I've had pretty consistent results with reserving dates exactly 60 days in advance at 6am Pacific.
But yeah, outside of doing that every time, good luck š
I think that a lot of members of the community support the company's actions a little too much at times which reflects when anybody calls out the money grabs that are so evident
Same with Josh D'Amaro. I remember years ago when he'd be getting high praise for Disneyland. Then it went to shit with Genie+ and the praise isn't coming anymore
YUP. The board saw $200 a share at the height of the pandemic boredom driven stock trading surge and thought that was attainable under normal circumstances
You mean the people that fangirl over him walking through the park are mad you point out he sucks? This sub has convinced me we donāt need annual passes ever again
Itās exactly that. I worked for the company, my wife also did, neither of us are interested in doing it again. He ruined her industry and people I know are literally homeless because he and two other asshats held out for months during the strikes. I still love Disneyland, but it definitely doesnāt have the glow it used toā¦
They kept acquiring other businesses, & giving everyone working there passes, even business units in no way connected to the parks. So now there are way too many people wanting to enter the park on employee passes. Plus the parks are busy as it is, so the employee perks get reduced to leave more room for guests entering w/o a āfree passā. My husband was told that at his pay grade, if he worked a certain number of years heād have a ālifetime passā. Thatās not entirely true now as they restrict them so much. He used to be able to use it on any day of the year, busy or not.
It can be really frustrating when you want to plan out a trip for friends and family on the MEP. What my wife and I do is just keep checking it multiple times a day when someone wants to go and it sometimes opens up but you got to just take whatever pops up. Which doesnāt really work for a lot of people. The last time it was pretty open on MEP was at the beginning of April but I havenāt checked it recently.
Edit: just checked and yeah nothing at all available for the next 2 months on MEP
I worked there for 2 summers. Not once did I go back into the park for pleasure. I just wanted to go home after work. I stayed once on my last day. After I got out of my critter country outfit I just walked into the park through one of the backlot entrances. Are cast members still allowed to go in the park this way?
We werenāt āallowed toā when I worked there in the 90ās, we just did it anyway. I never heard of anyone getting stopped, but it was technically the rule. We were supposed to go in and out the front gate when technically a guest.
The CM-only reservations are usually open all year round with very few blockout, but the main entrance pass, where they take families and friends to the park, has limited opening and they can only do 3 reservations at a time.
Itās a PITA to keep checking, but Iāve never once not gotten a reservation by checking right before midnight, even for the busiest holiday times. Iāve always been able to go when I wanted to. The only time it really sucks is if you want to get same-day reservations. During the busy times, those are hard to get.
There are also services you can sign up for like ReserveTheMagic and ThemeParkIQ that will send you text messages or emails to let you know when a date opens up for a certain key. Some of them try to charge money but most have a free trial and some are just free with ads.
May is usually grad night season and and most of those days are grad nights. My guess is it's just really booked up rn especially considering May 1st today.
Not only will the 24th be packed, but itāll be packed with vloggers, āinfluencersā, and live streamers. šš¼
AND itās Memorial Day weekend.
I book any days I *know* I want to go in advance. Like I have friends coming into town on May 12th, so I booked that day weeks ago.
Otherwise I just book the night before. It has never failed me.
Then in the summer itāll be like, wide open again.
This is the best way to secure a day you for sure want to go. Every night I check around 10pm, I'm able to book next day that was previously unavailable!
Yesss this is it!! Planning is just the way to go now lol gotta plan to book that future date and book it as soon as you can, and then plan to check the night before for spontaneous visits. Nothing frustrating about it.
I looooved the book Stellaluna as a kid and still love bats to this day (and the weetzie bat books as a teen) - I have a little Halloween-spooky-orange and black cat so I named her Stellaluna Witch Baby and stole her name for my username lol!
It's frustrating because I have a reservation for my birthday this month and my friend can't book. Most likely she'll be able to eventually, but 2 years ago, I went to Disneyland alone on my birthday because another friend couldn't get a reservation.
It's just frustrating because you don't know for sure if you can go or not. Having to stay up the night before to try and snag a reservation is super annoying.
We were thinking about upgrading my (45F) husbandās(45M) SoCal Jan to June ticket to a pass because we wonāt be able likely to use the very last day remaining before the June 2 expiration.
So we went to a ticket window on our way out of the parks yesterday and asked about it. When we explained why we wanted to do it; the lady was more than willing to share with us the prices of the pass etc., but she also shared with us several tips and tricks to getting reservations when they seem to be closed.
: Pretty much everything everyone has mentioned here was confirmed bythat kind employee.
Which is OK if you live near there, but doesnāt help if youāre like us, living in Vegas. Itās hard to get a hotel room last minute near the park.
We could, but weād need to cancel the room reservations within their cancellation period to avoid being charged. Thatās between 24-72 hours prior to scheduled arrival date. If no park reservations are available by that cutoff, weād have to cancel the room reservations. Then if park reservations open up the night before, chances are there are no rooms available.
Disney stopped caring about passholders a long time ago. I live and work in the shadow of the place, surrounded by people who adore Disney, and itās sad to see how little they get in return for their adoration. Uncle Walt, we miss you.
Fellow inspire here!
I second what others have said but this is how we maximize our passes.
- make use of your 6 reservation holds. You can cancel them a day before without getting a "strike". If you know your going to go plan ahead, but use your extra ones you are not scheduling far out for "what if we want to go" days. The number of these we get with inspire is the one of the biggest benefits imo.
- Check frequently throughout the day/s leading up. A reservation almost always opens up for when you want to go, you just have to catch it š
I can see what you're saying but I'm not sure it's abuse when you're not exploiting anything doing so. Simply playing by the terms.
