Annual pass park reservation requirements question

[Canadian Tom]

Hello: Are park reservations required for annual passholders? Im going to WDW in October and staying onsite. Do I have to make a park reservation every day or can I just go to the gate and enter a park? If I have to make a reservation how far in advance can I make a reservation? Thanks, Canadian Tom

 

[Disneydawg74]

Yes, reservations are required for Annual Passholders, even if you are staying on site. From time to time, there are “good to go days” when reservations aren’t needed, but this isn’t very often. https://disneyworld.disney.go.com/entry-reservation/

 

[Nappy1380]

You need a reservation every day.

 

[loislane]

As others have said, you need a reservation for each day. You are free to park hop all day as well, but you MUST tap into your reserved park first before you can hop.

 

[dioxide45]

The only time you don't need a reservation is if your first entry to a park will be after 2pm.

 

[mistysue]

To be fair, while we did need reservations, on our last two trips (October and April/May) we could have changed our park at any time because nothing was ever full with the exception of HS on May 4, which was an obvious one. So I would pick where you think you want to be, but I wouldn't stress over it as if this is a life changing decision.

 

[erionm]

The only time you don't need a reservation is if your first entry to a park will be after 2pm.

Except for the MK on Saturday or Sunday.

 

[dioxide45]

Except for the MK on Saturday or Sunday.

Thanks for the correction. We have the cheapie FL resident annual pass, so we can't go on the weekends and I always forget about that.

 

[hertamaniac]

My hope is that someday they will remove any reservation requirement for the AP's, but I doubt it will ever happen.

 

[AnnaKristoff2013]

As others have said, you need a reservation for each day. You are free to park hop all day as well, but you MUST tap into your reserved park first before you can hop.

This isn't completely accurate. You do not need a reservation to enter any park after 2:00 PM, and you do not need to have tapped into a park with a reservation first. The only exception to this is Magic Kingdom on Saturdays & Sundays.

 

[scrappinginontario]

This isn't completely accurate. You do not need a reservation to enter any park after 2:00 PM, and you do not need to have tapped into a park with a reservation first. The only exception to this is Magic Kingdom on Saturdays & Sundays.

OP corrected their answer further down the thread.

An AP requires a park reservation to enter any park before 2PM, 7 days a week.
An AP requires a park reservation to enter MK at any point in the day from park open to park close on Saturdays and Sundays.

 

[lovethattink]

Be sure to make the park reservation off of the one for AP resort stays so it doesn’t cut into your max of 3 reservations.

 

[Canadian Tom]

When can you make a park reservation? Do Must I have the annual passes before I can make a reservation?

 

[CarolynFH]

When can you make a park reservation? Do Must I have the annual passes before I can make a reservation?

You must have a ticket that’s valid for the date you want to book a park reservation for. So if you have another type of ticket that would get you into the park that day, you can make a reservation. But if you don’t have admission to a park, you can’t make a park reservation.

 

[loislane]

This isn't completely accurate. You do not need a reservation to enter any park after 2:00 PM, and you do not need to have tapped into a park with a reservation first. The only exception to this is Magic Kingdom on Saturdays & Sundays.

Correct. I was operating under the assumption that someone staying onsite for a duration of time wouldn't be waiting until 2 p.m. to start their park days.

 

[AnnaKristoff2013]

Correct. I was operating under the assumption that someone staying onsite for a duration of time wouldn't be waiting until 2 p.m. to start their park days.

You also get unlimited park reservations while staying onsite and park reservations rarely sell out unless It’s peak peak season, and even then, they usually don’t sell out for every park, so you can modify them at the last minute. It’s a minor inconvenience at this point.

 

[Miffy]

What I still don't understand about this is why an AP holder staying on-site would need a park reservation at all, since it's not like they'll be a surprise visitor to the parks. It's basically the same as having a date-based ticket. WDW knows you're there and they can reasonably expect you to also visit a park.

