Disney World’s Park Pass Reservations: We’re In Orbit!
If you’ve followed the Walt Disney World news roller coaster the last few days, you know Disney Park Pass debuted this morning, allowing guests with resort reservations and tickets to book theme park entry. Anyone familiar with Disney ‘drop days’ knew to expect the unexpected, and that has been doubly so here.
Walt Disney World has released no shortage of details, but it has felt very nebulous. Getting up this morning, even knowing the ins and outs of what’s been announced, I was anxious. It’s like we’ve been studying for the final exam about American History knowing it might cover some overlapping European History–but then it ends up being a test exclusively about the French Revolution.
Of course, that’s assuming we even are able to take the test. The test was scheduled to start at 7 am, but surprise! It could actually start at 4:36 am without you, and the door to the exam room might end up breaking at 6:55 am. Once the door is repaired at 8:48 am, you may or may not be able to take the test. Tough luck. That’s the story of Walt Disney World IT and drop days in nutshell, or tortured analogy, as the case may be.
To continue that tortured analogy, this morning it turned out that we didn’t even know where the exam was being held. Maybe it was behind the gates of a very pink castle. Perhaps it was in orbit with Space Mountain, in the mines where the Seven Dwarfs work, or even inside Stitch’s belly. WHO KNOWS?!
Any one of those could be the hidden entrance, you just need to know the secret knock to enter the testing location.
Also, the exam did not start early. It started at least an hour and a half late–and has not even started yet for some people!
In any case, here’s the story of our experience, plus the “secret knock” that worked to gain us access to the Disney Park Pass system so we could book reservations for Magic Kingdom, Animal Kingdom, and Epcot…
Not trusting that the Disney Park Pass system would go live at 7 am (we are all too familiar with the surprise 4:37 am drops of Free Dining), we were up bright and early this morning at 5 am, checking off and on periodically.
Depending upon what we tried, we were greeted by a (very pink) Cinderella Castle with a “just a moment” message, Seven Dwarfs with “we’re working on it,” or the classic Stitch Ate the Page.
We had Advance Dining Reservations for the modified character dining experience at Topolino’s Terrace this morning at 7:30 am, so we continued this process while on the drive over to Disney’s Riviera Resort, and then in the parking lot while waiting for our ADR time.
At 7:10 am, we still had zero success–and it was becoming clear we were in for a ‘long haul’ with the process, so we updated our How to Make Park Pass Reservations for Disney World guide and headed up to the rooftop restaurant.
Throughout breakfast, we periodically checked our phones and social media to see how things were going and it was clear the consensus was “NOT GOOD, BOB.”
We finished breakfast at around 8:45 am, headed down to Voyageurs’ Lounge (where I’m still sitting as I type this), and began trying all of our best hacks to get the process to work.
I’ll spare you a full run-down of our failures, and instead go through what worked in case you’re still experiencing similar frustrations.
To start, use private browsing or incognito mode on your desktop browser. Instead of going directly to DisneyWorld.com, click here. This will, hopefully, take you to the DisneyWorld.com page for Frontera Cocina (and not Space Mountain).
If that works, go through the motions of searching for availability and click a time. You’re not actually booking anything, so the dates/party size don’t really matter. You’re just doing this to get the My Disney Experience login pop-up without a redirect to that page.
Think of Frontera Cocina (or any Disney Springs restaurant, for that matter) as the “secret entrance” to Magic Kingdom reservations.
Once you get logged in, open a new tab and check here.
This is the link for creating your party, which bypasses the first step (and another phase of waiting). You’ll probably have a wait at this screen, but it should work after the countdown finishes. Very strong emphasis on should.
For what it’s worth, we never had luck on anything loading after the pink castle screen–but have had success with the Space Mountain screen. If you’ve been stuck on the Cinderella Castle screen for more than a few minutes, you might want to try again–or try in another browser.
From there, the process should be pretty self-explanatory and smooth. Here are step by step screenshots of what you should see:
Additionally, we would strong recommend that you go into My Plans after completing this process and double-checking that all of your reservations appear there.
As always, taking screenshots is a good course of action, just in case My Disney Experience “poofs” any of your reservations. We’ve heard reports of that happening already, so it’s best to be safe. Even though Disney IT is a shining exemplar of reliability and beacon of–HAHAHAHA, sorry couldn’t finish that sentence.