I try to play devil's advocate when considering these things. All passes can do it so it's not specific to just inspire. Arguably you also give up your ability to plan further ahead by doing so, which frees up availability for those planning ahead that have more blocked out dates. Inspire simply gets more to play with compared to the other passes as well as fewer blocked dates. It's two of the core features we pay more for the pass.
It's pay to play with magic keys.
My suggestions are also more focused for those that like to frequent the park quite a lot. Maybe more than once a week and for sure more than once a month.
For us, we go so much, we have fewer reservations further out because we have smaller gaps between our visits.
Disney wants more APs booking weekdays to even out the crowds, so they artificially close weekends and see how many single day tickets they can sell. Then the day before they open reservations back up to the magic keys.
Oh they totally do this!! And whatever scraps are left they throw it to the cast reservations after that. I'll check for a date all day sometimes and nothing pops up and then magically the next day both parks are wide open š
They totally did this! We went this weekend; I realized that we adjusted when we would leave and arrive at the parks by one day. Originally, we were going to drive down Saturday and go to the park Saturday and Sunday and come home Monday. We shifted it to leave and drive down on Friday with the thought that because we were leaving early enough in the day we would start hopping on Friday. I realized this on May 1 and was never able to get May 3.
I checked all during the weekend for ha ha sakes because by then we had accepted weād hang out around the area and the rooftop pool at our hotel versus go to the parks on May 3. It never opened up that I saw, but I kept seeing May 4 open up periodically for CA. May 5 opened up in the wee hours of the morning same day for both parks, It had not popped up before that that I saw on May 3 or May 4.
Truth be told given that it was a weekend that consisted of bat days, May 4, and Cinco de Mayo- I was actually surprised at the crowd level in a good way. The worst parts of the park were Tomorrowland and GE. We didnāt go over on the west side of DLR so I canāt speak about that firsthand but I assume thatās where the majority of the crowds were. CA was great. We used Genie plus but in hindsight had I been a little bit less impatient we probably wouldnāt have needed it. Web slingers was down to a 25 minute wait; which for that is almost a walk on. We did single rider (yes we got split up) and were able to ride twice in the same 25 minute wait.
For those fans that have Monday - Thursday off days from workā¦I had this old plan So Cal Select. That was like this I loved it when I was younger & working retail
The so cal select AP was so good when parking was easier. it's pretty similar to the imagine key nowadays. We used to have a movie pass and validate our downtown disney parking by using our movie pass to get movie tickets and just going to the park for a few hours instead. Not so easy anymore
Thatās kinda the point though. Disney WANTS ticket holders in the parks more than key holders, they spend a lot more money than we do. Between the tickets, food, souvenirs etc, they probably spend 3-4 times as much as we do because they donāt have the luxury of being able to come back again whenever they want.
I have an Enchant Key and I have the same calendar for May. All fridays & sundays are blocked out. We got my husband the 3-day SoCAL pass and he sees all days as available in May. It is sooooooo irritating.
Don't you get like 6 bookings at a time? I can see how the system is annoying but it has never been an issue nabbing a reservation the day before I want to go either.
Itās funny I was annoyed by the park reservation system, but hubby kept saying he thinks that he enjoys the park better because of the crowd capacity control. Of course take that how you will because heās not the one that has to plan the trip down the hill lol
The reservation system needs to go. Period.
Itās IS relatively easy to get a reservation for the next day in the evening. But still. Give us back our spontaneity please! Why the heck does Florida get everything.
Pretty funny how folks are jumping to defend this completely broken system haha but yeah, it's pretty ridiculous that with the highest tier pass on the first day of month you have one weekend day accessible.
This is why they not only haven't turned off Key sales but they're actively promoting you upgrade to one from your day ticket while in the park. Go ahead, buy one! See what happens! You've already signed the contract, they don't care if you show up or not - and in fact they'd rather you didn't!
Yes of course the terms say there needs to be reservations available - but aside from the reservation system being completely indefensible as a guest, it's absolutely not unreasonable to expect even half of weekend days to be available as a top-tier passholder.
"But reservations will become available you just have to look"
Yeah great system to have to dedicate more than ten seconds of your day to finding a window to get into a theme park you already paid for access to
"You can book 90 days in advance"
Nothing says spontaneity like deciding on a day three months ahead of when you go
NO OTHER PARKS ON THE PLANET DO THIS AND IT IS NOT FOR CAPPING ATTENDANCE
Iām not jumping to defend it, just trying to explain that the frustration can be mitigated by understanding how the pass works before you have problems instead of after
The way the pass works is a problem in itself, which I definitely signed up for and expected to an extent. I think the problem here is that the availability fully matches that of a pass almost 1000$ less. I believe this can also serve as a beneficial clarifying post for those considering purchasing a pass in the future to understand the impact the reservation system in reality.
They were all open yesterday cause I just booked the 2nd-7th no problem. Mustāve changed the availability this morning since itās the 1st of the month?
6 AM is one of the golden hours (just like around dinner time to 10 PM) basically thatās exactly when the reservation system comes back online-Confirmed by an employee at the ticket window- that is the time that adjusted availability is released back into the system. All day long cancellations are released in real time but the algorithm assumes a capacity of X for each day and 6 AM is the time when the computer basically says ādo we have that many bookings? No? OK then release this
Many slots to be available for booking.ā
Whatās even more screwed up is that the whole month is wide open with the SoCal ticket.
Whatās the point of a pass that supposedly has the least amount of blackout dates when an entire month of weekends is blacked out? And this isnāt even the peak of summer yet!
I just realized (checked the availability calendar) that people who buy a ticket such as one park per day or park hopper also have the entire month available to them. Weāre literally being blacklisted from the parkā¦.
