Now that Disney World has dropped a bombshell of updates to their policies regarding their July 11th reopening date, there’s a lot of confusion going around!
Walt Disney World
Following the announcement that a new reservation system will be needed to gain access to the parks, all previously booked Fastpass+, dining reservations, and Disney Dining Plans have been canceled, many guests are now left wondering if they’re even ELIGIBLE to gain access to the parks when they reopen.
While we’ve known for some time Disney World would reopen with a limited capacity, we didn’t know to what extent they’d be scaling back admission (and it’s still unknown at this time!). BUT, we DO know guests who have previously purchased theme park tickets AND have hotel reservations ON THE BOOKS will be given priority access. Here’s the exact language from Disney, “To enter a park, both a park reservation and valid admission for the same park on the same date is required.”
Disney World has temporarily paused ticket sales and new hotel reservations! Learn more here!
Some of our readers who have BOTH of these essentials still feel in the dark following the announcements. We’re going to help clarify.
Walt Disney World Partner Hotels
What does this mean for guests who have booked stays at non-Disney operated hotels such as Disney’s Swan and Dolphin Resort as well as Shades of Green? Remember — while these properties are situated on Disney World’s property, they’re only partnered with the resort.
Disney’s Swan and Dolphin Resort
We reached out to Disney World today to get some answers. We chatted with a Cast Member who told us guests staying at Disney World’s partner hotels will also count as resort guests.
Screenshot of Chat with Cast Member from Disney World’s Website
That means if you have already purchased Disney World park tickets and have a hotel reservation at a partner resort, you will be among the first group of guests to gain access back in the parks if you’re staying at one of these hotels.
Disney Vacation Club Hotels
It has been previously announced that Disney Vacation Club Resorts will begin reopening to guests on June 22nd. While regular guests cannot book reservations at this time, Disney Vacation Club Members are STILL able to book new room reservations with their points at the time of writing this.
Disney Vacation Club
So if you’re a DVC member, you might still be able to snag a reservation around the reopening.
Disney-Owned Hotels
Finally, Disney-owned hotels on property are a bit trickier. It was announced that Disney’s Fort Wilderness Resort and Campground will be reopening on June 22nd along with the DVC resorts.
Welcome to Fort Wilderness!
Aside from Ft. Wilderness, no reopenings have been officially announced for other Disney hotels. Prior booked reservations have not been canceled by Disney at this time.
We know all this news to come out of Disney in the past few days is a massive bomb dropped on many guest’s vacation plans, and we’re doing all we can to get you answers. Please share in the comments ANY questions you may have about your upcoming trip and we will do everything we can to help you get answers.
It’s official! Disney World theme parks and hotels will be reopening soon! Learn more details here!
Disney Park Reopening Details and Info
Click HERE for the All Latest Updates
Click HERE To See FULL LISTS of the Rides, Attractions, Shopping, Entertainment, and Restaurants Opening in Disney World!
TUTORIAL: How To Use Disney World's NEW Park Pass Reservation System
ALL Disney World Reopening Procedures
Disney World Hotel and Ticket Booking Information
We’re Visiting ALL the Reopened Disney World Hotels and Have All the Need-to-Know Details
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We Got a FIRST LOOK at Disney World’s New Character Cavalcades and Entertainment!
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Are you one of the lucky folks with valid tickets and a hotel reservation? Let us know in the comments below!
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One thing I’ve been trying to find is information about guests who have hotel reservations but no park tickets yet.
Thanks so much for all your reporting on this!
What about those of us who have booked resort reservations, but don’t have tickets yet because usually wait to purchase when we arrive on property?
Hey there! We are DVC members with a trip booked for Christmas break. We haven’t purchased our theme park tickets yet. Will this be a problem for us? Do we get priority once the reservation system is a go? DVC literally has their phone off the hook 😩 Any info would be appreciated!
Any word on the Disney springs resort hotels? Are they considered partner hotels?
Stephanie, all we really know is what Disney has said, which is that DVC members can still make reservations. I think you’ll have to keep trying to get through (or reach out via the DVC website contact info) to get specific answers. Good luck!
Katie, we are getting conflicting messages about whether a Resort reservation and/or confirmed Park ticket is sufficient to get priority access to the theme park reservation system. We’ll update as soon as we can confirm.
