Disney World’s theme parks will begin reopening July 11th.
Magic Kingdom
Among other health measures, the reopening plan includes the use of a new guest reservations system for use in the theme parks. Disney shared a number of details about the Disney Park Pass theme park reservation system last week, and now the reservation system has officially rolled out online.
The Disney World website features some significant changes today when it comes to the way that guests plan their Disney trip. Next time you head to Disney, you’ll be visiting the Disney Park Pass page to make your theme park reservations. When we first logged in this morning, it appeared that the Disney website was experiencing some MAJOR technical difficulties — potentially due to high demand.
Disney Park Pass Error Message
Though the system is LIVE, quite a few readers are still having a hard time accessing the new system. You will likely be greeted with a countdown Space Mountain loading screen (that will possibly never actually count down to zero!), so be prepared to potentially wait for a while.
Reservations are made for a specific date, time, and park. You are limited to one park reservation per day, so it seems that the Park hopper service will not be in use at this time. You can see on the availability calendar that it shows “All Parks Available,” “Some Parks Available,” or “No Parks Available” for each date.
Disney Park Pass System Screenshot
When we did FINALLY get the new page to load (it took us a while and a lot of tries!), we were able to select “Make a Disney Park Pass Reservation” on the top right. We were prompted to log in to our My Disney Experience account (we were met with a much shorter wait to actually log in), then it was time to start making our reservations!
Disney Park Pass Screenshot
First, you’ll select your party from your list of Family & Friends. Make sure to make profiles for other members of your family before making a reservation! If someone in your party does NOT have a profile, you can add them as a guest.
Disney Park Pass Screenshot
Once you’ve got your party set up, you’ll be able to see a calendar for you to select your singular date.
Disney Park Pass Screenshot
Then, it’s on to the park selection page! As a note, if a park is unavailable for the day you are making your reservation, it will be greyed out on this screen.
Disney Park Pass Screenshot
What better park to start our days back in Disney than Magic Kingdom? The next screen had us selecting a window of time. The window was NOT limited though; at this time there was only one option and it was for the full park hours.
Disney Park Pass Screenshot
Then, you’re pretty much done. All you have to do is review your choices and confirm. As announced, confirmation requires agreement to the terms and conditions, including Disney’s COVID-19 liability waiver.
Disney Park Pass Screenshot
Once you confirm, you’re done!
Disney Park Pass Screenshot
From there, you’ll see a screen that explains how to use your reservation when you arrive at the parks. Make sure to bring your MagicBand or card that’s linked to your My Disney Experience account. Once you feel comfortable with the info, you can either “Make Another Park Pass” or exit to “View My Plans.”
Disney Park Pass Screenshot
If you choose to make additional Park Passes you’ll repeat the process above, including selecting the date, the park, agreeing to the waiver, and so on. Once we were IN the Park Pass system it was relatively smooth sailing, but it was a chore to get there! Hopefully as the initial rush dies down, this system will be easier to access.
As a reminder, there is a limit on reservations for Annual Passholders without a resort reservation and Passholders without a hotel reservation can’t access the system until June 26th. Note that while we were able to book with our Annual Passes for the length of our hotel stays, we’ve had a number of readers with resort stays AND Annual Passes report they were capped at three! If this happens we recommend you call Disney to get it sorted out.
Though the new system is relatively easy to navigate, it still might bring up some questions. If anything is confusing you, feel free to ask us and we’ll help if we can! If you find that you need direct help from Disney with your reservation, you can call Disney Website Support at (407) 939-4357. Keep in mind though, the lines may be busy so you might get stuck on hold for a while.
Spaceship Earth
Remember that at this time, “To enter a park, both a park reservation and valid admission for the same park on the same date are required.” Annual Passholders without an already-booked Resort Hotel stay can make reservations beginning June 26th. Existing ticket holders can make reservations beginning June 28th.
