New Disney Reservation System for Walt Disney World Reopening

Many people are wondering how the new Walt Disney World reservation system will work when the theme parks reopen on July 11th and July 15th. WDW has released some information on how the new Disney reservation will work.

Important Announcements About Walt Disney World Reservations

Disney has been posting regularly on their Disney Parks blog and in other Need to Know areas on the official Walt Disney World Resort website.

Among many other things, they have provided the following helpful guidance and information about reservations upon park reopening:

Magic Kingdom park and Disney’s Animal Kingdom theme park will begin a phased reopening on July 11—with Epcot and Disney’s Hollywood Studios reopening on July 15. 

The parks will reopen with some important updates to promote physical distancing, including:

– Park Reservations: Initially, park attendance will be managed through a new park reservation system. To enter a park, both a park reservation and valid admission for the same park on the same date is required.

– New Ticket Sales: At this time, new ticket sales are temporarily paused. Existing ticket holders and Annual Passholders will be able to make reservation requests in phases before new tickets are sold. Additional details will be shared with these Guests soon. New ticket sales will resume after that period of time.

– New Disney Resort Hotel Reservations: At this time, new reservations at Disney Resort hotels are temporarily paused so we can focus on Guests with existing reservations (Disney Vacation Club Members can still make new reservations). Reservations will resume after that period of time.

Upon reopening, theme parks, Disney Resort hotels, restaurants, attractions, experiences and other offerings may be modified and will be limited in capacity and subject to limited availability or closure, based on direction from health experts and government officials to promote physical distancing.

Additionally, attractions, experiences (such as shows, parades and fireworks), services and amenities may have limited availability or may remain closed. We will provide more information as it becomes available. We reserve the right to cancel any reservations, admission media or purchases and provide applicable refunds. Please also see our policies regarding cancellations by Guests.

Learn about other reopening-related updates.

Walt Disney World Resort

As you can easily see, it’s quite a bit of information.

A lot of it is helpful and provides clear guidance on what to expect when the theme parks reopen in the middle of next month (July 2020).

New Disney World Reservation System Instructions

One thing currently not featured is a detailed guide for the new Disney World reservation system.

They write, “Initially, park attendance will be managed through a new park reservation system. To enter a park, both a park reservation and valid admission for the same park on the same date is required.”

There’s really only one interpretation of this announcement. You will need both a ticket and a reservation through the new system to be admitted to the parks.

Now, since we don’t know what this looks like yet, it’s hard to make any further guesses on it, other than that it will probably resemble Disney’s other online reservation systems, such as FastPass or booking a new hotel reservation.

I’m sure this is all being done with purpose and intentionality.

Once the new system is ready for the public to use, we can likely expect Disney to release a detailed description of the new reservation system.

I think we can expect step-by-step instructions for how to use it easily and effectively, however that may be done.

In the meantime, I’ll be keeping my ear to the ground for any and all new information on this subject.

Check back regularly here and on Twitter for more info.