Disney’s Park Pass Reservation System has been something of a sore spot for many guests.
Bob Chapek
Gone are the days of being able to waltz into the parks at your leisure. Now we’re left having to make our plans in advance. Disney held its third-quarter earnings call in August of 2022, and we found out all sorts of juicy information about Disney+ and the new ad-supported plan. Not only that, but we also heard from CEO Bob Chapek about the reservation system and what it means for the company.
Whether you love it or you hate it, Disney’s Park Pass Reservation System is here to stay — at least for now. During The Walt Disney Company’s third-quarter earnings call, Disney CEO Bob Chapek commented on the system and how it can benefit the company.
Magic Kingdom
Disney has been able to limit park capacity using the reservation system since it was first introduced when the parks reopened. We’ve heard Chapek comment on the system before, and now it looks like he’s echoing his prior statements.
In terms of the guest experience, Chapek stated, “As you know, everything we do in our parks is all about improving the guest experience. And part of that has to do with limiting capacity, but also about personalizing those experiences.”
Animal Kingdom
The CEO then went on to say, “We have a [park] reservation system which now enables us on the fly, to change whatever factors we need in terms of ticket packaging that we want. Years ago, we didn’t have that. We published prices by the quarter and that was all the flexibility we had.”
EPCOT
In terms of park demand and capacity, Chapek said, “Our reservation system really does a great job spreading demand. If we see any spikiness, we can smooth that in a way we couldn’t before, and we’re real pleased we did that.” Based on these comments, it doesn’t seem like Disney has any plans to change the reservation system any time soon — though no official announcements were made during the earnings call.
©Bloomberg
Again, these statements echo some of the statements Chapek has made in the past. Back in May of 2022, Chapek said that they have felt encouraged by the continuation of the trends they’re seeing for certain things, including guests’ willingness to come to the parks with the reservation system, which helps them manage their price per day.
Christine McCarthy, Disney’s Chief Financial Officer, also noted in May that they are limiting attendance by using the reservation system and that this all goes back to Disney trying to “balance demand and attendance throughout the year, not have days when consumers in the parks aren’t enjoying the experience.”
According to McCarthy, attendance is something they’re controlling but they’re doing it to “have a better consumer experience.”
Christine McCarthy ©The Walt Disney Company
Will the parks increase capacity (and thus potentially make it easier for some guests to get park passes)? It’s possible. In May, McCarthy said that “they will continue to increase attendance in the parks with capacity as things change.” And things like the opening of new rides can change capacity.
In terms of demand, it seems guests are still flocking to the parks. During the Q3 earnings call in August of 2022, McCarthy said that Disney hasn’t seen demand abate at all. Instead, McCarthy noted that Disney is seeing demand in excess of the available reservations.
©Disney
If Chapek and McCarthy’s statements are any indication, the Park Pass system could truly be here to stay. So what can you do to make sure you get the Park Passes you want?
Second, make those Park Pass reservations as soon as you can. If you make the reservations early, you give yourself the best chance of scoring the parks you want for your trip.
©Disney
Can’t find the park passes you want? Our advice is to at least make a reservation for one of the parks that is available at the time you’re looking. That’ll at least give you the chance to go into a park on those days, and if you have a Park Hopper ticket you can hop elsewhere later.
Then you’ll want to keep searching back on the Park Pass availability calendar for updates. Sometimes we’ve seen dates fill up only to be later replenished entirely. So just because you don’t see availability for the park you want right now, it doesn’t mean things can’t change in the future.
If park availability pops up, you can cancel your existing park pass and grab the new one.
Hollywood Studios
The key here is to act early, be prepared, and check back often for updates.
