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!
Does anyone know if the AP expiration date extension will be loaded before tomorrow’s AP reservations are open? I was unable to renew my AP due to the suspension of new ticket sales/AP renewals. I am now officially not an AP holder due to the expiration date of my original AP, but based on the extension days, I would not currently be expired. Any info or insight would be super appreciated! I’ve called twice and am told there is nothing I can do to renew until new ticket sales/AP renewals are open again. They also said the extra days should be added by the time the parks open… so does that mean I won’t have my AP to make any reservations until July 11th (if that even happens)? So beyond frustrated!!!
I believe there was an article on this topic today on the website DFB Guide (a/k/a Disney Food Blog). I believe they said you would still be able to make reservations in this situation. I’m sorry I can’t access the article right now but I did see it, so perhaps check out their site and see if you see it there.
That is odd that your extension is not showing already. We have 6 people with APs on our account. Four expired during the closure and the tickets were not showing after the expiration date. A few weeks ago they returned with a new expiration date in mid-August. The 2 APs that did not expire until February 2021 are also showing their new extended expiration date, those showed up about a week before the totally expired passes. We also have the option to renew the August expiration APs right now. The policy on Disney’s website says current AP holders may renew now if they have an upcoming expiration. If yours hasn’t show up yet I would be concerned and would call the AP help line again. Maybe the CM did not understand your situation fully? Unless they are still slowly working their way through extending the expirations and it will take that long to get to all of the accounts???
I got the initial extension for my AP based on the number of days the parks were/are closed. I haven’t gotten the extra 30 days yet and that impacts my final reservation I have in May. I guess I will wait until October to get those park days (maybe they will be through with that by then).
**Update** I just checked my AP’s and they have returned and the extension days are there!!! Just in time for making reservations today. Doesn’t look like the AP reservations are open just yet, but I’m ready! So excited and relieved. 🙂
Tom, I can’t find where to subscribe to your blog. Please advise.
Finally was able to get through to WDW technical support this morning. Total time on the phone was three hours. My issues are still not resolved. If anyone has any insight or suggestions I’d be most appreciative. We are annual pass holders with reservations at the Disney Springs Hilton doubletree linked in My Disney Experience. The unresolved issues are these:
1). Hilton has only communicated one person to Disney (my husband) as staying in our room. So only my husband is considered a resort guest and allowed to book park reservations now. Even though all our names are on the room. WDW says they are going to send a form to the hotel asking them to verify that all our names are on the room. However, I’m concerned that the hotel will not respond, since it is closed until August, no one is there, and no one is responding to phone, email, or texts that I have sent.
2). When I try to book reservations for my husband (the one person in our party the system recognizes as a resort guest), I encounter the “annual pass glitch” and am limited to three days of reservations. The agent said there was nothing she could do about it now, we just have to wait for them to fix the system for everybody.
3). The agent was able (working with the “escalation team” to manually input the additional park reservations in November for my husband only. (The rest of the party still has no reservations.). However, she could not do our final day, because of “technical difficulties” that she seemed to have no explanation for.
So, basically, I’ve been advised to wait and see if the Hilton reservations are linked by Friday for the rest of the party. If not, they said to call back. That is difficult advice to take because it’s a miracle to ever get through!
Anybody got any advice? Thanks to all in this community for your helpful tips thus far.
As of this morning I finally got all 20 park pass reservation days I needed for 3 different trips. Thanks for all the tips and the direct links in this post, all very helpful! Over the course of 3 days I think I ran into just about every problem on the list. We have 3 resort stays and just about every different ticket combination (APs that expire partway through the year, package tickets, partially used non-expiring tickets, single use tickets with no expiration, and date based tickets from a cancelled March trip). Each person has 3-5 different tickets in order to have enough days to cover all 3 trips (normally I’d just renew the APs, but with all the uncertainty it doesn’t seem wise at this point).
