DLR Reservation System

[Reeder]

Pardon my ignorance on this subject. Once The Disneyland Resort opens back up with limited capacity, how will the reservation system work? I only ask because I'm from out of state and I'm worried that you have to purchase a ticket FIRST, and THEN reserve a date. But what if you purchase the ticket only to find out that the remaining slots on the days you were planning to go were snatched up? It's hard for an out-of-stater to work around that.

No doubt there will be HUGE demand for reservations. It would be nice if it allowed you to reserve a date and purchase a ticket all within the same transaction. Is that how it's going to work? And it would be great if the system gave you like 10 minutes to purchase your tickets for the date you clicked one (like, it would hold that slot for you for 10 minutes while you make the purchase). That way you can be sure you've got your date reserved before you actually fork out the $$$ for it.

Thoughts? Advice?

[SoCalDisneyFan]

Pardon my ignorance on this subject. Once The Disneyland Resort opens back up with limited capacity, how will the reservation system work? I only ask because I'm from out of state and I'm worried that you have to purchase a ticket FIRST, and THEN reserve a date. But what if you purchase the ticket only to find out that the remaining slots on the days you were planning to go were snatched up? It's hard for an out-of-stater to work around that.

No doubt there will be HUGE demand for reservations. It would be nice if it allowed you to reserve a date and purchase a ticket all within the same transaction. Is that how it's going to work? And it would be great if the system gave you like 10 minutes to purchase your tickets for the date you clicked one (like, it would hold that slot for you for 10 minutes while you make the purchase). That way you can be sure you've got your date reserved before you actually fork out the $$$ for it.

Thoughts? Advice?

Nobody knows. Anyone who tells you that they do is speculating and talking out of their a&*.

[9oldmen]

Pardon my ignorance on this subject. Once The Disneyland Resort opens back up with limited capacity, how will the reservation system work? I only ask because I'm from out of state and I'm worried that you have to purchase a ticket FIRST, and THEN reserve a date. But what if you purchase the ticket only to find out that the remaining slots on the days you were planning to go were snatched up? It's hard for an out-of-stater to work around that.

No doubt there will be HUGE demand for reservations. It would be nice if it allowed you to reserve a date and purchase a ticket all within the same transaction. Is that how it's going to work? And it would be great if the system gave you like 10 minutes to purchase your tickets for the date you clicked one (like, it would hold that slot for you for 10 minutes while you make the purchase). That way you can be sure you've got your date reserved before you actually fork out the $$$ for it.

Thoughts? Advice?

My advice would be, don't even start planning a vacation to Disneyland yet. We don't even have an inkling of an opening date. There's a lot we don't know yet. Like, we have no idea of how this is going to work with DCA. Will there be park hoppers? Also, we've heard about this possible concept of "day parting" which I personally don't think is going to work. Also, at this point there is one major difference between DLR and WDW. That difference is that at DLR there is, at this point, no Annual Pass program. But that could change. We simply don't know yet. If we did, then you probably not have had to ask the question.

[Spongeocto4]

My guesses & thoughts:

-Based on how WDW's reopened, parkhopping will likely not be available at first.

-Taste of Disney would likely end before the hypothetical planned reopening date.

-I think the reservation system will be the equivalent of buying a concert or theater ticket. Your park ticket is the reservation.

-Dayparting would be a dumb and an unpractical idea. Because nothing is like, getting kicked out the 'Happiest Place on Earth' mid-day!

How would you get everyone out of the park in an orderly fashion? And most importainly, where will they get their exclusive in park merch, if they are in the process of getting kicked out??

[9oldmen]

My guesses & thoughts:

-Based on how WDW's reopened, parkhopping will likely not be available at first.[/B]

Except the main difference between WDW and DLR is the close proximity of the two parks and the shopping/dining district. I could see them reserving, say 35K parkhoppers per day. Obviously, Disneyland Park would fill up first (with the 35%), at which point, everyone else could go into DCA, and hop over to Disneyland when some of the guests over there leave or want to hop over to DCA. You would know when it was your turn to go into Disneyland by means of...boarding groups. At a certain time in the morning, after Disneyland is at capacity, the boarding groups would become available. At some point, people will want to leave to: get a cheap meal, take a nap at the hotel, go check out the Avengers Campus, etc. There's probably a lot of reasons why that wouldn't work, but that's my suggestion.

