Buckle up friends — Park Pass changes are coming soon to Disney World!
Magic Kingdom
Disney previously announced that an important Park Pass change would be made for Disney World Annual Passholders that would provide them with more flexibility when entering the parks. But, at that time Disney only shared that the change would be made within the next few months. Now, we’ve got an official start date!
Disney has officially shared that the newest Park Pass CHANGE will start on April 18th, 2023. Wait…what’s the change? Well, beginning on April 18th, Annual Passholders will be able to visit the Walt Disney World theme parks after 2PM WITHOUT a Park Pass reservation (with some exceptions).
The exception will apply to Annual Passholders wanting to visit Magic Kingdom on Saturdays and Sundays. If an Annual Passholder wants to go to Magic Kingdom on Saturdays or Sundays, they’ll need a Park Pass regardless of what time they want to visit.
Dumbo Magnet
Keep in mind, Annual Passholder blockout dates will continue to apply, so you’ll want to take a close look at those when planning your visit.
Disney shared the following message about this change, “While the theme park reservation system remains important to manage attendance in our parks, especially on busier days, we realize our Passholders enjoy more spontaneous visits – and this change will make that possible.”
Annual Passholder Magnet
Again, note that this change only applies to Annual Passholders and is just for visits after 2PM (except for Magic Kingdom on Saturdays and Sundays).
Here are a few examples of how it’ll work:
- Got an Annual Pass and you want to go to EPCOT at 9AM on a Tuesday? You’ll still need a Park Pass!
- Want to visit Animal Kingdom at 11AM on a random Wednesday? Book that Park Pass!
- Want to visit Magic Kingdom at ANY time on a Saturday or Sunday? A Park Pass WILL be necessary.
- But you want to visit Hollywood Studios after 2PM on Thursday? No Park Pass is needed if you’re an Annual Passholder (and a blockout date doesn’t apply).
Hollywood Studios
Aside from that change, Disney has also announced that starting on March 20th, Annual Passholders will get access to Disney PhotoPass lenses and ONE complimentary Cinderella Castle Mural of Memories experience. Typically, the PhotoPass lenses are special things you can access if you purchase Genie+, but it seems like Passholders will soon get this perk too!
The Castle of Memories feature is essentially a way to create a virtual mural on Cinderella Castle. This typically costs $9.99 to participate in, but soon Passholders will get to experience it ONCE for FREE. Click here to learn more about the feature.
©️Disney
Plus, on March 20th, Passholders will get a NEW offering where they will be able to “create and share short Disney-themed video slideshows with favorite photos from [their] theme park visits.”
Sounds like lots of photo-based fun is on the way.
PhotoPass photographer
Chairman of Disney Parks, Experiences, and Products, Josh D’Amaro, previously indicated that this was just the start of changes coming to the Park Pass system. D’Amaro noted that the current system can make guests lose some of the serendipity so they’re working on “trying to create ease,” while still making sure guests have a good experience.
D’Amaro shared that there are people at Disney working on how to improve the process. He shared that they are working to “make that reservation process as easy and flexible” as possible. D’Amaro shared, “Are you going to see more initiatives like you saw last week [in reference to the Annual Passholder Park Pass change that was announced at that time]? I think you will.”
Haunted Mansion
We’ll keep an eye out for more news and let you know what we find! To learn all about the Park Pass system, click here. And you can click here for details about the Annual Passholder system in Disney World.
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What do you think about this Park Pass change? Tell us in the comments!
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If you go to the fine print for the annual pass it has always said “¹To visit more than one park per day, Annual Passholders must make a Disney Park Pass reservation for the first park they plan to visit AND enter that first park prior to visiting another. After entering that first park, Passholders will be able to visit the next park starting at 2:00 PM until each park’s regularly scheduled closure. At this time, a park reservation is not required after the first park, however, reservation requirements are subject to change. The ability to visit another park will be subject to the park’s capacity limitations and applicable pass blockout dates.” So what has changed? AP’s after their first resv. park, have been able to go to another park after 2:00 PM, capacity permitting.
going to wdw now isn’t worth the BS one has to do to visit anywhere. it’s only to get worse as disney continue to build hotels. disney exe’s can stick their parks up where the sun don’t shine.
Flexibility? I couldn’t get a Magic Kingdom reservation for all but one day of my March trip and now I can’t hop to Magic Kingdom on Saturday or Sunday with my no-block-out days Incredipass? I can certainly see why Disney is being sued.
This takes part of the sting out of what started out to be my “great idea” of moving to the place where we always had so much fun with our daughters.
We went to DAK after work yesterday just to walk around. The place, especially Nepal, takes on an entirely different feel at sunset. Joe Rohde and his team did a fantastic job on atmosphere. Gorilla Falls Trail where we learned a lot about the Colobus Monkeys from Lynnae (?) and about Grace’s gorilla family from Scotty, a bite at Flame Tree, a leisurely walk and we went home. THAT is what local APs enjoy and it’s going to be nice to just GO when we decide to again.
Anything for DVC members. It seems all we get is higher annual fees….
Attendance is LITERALLY NOT the issue. Pre-Covid the Magic Kingdom only ever hit capacity one or two days out of the year, so why was there never any attendance “management” system ever put in place years ago?! Disney refuse to admit that the problem is that THEY haven’t hired back their full staff numbers. The lack of Cast Members is why they have to pretend like attendance is the real issue when it absolutely isn’t. Imagine using a pandemic as a way to install all these asinine rules, and then continuing to impose such a ridiculous level of control when the problem is the Disney company, not the guests!! IMAGINE!! 🤦🏽♂️ (wonder how many corporate apologists are gonna continue to defend Disney on this)
It’s great that Disney is easing up on park reservations a bit for annual passholders. However, it’s disingenuous for Disney to continue with the pretense that the reservation system is about park attendance numbers. The system continues to be in place, post-pandemic restrictions, as it allows Disney to reduce staffing in the parks to the lowest level they can to make more profit.
I understand how Disney doesn’t feel that saying that in public would be wise from a branding perspective, but it’s such common knowledge now that the facade of “park attendance” is becoming annoying in it’s own way.
They should just say that it helps them to manage staffing.
Just get rid of the park reservations. They are not needed!
When do you anticipate they’ll start selling annual passes again?
Bring back annual passes already crazy
It’s a shame that annual passholders have blackout dates. It is like season ticket holder being told they can’t go see the best teams.
Not a good long term strategy. It seems like after everyone goes thru this once or twice they will give up going.
Business 101 – never antagonize your best customers
Need to allow DVC members to purchase Annual Passes! Right now it’s only for Florida residents. Technically we own Florida property.