How to Make Park Reservations for Disney World
Park Pass is Walt Disney World’s advance theme park reservations system for booking entry to Magic Kingdom, Animal Kingdom, Epcot, and Hollywood Studios. This is required in addition to buying tickets between now and January 18, 2024 in order to enter the parks. This how-to guide covers the steps for making Disney Park Pass reservations, offers troubleshooting advice, and more. (Updated March 20, 2022.)
For starters, the Disney Park Pass system is available on DisneyWorld.com–not the My Disney Experience app (although there is a link within the app to take you to the reservation website). To use this system, start by making sure your tickets and resort reservation are linked in My Disney Experience, and your family and friends list is properly populated.
Now in use for nearly two years, the Disney Park Pass system has been controversial and frustrating for many fans. So much so that one of the most common reader questions during that time is When Will Walt Disney World Stop Requiring Park Reservations? We speculate and attempt to answer that question in that post. Here, let’s continue on with the details of Disney Park Pass, and making advance online reservations for the theme parks at Walt Disney World!
Step 1: Link Your Admission to Your Disney Account
To get started, you’ll need valid park admission that’s linked to your Disney account.
- First, you’ll need a Disney account, which is where your Walt Disney World plans are stored and managed. Create an account or sign in to your existing account.
- Then, link your valid admission to your Disney account. All Guests in your party must also have valid park admission linked to their profile. Note: At this time, new ticket sales are temporarily paused, and sales will resume at a later date.
- If you have a Disney Resort hotel reservation, be sure to link it to your Disney account as well.
Once your admission is linked to your account, you can begin to make a park reservation…
Step 2: Create Your Party
When you begin to make a reservation, you’ll be prompted to create your party from your Family & Friends list.
Simply select the family and friends you’d like to include, then hit the Continue button.
Don’t see someone in your travel party? Select “Add a Guest” to include them.
You may need to make more than one Disney Park Pass reservation for your party depending on your admission type. Please make sure your party consists of Annual Passholders or theme park ticket holders.
Staying in a Disney Resort or other select hotel with a package that includes tickets? Everyone in your party must also have a hotel reservation. If this varies, you will need to make separate Disney Park Pass reservations.
Step 3: Select a Date and Park
Choose the date and the theme park that you’d like to visit from the available reservations. Please note that dates and theme park selections are limited and subject to availability.
After creating your party in the Disney Park Pass system, you’ll be prompted to:
- Select a Date: View a calendar and choose one of the available dates for your visit.
- Select a Theme Park: Park hours will be displayed for your convenience.
- Select a Time: This is the time that you can visit the park.
NOTE: Selecting a time is simply “confirming” the park hours, not an actual arrival window.
After selecting your date and park, you can confirm your reservation.
Step 4: Review and Confirm Your Plans
Carefully review and confirm your selected park and date.
If you need to make any changes, select “Back” to revise your selections.
Before confirming, you’ll need to agree to the Terms & Conditions, including the health certification and liability disclaimer waiver. (For this reason, it’s unlikely that travel agents will book Disney Park Pass reservations like they do/did for FastPass+ or ADRs.)
Then, select “Confirm” to complete your park reservation. Once confirmed, your reservation will appear in My Plans on My Disney Experience or DisneyWorld.com.
Want to make another park reservation? Select “Make Another Reservation” to continue planning. As a reminder, if you have a multi-day ticket, you will be required to make a park reservation for each date of your visit.
If you need to cancel a reservation, view your daily itinerary in My Plans, then select “Reservation Details”.
We’ve now used the Disney Park Pass system numerous times, and the process usually works pretty smoothly. Nevertheless, you might have issues getting DisneyWorld.com to work. In terms of troubleshooting, our #1 solution is always to use private browsing or incognito mode on your desktop browser to access DisneyWorld.com.
This won’t always resolve your problem, but usually it will. It’s at least worth a shot. In any case, hopefully that preemptively answers some reader questions we’d otherwise receive and saves some of you some headaches.
We’d recommend making reservations weeks or months in advance, rather than days ahead of time. While you’ll be fine most of the time booking Park Passes at the last minute, that’s not always the case.
Availability varies wildly depending upon demand. In the off-season, reservations are mostly a formality. By contrast, park reservations are already booking up (see above) about a month before peak dates in April 2022. Plan accordingly and err on the side of making reservations early just in case.
With that said, it’s never necessary to book reservations 2+ months in advance. Many Walt Disney World fans stress out over planning every little detail of their trips 6+ months in advance. While that’s understandable when it comes to Advance Dining Reservations and even resort bookings, the same diligence is not necessary with Disney Park Pass reservations.
