I saw it reported over on BlogMickey that Disney World added new “Good to Go” dates for annual passholders in the coming weeks, so I thought I’d take a moment to talk about the somehow-still-alive passholder reservation system.
In case you’ve forgotten, “Good to Go” dates are dates that Disney World annual passholders don’t need reservations for one or more parks…because, in case you’ve forgotten, annual passholders still generally have to make reservations to access the parks…before 2PM, that is.
The current set of Good to Go dates are July 30, 31 and August 3, 4, 7 at all four theme parks. Annual passholders wishing to visit any of the four Disney World theme parks during these dates do not need reservations.
Now—and this is very important—passholders do still need reservations for other days they wish to visit. While we’re here, let’s take a look at the reservation availability calendar through the end of the year (*deep breath*):
You can see that every day has availability at every park. Indeed, the entire available calendar has open availability for reservations. So, why are reservations for passholders still around? Well, there are a few reasons.
Why are passholder reservations still a thing?
First, the reservation system adds a lever for Disney World to manage crowds on an ad hoc, short-notice basis.
As a baseline, you’d expect the reservation system to function over a longer timeframe in the same way that pricing for tickets and hotels function to control crowds. Guests looking at planning visits in the coming months use these factors to decide when to visit, and Disney has an idea of when they want the parks and hotels to have how many guests. The reservation system basically supplements blockout dates that not-top-tier passes have to work around.
Of course, you can see from the current calendar that, insofar as that’s the case, Disney is begging annual passholders to visit, or for more guests to buy annual passes. (They also just ran a promo for annual passes, so, yea.)
But the reservation system also got put to use in recent weeks when Disney Starlight debuted at Magic Kingdom. Disney probably can’t add blockout dates to annual passes on short notice because that would violate the terms of their agreements with passholders. However, by requiring passholders to have a reservation for Magic Kingdom in order to access the park, they were effectively able to block some number of passholders from visiting Magic Kingdom those days.
On a longer timeframe, blockout dates handle this. But when something happens on shorter notice—like the Disney Starlight debut—the reservation system becomes more important. Of course, even before the reservation system was around, Disney could close parks once they hit capacity, starting by excluding passholders who weren’t hotel guests.
You could argue this use of the reservation system basically allowed them to get ahead of things. Rather than telling guests “keep an eye on the app this week to make sure we haven’t closed Magic Kingdom”, they were just able to tell passholders ahead of time to get a reservation or not plan to visit. It’s a small win for the system, theoretically, perhaps.
Second, the reservation system allows Disney to basically manifest perks out of thin air. It’s analogous to a “solution in search of a problem”, but here are a few examples:
Good to Go dates allow passholders to visit the parks without a reservation
Booking a Disney hotel reservation allows passholders to access a separate bucket of reservations that don’t count against their pass’s limit
Buying a higher-level pass grants passholders access to more reservations at one time
Visiting after 2PM (except Magic Kingdom on Saturdays and Sundays) allows passholders to visit without a reservation
I don’t worry about the reservation system because I almost always have a hotel stay when I visit, and I’d be shocked to ever see that bucket hit any limits. (I don’t book the hotels because of this, though.)
These are all small marketing wins, I suppose. But they also come at the marketing cost of the system being more complex and less appealing to potential new passholders.
Reasonable minds can debate whether these are sensible reasons to keep the system in place. Personally, I think if Disney is at the point of effectively offering discounts on annual passes that maybe the passes need some work.
Basically, it’s sort of hard to believe that the numbers involved here are at all significant. If passholders were just simply allowed to use their passes—still working around blockout days, remember—you’re talking about a handful of days a year when the parks would be a little more crowded. And these aren’t going to be September 15 or January 26, they’re going to be days like December 25 and April 19 when everyone should have been expecting crowds to begin with.
On the flipside, every potential passholder who has to learn about this system is going to have hesitations. To someone hearing about this for the first time, the only reasonable conclusion is that they might find themselves unable to visit on some day they wanted to, and that will give them pause.
And it’s not at all clear the “perks” are good marketing, either. Here’s the pitch:
Visit the parks any day you aren’t blocked out…
…but you have to make a reservation…
…but you don’t need a reservation to visit parks after 2PM except Magic Kingdom on Saturdays and Sundays…
…and sometimes we’ll just say you don’t need a reservation…
…and if you can’t get a reservation, you can park hop if you can get a reservation at any park…
…except sometimes when new things debut maybe we’ll tell you that you can’t park hop.
I dunno, this just doesn’t look like a W to me. This looks like the sort of pitch that makes people say “you know what, if I’m going to have my hands tied anyways, maybe I’ll just wait for the next ticket discount to pop up.”
We can at least say that existing passholders aren’t much impacted by this nonsense. I manage to remember to make reservations, and between reservation availability, and park hopping, and the after-2PM access rule, I suspect you’d be hard pressed to find a passholder who was really impacted by the reservation system in the last year, the Disney Starlight debut excepted.
How could the reservation system be changed?
We’re left to wonder when this system might be dismantled. I guess we can say it won’t be before August 7, but might it get dismantled sometime after then?
The problem, as I see it, is 2027 and beyond. We know Disney World has lots of huge launches planned for the five(ish) years starting in 2027. Launches of new lands and rides are exactly when the system becomes most useful.
2026 is not going to be as eventful. Hollywood Studios will get The Magic of Disney Animation, but I don’t think shadow blockouts will be necessary for that attraction. This might leave us in the awkward situation where there’s absolutely no reason to have the system for another year, but good reason to have it after that.
From my perspective, giving some deference to the Disney-corporate position that reservations sometimes make sense, I think the best solution would be to make the annual pass pitch as simple as possible. Here’s how I’d simplify the above pitch:
Visit the parks any day you aren’t blocked out…
…but select dates and parks require advance reservation.
Basically, I’d make reservation-required dates the exception, rather than the rule. Allow passholders who book Disney hotels to bypass the reservation requirement altogether (hotel guests are where the money is), and tell passholders that when big changes happen, they’ll be notified in advance that a reservation is required.
No system to enforce a limit is going to be ideal. Some people will be better off if they have to reserve every date in advance but to that end can reserve every date in advance. But if a passholder has some reason they have to visit Hollywood Studios the date Monstropolis opens (like a family vacation), that’s why I’d include an exception for Disney hotel guests. Otherwise, a passholder should just know they might get blocked out of the major event dates, which, again, is true today with significantly more hoops, bells, and whistles.
What do you think about the persistence of the passholder reservation system?
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