Are park reservations going away?

[JaxFLBear]

Are park reservations going away? The park hopping after 2pm is no longer on the app in the calendar.

Park hopping hours are BACK in the MDE mobile app.

 

[Club Cooloholic]

I really don’t think they’d get rid of one and not the other. If MK was at capacity, opening at 9, but AK was available to book, and opening at 7:30, people would tap in at AK and immediately go over to MK. Which would of course defeat the point of the park reservation system.

Eh, I really question how often that would really happen. It's really a pain in the rear to park or take a bus, wade through security then tap in. If you are with a whole family taking them all from one park to another is no easy feat, especially with younger kids. My family would balk at such a thing. The only way this would be feasible for us is if we were staying at a Boardwalk area hotel and we jumped from Epcot to DHS. Even then not ideal.

 

[drizgirl]

Eh, I really question how often that would really happen. It's really a pain in the rear to park or take a bus, wade through security then tap in. If you are with a whole family taking them all from one park to another is no easy feat, especially with younger kids. My family would balk at such a thing. The only way this would be feasible for us is if we were staying at a Boardwalk area hotel and we did jumped from Epcot to DHS. Even then not ideal.

Totally agree. This isn’t DLR where the entry points are only separated by an esplanade.

 

[correcaminos]

Eh, I really question how often that would really happen. It's really a pain in the rear to park or take a bus, wade through security then tap in. If you are with a whole family taking them all from one park to another is no easy feat, especially with younger kids. My family would balk at such a thing. The only way this would be feasible for us is if we were staying at a Boardwalk area hotel and we jumped from Epcot to DHS. Even then not ideal.

I remember doing an EE ride first thing in the morning when my now 14yo was tall enough but to afraid to ride. They had opening at 8am so I bussed over from AKL to AK, rode EE as a single rider, left and bussed back to our room to meet the family. That all took just about an hour or so just to do. Most wouldn't bother with that.

It's why I wish we could do noon so lunch swaps were easier with everyone. Reasonable time. Though if they do the whole VQ thing at 2pm for GotG I doubt they'll lower it.

 

[Hakunamatata]

 

[Club Cooloholic]

I remember doing an EE ride first thing in the morning when my now 14yo was tall enough but to afraid to ride. They had opening at 8am so I bussed over from AKL to AK, rode EE as a single rider, left and bussed back to our room to meet the family. That all took just about an hour or so just to do. Most wouldn't bother with that.

It's why I wish we could do noon so lunch swaps were easier with everyone. Reasonable time. Though if they do the whole VQ thing at 2pm for GotG I doubt they'll lower it.

With the current conditions do you have to have been at your original reserved park to hop over after 2PM or can you just skip tapping in at the original once 2pm hits?

 

[matt9112]

With the current conditions do you have to have been at your original reserved park to hop over after 2PM or can you just skip tapping in at the original once 2pm hits?

You need to tap into park 1.

 

[Touchdown]

I’ve got to think it’s hurting festival sales, I really miss popping over from DHS for some lunch at Epcot.

 

[Club Cooloholic]

With the current conditions do you have to have been at your original reserved park to hop over after 2PM or can you just skip tapping in at the original once 2pm hits?

With that being the case it would seem to me that if they don't want a park overloaded for those with reservations just make it that you can park hop into any park after it's been open for 3 hours. Those with reservations at that Park will have had over 3 hours without the crowds coming in. I really don't think I'll be that many people rushing over if you have to tap it anyway.

 

[correcaminos]

With the current conditions do you have to have been at your original reserved park to hop over after 2PM or can you just skip tapping in at the original once 2pm hits?

You have to tap into your park first. So if you do not tap into your reserved park before 2pm it will cause you to be at the mercy of a CM to fix it for you. Or you have to go back to the first park and tap in and then go back to the 2nd park.

While Club 33 is not happening at this time for us (in large part because I am largely unhappy with some changes lately) we have opted to do VIP tours to avoid this stupidity. At least on longer trips where we like to have one day of park hopping around.

