News Disney Park Pass System announced for Walt Disney World theme park reservations

[CastAStone]

The AP Calendar being the only one with availability significantly eaten up tells me that either Disney is really deprioritizing Annual passholders or they seriously screwed up their caoacity allocations.

Also, I’ve been out of the AP game since I moved out of Orlando, but I can’t hrlp but feel like Disney should be doing something for their higher tier AP’s (the platinums and maybe gold) Whether it’s giving them more bookable days or access to the other two reservation calendars, they are getting seriously screwed when they paid for a lot of access and are getting about the same at the Weekday Select in practice.

If they:

1. Scale up capacity as anticipated
2. Reallocate nonbooked reservations from the revenue generating buckets into the AP bucket as the dates near

I think APs will be fine in fairly short order.

And I imagine they are planning to do both of those things.

The withholding of information continues to cause consternation amongst the masses.

 

[disneygeek90]

The AP Calendar being the only one with availability significantly eaten up tells me that either Disney is really deprioritizing Annual passholders or they seriously screwed up their caoacity allocations.

Also, I’ve been out of the AP game since I moved out of Orlando, but I can’t hrlp but feel like Disney should be doing something for their higher tier AP’s (the platinums and maybe gold) Whether it’s giving them more bookable days or access to the other two reservation calendars, they are getting seriously screwed when they paid for a lot of access and are getting about the same at the Weekday Select in practice.

I feel completely hand cuffed right now. I had plans for my parents to visit over a weekend. I got us all HS passes July 31 and got them MK Aug 1 but I had hoped there would have still been availability for me to pick up MK closer to the date (after I use my July 19 pass).

Now it looks like there’s no way that happens so I guess I just send them on their way without me? I really hope they reallocate after they get through the “reservation and no ticket” group.

 

[disneygeek90]

If they:

1. Scale up capacity as anticipated
2. Reallocate nonbooked reservations from the revenue generating buckets into the AP bucket as the dates near

I think APs will be fine in fairly short order.

And I imagine they are planning to do both of those things.

The withholding of information continues to cause consternation amongst the masses.

People are already calling for Disney to not open due to the cases rising. I don’t know how good it would look to arbitrarily raise capacity after a few weeks. I know Shanghai did that, but they actually had their cases under control.

 

[Walt_Disney]

I don’t know why people are willing to pay full price when there’s no Shows, No Fireworks and limited attractions open. I understand Disney is a business and needs to make money but I also believe in great customer service which Disney used to consider a top priority however without these items not operating I feel it’s not fair to charge full price.

 

[EricsBiscuit]

Do you know if in this scenario, after your resort/reservation days are used (i.e. your trip is over) can you begin to make additional non-resort reservations as an AP?

I would assume so. I’ll find out after my trip in a week and a half or so

 

[marni1971]

Do you know if in this scenario, after your resort/reservation days are used (i.e. your trip is over) can you begin to make additional non-resort reservations as an AP?

I would assume so.

You can also book the full amount of a multi day pass if you have a resort reservation but your pass isn’t tied to the room.

 

[Darth Snips]

Been very frustrated by the execution of the Park Pass system for AP holders. Have any insiders heard about reallocating some of the unfilled slots to APs? I feel like an easy change would be to allow APs to access the more general "Ticket Guests" pool. Especially seeing as not one single day has been filled on that availability calendar.

 

[BLJ66]

The AP Calendar being the only one with availability significantly eaten up tells me that either Disney is really deprioritizing Annual passholders or they seriously screwed up their caoacity allocations.

Also, I’ve been out of the AP game since I moved out of Orlando, but I can’t hrlp but feel like Disney should be doing something for their higher tier AP’s (the platinums and maybe gold) Whether it’s giving them more bookable days or access to the other two reservation calendars, they are getting seriously screwed when they paid for a lot of access and are getting about the same at the Weekday Select in practice.

Magic Feather you are leaving out the third and most obvious answer. Local Annual Passholders are Park Hogs and go way to often for just a couple hours and then leave. I would much rather have Disney allocate more availability to Resort Guests that are coming for a weekend or a week from God only know how far away with family and friends than to those "entitled" local pass holders. Paying a $1000-$1200 for a yearly pass does not and should NOT entitle pass holders to more priority, especially when you consider DVC'rs pay thousands of dollars a year (mine is 3K/yr and growing) in annual dues and 10's or 100's of thousands of dollars on points. DVC members have not received any priority or preference then the rest of the general public. So hold off on that "boo hoo hoo" sentiment towards AP'rs until you have considered all people impacted by this. Disney is trying (and failing in my opinion) to do their best in a difficult situation they did not plan for.

