Disney World Park Pass Update: AP Availability & Fresh Frustrations
Walt Disney World’s Park Pass theme park reservation system has been live for Annual Passholders for over 24 hours, so we thought it’d be worthwhile to check the status of AP availability now that the first wave of bookings has subsided. In this post, we’ll cover how the rollout went, some policy surprises, and answer to concerns that “we were wrong” again.
Disney’s Park Pass went live shortly before 6 am Eastern yesterday, which is an hour before it was supposed to go live. As you might recall, last week the system went live for resort guests nearly 2 hours late. Neither are particularly surprising for Walt Disney World veterans–it’s more startling when Disney opens reservations precisely on time.
Of the two approaches, quietly opening early is the unequivocally superior approach. It’s what almost always happens on Free Dining drop day, sometimes as early as 4 am. This offers a “release valve” on demand–rather than letting a ‘crowd’ build up to overwhelm the system at a more reasonable hour. It’s the same idea as Disney’s Hollywood Studios opening the turnstiles before published park opening for Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance…
We were bracing ourselves for the worst with Disney Park Pass yesterday, as our assumption was/is that far more Annual Passholders were accessing it yesterday than resort guests last week. Of course, it would’ve been logical for Disney IT to iron out any problems and scale up its backend systems in light of last week…but we didn’t have complete faith that would happen.
To our surprise, it was totally smooth sailing. We were able to access the Disney Park Pass reservation system without issue or delay throughout the morning. Not once did Stitch consume the website nor did the dreaded Pepto-Pink Castle make an appearance. Kudos, Disney IT.
In terms of glitches, we heard of a few but experienced none firsthand. A few reports were actually glitches working to the advantage of guests, with some Annual Passholders able to book more than 3 reservations. However, it would appear that every single problem we addressed in our Disney Park Pass Problems & Fixes has now been resolved on Disney’s end.
There are no doubt still individualized errors (there always are with My Disney Experience) that you’ll need to call and have Walt Disney World address. If so, brace yourself for a long wait on hold. Not only are many Cast Members still on furlough, but the release of 2021 vacation packages, plus guests trying cancel or modify trips (which isn’t possible online right now), plus Annual Passholders trying to call their APs, plus complaints over [fill in grievance] are resulting in longer than normal wait times no matter which number you call.
One complaint, which is not a glitch is that Annual Passholders aren’t allowed to book 3 reservations if they already have Disney Park Pass reservations through a Walt Disney World resort stay. We’re not totally sure why anyone expected to be able to double dip in this way given the verbiage of DisneyWorld.com.
Here’s the official language from Walt Disney World’s Annual Pass “Know Before You Go” page: All Annual Passholders are eligible to make Theme Park reservations for up to 3 days at a time, or Annual Passholders staying at select Disney Resort or other select hotels with valid Theme Park admission are eligible to make Theme Park reservations for each day of their stay(s).
Note the use of “or” there rather than “and.” A strong argument can be made that double-dipping should be allowed as a matter of policy. After all, resort reservations entitle you to one type of reservations, whereas APs entitle you to another. If you pay for both a resort stay and an Annual Pass–two separate purchases–why aren’t you entitled to both?
Nevertheless, that’s not currently the policy and is one of several reasons Annual Passholders are frustrated. (Most other complaints are addressed in our Annual Pass News: Reservations, Previews, Extensions & Refunds info post.)
Another new Annual Passholder grievance is Disney Park Pass availability. Above is a look at current options for July and August is below. As you can see, options are pretty scarce for July and early August.
The entire first week is fully booked, plus weekends thereafter. Once again, Disney’s Hollywood Studios is the fastest-booking park. We previously addressed this phenomenon in our We Were Wrong About Disney Park Pass earlier this week.
Now, this might lead you to conclude we were also wrong with our Dawn of a Temporary Disney Era: Low Crowds prediction. After all, if the parks are fully booked for part of the first full month of operations, that suggests there’s more than just a “couple weeks” worth of pent-up demand.