Ultimately, that’s the process and how it worked for us. Right now, I’m feeling a bit like I’ve just completed Jedi Training Academy: Trials of the Temple, but for adult Walt Disney World vacation planners. (In other words, Jedi Training Academy: Trials of the Tourist!) Your mileage may vary and you might experience success (or many failures) via this route or others. Judging by the 575+ comments on our How to Book Disney Park Pass Reservations Guide, a lot of you have already had success. We’ll be back later today to report on more of our experiences being back at Walt Disney World!
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
Have you had success booking Disney Park Pass reservations? What worked/didn’t work for you? What do you think about the Disney Park Pass reservation system? Still having any troubles? Will you be attempting to visit Walt Disney World this summer or fall, or are you waiting until after September 2021 when this (presumably) goes away? Do you agree or disagree with our advice? 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!
Yep, after 3 1/2 hours got off my macbook and iphone and used my kids chromebook and got in after a bit of a wait (like about 2 min). Got the dates we wanted in mid-August! Good Luck everyone!
Thank you for the link! It worked perfectly! I was stuck looking at a very pink castle forever and fortunately got my email showing you had this story out. Perfect timing!
I got our park pass reservations after six hours of checking the website overnight and a very panicked 15 minutes when I could not get in despite reports others did. I had four browsers open on two computers open and one finally worked for me “organically” just as I was trying to make reservation on the other computer. Feel a weird mix of elated and nauseous. That was altogether pretty horrible.
I don’t fault them for technical issues. I do think they could have given more clarity on where to go though instead of making us collectively play the “find the link” game. And I absolutely think they should have staggered this to avoid so much crashing–start with July reservations, then August etc.
I also eventually got through on the phone after calling in exactly at 7am and was able to modify resort for our August stay (had to pay the difference but got to keep the 35% off for free dining), so that seems to be working now too. No ticket modifications allowed other than to remove park hopper/water parks options (they would not let me add a theme park day after removing water parks option).
I also just noticed that the Change Reservation buttons are now active for our resort reservations meaning resort reservations are back online. So I am sure that is not helping the website traffic.
I managed to get through and got a few “parks not available” on that date, but later they were. Then, when I went to confirm, it told me that my party isn’t linked with passes. Of course, when I go back to link, it tells me that they’re already linked! I am getting absolutely nowhere.
Finally in, got the dates for Sept. Used the dining res to sign in. Thanks for the tip. What a mess this was…
I used the dining reservation back door you describe after seeing it suggested in the 575 comments and it worked…after two hours plus of pink castles even in incognito mode, etc.
Here’s the weird part–we both have platinum APs and a reservation in November at Hilton Lake Buena Vista in Disney Springs which I linked to my MDE last week. Was hoping it would be a “partner” hotel. Hence trying today. It let me book three park reservations but not the fourth day. So…just as if I were an AP with no resort reservation but I thought APs with no hotel had to wait until Friday?!?
Tangled! (Mess)!
Can’t get any dates to pop up and can’t get a hold of Disney. We are DONE with Disney.
Ha, this made my morning. It’ll all be ok.
I finally got in after 3.5 hours on both normal browsers and incognito on 2 different computers and my phone. I got in once after 2 hours, went through the first reservation, hit confirm, and then it said there was an error loading the page. I think the error was that I included my under 3-year-old. When I got back in again over an hour later, it made me remove him because he doesn’t need tickets or a park reservation. So, if you have an under 3-year-old, don’t include him/her. I got all of the reservations I wanted. Good luck everyone!
Yes, when I first went to make my park reservation, I included a friend that doesn’t yet have tickets. It allowed me to go through the entire process, but it ended up with an Olaf error message. It didn’t explain what the problem was. I went back and tried for just my daughter and me because we have linked tickets. It worked then. If you have anyone in your party without a linked ticket, I don’t think you can make a park reservation for your party.
I was tired of waiting so decided to see if I could find out something about Boardwalk Villas since the Inn side won’t be open in August and once I got into the resort page I went to the opening the parks update link and got over to the park pass explanation and there was a box, clicked on it and I was in the reservation system for the parks. Was able to make park reservations for all three days in August that we’ll be there for. Now, if only I knew where we are staying. I did all of this around 7:30 am.
