Disney World's solutions to some of its pandemic-era problems created their own problems.
In many ways, the company has faced a series of imperfect solutions when it comes to balancing its bottom line with delivering a good experience for customers.
Basically, Walt Disney (DIS) has more demand for its Florida theme parks than it has inventory. That has forced the company to hold onto some unpleasant pandemic-era changes that customers don't like.
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The biggest change -- and the one visitors hate most -- was Disney World's reservation system. This requires people to not just buy a ticket for any of the four Disney World theme parks, but also to make a reservation for the park they intend to visit.
This caused a lot of problems because sometimes you could buy a ticket but not be able to get your park of choice. That's a problem for someone on a short visit who really wanted to visit "Star Wars: Galaxy's Edge" at Disney's Hollywood Studios or a family with young kids where Magic Kingdom offers the most for that age group.
In addition, the reservation system was a particular problem for annual-pass holders who were used to being able to visit parks at their leisure. That group lost their ability to be spontaneous and that made their very expensive passes much less valuable.
Now, Disney has made two key moves that will go a long way toward fixing these issues.
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Disney World Makes a Major Reservation Change
The problem with the reservation system for people buying Disney World tickets is that holding a ticket did not guarantee you access to the park of your choice.
So, even on a four-day visit, you had no guarantee that you could access Magic Kingdom, Epcot, Hollywood Studios, and Animal Kingdom at all, let alone on the days you chose to go.
That made vacation planning harder. Maybe a family member wanted to join you at Epcot on one day of your trip but was free only that one day. You were taking a risk buying tickets and hoping that everyone could get the needed reservations (a task made even harder when trying to coordinate with people not linked to your account in the Disney World app).
Now, Disney has made a major change to its reservation system that solves that problem. It's eliminating the need for reservations on date-based tickets.
"Starting with park visits on Jan. 9, 2024, theme park reservations will no longer be required for date-based tickets. You heard that right! When getting your ticket, you will simply select a start date for Jan. 9, 2024 or later, complete your purchase, and then you will be all set," the company said in a news release.
Most tickets sold at Disney World are date-based. People buying walkup tickets and other non-date-based options will still need reservations, but that affects relatively few people. In most cases, this is Disney going back to how things operated before covid.
Disney Keeps Giving Back to Passholders
Disney recently enabled annual-pass holders to visit any of the four Disney World theme parks after 2 p.m. without reservations, except for Magic Kingdom on the weekends. That restored a lot of the value passholders lost when they had to plan ahead and use the reservation system.
Now, the theme park giant is further making things easier for passholders (and cast members, the company's term for park employees). Disney is offering certain days where no reservation will be needed by passholders or cast members:
"In 2024, we plan to offer select days on which our Annual Passholders and Disney cast members may visit Walt Disney World theme parks without needing a park reservation," the company said.
"Once introduced, we will roll out these good-to-go days on an ongoing basis. The good-to-go days may vary by park, and pass blockout dates and capacity limitations continue to apply like they do today."
