Disney’s Park Pass system went live this morning for Annual Passholders (who didn’t have a resort stay) to make their Disney World theme park reservations. All guests are now required to have both a park ticket and reservation to visit during Disney World’s phased reopening.
Disney Park Pass Screenshot
The system came up early, and although it was sailing along a lot smoother than its initial launch, things were still very messy.
There are more conflicting reports than ever before now that Annual Passholders without a hotel reservation have been able to access the system. That’s why we want to share with you what some of our readers saying and what our own personal experience has been with using Disney Park Pass today.
The Annual Passholder “Either-Or” Issue
Disney announced Annual Passholders (without resort reservations) are allowed to make THREE days of Disney Park Pass reservations at one time, OR if they have a Disney World resort stay booked, they can reserve park passes for the length of their vacation. We were told you CAN’T have both by multiple Disney PR reps and Disney cast members.
Disney Park Pass Screenshot
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But some Annual Passholders reported this morning that they WERE able to make reservations apart from their resort stays so it appears there are some discrepancies occurring in certain cases.
At this time, some guests are being told that the “bonus days” were glitches that Disney’s IT team has now fixed.
More Than Three Days
In addition to booking separate days on top of their resort stay, APs were also stating they were able to book more than three days without a hotel reservation if they weren’t holding on to a park pass for a later date.
Park Pass calendar screen shot
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But others who contacted us could not book separate days on top of their resort stay. One of our AP readers tried booking three days in February 2021, but he had already booked park passes for a seven-day resort stay in October, so he wasn’t allowed.
One of our team members here at DFB, who had previously booked hotel reservation-connected park passes was able to book 5 floating AP park passes, while the other member of her traveling party who wasn’t on the hotel reservation could only book three days. We heard some Annual Passholders say they could book up to a total of 16 park passes if they had hotel reservations and more than three reservations if they picked earlier dates.
Rapidly Changing Availability for Annual Passholders
One of the things we noticed right away this morning was how quickly dates were filling up. Right around 7 AM EST was when most Annual Passholders seemed to hop onto the system (if they could even log on — several could not), we saw dates changing from green to yellow quickly!
While it does appear Disney added more spots for previously filled-up dates at Disney’s Hollywood Studios, either they didn’t add additional passes for July 11th and 12th at Magic Kingdom or Disney’s Animal Kingdom OR any additional capacity added blew out the door almost instantly.
Disney Park Pass Reservation
Even though Annual Passholder park passes were being snatched up left and right, Resort Guest availability was staying pretty much the same. Magic Kingdom booked up for APs from July 11th through the 14th and then the 18th as well, but was still showing availability for hotel guests.
Certain Dates Were Unavailable for Annual Passholders, But Open For Resort Guests
This shows us that it seems the limited capacity isn’t in just one bucket. There seem to be separate availability caps for APs and hotel guests.
Resort Guest Calendar
This means if you’re a resort guest, you get to draw from the pool of resort guest Park Passes, and if you’re an Annual Passholder, you’ll take from the pile of reservations set aside specifically for APs. There doesn’t appear to be any overlap. We’ll see what happens on Sunday when all ticket-holders can book park passes!
Disney Park Pass Reservation
These theme park reservations are available through September 26, 2021, for both resort guests and Annual Passholders but park passes are subject to availability.
Can’t Book Park Passes After Your Annual Pass’ Expiration Date
Since Disney hasn’t extended many Annual Passes in their system yet, we were unable to reserve park passes after our annual pass expiration date. This might be a problem some of our readers have been encountering without realizing it.
Walt Disney World Annual Passholder
For instance, one of our readers was unable to make park reservations for days that should have been available. When she tried to book a reservation for July 21st (a date that shows all parks available), she got an error message saying she had already reached her limit. This might have been the reason for the glitch, but the system is still having a lot of variances.
We’re still working through all the comments from our readers and compiling our Disney’s Park Pass FAQ with all the latest knowledge we’ve been able to piece together, so stay tuned for more important updates regarding Annual Passholder park passes!
Disney Park Reopening Details and Info
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Were you able to make your park passes this morning? Tell us what your experience was like in the comments below!
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My fiancé’s pass technically expired during the closure but we chose the extension option to extend the expiration by the amount of time the parks were closed. BUT his expiration date won’t update until parks officially open so even though he has an active pass he is paying for, he can’t make a reservation and NO ONE has been able to fix this even though we have been on hold for hours and talked to multiple cast members.
The system is terrible, very confused, yes we only had two weeks left on our AP s when WDW clsed, I got itextended back in early April, not knowing that my passes weren’t on my Disney Experience, we really wanted to go on opening day, but that was just a dream that never happened,we love Disney it’s our happy place.But. Disney has made me unhappy.I was so upset yeasterday, yes I’m a older adult but I’ll admit I cried all morning.All I wanted was to be able to go to my happy place.
We are trying to make park reservations for out Sept. 30th visit. Although all 4 of us have annual passes, one expires in August, so I couldn’t make reservations. The cast member with whom I spoke said that that pass could be renewed now, but we are having no luck.
I have a hotel reservation for April but my annual passes expire in March (which includes the extension). But because I cannot renew the passes until 60 days prior to the expiration date, I cannot make park pass reservations for that hotel stay since I do not have a valid linked ticket. I am concerned I will not be able to get in the parks 60 days out. I would gladly renew my annual passes now for when they expire but that is not a Disney option. While I am glad to have the extra days given to us, I normally would have renewed in November and then I would not be having this problem. I have alerted Disney to what I consider a problem but I have not heard back from them.
M, I don’t think we’ve heard a time for AP renewals to start again. Hopefully soon.
THIS IS THE MOST STUPID SYSTEM I HAVE EVER SEEN! There, now I feel better. I can make my 3 days as AP holder and I can make my mom’s 7 days as park hopper ticket holder But we can’t go to the same park on the same day. How fun is that! What an exciting trip. And of course the telephone lines are blowing up. And because she is linked on my account I can’t set up a my Disney experience by herself. Wow I guess we’ll just put days in and wait for phone lines to cool down before September.
We were able to get 3 park reservations as annual passholders for myself, my husband and our son. However, we have resort reservations for Feb, 2021 and when our son tried to snag part reservations for himself for those days, it stated he has already reached his limit of 3 passes. I don’t feel the 3 day limit should include a resort stay. My husband & I won’t even be able to try to get park reservations for Feb, 2021 until mid October when we should be able to renew our passes which went from an expiration date of 8/20/20 to 12/15/20. The oddest part is that when my pass shows up on My Disney Experience it still shows the expiration date of 8/20/20, however when I click the button to renew it states I can’t because it is not 60 days prior to my expiration date 12/15/20? Disney really needs to correct all these glitches.