It certainly will be interesting to see how the use of this new system plays out and if it goes off without a hitch once the parks reopen. Keep an eye on DFB for all the updates about the new reservations!
Get ALL the details on this new reservation system 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
We’re LIVE in Disney World's Magic Kingdom For the FIRST Time Since the Closures
We’re LIVE in Disney’s Animal Kingdom For the FIRST Time Since the Closures
We Got a FIRST LOOK at Disney World’s New Character Cavalcades and Entertainment!
Everything You NEED To Know About Wearing Masks in Disney World
Join the DFB Newsletter To get all the latest Disney Park Closure News Delivered Right to Your Inbox Click here to Subscribe
Do you think the new reservation system is confusing or easy to understand? Tell us in the comments!
Our handy (and portable!) ebook guides make sure you get the best deals and can plan a vacation of a lifetime.
I have resort reservations for dec! When can I book my park passes?
What if you have a hotel reservation during the one month extension for AP? When can you schedule the park pass?
we are all going as a family, some of us got entry passes others didn’t as there was nothing left when we got through. 14 day passes and £9k spent on the trip and 2 days we are allowed in the parks!! To say we are devastated and sickened by Disney’s debacle of a system is a massive understatement. DVC members who bought tickets in 2019 who can’t get in the parks, 8000 miles to get there and Disney slams the gates in our faces?
I will complain and voice my disappointment but if my past dealings with Disney are anything to go by it will be “tough luck and jog on”. Shame on Disney
Platinum Annual Passes, DVC owners. Two DVC reservations for dates in September and December and could only book 3 days out of 10 in the parks.
Apparently we’ve been punished for having annual passes. They did this before when they first started the FastPass+.
At this point, since we had already paid for a 2020-2021 renewal in March, but WDW closed our 2019-2020 passes are extended to July, I may ask to have them for a refund for 2020-2021. What’s the point of an AP if you don’t even know you can get in and you can’t park hop?
It’s 5:30 am and I was able to add my days.
Maybe they fixed it?!
Anyone else still getting the “One or more parks are not available for Disney Park Pass selections” despite the calendar showing availability for your dates? Is this a glitch or have all the passes been taken?
Do you need to pre-purchase park tickets *before* reserving? I dont want to buy the tickets unless I know I can get into a park and I have a feeling Friday is going to be very chaotic so I want to have everything ready to go.
Eric, I have a similar problem. Our original trip was scheduled during the closure and we rescheduled it for later in the year. For some reason, when it was rescheduled, my preschool aged niece was not included in our resort room even though she was for our May trip. Her park tickets were extended and she appears in my account plans, but the little resort icon wasn’t highlighted, which I missed until yesterday when I tried to make our theme park reservations. After 6 hours of attempts online mixed with a 2 hour hold on the phone to Disney that no one ever came to, I was able to make theme park reservations for everyone except my niece. I can’t add her to our room online and I’ve been trying to call Disney since yesterday to fix the issue but I’m just getting busy signals. This is not the magical first trip to Disney I was envisioning for my family. The most frustrating thing is not being able to reach anyone to get help/answers.
Charlotte, Disney says you can check availability on the calendar prior to purchasing and making your reservation, but we don’t know yet if there will be a lag or what that will really be like.
Fiona, for almost all dates, this appears to be a glitch.
I was having a problem because one of our party was no showing up in the reservation for the room. I found the easiest way was to use the help chat window. Still had to wait about an hour for someone to show up but they fixed the issue and you just keep checking back to see when the rep is in the chat window.
Sue, we’re still seeing mostly open dates (just a few dates with a couple fully-booked Parks). You may have better luck today with the system less overloaded and hopefully possible glitches being addressed.
Caren, I would think so, but I don’t know that I’ve seen confirmation of that yet.
