Walt Disney World Reservations Cleans The Slate To Move Forward

Walt Disney World Reservations put out some pretty heavy information last night laying out the beginnings of their plans to move Parks and Resorts forward with a brand new reservations system. As a result of the COVID-19 impact they have had to re-evaluate a slew of existing operational systems including hotel packages, park ticket sales, advanced dining and experience reservations, fastpass+ systems, and extra magic hours. To come up with the clean slate Disney needs in order to maintain social distancing protocols some fairly drastic measure have come into play.


Walt Disney World Reservations Cleans The Slate To Move Forward


New Ticket Sales and Hotel Reservations Temporarily Paused

New ticket sales and Disney Resort hotel reservations are not being taken at this time. Disney plans to take a pause and focus on guests with existing tickets and reservations while they find their footing with the new reservation system being implemented. Existing ticket holders and Annual Passholders will be able to make a theme park reservation before any new tickets will be sold. Guests that currently have tickets will be contacted and provided with additional details. New ticket sales and Disney Resort hotel reservations will begin again after that group of guests has been taken care of. Theme park reservations will be limited due to attendance caps, park reservations are subject to availability.


New Ticket Sales and Hotel Reservations


All Dining and Special Experiences Canceled

Restaurants and other special experiences such as behind-the-scenes tours will be limited in capacity as well. Disney has "made the difficult decision to cancel all existing dining reservations and experience bookings, including Disney dining plans included in packages" giving them a clean slate to work with moving forward. That means if you had a reservation for a dining table or experience made through Disney you will have to try to get it once again when reservations reopen. These advanced reservations will once again be taken closer to the Parks opening dates and the reservation system will shift from the 180-day booking window to a short 60-day booking window.


Dining and Experience Reservations


FastPass+ and Extra Magic Hours Suspended

FastPass+ service will be suspended for the time being so that the additional queue space can be used to help guests maintain physical distancing standards. Existing FastPass+ selections will be canceled. Disney plans to share updates on the FastPass+ service at a later date. Upon the reopening of Disney Parks Extra Magic Hours will also be temporarily suspended.


No FastPass+ or Extra Magic Hours


These measures are sure to impact thousands of future guests plans as families struggle to rebook reservations at 60 days in advance or perhaps ace a park-less Disney vacation. While many travelers will enjoy a trip filled with nothing but shopping, dining, and laying by the pool others will no doubt choose to cancel all together.

Do these operational changes impact you? Let me know how you plan on moving forward with your next Walt Disney World vacation in the comment below.