Want to learn more about the latest Disney news? Check out our links below for some big reveals from the August earnings call and report:
- Updated Disney+ subscriber numbers released
- Pricing announced for the Disney+ ad service
- Price increase announced for the Disney+ ad-free service
- Disney parks revenue has increased by $4.3 BILLION
- How many people are buying Genie+? We have an update
- A full look at the latest updates on Disney park demand
- Disney has reported an “unfavorable attendance mix” at Disneyland
We’ll continue to keep an eye out for news on Disney’s park pass system and more — so be sure to stay tuned to DFB for the latest!
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So totally disappointed in all the changes, Genie +. Park reservations . It’s lost the lets go Disney turn up and ride. How do I know what I want to eat at 12 noon 180 days time. What ride etc, it’s all plans, phones, apps, all I wanna do is turn up have fun and enjoy my day. Seems a huge stress anxiety project just to see dear old Mickey.
Disney has lost the magic, not gained any sprinkles in the past few years. Because Ive always had many many wonderful days at Disney world, California, Paris, 5 cruises. I’m not in a hurry or interested in returning to Disney again. which a very sad for me. I feel we had the best years 1994-2018 Disney was pure joy and magic. It might return we shall see.
Park reservation system is a pain when you have a hearing loss and want to follow the interpreter schedule. Because they have a fixed schedule you must have your park reservation for the correct day or you are out of luck.
I want a relaxing vacation. Rather than an escape, visiting Disney now seems almost more hectic than daily life. First, finding enough time just to plan a trip, between ensuring having a goodcreservation plus having to reserve opportunities to reserve rides, sometimes weeks in advance is too much to ask of people juggling careets, getting the kids to school, shopping, etc. Its much less stressful to just book a beach resort. Second, the crowds are not down all that much even with reservations. Third, I spend most of my day on screens for work and coordinating daily family activity. Now we have to stare at our phones to juggle the itinerary while at the park. We have been to Disney World a good number of times and my kids want to go, but even though I want to treat them to a Disney trip, the logistics deter me from even trying.
It’s changed so much since Chapak took over it seams like all the new people in charge at Disney just care about money . I use to brag to others about Disney to others who haven’t been food plan fast pass & we went as group now it’s pay twice to ride no more convince of din in by plan I could go on but won’t but everything that use to be free we pay for now 😳
Christine McCarthy said they would cut food portions. They did — and they raised prices. This doesn’t sit well with me. I’m a 6ft. tall guy. I work up an appetite at the parks. I know the food is going to be expensive but there’s nothing worse than overpaying and still walking away hungry.
It was understood and agreed to by guess that during the COVID-19 lockdown Park reservations would be required to enforce social distancing.
However Disney, due to corporate greed has decided to maintain indefinitely advance park reservations.
This additional requirement to making advanced Park reservations is already on top of the following burdensome experiences.
* signing onto My Disney Experience.
* Making advance dining reservations
* Paying resort parking fees.
* Endless long lines.
* Rude guess and cast members
Park crowds nearly seem out of control. Long are the days that one could walk down Main Street USA without encountering being bumped into by a baby carriages and electric scooters, not to mention being elbowed by other guests.
So since it’s apparent that guest capacity isn’t so much an issue as much as Disney would like us to think, than what is the reason for Advance Park Reservations? I suspect Disney want nothing more than to monitor and track our individual consumer behavior.
Positive guest experiences have now taken a backseat to Disney‘s corporate greed nothing more. I truly miss the days of Walt Disney and Michael Eisner when the Guests were treated with respected instead of being treated like cattle.
Welcome to 1984.
Got rid of my passes when they expired this year. Terrible crowds, rudeness, poor quality high priced food, long lines, rides down A LOT, 9 yr old was bored with Disney. So we did Busch Gardens passes this year and probably Universal next year. Busch Gardens has better coasters and looks nearly empty compared to Disney. Kid is much more excited by Harry Potter and the upcoming Nintendo properties at Universal. And we’ll probably dump Disney+ once the price increase goes into effect.