With that being the case it would seem to me that if they don't want a park overloaded for those with reservations just make it that you can park hop into any park after it's been open for 3 hours. Those with reservations at that Park will have had over 3 hours without the crowds coming in. I really don't think I'll be that many people rushing over if you have to tap it anyway.

I think you would not. The 1 ride for me was an hour of my time and most won't be bothered to do that. Unless I am driving or being driven the time between just is ridiculous. I only did something similar for a birthday trip. Friend met me and we drove from park to park doing an E-Ticket run. Even then we were usually in the park for at least 2-3 hours.

 

[Hakunamatata]

So earlier today no AP ressies for today on the phone app but I was able to reserve MK on desktop. A couple hours later I was able to change to EPCOT on the app. MK and HS were all available as well. On my way ay to the park I was able to snag a ressie for 220 lounge.

Its still too much work to have to be jumping hoops. I wish they would get back to pre covid staffing and do away with it.

 

[IanDLBZF]

My understanding is the park hopping limitations will be gone or drastically altered by end of the year. As for the future of Park Pass, they were toying with removing it for all but AP but I am hearing that is no longer the case. More to come on that officially in the next couple months (Park Pass changes are coming as part of the AP program changes that are coming when sales resume).

So my guess is that potentially park reservations may no longer be required for entry?

 

[twilight mitsuk]

So my guess is that potentially park reservations may no longer be required for entry?

Park pass is here to staty

 

[DisneyCane]

Park hopping hours are BACK in the MDE mobile app.

Given the history of Disney IT, especially related to MDE, I think the default assumption should have been a bug in the data being fed to the app and not an unannounced policy change.

 

[Sirwalterraleigh]

No way in hell…it’s a mechanism of control they could have never dreamed of getting that the covid crowd willingly yielded.

 

[Sirwalterraleigh]

Park hopping is already an add on. Hence why I said it is a money maker. World Passes started in the 80s and park hopping became an option. They'd be losing a lot of money by removing park hopping.

Park hopping is pretty screwed right now…and it’s having daily consequences that few realize. That’s really a big mistake.

 

[Sirwalterraleigh]

Park hopping is already a paid add-on.

It’s $350 a ticket for a party of 4…no matter the length of the ticket…$75 per person

Or almost the cost of an early 2000’s annual pass ($299/$399)…

Can’t put a price on magic.

 

[Touchdown]

Park hopping is pretty screwed right now…and it’s having daily consequences that few realize. That’s really a big mistake.

It really is and noon-2 pm are pretty darn miserable in any park because people have “no choice but to stay” I feel like in the before times peak hopping time was 12-5 which allowed for a certain amount of guests to be in transit and thus out of queues during that time. They’ve condensed it and made those two hours miserable.

 

[JoeCamel]

It’s $350 a ticket for a party of 4…no matter the length of the ticket…$75 per person

Or almost the cost of an early 2000’s annual pass ($299/$399)…

Can’t put a price on magic.

Yeah but if you can sell your park three times a day....

 

[CaptainAmerica]

Park reservations are here to stay for the foreseeable future. However, I could see park hopping go away at some point. Disney wants to control park guests as much as possible so that they can staff as minimally as possible, thus the reason for park reservations. Park hopping is a barrier to that goal. Of course, having 4 of the 9 rides at a particular park down at the same time is a barrier to the consumers actually enjoying their day there, but TDO doesn't seem terribly concerned by that right now. "Unprecedented demand!" and whatnot. As long as people keep forking over whatever Disney charges, things will not change.

That said, I don't believe they will get rid of park hopping anytime soon. I will not be the least bit surprised if it goes away some time in the future, though.

Park hopping behavior is extremely predictable. On any given day, roughly X% of people leave Animal Kingdom and go to Epcot, and the numbers don't fluctuate all that much. Park hopping is not a barrier to their predictive analytics.