The beauty of being only 4 hours away is I created my own pass. I just buy one day tickets and come once a month. These keys look like they are a total headache. This way I can plan on a whim.
But wouldnt the keys still mostly cost less, assuming that with one car or two cars only 1-2 of you need the inspire parking pass? And then the rest could get by with Enchant or if you only go Saturday youre paying the premium day ticket price anyway so Inspire would still make sense (12x$160 = $1920 if youre paying for day saturday passes all year)
You make a valid point but according to this post it's not easy to book your days and many get booked up. So why would I make it harder for my family when I can just book single day tickets whenever I want?
This is why I let my AP go and Iām not coming back until this reservation system is done away with. What a joke you want to control the crowds Iām sure if 250,000 people bought a one day ticket they wouldnāt close down the parks they would allow it to happen they just want to maximize profits.
They still have to follow fire codes. Even before the pandemic and the reservation system people would get turned away if the parks were full. I actually prefer the reservation system as I know if I have a reservation I have a guaranteed entry. Which is important for those of us flying in from out of country. I would be PISSED if I flew all the way down there and got turned away at the gate.
That only typically happens on Christmas week and maybe a handful of other special occasion dates during the year. Max capacity closures are pretty rare for the most part. The park has been accurately predicting and managing crowd levels for decades before the reservation system.
Seriously. The only time the parks were overcrowded was around Christmas, when almost every pass except for the top two levels were blacked out. For most of the year, the parks were busy, but not oh my god I cannot move through the walkways busy like it has been ever since they brought out this bs system. The reservations are not to make our experience better, itās purely profit motivated. This plus moving everything onto the app, adding genie plus on rides that do not need it such as pirates/mermaid to add false value to it, major rides being constantly down all year long, has made the entire customer experience much worse while the company profits more and more.
So Magic Keys open for reservations 90 days in advance so they will likely start to disappear in the 30 day window.
May is gonna be a bit crazy on weekends with graduations coming up so weekends are gonna be blocked out for the most part.
Definitely recommend checking the night before cause Magic Key holders can only cancel up to 11:59 PST the day before else they will be penalized for missing a reservation.
Good luck hope you get one!
Yeah, but it's Knott's.
That's like saying look at all these perks Walmart gives me. I say that as a Knott's AP holder. There's no comparison between Knott's which struggles to attract guests and Disney that is busy year round.
I also think that sometimes only one or two reservations are available so they donāt show up for me because I make them for three people. Itās happened a few times where i check just myself to see the dates and when i go back to check all three boxes the days i want are not available. I double checked the first time that happened and noticed more dates were available if i was making a single reservation vs 3.
Yeah sucks. I always keep 6 days booked and just cancel if I canāt go because the weekends fill fast. Especially around graduations and 3 day weekends. Keep refreshing as Iām sure Iām not the only one who does this.Ā
I am part of the "only book the night before" club. Even when I have plans with people months in advance, I'll never get the reservation until the night before, it's a hard rule for me. Not a fan of the reservation system and I try to keep things as similar to the days of old as possible.
Not to mention, I've literally never failed getting reservations the night before. It always opens up, so like why worry about getting the date ahead of
time when you can just get it the night before? I always see friends freaking out and trying to get their days super far in advance and stressing, when I just hop on at 10pm the night before, get my reservation, and leave with zero stress. It's always there, just from dozens of attempts. Basically makes the entire reservation calendar irrelevant, just how I like it.
If you are flexible. You can check the day before or after midnight of the day before and usually there are reservations available due to cancellations
Theres a theory now that Disney continues selling Magic Keys but has not upped the reservation capacity in step with those extra keys being sold, leading to more inspire calendars looking like this, more frequently. Maybe something to that theory?
A lot of people commenting on how they open up last minute and we have found that to be the case as well. One of the bigger benefits is not paying for parking. At $35 a trip it only takes a few trips to realize the savings of the higher level pass.
It really is a full package deal ,not just entry to the park.
Are you serious? Free parking, extra reservations, better discounts, a sense of elitism (jk on this one).
Check for reservations more often and youāll have less to complain about. Those of us who check regularly have no problem finding openings, weekend or otherwise.
Plus, do you even remember what it was like before reservations were a thing? The place was a zoo! Crowd management is better now because people who donāt check for reservations often enough donāt get in.
1,000%. No point in the key when they block every weekend. Made the same comment in a post recently; will not be renewing next yearā¦ their goal seems to be to monetize buyers and then throttle usage.
Yes, as long as you do it before the end of the last day of the ticket, and depending on availability (and what key you get) make sure youāre done with being in the parks before you do, as the ticket is invalidated and so is your reservation that was tied to it.
This is (one of the) reasons we didnāt renew our passes. Why am I paying so much money to not be able to go when I can or when I want to? Not worth it anymore.
I normally book my days over 30 days in advance. Not ideal, but having an Inspire Key doesnāt guarantee park entrance. Iāll book even further out when I hear thereās a special event going on. In this case, Season of the Force, Pixar Fest along with Grad Nights and some schools being out end of May are contributing to the lack of days available.
The weekly question thread is the appropriate place for these sort of questions.
https://www.reddit.com/r/Disneyland/comments/1cf073a/weekly_park_questionsadvice_thread/
But otherwise yes, I do believe you can upgrade a 3-day SoCal pass.
https://plandisney.disney.go.com/question/buy-day-socal-pass-upgrade-magic-key-once-go-sale-dont-go-560827/#:~:text=Even%20if%20you%20haven't,last%20day%20of%20valid%20use.
