Now that Disney World is reopening July 11th and July 15th and Disneyland has a proposed reopening date, both resorts have stated they will be utilizing a new reservation system which will require all guests — including Annual Passholders — obtain a reservation to enter a park in advance of their visit.
Annual Passholder Magnet
We’ve been receiving a TON of questions about how this new reservation system will affect Annual Passholders since Disney hasn’t released very much info on the subject yet!
Disney World recently launched a new webpage for APs where we learned Annual Passholders will only be allowed to hold a certain number of reserved days at one time while park capacity is limited, but they didn’t give any explanation on what kind of compensation APs could expect for not being able to fully utilize their annual passes.
Walt Disney World Annual Passholder
Thanks to a tip from nuptiousdisney on Instagram, we noticed something very interesting over on Shanghai Disneyland’s Annual Pass website. Shanghai Disneyland reopened on May 11th and is also using a new reservation system. Similar to Disney World and Disneyland’s annual passes, they’ve extended expiration dates for APs who have paid-in-full for their memberships or kept up with payments by how many days the parks have been closed, BUT their policy also says they will be extending expiration dates for the amount of time that their new reservation system will be in use, too!
Screenshot from Shanghai Disneyland’s Website
If Shanghai Disneyland is implementing this new extension to make up for the AP restrictions, it seems possible this could happen for Disney World and Disneyland APs as well. Keep in mind though that neither Disney World nor Disneyland has stated that this will be the case once the U.S. parks reopen.
Find out more details about Disney World’s Annual Passholder preview of the theme parks here!
If Passholders have limited ability to access the parks during the initial reopening, an extension on passes through the first phase of the reopening would likely be a well-received gesture. Again, Disney World and Disneyland have NOT made this announcement on their websites, but we’ll be watching and let you know the second we see any updates!
Could this Annual Pass glitch keep you from getting a reservation when the parks reopen? Find out here!
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What do you think? Should Disney World and Disneyland extend annual passes while the new reservation system is in use? Let us know in the comments below!
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Hopefully, that limit does not apply to AP holders with on site resort reservations.
I certainly hope they extend them because what if we can never get a reservation and we’re still paying??
I can’t wait to go back and see how nice it will be at a lower capacity.
The question I would like answered is if there will be any changes to black out dates. The dates on the website and app have obviously not been changed. My family has seasonal passes, and if we have to wait until August we just might burst.
Gail, I wish I could answer this. To my knowledge, Disney has not released information about blackout dates. If we do see this kind of information, we will update.
I have Platinum Plus Annual Passes and I live in Pennsylvania. The park reservation system makes my pass useless to me during the park reservation system period.
Best way to resolve this:
1. Extend the suspension of time for all WDW annual passes through the WDW park reservation period.
2. Allow WDW AP holders the ability to make reservations during the park reservation period, subject to all of the park reservation system restrictions.
3. Subtract the number of park days used by a WDW AP holder during the park reservation period from the total number of days added to his or her WDW annual pass from March 16, 2020 to the end of the park reservation period.
For example, let’s say the total number of closed days and park reservation system days adds up to 200 days. During the park reservation system period, I use my pass 15 days. Therefore at the end of the park reservation period, I get 185 days added to my pass.
I really hope they do extend them because there are still quarantines in effect and so we cant even go until those lift. It would be so much appreciated so we can actually use what we paid for in full. Thanks for providing info through these uncertain times!
We live on the west coast of Florida and frequently go to Disney for the day. If in order to get a reservation to the park, you must have a confirmed reservation at a resort or restaurant, it would seem we day visitors cannot get a reservation to the parks. Does not seem fair, especially since we have annual passes and spend a lot of time and money in Disney.
Patricia, although the language from Disney is unclear at times, it seems to me that confirmed ticket holders (like APs) will have access to the new system. But we’ll update when things finally come online.
This is the first year to be Annual Pass holders. We live in TX, but we planned on going 3 times this year so we would get our money’s worth. Our first trip was in May with an Annual Pass room only discount. That got changed that to first week in July because the annual pass discount was still valid. Obviously that got cancelled. We were able to re-book for October which is the next time work will allow me to take off. Because there are no discounts and I’m not getting a bounce back offer I’ll be paying full price for my room. I’m a little disappointed because I have read here that people who had the free dining are getting a 30% discount because they lost their free dining. Their room was full price to start with. I just don’t understand why discounted rooms can’t be extended. I was told they will release those dates at a later time. And if it doesn’t coincide with my trip…. no discount. I’m sure I’m not the only one that feels like being an Annual Passholder at this time seems disappointing, but this information about extending the dates is some good news. Thank you for posting this.
I’m just so glad we did NOT renew this year.
Dear DFB,
My concern is : What about the Water Parks? They won’t be open July 11th or July 15th! Will they give us money back because I won’t be able to utilize the water parks? And WHAT ABOUT PARK HOPPING? If I can’t park hop, will they give me money back? I purchased the Platinum Plus. So my pass has No Blackout Dates, Park Hopping, and both Water Parks.
Any info is appreciated:)
I’m an annual pass holder that lives about 20 minutes from WDW. We like to go to the parks in the afternoon, because we have no need to stay all day. My question is if we make a reservation for a day will be able to go to the park say at 2 or 3 in the afternoon and still have a valid reservation?
Robert, that’s a good question. We’re hoping to get more information when the new reservation system goes live. We will update with anything we can find out once it is.
CJ, that’s a good question. I would say that for folks who upgraded standard Park tickets, Park Hoppers/Water Park tickets would be refunded (should Park Hoppers be suspended, of course). I have not heard anything in this vein about Annual Passes, but I think that’s definitely worth asking about. Good luck!
Suzanne, hopefully your Resort issue will be resolved.
I have a 2 week trip booked in October and have an AP. I can’t imagine that they would limit those actually staying on property. I think they put this out because a majority of AP holders are local and only come for a few hours and they want to be able to get their resort guests in. People like me, that do not live close but have APs, are in this weird limbo where most things do not pertain to us, but get caught up in stuff like this. I am hoping by October, things will be closer to normal.
DFB- Sarah – Just an FYI. I wanted to see if I could find out what the new price of an Annual Pass would be since mine had expired. Well much to my surprise I was able to go online to Disney World.com and MDE also, and not only check the price, but also PURCHASE A NEW ANNUAL PASS! So there does seem to be a way to get park tickets now while the reservation system is closed – they just have to be annual passes! I was able to go as far as the final payment page ( but I did not purchase it). So that may be an option for folks who want to make sure they get an early jump on the new reservation system. It’s just a “pricy” option. But if it’s something that you had planned to do anyway now may be a good time to do it.
Thanks for sharing, Arlene!