Thanks Tom
The dining trick works. My girlfriend said not to try and change a day or it has issues.
After much waiting and many open browsers, I finally go into the reservation system. I was able to reserve parks for the first two days of my trip starting Oct 17, but the rest of the week is showing no parks available. Is this a hiccup or has there been more demand than expected?
It’s a hiccup. All parks are available for all dates except July 11 – 14.
Our fantastic travel agent was also up at the crack of dawn, attempting the same things, and running up against the same walls as you did.
Ultimately, we decided to cancel our 2020 vacation, and hold out hope for 2021. This is a trip we can only afford to do a couple of times in our daughter’s childhood, so we want it to be as close to a full experience as possible when we finally go.
It’s disappointing to cancel, especially after a year of planning and excited anticipation, but our family is keeping it all in perspective: at least we have our health, our jobs, food, shelter, safety. Our Disney vacation can wait.
I was able to get on and make my reservations thank god! I used two browsers since I am on a MAC ,I had safari and google chrome, the google chrome browser opened first to let me login and make my reservation, for some reason the safari browser was still waiting even though I was on that one sooner. I was also on the phone with Disney online support who guided me through the process.
Good morning Brickers! Thank you for being my ‘coaches’ through this process. I was signed on and hanging in there with the very pink castle from 7am to 8:48am. I used your incognito browsing tip and also had multiple computers attempting entry. Patience was definitely key in embarking on this adventure, but we achieved success and made DPP reservations for our whole trip in mid- August.
Like you, I had a hard time figuring out where to go… and Cast Members were nowhere to be found on the chat feature. So, I went to Google and typed in “how to get on the park reservation system on my disney experience”, and have me a link that went straight to the reservation system, where Space Mountain counted me down from 5 minutes. Of course, the countdown would go back in time 30 seconds every so often, but it finally counted down to zero, and I was able to lift off into the world of park reservations!
One thing I found curious was that it had been said you would have to choose an entry time. Well, the only option available was for the entire park hours for that park on that day- there were no broken down windows of time to choose from. So I’m not sure what that was all about. Either way, like you said- once you were in, it was easy to navigate. I made the reservations from my desktop, and then went into My Disney Experience on my phone and confirmed that my new golden tickets.. I mean reservations.. were there.
Pretty epic fail.
9:20 got to the orbit page.
The count down added 30 seconds and reset the clock at whatever 30, EACH time!
Finally got in and were able to make reservations for the 4 of us for our October trip.
Then for fun and games I decided to see if with no resort reservation we could book a random day in July (we all have AP’s, my son has the only activated one), and it said the rest of us were good to go but he exceeded his pass days (or something like that).
And I definitely took screenshots of all reservations (learned a long time ago of the value of that).
No comments except to say… good God, that castle is really pink. Blech! 🙂
I shouldn’t bog their servers down even farther since I’m not making a reservation, but I couldn’t help but click the links you posted to see what happens. For me, the Frontera didn’t work initially. Eventually, it did but then I still go the pink castle. Then I signed off so not to take away server resources.
Since we are working from home anyway, my wife and I were already set up and added the home laptop and two phones for a total of 5 devices with multiple chrome and chrome incognito browsers all spinning with the pink castle for about 1.5 hours. Finally, my wife got to the login screen through her laptop and was able to book both of our trips (August and November) 6 days each with no problem at all. We have annual passes and room only reservations. One thing she did was to google Disney Park Reservation and follow the link that came up in the search. Not sure if that really helped or not.
I’ve been at the “Just a Moment” with Cinderella’s castle for quite a while now. My reservations aren’t until end of September, so I’m just going to let it sit there while I work and see if it logs in. If not, no big deal – I’ll try again later!
With my recent Disney IT experiences over the past year or so, the only thing that would surprise me about this system is if it worked correctly. I’m planning on taking a wait and see approach, as I don’t think capacity should be an issue on most days and don’t feel like fighting with the system.
I’d love to see an update on the new Topolino experience….nudge nudge.
Yes Tom and Sarah please tell us about your breakfast! Please! 🙂 Can’t wait for updates on your stay today!