Yes, we did it when we were there in March. aAs long as you do it before the end of the last day of the ticket (midnight is the cutoff, so be sure to get out of the parks before then with enough time to potentially stand in the ticket line before getting it done), and depending on availability (and what key you get) make sure youāre done with being in the parks before you do, as the ticket is invalidated and so is your reservation that was tied to it.
When you upgrade, doesnāt the Key take the start date of when you first used your 3-day ticket? So if there are reservations available that day, you could make a reservation and just go in with the Key. Or you upgrade online in the app and donāt leave the park at all.
Yes. First date of use. And correct, as long as the pass isnāt blocked out that day (itās not like the old days where the pass was unblocked the day of purchase even if normally it would have been blocked). And yes, you could just do it in the app and stay in park (we couldnāt because we used gift cards to do the upgrades, as we bought them at target to get the 5% off), so ticket booth it wasā¦
They are probably making fewer reservations available for keys as weāre entering the busy grad and summer seasons. They might drop more as time goes on.
Is it blocked out or just full? I live out of state and have to book farther out usually. I book as soon as I am able. Usually night before though you can grab something!
Depends on your needs but that would be the pass Iād buy. My wife and I only work Friday, Saturday and Sunday so this would be perfect for us at a good price point. Downside is we live on the east coast.
I gave up my passes. I use to be able to go when I wanted to. But I got work Disney. Iām not rich and was able to scrap on by with passes and go on the weekendsā¦. Well Legoland it is and they got a water park during the summers thatās not to bad. And its not blacked out on the weekends.
Just posting because many comments seem to think these are totally unavailable days, when in reality they were available to those who booked ahead of time.
To inspire you to go on the weekday
Aaaand upvoted.
š¤£š¤£š¤£š¤£ this made me laugh so hard!!
Youāre still well ahead of what the employee main entrance pass allows! Nothing but blocked-out days.
that sucks. employees deserve much better
as a CM ur not wrong. I havent gone in months. this whole reservation system is ridiculous
Yeah me too! I hate this new reservation system for CM. They made it that much harder to go and play for a day like everyone else.
I've had pretty consistent results with reserving dates exactly 60 days in advance at 6am Pacific. But yeah, outside of doing that every time, good luck š
This subreddit can be toxic. Why are yall downvoting him? The cast members make the magic for yall.
I think that a lot of members of the community support the company's actions a little too much at times which reflects when anybody calls out the money grabs that are so evident
I got downvoted once for shedding light on how bob iger isnāt a good dude. Disney adults gonna Disney adult.
Same with Josh D'Amaro. I remember years ago when he'd be getting high praise for Disneyland. Then it went to shit with Genie+ and the praise isn't coming anymore
YUP. The board saw $200 a share at the height of the pandemic boredom driven stock trading surge and thought that was attainable under normal circumstances
You mean the people that fangirl over him walking through the park are mad you point out he sucks? This sub has convinced me we donāt need annual passes ever again
Itās exactly that. I worked for the company, my wife also did, neither of us are interested in doing it again. He ruined her industry and people I know are literally homeless because he and two other asshats held out for months during the strikes. I still love Disneyland, but it definitely doesnāt have the glow it used toā¦
The Darker Side of Disney^TM
They kept acquiring other businesses, & giving everyone working there passes, even business units in no way connected to the parks. So now there are way too many people wanting to enter the park on employee passes. Plus the parks are busy as it is, so the employee perks get reduced to leave more room for guests entering w/o a āfree passā. My husband was told that at his pay grade, if he worked a certain number of years heād have a ālifetime passā. Thatās not entirely true now as they restrict them so much. He used to be able to use it on any day of the year, busy or not.
Sucks to plan a trip around Disneyland when Disney World is wide open
IMO DLR is the better park/s, so this is kinda the penalty for going top shelf as it were.
really? When I worked there, we were just blocked on christmas.
Yep! If I want to go solo, then there is plenty of availability. But if I want to take friends or family, forget it.
It can be really frustrating when you want to plan out a trip for friends and family on the MEP. What my wife and I do is just keep checking it multiple times a day when someone wants to go and it sometimes opens up but you got to just take whatever pops up. Which doesnāt really work for a lot of people. The last time it was pretty open on MEP was at the beginning of April but I havenāt checked it recently. Edit: just checked and yeah nothing at all available for the next 2 months on MEP
yeah, the slack channel can be helpful for people willing to swap but it's like... gotta be off season and 90 days in advance to book.
Same here, we had to keep refreshing and FINALLY saw a Sunday open up in June
Oh gotcha.
I worked there for 2 summers. Not once did I go back into the park for pleasure. I just wanted to go home after work. I stayed once on my last day. After I got out of my critter country outfit I just walked into the park through one of the backlot entrances. Are cast members still allowed to go in the park this way?
We werenāt āallowed toā when I worked there in the 90ās, we just did it anyway. I never heard of anyone getting stopped, but it was technically the rule. We were supposed to go in and out the front gate when technically a guest.
Worked there awhile ago on canoes but no we had to park our car at guest parking and then go in
Blocked? or just no reservations available?
No reservations available.
Right?!
lol I feel this. Was fighting to get a day and got may 10th and had to cancel because i have to work and canāt avoid this work. -.-
Seriously. I keep asking my MIL to check reservations and thereās never anything available.
Oh, wow! I didnāt even realize cast member passes have block out dates. Thatās absolutely unfair for all that they do and the magic they create!
The CM-only reservations are usually open all year round with very few blockout, but the main entrance pass, where they take families and friends to the park, has limited opening and they can only do 3 reservations at a time.
That really sucks!
I usually book my weekends a few weeks out, same with Friday nights if I can. I don't love this aspect of the pass system, but I've gotten used to it.
These arent blockouts?
Nope sold outs, not black outs. Inspire is only blacked out a few weeks in December.
