By This is one of the questions we hear most often.
The explanation centers on Disney’s challenges during the pandemic.
At that time, Disney needed to know the number of expected visitors to its theme parks to protect the safety of its guests.
So, Disney required visitors to book a Park Pass each day of their visit.
Let’s say that you’re spending Tuesday at Disney’s Hollywood Studios and Wednesday at EPCOT.
You would need to book a Park Pass at Hollywood Studios on Tuesday and then an EPCOT Park Pass for Wednesday.
Your Tuesday Park Pass wouldn’t work on Wednesday, and your EPCOT Park Pass wouldn’t work at Hollywood Studios.
By employing this strategy, Disney controlled theme park attendance during the social distancing era.
In the process, park officials realized the financial advantages of accurate head counts.
They could staff the parks more efficiently by continuing the use of Park Pass Reservations.
Technically, Disney still requires Park Passes in some cases.
Thankfully, the odds of this applying to you are quite remote.
The only guests who must book Park Pass Reservations are Annual Passholders and those with military park admission, such as Military Salute tickets.
We’ll discuss them in a moment, but let’s focus on casual Disney World guests first.
The good news is that unless you are using Disney tickets you purchased quite a while ago, you’re fine.
You won’t need to schedule Park Passes during your visit.
Under the modern Disney rules, if you own a time-based admission ticket, you don’t need a Park Pass Reservation.
So, when you work with your MickeyTravels agent to acquire tickets, Park Passes aren’t necessary. Forget about them. We never mentioned them as far as you know.
If you somehow ARE using tickets that aren’t date-based, you must reserve a Park Pass each day of your trip.
In that case, you’ll use My Disney Experience to book your Park Passes.
The process isn’t difficult, but you must link your theme park tickets before you can proceed.
You add the Park Passes to your account in My Disney Experience with your confirmation ID number. You receive this number when you purchase the tickets and can probably find it in your email inbox.
Next, you select the option for “Make a Park Pass Reservation.” Choose whether you have a theme park ticket or Annual Pass. Then, select the guest or guests you’re adding to your park pass and hit continue.
You will go to a calendar display. Click the date for your park pass. You’ll finalize it on the next screen.
The process takes five seconds. No joke.
For Annual Passholders and Military Salute ticket holders, the process works similarly on days when Park Passes are required.
You can check the Disney World calendar to tell whether you need a Park Pass for the day you plan to visit.
Annual Passholders will also notice something called “Good-to-go days.” On Good-to-go days, Disney World doesn’t anticipate high attendance, so Annual Passholders don’t need Park Passes.
Note that Annual Passholders can visit the parks after 2 p.m. even without a Park Pass. There is an exception to that rule, though. Under the current rules, you cannot visit Magic Kingdom after 2 p.m. on Saturdays or Sundays.
All of these rules are overly complicated, but you don’t need to worry about it if you purchase date-based tickets.
Since that applies to the majority of you, don’t worry about Park Passes.
Feature Image: Disney Parks Blog