When Walt Disney World reopened, we were introduced to a whole bunch of new policies and procedures.
Magic Kingdom
One of the biggest changes we’ve seen is the introduction of the Park Pass Reservation System. Thanks to today’s quarterly earnings call, where the Walt Disney Company discussed the results of its third fiscal quarter of 2020, we’ve got more news about how limited capacity is being handled for Disney World’s Passholders and locals.
In order to enter one of the newly reopened theme parks at Walt Disney World, a Disney Park Pass reservation, in addition to valid park admission, is required. On several occasions, we’ve seen park passes for specific parks fill up on certain days for Disney World Passholders, only to then see more availability open up later!
EPCOT
During the quarterly earnings call, Bob Chapek, Chief Executive Officer of The Walt Disney Company, noted approximately 50% of the guest base at Walt Disney World is currently made up of guests who are traveling to the resort from a distance, leaving locals to constitute the remaining 50% (approximately) of the guest base.
Disney’s Animal Kingdom
Chapek noted that there has also been a higher than expected level of cancellations as COVID-19 numbers ebb and flow, but that every day the parks are pretty close to the percentage that they can fill. Chapek also noted that Disney ultimately gave more reservations to locals, which explains why more park pass reservations were recently released for Passholders! We assume this is meant to counterbalance some of the cancellations that have been made by other guests.
Tower of Terror
Christine M. McCarthy, Senior Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer of The Walt Disney Company, also noted Disney expects demand to increase for Walt Disney World as COVID-19 numbers in Florida decrease.
We’ll definitely keep watching the park pass reservation system to see how and if availability changes in the future! In the meantime, we’re off to buy all the Mulan merchandise in anticipation of the special release of Mulan on Disney+ in September!!
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Any idea when annual passes will be available to purchase??? We would love to do our part for park attendance 😀
Christina, still no word on this!
Good, now that Disney is recognizing us, maybe they will implement the ability to link a payment card to our app and Magic Bands like resort guests!
If Florida would of not been a travel ban from New Jersey ,New York ,Conn.going to Disney it would of been more crowded I am a DVC MEMBER there is a lot of us in the East Coast .Go to Disney one of more times a year the Gov.made a dum mistake and caused Disney not be able to make money 💰 .
John, the Governor rescinded that restriction today!
As stated yesterday, (but for some reason it was not posted), NY, CT, NJ have a 14 day quarantine for those coming BACK from Florida. And for good reason, as it doesn’t appear that Florida will have COVID under control any time soon. This still prevents the tri-state from traveling to WDW unless people can take off work for 3 weeks to spend only 1 week there. Not likely.
I turned 70 this year and have been going to WDW since 1971 when it opened every year. I did not renew my seasons pass when the COVID came . I hope they sell them again soon as I retired to Florida and stay on WDW property once a month when we had passes. I would be sad not to be able to come anymore after all these years as a loyal fan along with my extended family that always goes also.