You can almost always get a reservation for any day the night before, just check around 9-10 pm and it usually opens up.
Same here! I check at midnight for next-day reservations
I second this! It at least makes it feel like the old pass holder days when you could decide to go on a whim š©
I miss those days and the chance to be spontaneous
Getting off workā¦ having a craving for a chorroā¦drive to Disneyland and stay for 3 hours and leaveā¦ sighā¦ those days are gone
Hmmm š¤ I hope you meant churro š
Thanks for the heads up. I'll start keeping an eye out. fingers crossed š¤
Itās a PITA to keep checking, but Iāve never once not gotten a reservation by checking right before midnight, even for the busiest holiday times. Iāve always been able to go when I wanted to. The only time it really sucks is if you want to get same-day reservations. During the busy times, those are hard to get.
Whatās a PITA?
PITA is flat hollow unleavened bread that can be split open to hold a filling.
I realized itās an acronym for pain in the you know what I thought it was a Disney thing š
[ŃŠ“Š°Š»ŠµŠ½Š¾]
There are also services you can sign up for like ReserveTheMagic and ThemeParkIQ that will send you text messages or emails to let you know when a date opens up for a certain key. Some of them try to charge money but most have a free trial and some are just free with ads.
SSSSSSSSHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH š¤«
Yes! And same day (though I realize going last minute isnāt an option for many people). But I havenāt had luck with either lately!
May is usually grad night season and and most of those days are grad nights. My guess is it's just really booked up rn especially considering May 1st today.
yeah but last month it was spring break. next month for 3 months straight itāll be summer break trips š„²
Wow, that changed in a hurry. I checked not more than two weeks ago and all of May was open.
Came to say this. I just booked May 26 for my daughter and I on Sunday, just 3 days ago. They go fast I guess once we enter the new month.
24th-26th getting booked up make sense given itās the reopening weekend for Fantasmic. Heck, thatās the reason Iām going that weekend. š
Shoot. I forgot about that. Itās gonna be packed. I just was trying to fit it in around my work schedule. Thanks for remembering for me.
Not only will the 24th be packed, but itāll be packed with vloggers, āinfluencersā, and live streamers. šš¼ AND itās Memorial Day weekend.
It's also grad season, so parents are taking their families on weekends
I book any days I *know* I want to go in advance. Like I have friends coming into town on May 12th, so I booked that day weeks ago. Otherwise I just book the night before. It has never failed me. Then in the summer itāll be like, wide open again.
This is the best way to secure a day you for sure want to go. Every night I check around 10pm, I'm able to book next day that was previously unavailable!
Yesss this is it!! Planning is just the way to go now lol gotta plan to book that future date and book it as soon as you can, and then plan to check the night before for spontaneous visits. Nothing frustrating about it.
And tbh there are still same day reservations on some days - just usually weekdays lol. Or most of the summer.
Btw I forgot to say yesterday that I absolutely love your username. It is amazing and it represents my childhood and personality perfectly.
I looooved the book Stellaluna as a kid and still love bats to this day (and the weetzie bat books as a teen) - I have a little Halloween-spooky-orange and black cat so I named her Stellaluna Witch Baby and stole her name for my username lol!
\*me with an Imagine key\* looks about normal
yea imagine keys normally have all weekends unavailable. i personally got used to it and we just start our weekend with thursday.
It's frustrating because I have a reservation for my birthday this month and my friend can't book. Most likely she'll be able to eventually, but 2 years ago, I went to Disneyland alone on my birthday because another friend couldn't get a reservation.
There's tons of little tricks. Let's just say I have never not gotten a reservation day I wanted. even day of. it's work for sure but still.
It's just frustrating because you don't know for sure if you can go or not. Having to stay up the night before to try and snag a reservation is super annoying.
We were thinking about upgrading my (45F) husbandās(45M) SoCal Jan to June ticket to a pass because we wonāt be able likely to use the very last day remaining before the June 2 expiration. So we went to a ticket window on our way out of the parks yesterday and asked about it. When we explained why we wanted to do it; the lady was more than willing to share with us the prices of the pass etc., but she also shared with us several tips and tricks to getting reservations when they seem to be closed. : Pretty much everything everyone has mentioned here was confirmed bythat kind employee.
I think I have a few more tips than any employees know. I won't share 1 tip that almost guarantees me a reservation though
RIP Dream Key. š
Little hack, or not. Most of the time if you check the night before around 10 pm and on, you can get the reservation for the following day.
Which is OK if you live near there, but doesnāt help if youāre like us, living in Vegas. Itās hard to get a hotel room last minute near the park.
Good point, yeah I live down the street.
Nice.
But why wouldn't you book your reservations in advance if you know your travel dates?
We could, but weād need to cancel the room reservations within their cancellation period to avoid being charged. Thatās between 24-72 hours prior to scheduled arrival date. If no park reservations are available by that cutoff, weād have to cancel the room reservations. Then if park reservations open up the night before, chances are there are no rooms available.
Disney stopped caring about passholders a long time ago. I live and work in the shadow of the place, surrounded by people who adore Disney, and itās sad to see how little they get in return for their adoration. Uncle Walt, we miss you.
