Walt Disney World’s Theme Park Reservation system is likely going to see some changes in the new year. Reports from WDWMagic and other sources say that Disney plans to remove the park reservation system for most guests, and make park hopping easier.
The belief is Disney will eliminate the park reservation system for individual park tickets. Instead, the “reservation” will automatically occur when the guest buys the ticket. Guests with multi-day tickets may need to select which park they want to attend on the first day of their visit. Annual passholders would likely still need to make park reservations during this initial change.
As for park hopping, the current 2pm restriction will likely be relaxed or eliminated for guests with regular tickets. It’s unclear how the park hopping policy will change for annual passholders.
These changes go a long way in fixing the headache that is the Theme Park Reservation system, but they’re not perfect. Disney has made it clear – repeatedly – that the park reservation system is here to stay. Disney’s ability to manage staffing based on the expected crowd levels is too big of an internal perk to completely abandon.