Park Pass Reservations Introduced for Disney World Access!
Walt Disney World has introduced the “Disney Park Pass” system, which will be the method of booking Advance Theme Park Reservations. In this post, we’ll cover what you need to know for reserving access, reservation windows, and how to make online plans to enter Magic Kingdom, Animal Kingdom, Epcot, and Hollywood Studios.
The release of Disney Park Pass to make advance theme park reservations should come as a huge relief for anyone who is a Walt Disney World planner. There have been a lot of complaints about Walt Disney World’s lack of communications since the Know Before You Go Resort & Restaurant Info pages nearly two weeks ago.
With Magic Kingdom and Disney’s Animal Kingdom reopening on July 11, and Epcot plus Disney’s Hollywood Studios resuming operations on July 15, 2020, the new Disney Park Pass system is coming less than a month in advance. For many tourists preparing for their summer vacations, this is significantly shorter notice from Walt Disney World than normal…
New vacation package and ticket sales are still on hold (and still no update since Walt Disney World Cancelled All Reservations—Free Dining, Restaurants, FastPass+ & Dining Plan). It’s likely that Disney IT is still scrambling behind the scenes to make this all work, but at least we now have some clarity.
Here’s what we know about Disney Park Pass, which will be rolling out for advance theme park entry reservations…
During the reopening period, Walt Disney World will be using the Park Pass system to manage and limit attendance, all guests with a ticket or Annual Pass will be required to make a reservation in advance for each park entry, using the New Park Reservations Tool on DisneyWorld.com (this is the important link for booking Disney Park Pass).
Here are a few important details to know about this new system:
- You’ll need a My Disney Experience account, as this is where your Walt Disney World Resort plans are stored and managed.
- You’ll also need a valid theme park ticket or Annual Pass that’s linked to your My Disney Experience account.
- If you have a Disney Resort hotel reservation, be sure to link it to your My Disney Experience account beforehand, as well.
Once you’ve logged into your My Disney Experience account and linked your ticket, you’ll have access to a calendar of available reservation dates for each theme park.
If you have a multi-day ticket, you will be required to make a park reservation for each date of your visit. Families and friends can link their tickets together and look to arrange theme park entries at the same time.
Booking Dates for Park Reservations
The Disney Park Pass system will be available soon to select guests. Booking dates vary based on your plans, with each opening at 7 am Eastern on their respective dates.
- Beginning June 22, 2020, Walt Disney World resort hotel and other select partner hotel guests with valid theme park admission can make reservations.
- Beginning June 26, 2020, Annual Passholders without a Resort stay can make reservations.
- Beginning June 28, 2020, existing ticket holders can make reservations.
Park reservations will be available through September 26, 2021, based on your Walt Disney World resort hotel stay and ticket eligibility or ticket eligibility window.
As for which hotels will qualify as “partner” resorts, our guess is the list will be the same as Extra Magic Hours or expanded FastPass+ access: Disney Springs Resort Area Hotels, Bonnet Creek Resorts, Swan & Dolphin, and Shades of Green Resort. (We might be missing one or two–you get the idea.)
If you have a room-only reservation at a Disney Resort or other select hotel for a stay in 2021, please call the Walt Disney World Reservation Center or call your travel agent beginning on June 24 to upgrade to a vacation package with tickets–and then make your theme park reservations.
Park reservations are limited in number and subject to availability. Availability can change until the reservation is finalized. At this time, guests will be able to select one park per day; Park Hopping (visiting more than one park per day) will be temporarily unavailable upon the reopening of Walt Disney World’s theme parks due to attendance limitations.
Guests with existing tickets that include the Park Hopper Option or Park Hopper Plus Option have options available to them for ticket modifications and cancellations, and can visit DisneyWorld.com/Updates for more information. Walt Disney World hopes to bring back the ability to visit more than one park per day soon and will continue to offer these add-ons for 2021 ticket purchases.
For Existing Ticket Holders and Annual Passholders: Beginning this week, Walt Disney World will reach out to existing ticket holders and Annual Passholders with more information on when they will be able to check availability to make their park reservations. Disney will open the Disney Park Pass system to these guests in phases, beginning with those with future Disney Resort and other select hotel stays.
Later this summer, Walt Disney World will resume sales of 2020 tickets and Disney Resort hotel arrivals, based on availability of park reservations, while continuing to provide guests with existing tickets and Annual Passholders the opportunity to make park reservations for 2020 dates.
Planning a New Trip for Next Year: By June 28, all guests will be able to purchase new Disney Resort hotel packages and theme park tickets and make their park reservations for arrivals starting in 2021 as Walt Disney World’s phased reopening continues.
