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!
Have gone from pink castle to orbiter to the blank page. Ugh… Out of curiosity, If any of you were able to make reservations, tell us what dates (or time frame) you were reserving and if anything looked unavailable. Interested in what August looks like for our reservations. And do they limit your ability to reserve for just the time period your resort reservations are? Just wondering since this is all I’m going to be doing this morning!
I have three trips planned. Late July, early December, and late December. Was able to make reservations for all three trips no issues.
My late December stay is split between on-site and off-site. I was not able to make reservations for my off-site days. Maybe on Thursday…
my reservations are from Jul 12-18
And i saw the whole calendar open… but i only tried on my days, so i dont know how it would work if you tried to reserve a day you weren’t there
Time is up, now I’m in a white screen with nothing? Do I stay here or start over… Hell.
I waited for about 5 minutes, then decided to refresh my page. Took me back to waiting
I did the same, back to orbiting…
i have the same problem.
It’s odd how it just takes you to a dead page, I mean why doesn’t it just leave you in the queue?
So all I’m seeing is a white page – have tried to refresh it.
I got through the queue once, only to be forwarded to a dead page, I started from scratch since the dead page was useless, was put back in queue and am now at 4 min. and counting, I’ll let you know what happens once I hit zero…
I was able to get to the calendar, but when I review and confirm, it errors out 🙁
where is everyone seeing this timer at?
Go to the park system reservation information. And you’ll see a button to make a reservation
8:39 est – Got all my days reserved! Huzzah!
Good luck yall!
hooooow
Yay!! Still waiting…to get in
Orbiter countdown got down to 5 minutes and kicked me back to the pink castle. Is it better to wait here or keep trying to get back in?
wondering the same thing not sure what to do
I’ve been on the “We’re Almost in Orbit” page with a wait time of 10 minutes for over 10 minutes. It’s not counting down anymore.
How long does the pink castle work or does that mean the orbit didnt work ?
For those not able to find the orbit page- many of you already have.
https://disneyworld.disney.go.com/park-reservations/
Thank you for your link! Genius share!
I was able to make mine for 6 days from July 16 – July 22!!!
did you get the pink castle after the orbit?
I did not get the castle after confirming. We can see the reservations in the my disney app as well.
Got ‘into orbit’ at 7:11a CST, quoted 11 minute wait time, jumped 30 seconds two to three times each minute, got down to 0 at 7:35 … then jumped all the way back up to 15 minutes. Ugh…
So – something new! I got the actual sign in page but when I enter my info it refreshes back to sign in.
This happened to me too. Signed in about 10 times before it took. Did finally get in and got my days reserved!
2 min 20 sec and counting, not too confident about what will appear when the clock strikes zero…
Been waiting since 7 am. DisneyWorld please update to at least another graphic. I’m tired of staring at the pink castle
My countdown timer just changed to the pink castle. I guess some people have been able to make reservations though. Not sure why it is working for some and not others.
I’ve not seen anyone who has been able to make reservations. Where did you see that? I’m on here and on Twitter, looking. I did get the the We’re almost in orbit page.
Mine, too!
I take that back. Someone on twitter was able to get a reservation.
My ‘orbit’ clock just keeps resetting to 15:00
I was able to make my reservation after an 8min timer on the orbit page! I went to view my plan and now im back to the castle page.
I got the “Orbit” page and it went down to zero, then took me to a new, useless page that just lists bottom of page links such as terms of use, privacy policy, etc with no ability to scroll up or down. Guess it’s back to the pink castle for me. Pretty sure Disney’s IT guy is Wreck It Ralph!
Same thing happened to me! I thought I was finally getting somewhere!!
Same here ! Sigh.
I can’t get to the orbit page
I get the make park reservation button, but then just a blank page…
Try refreshing the page before you push the button. Took me several tries, but finally got there on my computer (where I was not yet logged in to MDE) I pushed the “make reservations” button and was then prompted to log in to my account. After I logged in, I went to the orbit page for about a minute, then I was able to make my reservations. Good luck!
Were you able to actually make a park reservation?
Anyone get to the count down and the page went to only showing the basic disney tabs at the bottom like help & guest services?
No, but I just went on to my laptop which was still signed into my account and the timer on that page for the reservations is less than the time on my desktop.
i did!
I got my reservations!!! Not from the orbit, but from the castle screen. After more than 1 hour looking to the castle, suddenly I got the log in screen (no need of refreshing) and I entered Mydisneyexperience. There was a new warning with a button right after my plans, saying that there is a need of a reservation (availability). By clicking the button it was really easy. Exactly like Tom said in the preview screens! Keep trying! Good luck!!
Yes that is all I am getting