 

[nickys]

Magic Feather you are leaving out the third and most obvious answer. Local Annual Passholders are Park Hogs and go way to often for just a couple hours and then leave. I would much rather have Disney allocate more availability to Resort Guests that are coming for a weekend or a week from God only know how far away with family and friends than to those "entitled" local pass holders. Paying a $1000-$1200 for a yearly pass does not and should NOT entitle pass holders to more priority, especially when you consider DVC'rs pay thousands of dollars a year (mine is 3K/yr and growing) in annual dues and 10's or 100's of thousands of dollars on points. DVC members have not received any priority or preference then the rest of the general public. So hold off on that "boo hoo hoo" sentiment towards AP'rs until you have considered all people impacted by this. Disney is trying (and failing in my opinion) to do their best in a difficult situation they did not plan for.

There are ways to make your point without going into full-on attack mode.

Yes, there are an unknown number of guests who don’t have tickets yet and some DVC members trying to use their points before expiration are amongst them. And I would like to see Resort guests getting the chance to buy tickets and book parks.

But AP holders also deserve better than to be called “entitled” for wanting to be able to use their passes.

 

[bartholomr4]

We have Hotel, Park Tickets and Park Reservations for late next month. We had purchased park hoppers before the Virus arrived, and were due a credit. Using the chat feature on waltdisneyworld.com, we (yesterday) chatted with a CM to see if we could change our 7 day tickets to 8 day tickets, and get a credit for the park-hopper. The chat feature allowed us to schedule a call back, which I highly recommend, as we received the call back within 15 minutes of our request. As for the changes we wanted to make, we were told it wasn’t possible yesterday, but today the ability to change tickets would be opened up.

This morning, we used the chat feature again, scheduled a call back, which took less than 5 minutes. We repeated the questions from yesterday, were again told it wasn’t possible, was transferred to a ticket specialist, who told us we would need to check with guest relations when we got to Orlando about the park hopper payment, and that adding a day was not possible. So with everything going on, we accepted this as the way to go, and put it on our things to do when we get to the parks......

About 15 minutes ago, I received a call from Disney Guest Relations (unsolicited) as a follow-up to yesterdays / this mornings call. The Cast Member converted our 7 day ticket to an 8 day ticket, and refunded the park-hopper overage. While I was on the phone, with the CM, I was able to go to MyDisneyExperience, and added a reservation for our first day to Epcot. Simple, easy-peezie.

If you are frustrated with getting through on the phone to Disney, I recommend you use the chat feature. Also, Disney (at least for us) tracked our inquiry over the last two days and made the changes which were not suppose to be possible. Not sure if it was the park-hopper issue, or the request to add a day which got the call back, but the interaction got us what we were trying to arrange, the refund and the extra day in the parks.

 

[CastAStone]

We have Hotel, Park Tickets and Park Reservations for late next month. We had purchased park hoppers before the Virus arrived, and were due a credit. Using the chat feature on waltdisneyworld.com, we (yesterday) chatted with a CM to see if we could change our 7 day tickets to 8 day tickets, and get a credit for the park-hopper. The chat feature allowed us to schedule a call back, which I highly recommend, as we received the call back within 15 minutes of our request. As for the changes we wanted to make, we were told it wasn’t possible yesterday, but today the ability to change tickets would be opened up.

This morning, we used the chat feature again, scheduled a call back, which took less than 5 minutes. We repeated the questions from yesterday, were again told it wasn’t possible, was transferred to a ticket specialist, who told us we would need to check with guest relations when we got to Orlando about the park hopper payment, and that adding a day was not possible. So with everything going on, we accepted this as the way to go, and put it on our things to do when we get to the parks......

About 15 minutes ago, I received a call from Disney Guest Relations (unsolicited) as a follow-up to yesterdays / this mornings call. The Cast Member converted our 7 day ticket to an 8 day ticket, and refunded the park-hopper overage. While I was on the phone, with the CM, I was able to go to MyDisneyExperience, and added a reservation for our first day to Epcot. Simple, easy-peezie.