Let’s not get ahead of ourselves. Here’s a current look at the availability calendar for resort guests:
As you can see, there are some dates the first full week that are fully booked (mostly Disney’s Hollywood Studios), but at least one park remains available every single day (in most cases, multiple parks).
Once you get to July 19, every single date is fully available for Walt Disney World resort guests. This is a visual illustration of why we weren’t wrong again–at least, not yet.
Walt Disney World is using three different buckets for Park Pass reservation availability, and right now, we have no idea how capacity is allocated. It could very well be the case that it’s evenly distributed, and there’s more demand among Annual Passholders. It’s also possible half of capacity is set aside for resort guests with the remaining half split among APs and off-site ticketholders.
In short, it’s impossible to draw any conclusions about post-reopening crowds by dates from the Annual Passholder bucket being fully booked. (It’d be like saying Disney’s Hollywood Studios is the most popular park at Walt Disney World because it’s selling out. No, it’s just the one with the lowest supply.)
We also don’t know if Disney Park Pass capacity can flow from one bucket to another.
Stated in a way that makes more sense, it’s not clear if Walt Disney World will release capacity from the resort guest bucket to the Annual Passholder and day-guest buckets the night before (or a few days in advance) if not fully booked by resort guests.
If capacity can’t flow from bucket to bucket, that’s going to be incredibly concerning for Annual Passholders without hotel reservations.
In practice, it’ll essentially mean you need to book your Disney Park Pass reservations several weeks in advance, and might be limited to visiting a few times per month (potentially less if you can’t do weekdays). That’s a far cry from the access advertised at the time of purchase.
This would give further credence to the growing chorus of Annual Passholder complaints that they are not receiving the full value of their passes, and that the 30-day bonus extension is inadequate recovery. (At this point, anyone who has an AP above Gold should simply cancel and buy a new Annual Pass at a lower tier.)
While Walt Disney World understandably needs to prioritize on-site resort guests, it would be wise not to alienate Annual Passholders at a time when the parks are going to lean heavily on locals and diehard fans in the next couple of years. (In fairness, Walt Disney World is doing a fairly exemplary job of alienating everyone in new and unique ways–it’s hardly exclusive to APs.)
Throughout the closure and reopening process, we’ve tried to strike a balance. Walt Disney World is in an unenviable position faced with an array of “least worst” choices and no-win scenarios. This is while short-staffed and with many people working from home. Accordingly, we’ve stressed patience and understanding from readers–it’s a tough time amidst an ongoing pandemic. I don’t think any of us would want to be in the shoes of Disney leadership right now.
However, it’s also fair to say that many of the problems are of Walt Disney World’s own creation. The IT problems are nothing new (it has been the same story for the last decade!). The outrage stemming from the ‘planning industrial complex’ is monster of their own making. Walt Disney World’s standard practice of releasing flowery communications that are light on substance doesn’t pass muster at a time when transparency is craved. We could go on.
Ultimately, this is a long-winded way of saying our feelings here are conflicted. The status of our coast-to-coast Premier Passport is really up in the air, which is frustrating, but we also mostly understand why given the circumstances. Our personal perspective is that we’re going to roll with the punches and exercise patience to the greatest extent possible. That’s mostly because there’s already so much to be upset or worried about in the real world, and compounding that with anger about escapism is just too much for us. The emphasis there is definitely on what’s right for us–we don’t blame anyone else for reacting much differently.
Planning a Walt Disney World trip? Learn about hotels on our Walt Disney World Hotels Reviews page. For where to eat, read our Walt Disney World Restaurant Reviews. To save money on tickets or determine which type to buy, read our Tips for Saving Money on Walt Disney World Tickets post. Our What to Pack for Disney Trips post takes a unique look at clever items to take. For what to do and when to do it, our Walt Disney World Ride Guides will help. For comprehensive advice, the best place to start is our Walt Disney World Trip Planning Guide for everything you need to know!
