Park Reservation Strategies

[TheBigErn]

I haven't been paying attention to all of the new procedures regarding tickets and park reservations until now. I just booked SSR for May 2022. Two basic questions.

1. How do you decide which parks on which days if your making reservations months in advance?
2. How far in advance do you make your park reservations?

 

[MomOTwins]

I haven't been paying attention to all of the new procedures regarding tickets and park reservations until now. I just booked SSR for May 2022. Two basic questions.

1. How do you decide which parks on which days if your making reservations months in advance?
2. How far in advance do you make your park reservations?

I make them as soon as I book the trip and then modify at 60 days based on dining reservations. Generally avoid MK on weekends but I don’t strategize beyond that.

 

[kmrobins03]

Based on what I have seen, DHS and MK seem to get full before Epcot and AK. I suggest to make your reservations for DHS and MK first

 

[gharter]

I make them as soon as I book the trip and then modify at 60 days based on dining reservations. Generally avoid MK on weekends but I don’t strategize beyond that.

That has been our strategy as well. Make your best guess as to which park you will be in on each day and get you park reservations. Once you have ADRs, modify as needed.

 

[Eastern]

I make the park reservations as soon as possible. You can probably adjust later if you think of something else but good to have something in place.

Avoid DHS and MK on weekends. Avoid Epcot F&W on Friday/Saturday nights. Consider arrival day and departure day logisitics. I usually start and end at the parks closest to our hotel. In the days in between I vary the parks so we don't reserve the same one two days in a row. Consider that if you want a hard to get ADR (Topolino's, CRT, CG when it opens, etc, you may want to have that park pass day later in your trip for easier booking, or near where the park you have reserved for geographical logistics. Consider if your family does not want to go to a certain park at all: maybe you can just leave that for possible hopping.

Doing all of this means your schedule will work itself out with only a few other optional choices having to be made.

 

[MediumSizedMermaid]

Book your park reservations ASAP. If you care about ROTR I'd book at least two DHS days then if you get a Boarding Group for the first day wait UNTIL YOU HAVE RIDDEN (BGs are not guaranteed to be called, breakdowns, etc.) and then cancel the second and continually try and refresh to get your desired park for day 2. (Unless you love ROTR so much you want to try for a second go. Then leave Reservation as-is and Day 1 Advice still applies.) A lot of people make last second changes. Worst comes to worst they usually release more slots day of an hour or two after park opening. That said there IS an inherent risk. I probably would not try it on ultra-peak times and days like Oct 1st, Christmas-New Years, July 4th etc.

Day 1 hop as desired. If you have a late-day BG I recommend World Showcase at Epcot. It's like 12 minutes by Skyliner back to Studios entrance. If you don't get a Boarding Group at all I'd suggest hopping to MK or AK. If you've ridden ROTR pre-hopping go wherever you want. If you get a really late BG and have A LOT of time to kill before your estimated return (3 hours or more) you could walk down to Future World from International Gateway and work your way back around.

If you don't get a BG day one you have two more chances built in. Day 2 either start at DHS again to try and nab a BG or at Desired Park #2. Same hopping advice applies if you get a BG. If you're not starting at Studios I recommend hopping anywhere but there. If you don't get a BG again or you're starting at Park #2. hop wherever else you most want to go.

 

[ZeeWP]

As soon as I buy my tickets.

Unfortunately, I have people in my party who may back out.

Thankfully, our trip isn't till November 2022, so We have some time. But we plan on Buying tickets in May and park reservations before Summer starts.