Rumoured changes to Reservation system

[Jrb1979]

According to Marni1971 at WDWmagic.


"As I mentioned elsewhere, more changes are possibly on the way in an attempt to fix the system.

Dated one park, one day tickets. No reservation needed since you reserve when buying (see Paris)

Other media, potentially hoppers and resort packages with tickets, and also ticket add ons, will also be date based when purchased. Sales will stop for a given day when a limit is reached.

Prices for all the above will vary depending on day / date and park.

Hopping limits are likely to be removed for various admission media.

These changes could be implemented in the near future"

 

[princesscinderella]

According to Marni1971 at WDWmagic.


"As I mentioned elsewhere, more changes are possibly on the way in an attempt to fix the system.

Dated one park, one day tickets. No reservation needed since you reserve when buying (see Paris)

Other media, potentially hoppers and resort packages with tickets, and also ticket add ons, will also be date based when purchased. Sales will stop for a given day when a limit is reached.

Prices for all the above will vary depending on day / date and park.

Hopping limits are likely to be removed for various admission media.

These changes could be implemented in the near future"

Lets hope!! It will be nice to not have to plan so far ahead with our APs, especially since we always stay on-site with DVC when we visit.

 

[Jrb1979]

Lets hope!! It will be nice to not have to plan so far ahead with our APs, especially since we always stay on-site with DVC when we visit.

The reservation system isn't going away. It's just being mode simplified.

Instead of buying your tickets then on picking your park it would be like this example for a sept week

You'd buy
Day 1 - MK - Sept 1
Day 2 - DHS - Sept 2
Day 3 - AK - Sept 3

etc

Instead of '3 day pass', then a second process to try to make reservations for the days you bought.

Also I wouldn't be surprised that APs would still have to make reservations.

 

[Marrila]

It would be great if we could easily park hop again.

 

[Jrb1979]

It would be great if we could easily park hop again.

It would be great but I don't see them making it that simple. It would defeat the purpose of reservations if you go to any park whenever you want.

 

[Genie+]

If someone is onsite with dated tickets, does WDW really need park reservations? Do they really need to put in hopping time restrictions? What did Disney/WDW get out of the billion (maybe billions) invested in data? What did I get for allowing Disney insane access to my personal data? They know how different onsite demographics tour. It doesn’t take Dr Who to predict how they split park time because Disney has a trillion data captures, enough to estimate daily demand with dated tickets and check-in/out info. Shouldn’t be the guests’ problem that WDW wasted all that energy and resources.

 

[Jrb1979]

If someone is onsite with dated tickets, does WDW really need park reservations? Do they really need to put in hopping time restrictions? What did Disney/WDW get out of the billion (maybe billions) invested in data? What did I get for allowing Disney insane access to my personal data? They know how different onsite demographics tour. It doesn’t take Dr Who to predict how they split park time because Disney has a trillion data captures, enough to estimate daily demand with dated tickets and check-in/out info. Shouldn’t be the guests’ problem that WDW wasted all that energy and resources.

It's never has been or ever will be about the guests. The point of the reservation system is to control labor costs.

 

[Genie+]

It's never has been or ever will be about the guests. The point of the reservation system is to control labor costs.

Sure, but it comes at the detriment to guest experience.

 

[sndral]

Lets hope!! It will be nice to not have to plan so far ahead with our APs, especially since we always stay on-site with DVC when we visit.

Disney’s CFO specifically mentioned APs along with the park reservation system in Disney’s stock earnings call last week as examples of the ‘levers’ they can shift depending on demand - so I don’t think the new system has anything to do w/ APs.
If anything I see this as possibly being more restrictive for multi day park tickets - let’s say I buy a 5 day ticket, under the old system I thereafter had to make my park reservations, but I believe people could rearrange which park they had reserved for any given day as long as there were still openings. I wonder if under the new system I have to pick my park days when I buy my multi day ticket & thereafter I’m unable to change my days?
I do wonder if Disney was running into a lot of irate customers who bought tickets & didn’t understand they also had to make reservations - every time I log on the site reminds me to make park reservations, even though I already have done so, which suggests to me there are issues. Or maybe people were waiting until right before their trip to make their reservations & Disney wants them to commit sooner so they can staff their parks accordingly.

 

[Jrb1979]

Disney’s CFO specifically mentioned APs along with the park reservation system in Disney’s stock earnings call last week as examples of the ‘levers’ they can shift depending on demand - so I don’t think the new system has anything to do w/ APs.
If anything I see this as possibly being more restrictive for multi day park tickets - let’s say I buy a 5 day ticket, under the old system I thereafter had to make my park reservations, but I believe people could rearrange which park they had reserved for any given day as long as there were still openings. I wonder if under the new system I have to pick my park days when I buy my multi day ticket & thereafter I’m unable to change my days?
I do wonder if Disney was running into a lot of irate customers who bought tickets & didn’t understand they also had to make reservations - every time I log on the site reminds me to make park reservations, even though I already have done so, which suggests to me there are issues.