If you are frustrated with getting through on the phone to Disney, I recommend you use the chat feature. Also, Disney (at least for us) tracked our inquiry over the last two days and made the changes which were not suppose to be possible. Not sure if it was the park-hopper issue, or the request to add a day which got the call back, but the interaction got us what we were trying to arrange, the refund and the extra day in the parks.

Interesting. That means the ability to make 2020 ticket changes is live in their system again, although *clearly* heavily restricted. Thanks for the update!

 

[MisterPenguin]

I can see Disney prioritizing those with resort reservations over APers.

But then that means APers should then be getting something back in return since that's not how an AP is supposed to work. So far, it's been one extra month. I'd like to see it be an extra month for every month the limited reservation system is in place.

Otherwise, it should be a refund... which Disney is indeed offering.

 

[ryan1]

Has anyone seen an explanation as to why they are limiting AP reservations to just 3 days? Or has anyone heard when they may be expanding the limit? It does seem to de-value the AP if they're only allowing 3 days at a time.

 

[MisterPenguin]

Has anyone seen an explanation as to why they are limiting AP reservations to just 3 days? Or has anyone heard when they may be expanding the limit? It does seem to de-value the AP if they're only allowing 3 days at a time.

They're operating at greatly reduced capacity. After taking reservations for those who have resort reservation (either made a long time ago or moved to this time period) there aren't that many spots left for the locals with APs. It is a devaluement of the AP. APs are getting four extra months for the time closed and one extra month for the current limitations. Or, APers can get a refund.

 

[Magic Feather]

Has anyone seen an explanation as to why they are limiting AP reservations to just 3 days? Or has anyone heard when they may be expanding the limit? It does seem to de-value the AP if they're only allowing 3 days at a time.

They're operating at greatly reduced capacity. After taking reservations for those who have resort reservation (either made a long time ago or moved to this time period) there aren't that many spots left for the locals with APs. It is a devaluement of the AP. APs are getting four extra months for the time closed and one extra month for the current limitations. Or, APers can get a refund.

Everything Penguin said is true. As for why “three” is the number, the best way to look at it is this: Right now, every AP holder (and dare I say the vast majority of active AP holders have booked them all too) have access to 3 park reservations. With that in mind, weekends at Hollywood Studios are gone through September, Everything is booked in July except for some weekdays in the final week, and August has a cluster of no availability when Silver APs are unblocked. That is with three. Add another, and you see a ~33% increase in unavailability. Now, they definitely could have made it to where higher passes had more than 3, but that would likely force them to give lower passes less than 3 to balance things out.

 

[disneygeek90]

Everything Penguin said is true. As for why “three” is the number, the best way to look at it is this: Right now, every AP holder (and dare I say the vast majority of active AP holders have booked them all too) have access to 3 park reservations. With that in mind, weekends at Hollywood Studios are gone through September, Everything is booked in July except for some weekdays in the final week, and August has a cluster of no availability when Silver APs are unblocked. That is with three. Add another, and you see a ~33% increase in unavailability. Now, they definitely could have made it to where higher passes had more than 3, but that would likely force them to give lower passes less than 3 to balance things out.

Any way of knowing if they plan to shift or merge tickets? To me, if there’s availability for 2/3 of the ticket levels they’re potentially leaving money on the table by not inviting AP’s to come and spend money on food, drinks and merchandise.

 

[Jefro]

They're operating at greatly reduced capacity. After taking reservations for those who have resort reservation (either made a long time ago or moved to this time period) there aren't that many spots left for the locals with APs. It is a devaluement of the AP. APs are getting four extra months for the time closed and one extra month for the current limitations. Or, APers can get a refund.

Sorry - I missed this in the convo. Is this AP extension of 4 (April/May/June/July) months plus another month primarily WDW?

 

[Millionaire2K]

Completing the roll out to all guest except for guest with 2020 hotel reservations who currently cant acquire tickets. DVC with expiring points are currently screwed.

 

[solidyne]

Once made, can the Park Pass reservation be changed? I currently hold tickets only, and would like to reserve my days, but I may have to change the dates in the future (subject to availability, of course).

 

[Magic Feather]

Once made, can the Park Pass reservation be changed? I currently hold tickets only, and would like to reserve my days, but I may have to change the dates in the future (subject to availability, of course).

You can! First you cancel the one you want to replace, then book a new one. But, be sure to check the availability calendar first to see if the new date you want is available.