Eric, I have a similar issue. Our trip was rescheduled from May to later this year due to the closure. After over 6 hours of attempts online and a 2 hour hold on the phone to Disney that no on picked up and eventually dropped, I was able to make theme park reservations for for everyone in our group except my preschool aged niece. It appears that when our trip was rescheduled, she did not get included in our resort room even though she was for our May trip. I’m not sure why she wasn’t also included in the rescheduled resort reservation. Her park tickets are still in my account plans and her name appears there, but the resort icon next to her name is not highlighted, which I missed until yesterday. I can’t add her to our resort reservation online and I have not been able to get through to Disney on the phone to try to fix the issue. This is not the magical first trip to Disney I imagined for my family.
Donna, if you have valid tickets in your Disney account as well as your Resort reservation, you were eligible to start booking your Park Passes yesterday. You’ll want to try today. 🙂
Kate, if you have a Park Hopper prior to the system being reinstated, Disney will likely refund. Here’s Disney’s language on this so far: At this time, Guests will be able to select one park per day; visiting more than one park per day will be temporarily unavailable upon the reopening of the theme parks due to attendance limitations. For the time being, all Guests will be required to make a reservation in advance for each park entry. If you have a multi-day ticket, you will be required to make a park reservation for each date of your visit.
Sue, if you have a Resort reservation, you should be able to reserve more Park Passes. We saw lots of folks with this issue yesterday, unfortunately.
How do you modify a park pass? We booked 3 of us for a day and only 2 will be going. I’d like to free up a day as soon as I can for someone else to get. It only says cancel and I don’t want to do to that and lose it for the 2 going. Thanks!
I have a question maybe someone can answer. I have reservations in October to stay for 6 days with my cousin; she is listed on the reservation. I have an annual pass, but she has yet to buy theme park tickets. I know you need a valid ticket to reserve days. Can she purchase theme park tickets at this time? Also, what if she buys a 5 day pass and we are only able to get park reservations for 2 or 3 days?
Lisa, we haven’t been in to do that yet. I think it’s so lovely that you want to free up that day, but I agree that with everything being so uncertain, it would be scary to hit cancel. If you can get through on chat or on the phone with Disney, that might be the safest way to go. Good luck!
Madelyn, since you’ll be traveling in 2020, Disney says it’ll be “later this summer” for new ticket sales. Could be as soon as next week, but we’ll have to keep watching. If you can’t get into the Parks for certain days, you’ll want to talk to Disney about a refund for the days you can’t use (probably modify your purchase). Good luck!
Update: I spent the day trying to call and online chat with Disney to correct the issue of my niece being missing from our resort reservation and not being able to make theme park reservations for her as a result. I had Disney’s online chat pulled up all morning and afternoon but no one ever came to the chat. I started calling Disney reservations at 9:30 am EST and kept getting a busy signal. At 3:30pm I was able to get a cast member on the phone to correct the issue and add my niece to our resort reservation. Once my account was updated, I was able to get her theme park reservations without issue, thankfully. I am thankful for the cast member’s help and that things eventually worked out, but this has not been a pleasant experience. I hope this theme park reservation system is not a permanent fixture post pandemic.
With the park reservation system are you allowed to leave the park during the day and come back to the same park later in the day? EX. Park Reservation & Ticket for Magic Kingdom – leave to go to hotel to rest and swim and then return later in the day.
IS anyone having this issue?
I have 6 tickets and was only able to make 4 of the six reservations even though the calendar states all parks are available for Disney Resort Guests.
Stacy, I think some folks are still encountering glitches. I think you will want to keep trying because it seems from the reduced number of comments I’m getting that things might be ironing out.
Catherine, we were told yes.
For an hour ai kept getting a busy signal then finally got a message telling me it would be a 2 hour wait after waiting 2 ½ on hold I was disconnected.
The DFB video “Seven Things You Really Don’t Want in Disney World Right Now” shares that existing hotel only reservations without park passes can purchase on June 24th. There is no reference to this date anywhere on Disney information. I believe it may be incorrect information considering I have attempted without success.
