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News Disney Park Pass System announced for Walt Disney World theme park reservations
- Thread starter wdwmagic
- Start date
nickys
Premium Member
Exactly.
For our upcoming trip over Christmas, I’ve deliberately “over booked” MK. On at least 1 and probably 2 of those days we’ll switch to either Epcot or AK. Neither are likely to sell out.
Exactly which days those turn out to be might be decided ahead of time (depending on dining, for example), or maybe we’ll decide just the night before. But meanwhile I’m blocking others from being able to book what they want.
But that’s what the park reservation system encourages me to do.
mightynine
Well-Known Member
Solution - introduce the "EPCOT Dirtpile After 4" pass. See the future of EPCOT slowly built right before your eyes!*
*EPCOT park reservation must be made three to six weeks in advance. Dining reservation required. Cost of pass? If you have to ask, big man, you can't afford it.
*EPCOT park reservation must be made three to six weeks in advance. Dining reservation required. Cost of pass? If you have to ask, big man, you can't afford it.
pdude81
Well-Known Member
I lean on ABC Commissary heavily over the past 2 years. So if you haven't tried that and disliked it, give it a go.
Epcot is still much better (especially during a festival) and is either my destination that night or a quick stroll and monorail ride to my destination that evening.
Freshee61
Well-Known Member
IMHO it is outrageous that this money making machine is not fully back to “normal”. Covid in Florida is a thing of the past. Mask are only a personal preference at this point. Why isn’t there daily mouse keeping at the Walt Disney resorts, why are the trams still unavailable at EPCOT, why is park reservation system in effect, why are some rides/stores/shows still down, the list can go on and on…why, because it comes down to the big executives bottom line.
PS
And don’t even get me started with not being able to park hop until 2pm.
PS
And don’t even get me started with not being able to park hop until 2pm.
pdude81
Well-Known Member
Certainly better options at Epcot. I tend to rope drop and hustle at DHS so I'm also hampered by the 2pm hop. ABC is my go to when starving if I haven't already knocked down a Breakfast Ronto Wrap
Disstevefan1
Well-Known Member
I truly think TWDC used the pandemic as an excuse to make changes they always wanted to make.
mattpeto
Well-Known Member
Sure, flexibility is great. And the majority of guests have it until a couple of weeks prior to their actual day.
But unlimited flexibility comes with a cost. If you're headed to Magic Kingdom on a random Tuesday, you good with all last minute people joining you at Magic Kingdom, when they could go to another park?
With all the perks taken away, it would be so easy to at least allow resort guests hopping privileges before 2pm!
Freshee61
Well-Known Member
I truly think you are
correct.. they used Covid as a guise and have ran off with it into the wind!
Chi84
Premium Member
Plans don't need flexibility unless something happens. With the old system, if people had their heart set on riding the newest (or favorite) ride at HS, they could change parks, forgo FastPasses and at least stand in line for the ride. Now you can't get into the park. (At least that was our experience earlier this year for both HS and MK). If you have an entire day of rain at MK on your scheduled day, you can't change it in order to have a more pleasant experience on another day.
Disney has adopted a system where they force guests into choosing a particular park and then pay to bypass lines at times given to them by Disney instead of times chosen by the guests. How they can market it as "increasing flexibility" in your day is just beyond me.
Prior to park reservations, Genie+, ILLs and limited park hopper, I frequently helped family and friends plan their vacations. Now I wouldn't even bother to try to explain this convoluted mess - I just tell them not to go.
Disstevefan1
Well-Known Member
We were good with it for 48ish years. I can't believe we can't remember back to 2019.
EPCOT-O.G.
Well-Known Member
Yes. Notice how when a previously free benefit (or comparatively low-cost one) was taken away, or they completely stopped building various announced attractions that hadn’t passed a certain point in construction they say, “hey, we had to adapt to a global pandemic.”I truly think you are
But if it is an entirely new moneymaker with an independent income stream, that didn’t seem to be affected by “the pandemic” (e.g., new Poly DVC tower, Galactic Starcruiser, DVC Villains lounge)
mattpeto
Well-Known Member
Honestly, you guys have made some good points, I'll concede it a bit.
Hopefully in a few years, all staffing problems will be way long gone and things will trend back towards 2019 standards. Maybe Disney will need to woe guests back and add back some of the missing cut perks. Maybe AP will return for good and park passes and will fall aside.
I don't see it happening (well maybe a few things slide back), but believe me, I'd take that over what we have now as well.
Freshee61
Well-Known Member
Yup exactly - all the related “Covid lay-off” but all the road and other construction work they paid for during that same time.
The other side is that Operations and the Execs with the eyes on how "the brand" is doing don't want APers swarming into an already overcrowded park and guests being miserable.
The whole purpose of reservations is to say "this many, and no more." The consequence is a first-come-first served reservation system. Waiting until the last minute will mean no availability.
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You want people turned away, not in their living room as they're planning their vacation, but at the gate of the park?
TWDC most definitely wanted a way to cut back on overcrowding. The CEOs kept saying as much in quarterly calls before the pandemic.
And I kept pointing out in these forums that they were increasing prices to do just that. But it seemed they never found the tipping point that would driver down attendance on peak days. I said several times that a reservation system would be "the nuclear option."
And yes, the pandemic allowed that to happen because, by law, Disney was forced to put a lid on attendance to maintain the 6' distance rule and comply with 20% or 30% capacity. The reservation system allowed that to happen, else, they would have closures at the gate turning people away.
And so, they kept the reservation system. Without it, the price increases we've seen would be much, much more in order to find that tipping point of a price tag that would drive down overcrowding.
Not to mention with the labor shortage, they can't even go back to the old overcrowding numbers if they wanted to.
Ten million more people per year at MK tends to change what they can handle.
And yes, they were asleep at the wheel in not creating more capacity.
I've been choosing to go to WDW at the beginnings of Oct, Dec, and Feb to enjoy the 'dead times.'
There are no dead times anymore. Too many people. Disney is a victim of its own success (and failure to increase capacity).