The vast majority of guests simply do not plan that far in advance. Since Walt Disney World began requiring Park Pass reservations, there is only one date that filled up months in advance–October 1, 2021. That was the 50th Anniversary of Walt Disney World, and is quite obviously a “special case.” If you’re just visiting for some random week in July 2022, you need to start thinking about reservations in June…not April.
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
What do you think about the Disney Park Pass reservation system? Think these policies seem fair in light of the ongoing global pandemic and reduced capacity of the parks? Think that many days will sell out, or that most will be available on short notice? Will you be attempting to visit Walt Disney World this summer or fall, or are you waiting until when this (hopefully) 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!
Has anyone had issues with “no availability” if they have military tickets?
Abby, I have military tickets and was able to make my reservations Jul 12-17. Had no issues…once I got in.
I also have military tickets. Was able to make my reservations for 8 days in December. I wish you luck!
3 1/2 hours
Park reservations made
Choosing process went smoothly
(Google chrome seems to be best. I had two laptops waiting)
Good luck and just be patient
I have a trip booked at a Disney resort from 9/27-10/3 2020 with 5 days of tickets. I was not able to book my 5th day because it says no parks available to book on 10/1 or 9/27. I was happy I got 4 of my days, but wondering what happens now. Will they possibly open up more spots after they see how the opening goes? We are only 3.5 hours into the first wave of booking; will they possibly refund the ticket price for the unused ticket for our family if we are not able to use them since no spots available to book? We are not annual members or anything, just had the resort and tickets booked for an anniversary trip. Thanks for keeping us updated!
Anyone have any luck for Dec 20-27
We got in finally. It went smoothly at first. We have several trips planned (staying on property) and have APs. It all went downhill when we got the “reached our limit” at 9 reservations and gave a number to call. Argh!!!!!
I got 7 day limit
Same but I only was able to make 3 ….:(
Yes I have reservations in Oct, Nov, and December. I made reservations for 1 day in Nov and 2 in December and says I am maxed for all trips. The chat person said they are aware and no update when will be fixed to call and they can help. Still on hold. But yes as others get reservations AP get screwed again.
Same –I’m glad it seems to be a more systemwide glitch and not just our particular passes and reservations but it is frustrating! I’m gonna try for the one day it wouldn’t book tomorrow or the next day.
On chat hold for 2 hours and now phone hold for 2 hours. Have season passes and 4 hotel reservations. Took 2 hours to get on site and will only let me make a total of 3 days of reservations for all 4 trips. Beyond frustrate.
I called with same issue and have been pawned of on the IT call center – (407) 939-7765. I’ve now called 115 times with busy signals.
I called 407-939-2273 only so I could get a ring tone ..im sure no one will be able to help. I even called on Sunday to verify this will not be an issue.
got this from the chat
We are aware of the issue. All Annual Passholders are experiencing this. We are working to correct the problem.
Joyelle so you have 4 trips and you are maxed out…I am maxed out at 8 days….so I can’t reserve for my sept trip…you are saying that Disney IT is aware right..I’m hoping.
So AP holders are screwed as days get booked and we can’t get the system to reserve for us. Awesome.
Partially successful after 3+ hours. I was able to reserve parks for resort stay July 25-29, but received alert that I reached maximum when I tried to reserve for September 3-night stay.
Yes me. Have been in hold with Disney over an hour.
We have reservations and tickets for November 20-28, and after waiting for over three hours to get in, I was only able to make a park reservation on the 20th. The reset of the days said no park availability. Anyone else get this, or just me?
On the same boat. Our reservation is from Aug 31 – Sept 5. I was only able to reserve the first day and went back to choose the next day and nothing. So frustrated.
3 hrs 2 computers 2 iPads and 2 phone on hold in various stages, castle orbit etc. we finally got in via Mac in private/incognito mode via Chrome. Books all 6 days July 19-24!! We’re goin to Disney
Exactly what I had as well. Google chrome incognito seemed to be the only way it worked fully.
Orbit counter has gone down to 0 twice (after adding 30 additional seconds on multiple occasions). Each time the counter hit 0, a white screen followed with no MDE tab (there were a few non-useful tabs at the top of the white screen). Refreshing white screen led to a new countdown clock one time, the other time the white screen kept coming up.
Now I have a “We’re Almost in Orbit” screen with no counter. The text says “you are now in a waiting room.”
Me too. I was in and was able to book one day and now I’m in a waiting room.
well…after waiting and waiting and waiting…no December dates available.
What??? Nothing for December? That is crazy! Maybe from here to then they will open up more spots When they go to the next phase of reopening. . Don’t give up! Good luck.
Don’t lose hope. The availability calendar on the website is still showing all parks available every day in December, so this is a glitch in the website NOT everything being taken up already.
UPDATE: The “fake” dinning reservation was a game changer! It magically allowed me to access open park reservations. I now have park reservations for all my travel dates in December.
