New Strategy for Deciding Which Park on Which Days?

[Disney loving Iowan]

I am in the same boat as @Disney loving Iowan, except my reservation is for October. I don't have park passes so it looks like I can't make a park reservation. That's a PITB.

The one thing I read on the Disney site says "If you have a room-only reservation at a Disney Resort or other select hotel for a stay in 2021 please call the Disney Reservation Center or call your travel professional beginning on June 24th to upgrade to a vacation package with tickets-and then make your theme park reservations"
So does that mean we can call the reservation center now or do we have to wait until the 24th, purchase our tickets and then make our reservations?

 

[ShadowCross]

No more MNSSHP this year (we knew it was coming but now it's official). So that won't be there to factor in to which park you try to get into.

 

[zacharyt25]

Does anyone know what time the system will go live on the 22nd? Like midnight, 7am, etc?

 

[TongaToast21]

has anyone been able to talk to a CM and see what the "time" entails? Do we only get slots for a few hours? also any new on whether park hoppers get some sort of refund or perk/credit? I have a feeling i'll be on hold for a loooong time

 

[SamFaniam]

Does anyone know what time the system will go live on the 22nd? Like midnight, 7am, etc?

General consensus seems to think it will be 7 AM. But I am sure someone will be up at midnight and let us know.

has anyone been able to talk to a CM and see what the "time" entails? Do we only get slots for a few hours? also any new on whether park hoppers get some sort of refund or perk/credit? I have a feeling i'll be on hold for a loooong time

it was either Earlier in this thread or in another one. The time is an entry time, it’s there’s no endpoint. So once you’re in the park you can stay until it closes. I think this is to help prevent too many people showing up at one time. Some of the guests arrive at 8 AM, some at 9, some at 10 to just ease things up at the entryway. Someone did report speaking with a CM who said that the park hopper portion of their ticket would be refunded.

 

[TongaToast21]

General consensus seems to think it will be 7 AM. But I am sure someone will be up at midnight and let us know.



it was either Earlier in this thread or in another one. The time is an entry time, it’s there’s no endpoint. So once you’re in the park you can stay until it closes. I think this is to help prevent too many people showing up at one time. Some of the guests arrive at 8 AM, some at 9, some at 10 to just ease things up at the entryway. Someone did report speaking with a CM who said that the park hopper portion of their ticket would be refunded.

thank you very much!!!

 

[tinkerbell1991]

I am in the same boat as @Disney loving Iowan, except my reservation is for October. I don't have park passes so it looks like I can't make a park reservation. That's a PITB.

It wouldn't surprise me if tickets start to get sold again a month or so once this system goes live as anyone who has tickets should be able to book their parks within a month surely. I'll keep everything crossed for you x

 

[JZCubed]

OK, ASSUMING as a BW resort guest with Platinum APs we'll be able to reserve one park for each of our 9 day, late Oct trip, does it even matter, given the changes, which park we do on which day? Previously I'd consult various park crowd prediction sites to decide, we always hit Epoct on our first day and avoid WS on Sat of F&W but otherwise we avoid crowded parks when possible, I'm guessing crowds won't be a factor, at least not for a while. Thoughts?

Bill From PA

My thought(s) - Disney is going to 'control' the number of folks scheduled for just about each and every queue.

We still don't really know what is going to be available, but we know certain things like fireworks & parades will not be available.

Therefore, in my view - there is no longer any need to plan too much.

 

[g-dad66]

Looks like I will be up early Monday morning to make reservations. I think Day 3 will probably work out best for our Magic Kingdom day. Do you think I should start with that day, because MK will probably be in the highest demand? But I would also like to get AK on Day 1 because that is our arrival day. Do you think that strategy will even matter on this?

Not having a FP-strategy to guide me is a bit disorienting....

 

[Bullseye]

My thinking is that since Disney is trying to control attendance at the parks, they will have a hard number for each park. As such, once the reservations reach that number, the tap is shut off. Park hopping would interrupt that system, as no one would be able to predict the flow of guests in the second half of the day. Logically, your park attendance is baked in with a reservation, therefore you should be able to exit and return without an issue. Without park hopping, this would really be the only "fair" option, as not everyone can stand/would prefer to be in the parks all day. In normal times, my family takes advantage of EMH in the AM, arriving an hour before. We stay until around noon, when July/August weather gets unbearable, and go back to our resort for swimming, naps, etc. until we go to dinner and another park at night. I, for one, hate the staggered schedule as Epcot will now be a HOT day...but we'll take what we can get.