Do these guys live in a cave? Maybe they need to get out of their boardrooms and attend the parks as a regular guest. They also need to go to all the comment boards and see what people are saying. All I read about is how crowded the parks are and that nobody likes this new system. The least they could do is have it all linked together – you make a meal reservation in a park, you should get the park reservation automatically. Why take a reservation when you can’t guarantee the party can even get into the park? As far as people liking this system, they think because people are using it that they like it – NO! They are being forced to use it; what other choice do they have? Doesn’t mean they like it at all. And the stupid park-hopper rules need to change. I agree with Michael – I miss Eisner.
“…….how it can benefit the company.”… I guess that says it all.
They talked about reserving park days but what about the the dining package. They said it was coming back, but when. We have been waiting.
Good Lord, these two have no idea what the average guest has to deal with while at the parks. Chapek avoids the parks at all costs, while McCarthy says Disney guests could stand to lose weight.
I am struggling to understand how three hour wait times during the “off season” is Disney controlling capacity.
I also agree with another comment, since Bob Chapek became CEO Disney is about money, money, MONEY!! It’s a joke to say any of this is about a “better consumer experience.”
My most recent trip was by far the most expensive, most stressful, most busy, and least “better consumer experience” off all the many trips I’ve made to Disney in my 42 years of existence.
You said it yourself, “Disney CEO Bob Chapek commented on the system and how it can benefit the company.” This Park Pass Reservation System is not about improving the User Experience, but improving company/shareholder profits – now they can jack up prices where they see high demand – you can bet prices won’t go down where there is low demand…WDW is just another shareholder driven company – the stock market is the culprit of all that is wrong with this. Disgusted!!
I agree with a previous comment. If these higher ups at disney had to vacation at the parks and go through what their normal guests do now…they’d understand our frustration. Still say all of this change will eventually come back to bite them.
This all works now because people are flocking to theme parks after being cooped up for 2 yrs, however, I predict this will be Disney’s downfall in a few years from now after people have gotten over the travel blues. Covid messed up a lot of things, and Disney’s money hungry CEO’s are taking advantage of people, and this won’t sit well in the long run.
Like every other comment says, this is all about making money. Let’s take everything away we can and when they get used to that let’s take even more away. That’s Disney’s board member idilogy. They have ruined the magic.
“…how it can benefit the company.” > “customer experiance”.
I used to constantly say how much I loved WDW. These days, it’s just not the same place. It makes me genuinely sad to see how much they’ve thrown their culture, innovation and appreciation of their customers, out the window.
Magic Express –> fail
Park reservation system –> fail
Cost increases –> fail
Flexibility in stay –> fail
Genie+ –> fail
Star Cruiser –> fail
Yes…. people are going to WDW in droves…. that’s because they’ve been locked up in a covid world with 2 summer’s worth of vacation cash on standby.
You’re not here to gain a customer for a week. Your goal is to gain a fan for a lifetime. Get it together, guys. Universal is about to gobble up whatever was left of your most loyal fans. If said fans ditch you in this environment… how will you keep a typical family of 4 coming back year after year?
It’s more costly to gain a new customer than maintain an existing one. Must I take you guys back to school on how to run a business? Lol.
Ridiculous.
I have an annual pass with no blackout dates. Today and tomorrow at least there is no park availability. So I paid a premium for a pass that I can’t actually use as promised by Disney. So guess what. We are going to universal. And never going back to Disney.
“Whether you love it or you hate it, Disney’s Park Pass Reservation System is here to stay”
That has to be the funniest thing I’ve ever read on DFB. Kindly show me just one person who will claim that they “love it”.
I’ll wait.
This is Not helping the customer experience . This just shows how “out of touch” they truly are. Why would you want to constantly monitor your smart phone all day vs. walking around, enjoying the day, and going in the rides when You want to. And at which ever park you want to! They should look a little closer at their competition to the east!
I could be totally wrong but I feel like the crowds are still from people having to postpone their trips because of Covid. Once that issue filters out I wonder if Disney execs will notice the drop on attendance? Will there be a drop? Sounds like A LOT of people are washing their hands of Disney because of mismanagement. What you sew today is reaped tomorrow. Will they scratch their heads and wonder what happened?
