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!
I got to 0:00 on the count down to log-in, but it still didn’t open. After several minutes, it refreshed to a new count down clock of 15:00… Annoying
mine refreshed back to the pink castle after showing 0:00 for a few minutes *tears*
I got the same as Kayla. Back to the pink castle for me. And when I tried opening a new tab and starting over, it went straight to the pink castle this time.
Got a 15 minute countdown but I still can’t log in. Anybody else having that problem?
8:21am… called and was on hold with Disney till now. the cast member told me the reservation system isn’t up yet and to wait on the pink castle screen for it to let me in. she said there is nothing they are able to do right now because they are just waiting for it to come online.. I mentioned about the email saying something about 7am and she just apologized. poor girl is in for a rough morning.
All I have to say is that the DVC moonlight magic system is way better than this! At least with the virtual que you know where you are in line. All sections of Disney really need to communicate better on what works and what doesn’t.
Had a 9 minute countdown then it jumped up to fifteen minutes. Was able to talk to a cast member after being on hold for over an hour she said they are still working on the sight and gave me the number for IT. I hope I can finally get in. I have reservations from july 10th – july 12th since my birthday is july 11th. Really hoping this gets fixed as some of my family couldn’t even get tickets.
I’m a bit disappointed that they specifically said not to refresh or select the back button the “pink castle” page because I didn’t get in until I went to the home page in a new tab and selected “my plans.” It’s like they want people to be gridlocked at the waiting page. The link also looked like an embedded ad or something. It wasn’t exactly obvious. ALSO, I haven’t gotten a single email from Disney since I made my last reservations a while back. Anyone else not getting any communication? Without these blogs and YouTube I would have no idea what’s going on. Either way, I’m on my 15 minute countdown as of 8:19am… here goes nothing!
I spoke with some at Disney last week asking if we would be contacted about making reservations, I was literally told to continuously check blogs and WDW news sites… WTH? Without the blogs, I would have no clue it was time to grab park reservations.
I waiting on the orbit screen to make a park reservation, too. But did anyone notice that the calendar for all months are grey for all the dates? Meaning “no parks available”
Which calendar did you see no availability on?
Stephanie, the availability calendar for park admission.
I just got a slight (but still not functional) change. On the home page, I put my mouse over My Disney Experience to get the drop down menu and selected Disney Park Pass System. This took me to the announcement that’s always been there, but on the side was a green button saying make a park reservation. I clicked on that and got to “we’re almost in orbit” with an “approximate wait time” of 30 seconds with a countdown. Once the clock hit 0, it restarted the 30 seconds, and when that hit 0 I’ve just been stuck on that page. Just in case any of you are tired of staring at a pink castle for the last hour and a half and would appreciate new optics.
8:23am EST – I’m back at the pink castle, but my URL now says this:
https://disneyworld.disney.go.com/login/?returnUrl=/park-reservations/create-party
The “create-party” is new, and I believe that is Step 1 of the reservation process!
Yes! Kimberly thank you! This worked to bypass the pink castle nightmare! I’m now orbiting, for who knows how long…
katie- same! thanks for mentioning that, im in orbit on 4 other browsers but only one has refreshed back to the castle and says create party
Orbiting for a countdown of 7 min, for about 20 min now
Still the castle screen for me – nothing new. 8:21am
How do I get orbit page?
Try this link:
https://disneyworld.disney.go.com/park-reservations/
Katie you are a saint! That worked! Time keep skipping around though but better than a pink castle.
Thank you Katy, but you accidently linked me to the pink castle instead of the orbit one.
Unfortunately, it took me back to the pink castle as well. However, the URL is different. It now says “create-party” at the end. From what my Disney agent sent me, “creating your party” is the first step in the process, but I’m looking at this slight difference as a progress instead of a step back.
Deep breathing is key at this point!
Thank you Katie! It worked to get me to the orbit screen and it was so funny because I have it up on the desktop and laptop and when I did your link on the laptop it worked and then had a lower wait time than the desktop and the desktop had switched over first haha!
8:20am EST: I now see a page that says “we’re almost in orbit” with a countdown timer when I go to the Park Pass reservation page!
Is anyone else having trouble signing in by chance?
Yes, I still cannot sign in. I keep getting the castle. But if you go to the main Disney World page and drop down the My Disney Experience tab you should still able to access the Park Pass website.
https://disneyworld.disney.go.com/park-reservations/
I have been “in the queue” since 6:55 – 8:18 now. Talk about a migraine
Are people getting to the reservation page via waiting in pink castle purgatory, or are you refreshing or getting there straight from the home page?
I went back to the MDE home page and clicked on the Park Reservation link. There was now a button to make a reservation. I never escaped purgatory….
ive been logged in for the past hour and havent seen the castle since then. try refreshing. thats what i did.
I just got there by clicking on the park pass link from the drop down on the homepage. I do have another screen waiting to sign in on the pnk castle just in case.
Same here, but with a 14 minute wait.
Thanks to all for sharing their experiences (no pun intended). It has made it much less frustrating.
I just about screamed – got into the Orbit page with 6 and half minute countdown. Has not gone to five min and then blinked back to 6.5 four times.
Res 7/11-7/16. No options.
Oooh, after three recounting’s of five minute countdown, I made it into four’s. On second four minute countdown now. Now, third re-countdown of 4mins. Now back to 4.30 again. IN THE THREE’s now…
No options for you to choose from or they are all gone?
It appears to start the re-count of every minute back to the previous minute about three times, eventually re-recounting from the 30second mark twice before finally moving down to next minute.
Just so you don’t feel crazy.
Still in orbit, Carrie. Each ‘minute’ repeats about six times. Currently on my fourth 2min.
I’m…in? After counting down 30 some odd repeating times of the same minutes…it brought my to a blank screen, “Disney All Rights Reserved.”
We’ve now got an almost in orbit with a 15 minute countdown….
I was able to log in a couple times around 7:15am, but could not find any info for Park Pass other than the info that had already been released. No place to make reservations. Then my park tickets disappeared. And now I’ve been on that doggone castle for an hour.
I still see the castle as well. I am guessing don’t hit refresh? How is everyone getting in?
8:16 est – live – 9 min countdown
Yay!!! I have about a 5 minute wait time!!
mine says 0, and it started with :30 and refreshed once to that, and now that it counted all the way down it hasnt done anything
luckeeeeeee
After the 0 timer it sat there for two minutes and then transitioned into the pink castle screen again.
So I guess Disney expects everyone to take off work or anything else just to wait for this all day
Not sure if they really care at this point. They know they’re the in-demand ticket right now…
Been on since 4 am mountain time… pink castles all around, site won’t even let me sign in any suggestions?
We just got to the “We’re almost in orbit” page but the time is changing a little. We have a 4 minute wait time right now
Wow. I still have the pink castle. Have not even been able to log into the site yet.
Really? Ugh. Still a pink castle here. Maybe a wait before I get to wait in orbit?
I am also now in orbit. You can let the castle get you there you have to go back to the main page and go to the my disney part and go to park pass system. This will have a button pop up
I got to the end of my 4 minutes and it went up an extra 30 seconds…we’ll see if this works!
Finally in and done!