On the “When you Arrive” screen near the bottom it says a disney park pass does not guarantee park entry. Does anyone know when I’ll know if it’s a guarantee or do I find out when I show up? Or is it there just incase they have to close again?
So I have managed to get all dates – there are so many glitches – if you have a split stay your tickets don’t carry over to your 2nd room – however a six hour wait in phone line queues will see you through to the technical team who will fix and book your days in about 5 minutes. Its unfortunate that you will have been extremely stressed and upset for a few days and spent most days stuck on hold in a phone queue.
Again shame on Disney this is so poorly managed its shocking.
Sue, I hear you. I’m glad it worked out… eventually.
Danielle, I’m not sure what they mean by that disclaimer. I will update if we get more information on this.
Todd, here’s the info from Disney’s Park Pass page: “If you have a room-only reservation at a Disney Resort or other select hotel for a stay in 2021, please call the Disney Reservation Center or call your travel professional beginning on June 24 to upgrade to a vacation package with tickets—and then make your theme park reservations.” 2020 ticket sales will resume “later this summer”, according to Disney. They haven’t confirmed a date for that, but it could be as early as next week.
what time on the 26th can annual pass holders start to reserve their days? It”s 12:20am central time and i still can’t select my pass. If there was no plan to open it at 12:01 they could have at least indicated that.
Virginia, it looks like it was early this morning, but Disney didn’t release a time in advance.
Well not sure I will keep my annual passes. The system is saying my passes are invalid even though they are active until March 2021. All the Disney lines are down like I have literally called them all. This reservation system is a nightmare. They need to bring back their employees just to answer the phones. Madness.
Amber, I don’t disagree. I wish I had better answers for you all!
The Disney plan specified that if you had an existing reservation on a Disney property but did not yet have park tickets, you could purchase tickets starting June 24th and then make park entrance reservations. However, it turns out DVC members using their points to stay on a property were not included in this group. Specifically, we have reservations (using our DVC points) to stay at Old Key West in January; we don’t yet have admission tickets. When we called to purchase admission tickets on the 24th (long holds and disconnects – ugh!) we were told we had to wait until the 28th, when admission tickets went on sale for everyone. The only way for us to purchase tickets on the 24th, we were told, was to convert our January point stay to a cash stay, essentially forfeiting our points and having to spend many thousands of dollars. I don’t understand the logic of why DVC members using points were not permitted to purchase tickets while guests at other properties were permitted. DFB Sarah, any insight to this?
So, does anyone know where/how to purchase theme park ticket for 2021 only online. Under the Parks& Tickets link and then theme park tickets is just information on sanitation and safety measures. I cannot find a link to take me to purchase theme park tickets for 2021. The website says we should be able to purchase theme park tickets for 2021 today. I’ve been logging out and back in to my disney experience and refreshing pages, but nothing. Is this yet another glitch he the system? Does anyone know anything about this? Help.
MMS, I think this link should work.
Had the same experience this morning, but I finally found this URL:
https://disneyworld.disney.go.com/admission/tickets/theme-parks/options/
Sarah, yes!!!!! That’s the link. Thank you so much. I can’t access the web page to purchase tickets from the website unless I’m purchasing a resort package. You need that link. I just spoke with a cast member on the phone (after holding for almost 3 hours) and he said he’s had a number of calls this morning from people who can’t find the page online to purchase tickets only. It’s not coming up under the Parks & Tickets tab. The only thing that comes up are the same safety and sanitation procedures information that’s been there. He said he’s had some success having people log out and clearing all cookies and doing a few other things to their computer and then logging back in to get the page to refresh with the purchase info. Or, use the direct link some people have received previously. My mother-in-law received this link this morning through her vacation package company and she was able to get right on to purchase. But before receiving that email with the link, she couldn’t access the page to purchase tickets through the normal channels on the website. I started this process at 7am. While I was on hold on the phone I was able to online chat with another cast member at around 8:40 am who told me that at that time you couldn’t purchase theme park tickets online unless it was part of a resort/vacation package and that to purchase park tickets only, you have to call. I told him that yesterday when I spoke to a cast member I was told I could purchase park tickets online with a resort stay. He said information has been changing by the hour. He even tried to pull up the page to purchase park tickets just to double check and he couldn’t pull it up. He said that option hasn’t been unlocked yet. I went through a 36 hour process to get our park reservations on Monday for our trip later this year that was rescheduled from May. I did not want that to be the case for our 2021 marathon weekend trip as well. Thankfully, it was just a 3.5 hour issue and it’s been resolved. Thank you so much for the link. This would have been another nightmare without it. I feel bad for the cast members answering the phones and on the online chat. It seems like information is changing so much, even they can’t quite keep up.
