Some major problems I see with current WDW park and ride access processes

[HydroGuy]

1. Park reservations

We left WDW on Sunday. Many flights were canceled on Saturday because of bad weather. Our flight had been canceled too for Sunday but a week in advance so we had gotten booked on another flight for Sunday. We got out OK and on time. But we did get a good offer to give up our seats on Sunday and go on a later flight on Monday or Tuesday - which we declined. But let's assume we were one of the ones who got canceled and had to stay an extra day or two in Orlando. Any self-respecting Disney fan would say "hey, if we are stuck here maybe we can go back for another day or two at the parks!". Nope, the parks were all sold out!

Also, while we got lucky with weather while in Florida over 10 days (we spent 5 days in the Keys), our luck ran out on Saturday. Which was our Epcot day. We made good use of our rain ponchos as I believe 4 inches of rain fell that day. It really was not much fun but Epcot is the best park to be in on a rainy day as almost everything is inside. And we got our TT ride at 10AM before the rain started and TT closed down for the day (at around 1:30PM I believe).

If we had planned an MK day that day, I would have thought about pivoting to Epcot because of the rain forecast. Or maybe taking a rest day that day and see a movie and doing MK the following day on what may have been a planned rest day. But nope! Epcot and MK were sold out. So no flexibility.

Suggestion to Disney is to allow some flexibility here on park reservations. I understand the reasoning behind the current system - but it really sucks if your travel plans get disrupted or there is bad weather and you want to move your park days around.


2. Lightning Lane return windows and ADRs and park criss-crossing

This process forced us to walk from the IG entrance at the back of Epcot to FW at the front of Epcot, then to the back again for a lunch ADR at Via Napoli and Remy, then to the front again for Space 220 ADR at 3PM and a few other rides. Then finally to the back again to return to Dolphin. Starting at about 1:30PM it was all in a downpour of rain. Who wants to do that? Epcot is big enough as it is! We walked the length 4 times on Saturday and twice in pouring rain.

I understand all the reasons for ADRs and charging you $10 per person for a no show, and the reason for Lighting Lanes and return windows, but I would love for there to be a way to move things around and not crunch you into inflexible time slots for ADRs and LLs. Which then can force you to criss-cross huge parks like Epcot multiple times like we did.

At MK last Friday we got more lucky and did not have to criss-cross much at all. That just felt so much nicer.

 

[FCDub]

Have you written Disney about this?

 

[IndyToThere]

In general, I'm a fan of Park Reservations if used right. I don't like crowded parks (like anyone else), so controlling the volume with a reservation system makes sense. I do agree though that some flexibility would help for those that have trips already reserved and/or are staying on site. We had a brief issue on our trip last week that thankfully a resort castmember took care for us:

Wife and myself are APs, our son is not. The 3 of us had reservations for Hollywood Studios on a Thurs (and we were staying onsite for a few days), while we were planning on hitting Typhoon Lagoon on another day. With the weather forecast, we decided that Thurs would be better for the water park and HS better on the day there was a chance of rain. I checked park availability first, then changed our APs for HS to Fri. Then canceled my son's regular ticket reservation. When attempting to reserve the Fri for my son, there was no availability... apparently APs have different park availability than regular tickets, which I didn't know about. We were stuck in a pickle at the point as I had canceled our Thurs plans. (again, the resort CM was able to resolve, but I feel we shouldn't have had to deal with that in the first place)

 

[snikki]

On our local news they had families stranded going to Disney. A few families were so upset that they lost 2 days on their trip but couldn’t add on to the end because Disney’s parks are “full” and they are unable to get in.

We once had a bad flight delay that made us lose a day. We were able to shuffle stuff around and make it up pre park reservation days.

 

[MakiraMarlena]

those who lost days due to flight cancellations and couldn't book the extra days in the parks (and I assume they had multi-day tickets), did they try talking to CMs at the resorts or at Guest Relations? (yes it is inconvenient to have to do that and not just walk into any park you want, but they could possibly fix them up with park reservations so they don't lose the days. It's going to have to be done, because the park reservations are not going away)

 

[Princesca]

My primary objection to G+ is that you do enough walking at Disney as it is without pinballing back and forth across the parks to get whatever G+ selections happen to become available. At least with FP+ you could choose attractions in the area you were going to be at a chosen time and plan around that.