Guests will be able to view park reservation availability on DisneyWorld.com prior to purchasing their tickets.
In 2021, Walt Disney World will unveil an innovative new offering as part of the My Disney Experience app that will bring features of a MagicBand to your smart devices, building on the app’s existing digital key feature.
With this new offering on the horizon, Walt Disney World will be retiring complimentary MagicBand distribution to Disney Resort hotel guests for new reservations with arrivals beginning January 1, 2021. (MagicBands will still be available to purchase at a discount, via the MagicBand Upgrade Program.) This seems like a minor bombshell buried in the announcement.
Finally, for some predictions about Disney Park Pass. By and large, we do not anticipate organic demand for park entry reservations exceeding supply. Even with a fraction of the normal park capacity, we’d be shocked if Walt Disney World is running out of registration availability on a regular basis.
As we recently discussed in greater depth here, this feels eerily similar to the debut of Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge. Many fans really freaked out, worried that they’d need to arrive at the park hours before park opening just for a chance to enter the new land. Some vowed to avoid Disney’s Hollywood Studios entirely during their trips.
Then Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge opened at Walt Disney World, and the virtual queue for land entry was only used for a grand total of like 2 hours ever. The mechanics behind this system (registering in advance v. day-of) are different, but the idea is the same.
As for why we expect this to be a repeat of the opening months of Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge, look no further than the chorus of cancellation comments, and then consider the current state of the economy, unemployment, travel restrictions, temporary health rules, and more—all of which will further depress demand.
While there’s a lot of interest in Walt Disney World among diehard fans, the vast majority of the general public is not interested in traveling from out of state to visit a theme park right now. (In any case, people cannot even book new trips right now.)
Locals are a different story. The first couple weeks the parks reopen will likely see a modest amount of pent-up demand, which will outweigh any ‘early-bird’ advantage it offers. If any dates do ‘sell out’ of advance theme park reservations, it’ll likely be opening days for each of the parks, as there’s a strong desire among bloggers, vloggers, and just Disney-obsessed locals to be first.
If recent precedent at Disney Springs, Universal Studios Florida, Islands of Adventure, and SeaWorld Orlando is any indication, the first day each of the Walt Disney World theme parks will be far busier than the second day. Following that, weekdays will see relatively low crowds with spikes on weekends. Resort guests will change the equation slightly, but at this point, Walt Disney World will have a fraction of its normal hotels operating, so that shouldn’t make a huge difference.
It also wouldn’t be surprising if Disney’s online system crashes on June 22, 26, and 28. While Disney has gotten better about virtual queues with its online systems, they still have “hiccups” from time to time…
In general, our expectation is that demand will usually be well below even reduced capacity throughout the rest of the year. If you’re thinking about a Walt Disney World trip, we’d recommend taking a wait and see approach to judge how things go with the July and August guinea pigs, making tentative plans for the end of September or beginning of October.
We’ve long recommended visiting in the last week of September, which is one of our three favorite weeks of the year. This year, October should be better than normal crowd-wise, as conventions, events, and school breaks that pumped up attendance in recent years might be cancelled. (We’d still avoid the week of October 12, 2020.) October also has better weather, making masks more tolerable–and the chances of hurricanes are lower than September.
If you’re looking for more specific predictions and recommendations with regard to crowds, see our Dawn of a Temporary Disney Era – Crowds & Discounts post for specific recommendations about when to visit and when to avoid. Our How Bad Will Crowds Be at Walt Disney World After Reopening? post from a few months covers why we think crowds will naturally be low for the remainder of the year.
Beyond all of that, Walt Disney World not even selling tickets and new hotel reservations again until a nebulous time “later this summer” suggests that they’re focusing on locals, Annual Passholders, and Disney Vacation Club for the remainder of the year. Even once people can book new vacations, it’s unlikely that many will be doing so for the fall or holiday season, as there’s typically a 5-6 month lag between booking a trip and actually traveling.
Ultimately, it’s just nice to finally have some clarity on how the Disney Park Pass will work to make advance theme park reservations. We know many of you have been (understandably) stressed out about this, and while it doesn’t provide every single answer or complete certainty, it’s a huge step in the right direction.
Hopefully next week everyone is able to get the theme park reservations they’re after, and with that out of the way, we have even more certainty about how Walt Disney World will operate for the next several months in this era of temporary abnormal. We’ll keep you posted on new developments, and update this post accordingly if/when we learn more.
