Theme park fans love complaining about theme parks, and while I try to look on the bright side of most decisions, like the reported changes to Disney World’s Villains Land, it’s not like I don’t have those things I wish theme parks would do.
I was recently part of a small group of journalists and influencers who were invited to take part in a Disneyland business update. Over the course of several hours, we got something of a behind-the-scenes understanding of how a lot of Disneyland Resort is working, and while we got some news that made me quite happy, I also began to understand why some things I'd like to see the resort do will probably never happen.
Disneyland’s Reservation System Is Here To Stay
When theme parks all reopened following the global pandemic, they did so with a limited capacity, which required that tickets, which by and large had not previously been attached to specific dates, include dated reservations to prevent overcrowding. As rules were relaxed, most theme parks eventually removed their reservation requirements. The most notable exception that has kept them has been Disneyland.
I understood why the reservation system needed to exist at one point, but I’ve always hated it, and when Walt Disney World removed its reservation system for the general public, I waited to find out when Disneyland would do the same. During the meeting with Disneyland President Thomas Masloum, we did learn that park hopping restrictions were being eliminated later this year. However, it was also made fairly clear that the reservation system is not going away.
There are two reasons for this. First, reservations allow Disneyland Resort to better staff the parks. If Disneyland knows ahead of time how many people are going to be in each park, then it knows how many people it's going to need to work that park. Guests won’t get shortchanged by the problems that come with understaffing, and Disneyland doesn’t have to pay wages for unnecessary overstaffing.
Beyond that, however, Mazloum indicated that one thing the reservation system has succeeded in doing is balancing crowds. Most people, for obvious reasons, used to visit the parks on weekends, while weekdays were far less crowded. However, with reservations, when weekends are full, guests are filling in during the week, leading to a more balanced load, which should make the Disneyland experience more consistent for everybody.
MagicBand+ Functionality At Disneyland Won’t Match Walt Disney World
One of the more interesting pieces of kit that you can buy at Disney theme parks is the MagicBand (now the MagicBand+). The device is worn like a watch, and it is your all-access pass to all things at Walt Disney World. It can contain your park ticket, your Lightning Lane passes, your hotel room key, your credit card for buying food and merch, it holds all your Photopass photos (many without you needing to do anything), and the new version lights up and vibrates alongside different events like parades and fireworks.
I’ve found the devices quite convenient when visiting Walt Disney World, and I was quite excited when it was finally announced that the MagicBand+ would be added to the Disneyland resort arsenal, but thus far, while the device is a useful tool at Walt Disney World, it’s just a fun toy at Disneyland. Outside of its light-up features, the band can only be used for your park ticket and Lightning Lanes, and it looks like that’s all it will ever do.
I specifically asked Disneyland President Thomas Mazloum about it, and he was surprisingly honest that it simply doesn’t make financial sense. Walt Disney World has over two dozen hotels on property, meaning that a significant percentage of guests (upwards of 40% according to some estimates) are staying on property. Only 7% of Disneyland Resort’s guests do the same. It makes the investment to make MagicBands work as hotel keys simply not make sense.
This makes a lot of sense, since Disneyland Resort only has three hotels, of course onluy a small fraction of guests are staying on property, but I had never really considered that the number of on-site guests was quite so low. I would still love to see MagicBands get more use at Disneyland, but I at least understand why it doesn’t pencil out.
These things still certainly could change, of course. If Disneyland Resort finds the money to improve MagicBands, it could come back to them in more sales of them. And it’s also possible that once park hoppers no longer have restrictions due to reservations, that reservations themselves could become less useful to Disneyland and go away. I still hope these changes happen, but if they don’t, I can’t argue that the decisions don’t make sense.