Your Thoughts
Were you able to book the Disney Park Pass reservation dates you wanted? Concerned about the limited availability for Annual Passholders, or think this is fair? Will you be cancelling your AP, or continuing? Frustrating and fed up, or are you likewise rolling with the punches? Do you agree or disagree with our commentary? Any questions we can help you answer? Hearing your feedback–even when you disagree with us–is both interesting to us and helpful to other readers, so please share your thoughts below in the comments!
I have annual passes that were purchased before COVID and never activated. I am not able to make reservations.
I wonder if I have to contact Guest Services to activate in order to make a reservation?
It used to be, you had to go to a park in order to activate – seems that cannot be done now.
Joe,
We are on the other end of the boat. Our AP expired over Covid closure and were not able to renew. So we can’t make reservations. The funny thing is, we should still have 29 days left on our APs. We had 2 stays cancelled during closure. They say we will get those days added back in October (I think). So we stayed at Copper Creek this week and hoped that somebody could help us. Nope…we tried everything and everybody. Even the manager of the resort could not get us help nor did DVC. Guest Services were of no help. They all said we had to contact “tickets” directly so we tried from our hotel room and the only thing we heard was a continuous ringing. Nobody picked up. We are hoping we can get thru tomorrow when tickets are supposed to go on sale. As Tom said, many…did I say MANY of the staff members have not yet been brought back. Even the workers we talked to said they were being brought back slowly using seniority of full time staff.
Hi Joseph. We contacted DVC to activate our pass. Definitely could not do it online. Just be happy though you purchased your pre Covid!
Just want to report a good experience. I just booked for April just in case my December trip didn’t work. I went into the chat on my Disney experience and got them to put up my new booking which wasn’t there, make sure everyone was linked, suggested I make the reservations even though I had park hopper planned and answered other questions. Got through immediately this Saturday afternoon, the cast member was patient and made reservations after in matter of minutes. Shocked but pleased to note this to others.
I need clarification on the and-or- rule. I have AP and WDW Reservations on 2 separate stays (end of August) then Labor Day. I booked 3 days of park for stay #1, but it won’t allow me to book for stay #2? Stay #2 is more important…so do I have to cancel stay + park passes to get stay #2? I cancelled 1 day, then tried to book for stay #2, not so fast said Mickey. And -or- 3 day’s 14 days ?
You need to call IT for help, you should be able to at least book for all your resort stays and possibly 3 additional days.
Do it today before the new category opens tomorrow.
I will be surprised if they think they will be opening. As of next week the European Union is banning US coming in without quarantine. NY, NJ, and Conn, have a 14 day quarantine on Florida, and other states. I don’t think it is wise to open. I am in one of those states and our government do not care about numbers, we have the highest numbers since covid started.
I’m a FL resident with unused days on a multiday ticket already frustrated that we only have until September to use our days but with July filling up before our window to book now means we have have an even shorter window to use our tickets in a time of highest virus spread. This is unfair, I just want a chance to use use my tickets with my family when it is safe, is that too much to ask? Please Disney, give us until 2021 to use our tickets we paid for!
I have an AP and was able to get park pass reservations for my length of stay at Fort Wilderness in September and Pop Century in November, also 3 days in January with no resort stay. Both November and January for run Disney events, figuring both events are sold out, (if they still happen), those dates would probably fill up quickly! If I was only able to hold 1 vacation with advanced park pass reservations, this would be a scheduling nightmare! II guess I would cancel September trip(wouldn’t be able to get passes if I had some for November). Hold passes for November (Wine and Dine Half Marathon), hoping it doesn’t get cancelled, if it does, cancel that trip too and at that point try to get passes for January(WDW marathon also sold out) hoping some are still available! I absolutely think AP people should be able to hold passes for resort stays plus 3 other days not linked to a resort reservation, that’s the LEAST that could be done! We are ticket holding customers “of the guaranteed and most expensive kind”! We are already willing hang in there with all the reduced experiences, why would any business drive away that type of consumer? Especially as was stated during a time when that base may be critical over next few years!
reservation
Honestly, I’m thinking that this all may end up being moot. With how Covid-19 cases are spiking in Orange County right now, I’m really questioning whether they will open the parks in July.