When reservations first opened and I got past the pink castle and “you’re almost in orbit” countdown (which took 2 hrs) I was able to make several, but not all my days, and then got the message that my party had reached the maximum number of days of Park Pass allowed. The next day when the AP 3 day limit was resolved I was able to get 2 more days. But still only 1 day for my 3rd resort reservation. This morning I tried tinkering with which tickets were linked to which accounts and that was the key that unlocked our final days. I had to remove the “extra tickets” and book the full number of days on the linked tickets. Only when I ran out of days on the attached tickets could I transfer back another ticket and start booking days using those.
Thanks to those who posted the IT direct phone number. I tried to call right at 7 am today and got a busy signal x 50 before trying the AP help line. I got through on the AP help line after about 10 tries. I stayed on hold for about 75 minutes and never did get a person. But by that time I had gotten the park reservations I needed with a lot of trial and error shuffling tickets.
I had two vacation packages booked later this year, for September and December, staying on property. I was able to book Park Passes for the September trip on Monday afternoon (after having issues with the site all morning like everyone else), but for the December trip it was only letting me book one day — all other days would show the parks not available. If I cancelled that one day, it would let me book another day. Just like many of you had posted about. I logged on this morning (6/24) at approx. 6:45 AM EST, and was able to book all of my December dates. Hopefully they put the fix in universally, so that everyone else who encountered this issue with multiple reservations can now book!
Notes: I am not an Annual Passholder. I used Firefox this morning, private window. I was able to book my Park Passes in December in chronological order.
So I want to start by saying I am incredibly pleased with my experience the last two days (I’ve been seriously stressing up until this point). On June 22 I tried to get online to select our park pass days. I was unable to get on all day, but finally got it to work around 6:30 pm. I was pleasantly surprised that all 7 of our park days had full availability for the first week of September. So I booked everything we wanted In about 5 minutes.
Today I called all day long to work out our hotel situation. I got busy tones for all 40+ phone calls until about 10 pm. I then waited on hold for about 2 hrs. I talked to an amazing cast member and told him we were originally slotted to stay at Coronado, which wouldn’t be open. He was ready to help me find a new hotel for the same locked in price I had previously. He tried Polynesian and then he tried Caribbean… he then put me on hold for a few minutes and came back saying that he had a deluxe studio at riviera if that would work for me. What a score! We are so pleased with the way things are working out. You could tell that they were really trying to make things work for people. I can’t wait for our trip!!
This is great!
After starting at 6:50 a.m. yesterday morning, and being able to only get 2 park passes (of our 11 days of tickets during our vacation package), and being online all day, trying 5 different devices, trying incognito, different browsers, privacy mode, logging out and back in, clearing cache/history, and even shutting completely down and rebooting, and making 54 phone calls (to busy signals/all circuits are busy) until finally getting through just before 11 (and being on hold until 11:20 pm, at which point their systems were down, but I was told it was a glitch, with some people able to book all passes, and others only able to make a couple of passes, but that they would be open again at 7 this morning). Then continuing to try online until 2 a.m., then again at 4, 5, 6, and from 7:30 on, and trying to call from.7:30, and making 465 unsuccessful attempts to call (busy signal/all circuits are busy) on every Disney number I had, I FINALLY got through on the main line at at 2:54 pm, to an expected 2.5 hour hold time. I didn’t care, I wasn’t about to hang up! When the CM finally answered, she was nice, but basically tried to tell me she couldn’t do anything, and to just keep trying online. I about cried. Finally, half an hour into the call, she “remembered” she could try putting me in a queue for a call back (but warned when she trained on it two days ago, it didn’t work). But she did get it to work, and said they had about a 2 hour wait, but the IT Help desk would call me back (at least I wasn’t going to be on hold the whole time!) I actually got a call back earlier than 2 hours, and the CM was extremely nice!! And i found out what the problem was – we have 2 reservations – I had initially made reservations for December oflast year, but had to postpone until Decemberof this year. Then earlier this year, we decided to add a couple of days on to the trip, but where it was from so long ago, it wouldn’t let me add to it, so I had to make a second reservation.
