WDW Park Planning - May 2021

[KGolf31]

Hey everyone!

Clearly I'm way far out from this trip and especially with current times I'm probably a bit proactive (to a fault) on planning everything out right now. However trip anxiety is hitting me pretty hard and just want to get my eggs in a basket come time I don't second guess every decision I do, so I'd rather leave it up to the pros.

Currently planning a trip May 9-17th. 4 Nights @ Boardwalk Villas, 4 Nights @ Universal Loews Pacific for 2 people. Hotel accommodations are already taken care of

Disney side of things - Plan currently is to do 4 park days. Naturally, growing up with my family in our previous visits we'd always do Park-Hopper. This is ideally what I'd like to do but given current guidelines I understand this is a no-go, and from what I've been able to read up on so far is that there is 0 certainty that this is even feasible for May of 2021, in my case. I'm currently trying to hold off on any ticket purchase (and paying attention to park reservation availability) until I have a better understanding of what the actual action plan is from Disney

1. Worst case, I'm forced to buy tickets to ensure park reservations - Can I purchase a non-park hopper ticket and upgrade to a park hopper later on? Would you rather recommend me purchasing park hopper and asking for a refund later?

I also understand FP+ is currently unavailable and is a massive unknown if/when it'll actually return. Lots of speculation, but that's a 60 days out type of thing anyways. I can be anxious about that later

Dining reservations. I "think" they're currently only scheduling to end of 2020. I am not aware of any plan for 2021 yet.

2. As of now is it safe to assume that the 30 day booking window for dining is going to be a standard going forward? Obviously I'm going to be coming right up on typical 6mo window.
3. Are restaurants at other resorts such as California Grill open? Are certain restaurants even able to allow sit-down dining? Perhaps I missed specific threads on this with regards to availability so my apologies.

Lastly, my parents were offered complimentary tickets last year due to RotR that are linked to their MDE account. They're at the age (especially now in this COVID era) where travel back to WDW is slim to none.

4. Has anyone ever had success on transferring a complimentary ticket to another MDE account? Obviously I realize this is a "call Disney" action, but I don't want to set myself with unrealistic expectations (also this links back to how many tickets I need to purchase come time).

If I'm missing anything of importance you think I should consider. please link me the way. I understand during these times things are very dynamic, and maybe this post is a bit overkill. I'd rather over plan rather than under.

Thanks!

 

[DebLovesPooh]

I am planning for April 2021 and totally hear what you’re saying!

I would buy them regular tickets than park hoppers right now. The reason is I would rather wait in line to add park hoppers than to wait in line to request a refund and then wait some more for a refund.

Dining reservations are 60-days out. If you’re staying onsite, it’s 60+ days of your reservation.

I’ve been reading the restaurants thread here on the Dis almost every day to stay on top of things. https://www.disboards.com/forums/disney-restaurants.14/

I don’t know anything about the comp ticket. I hope someone has the answer for you. Good luck!

Deb

 

[DizneeRailFan62]

I'm currently booked for the later half of March 2021 and am very concerned about the latest round of show performer layoffs in WDW. I'm in Nevada and desperately need my annual Disney fix, but California state government isn't cooperating, so I'm flying cross county for my dose. Looks like a majority of live shows, not to mention parades and fireworks, will not be happening during my visit. I'll even be lucky if our favorite table service fine dining restaurants are serving, even outside. Guess I'm looking for some positive news from someone in the know. I'm not cancelling (but I did get the insurance so I'm covered if they cancel on me), but it sure would be a dismal vacation without the shows, parades and fireworks. Can anyone throw me a lifeline here? Anyone?...Bueller?

Derek in North Las Vegas, NV

 

[kimberwee]

We are also planning for May!
IMO, I would buy the regular tickets and then upgrade later. You can do this in the parks or by phone, ahead of time.
Also, as others have mentioned, Dining is 60 days out.
Because the booking window is still several weeks away, there may be many changes as to what is available between now and then. I would loosely make plans on where you would like to dine and then be willing to adjust your park days accordingly.