This really has nothing to do with being able to handle crowds! Disney has NEVER been able to control crowds!! It’s a bad system, no one likes it and you can walk anywhere in Disney asking for peoples opinions on this ridiculous rule and you’d get a negative answer nearly 100 percent of the time!!
I believe it is all about business, the park reservation system allows Disney to plan their resources accordingly, especially scheduling cast members. If they know how many people will be in a park for that day they can schedule the needed cast members and not have any extra cast members.
I cannot speak for the changes, nor do I know how it was before all of the changes. But I think his statement is a bunch of crap. I am getting ready to go to Disney World for the first time. We don’t have a lot of time to spend there, so we have a day per park which is NOT a lot at all, but it is what we have for this trip. The park reservation system isn’t hard so I don’t mind it. BUT I am not buying that the system is in place to control the crowds and improve guest experience. When rides are so busy you may not be able to ride it the day you planned on going, that is NOT an improvement. DW is already super expensive and to possibly have to pay extra to be able to experience all they have to offer is a bunch of BS. I don’t think it is about guest experience, its about control and bottom lines on their part.
Where is the “better consumer experience?” someone explain that to me! That to me sounds like a lot of .
Park passes are fine until something happens on your vacation, and you need to change plans. This week one of our party got sick and it would have been helpful to have changed passes before 2:00pm and our planned schedule, but we couldn’t. The only thing you can count on with a WDW trip is that something will not go as expected. You can’t micro plan everything. These people never do the parks.
This was also our first Universal trip. We had an express pass , a blast, and a lot more spontaneous time. We have decided to base our vacation next year in Universal and maybe visit a day or two in WDW. We spend a lot of money in WDW; we will be spending more at Universal next year. It is a personal “bespoke” experience when you can have control over your choices. I think they will eventually charge extra to be able to pick any park at any time.
It certainly hasn’t improved MY guest experience. I’ve been twice since Chapek’s “improvements” took effect and those were the worst two experiences I’ve EVER had at a Disney park. We were annual passholders since 2006. No more. We’ve been abused by these greedy pieces of work for the last time.
The Park Pass system is not for controlling park attendance, but so they can control (read: minimize) employee scheduling. Disney is getting away with having the maximum number of people with the minimum number of employees working the parks. Why do you think it takes 6-7 minutes for Security to get to Fantasyland when a fight breaks out? Minimal staffing. Why does it take so long for food to be made? Minimal staffing. Why are there less dining reservation slots? Minimal staffing. If you think the Park Pass reservation system is for customer enjoyment, you just go on drinking that Kool-Aid.
Pretending they care what the guest experience is while ignoring what the guests say about it is pure hypocrisy. Disney doesn’t care about us. I know a lot of people don’t want to hear it, but Iger is the one who started this. Chapek has gone all in, but Iger was cutting corners in 2009 with the Boardwalk Resort covered in dust bunnies and the French cafe with spiderwebs just overhead and cast members walking in costume through the countries.
But as long as people keep going they’ll keep making it worse and worse until you might as well just stay home and go to Story Land.
It is not about “park capacity”, it all about limiting daily staffing. All the reservation system does is tell them what the minimum staff needs to be that certain day. Like all corporations, they want more work from less people. It has nothing to do with “customer experience”, otherwise they would not have a reservation system that limits your visits, especially the separate calendar (not the blackout calendar, the reservation calendar) for annual pass holders.
Along with park reservations is no park hopping until 2pm – Was sick one morning & didn’t make it to our first park but had dinner reservations at 2nd park. Plaid was so condescending to us for not going to first park AND this was well after 2pm. All about money & control for Disney – NOT the guest experience. They could care less. This WILL catch up to them especially with economy in decline.
