort stay at a closed resort. When will I hear about which hotel they want to put me into and how much will it cost (35% discount due to DDP canellation)? Is this a free upgrade or will they expect me to pay the difference. Was in Caribbean Beach (Moderate resort for 5 nights).

 

[Ariel 1715]

Ok, can someone help me understand. So we have a DVC res and park hopper passes. All attached to MDE. Will I be able to make park reservations and just not use the hopper aspect and make reservations for one park per day?

 

[kboo]

Just got off the phone with Disney after a 1 hr wait on hold... They couldn't completely answer any of my 3 questions.
1) Can Gold APs make theme park reservations during black out dates (Planning on upgrading to Platinum)
2) Can unused 2 day park tickets still be used toward the upgrade from Gold to Platinum APs
3) Aug 4th checkin for a cash resort stay at a closed resort. When will I hear about which hotel they want to put me into and how much will it cost (35% discount due to DDP canellation)? Is this a free upgrade or will they expect me to pay the difference. Was in Caribbean Beach (Moderate resort for 5 nights).

)
I thought there was messaging somewhere (sorry, too lazy to look up right now as I have my own questions...! ) that cash stays were being moved to a DVC resort, and that you'd have the option to:
A - stay with that resort, (hoping you'll get to try out Riviera?)
B - "upgrade" to another DVC resort (depending on availability, and agree to pay the $ difference), or
C - get a refund...

I just got off the phone after a 45 min wait and the CM was pleasant and tried to be helpful. We are now within the window (just!) of renewing the 4yo's AP, so if we renewed, we'd be able to make her park reservations for our 8/29 stay. BUT in the longer run, I want to get her AP on the same renewal cycle as our other APs, which are now set to expire in the middle of the Feb '21 trip I just booked. I might have a 5-day ticket lying around and if I can find it and link it, could reserve 5 park days for her and then throw caution to the winds and hope for the best when we upgrade the ticket and get her an AP when we renew in February. WHO KNOWS.

I give up. I may make park reservations for just the 3 of us and throw ourselves on the mercy of Guest Relations when ticket sales open up.