Disney World coronavirus reopening: New reservation system, no park hopping, AP options

With Disney World’s theme parks reopening in less than a month, the resort has given details on the reservation system that will be required for all guests.

Dubbed the Disney Park Pass System, these reservations can be obtained through a My Disney Experience account on Disney World’s website for anyone that has a valid theme park ticket or Disney World annual pass. If you have a multi-day ticket, you must make a separate reservation for each day — and park hopping will not be an option for the foreseeable future, so Disney is offering modifications or refunds for guests who had bought tickets that would have allowed them to visit more than one park per day.

“We hope to bring back the ability to visit more than one park per day soon and will continue to offer these add-ons for 2021 ticket purchases,” wrote Disney World communications manager Avery Maehrer on the Disney Parks Blog.

On June 22 at 7 a.m. eastern time, people with reservations at Disney-owned resorts and other select Disney hotels will have the first chance to reserve spots for theme park admission. Orlando Rising has confirmed that this group includes guests with stays scheduled at the Disney World Swan and Dolphin, the Bonnett Creek resorts and hotels in the Disney Springs Resort Area (though several of those properties are currently closed).

Reservations will open for annual passholders who don’t have resort stay booked on June 26. All ticketholders will be able to make park reservations by June 28. Disney said it will begin accepting new hotel reservations and selling tickets again by that date.

Annual passholders will be allowed to make three theme park reservations at a time. They’ll also get an early shot to get back into the parks; annual passholder previews for the reopening will be held at Magic Kingdom and Animal Kingdom on July 9-10, ahead of their official reopening on July 11. No AP previews have been announced for Disney’s Hollywood Studios or Epcot, which reopen on July 15.

The need for advance reservations and the lack of park hopping takes away important perks for annual passholders, so Disney is also providing options to this potentially disgruntled group. All APs will be extended by a month — on top of the extension reflecting the four-month COVID-19 shutdown — or choose to cancel their pass.

Passholders who have paid in full and choose to cancel will receive a partial refund, while those on monthly payment plans will have all payments waived after August 11, 2020. Any payments made between July 11 and August 11 will be refunded retroactively.

Previews at all four Disney World theme parks will be held for Disney cast members ahead of the official reopenings. These cast member previews will take place July 7-8 at Magic Kingdom and Animal Kingdom, and July 13-14 at Epcot and Disney’s Hollywood Studios.

These new procedures add to a slew of in-park changes for Disney World to limit the spread of COVID-19, include physical distancing in queues, shops and restaurants, as well as requiring all guests over the age of 2 to wear face masks in the parks.

The changes announced by Disney include one that won’t be implemented until January 2021. At that time, Disney will stop giving out free MagicBands to hotel guests. The functionality that the RFID-enabled wristbands provided — park entry, hotel room entry and tap points for FastPass+ reservations — will instead be transferred to the My Disney Experience app, though MagicBands will still work for those purposes.

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