If you have questions about the closure, including policy changes and what we know thus far, please consult our Walt Disney World Reopening FAQ & Info, which should answer most inquiries. See our other WDW Closure & Reopening Updates for the latest news. If you’re planning a Walt Disney World trip, the best place to start is our Walt Disney World Trip Planning Guide for everything you need to know.
YOUR THOUGHTS
Have you received an email from Walt Disney World about the Disney Park Pass system for making advance theme park reservations? Worried about availability for your travel dates? Do you have plans to visit Walt Disney World this summer or fall, or will you hold off until 2021 or beyond? Do you agree or disagree with our assessment? Other thoughts or concerns? 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!
Attention annual Passholders:
If you do NOT have a resort reservation you are allowed to hold THREE (just three) park reservations per Passholders.
If you do have resort reservations you can hold as many reservations as days that you have booked with a MAXIMUM of 14. That’s 14 from now until next year, so if you have multiple trips planned, you’re out of luck.
This is absolutely unacceptable.
Make your voice heard. Disney’s to reverse this or refund.
Just cancelled our August 19-31/20 vacation. Not sure yet whether I’m sad or relieved….
Be relieved because today 3800 new cases of Coronavirus reported In Florida. Prediction is many more cases to come. I’m not happy that we had to cancel our October Disney vacation but not willingly to risk it. We will go back to Disney in the future when it’s safe.
We have a DVC trip booked for the first week of September, but we did not purchase our tickets at the time of booking. Will we be able to call on June 24th and add a ticket package?
Our rescheduled trip is July 15 to 19, 2020. We have reservations at Riviera (My daughter and family are DVC members), tickets and Annual Pass, and flight tickets. Everything is linked. So we are ready! We have not received an email for the Reservation system. After visiting with a Cast Member today, we are ready to get our reservations June 22. Hopefully that does happen!
You should also hope disney is still open with Florida becoming the new epicenter for the virus.
Really not thrilled that as an Annual
Pass holder that I may or may not be able to enter a park. I have asked for a refund, but Disney is not interested. As far as I’m concerned, it is breech of contract. I purchased a ticket under terms listed and terms have changed without my consent or acceptance.
Yes Disney is caught between a rock and a hard spot. But I am not willing to plan a trip without knowing if I can use my annual pass as it was sold.
Any idea where on MDE we go to find this?
what’s the reservation window for the parks pass? 60 days like fast pass+???
Hello. We are booked for Oct 7th 2021 for 2 weeks, first time to Florida, family of 7 coming from London. At the moment we only have the hotel and flights booked through our travel agent. Our plan was to book park tickets through a third party website. My questions are is it worth booking park tickets now? And should we still go through third party or do you recommend going through our travel agent also, we would be saving about £1000 but we will pay it if it means the trip going smoothly. What’s your prediction on the reservation system being extended through to October?
Many thanks if you read this and reply, love your blog
Thanks Tom for information
Does anyone one know if old magic bands can be reprogrammed for future vacationss or will you always have to buy a new one?
You can always use older Magic Bands. There’s a way to see in My Disney Experience what Magic Bands are linked to you and active.
I just read that magic bands are being phased out. Everyone will ultimately use the Disney app on their phone or a card.
I have a reservation at a partner hotel in September, however MyDisneyExperience account still shows an old cancelled reservation in July. It appears the electronic feeds to update Disney’s website is not happening. First attempt to resolve with Disney resulted in three transfer phone calls and no resolution.
I’m sure I’m not the only account messed up but it is maddening.
I was able to link my partner hotel reservation in the MDX app today without any trouble. Just an FYI, hope it helps!
Thanks Tom…based on past history with Galaxy’s Edge…any thought on process of modifying park reservations? or will it be a cancel first..then make a new reservation as available?
additionally, many parties will only have a partial group with tickets. again, based on experience would you see being able to modify your group? or does the eventual new guest simply make a new reservation on their own?
We are booked at Beach Club in both August and December, but will most likely cancel our August reservation and take your “wait and see” advice regarding our December reservation. I am hoping that park hopping will be allowed sooner rather than later. We stay at Beach Club and get park hopper passes because we love to wander in and out of Epcot nearly every day. Disney should consider using park hopper like fastpass. With fastpass, you were able to add an additional fastpass once your first three were used, subject to availability. It seems logical that with the park reservation system that when you are done with one park for the day, you could try to make a same day reservation at another park, assuming availability. It could easily be done through the MDE app. Just a thought.
Believe Angela speaks for a good amount of the Crescent Lake resort crowd with our Epcot style. If they can eventual move this reservation system to a time block (morning, afternoon, evening ..with some overlap), they should be able to work just like the rolling fastpass.