I am able to access the the webpage on Disney’s website to purchase park tickets for 2021 via my phone and tablet (mobil devices) but not my desktop unless I use the link Sarah gave above. Strange.
Yes!!!! The link worked, but only on mobile devises. I can access it on my phone and tablet, but not my desktop which is what I was using this morning. Strange. I spoke with a cast member on the online chat and he said that as of 8:45am we could not purchase park tickets for 2021 online unless we were purchasing a vacation package with resort and tickets. For tickets only, we had to call Disney to purchase. He even tried to access the ticket purchase page and couldn’t. He said that Disney hasn’t unlocked it yet. I told him that another cast member told me yesterday that we would be able to purchase tickets park tickets for 2021 online starting on 6/28 without a resort reservation. The cast member explained that that may have been true yesterday, but information is changing by the hour and as of 8:45 am we could not purchase tickets for 2021 online. I called and was on hold for 3 hours. During this time, my mother-in-law received an email from her travel company regarding her 2021 resort reservation with a link to purchase theme park tickets (same link as the one you provided). The link worked on her tablet, but on on her desktop. We used her link to purchase the tickets for our 2021 trip. As I was doing this, a cast member came to the phone and I explained the situation we were having. He said there have been a number of callers with the same issue. He said a few people have had success by login out, cleaning out all cookies from their computer, closing all windows, doing a few other things and shutting down and restarting. I told him that the cast member on the online chat a few hours earlier told me I had to call to purchase tickets. The cast member on the phone said I should have been able to start purchasing tickets online at 7 am. It’s strange, but at least we all figured it out. I still can’t access the page for purchasing tickets online via my desk top, even with the link above. It just takes me to the page with information about reopening and safety measures. Thank you so much for the link. I guess it’s smart to try numerous devices. I feel bad for the cast members. There’s so much going on and so many things changing, they can’t keep up with it either. It’s always a different response depending on who you talk to.
MMS, I, too, have been thinking about how hard it must be for the CMs to keep up with all the info. I’m glad things worked out, ultimately, for you!
Hi
I have been trying to book passes for April thru May 2021 using our Anual Platinum passes, they are linked into my account showing valid till 2030. I have managed to confirm 3 passes for April but have been told I have exceded my pass allowance and have ben tryong for 5 days since to get the rest. As per your forum I appear not to be the only one. I am a Spanish resident and get the same telephone problems as other writers, is there an email address that I can use tp get Disney to fix myn3 day problem. GRACIAS
Pier, Disney offers this contact page. I’m not sure how responsive they are. If you’re able to access the chat function, you may have better luck.
I had zero issues with making our reservations on the morning of the 28th. However, we purchased 3 day park hoppers a few months ago and now the park hopper option is not an actual option. The dilemma is 4 parks and 3 days. I understand they plan to reimburse the difference in price but what I would prefer is to purchase a 4th day so that we can see each park during our visit. Any thoughts or understanding on how we can do this?
Francine, when Disney resumes new ticket sales for 2020, you could try to modify (adding a fourth day). So far the info on cancelling Park Hoppers is a little all over the place.