Disney World Resuming 2020 Ticket & Resort Sales
Walt Disney World has announced that 2020 theme park ticket sales and resort hotel bookings will both resume on July 9, 2020. In this post, we’ll share details of the announcement, offer resort recommendations, need-to-know info, and commentary about the booking process.
To quickly recap, Walt Disney World temporarily paused 2020 ticket sales and resort hotel bookings upon the announcement of the theme parks reopening. This was done in order to focus on helping existing ticket holders and Annual Passholders plan their visits with the new Disney Park Pass theme park reservation system.
Additionally, Walt Disney World cancelled all existing dining & FastPass+ reservations. This also included the Disney Dining Plan and Free Dining—we mention this because none of these things are returning for the remainder of 2020. Tomorrow you cannot buy the Disney Dining Plan (let alone get it for “free”) nor can you make FastPass+ reservations. If those things return at all, that won’t be until sometime in 2021…
These are just some of the ways that Walt Disney World will be gradually resuming operations in ‘modified’ form. Detailing all of the other changes is well beyond the scope of this post, but you should definitely check out our Walt Disney World Resort Hotel ‘Know Before You Go’ Info page, Dining Know Before You Go Info page, and Transportation Know Before You Go Info page.
Even those just scratch the surface. (We plan on releasing a brand new modified vacation planning guide next week.)
In the interim, here are a few quick recommendations.
For Value Resorts, our recommendation is Pop Century. For Moderate Resorts, Caribbean Beach. For Deluxe Resorts, anything in the Crescent Lake or Magic Kingdom-area is compelling for its own reasons. We’d personally avoid anything that isn’t within walking distance of at least one park, or connected via non-bus transportation (monorail, Skyliner, or boats). If you’d like more elaboration on any of this, leave a comment.
It’s important to note that Walt Disney World tickets and resort hotel bookings may be released at different times throughout the day tomorrow per Disney. In addition, virtual waiting rooms will be used as needed to manage the high volume of guests looking to plan their visits. This could mean everything drops quietly at ~5 am or there’s delay and nothing is up until 11:47 am. It’s Disney’s way of saying expect the unexpected!
All guests with valid admission are required to make a reservation in advance for each park entry, so be sure to check the real-time Disney Park Pass reservation availability calendar before purchasing any new tickets; once you’ve made your purchase, make Disney Park Pass reservations to lock-in your dates. Reservations are limited and subject to availability.
We know there are “many” of you who have been chomping at the bit to make new hotel reservations or purchase tickets for the remainder of 2020. As you might recall from our recent posts about Advance Dining Reservations, we encouraged patience, and repeatedly stressed the realities of (low) demand despite what you might read in the ‘bubble’ of Disney fan sites (hence the air quotes around many).
You might think that this is different, as Disney Park Pass “reservations are limited and subject to availability.” That’s certainly true. Per Walt Disney World, park capacity has been reduced to 20-30% of normal levels, so there is undoubtedly less “supply” than normal.
However, there’s also a lot less demand. We don’t want to beat a dead horse with this, but for on-site resort guests every single park is available for every single day for the rest of 2020 right now. This is even after the chaos and frustrations of the Disney Park Pass ‘drop day.’
That’s right. Even with those lengthy virtual queues and system errors on the initial morning, you could log-on right now and make the exact same Disney Park Pass reservations as someone who (hopefully only figuratively) pulled their hair out in frustration or waited hours on hold that first day.
The point here is that, save for limited circumstances, you can almost certainly exercise patience in booking your hotel or purchasing tickets.
Such “limited circumstances” would include a trip planned for July 2020 or early August 2020 (since a lot is already gone for those weeks), and maybe the weeks of Christmas and New Year’s Eve (since those are popular times that, against all odds, might be closer to filling up).
Even those travel dates are unlikely to fill up on the Disney Park Pass resort guest calendar; it’s fairly clear by now that Walt Disney World is heavily prioritizing on-site guests (which makes complete sense).
With all other dates–whether that be late August 2020 or early December 2020–you are almost certainly fine whether you book your Disney Park Pass reservations tomorrow or two weeks from now.
Our advice would be to log on to DisneyWorld.com tomorrow morning at 6 am if you get up that early. Maybe even set an alarm for 5 am to see what happens. If the system is working, awesome. Book your tickets or hotel. (Surprise early morning drops always make for the easiest access, since most people don’t get up at the crack of dawn.)
