When to book park reservations??

jliucci

Mouseketeer
Joined
Apr 13, 2009
Messages
307
Hello All,

Our family hasn’t been to Disney World since Sept 2019 so the park reservations are new to us. We are going back in Nov 2022 and I was wondering how early you typically make your park reservations? Also, can someone please explain how the park reservations work with the park hoppers? Do I need to schedule 2 reservations each day?
Thank you 😊
 
You only need one park res a day. Once you go to that park, you can hop anywhere (as long as the park you're hopping to hasn't reached capacity which is to my knowledge, super rare). But, you can only park hop starting at 2pm, AND you can't hop to any park until you've gone to the park where you have your park reservation. Sidenote, I hate hate hate all of these restrictions.

We are going in May and I just made park reservations today.
 
Hello All,

Our family hasn’t been to Disney World since Sept 2019 so the park reservations are new to us. We are going back in Nov 2022 and I was wondering how early you typically make your park reservations? Also, can someone please explain how the park reservations work with the park hoppers? Do I need to schedule 2 reservations each day?
Thank you 😊
If you're going during a very, very popular time, such as Jersey Week or Thanksgiving holidays, I'd book park reservations as soon as I had tickets, because those dates did book up a week or maybe a month beforehand in 2021. You can change them (cancel and rebook) as many times as you want, as long as there's availability, though. And as above you just need to book the 1st park each day. The only time hopping was suspended so far was for a few hours at MK on October 1, the 50th Anniversary celebration date. Even over Christmas and New Years, the busiest days of the year, hopping was allowed to every park every day from 2 PM until closing, so it's unlikely but not impossible that you'd be shut out of hopping.
 
I would do it as soon as you can. Depending on when you are going, park reservations can be easy or very difficult to get. doing that early only makes it easier.
 

For us we have a general idea of where we’ll start, go to second and where we end. We book our parks as early as possible (this trip, 8 months in advance) and then tweak as we get closer We go in 3 weeks and I moved things around a bit this week but it’s comforting to know we have something booked each day, far in advance of our trip.
 
You only need one park res a day. Once you go to that park, you can hop anywhere (as long as the park you're hopping to hasn't reached capacity which is to my knowledge, super rare). But, you can only park hop starting at 2pm, AND you can't hop to any park until you've gone to the park where you have your park reservation. Sidenote, I hate hate hate all of these restrictions.

We are going in May and I just made park reservations today.
Yeah Anna, but your first stipulation is really the same as your third so hate, hate it is :teacher: :duck:
 
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Yeah Anna, but your first stipulation is really the same as your third so hate, hate it is :teacher: :duck:

Is my understanding wrong on this? I'd love it if it was. As far as I know, no park hopping until 2pm is still in effect, and you still have to physically go to the park you have a reservation at, before you can hop at all.
 
Is my understanding wrong on this? I'd love it if it was. As far as I know, no park hopping until 2pm is still in effect, and you still have to physically go to the park you have a reservation at, before you can hop at all.
You are correct. You must physically tap in to the park where your reservation is. Only then can you hop to another park, and hopping starts at 2 pm. Nothing has changed.
 
You are correct. You must physically tap in to the park where your reservation is. Only then can you hop to another park, and hopping starts at 2 pm. Nothing has changed.

Thanks! I wasn't quite sure what the other poster was getting at with their response and then I worried that I might be giving out misinformation.
 
Is my understanding wrong on this? I'd love it if it was. As far as I know, no park hopping until 2pm is still in effect, and you still have to physically go to the park you have a reservation at, before you can hop at all.
Sadly, that has not changed.
 
What I did was to make reservations shortly after I linked the tickets. I planned out what park I thought I wanted for each day. Then when in doubt, I picked the reservation that is likelier to sell out. So, I think I have only one EP reservation on a 10-day ticket. Having park hoppers made this much lower stakes.

Also, the thing to remember is that if you could have waited until a certain date to make your reservations, you can also change your reservations on that same date. So, no harm in making reservations early.
 
I know most would not be comfortable with this...but we are going in 3 weeks. I've not made park reservations yet, I haven't even bothered to buy my tickets yet. Why? No reason - availability calendar is still green on all days we will be there and I've just decided I'm not stressing out over it as it's not a terribly busy time. Plus we are kinda go with the flow types and it's served us well (third trip just since Covid, many under our belts in past 20 years) so far. Mostly I think it's because I dislike the park reservation system and no hopping until 2 so I'm ignoring it until I can't anymore.
I'll eventually get the tickets sometimes between now and then and assign a park to each day. And if for some strange reason I can't get the park I want on the day I want then I'll have to live with that and hop to it after 2.
 
Thanks! I wasn't quite sure what the other poster was getting at with their response and then I worried that I might be giving out misinformation.
No Anna I was just messing with you. When you said hate, hate, hate I thought you were indicating the three things you just mentioned and two of them appeared to be the same thing :o
Everything you said was spot on!

1.You only need one park res a day. Once you go to that park, you can hop anywhere (as long as the park you're hopping to hasn't reached capacity which is to my knowledge, super rare).
2. But, you can only park hop starting at 2pm,
3. AND you can't hop to any park until you've gone to the park where you have your park reservation
.
 
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I am going middle of March. I bought tickets and made reservations just yesterday. All parks were available every day
 
I find it very hard to decide what parks to reserve without knowing extra hours and times of fireworks or other events. We just booked a late June trip and that information just isn't available yet.
 




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