 

[KGolf31]

We are also planning for May!
IMO, I would buy the regular tickets and then upgrade later. You can do this in the parks or by phone, ahead of time.
Also, as others have mentioned, Dining is 60 days out.
Because the booking window is still several weeks away, there may be many changes as to what is available between now and then. I would loosely make plans on where you would like to dine and then be willing to adjust your park days accordingly.

Makes sense, thanks for the advice! We'll go ahead and grab regular tickets at some point to ensure park reservations and upgrade later if we're fortunate enough to park hop.

 

[Blondie58]

Planning is half the fun!! The other half is a smooth trip doing what you wish to do. I do not think you are planning out too soon.
1. We have upgraded at Guest Services from regular to park-hopper and from day passes to an annual pass.
2. No one has the crystal ball although many folks do speculate. Does the Disney organization even know?
3. Cali Grill is open.
4. We have never transferred a ticket BUT we used tickets that were left over from the 1980s. We were able to go to Guest Services and they put the days left from our paper passes "back in the day" to our Magic Bands. I asked to keep the paper ticket so they marked them VOID in bold black on the back. (Finding the old file with tickets was great. Just like collecting interest on money!) lol.

 

[Shellyred8]

Hey everyone!

Clearly I'm way far out from this trip and especially with current times I'm probably a bit proactive (to a fault) on planning everything out right now. However trip anxiety is hitting me pretty hard and just want to get my eggs in a basket come time I don't second guess every decision I do, so I'd rather leave it up to the pros.

Currently planning a trip May 9-17th. 4 Nights @ Boardwalk Villas, 4 Nights @ Universal Loews Pacific for 2 people. Hotel accommodations are already taken care of

Disney side of things - Plan currently is to do 4 park days. Naturally, growing up with my family in our previous visits we'd always do Park-Hopper. This is ideally what I'd like to do but given current guidelines I understand this is a no-go, and from what I've been able to read up on so far is that there is 0 certainty that this is even feasible for May of 2021, in my case. I'm currently trying to hold off on any ticket purchase (and paying attention to park reservation availability) until I have a better understanding of what the actual action plan is from Disney

1. Worst case, I'm forced to buy tickets to ensure park reservations - Can I purchase a non-park hopper ticket and upgrade to a park hopper later on? Would you rather recommend me purchasing park hopper and asking for a refund later?

I also understand FP+ is currently unavailable and is a massive unknown if/when it'll actually return. Lots of speculation, but that's a 60 days out type of thing anyways. I can be anxious about that later

Dining reservations. I "think" they're currently only scheduling to end of 2020. I am not aware of any plan for 2021 yet.

2. As of now is it safe to assume that the 30 day booking window for dining is going to be a standard going forward? Obviously I'm going to be coming right up on typical 6mo window.
3. Are restaurants at other resorts such as California Grill open? Are certain restaurants even able to allow sit-down dining? Perhaps I missed specific threads on this with regards to availability so my apologies.

Lastly, my parents were offered complimentary tickets last year due to RotR that are linked to their MDE account. They're at the age (especially now in this COVID era) where travel back to WDW is slim to none.

4. Has anyone ever had success on transferring a complimentary ticket to another MDE account? Obviously I realize this is a "call Disney" action, but I don't want to set myself with unrealistic expectations (also this links back to how many tickets I need to purchase come time).

If I'm missing anything of importance you think I should consider. please link me the way. I understand during these times things are very dynamic, and maybe this post is a bit overkill. I'd rather over plan rather than under.

Thanks!

1. Word on the street is that Park Reservations will be in place until at least 2022. I would recommend buying non-park hopper tickets now and making your park reservations now. Keep in mind that HS park reservations "sell-out" faster than any of the other parks. So, choose that date carefully and plan to stick with it. The other parks can usually be moved around without much problem during non-peak times (at least based on what I've noticed thus far).

2. I would guess it will be in place through most of 2021.
3. Some of the restaurants at other resorts are open. Some are not. It seems like the resorts where the hotel side is open have more restaurants open. So, the GF and YC restaurants are open. But AKL and WL don't have all of theirs open.

Happy planning!