This is exactly what I'm hoping for at bare minimum. I can get one park for each day of my ticket and come and go as I please.

We are renting a car for the first time even though we are staying on site. We will probably walk from Poly to the TTC and then take ferry to MK, but driving to all the other parks.

All right but just beware once you get a taste of driving yourself around WDW, you might never go back to busing

Any advice would be appreciated! It's funny to see all of us veterans seemingly become newbies with all these changes

No doubt bro, it's like we're all back in planning preschool again. Being so out of control is messing with my chi

 

[Helvetica]

My strategy for July:

Day 1: Epcot
Day 2: DHS
Day 3: MK
Day 4: AK
Day 5: DHS
Day 6: MK
Day 7: AK

Reasoning:

On arrival day, I want to give myself the most time to get to the park. I'll be driving, so there's a lot of unknowns since I've never done it before. I want Magic Kingdom on my last night and Animal Kingdom is the park I like to be at on departure day. It's also the one that closes the earliest to help me on my drive back.

...With that said, the decision may be made for me and I'll take what I can get. Still, it's nice to have some idea of a plan.

 

[nursejackie]

Has anyone read if EMH will be happening in 2021? This is the only reason I usually stay on site, so I'll be bummed if these are scrapped.

 

[gdrj]

Banning hopping is weird because hopping helps WDW smooth out crowds. For example: I'd hit MK until noon when it gets crowded, leave for lunch and a swim, then head to a quiet park in late afternoon.

They have me out of the busy park (MK) early, and out of all parks all afternoon.

Simplifies for now. I could see park hopping being allowed in future for APs. Curious if they will only be selling packages hotel + length of stay ticket. Kind of hard to sell 5 day 7 day etc tickets w/o being able to get in.

 

[brockash]

Looks like I will be up early Monday morning to make reservations. I think Day 3 will probably work out best for our Magic Kingdom day. Do you think I should start with that day, because MK will probably be in the highest demand? But I would also like to get AK on Day 1 because that is our arrival day. Do you think that strategy will even matter on this?

Not having a FP-strategy to guide me is a bit disorienting....

I really don't think a strategy will be needed or even useful at this point.

 

[tinkerbell1991]

Looks like I will be up early Monday morning to make reservations. I think Day 3 will probably work out best for our Magic Kingdom day. Do you think I should start with that day, because MK will probably be in the highest demand? But I would also like to get AK on Day 1 because that is our arrival day. Do you think that strategy will even matter on this?

Not having a FP-strategy to guide me is a bit disorienting....

If magic Kingdom is the one park you DEFINITELY want to go to, I'd go with that. I realise you'll want to obviously go to all numerous times but just go with your priority.
I personally think though that Hollywood Studios will be the highest demand as it was galaxy's edge, toy story land and the new runaway railway ride - from what I'm reading on social media, this park is the popular choice by a mile!

 

[TigrLvsPooh]

I have no strategy and I have no idea which days I want to go to which parks since we no longer have any ADRs. Also I have no idea what time to choose, or how long those time windows will be. Basically I know nothing lol
Monday should be very interesting...

 

[tinkerbell1991]

I have no strategy and I have no idea which days I want to go to which parks since we no longer have any ADRs. Also I have no idea what time to choose, or how long those time windows will be. Basically I know nothing lol
Monday should be very interesting...

I forgot about ADR's ... That could be interesting if the restaurant you want to eat at is fully booked for the park date you have booked and are unable to amend it did to no longer being available. Hmmmmm, I think I'll just have to eat either at the hotels later in the evening or off-site more

 

[TigrLvsPooh]

I forgot about ADR's ... That could be interesting if the restaurant you want to eat at is fully booked for the park date you have booked and are unable to amend it did to no longer being available. Hmmmmm, I think I'll just have to eat either at the hotels later in the evening or off-site more

If we can even eat at the hotels. I imagine once those restaurants begin booking they will be difficult to get.

Also It seems pretty likely that even if you get your preferred park there's no guarantee you'll be able to eat there.

 

[nursejackie]

I'm going twice next year. I am going to book February's hotel and park tickets this weekend so I can book my park days for that trip but I can't book August yet as the holidays at work are not released that far ahead. I will just have to pray the restrictions are lifted or reduced by that trip.

 

[Disney loving Iowan]

Does anyone know if we have our DVC resort reservations already made for January can we buy tickets now and have them added to our reservation? We are buying someone elses points so not looking to get a package.