This is important! Don’t miss this! No longer is just having a park ticket enough to get you inside a Walt Disney World theme park. You now must also have a park reservation. Ever since Walt Disney World reopened from the extended closure due to concerns related to Covid-19, Disney has instituted a park reservation system. This means if you want to go to Magic Kingdom, Hollywood Studios, Animal Kingdom, or EPCOT, you must have a ticket AND a park reservation.
What is a Park Reservation?
Again, park reservations were put in place when Walt Disney World reopened in July of last year. During this phased reopening period, each of the four parks is still operating under limited capacity (although Disney does not release attendance numbers, it is believed that currently, the parks are operating at 35% of the normal capacity limit). This new reservation system is a means to control the number of people entering the parks each day.
How does it work?
First, you must purchase a theme park ticket. Your ticket(s) can be purchased as a stand-alone ticket only or as part of a resort and ticket package. Once you have the ticket purchased or the $200 deposit paid on your resort package, you will need to link it to your My Disney Experience account. If you do not have a My Disney Experience (MDE) account you will need to create one by going to https://disneyworld.disney.go.com/plan/my-disney-experience/.
Once your tickets or resort package is linked to your MDE account, select “Make a Park Reservation.” You will first select the date you want to visit followed by the park you want to visit on that date. You will then read some information on Disney’s COVID-19 guidelines and requirements. Once you have acknowledged that you have read and agree with the information then your park reservation will be secured. You will repeat this process for each park day you plan to visit.
Why is this important?
Capacity in the parks is limited! This means you might pick out a day for your family to visit a Disney park for your upcoming vacation, but there might not be available any longer at that park. We have seen guests run into this challenge during the Christmas holidays and we definitely saw this happen during the current Spring Break season when more people are traveling. For example, in March there have been a couple of weeks where Disney’s Park Reservation System hit capacity limits and Disney stopped selling tickets for those dates. During this time we saw multiple people on various online Disney forums complaining because they had already bought tickets or a resort package, but because they waited (or didn’t know) to secure their park reservations there was now no availability at the parks they wanted to visit.
Park Reservation Tips
- Secure your park reservations as soon as you purchase your tickets or book your vacation package (remember only it only takes a $200 deposit to book your package).
- Hollywood Studios is typically the first park that will reach capacity. With the new Star Wars Land and the amazing Rise of Resistance attraction, Hollywood Studios has become very popular. In the popularity contest, Magic Kingdom comes in a close second, followed by Animal Kingdom and then EPCOT.
- Remember, you first need to purchase your park tickets and then immediately make your park reservations. You cannot enter a Disney park with just a ticket, you must also have a park reservation.
All this sound overwhelming? Reach out to us at Castle and Cruise Adventures (https://castleandcruiseadventures.com/RequestQuote/). We can help you book your trip, create you’re my Disney Experience account and walk you through how to secure your Park Reservations. Contact us today at natalie@castleandcruiseadventures.com.