 

[lurkernj]

Another thing that I really hadn't thought about prior to my trip (also this past weekend), was the inability to park hop until 2. Being AP holders and having no kids with us, we tend to be done in the parks early (this happened on our MK and DHS days, done by 11:30) and would have liked to head to Epcot to enjoy the flower and garden festival for lunch, but couldn't get in until 2. On our MK day we sat around and people watched, wandered around the stores, and finally headed over by monorail around 1:30. On our DHS day, we ended up back at the Dolphin pool bar for lunch, which was a loss for disney and myself as I would have preferred to be at the festival, but didn't want to wait til 2 to eat again.

I hate this inflexibility they have created. We have been huge disney fans for years, but I'm not excited to go back anytime soon. Once our APs expire, I think we are done for awhile.

 

[revdon64]

In general, I'm a fan of Park Reservations if used right. I don't like crowded parks (like anyone else), so controlling the volume with a reservation system makes sense. I do agree though that some flexibility would help for those that have trips already reserved and/or are staying on site. We had a brief issue on our trip last week that thankfully a resort castmember took care for us:

Wife and myself are APs, our son is not. The 3 of us had reservations for Hollywood Studios on a Thurs (and we were staying onsite for a few days), while we were planning on hitting Typhoon Lagoon on another day. With the weather forecast, we decided that Thurs would be better for the water park and HS better on the day there was a chance of rain. I checked park availability first, then changed our APs for HS to Fri. Then canceled my son's regular ticket reservation. When attempting to reserve the Fri for my son, there was no availability... apparently APs have different park availability than regular tickets, which I didn't know about. We were stuck in a pickle at the point as I had canceled our Thurs plans. (again, the resort CM was able to resolve, but I feel we shouldn't have had to deal with that in the first place)

We were just there a few weeks ago and there was zero evidence that park reservations were making the parks uncrowded. In fact, it was the most crowded I have ever seen the parks in fifteen years or so. It's honestly hard to imagine that park reservations are anything more than a way to more efficiently staff the parks by knowing exactly how many people to expect and thus how many staff to schedule. Short on staff? Don't hire more, just lower capacity!

 

[recmouse]

We used Genie+ plus once and were completely disenchanted and will never use it again. It's not flexible at all. Having to get up early on my vacation to try and get LL's was not fun. As far as park reservations... having been to WDW in September, October, December and March - I think they are pretty much a joke. The parks are just as crowded as they were pre-Covid.

 

[Kingoglow]

I totally agree that Genie+ and Dining reservations are at odds with one another though. Families have to make a decision in real-time (with the in-park stresses) whether to get changed $10 per person for missing a dining reservation or losing out on $7-$15 per person for skipping a ILL, or losing some value on the $15 per person charge for buying Genie+ for LLs.

Why would I make a dining reservation and risk missing it or missing value elsewhere by purchasing Genie+?

Bring this up (nicely) to Guest Relations and also bring this up (nicely) at your restaurants.

 

[snikki]

We’ve decided to only make 4 ADRs our entire 10 day trip due to G+ timing. I will save much more than what G+ will cost me. If we want same day ADRs we will do that but there’s tons of QS and lounges we want to try anyway.

 

[HydroGuy]

Have you written Disney about this?

Not yet. I have been gone for 2 weeks and am playing catchup at work and barely had time to write this here. But I will.

 

[barbarabini]

The park reservation system doesn't seem a service to manage reduced park capacity but a system to ensure that they don't over staff parks and ensure that they meet their sales targets. For example, you need to staff Epcot and meet sales quotas there. But if few people want to go to Epcot that day, you are wasting staff and missing sales targets.. Instead, have MK at "capacity" and force people over to Epcot because no other park has availability. My take - it sucks. Now, I have tickets but must visit a park Im not into or just waste the ticket day.

 

[Day-al]

We’ve decided to only make 4 ADRs our entire 10 day trip due to G+ timing. I will save much more than what G+ will cost me. If we want same day ADRs we will do that but there’s tons of QS and lounges we want to try anyway.

I like your strategy! I truly enjoy a good lounge!

 

[xipotec]

My primary objection to G+ is that you do enough walking at Disney as it is without pinballing back and forth across the parks to get whatever G+ selections happen to become available. At least with FP+ you could choose attractions in the area you were going to be at a chosen time and plan around that.

I agree totally. As we love to plan out day around certain lands…

But Disney does not care about your plans., they care about maximizing attendance and trying to move through as many park goers as possible on as many rides as possible, so they can claim G+ works for the guest.