-Taste of Disney would likely end before the hypothetical planned reopening date.

-I think the reservation system will be the equivalent of buying a concert or theater ticket. Your park ticket is the reservation.

-Dayparting would be a dumb and an unpractical idea. Because nothing is like, getting kicked out the 'Happiest Place on Earth' mid-day!

How would you get everyone out of the park in an orderly fashion? And most importainly, where will they get their exclusive in park merch, if they are in the process of getting kicked out??

Also, can you imagine all those people showing up for the 2nd session, only to be told that they can't enter the park because they have to wait for some of the session one people to leave? Oh, and just where are you going to put all those people? If it's 20K people per session, that means you could have 30-40K in that esplanade. So much for social distancing.

[Stormy]

Reeder What you'll want to do (if my 'prediction' is right) is book as far in advance as you can using the reservation calendar as your guide. The further out you book the more likely you'll get reservations for each day. I've 'detailed' a bit in my next pps.


I think DL's reservation system is going to be very similar to WDW. And yes, you MUST have a valid ticket to make a reservation.

We're going to WDW in May and it's easy-peasy to use. You look at a calendar to see if the dates you want are 'open' . If so, you go buy your ticket(s), then go to the 'live' reservation page and reserve your day(s). You can reserve as many days as you have a valid ticket for. And you can reserve them all at once. I did all 6 of our park days reservations in one fell swoop the minute my WDW reservation was made.

The 'thing' about DL vs WDW is that WDW is geared more to people who book vacations up to a year in advance (we booked our May stay last June) and DL is geared more to locals. The way WDW works is that there are 'buckets' of reservations: ticket buyers (locals & non resort guests), APs, and onsite guests. My understanding is that the lion's share of reservations are put in the resort guest bucket, then ticket buyers, then APs. I'm sure there are also some held 'in reserve' for release closer to the day as well as shuffling done from bucket to bucket. I think DL will work similarly but their bucket allocations may be different, especially as it's expected that the AP program will not be in effect at reopening. I think DL's buckets will be onsite guests and ticket buyers. And there are nowhere near the number of onsite accommodations available at DL as there are at WDW, which puts a lot in the 'ticket buyer' bucket.

As it stands (and it's not 'high season' yet for WDW) it looks like reservations are easy to get until you get within 2 weeks of 'your' days. Then you might see dates become unavailable. Remember that WDW has 4 parks to mix and match. With DL (if there's no hopping) everyone will be trying to reserve the same days as everyone else. Which is why I think DL will start out with NO hopping. Much easier for more people to get reservations if they can work between 2 parks.

[Reeder]

Reeder What you'll want to do (if my 'prediction' is right) is book as far in advance as you can using the reservation calendar as your guide. The further out you book the more likely you'll get reservations for each day. I've 'detailed' a bit in my next pps.


I think DL's reservation system is going to be very similar to WDW. And yes, you MUST have a valid ticket to make a reservation.

We're going to WDW in May and it's easy-peasy to use. You look at a calendar to see if the dates you want are 'open' . If so, you go buy your ticket(s), then go to the 'live' reservation page and reserve your day(s). You can reserve as many days as you have a valid ticket for. And you can reserve them all at once. I did all 6 of our park days reservations in one fell swoop the minute my WDW reservation was made.

The 'thing' about DL vs WDW is that WDW is geared more to people who book vacations up to a year in advance (we booked our May stay last June) and DL is geared more to locals. The way WDW works is that there are 'buckets' of reservations: ticket buyers (locals & non resort guests), APs, and onsite guests. My understanding is that the lion's share of reservations are put in the resort guest bucket, then ticket buyers, then APs. I'm sure there are also some held 'in reserve' for release closer to the day as well as shuffling done from bucket to bucket. I think DL will work similarly but their bucket allocations may be different, especially as it's expected that the AP program will not be in effect at reopening. I think DL's buckets will be onsite guests and ticket buyers. And there are nowhere near the number of onsite accommodations available at DL as there are at WDW, which puts a lot in the 'ticket buyer' bucket.

