Park Reservations?

[MEyeSeeKayEY]

With the new Disney Genie and Disney Genie+ system about to be in place, will we still have to make park reservations in advance?
This question has probably been covered somewhere, but I've missed it.

 

[networkpro]

That is a "yes" response. Park Reservations are required even with Genie+

 

[MEyeSeeKayEY]

That is a "yes" response. Park Reservations are required even with Genie+

Thank you!

 

[Queen of the WDW Scene]

As of now the answer is yes.
It could change but probably not for a while.

 

[JIMINYCR]

Yes, for now because Disney is still trying to control numbers entering the parks, due to staffing shortages and planning how they can manage to serve the guests dining. Theres still uncertainty about getting back to the numbers allowed pre covid. With the 50th coming up quickly I'm sure Disney will adjust to higher capacity to try bringing in as much revenue they can while giving access to the largeer number of guests they will draw in celebrating the 50th.

 

[Disstevefan1]

With the new Disney Genie and Disney Genie+ system about to be in place, will we still have to make park reservations in advance?
This question has probably been covered somewhere, but I've missed it.

Ha, yes of course you need to. I have a bad feeling park reservations are here to stay. I hope I am wrong.

 

[MEyeSeeKayEY]

Ha, yes of course you need to. I have a bad feeling park reservations are here to stay. I hope I am wrong.

OK, thanks! I was just checking since literally nothing was mentioned during the Genie+ announcements.

 

[CaptainAmerica]

That is a "yes" response. Park Reservations are required even with Genie+

As of now the answer is yes.
It could change but probably not for a while.

Yes, for now because Disney is still trying to control numbers entering the parks, due to staffing shortages and planning how they can manage to serve the guests dining. Theres still uncertainty about getting back to the numbers allowed pre covid. With the 50th coming up quickly I'm sure Disney will adjust to higher capacity to try bringing in as much revenue they can while giving access to the largeer number of guests they will draw in celebrating the 50th.

Ha, yes of course you need to. I have a bad feeling park reservations are here to stay. I hope I am wrong.

All of these answers are extremely misleading.

The answer is technically "yes," but it's more accurate to say "not really." Yes, you need a Park Pass to enter a park. That's true. But the parks don't sell out, with very rare exceptions. Unless your trip is the week of Easter, July 4, Thanksgiving, Christmas, Marathon, or a holiday weekend, you're perfectly fine making zero Park Pass reservations ahead of time and just booking the park you want on the way to the bus stop each morning.

 

[Disstevefan1]

All of these answers are extremely misleading.

The answer is technically "yes," but it's more accurate to say "not really." Yes, you need a Park Pass to enter a park. That's true. But the parks don't sell out, with very rare exceptions. Unless your trip is the week of Easter, July 4, Thanksgiving, Christmas, Marathon, or a holiday weekend, you're perfectly fine making zero Park Pass reservations ahead of time and just booking the park you want on the way to the bus stop each morning.

I admit I do not know the reasoning behind park pass reservations, but to enter a park, you need one. That said, with Genie + and Lighting Lane coming I can understand folks wanting to skip the parks and go in the pool.

But let’s say WDW is not using park pass reservations to limit capacity and only use it to help plan for staffing. If that is true, how does it help WDW plan if I make a reservation the day I attend? I imagine cast members have some sort of schedule and are not on call 24/7

 

[CaptainAmerica]

I admit I do not know the reasoning behind park pass reservations, but to enter a park, you need one. That said, with Genie + and Lighting Lane coming I can understand folks wanting to skip the parks and go in the pool.

But let’s say WDW is not using park pass reservations to limit capacity and only use it to help plan for staffing. If that is true, how does it help WDW plan if I make a reservation the day I attend? I imagine cast members have some sort of schedule and are not on call 24/7

They'll be able to estimate "on any given day, actual attendance will be X% higher than the number of Park Pass reservations we have 10 days out, 30 days out, 60 days out, etc."