Will, I agree. I don’t think they will be opening. As of next week the European Union is banning US coming in without quarantine. NY, NJ, and Conn, have a 14 day quarantine on Florida, and other states. I don’t think it is wise to open. I am in one of those states and our government do not care about numbers, we have the highest numbers since covid started.
Just tried to buy an annual pass for the first time through the DVC phone lines. After about an hour of “debating”, I asked for a guarantee that when I called tomorrow I would be able to purchase an Annual Pass. She routed me to a supervisor who upon investigation, said that Disney has removed AP’s from the platform and that we can not purchase them any longer. She did not have any idea that they did that, let alone when or how they would return. Ummm what???
I have two upcoming resort stays. 5 days late July and 4 days September. I was able to reserve parks for all of those days. I have little confidence in parks reopening as currently scheduled. Since I have AP, I tried booking parks for 3 days in August and was successful (to my surprise). Of course, I will cancel if parks do reopen in July.
@Tom just wanted to say thanks for all the info this week –it helped so much! Also your photos in this post are just stunning! I always love these photos but these have all the gorgeous sky effects!
Well, I finally bit the bullet and cancelled our vacation. Being laid off as a nurse, I thought that my unemployment would come in but like many others, I’m still waiting. So, now that I am starting back to work, after not getting the unemployment I was promised, I am playing catch up from being off of work for 3 months. My husband is an officer who was injured on the job and and is going to disabled for the rest of his life. We are still waiting on our hearing for the disability though, so with 4 kids we’ve been scraping by. I don’t share this for sympathy, just to say this. We saved a lot of money buying Disney gift cards to save up until we could pay for our vacation. I explained my situation to the cast member who was SO gracious and apologetic, but we still can’t get $1500 back that we paid because they were on gift cards. We live 13 hours from Disney and don’t see any vacations in our future so we have $1500 worth of Disney Gift Cards that we cannot use. Do you have any suggestions of how we might be able to get our money back or are there any groups you know of that would maybe have someone who would want to buy these?
There are many online sites for the resale of gift cards. You won’t get full face value back, but will get a strong majority. Cardpool, Raise, and CardKangaroo are three.
I have used Card Cash also. Check all of them and see which will give you the greatest value. I would also post on my Facebook wall. You may have friends going that would buy them from you.
Damn Sarah, that sucks! But thank you to you and your husband for doing two of the toughest jobs out there. I’ll buy at least some of the cards from you at full face value. My brother probably will too.
I’ve used CardPool before and never had any issues. As someone mentioned, you won’t get the full value back, however it may be better to recoup some rather than lose $1500. Sorry to hear about your situation. Thanks for all you and your husband do!!
I went online and tried to make a park pass for July 15th. It told me there was no availability. I then checked the availability calendar and saw the exact results you have pictured here with the first available on the 22nd. I went back to the reservation calendar and tried to get a pass for EPCOT on the 16th even though the block was grey. I clicked it anyway and I was successful even though the availability calendar indicated that it was not. I have 2 passes for the 16th.
Maybe I just got lucky, but I was able to get park passes that were tied to my reservations, plus the 3 that were not. In total I was able to get 36 park pass reservations – it did seem to cap me out after that though – I was not able to able to get park passes for 1 day of a February 2021 reservation or for my April 2021 reservation – but I could if I cancelled other dates, so it seemed to be 36 was the magic number for my account. I’m not particularly worried about actually needing any of these so far in advance – I mostly just wanted to see how much the system would let me do.
It’s very frustrating to only be able to book 3 days in the park. We have a trip planned in November at Bonnett Creek for eight nights. And we can only get into the park three days? I’m hopeful that Disney will loosen the 3 day restriction at some point. Will be disappointed if they don’t.