I had intended to call and see if someone could merge the reservations together, but then Covid happened, and the reservations are separate(although it’s really one long continuous set of dates). The IT CM who called me back said that the system gets very confused when you have more than one ticket for each person.
That was the problem. So she had to make separate profiles for us, and I was able to make all our park pass reservations, and even she merged the profiles back together. She was very nice – I did have one hiccup mid way through, but it was solved by logging out and back in, and she stayed in the line with me to make sure I got park reservations for all our days, and double checked that they were all in my profile plans! Happy Dance! Hopefully this will help someone else out there if you are still having a similar problem.
I can’t get past the sign in page – it thinks about it shows me the “create your party” for an instant then goes back to sign in…
Trying to link family. I used to have my nephew John,his wife and 3 of their boys in my list and we could plan. As the 4th boy was missing and I couldn’t get him added, I was told a few days ago to delete my nephew and then re-connect with them. He accepted but now he is the only one in my list and when I go to add guest of connected friend it says there is no one to add. Why can’t I get my niece and their 4 boys added to my account as he is connected with me? Spoke with MDE cast member couple days ago but now all circuits are busy and chat doesn’t work either. Thank you
We have reservations for end of Oct. beginning of Nov. and are pretty sure we are going to reschedule for 2021, so I slept in and waited until later and logged on. Logged on about 11:30 am central time and within an hour I was done adding our reservations.
We have decided anything than going to Disney at 100% is not worth it for the money we are spending on Disney World and a Disney Cruise.
I will not be forced to wear a mask on vacation! Faith over Fear!
I have to ask again…I previously booked a resort stay in August, but did not book any park tickets. So at this point, is it true that I cannot yet add a park ticket to my existing resort reservation? Even though I’ve received notification from Disney Destinations regarding my ability to access the Disney Park Pass system, I have not been able to add a park day to my reservation.
Ugh! I’m one of the ones who stormed the castle yesterday morning with a vacation package, finally got through and made 2 reservations, and then it started telling me there is no availability for the rest of my 11 day tickets. I actually got through several times throughout the day (after long waits), and every time, no availability. Yes, at around 8 pm I started being able to get in at will, but still gives the the message there is no availability for any parks for any days. I kept calling, only to get the busy signal or “all circuits are busy now” until finally around 10:45 pm. I waited online until someone answered (after 11 pm) who told me it was a glitch, but their computers were down so they couldn’t help me. I tried online all night (until 2 am, and then at 4 am, 5 am, 6 pm, then of course I fell asleep until 7:30 am!) I’ve tried ever since then, still showing no availability – on phone and chromebook, tried clearing cache/history, incognito, different browsers, turning off and back on. Today I tried a (different) laptop and PC – still same message. So it seems the only way I will be able to get the rest of my park days is to call (I would have thought IT would have fixed the “glitch” last night, but apparently not). And I’ve called over a hundred times this morning already, but keep getting busy signal or “all circuits are busy,” so I can’t even get into the queue to wait on hold for hours! This is crazy! And tomorrow it will get even worse when it opens up to more people. I am a relatively patient person, and a die hard Disney fan. But I’m about at my wit’s end when my only option seems to be to call, and I can’t even get past the busy signal to get into the queue! Argh!!! (And I don’t mean that in a good pirate-y way….)
I literally called 152 times this morning starting at about 7:30am. Then once answered was waiting for about 2.5 hours…the good news at the end was the cast member helped fix my “glitch” and booked us the additional day we wanted! I did call the internet service number, as directed by a “chat” cast member.
Not sure your exact details, but someone wrote a comment somewhere that booking the days out of order causes that glitch and if you cancel those days, and rebook in reverse order or sequential order it might work?? Another person wrote just selecting other dates on the calendar and then returning to the ones you are trying refreshes it and might work? I’d read through all the comments on both posts, maybe something is in there that will work and might be less frustrating to try than calling.