Truth For the amount of tickets and everything else Itās definitely NOT WORTH IT ANYMORE
Fellow inspire here! I second what others have said but this is how we maximize our passes. - make use of your 6 reservation holds. You can cancel them a day before without getting a "strike". If you know your going to go plan ahead, but use your extra ones you are not scheduling far out for "what if we want to go" days. The number of these we get with inspire is the one of the biggest benefits imo. - Check frequently throughout the day/s leading up. A reservation almost always opens up for when you want to go, you just have to catch it š
I feel like the former fuels the latter and contributes to the lack of availability. :/ Kinda like abusing ride breakdown multi-attraction exploits
I can see what you're saying but I'm not sure it's abuse when you're not exploiting anything doing so. Simply playing by the terms. I try to play devil's advocate when considering these things. All passes can do it so it's not specific to just inspire. Arguably you also give up your ability to plan further ahead by doing so, which frees up availability for those planning ahead that have more blocked out dates. Inspire simply gets more to play with compared to the other passes as well as fewer blocked dates. It's two of the core features we pay more for the pass. It's pay to play with magic keys. My suggestions are also more focused for those that like to frequent the park quite a lot. Maybe more than once a week and for sure more than once a month. For us, we go so much, we have fewer reservations further out because we have smaller gaps between our visits.
Disney wants more APs booking weekdays to even out the crowds, so they artificially close weekends and see how many single day tickets they can sell. Then the day before they open reservations back up to the magic keys.
Nice tip! will keep an eye out
Oh they totally do this!! And whatever scraps are left they throw it to the cast reservations after that. I'll check for a date all day sometimes and nothing pops up and then magically the next day both parks are wide open š
They totally did this! We went this weekend; I realized that we adjusted when we would leave and arrive at the parks by one day. Originally, we were going to drive down Saturday and go to the park Saturday and Sunday and come home Monday. We shifted it to leave and drive down on Friday with the thought that because we were leaving early enough in the day we would start hopping on Friday. I realized this on May 1 and was never able to get May 3. I checked all during the weekend for ha ha sakes because by then we had accepted weād hang out around the area and the rooftop pool at our hotel versus go to the parks on May 3. It never opened up that I saw, but I kept seeing May 4 open up periodically for CA. May 5 opened up in the wee hours of the morning same day for both parks, It had not popped up before that that I saw on May 3 or May 4. Truth be told given that it was a weekend that consisted of bat days, May 4, and Cinco de Mayo- I was actually surprised at the crowd level in a good way. The worst parts of the park were Tomorrowland and GE. We didnāt go over on the west side of DLR so I canāt speak about that firsthand but I assume thatās where the majority of the crowds were. CA was great. We used Genie plus but in hindsight had I been a little bit less impatient we probably wouldnāt have needed it. Web slingers was down to a 25 minute wait; which for that is almost a walk on. We did single rider (yes we got split up) and were able to ride twice in the same 25 minute wait.
For those fans that have Monday - Thursday off days from workā¦I had this old plan So Cal Select. That was like this I loved it when I was younger & working retail
The so cal select AP was so good when parking was easier. it's pretty similar to the imagine key nowadays. We used to have a movie pass and validate our downtown disney parking by using our movie pass to get movie tickets and just going to the park for a few hours instead. Not so easy anymore
The non-Key people get more open dates than the Key holders. That's one big reason we quit the Magic Key/AP program.
Thatās kinda the point though. Disney WANTS ticket holders in the parks more than key holders, they spend a lot more money than we do. Between the tickets, food, souvenirs etc, they probably spend 3-4 times as much as we do because they donāt have the luxury of being able to come back again whenever they want.
I have an Enchant Key and I have the same calendar for May. All fridays & sundays are blocked out. We got my husband the 3-day SoCAL pass and he sees all days as available in May. It is sooooooo irritating.
Don't you get like 6 bookings at a time? I can see how the system is annoying but it has never been an issue nabbing a reservation the day before I want to go either.
For the unemployed influencers
And Stay at home parents
I have no complaints about our pass or new reservation system, imagine how much more crowded the parks would be without it
Itās funny I was annoyed by the park reservation system, but hubby kept saying he thinks that he enjoys the park better because of the crowd capacity control. Of course take that how you will because heās not the one that has to plan the trip down the hill lol
The reservation system needs to go. Period. Itās IS relatively easy to get a reservation for the next day in the evening. But still. Give us back our spontaneity please! Why the heck does Florida get everything.
Pretty funny how folks are jumping to defend this completely broken system haha but yeah, it's pretty ridiculous that with the highest tier pass on the first day of month you have one weekend day accessible. This is why they not only haven't turned off Key sales but they're actively promoting you upgrade to one from your day ticket while in the park. Go ahead, buy one! See what happens! You've already signed the contract, they don't care if you show up or not - and in fact they'd rather you didn't! Yes of course the terms say there needs to be reservations available - but aside from the reservation system being completely indefensible as a guest, it's absolutely not unreasonable to expect even half of weekend days to be available as a top-tier passholder. "But reservations will become available you just have to look" Yeah great system to have to dedicate more than ten seconds of your day to finding a window to get into a theme park you already paid for access to "You can book 90 days in advance" Nothing says spontaneity like deciding on a day three months ahead of when you go NO OTHER PARKS ON THE PLANET DO THIS AND IT IS NOT FOR CAPPING ATTENDANCE
Iām not jumping to defend it, just trying to explain that the frustration can be mitigated by understanding how the pass works before you have problems instead of after
The way the pass works is a problem in itself, which I definitely signed up for and expected to an extent. I think the problem here is that the availability fully matches that of a pass almost 1000$ less. I believe this can also serve as a beneficial clarifying post for those considering purchasing a pass in the future to understand the impact the reservation system in reality.
They were all open yesterday cause I just booked the 2nd-7th no problem. Mustāve changed the availability this morning since itās the 1st of the month?