I’m very interested to see how much capacity they allocated for the last bucket (that is, those with only tickets).
I’d been stalking the availability as well and had the same questions about what their approach would be to moving capacity from resort stay guests to AP holders…
Also very curious to hear what a full capacity day at the parks in the temporary abnormal is like.
Thanks as always for the premium content!
Sorry if this has been covered before…but when are those with resort reservations able to add tickets? We are passholders and have a trip booked with my parents for the end of November/ first week of December. We got our park reservations, but my parents couldn’t without tickets (they were planning to buy from Undercover Tourist). I could have sworn I read that tickets could now be added for those with resort stays. It would require a phone call to change the reservation to a package. My mom called for hours, finally got through, waited 2 hours on hold, only to be told that they couldn’t sell her tickets and didn’t know when they could. She’s quite frustrated.
I’m so glad I found your site, lots of valuable info during this crazy time. We’ve been trying to add another day to our park passes for the past week. We’re booked in the Polynesian and after park hopper, Halloween party, and our concierge level cruise was cancelled we didn’t think it should be this hard to add another day of park tickets to our reservation. (Our travel agent was able to rebook our cruise.) After being on hold or waiting for online chat all we’re told is we can’t be helped now or call another number. Yes, we are trying to be patient and understanding, but why is it so hard for us to spend more money? Our next glitch is the Polynesian isn’t scheduled to open until one day after we’re scheduled to check in. Any ideas how they are going to remedy the hotel issue?
“Any ideas how they are going to remedy the hotel issue?”
They’ll relocate you to a different hotel. You can initiate that process (potentially paying an upgrade cost, although that’s unlikely at the Poly) or they will do it on their own for free closer to your travel dates.
I’m staying at the Poly 7/11-7/14, was originally booked for the resort side, they switched me to the DVC side because there was availability. I had to call and sit on hold for about 2 hours to get through to make the change.
Tom,
Regarding:
“One complaint, which is not a glitch is that Annual Passholders aren’t allowed to book 3 reservations if they already have Disney Park Pass reservations through a Walt Disney World resort stay. We’re not totally sure why anyone expected to be able to double dip in this way given the verbiage of DisneyWorld.com.”
I’m a DVC member and am staying at Bay Lake for 4 days in December. Got my 4 days of park reservations on Monday 2/22. I’m also visiting DW on October but not staying on-site I called DVC and was told that even though I’ve already reserved 4 park trips for December using my on-site stay as the permission to do so I’m also entitled to reserve an additional 3 park passes due to the fact that I’m an annual pass holder – beginning Friday 6/26. When I logged in at 7:01 AM Friday 6/26 I was blocked from the additional 3 park reservations. Called Disney Internet Support and after holding for 2 hours they were able to set up my 3 additional park reservations for October when I’m staying offsite. Disney internet support said this is a deficiency in the park reservation system that may or may not be resolved.
I advise anyone with a similar situation to call Disney Internet support to get the issue resolved 407-939-7765. The 2 hours on hold was worth the wait as I get the park reservations I needed.
Thanks for sharing your experience!
I’d just caution anyone else before calling and waiting on hold for ~2 hours–this is not currently the official policy, so YMMV.
Great post Tom. Thank you for the thoughtful information as always.
To add to NickyTheRoad – this week over the phone I was told by two separate cast members in reservations that the Resort Guest Park Pass allocations and the AP Park Pass allocations are accounted for separately, so Annual Passholders could still make their 3 allocated AP Park Passes even if they had other Park Passes tied to a resort stay. On the other hand, I was told by a cast member via the chat function on the WDW website that the Park Pass allocation/availbility for Annual Passholder with resort reservations was an OR not an AND – they could have one or the other, but not both.
