WDW APs are coming back baby!!

[Robo]

Would memory maker work on the first day if I upgraded to annual pass?

Yes. It would even “work” on day-one if you didn’t upgrade to AP until a later day in your trip.
The photos can always be taken whenever you are at WDW. It’s just that how you pay for them depends on the method you arrange. (If photos are included with an AP, that becomes retroactive after an upgrade. )

 

[Erica Ladd]

My concern is if they'll allow the transfer and preservation of Park Reservations. For example, if one day is all booked for APs, but open for ticket, but you upgrade, are you now screwed because they won't allow Passholder reservations. I assume you can ask/tell the ticket rep what to do and they can ensure you can get reservations, because pretty sure Disney's system recongizes Ticket vs Resort vs AP reservations.

Would suck if one of the drawbacks to upgrading to an AP from a ticket, you lose your reservation and you must book a reservation based on the fact that you're a new AP.

Im thinking it would be fine to transfer because you would either already have had a ticket for x amount of days they could transfer over or you have a resort reservation

 

[wfjny]

so on enchant key "up to 4 park reservation holds at a time"

Sorry if this is a stupid question, but does that mean i can only reserve 4 days at a time? so if i'm planning a 5 day trip, does that mean i should get park passes for my first 4 days, and on the second day i'm there i can reserve a pass for my 5th day?

So, this has been my biggest frustration. We are out of state WDW AP and DVC.

We generally do one week long trip in the summer, and stay at DVC. No issue there. You cam make reservations

The rest of the time, we tend to do long weekend trips, where we stay off-site, and often at a hotel I have some points or free nights.

As a WDW AP, you can reserve up to three days at a time.

We did a trip (I believe it was Labor Day weekend, where we planned to go to the parks for 4 days. We could only reserve 3. After the first day, there were no reservations available for any park on our fourth day. After the second day, still with nothing available, we decided to cut our vacation short. Canceled the last night at the hotel, and returned home after we spent our three days in the parks.

You cannot plan longer than a three day trip if you are staying off-site. That is frustrating as we have a few four and five day weekends where our kids are off from school that we cannot take full advantage of.

I keep hoping Disney will stop the reservation requirement, like basically every other amusement park company in the US has done. I believe Six Flags stopped in May, Cedar Fair stopped most parks in June, with a few lingering for a couple of weeks. Seaworld Parks and Entertainment (including Busch Gardens) stopped in July.

 

[mitsukoshi samurai]

So, this has been my biggest frustration. We are out of state WDW AP and DVC.

We generally do one week long trip in the summer, and stay at DVC. No issue there. You cam make reservations

The rest of the time, we tend to do long weekend trips, where we stay off-site, and often at a hotel I have some points or free nights.

As a WDW AP, you can reserve up to three days at a time.

We did a trip (I believe it was Labor Day weekend, where we planned to go to the parks for 4 days. We could only reserve 3. After the first day, there were no reservations available for any park on our fourth day. After the second day, still with nothing available, we decided to cut our vacation short. Canceled the last night at the hotel, and returned home after we spent our three days in the parks.

You cannot plan longer than a three day trip if you are staying off-site. That is frustrating as we have a few four and five day weekends where our kids are off from school that we cannot take full advantage of.

I keep hoping Disney will stop the reservation requirement, like basically every other amusement park company in the US has done. I believe Six Flags stopped in May, Cedar Fair stopped most parks in June, with a few lingering for a couple of weeks. Seaworld Parks and Entertainment (including Busch Gardens) stopped in July.

Reservations are permanment

 

[DavidNYC]

Wow! The $400 So. Cal local Key for Disneyland allows admission on only 145 day out of the entire year. The $950 key still blacks people out on 22 Saturdays during the year. These prices and access are outrageous for passes. A nearly $1000 pass that only includes half the weekends. I'm very glad I have four unactivated silver passes because I anticipate that Disney is about to go off on the deep end of pricing.

 

[raidermatt]

Y'all are assuming it will be business as usual, huh? My oh my. In the immortal words of "Ash"....you have my sympathies.

DL is essentially "business as usual". There are expected but not outlandish price increases and blackout date modifications, but otherwise, yes, business as usual. No reason to think WDW will be different.

 

[randumb0]

Wow! The $400 So. Cal local Key for Disneyland allows admission on only 145 day out of the entire year. The $950 key still blacks people out on 22 Saturdays during the year. These prices and access are outrageous for passes. A nearly $1000 pass that only includes half the weekends. I'm very glad I have four unactivated silver passes because I anticipate that Disney is about to go off on the deep end of pricing.

If the silver equivalent ends up having more blackout dates won't you also have those additional blackout dates when you activate?

 

[wfjny]

Reservations are permanment

Sadly, I think you are right.

Although, on later trips it does appear that one can came a reservation for one of the parks on any given day. And with Parkhopping, you can get to any other park after 2:00.

So, a marginal improvement, but still not the "spontaneous lifestyle" we were used to.

In the past, on a few occasions, we have been able to plan a quick weekend trip the Monday or Tuesday before.

My frustration now, I have three days planned for October. If somehow a September trip should come up (we often plan a last minute trip, and/or often meet up with family/friends that are going to WDW), I would need to cancel at least one of the days we have planned later.

The reservation systems has definitely changed how we "Do Disney".

 

[fumanchu2488]

DL is essentially "business as usual". There are expected but not outlandish price increases and blackout date modifications, but otherwise, yes, business as usual. No reason to think WDW will be different.

In general, it seems to be business as usual topically. The cost even decreased.

The only thing that is still not very clear is how the reservation system works with pools or buckets of availability. Like, are all passholders in one big bucket of available spaces so that there is a separate bucket for day pass or multi-day ticket guests? If so, will there be enough space to get the reservation you want? That would be my only concern. That they are going to sell 50,000 passes (completely made up number) and only have 10,000 pass reservations in each park (20,000 total....another completely made up number) for each day. My point is, it could be very difficult to get these reservations for any level of pass.

Lastly, I have only visited DL one time for a day last year just before lockdown. It was very odd to me the dynamic of the park. Much less vacation/tourists and a lot of regulars or locals. It felt more like a childrens museum or park than a vacation. Which is fine, but I could see how Disney has a completely different feeling with AP from DL versus WDW. I would guess AP holders make up 50 - 75% or more of the guests the day I went.

 

[ashley0139]

I am so anxious for them to just announce details already! I want my pass! I've been waiting since July of last year to be able to buy one.

 

[RoseGold]

I am so anxious for them to just announce details already! I want my pass! I've been waiting since July of last year to be able to buy one.

I KNOW! I bought DVC planning to buy an AP in May 2020 . This is the announcement I keep looking for. It’s got to be coming soon!

 

[Anal Annie]

I am so anxious for them to just announce details already! I want my pass! I've been waiting since July of last year to be able to buy one.

I just hope they start selling before Oct 1st. We've got a 7 day hopper purchased for our trip the last week in Sept for the 50th. But our last day is Oct 2nd. I'd like to be able upgrade from the beginning of the trip so we can have all the benefits the entire week.