Did you check later at night? This was similar to how it looked for me on Saturday
No, it was at like 6am before I had to head into work
6 AM is one of the golden hours (just like around dinner time to 10 PM) basically thatās exactly when the reservation system comes back online-Confirmed by an employee at the ticket window- that is the time that adjusted availability is released back into the system. All day long cancellations are released in real time but the algorithm assumes a capacity of X for each day and 6 AM is the time when the computer basically says ādo we have that many bookings? No? OK then release this Many slots to be available for booking.ā
Iām going to cancel 3 reservations for may 11 If you want to take them
If you have an early morning job or an early riser, the probability of a same day reservation is high.
Whatās even more screwed up is that the whole month is wide open with the SoCal ticket. Whatās the point of a pass that supposedly has the least amount of blackout dates when an entire month of weekends is blacked out? And this isnāt even the peak of summer yet!
I just realized (checked the availability calendar) that people who buy a ticket such as one park per day or park hopper also have the entire month available to them. Weāre literally being blacklisted from the parkā¦.
This is EGREGIOUS
The beauty of being only 4 hours away is I created my own pass. I just buy one day tickets and come once a month. These keys look like they are a total headache. This way I can plan on a whim.
you're spending a lot of unnecessary money that way. the keys aren't bad. and you can plan on a whim with them still.
I should probably mention we are a family of 7. So for all of us to get keys, would be super expensive!
But wouldnt the keys still mostly cost less, assuming that with one car or two cars only 1-2 of you need the inspire parking pass? And then the rest could get by with Enchant or if you only go Saturday youre paying the premium day ticket price anyway so Inspire would still make sense (12x$160 = $1920 if youre paying for day saturday passes all year)
You make a valid point but according to this post it's not easy to book your days and many get booked up. So why would I make it harder for my family when I can just book single day tickets whenever I want?
Were you not prompted to read and approve the terms and conditions before purchasing? I remember I had to
This is why I let my AP go and Iām not coming back until this reservation system is done away with. What a joke you want to control the crowds Iām sure if 250,000 people bought a one day ticket they wouldnāt close down the parks they would allow it to happen they just want to maximize profits.
I miss the deluxe annual pass so much š
Nope. Anaheim fire department would order the place to close due to overcrowding. Years ago I worked there on a 75,000 + day and it was hell on earth.
They still have to follow fire codes. Even before the pandemic and the reservation system people would get turned away if the parks were full. I actually prefer the reservation system as I know if I have a reservation I have a guaranteed entry. Which is important for those of us flying in from out of country. I would be PISSED if I flew all the way down there and got turned away at the gate.
That only typically happens on Christmas week and maybe a handful of other special occasion dates during the year. Max capacity closures are pretty rare for the most part. The park has been accurately predicting and managing crowd levels for decades before the reservation system.
Seriously. The only time the parks were overcrowded was around Christmas, when almost every pass except for the top two levels were blacked out. For most of the year, the parks were busy, but not oh my god I cannot move through the walkways busy like it has been ever since they brought out this bs system. The reservations are not to make our experience better, itās purely profit motivated. This plus moving everything onto the app, adding genie plus on rides that do not need it such as pirates/mermaid to add false value to it, major rides being constantly down all year long, has made the entire customer experience much worse while the company profits more and more.
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Agree with most of this but curious how does the reservation system cause the parks to be even busier? Wouldnt it be the opposite?
So Magic Keys open for reservations 90 days in advance so they will likely start to disappear in the 30 day window. May is gonna be a bit crazy on weekends with graduations coming up so weekends are gonna be blocked out for the most part. Definitely recommend checking the night before cause Magic Key holders can only cancel up to 11:59 PST the day before else they will be penalized for missing a reservation. Good luck hope you get one!
My Knotts pass was $425 and got me free parking, no blackout dates, and one free fast lane per visit. Disney needs to step up their pass perks.
Yea, the only downside is you have to go to Knotts. Where the most fun thing to do is count how many Edgars you see.
LMFAOOOOOOOOOO
But Knott's hours suck during the week!
Yeah, but it's Knott's. That's like saying look at all these perks Walmart gives me. I say that as a Knott's AP holder. There's no comparison between Knott's which struggles to attract guests and Disney that is busy year round.
This is why I wonāt buy a pass again until they remove reservations.
I looked yesterday and all those Sundays were still open; they open up just keep an eye out.
Iāve been checking every day multiple times a day and they havenāt been opened for over a month
I believe you, but I was able to book 5/25 and 5/26 yesterday, 2 inspire keys
Damn. I wash checking all day š congrats š
My husband gets bored at work and just starts booking lol - honestly itās a bit of a problem!š¤£
I also think that sometimes only one or two reservations are available so they donāt show up for me because I make them for three people. Itās happened a few times where i check just myself to see the dates and when i go back to check all three boxes the days i want are not available. I double checked the first time that happened and noticed more dates were available if i was making a single reservation vs 3.
So you could go when itās not too busy and enjoy the park
I love going on the weekdays it's so bad to go on the weekends it's way to busy
not worth renewing anyways, many rides are undergoing renovations and not much more is being added to the parks.
Yeah sucks. I always keep 6 days booked and just cancel if I canāt go because the weekends fill fast. Especially around graduations and 3 day weekends. Keep refreshing as Iām sure Iām not the only one who does this.Ā
I am part of the "only book the night before" club. Even when I have plans with people months in advance, I'll never get the reservation until the night before, it's a hard rule for me. Not a fan of the reservation system and I try to keep things as similar to the days of old as possible. Not to mention, I've literally never failed getting reservations the night before. It always opens up, so like why worry about getting the date ahead of time when you can just get it the night before? I always see friends freaking out and trying to get their days super far in advance and stressing, when I just hop on at 10pm the night before, get my reservation, and leave with zero stress. It's always there, just from dozens of attempts. Basically makes the entire reservation calendar irrelevant, just how I like it.
If you are flexible. You can check the day before or after midnight of the day before and usually there are reservations available due to cancellations
These are blocked out because of a bunch of California high school Grad nights.