If it’s not working, check back an hour later. Repeat that process again every hour thereafter until 9 am. If it’s still not up…wait. Do nothing. We would not encourage calling to book over the phone. If past precedent is any indication, that’ll be a multi-hour wait.
Not being part of the opening morning ‘call center tidal wave’ (and inevitably treading water on hold for hours) does present some risk. If you hold off, there’s always the possibility you won’t get what you want.
However, we think that’s highly unlikely. If you’ve already spent an inordinate amount of time waiting on Walt Disney World’s phone lines, sitting this one out might be better for your sanity.
As for resorts booking up, that’s even more unlikely–even without every hotel being available.
Walt Disney World has given no indication that they are limiting capacity at the resorts, which is probably because they are not. (We can’t think of any reason they would.) What we’ve observed thus far is resorts operating at a fraction of their normal capacity due to a lack of demand, and we’d anticipate that trend will continue. There has been a veritable tidal wave of cancellations over the course of the last several months.
We feel like a broken record at this point, but organic demand is going to be low at Walt Disney World for the next couple years. This is the case for the parks, resorts, and restaurants. We would not expect the parks or restaurants to hit their reduced capacity on most days for the remainder of the year. Nor would we anticipate any non-Disney Vacation Club resort (DVC is a totally different beast) filling up, period.
Our prediction that overall demand will plummet is predicated upon a variety of factors, including but not limited to health & safety concerns, Florida’s growing case numbers, various state quarantine rules (read this before booking), mandatory mask opposition, unemployment levels, economic uncertainty, high heat & humidity, general travel trepidation, and Annual Pass cancellations. On top of that, many guests feel that the value proposition simply isn’t there with shorter park hours, reduced entertainment, and more.
Hopefully, tomorrow will be better than when Disney Park Pass went live. Walt Disney World reportedly scaled up its servers, and they undoubtedly learned from that fiasco. To Disney’s credit, both of the Advance Dining Reservation release days have gone incredibly smoothly. So tomorrow could likewise be painless.
However, Disney IT is still Disney IT. Drop day fiascos seem to be their specialty.
Ultimately, that’s our prediction and it could very well be wrong, but at least we’ve “shown our work” and offered a basis for it. On top of that, take a look at what has happened thus far at every other Florida theme park. After busy AP previews or opening days, all of those have been ghost towns during the week and moderately busier on weekends, but none have hit capacity. Walt Disney World could be the “rising tide that lifts all boats” attendance-wise by drawing tourists to Florida—or it could further dilute the local audience across more theme parks.
While we’re currently seeing a lot of fans stressing out about the reopening process and getting their various reservations, just think about the comments section on this blog and elsewhere in the last month or so from diehard Walt Disney World vacation planners and Annual Passholders.
Have you seen more “I’m out—we’re cancelling” comments or more enthusiastic “I can’t wait to book a trip” feedback? From the feedback we’ve observed, the cancellation comments outnumber the excited to go back ones by about 20 to 1. That’s among diehard Disney fans—the demographic most likely to visit, even if in the presence of obstacles—now imagine sentiment among the general public.
Ultimately, we shall see what happens, but our salient point with all of this is that you shouldn’t worry too much about scoring the reservations you’re after–whether that be booking tickets, securing a resort, or the Disney Park Pass. It likely won’t be nearly as bad/difficult/stressful as many of you are anticipating. If past precedent is any indication–and it absolutely should be since this same scenario has replayed itself in various forms many times over–accessing the various reservations systems tomorrow morning will be a Herculean task that pushes your sanity to the brink…but you could accomplish the exact same end results with zero frustrations by simply sitting back and waiting a few hours or a day.
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
Will you be booking Walt Disney World tickets or hotel reservations tomorrow? Will you wait if there are issues, or do you plan on calling ASAP if the site isn’t working? Expect it to be a disaster, or do you think Disney IT has learned from the Park Pass drop day fiasco? Do you have plans to visit Walt Disney World this summer or fall, or have you cancelled? Do you agree or disagree with our assessment? Other thoughts or concerns? 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!
Unrelated to all comments but I love that picture of Crescent Lake! I have never seen it taken at that angle. Very beautiful.
Thanks! I took that from the highest point on Walt Disney World property.
More here: https://www.disneytouristblog.com/disney-world-dolphin-hotel-presidential-suite/
Tom – would love to see your thoughts about on -vs- off resort at this point. As you note here, demand is way down. So other then priority on park pass (which does t seem to matter) for entry, what advantages are there to stay on in the next 6 months?
“what advantages are there to stay on in the next 6 months?”
Location and “free” transportation.