That's exactly it. Its going to suck not being able to change your days.

Sure, but it comes at the detriment to guest experience.

In case you haven't noticed they don't seem to care about that as much any more.

 

[SLThomas318]

This sounds like just another headache… I don’t want to have to pick parks when I buy tickets and I would want to be able to shift around park days depending on dining reservations.

 

[Narcoossee11]

Sure, but it comes at the detriment to guest experience.

Money $$$$ ....................first
Payroll .................... 2nd
Gst experience maybe 3rd or 4th

 

[MomOTwins]

Disney’s CFO specifically mentioned APs along with the park reservation system in Disney’s stock earnings call last week as examples of the ‘levers’ they can shift depending on demand - so I don’t think the new system has anything to do w/ APs.
If anything I see this as possibly being more restrictive for multi day park tickets - let’s say I buy a 5 day ticket, under the old system I thereafter had to make my park reservations, but I believe people could rearrange which park they had reserved for any given day as long as there were still openings. I wonder if under the new system I have to pick my park days when I buy my multi day ticket & thereafter I’m unable to change my days?
I do wonder if Disney was running into a lot of irate customers who bought tickets & didn’t understand they also had to make reservations - every time I log on the site reminds me to make park reservations, even though I already have done so, which suggests to me there are issues. Or maybe people were waiting until right before their trip to make their reservations & Disney wants them to commit sooner so they can staff their parks accordingly.

I had the same worry about this new system sounding less flexible than the existing one. We often shuffle around our park reservations once park hours are released (since that is typically when the crowd calendars get updated) and again at the 60 day mark based on what dining reservations we could get for our trip. Would stink if you are locked into a park once you buy tickets--often for us that over a year ahead!

There are certainly guests who still show up without reservations. Sometimes it is because they are acquiring tickets through a third-party (e.g., a reseller, a travel agent, or a family member buying for a group), so don't see all the disney warnings about park reservations. Sometimes people know they need to make the reservations and just wait too long thinking they are not going at a busy time (or they aren't a good a good judge of what is a busy time) and so don't need to book reservations until closer to travel. But I don't actually think that is really what is going on here because it's not a lot of guests you see making this mistake any more--Disney doesn't do an expensive IT fix for a handful of guests per day who are clueless. Instead, I think what is going on is that Disney is getting a lot of complaints about the park reservation system generally on surveys, and so is trying to address that by making it fewer steps/easier to use, rather than recognizing the complaints are not about the system's ease of use but about the fact that people just don't like to have to lock in plans that far ahead of a trip.

 

[KYMickey]

That plan definitely sounds like it would make the system even more restrictive, not less. Your we lose a lot more flexibility, say you have AK scheduled for tomorrow and a hurricane moves in, you are stuck fighting the rain at AK instead of changing to EPCOT which have a lot more you can do inside.

 

[SL6827]

Good grief! I mean, really?

 

[SL6827]

Wait, they can monitize your needed change!

 

[DL1WDW2]

Disney needs to control labor cosTs.
What a joke.
Flamingo Village is FULL of their cheaplabor with just about No say over schedule and times , etc… plus tax write-off . No benefits no vacation and blockout dates too for their day off . No fun

 

[DVCjj]

Interesting. Wonder how this affects us AP holders/renewers and if they will no longer renew.
Instead pushing us to buy tickets. Hmmm. I know a very large amount of seriously upset people.

 

[projectx3]

This sounds even more awful than the current system. I have park reservations in place, BUT, at least there's the chance of being able to make changes on the fly if space becomes available.

 

[HopperFan]

Love the "... an attempt to fix the system ..."


Disneyland Paris has basically 1.75 parks right now. Tokyo has 2 parks. The firm booking works. Folks go for a few days then leave. Disney World is a long vacation destination with 4 parks. Making those vacations even more rigid and inflexible fixes nothing, it only makes going there less desirable.

And this post mentions nothing about AP holders, my guess they still will have the reservation system.

The question is, will they allow switching parks within the same dates you purchased if there is availability??

If someone is onsite with dated tickets, does WDW really need park reservations? Do they really need to put in hopping time restrictions? What did Disney/WDW get out of the billion (maybe billions) invested in data? What did I get for allowing Disney insane access to my personal data? They know how different onsite demographics tour. It doesn’t take Dr Who to predict how they split park time because Disney has a trillion data captures, enough to estimate daily demand with dated tickets and check-in/out info. Shouldn’t be the guests’ problem that WDW wasted all that energy and resources.

With this scenario when you buy your ticket you are making an instant reservation. They do this at other parks. Like buying a movie or show ticket. That date, that time. It just does both in one transaction. On the surface is better for folks afraid to buy not knowing if there will be a reservation when they go to reserve. It also will take care of this problem with people buying tickets and showing up without having made reservations. The question is how rigid is it, will it allow you to change parks if there is availability?