When you buy a Disney key you no longer have to buy a ticket on the days your key allows you to go on correct?
Theres a theory now that Disney continues selling Magic Keys but has not upped the reservation capacity in step with those extra keys being sold, leading to more inspire calendars looking like this, more frequently. Maybe something to that theory?
To give Bob iger more moeny
Class action lawsuit incoming?
A lot of people commenting on how they open up last minute and we have found that to be the case as well. One of the bigger benefits is not paying for parking. At $35 a trip it only takes a few trips to realize the savings of the higher level pass. It really is a full package deal ,not just entry to the park.
I think the Inspire pass should come with no reservations.
Are you serious? Free parking, extra reservations, better discounts, a sense of elitism (jk on this one). Check for reservations more often and youāll have less to complain about. Those of us who check regularly have no problem finding openings, weekend or otherwise. Plus, do you even remember what it was like before reservations were a thing? The place was a zoo! Crowd management is better now because people who donāt check for reservations often enough donāt get in.
Damn. I forgot I'm part of the elite. worth. One day we will sell our kidneys to be part of the world order, Club 33
Genie + is more of an irritation than the Rez system. And paying additional for bigger rides
Disney has been downhill since Covid dude. Such a shame. Corporate greed at its peak.
1,000%. No point in the key when they block every weekend. Made the same comment in a post recently; will not be renewing next yearā¦ their goal seems to be to monetize buyers and then throttle usage.
Can a SoCal 3-Day Mon-Thursday pass be upgraded to a Magic Key?
Yes. I believe you can do it at the park
Yes, as long as you do it before the end of the last day of the ticket, and depending on availability (and what key you get) make sure youāre done with being in the parks before you do, as the ticket is invalidated and so is your reservation that was tied to it.
This is (one of the) reasons we didnāt renew our passes. Why am I paying so much money to not be able to go when I can or when I want to? Not worth it anymore.
Visiting Mondays through Thursdays?
Lol n00b
I normally book my days over 30 days in advance. Not ideal, but having an Inspire Key doesnāt guarantee park entrance. Iāll book even further out when I hear thereās a special event going on. In this case, Season of the Force, Pixar Fest along with Grad Nights and some schools being out end of May are contributing to the lack of days available.
I have a question about a pass and magic key i posted on r/Disneyplanning if anyone can help please and thank you
The weekly question thread is the appropriate place for these sort of questions. https://www.reddit.com/r/Disneyland/comments/1cf073a/weekly_park_questionsadvice_thread/ But otherwise yes, I do believe you can upgrade a 3-day SoCal pass. https://plandisney.disney.go.com/question/buy-day-socal-pass-upgrade-magic-key-once-go-sale-dont-go-560827/#:~:text=Even%20if%20you%20haven't,last%20day%20of%20valid%20use.
Thank you.
Yes, we did it when we were there in March. aAs long as you do it before the end of the last day of the ticket (midnight is the cutoff, so be sure to get out of the parks before then with enough time to potentially stand in the ticket line before getting it done), and depending on availability (and what key you get) make sure youāre done with being in the parks before you do, as the ticket is invalidated and so is your reservation that was tied to it.
When you upgrade, doesnāt the Key take the start date of when you first used your 3-day ticket? So if there are reservations available that day, you could make a reservation and just go in with the Key. Or you upgrade online in the app and donāt leave the park at all.
Yes. First date of use. And correct, as long as the pass isnāt blocked out that day (itās not like the old days where the pass was unblocked the day of purchase even if normally it would have been blocked). And yes, you could just do it in the app and stay in park (we couldnāt because we used gift cards to do the upgrades, as we bought them at target to get the 5% off), so ticket booth it wasā¦
I'm off on Monday and Tuesday, so it's perfect for people who don't work the M-F 9-5 jobs.
Is it summer school holidays or something? Why May?
Check right now. Itās opened up and Saturday. Lame it it usually (always) opens up the night before
It seemed easy until the latest batch of magic keys started selling. Maybe they sold too many?
They are probably making fewer reservations available for keys as weāre entering the busy grad and summer seasons. They might drop more as time goes on.
Is it blocked out or just full? I live out of state and have to book farther out usually. I book as soon as I am able. Usually night before though you can grab something!
It's not blocked just booked
You gotta be like those select people who live in Anaheim, no kids, and job where you set your own hours to be able to go on a whim.
Depends on your needs but that would be the pass Iād buy. My wife and I only work Friday, Saturday and Sunday so this would be perfect for us at a good price point. Downside is we live on the east coast.
I gave up my passes. I use to be able to go when I wanted to. But I got work Disney. Iām not rich and was able to scrap on by with passes and go on the weekendsā¦. Well Legoland it is and they got a water park during the summers thatās not to bad. And its not blacked out on the weekends.
No, but I work at the resort and with people who have been there decades, and work behind the scenes
That is what that lawsuit was all about. You buy an annual pass not to be able to go as much as you want.
Because the weekends are what most people have available to do things with their family, so those days are going to book up quicker than M-Th?
Yes
The point was to get 20% off merch. If they have a higher pass with more percent off I am going to do it.
The point is they got your money.
I'm so happy my days off are Wed-Thurs I dont gotta worry about this lame reservation system
These aren't black out days. These are days that are already booked full.
correct
Just posting because many comments seem to think these are totally unavailable days, when in reality they were available to those who booked ahead of time.
I mean, 25 days seems ahead of time to me
Reason we finally gave up our passes after 13 years.
It's spring break for a lot of people, not surprised it's blocked
You have six reservations with a 3 month outlook. I have been reserving every Friday/Saturday/ Sunday weekly no problem.