Besides that, even with a reservation, you could just tap into that park and turn around and go to a different park, no matter what time of day it is.

But all that aside, I've been able to change my park reservation to a different park every time I've wanted to do it in the past year, so having to make the reservations in the first place is an inconvenience but in practice it's easy enough to change. Or at least it has been.

 

[tzolkin]

What I still don't understand about this is why an AP holder staying on-site would need a park reservation at all, since it's not like they'll be a surprise visitor to the parks. It's basically the same as having a date-based ticket. WDW knows you're there and they can reasonably expect you to also visit a park.

Besides that, even with a reservation, you could just tap into that park and turn around and go to a different park, no matter what time of day it is.

But all that aside, I've been able to change my park reservation to a different park every time I've wanted to do it in the past year, so having to make the reservations in the first place is an inconvenience but in practice it's easy enough to change. Or at least it has been.

We just booked our first family trip back since 2019 so I have been reading up on all the changes. I was glad to see that they have eliminated park reservations for regular tickets, but a bit annoyed to see that APs still need them. Our group consists of our adult children plus the grandparents, so I was looking forward to not having to make set plans so everyone can be free to do whatever they feel like on a particular day.

My parents have APs so they will be the only ones in our group who need to make reservations. Thanks for sharing your experience with being able to change at the last minute. I hope that will be the case for them during our trip as well. It would be ridiculous for the other 6 of us to be able to go to whatever park we want, but the two of them be stuck at park they randomly picked in advance (especially since we are all staying in the same villa).

 

[Miffy]

We just booked our first family trip back since 2019 so I have been reading up on all the changes. I was glad to see that they have eliminated park reservations for regular tickets, but a bit annoyed to see that APs still need them. Our group consists of our adult children plus the grandparents, so I was looking forward to not having to make set plans so everyone can be free to do whatever they feel like on a particular day.

My parents have APs so they will be the only ones in our group who need to make reservations. Thanks for sharing your experience with being able to change at the last minute. I hope that will be the case for them during our trip as well. It would be ridiculous for the other 6 of us to be able to go to whatever park we want, but the two of them be stuck at park they randomly picked in advance (especially since we are all staying in the same villa).

I'm confident it should work out for everyone. I mean, one day in May I changed my park reservation after I got on the bus to the park!
And, just in case anyone has a problem, you can go to the front desk of your hotel and they should be able to take care of it for you. But, as I and others have posted, it's easy enough to change.

However, I have no experience with trying to switch to MK on a weekend day. If Saturday or Sunday is the day you're thinking of going to MK (never a good idea, imho), then the AP holders should definitely reserve that in advance.

And, since it seems you haven't been since 2019, read up on Genie+ and be prepared to pay for it unless your group doesn't mind standing in line.

 

[tzolkin]

I'm confident it should work out for everyone. I mean, one day in May I changed my park reservation after I got on the bus to the park!
And, just in case anyone has a problem, you can go to the front desk of your hotel and they should be able to take care of it for you. But, as I and others have posted, it's easy enough to change.

However, I have no experience with trying to switch to MK on a weekend day. If Saturday or Sunday is the day you're thinking of going to MK (never a good idea, imho), then the AP holders should definitely reserve that in advance.

And, since it seems you haven't been since 2019, read up on Genie+ and be prepared to pay for it unless your group doesn't mind standing in line.

Thanks for the insight! We are arriving on a Saturday and leaving Saturday, so I may have my parents reserve MK for the one Sunday we will be doing the parks just in case we decide to go there.

I have just started yesterday looking at the Genie+ and ILL info, so I will do more research and have the kids look into it as well. I'm thinking they are probably going to just pick a few park-heavy days that they may want to purchase it for. We would like to experience some of the new attractions as well as the nostalgia of the ones from their childhood, but also want to enjoy the resorts, lounges, and theming so I don't think it would be worth it to purchase for everyone for every day.