Brittany, still not sure about that. We’re working to confirm.
Theme park tickets booked since our first booking in March..moved reservation twice…now our vacation is booked in August ..DVC members too and received no email about my priority
I have tickets purchased but am staying off property. (Bonnet creek next to CBR) Im curious if Im just SOL or will I have a chance to get a reservation “next in line”.
I am wondering how they are dealing with Character Dining. Will they just have the restaurant closed? Will the Characters come out but at a distance? Will I be able to just eat there? Will they offer a discount?
Staying at a DVC resort with family that are DVC members. Total party of 4. Of the 4 members have APs, the other 2 have not purchased tickets yet. Is it possible the two APs will get reservations and the other 2 won’t?
I want to know about the existing resort rezos, but no park ticket thing too. It looks like I can still purchase through a third party, so I’m not sure if I should pull the trigger or wait a little while and risk the third party option no longer being an option.
We have a confirmed reservation at CBR for the first week in August. Also, dated 4 day park tickets for that week. I talked to a cast member today and she said we qualified for priority for the new reservation system for park entry. She also said that buses, monorail, ferries and the Skyliner will all be running. I need to know about the Magical Express from the airport and back. Do you have an update on that?
What if I have a resort reservation (booked last year) but don’t have tickets yet? I had planned to purchase Armed Forces Salute tickets at my base ticket office but they have been closed for months! My reservation is not until December so I’m not too worried yet, but any word on whether WDW will give ticket access priority to those who have WDW resort bookings?
I’d like Disney to be more clear with the information, as someone mentioned we are able to park hop on this new reservation system?! But Disney haven’t said anything yet . Thank DFB for all the info your sharing ! Doing a great job. (Love from the U.K)
With new Theme Park reservation system. Would you be able to park hop or should we be modifying our reservation to single day park tickets?
I have a reservation at Christmas I received an email from Disney today this is what it said regarding The new reservation system and admittance to the park.
“In addition, we will also be introducing a new Theme Park reservation system. You will receive access to the Theme Park reservation system before new tickets are sold to other Guests.”
We have a DVC booking and annual passes. I’m worried that the annual pass restrictions will supersede the hotel side and we will have our days limited :-/
we are DVC with reservations for Labor Day weekend. Also had but canceled reservations for early August. Was able to reschedule for November although availability is extremely limited. We have an AP that we purchased for a trip in April that was cancelled obviously. Our AP is not yet activated. It will be interesting to see if we get priority consideration with an inactive AP.
Robyn, you could try calling Disney to clarify.
Aarif, we don’t know this yet. We’re actively watching for this info.
Thanks, Anthony! I concur with your wish for more info!
Lea, no official word yet, but we’re watching for updates. Sorry I can’t be more helpful!
Kathy, no update on transportation yet (Disney has only noted reduced capacity), but I’ll have the team look into it!
CMH, I hear you. We’ll update as soon as there’s some clarity.
Margaret, that’s a great question and unfortunately one for which we don’t yet have an answer. You could try calling DVC member services, but I would bet they don’t know yet either. There’s a bit of a waiting game on the new reservation system, it seems.
Heather, so far I think the language is “character dining cannot be provided.” We have plans to look into this once things open back up.
Cindy, good question. Disney hasn’t clarified if it’s Resort reservations, ticket reservations, or both required to get priority access. When we know more, we’ll update ASAP.
Catherine, I think emails and the pacing of reservations are still being rolled out. We’ll update as it unfolds.
I told my husband when this was happening to book a room (we already had tickets and had a timeshare booked in April that was cancelled). We were waiting for a Disney villa to come available through our time-share for Sept but I had a feeling if we didn’t have both a room on property and tickets we might not be able to get them. We booked a stay at Art of Animation-just in case-and I’m glad we did. We’ve already received an email letting us know our tickets would be honored. Now just waiting for more information on how this reservation effects our park-hoppers that we purchased.
Any updates on Club Level reservations? We are supposed to stay CL at Yacht Club July 20th. What will club level look like??