Clearly, there is confusion with policy and however it is supposed to work in practice. I couldn’t agree more with “If you pay for both a resort stay and an Annual Pass—two separate purchases—why aren’t you entitled to both?” Thankfully, yesterday what I was told by the cast members in reservations, at least for me, was actually true in that I was able to book my three AP Park Passes even though I already had several Park Passes linked to an upcoming resort reservation. I hope others had the same ‘luck’. Confusing times for sure.
I have an on-site reservation for late July and was able to book 5 park passes, but when I tried to book three days in October with my AP, I was unable to do so because I don’t have a resort reservation. I called and waited for over 2 hours. When I finally got through, the CM told me I could not make any off-site reservations because I had already reached my limit with the resort stay. She advised me to try again after my stay in July. I’m glad others were able to book the off-site stays, but that is not fair to those of us who have also paid for platinum passes but have been denied the use of what we paid for. This whole process has left a bad taste in my mouth, and I don’t think I will be purchasing an annual pass in the future.
I had a similar experience – AP with a Disney area hotel, but could only get my 3 for AP. Cast Member was super helpful, but couldn’t figure out why I wasn’t allowed more than my 3. She did it for me – I couldn’t get another one for HS (used one of my 3 for that!), but she was able to get me any other parks that I wanted. Well worth the hold time – I think they are banking on positive customer service experiences and many people being understanding as the saving grace of the system. I was told on a chat that they are gathering feedback about experiences and submitting it up the food chain to make improvements. I’ve tried to always be very positive and understanding with the CMs because it is all new to them too.
Tom first, another amazing mono shot at the top. I love those still water days with good reflections.
It IS incredibly irritating being stuck at 3 days though we’re staying longer at a DS good neighbor property. No, I’m not going to wait on hold for 3 hours. Or trip is for Labor Day week. This IT folly is unacceptable in every way. You’re right about them alienating almost everyone in one or more ways. Unlike any other company, demand never flags. So far.
I’m surprised they don’t offer a worldwide premium pass for a bazillion dollars, and just split the fee between Disney, OLC, Frenchytown LLC, etc. Not that any of us here could afford it, but…
I’d likewise wait if I were you. You should technically have access to the on-site resort guest pool, and Labor Day is not going to book-up anytime soon. Might as well give it a week or two and call once the phone lines have died down a bit.
Or, perhaps the problems with Disney Springs Area Resorts will resolve themselves and you won’t have to call at all.
Tom, I like your optimism, but not gonna hold my breath. We’ve stayed at the Best Western there 5 times and last time it never got added to MDE even though I called hotel and Disney. No issues though, still got our fastpass minus reservations, EMH, etc.
This time it’s the HI, which does show in MDE, but still held to 3 DPP ressies.
I agree that it’s unlikely to ‘sell out’ for any days after the first week. I am really looking forward to lower crowd levels though, like we experienced at GE last October. That was a great trip. Got spira to spend!
Hi @mrnico–was in exact same boat as you this week with reservations in November at the Disney Springs Hilton. Since our trip is pretty far out I decided to just email guest relations instead of being on hold all day. I was super frustrated until yesterday when amazingly I received a phone call from “Kelly” at Disney World Guest Services. It took a while and the assistance of a coordinator but then got me my fourth day! (We only needed one more day)! So if you’re not in a hurry maybe email and wait for them to call?
BklynSteph, that’s great news! Yeah we’re not getting too antsy this far out. Same as coming back from Germany in March, no way was I going to cancel and pay a ridiculous change fee and short notice bs. Waited until British Airways canceled our flight, then called and told them which flight we wanted.
It’ll be interesting to see what happens for AP park passes as we get closer to July 11th and the resorts themselves aren’t filling up, especially given the fact no one can book a room right now for the regular resorts. It doesn’t make sense to keep more park passes aside for something that will go completely unused beyond current bookings.
At the same time, I’m guessing those with park passes for the days that aren’t filled with resort guests have their fingers crossed that doesn’t happen so that the total park visitors is somewhat lower than they would be if they opened them up to more AP holders.
Just remember: what makes sense and what Disney’s IT infrastructure is capable of doing might be two totally different things. 🙂