As it stands (and it's not 'high season' yet for WDW) it looks like reservations are easy to get until you get within 2 weeks of 'your' days. Then you might see dates become unavailable. Remember that WDW has 4 parks to mix and match. With DL (if there's no hopping) everyone will be trying to reserve the same days as everyone else. Which is why I think DL will start out with NO hopping. Much easier for more people to get reservations if they can work between 2 parks.

Thanks, Stormy! I'm glad someone understood my question. I probably didn't phrase it right.

The reason I ask is because my wife and I wanted to surprise our kids around June 4th (assuming the park is open) with a trip to Disneyland. I have a very specific reason for those dates. I worry because let's say Disney decides to open in May. Well, everyone and their dog is going to be jumping on and reserving tickets for weeks, and possibly months out. So my concern is that I'm going to purchase tickets, and then try to reserve for that week, and there won't be any reservations left, and I'll be stuck holding several tickets I can't use (at least not for a long while). Even if I check the calendar beforehand and see that those slots are open, they could be gone by the time I'm done purchasing my tickets.

It seems like they should come up with a way to allow people to reserve their spot first, and give the person like 10 minutes to buy their tickets. If they fail to purchase their tickets and link them to that reservation within those 10 minutes, then it opens up to the public so that someone else can snag that reservation.

[LoonAZ]

Another thing to consider is that Disney will always honor "face value" of the tickets purchased. So while you may spend money now for a trip that can't be reserved (do to your limited vacation window), you can always use the tickets as a starting point for a vacation at another time. That doesn't really help you much (other than being a soft guarantee for money spent). But it does make life a lot easier for Disney. Plus they have your money on an "interest-free" basis. Keep in mind, they may require you to add more money to use the tickets at a later date (assuming the cost for entry has increased)

[Spongeocto4]

Except the main difference between WDW and DLR is the close proximity of the two parks and the shopping/dining district. I could see them reserving, say 35K parkhoppers per day.

However, the state could require no parkhopping upon reopening. This would be a way to "limit exposure for guests"(Their likely theory, not
mine).

In addition, it would be simpler for crowd control to start reservations with one park per day.

[SoCalDisneyFan]

I say almost zero chance they allow park hopping. They'll want to maintain control over the # of people inside each park, and that would be impossible if say 70% of those with reservations wanted to hit up Disneyland. They couldn't then coordinate capacity with CA Adventure.

They'll allow people to book one or the other. DL will of course fill up first, and then anybody who simply wants their Disney fix, will fill up all the CA Adventure bookings. It will be one of the first times they actually have extreme demand to visit CA Adventure, since people won't have any other option once DL has filled all it's reservation slots.

[Stormy]

Thanks, Stormy! I'm glad someone understood my question. I probably didn't phrase it right.
the
The reason I ask is because my wife and I wanted to surprise our kids around June 4th (assuming the park is open) with a trip to Disneyland. I have a very specific reason for those dates. I worry because let's say Disney decides to open in May. Well, everyone and their dog is going to be jumping on and reserving tickets for weeks, and possibly months out. So my concern is that I'm going to purchase tickets, and then try to reserve for that week, and there won't be any reservations left, and I'll be stuck holding several tickets I can't use (at least not for a long while). Even if I check the calendar beforehand and see that those slots are open, they could be gone by the time I'm done purchasing my tickets.

It seems like they should come up with a way to allow people to reserve their spot first, and give the person like 10 minutes to buy their tickets. If they fail to purchase their tickets and link them to that reservation within those 10 minutes, then it opens up to the public so that someone else can snag that reservation.

