In the past, the possibilities were endless. You could wake up on a random, sunny Saturday, hop in the car, and purchase a Disney World ticket. Then, you could stroll into whatever park you wanted.

Yep, back in the good ol’ days you could actually be spontaneous when it came to Disney World visits. Since COVID-19 ruined a lot of fun things for a while back in 2020, Disney had to come up with a way to limit the amount of guests in each park for social distancing reasons once the parks reopened. Thus, the Park Pass Reservation System was born. Except… it never went away once COVID-19 restrictions were listed. Why is this system still a thing? How can visitors work their way around it? Today, we’re going to talk about it.

There are all sorts of things that Disney World doesn’t want us to know. For example, all sorts of mysteries surround the theme parks — the utilidors (tunnels) that run under Magic Kingdom, how many entertainment Cast Members Disney World has on deck to be Mickey Mouse (for legal reasons, we do know there is only one Mickey Mouse, okay?), and what plastic cheese is actually doing to our health (we’re here for a good time, not a long time).

While we could talk about these things for hours, today we’re going to talk about the mysteries of the Park Pass Reservation System, and what Disney DOESN’T want you to know about it.

1. They’re Tracking You

Okay, if you gasped in shock about this then we’re not going to inform you about what information your smart phone is gathering as we speak. We all know that businesses track our habits and gather data in order to produce better products, materials, and to even create effective advertising. Disney is no different! While tons of qualitative data is gathered via those surveys you might get while visiting the parks, tons of numerical data is gathered by using the Park Pass Reservation System.

Think about it. They can see which park you plan on visiting well in advance, which Lightning Lanes you book, what food you buy if you use the app, and more. Of course, they’re likely not looking at YOU specifically but instead monitoring trends in visitors’ habits as far as booking reservations goes.

In 2022, former Disney CEO Bob Chapek said, “We recognize that a person that spends 7 days in the park, 24 hours a day, we know all that information about them. This is the exact same person who watches XYZ on Disney+. We can identify that this person is the same one and this gives us the ability to go ahead and use the data that way. We can customize and personalize an experience.”

2. If Reservations Are Gone, Disney Will Likely Open More

If you’ve got your heart set on entering a certain park on a certain day, but the reservations are all booked, don’t fret. At least not yet, anyway. Disney will typically open more reservations up later.

Usually, this happens in advance of the day in question, but sometimes it can happen the day of. Just check back often to make sure that the dates haven’t been granted more availability.

3. You Might Have Better Luck Booking One Person At A Time

If you’re on the website or app and trying to find park pass availability for your party of 5, you might not have as much luck. However, if you try booking one at a time as a party of only one, the system might let you book everyone that way.

This is risky, because sometimes it’ll let you book everyone and then other times it may only let you book some. However, it’s worth a try in desperate situations!

4. You Can Opt To Park Hop

If your desired park isn’t available, you can get reservations to a park that IS available and just park hop at 2PM to the park of your choosing. In VERY rare occasions when the park is extremely crowded, Disney might stop letting people in during park hop hours. This is VERY rare though, like we said.

We know that visiting a park for only half a day isn’t the same as a full day, and we also know that hopping in itself is time consuming, but it could be better than not visiting the park at all. Just keep in mind that you will need to purchase a ticket with the Park Hopper option in order to do this. It does include an extra fee, though!

5. Some Reservations Are Harder To Grab

Disney’s Hollywood Studios and Magic Kingdom sell out faster than EPCOT and Disney’s Animal Kingdom. When booking your vacation, grab your reservations for Hollywood Studios and Magic Kingdom FIRST so that you don’t have to worry about them.

If you’re unsure of dates, we do have a … potentially controversial … piece of advice. Some of us like to book a reservation for Magic Kingdom and Hollywood Studios for every day of our trip and then change it later to the other parks with reservation availability, just so we have the breathing room in planning. Shhhh. This will be our secret!

6. There’s A Method To The Madness

Disney doesn’t add new park pass reservations at random! New park pass reservations are added every 15 minutes on the minute.

For example, new reservations become available at 10:00, 10:15, 10:30, 10:45, 11:00, and so on. Check reservation availability at these times for better luck!

7. Reservations Could Open Last-Minute

Plans change, things happen, and reservations open up! Check at midnight on your desired date to see if availability has changed. Check again once you wake up in the morning.

Lots of times, people will cancel last minute or swap reservations. It’s a last-ditch effort, but it’s worth a try!

Well, there you have it! We wish you the best of luck with all your park pass booking. Don’t forget that if you’re an Annual Passholder, you no longer have to have a reservation after 2PM each day — with the exception of Magic Kingdom on the weekends. We’ll be sure to keep you updated with any and all Disney news and updates, so make sure to follow along for more!

Looking for more Disney planning tips? We’ve got you covered. Click here!

What’s your trick to snagging last-minute park reservations? Let us know in the comments!