Last Updated on January 20, 2024 by Happily Ever Park Hoppers
Walt Disney World Theme Park Reservations
Theme park reservations are no longer required for date-based tickets. Park Reservations are required to enter any of the four theme parks at Walt Disney World. for Non-Date Based Tickets.
Making Theme Park Reservations
As of January 9th, 2024 – Theme Park Reservations are only required for NON-DATE BASED TICKETS. Annual Passholders (unless it’s a “Good To Go” day), Military Discounted Tickets, Student group tickets, Sport and Convention tickets, or Florida Resident Disney Thrills Ticket, will all still need to make theme park reservations.
No Theme Park Reservation is required for Date-based 1-day ticket, Date-based multi-day ticket, Vacation package with date-based tickets.
To make theme park reservations, you must first purchase your tickets to make those reservations. You will need to link your park tickets to all the members of your party in your My Disney Experience account.
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Depending on your travel dates, there is a possibility that a certain park might be “sold out”. Holidays, school vacation weeks, 3-day weekends, and summer vacation are always the busiest times at Disney. Personally, I like to look at the theme park availability calendar before I set my mind to any specific travel dates. If your travel dates aren’t flexible, booking your trip as early as possible will be the safest bet for getting the park reservations you want.
To make your park reservations, you are going to log in to your My Disney Experience account. From here you will see all of your trip plans. Once you have your park tickets linked or book your Disney package, you will click “Make a Park Reservation” from the My Disney Experience dashboard.
You will create your party by selecting all the people in your My Disney Experience account that you have added and assigned a theme park ticket. Then you will choose the dates you want to make park reservations for. You will select a specific park for each day. If you have purchased a Hopper Ticket, the park that you are making a reservation for will be your “Morning Park” and/or first park of the day.
- You DO NOT need a park reservation for any park that you plan to hop to. You only need a park reservation for your morning park/first park of the day.
- You will need to enter the park that you have a theme park reservation for before being able to enter another park.
- All Day Park Hopping is back! You no longer have to wait until a specific time to hop to another park (so long as you enter the park that you have a reservation for first).
- Know that if you want to join a boarding group, guests using an Annual Pass or the Park Hopper option may not be able to join the virtual queue in a park where they do not have a theme park reservation. To request access to a virtual queue during Park Hopper hours, a Guest must have a park reservation OR be inside the theme park where the virtual queue will be used.
*EXCEPT: If you are a guest of a Disney Deluxe Resort taking advantage of Extended Evening Hours. If you have a park hopper ticket and have visited your first park, but you did not have a theme park reservation for that specific park. You CAN join a Virtual Queue to get a boarding group and DO NOT need to be inside of that specific park.
So, if Magic Kingdom has Extended Evening Hours and you want to join the 6pm Virtual Queue for TRON / Lightcyle Run, you DO NOT need to be inside of Magic Kingdom so long as you have a park hopper ticket/entered your first park and are a registered guest of a Disney Deluxe Resort (or Shades of Green, Swan or Dolphin or Swan Reserve hotels)
Once you’ve successfully made your theme park reservations, they will appear in your plans on your My Disney Experience account. If for any reason you need to change your park reservation, you can do this on your My Disney Experience account either on the app or desktop. If you had wanted to make a park reservation for a certain park and it wasn’t originally available and later your preferred park becomes available, you can “swap” them. To change your park reservation, you will need to cancel your existing park reservation and then go back and make a new park reservation. Again, all park reservations are made on the My Disney Experience app or desktop site.
Just in case, take screenshots of your plans. I just feel better having that backup in the event that something strange happens to my account.
Spreading magic one post at a time
Kristin
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