The problem with ressie before ticket is that people will go in and 'lock down' a gazillion dates 'just in case' they want to spend a day in the parks. Your idea of a 'time lock' is a good way to circumvent that but could still tie up a myriad of dates, if even for 10-15 minutes.

Prefacing this with a caveat: a big difference between WDW and DL is 'My Disney Experience' and DL really has no equivalent. MDE is a 'one-stop shop' where you seamlessly go from function to function for hotel stays, tickets, dining, etc. No one knows how DL will have someone 'travel' from purchase page to reservations page.

It may be that DL (being only 2 parks) will simply only sell 'X' number of tickets for each park for a specific day based on capacity, when they're gone, they're gone. Meaning you'd be buying days at DL or DCA when you buy your ticket, rather than buying a ticket then deciding where to go. If they go that way, you won't need to make a 'separate' reservation, you'd be buying '1 park per day' multi-day tickets pre-specified as a DL or a DCA day. WDW tickets aren't (generally) 'park specific' as you have 4 parks to choose from, and you 'mix and match' as you prefer.

That being said if they go with ticket then ressie, what I'd do is have TWO computers open. Have #1 on the basic park availability calendar, #2 just at the point of purchasing your 'June 4th days'. If the days are a 'go' on #1, #2 immediately buys the tickets and then immediately links to the reservations page. Again, **this is my ASSUMPTION**, but I'm assuming there will be some sort of clickable link to go from the ticket purchase page to the park reservation page.

I do think that if you're thinking of June 2021, you're being very optimistic. If you're talking June 2022, who knows what will be happening then.

FYI...WDW park availability calendar. You can poke around and see how it works.

https://disneyworld.disney.go.com/av...lity-calendar/

WDW "How to" page on purchasing tickets and making reservations

https://disneyworld.disney.go.com/ex...-reservations/

[JerrodDRagon]

WDW system will be close to what we have. I bet there are some slight changes but we will have to see what those are. Its hard to predict much with how quickly things are changing we went from no dining, to events to by may any adult who wants the vaccine will have it. So in Theory unless we open the borders/airplanes from other countries we could see Park Hoppers back before the end of summer.

I mean why would we have to keep the park low on capacity if the transmission rate is near zero by July?

[Reeder]

The problem with ressie before ticket is that people will go in and 'lock down' a gazillion dates 'just in case' they want to spend a day in the parks. Your idea of a 'time lock' is a good way to circumvent that but could still tie up a myriad of dates, if even for 10-15 minutes.

Prefacing this with a caveat: a big difference between WDW and DL is 'My Disney Experience' and DL really has no equivalent. MDE is a 'one-stop shop' where you seamlessly go from function to function for hotel stays, tickets, dining, etc. No one knows how DL will have someone 'travel' from purchase page to reservations page.

It may be that DL (being only 2 parks) will simply only sell 'X' number of tickets for each park for a specific day based on capacity, when they're gone, they're gone. Meaning you'd be buying days at DL or DCA when you buy your ticket, rather than buying a ticket then deciding where to go. If they go that way, you won't need to make a 'separate' reservation, you'd be buying '1 park per day' multi-day tickets pre-specified as a DL or a DCA day. WDW tickets aren't (generally) 'park specific' as you have 4 parks to choose from, and you 'mix and match' as you prefer.

That being said if they go with ticket then ressie, what I'd do is have TWO computers open. Have #1 on the basic park availability calendar, #2 just at the point of purchasing your 'June 4th days'. If the days are a 'go' on #1, #2 immediately buys the tickets and then immediately links to the reservations page. Again, **this is my ASSUMPTION**, but I'm assuming there will be some sort of clickable link to go from the ticket purchase page to the park reservation page.

I do think that if you're thinking of June 2021, you're being very optimistic. If you're talking June 2022, who knows what will be happening then.

FYI...WDW park availability calendar. You can poke around and see how it works.

https://disneyworld.disney.go.com/av...lity-calendar/

WDW "How to" page on purchasing tickets and making reservations

https://disneyworld.disney.go.com/ex...-reservations/

Thanks for the great info and insight!