We have a reservation that began July 7 and runs through the 17. My husband and I each got different emails about cancellations. We also had the free dining. We would love to just pick up our existing trip and rebook for next July and would love to keep our free dining. They said we would get 35%off hotel but our hotel hasn’t been mentioned as one that would open. I’m wondering if 35%can be used next year or free dining. Would really love that. We also had park hopper plus tickets that would be useless right now. Plus several character meals and dinners with priority seating for shows. None of that would happen now so not sure what would be left to do other than rides
I have reservations and park tickets for July 9-15. We will be there for the reopening. My days on July 9 and 10 were cancelled, our dining plan is being cancelled but we haven’t received all of the details, just that a refund will be coming soon.
From what I understand, those of us who have our Unused Park Tickets purchased, but NOT staying on Disney property (we own a timeshare off-site), may NOT be able to secure a Park Reservation!?!?? Isn’t that special! We had to move our April trip to October (early in October, way before the 31st) and hoping that we can get to at least 2 of the Parks during our week-long vacation. By being so cryptic, Disney has made things WORSE because they rushed to get a plan to reopen BEFORE figuring out HOW to get people inside the Parks! I guess the summer months (July-August) will be mostly locals only at this point. I just hope this mess is resolved by the time September rolls around, so I can decide what to do and where to eat on my vacation!
Any idea about “Good Neighbor” hotels like the ones at Disney Springs? I made a reservation at one for the week after opening since I couldn’t get one on property.
We have reservations at CSR for 25 Nov-01 Dec with the DDP. I received the e mail today stating that the DDP has been cancelled. I had not purchased park tickets yet. Luckily I have a few months to see how this plays out before I decide whether to cancel or keep my resort reservation.
I have heard rumors the CSR may not open back up this year? HAs anyone else heard that?
In line with those who have resort reservations but no tickets, this was my situation. Our stay is booked for the first week of September, so I suppose nearly anything can change by then. I didn’t want to buy tickets because I was considering purchasing another annual pass (not renewing as it expired late 2019) or a Premiere AP (we live an easy drive from DL). But, with all that is happening, yesterday I decided to buy the most basic ticket possible through an authorized 3rd party seller. Knowing I can apply the value of this ticket toward another ticket (should I decide to extend or upgrade) was the reason for doing this. We’re basically there for 6 days but one day is a travel day and the other we booked the Backstage Magic tour (no park ticket required for this, and there is the risk that this tour may be cancelled). Therefore, I bought 4-day passes. I was able to link them to our DVC resort reservation without issue. Remains to be seen if I’ll have any issues having done this. Good luck to all of us! May we have the best trips of our lives!
We have a reservation and tickets set for July 31 through August 8th. And this was a rescheduled trip from March. We were set to go one week after they closed! 😭
I have rented vacation club points from an owner In October. I hadn’t purchased our park tickets yet. Anxiously awaiting more informative info on this new system.
Yes we have a room reservation and 4 day park hopper tickets for Dec week one
But I am wondering if they are freezer the park hopper, since it appears you need a valid ticket for the park you visit each day, hopefully this far out they will be back to a more normal schedule
We were originally supposed to be there on March 16th when they shut down, hopefully all goes well we gave not been back since 2011.
Roger, we’re still awaiting information about Park Hoppers and the theme park reservation system. Hopefully these questions will be answerable soon.
Kevin, we haven’t heard this. We’ll update Resort info as it emerges.
Lisa, no word on this yet, but we’ll be looking into it.
Steven, we are still awaiting clarification from Disney on how the new theme park reservations will work. We’ll update when we hear anything, and hopefully things will be clearer soon.
Nancy, when Disney releases more details, we will update on all of this. In the meantime, you might want to contact Disney, but I know a lot of folks are having trouble getting answers (because the reservations folks don’t have them).
Is Wyndam’s Bonnet Creek, which is on Disney property, one of the resorts that get first bookings? We have reservations for October.
Sharon, we don’t know this yet. We’re watching for the info and will update.
I have 3 reservations for the upcoming months, one in Aug, one in Oct and one in Nov. All of them have park tickets already bought, to mirror the number of days I will be staying there. Do these already paid for park tickets guarantee me entry into a park per day, which is what I paid for?
We are dvc members staying at okw in October
Our trip from May was cancelled
At the Beach club
We have 4 day park hopper plus
Florida tickets that expire July 31
We usually upgrade to annual pass on our last day so we can go the rest of the week?
Will we be able to buy our annual pass? Will our Florida tickets be good?
Is the B Resort considered one of the Disney partner hotels? I have reservations and tickets to the parks in a couple of months.