I have been logged in since BEFORE the 7am release! I STILL haven’t been able to get to anything but a castle. I’ve switched browsers and I can’t get to dining, Magic bands, my own resort plans, NOTHING!!!
I’ve been seeing comments from people who don’t have resort reservations and they’ve been able to make Annual Passholder reservations. WTH????
After 3 hours on the castle, I used the fake dinning reservation hack and got right in! No pink castle , orbit or countdown of any kind when going in that way!!!
We’re you able to choose days past August 21st?
I finally got in (after about 2.5 hours) and Chrome worked a lot faster than Safari (1:00 queue time on Chrome, 12:00 queue time on Safari). However, I’m an AP with a 4-day resort reservation end of August. It only let me reserve 3 of the 4 days. Anyone else have this issue?
I’m an AP with a 5 day resort reservation in October. I was only able to book 3 of the 5 days.
Yes. I have an AP and reservations at a resort. Only could reserve 3 days and I cannot get through on the phone to find out what the problem is.
So, went back in to see if I could make a fourth, and found that my AP has been removed. It doesn’t show in Chrome or Safari. It has an expiration of 11/10/2020. Certainly not booking any new park passes. The park passes I booked earlier, are still there – at least for now. Ugh!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Whoohoo! After 3 hours of trial and error, I finally succeeded in booking July 11th – 13th! Good luck everyone!
What worked best for me:
Stopped trying on iphone
Used Google Chrome on laptop
I had been trying since 7am and finally got through around 945 EST. I used a Chrome incognito window and made a faux dining reservation at Disney Springs first. Then I was able to easily get into the Park Pass system and reserve for Sept 14th-20th.
Here’s what I was able to do to be successful. Go to Disneyworld.com using a private window or incognito window. Click on a make dining reservations link either under the drop down menu on the left side or in the drop down menu under my disney experience. When you get to the dining reservation portal, select a date towards the end of the dining reservation window that is open. Search and then select any dining reservation time. Once you get to the confirmation page, press cancel. Then go under my disney experience and select Get Disney Park Pass. It will get you to the reservation page and away you go! Make sure you’ve prelinked all members of your party together. Hope that helps.
Yep, this. This is what cured all the waiting and stressing for me. This is THE tip to follow! 🙂 🙂
Yes!! This works!! No issues!! Thank you so much
Doesn’t work for our dates in September. The calendar only goes to August 21st. So frustrating. I was able to get a a park reservation for the first day and every day after for our 6 days stay is unavailable.
Betty, our dates were for sept too. Just make a random dining reservation in August (doesn’t have to be the days of your trip) and that gets you in. It somehow bypasses the castle and orbiter and stitch. Then just cancel the dining reservation.
I was able to make all of my park passes with no wait by going to “my plans” and check on their “important message” that said “view availability”. It took me straight to the reservation page. You must already be signed in first. Hope this help!
Thank you so much! I finally was able to book with this helpful tip!
As others shared, I was able to get in after waiting 2 hours at the Pink Castle screen. After signing in, I went to My Disney Experience drop down and selected Park Reservation System. I had to select the people to include in the reservations and then a calendar was presented to select dates (one at a time). The screen would then load the parks to choose from and then one time slot appeared to select. Then a confirmation page would display for me to click that I agree to terms and condition, and then click to confirm the reservation. I then clicked to make an reservation for each day of my visit. After making all of the reservations, I then click on the button to see my plans and all of the reservation appeared successfully. My dates were 12/13-12/18. I know this is a repeat of information, but wanted to provide some more detailed steps on the reservation experience.
This worked for me too! Hooray! Got everything we wanted for the week of Christmas!
Ditto! Our dates were December 4 to 10.
Finally got in after 2+ hours. I have two trips planned- one in October, one Nov 28-Dec 2. Both my mom and I have annual passes. It let me make park reservations for myself for all 6 days in October, but only let me make park reservations for my mom for 3 days in October (said she had reached her park pass limit after only 3 reserved days). It only let me make a reservation for myself for 1 of 5 days for the Nov/Dec trip, saying I had reached my park pass limit (I had 7 days reserved for myself at that point). It would not let me make any for my mom in Nov/Dec stating she did not have valid ticket admission- her AP was extended through November 6, but with the extra month Disney is going to give us, it would be valid through December 6, and would therefore be valid for our travel dates. I had no problem making park pass reservations for the rest of our travel parties for both October and Nov/Dec as the three of them just have 5 day park tickets. Hoping that since I made park reservations for some of our party, that Disney will simply add the rest of us on there when I call them and inform them of the error. Fingers crossed!
I had the same issue. I was limited to 7 days only.
I’m having zero luck
Finally got through 5 hours later
And it’s saying all dates taken
Anyone have pointers