Personally, I think a very strong case (stronger than normal) can be made for renting your own vacation home or staying off-site and pocketing the savings.
We will most likely cancel our week-long Jambo 1-bedroom villa in August. Did not spend the past several months, working in the trenches of this pandemic, as a healthcare provider seeing COVID patients in a NY hospital – while never testing positive with the virus – only to travel to a “banned” state, for vacation. As a HCP, I’m able to return to work (following testing protocols) upon returning home, but others in my traveling party are not. Plus, we are all subject to mandatory 14 day self quarantine upon returning home. My son is very sad about missing our annual DVC trip – the first to invite his best friend -, but we shall be fine. Perhaps next year…
Hi Tom. Do you happen to know if the walkway from GF is open yet? And if it is, do you think that walking from the main parking lot will be an option?
It is not.
We are booked for the Wilderness Lodge In November which has not announced an opening date. Do you think we will be able to switch to another equivalent resort if it’s not open by then? I worry about the others being booked since they are allowing new bookings now, and those of us who have already had trips planned won’t get other resorts we would want!
Disney will switch you automatically closer to your travel dates if it’s not going to be open by then. I personally would not be worried, but if you are, consider calling (not tomorrow) at some point in the near future and inquiring about a move.
As a travel agent who moved from a closed resort to another one, if you call just tell them you are “confirming” your reservation, let the cast member tell you that your scheduled resort won’t be open and tell you where they will move you, our cost actually went down going from boardwalk to beach club. You can call any time to “confirm” your reservation.
Tom thank you. As many others also echo, I love reading your posts. I notice you promote Pop and Caribbean. I’m booked for the Riviera For the first time for the skyliner in Sept and have been going back and forth to change to Pop or Caribbean to save some $ but having a kitchenette seems to offset breakfast/lunch expenses. Any thoughts on Riviera? I really don’t want to be disappointed. Any thoughts are appreciated.
I’m not a fan of the overall theme and style of Riviera (others love it), but the rooms are undeniably nice and the location is great. If you’ll spend a lot of time in the room, I’d stay put. If not, the downgrade + savings probably makes sense.
Here’s our review: https://www.disneytouristblog.com/riviera-resort-review/
Thanks Tom for your detailed post. I was wondering where you found out that capacity will be limited to 20-30%? Do you think that capacity when parks open will be close to the capacity at the cast member preview?
Bob Chapek said so in a CNBC interview. I believe it’s been repeated a few times since.
I’m not sure if they’re starting at a lower number for the CM/AP previews (my guess is yes).
Are all these predictions for Florida Disney only it do they apply to Anaheim California too?
I watched one of Bob’s interviews and what I heard was that Shanghai Disney was opening at 20-30% but they he wouldn’t give a percentage on Disney World. I’m another interview he said capacity would be a function of maintaining 6 feet between people. I’m not sure what that would equate to. But I do hope it’s 20-30%.
We are part of the “cancelled” stats. We cancelled today for our week long trip beginning August 8. We rescheduled for June of 2021 and will hope for the best. We watched videos of the soft opening with cast members and felt underwhelmed. While the crowd level was nice, we didn’t feel the “Disney excitement” that we like getting caught up in. I realize it may be there to some extent when the park opens to everyone but not enough for us. For those still going…have fun and be safe!
Tom, do you know if they are
Taking reservations for mid-September 2021?
Thanks for your wonderful coverage!
Anything before September 27, 2021. We cover that (and why we’d wait) here: https://www.disneytouristblog.com/2021-disney-world-vacation-packages-out-today-with-big-exceptions/
Thanks Tom,
Will Swan and Dolphin be options? How are those working with reservations?
Yes, but not immediately as they’re in use by the MLS. I’d check their website directly to see what’s bookable.
I am managing my reservations at both the Swan and Dolphin and their availability starts on July 29th for the Dolphin and August 12th for the Swan. Hope this helps!
I already have resort reservations for late October, but still need to purchase park tickets for my stay. If I buy tickets tomorrow and then can’t go in October, will the tickets be refundable or transferable to use on other dates? Thinking about what happens if last minute travel restrictions are put in place that may prevent us from traveling to Florida in October. Thanks for your help!
With all these updates for WDW, do you think Aulani is any closer to being opened back up? A food blog mentioned a September discount, but we haven’t seen that yet. The travel quarantine changes first of August and we have a Labor Day trip planned.