I don't think June 2021 is being overly optimistic. My reasons for that are:

1 - Orange County is already in the Orange Tier in TWO of the three metrics on the state's "Blueprint for a Safer Economy" framework......"Test Positivity Rate" and "Health Equity Quartile Positivity Rate." And they're at 7.6 on the "Adjusted Daily Case Rate per 100,000." They need to be at 4.9 or below to be in Orange. But they're dropping fast.

2 - Gov Newsom yesterday announced that he is loosening the state's reopening guidelines, and tying them to vaccinations now. It will also reportedly allow counties to have a daily rate of 10 new cases per 100,000 residents, instead of the current 7 per 100,000.

3 - AB 420 is likely to pass. It already has the support of The LA County Board of Supervisors and the Anaheim City Council. The bill will be heard on March 7th and could pass as soon as next week. If it does, Disneyland could be on the verge of being allowed to reopen in the Orange Tier (which they're almost in......just waiting for "case rate per 100,000" to drop a bit).

4 - Disneyland reached an agreement with 11 unions representing its workers so that it's ready to open immediately as soon as permitted, which could be very soon.


All of these things, assuming cases stay on their current trend in Cali, suggest that Disneyland will be opening sooner, rather than later. I'm going to predict late April / early May, barring some crazy, unforeseen event that would put a stop to current progress.

[SoCalDisneyFan]

All of these things, assuming cases stay on their current trend in Cali, suggest that Disneyland will be opening sooner, rather than later. I'm going to predict late April / early May, barring some crazy, unforeseen event that would put a stop to current progress.

Touch Of Disney runs through Monday April 19. And they very well may extend it. I can't see them being able to train all the additional cast members and test the rides out during the festival. Seems like they'll need at least 3-4 weeks of park closure to undertake something that big. Not to mention they have to undo the setup they're putting in place for the festival.

I still maintain, as I have for the past several months, that the best case scenario has them open for Memorial Day Weekend, which begins on Friday May 28. Everything really has to go perfect to make that timeline work. My more realistic timeline would put opening in early-mid June.

They're not going to do what they did last year, and make plans for opening prematurely. The #'s have to be low, and continuing to trend lower at a significant clip, before they'll make official an opening date, which will still have to be about a month beyond the announcement date, so they can bring back and train all the cast members for both parks, but primarily for Disneyland. Just my opinion of course.

[Reeder]

Touch Of Disney runs through Monday April 19. And they very well may extend it. I can't see them being able to train all the additional cast members and test the rides out during the festival. Seems like they'll need at least 3-4 weeks of park closure to undertake something that big. Not to mention they have to undo the setup they're putting in place for the festival.

Right, because they probably don't want to risk any overlap between A Touch of Disney, and the actual opening of the parks. There's obviously very high demand for the food "festival," so the only reason I can see them NOT extending it past April 19th is because they want to see what's happening with COVID. If they can reopen the parks, they don't want to have to wait for A Touch of Disney to end.

The end of April is still almost two months away. If they fall into the Orange tier in the next couple of weeks, they'll need to stay there for a few weeks until they're allowed to open (assuming AB 420 passes). They're required to stay in the Red tier for 3 weeks before they'd be allowed to move to Orange......even if they meet all three metrics. They're not allowed to skip tiers (unless the gov't changes their rules). That gives them over a month to recall cast members and prep for reopening.

Certainly doable.

[SoCalDisneyFan]

Well, that was unexpected. What about the festival now?

[9oldmen]

Well, that was unexpected. What about the festival now?

What about it? It will still happen for all the dates for which tickets have been sold. If "Touch of Disney" dates overlap the dates when the parks can open (April 1st is when they can open, but probably not when they will open), it might just mean that DCA will not be open (unless you have a Tod ticket), but Disneyland Park can open. And since people are speculating that there will be no park hopping, the festival shouldn't have any effect on that. Also, they could continue the festival with DCA open to the general public, but treat the festival as they would have the "Food and Wine" festival that was about to happen in 2020. (or maybe did start happening. I wasn't interested or paying attention).