 

[durangojim]

I think at this point it’s time they get rid of the 2 pm park hopping restriction or just make it go into effect when crowds are really busy like during Christmas week.

 

[CaptainAmerica]

I think at this point it’s time they get rid of the 2 pm park hopping restriction or just make it go into effect when crowds are really busy like during Christmas week.

That defeats the point of park reservations. Magic Kingdom full? Just make a park reservation for Animal Kingdom, leave after ten seconds, and hop to Magic Kingdom.

 

[Disstevefan1]

They'll be able to estimate "on any given day, actual attendance will be X% higher than the number of Park Pass reservations we have 10 days out, 30 days out, 60 days out, etc."

Well let’s hope going forward the park pass reservation is only for staff planning is not used to limit capacity to anything less than pre pandemic levels so that folks can still make day of reservations.

Its a small inconvenience, but if I know like before the pandemic most all days will be available it’s ok with me.

Maybe I am being hopeful. Let’s see what the reality is going forward..

 

["El Gran Magnifico"]

For me the fear is - what this could morph into. I get why it was put in place. I also get why Disney would want to keep it in place. And true, most dates don't sell out. But.

This system allows Disney to manage attendance by ticket type and other categories (i.e. whether or not someone is staying on property vs off).

What's to say in a year or two that Disney doesn't make a decision - as an example - that AP holders are going to be limited to 2,500 for Saturday nights during Food and Wine? Or that Single Day passes are going to have a limit on an arbitrary given day during peak times for certain parks. Or maybe that 75% of MK occupancy during Spring Break is allotted to only tickets that are used by on-property guests. It's just another micro-management lever that will be definitely be used by Disney and also has the ability to be abused.

They have the "ability" to create block-out dates at any time - using any one of many criteria - for a specific type of guest. That, I'm not too happy with. Will it get to that point. Probably. But for the next couple of years we should be okay.

 

[Disstevefan1]

For me the fear is - what this could morph into. I get why it was put in place. I also get why Disney would want to keep it in place. And true, most dates don't sell out. But.

This system allows Disney to manage attendance by ticket type and other categories (i.e. whether or not someone is staying on property vs off).

What's to say in a year or two that Disney doesn't make a decision - as an example - that AP holders are going to be limited to 2,500 for Saturday nights during Food and Wine? Or that Single Day passes are going to have a limit on an arbitrary given day during peak times for certain parks. Or maybe that 75% of MK occupancy during Spring Break is allotted to only tickets that are used by on-property guests. It's just another micro-management lever that will be definitely be used by Disney and also has the ability to be abused.

They have the "ability" to create block-out dates at any time - using any one of many criteria - for a specific type of guest. That, I'm not too happy with. Will it get to that point. Probably. But for the next couple of years we should be okay.

Agreed, I fear this could be used against APs since Disney already has their money. New purchase, new MONEY coming in will not be blocked. I think day tickets will never be blocked except for the pre pandemic historically super packed days, as it’s easier to block the already paid AP holder.

I don’t think Disney will ever use this to limit capacity going forward because MONEY and because they don’t really care about the guest experience, they only care about MONEY

 

[Raxel7851]

That defeats the point of park reservations. Magic Kingdom full? Just make a park reservation for Animal Kingdom, leave after ten seconds, and hop to Magic Kingdom.

In May I forgot to check the park availability calendar. So when I canceled my AK rezzie, and went to make a MK rezzie, there were none available. Then I tried to remake AK, and there were none available. No biggie. Went to Epcot, then park hopped later to MK. Just need to be a little flexible at times.

 

[DisneyCane]

I think at this point it’s time they get rid of the 2 pm park hopping restriction or just make it go into effect when crowds are really busy like during Christmas week.

I don't know what the grace period is but today we hopped from DHS to AK and entered AK at 1:55. I wish they'd make it a little earlier like 12 or 12:30 so you can hop somewhere for lunch.

 

[eye4themeparks]

Park capacity has always been able o be limited by disney's phased closure plan.