 

[g-dad66]

Let's hope that WDW gets back soon to pre-Covid days when the only time a park ever filled to capacity was MK (during perhaps 2 or 3 days between Christmas and New Years, and then only for a few hours).

I have no problem with park reservations as long as they are available. The fact that they are so limited now suggests to me that WDW is just not back to the capacity limits that they used to have (and hopefully will have again in the near future).

 

[kathy884]

I guess we just deal with each new iteration or don't go. But for sure, feel free to give WDW feedback.

I agree that talking to a CM in exception situations, like weather related stuff is the way to go for exceptions. Usually Disney CMs are really helpful for situations like that. And there is always travel insurance (at a cost) if you want to protect yourself against non-refundable expenses.

I thought the parks were crowded enough on Spring Break weeks, so am not super keen to have higher park capacity. Yes, I have been at more crowded times like Christmas week -- yuck.

For Lightening Lane for lots of criss crossing, just say no and don't do LLs that will make too much walking for you. Sometimes the time savings is just not worth the extra walking. I know the Touringplans people made a big deal out of that for the old FP system too. In Epcot in particular I saw touringplans report many LLs there don't get used because the park is so big and people can't get to them easily. In an early blog, I saw a recommendation not to use an LL unless if offered at least a 1/2 hour savings in waiting time.

 

[revdon64]

I thought the parks were crowded enough on Spring Break weeks, so am not super keen to have higher park capacity. Yes, I have been at more crowded times like Christmas week -- yuck.

In this case, I think higher capacity is more about reopening all the shows, parades, full-capacity on rides, etc. It means full employment, something Disney hasn't re-established yet. When everything is at full function in the park it feels less crowded because people are off the paths in rides, lines, and shows. When things aren't running at peak then the park is going to be crowded on the paths because people have no place to go. The evidence of that is that the parks have felt less crowded with more people in them than right now.

 

[snikki]

Hopefully with full character meets coming back that’ll help with lines and crowds.

 

[MICHAELB1]

1. Park reservations

We left WDW on Sunday. Many flights were canceled on Saturday because of bad weather. Our flight had been canceled too for Sunday but a week in advance so we had gotten booked on another flight for Sunday. We got out OK and on time. But we did get a good offer to give up our seats on Sunday and go on a later flight on Monday or Tuesday - which we declined. But let's assume we were one of the ones who got canceled and had to stay an extra day or two in Orlando. Any self-respecting Disney fan would say "hey, if we are stuck here maybe we can go back for another day or two at the parks!". Nope, the parks were all sold out!

Also, while we got lucky with weather while in Florida over 10 days (we spent 5 days in the Keys), our luck ran out on Saturday. Which was our Epcot day. We made good use of our rain ponchos as I believe 4 inches of rain fell that day. It really was not much fun but Epcot is the best park to be in on a rainy day as almost everything is inside. And we got our TT ride at 10AM before the rain started and TT closed down for the day (at around 1:30PM I believe).

If we had planned an MK day that day, I would have thought about pivoting to Epcot because of the rain forecast. Or maybe taking a rest day that day and see a movie and doing MK the following day on what may have been a planned rest day. But nope! Epcot and MK were sold out. So no flexibility.

Suggestion to Disney is to allow some flexibility here on park reservations. I understand the reasoning behind the current system - but it really sucks if your travel plans get disrupted or there is bad weather and you want to move your park days around.


2. Lightning Lane return windows and ADRs and park criss-crossing

This process forced us to walk from the IG entrance at the back of Epcot to FW at the front of Epcot, then to the back again for a lunch ADR at Via Napoli and Remy, then to the front again for Space 220 ADR at 3PM and a few other rides. Then finally to the back again to return to Dolphin. Starting at about 1:30PM it was all in a downpour of rain. Who wants to do that? Epcot is big enough as it is! We walked the length 4 times on Saturday and twice in pouring rain.

I understand all the reasons for ADRs and charging you $10 per person for a no show, and the reason for Lighting Lanes and return windows, but I would love for there to be a way to move things around and not crunch you into inflexible time slots for ADRs and LLs. Which then can force you to criss-cross huge parks like Epcot multiple times like we did.

At MK last Friday we got more lucky and did not have to criss-cross much at all. That just felt so much nicer.

I can appreciate park reservations, but I think it should know how many people are buying tickets, then average the number of people between the four parks, set a limit and then let anyone in that segment to reserve what they want. It should be ticket based, not reservation based, and if they limited the number of tickets versus reservation it would help everyone.