I cannot tell you have much I hate the reservation system, which has taken much of the spontaneity out of our trips and turned them into regimented schedules. Ditto them driving us to use mobile ordering in advance of when we want to eat. I specifically eat almost all meals QS so I can be flexible for my autistic son and avoid having to stop doing something fun to rush off to get food, when we might not even be hungry, or have a yen for something else. So much stress, and we’re paying more for it too.
WHY???? Why are these people allowed to stay in control??? They have officially KILLED Disney magic, the Disney experience, everything that put Disney apart from other vacations is DEAD! I’m so sick of how everything has become about the earnings for DISNEY! How is this happening? How are so many of us upset about it yet they continue to support it? And still no dining plans!!!! STILL. NO. DINING. PLANS. What will it take to get someone else in that office? Someone who can bring in a profit without it coming at the cost of us??? Please, someone please save Disney before it’s beyond help!!!
Seems like Disney is now just a big money machine. We used to love to go and just ride what ever we wanted to. Now everything has to be planned out. We have been annual Passholders for a long time. Now it’s too stressful to have to make plans so far away from our ‘vacation’ date.
We are switching to going on cruises and going to Universal Studios where we can actually make it a vacation again.
Chapak is making over 60 million a year. I don’t see Walt going for any of the recent changes, much less Chapak’s salary.
He should also stay out of politics. I think he forgot that Disney is a place for families. We have spent about 20K per year going to Disney, but that’s over.
Was that suppose to be a joke, “everything we do in our parks is about improving the guest experience”?? Surely, he jests! Everything they do in their parks is about making more money and devaluing the guest experience. The Disney I once knew is gone….RIP.
As an older tourist with limited technical ability I have found the whole experience really stressful. I have had to ask my daughter to do everything on my behalf as my very old phone does not allow me to access apps etc.
I have been visiting Disney parks for many years and it was a very simple process – decide, the day before, if I wanted to visit a park the next day and just turn up. No hassle. It does not improve the guest experience for everyone. Not sure I will visit again when I next come to Florida.. Holidays should be a lot easier and less stressful.
After going to WDW for 50 years- we no longer can conscience going anymore. Once Disney stops caring only about the money, brings back back full housekeeping, allows us to decide when to eat, stops /revises the current lightening lane/ special ride prices and booking procedures and recognizes we would rather look at the pixie dust rather than our cell phones- our 18th trip from NJ will not be happening. Why would we book a trip when we get so much less, for so much more money? Aaaand- despite how was the new Disney experience was touted- Our last trip in October was ANYTHING but spontaneous.
Ughhh….. Chapek.
Not sure why they think that doing the reservation system allows them to manage the crowds at Disney World. Because of the pandemic, everyone is wanted to get out and the parks have been more crowded than we have ever seen, even during their big holidays/vacation seasons! I have always been a planner when getting ready for a trip to Disney but we retired and MOVED to Florida (5 miles from the western gate) so that we could easily come and go. When we first got here six years ago, it was wonderful. In he middle of the day, we would say that it would be great day to walk at Epcot and grab dinner – and then we would. We honeymooned here in 1975 and came back every year so walking on to Main Street, it would just be all stress leaving and saying “We’re home.” It truly was magical. Now, with the reservation, systems, lack of restaurant reservations (because they are given to hotel guests), and the huge crowds, it’s just not the same.
After a ruined trip in 4/2021 I said no more travels to WDW until the park reservation system was gone. I like nothing about it and makes last minute trip scheduling not worth even considering. If this is staying combined with the massive price increase across the board i think its time for me to find other places to spend my hard earned dollars… not too much magical about it anymore.
So a big part of going to WDW for my family is the “magic.” It’s that escape from reality for a week, that feeling of being transported into another reality that is free of real-life issues. Disney knows (knew) that, which is why we can pay for things with our wrists, and used to be able to have dinner without whipping out credit cards and worrying about the price of one entrée over another. I can certainly agree with others here that a lot of that magic has faded. We just got back from our trip, and I can say without a doubt that we left with less “magical memories.”