I could’ve written your post! I also tried to get on at 3 am, 4 am, 5 am, etc. My husband talked to someone at 11:30 last night & he told him to call at 7 this morning. So we called right at 7 & got through. It took about 40 minutes, but they were able to fix it. Apparently it was because our Halloween party tickets were still showing up on our account. The numbed we called was 407-939-7765. Good Luck!
This is pretty much my exact situation….
Not exactly on topic and probably a dumb question, but I have been trying to call to modify my reservation for some time and it is only a busy signal or an all circuits are busy message. I can’t seem to ever get it to ring to even wait on hold. I am assuming this is just par for the course? It won’t let me change anything online and says to call. Hopefully I can modify eventually…
Update that I did get through to wait and have been waiting about 2 hours and 10 minutes as of now but the music disappeared for the last 20 or so minutes so I am hoping that I am actually still on hold…
Are others still having trouble booking more than three days with AP and resort reservation!? Just tried again this morning –in chrome incognito–and still not working for me. Sigh. I just need one more day!!
It seems IT fixed the AP glitch for some last night but I’m wondering if our Premier APs are still not working to book for more than three days with a resort reservation since they tend to have problems in WDW when purchased in CA. I have endlessly tried calling IT, AP, DVC, etc. and haven’t reached a real person. Just sent an email to AP and received a “we are working on it” email back. Will see…beyond frustrated…
I got all the rest of my October nights, my November nights, my December nights and my January nights this morning (6/23). My May nights will fall under the 30 day extension on my Florida Resident Weekday pass gets in October, so I will add those after that date. But yesterday, every time I tried, I just got the Not so Fast message (how rude!). I logged in on Firefox and did not do the Private Window.
I went on last night around 8pm and didn’t have to wait. I immediately signed on, made reservations, and paid off the rest of my trip. The only issue I had was the calendar. They should have simply shown your dates and allowed you to select from a drop down instead of going through all this craziness.
Isn’t anyone else having this issue with the Olaf error message that they’re having trouble loading the screen? This occurs after I have selected my party, my date and my park. I never get to choose the time and I don’t get any confirmation of my choice. I’ve tried 5 different devices on wifi and off, I’ve rebooted, I cleared cookies. What’s frustrating is that I was able to get one date chosen in December last evening, but since then bupkis. I feel so…isolated. Help me, collective Obi-Wans, you’re my only hope!
Oddly this morning I was getting Olaf when signed into incognito window. When I switched to a regular browser it worked ok for picking 2 days, then I got Olaf again. I deleted browsing history, shut down and restarted (and my computer did an update) and now it’s working again.
Thanks for your information, unfortunately no joy yet. I’m sure it’ll get fixed at some point, and I hope my dates will still be there.
I was part of the “I’ve got resort reservations and park tickets” mob that stormed the Beast’s castle yesterday morning in the wee hours. After 2 hours and 25 minutes online and 171 failed phone calls, the drawbridge of the pink castle finally dropped open admitting me to the deceitful space mountain countdown clock which kept kicking backwards in 30 second increments until it finally hit 0:00 at which point the system unfurled itself in full glory and I was able to get the exact park reservations I desired. When you wish upon a star your dreams DO come true…eventually. All it takes is faith and trust…and a moat full of pixie dust.
Hi Michael, try again. Short answer to your query, no; that week is open as I was able to add Dec 14-18 this a.m. Used Chrome on iPhone, while alternating trying to call IT and AP for same AP issue a lot were dealing with yesterday. All of a sudden that AP glitch is no longer an issue
What phone number do you call to reach IT for an issue such as this AP glitch? Thanks!
Corrine,
407-939-3471 is the IT help desk. Good luck getting to speak to someone!
Thank you!!!
Thanks Gigi.
Does anyone know if the park reservations are at capacity for December 14-20? I was able to get one day of park reservations once I finally made it through and then the dreaded parks unavailable message. I finally made it through to a cast member and she gave me the number to IT. I’ve tried that number approximately 3300 times without success. I’m at a loss.
Those are the dates I’m trying as well, and they are available. I started getting the parks unavailable message last month, but I’d repeat the request and they showed up fine.
I meant last night, not last month. 🙂