I completely agree with that idea. I’m hoping as they open, some changes like this will happen. We always stay at Epcot hotels solely bc we like to start and end our days at Epcot. Breakfast in France and then we always stop by Tutto Gusto in the evenings for prosciutto. We understand that things are different at the moment, but I feel like a daily “as available” option should be a thing.
Looking forward to hearing information regarding DVC specific reservations that do not have tickets yet- if we’ll be able to purchase tickets before they open up, or if we’ll have to wait until “later this summer” and hope that we can get park days that coincide with our trips. And if we can’t and borrowed points it would be lovely if the current policy regarding borrowed points returning to their use year will be honored. We shall see!
Should we take a moment to discuss how badly this screws those of us with military salute reservations?
Local MWR (military ticket office) is closed until further notice. Shades of Green ticket office is closed until further notice. Our resort reservation, a graduation gift for my son, has already been moved from May to June to December. If we can’t buy tickets to attach to our reservation via MDE, how would we go about making reservations for the park? Our trip is planned for December 14-19, also known as THE WEEK BEFORE CHRISTMAS. The crowds should be fairly empty that week, right?
I’m in the same boat! Going in Oct, but can’t buy tickets at the base. I’m wondering if Disney is even going to allow them to sell the tickets at all now. Super nervous, since we cant link tickets if we will even be able to get into the parks.
My biggest worry is this bit on the Annual Passholder info page: “To help manage capacity, total reservation days held at one time will be limited.”
So being an out of state passholder, I book airfare and hotel to go to Disney, with airfare being non-refundable, non-changeable in most cases. So it is entirely possible that I could book a stay and then only be able to get into the parks on some days. Then, with limited amenities, entertainment, and whatnot, there’s little else to do but sit in the room.
That is a marked devaluation of the Annual Pass, and I would hope that Disney will address it, perhaps extending the expiration date by the number of days the parks are closed PLUS the days admittance is restricted to those with reservations. Or maybe a huge discount on renewal, for those who are not disgusted enough to just walk away from it entirely.
You’re exactly right. As of now annual passes share the same ability and value as a typical one day park ticket. Which needs to be addressed as soon as possible. I’m really curious when Disney will address this. Their silence is starting to signal that they really just do not care. I would think the best option would be to continue to extend the expiration dates while park hopping is no longer an option. Or, like you said, provide a discount to current AP holders. I wonder if Disney would still be operating in this fashion if Iger were still in charge?
Disney is adding another level of stress to booking a “magical” vacation.
I’m a huge Disney Parks fan, AP holder, and DVC member. So don’t think I’m hating on Disney….
I think Iger is still very much in the picture as Chairman
Hi Tom,
Thanks for the great I fo and updates!
We have a trip booked for November (flights and disney hotel only so far). Do you know if buying Undercover Tourist tickets and linking them will be an option, now that things have changed? If we do buy our park passes through Disney, can we get a refund if we need to cancel the trip (should the pandemic situation worsen)?
Thanks so much!
Christie
HI! Any information on dining reservations for resort stays beginning after July 11? We are 31 days out and have not received any info? Very curious when we can reserve dining…
We are also within the 60-day ADR window for our trip. I checked and the only available restaurants appeared to be at Disney Springs (this was as of about a week ago). I’ve decided not to worry about it. I think restaurant availability for early on in the reopening is still very much up in the air, so I’m just going to check again as the trip gets closer. With lower crowds and lack of Disney Dining and Character Meals, I think the demand for ADRs is going to be pretty low.
Hi! Does anyone know what they are doing about Park Hopper since we can’t park hop? The updates offered no insight on a refund or any other options. I would be ok if the money can be used towards dining. I also haven’t received ANY emails from Disney.
Also, when I booked our September trip, I booked 5 nights and 4 days, only for the purpose of modifying in the future. Of course, modifying is out. Does anyone know if I can buy or add a ticket for one day? I think with no park hopping, we’ll be happier if we’re able to be there 5 days. We always stay at an Epcot resort and always end every night at Epcot and usually specifically at Tutto Gusto! Waiting to see if we’ll need reservations for the lounge.
Just spoke with them on the phone about park hopper passes and they said they will modify them.
I see you will be able to make reservations through September 2021 – we have a reservation this year in October and are waiting to go next year – will we be able to move to October 2021 on June 24? Kind of confusing. Thanks!!
Just curious why you mentioned that you would avoid week of October 12? Thanks.
Week of October 12th is the Columbus Day holiday. There are always higher crowds that weekend since schools and some workplaces are off.
Katie thank you!
Me too! Thanks the week we are going too.