Disney Makes Big Theme Park Reservation Changes

Over the last two years, Walt Disney's (DIS) theme parks lost an estimated $2.6 billion in revenue mainly due to the COVID pandemic. Since 2020 there have been substantial safety protocol measures put in place that had a tremendous effect on the daily operations of their famous theme parks as well. For instance, due to California's COVID requirements, Disneyland Resort was forced to close for a year (March 2020-April 2021.) In Florida, Walt Disney World shut down for four months (March-July 2020.)

After getting off to a slow start in 2022, Disney theme parks are back to operating a full capacity. Well, for the most part. A couple of safety protocols sparked by the pandemic remain, including the guest COVID Liability Waiver and Park Pass Reservations. Disney implemented the new Park Pass Reservations system in 2020 as a way to manage crowd control. It was a good attempt to keep everyone safe, but an absolute nightmare for guests to utilize. You couldn't just purchase Park Pass Reservations and call it a day. Guests had to through a complicated and annoying three-step process:

Link it to their My Disney Experience account (or set one up then link it)
Create a party for each guest in their party
Choose what day(or days) they wanted to come to the park.

Spoiler alert! Disney theme parks still have Park Pass Reservations. However, the good news is, that they made two major adjustments and it's super easy to navigate now. More importantly, if guests want to change the date for reservations they don't have to worry about canceling and starting the process over anymore.

According to All Ears, ug. 23, 2022, Disney changed that rule. Guests are now free to edit their reservations without the fear of losing them. The other major improvement is now you can book reservations for different ticket types at the same time. It doesn't matter if are an Annual Passholder and a single-day ticketholder anymore. For more info go online or check out the MyDisney Experience app.

There's also a second chance. Previously, an Annual Passholder and a single-day ticketholder could not book reservations at the same time if planning to go to the park together. But Disney has also made a change to this system, and now you can book reservations for different ticket types at the same time, whether you are an Annual Passholder or a single-day ticketholder.

These small steps will make for a much better experience for your next visit to a Disney theme park near you.