The park reservation system, we could take it or leave it, it didn’t really change anything. The parks were still overcrowded, and we were still able to park hop with no issues. Having to pay an additional ~$30 per person per day to ride two “fancy rides” using IAS wasn’t great, and lightning lane just required us to spend more time stressing out at 7AM while feverishly refreshing our phones, when we used to be able to wake up peacefully with a plan that was made far in advance.
Prices in general were high for everything. That was expected. We get it. We understand Disney lost a lot during the pandemic and they have to take means to mitigate that loss. We just hope that eventually things can return back to how they once were. I personally think that for the price we pay for a vacation package, Disney could be doing a little more to at least make it seem like we’re getting something above and beyond a hotel room and park pass.
Despite all the complaints, many are legitimate, people are still flocking to Disney! That is the simple driving force. People are still flocking to Disney ! Demand.
Just cancelled our upcoming trip in November. Don’t want to feel ripped off at every turn or to be constantly frustrated. Nothing they have done has enhanced the guest experience!
It’s interesting they think the reservation systems keeps the crowds down. Down to what? Holiday numbers? It’s obscenely crowded, and nothing about the reservations, the crowds, the cost improves “guest experience.” Particularly for AP holders. I let my AP expire last month. Husband’s expires in September. We’ll be back when all this nonsense is over. Maybe.
““As you know, everything we do in our parks is all about improving the guest experience.”
But I’ve never heard ANYONE say, “this park pass system is great.” Everyone hates it, they just deal with it because they have to. If he actually cared about the guest experience I think the system would go away. The truer statement was”…how it can benefit the company…” That is all the 2 of them care about.
We’re done with Disney, at least until (if) things change for the better. We thought we would do Universal next trip, but with all the hassle of traveling by right now, we decided it would be in our best interest to drive to our next vacation resort.
When a vacation is no longer provides a release from the daily stresses of life and worse, becomes another of life’s stresses, it’s time to rethink the meaning of the word vacation.
We are currently in Disney and have run into a few problems with their 2PM park hopping rule. We left HS early and our son had an emergency while we were walking on the boardwalk—we couldn’t enter into Epcot yet because it was only 11AM so we couldn’t make it to First Aid. It was a nightmare! The parks seem MORE crowded with Park Pass. It doesn’t make sense.
Increasing park pass availability just means allowing more crowds. That’s not good for anyone. What’s the good of getting in if you’re just going to have a miserable day? What would actually benefit people is making some of the changes guests have been asking for such as a having some reservations in a separate pot for annual pass folks and a guarantee that if you get a dining reservation in a park you will be allowed to have a reservation for the park.
Chapek commented on the system and how it can benefit THE COMPANY!
That says it all! Chapek and McCarthy are greedy, insensitive, uncaring business people. They do not care about the the guests. Do you ever notice when they speak, it’s all about them and what they can bleed out of us. I have never once seen them address the real guest concerns. It will never change until they are gone along with the greedy stock holders and board! They say it controls the crowds, the crowds have been bigger since they started this.
I’m so sick of Chapek’s smug look. It says, Look at all those stupid people who make me richer! God is watching you Chapek.
I have to agree that since Chapek took over things have not been the same. it seems that all they care about is the money they’re still not fixing any of the problems that are detrimental to the people that are using it. I have to admit I am also getting tired of going there and there’s nothing to do because everything is either closed or the rides are just down the people are getting ruder and ruder. I know they extended his contract but we need somebody that cares about the people and the enjoyment I read the comments and I totally agree with all of those comments about people wanna go and have a good time not have to plan every little thing 180 days in advance I agree the park if Walt Disney knew. he be flipping in his grave right now. When was the last time anything about the Fab five was even mentioned no commercials about nothing except for Marvel the mouse that made DISNEY is slowly being taken out he looks terrible.