Aulani is totally dependent upon the state of Hawaii, and they seem to be taking a very aggressive approach. I wouldn’t be surprised if Aulani doesn’t reopen this year, but that’s a total guess. (Since it’s a DVC resort and they’ll want members to start using points again, fall is a definite possibility.)
Any idea if Annual Passes are going back on sale tomorrow also?
Hi Tom! Thanks as always for the excellent guidance. We were booked at Poly Resort but they moved us to Kidani. We were hoping to be on the monorail line but read your review of AKL and thought the move would be a good thing. Based on your comment about walking distance/monorail line, should we try to get moved back to Poly? Many thanks!
Personally, I would not want to be overly reliant on bus transportation right now. There are so many unknowns about frequency and guest load.
So either wait and see with regard to those things, or rent a car. (Kidani is perfect if you have a rental car.)
Thanks, Tom. We’re from FL so we’ll have our car with us. Noooooo buses for us right now (or indoor dining, or extended indoor anything, etc, etc, etc).
I asked about all star movies and I was told, “things are changing around here all day” . But if it opens I can change if I want . And if they have sales you can lower the price. I thought everything after September 27th was completely booked, but it’s because they are not taking reservations after September 2021.
So happy to hear this! My son and I are going next week and I’ve been praying that they would open up ticket sales before then. I didn’t think it would happen, but I’m sure glad it is. Hopefully I can get on and get my tickets and be able to book the 2 parks we want. Thanks for the info!
“We’d personally avoid anything that isn’t within walking or monorail distance of at least one theme park. (If you’d like more elaboration on any of this, leave a comment.)”
Would you avoid the gondolas? If so, why?
No, we would not avoid the Skyliner. (That’s actually *why* we recommend Pop Century and Caribbean Beach.)
Sorry, will correct that now!
Excellent. Thanks for all of the useful, well-written info you provide! It’s much appreciated, and your writing style is a good read.
I’m still waiting to add a day to my reservation. A ticket. Have been told we can not modify. Why are they allowing people to buy tickets and reservations while not letting those that have it modify ours?
Tom~
Can you please walk me thru….with crayons……the process, in order, for tomorrow to purchase tickets. We have hotel reservations. We need to purchase tickets for Msgic Kingdom & Animal Kingdom. I have the Disney World App on my phone. Thank you!!
I was able to add a day to our September trip last week with no issues. I did have to call and talk to someone, but it wasn’t a problem. Now I’m glad we can get tickets for our extra day. I’d call and try to modify again.
Thanks for the info as always Tom! We already have resort reservations and tickets for our (Hopefully!!) trip in December, but I will likely check at some point to see what prices are like. Regarding Park Pass drop day, I booked all our Park Passes later that day with absolutely no trouble at all. I’m not sure if I got lucky or if it was because it was the end of the day and everyone else was bellying up to the bar after a long day screaming into their phones while rotting on hold for hours?? In the interest of full disclosure, I’m not just that patient, I didn’t realize I could make them as far out as December when they initially dropped, so that’s why I waited. But Tom is right, I booked all 9 days in less than 5 minutes with zero crashing, orbiting screens, stress or hair pulling out. Now we just wait and see what the parks will look like for the holidays and decide if it’s a go for us or not… Hopefully booking hotels and tickets goes smoothly for everyone and keep the info coming Tom and Sarah!
I rebooked for September 2021 today. The three day nightmare I went through trying to book park reservations is just a dull memory today. I cleared my cache on my iPhone and making park reservations was easy. All of this is completely dependent on covid stats at the time. But this is my positive belief that this will somehow be over by then. Oh ya they do let you get park hopper tickets for 2021 but no way to use them yet.
Any indication on whether or not some of the other resorts will be opening this year? IE – the “tbd” ones, such as Jambo House? Or any further indication on other restaurants? I expect that to be more of a play it by ear scenario, but was hopeful for the resorts!
I’m glad you were able to get tickets! But I don’t think “this will be over by then”…which is the exact reason that we all need to get back to living life. Now. It could be years, if ever, before we conquer this. This isn’t going away, folks. Just as we reach the point that we feel we have this particular strain under control, it will mutate. Not to mention any new viruses that will be introduced to the population. We need to move forward and be as careful as possible as we go about living life outside of the confinement of our homes. It does none of us any good to cower in fear.
Uh, I’m not “cowering in fear.” I’m acting responsibly to protect myself and help minimize the risk to others. What little inconvenience I feel is a very small price to pay for that. Spending thousands to indulge myself on a series of 3-minute rides in blazing heat and humidity is about as far from a priority during a pandemic as I can imagine.