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Park Reservations Differ From Fastpass Reservations When it Comes to Adding Locals



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After a lengthy phone call with the VI Passholder line this morning, I was able to confirm that reserving park time will not act like reserving fastpasses when it comes to adding your local family and friends to your plans. Read on for details.

While this was not the specific issue I was aiming to resolve on this (two and a half hour!) phone call, over the course of our discussion, the cast member let me know that unlike the previous Fastpass system, guests with resort reservations will not be able to add local family and friends during their initial booking window.

I recommend NOT calling Disney today if you don’t absolutely have to!

The previous Fastpass+ system had something called the “rule of inheritance”. This allowed guests with resort reservations to add their family and friends to their Fastpass+ experiences even if they were not on the resort booking.

As long as one guest in the party had a resort reservation booked, the window for booking fastpasses for the entire party opened at the 60 day mark.

Sorry, mom and dad, this time you’re on your own!

The cast member I spoke to today confirmed that this will NOT be the case with the new park reservation system. Cast members have specifically been told that the new system will not have the “rule of inheritance”.

She told me that if my parents would like to join our party during our resort stay in August, they will not be able to reserve park time until Friday, June 26. This is the date for all passholders, my parents are Florida Resident Gold Passholders, to book their time.

Locals can join you (subject to park availability during their separate booking window)

It’s a small change, and it is possible that many of our readers will not be affected. Still, I thought we should communicate to you as you make your plans on Monday that you will be limited to booking for only the guests specifically listed on your resort reservation.

Passholders without resort reservations will be able to start booking time on Friday, June 26, followed by guests with regular park tickets who do not have resort bookings on June 28.

At my anniversary party in Disney’s Animal Kingdom

Check out Susan’s helpful article on step by step instructions for making your park reservation. Make sure you have your tickets linked in My Disney Experience before the system goes live on Monday morning!

I know this is all a lot of new information for everyone. What other questions do you have? We are all available in the Facebook group and in the Facebook comments to try and help our readers make sense of everything!

-Rebecca W Davis

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Lisa Land

Sunday 21st of June 2020

Will will be able to do our park reservations through our MDE on my phone?

Rebecca Davis

Sunday 21st of June 2020

Hi Lisa! Thanks for reading. Word around the campfire is no, it will he web-based and not through the app. You could do it in your browser window on your phone, if you prefer... check out this helpful guide from my friends Susan https://www.kennythepirate.com/2020/06/19/step-by-step-guide-to-create-disney-park-reservations-plus-limits-for-the-time-of-day-guests-can-enter/

Lori

Sunday 21st of June 2020

My question is this... we have a group of 6 people staying in a family suite at AOA beginning July 25. Do we all have to make reservations to attend the same parks in the same days? Or is it like the old fastpass and dining reservations where each person can make their own plans?

Rebecca Davis

Sunday 21st of June 2020

Hey Lori! Thanks for reading. You should be able to make the reservations for your entire party. Just be sure you have everyone properly linked up in your resort reservation. If any guests in your party have their own login information, I would have it handy just in case there’s any issues. For instance if your husband has his own MDE login. Good luck!

Louise

Sunday 21st of June 2020

Rebecca--I called the VIPassholder line yesterday and after a long wait and a transfer to ticketing with another long wait, I received FULL refund of my Platinum AP. I purchased it on 2/20/20 & used 5 days of it with 4 more trips planned, possibly more. I live in PA. I am high risk for Covid & will not be able to visit WDW until there is a reliable vaccine. Once I reached ticketing, I was given the option of a full refund, adding 3 months on to the AP, or freezing a full year of AP to be activated with my next visit to the park. I chose the full refund to my credit card. Hope that helps someone else.

Janice Jones

Sunday 21st of June 2020

We have reservations at Disney resorts for next March and September. We have annual passes set to expire in January, but too early to renew now. Guess we can’t get reservations until after we renew?

shannon990

Sunday 21st of June 2020

Thanks, Rebecca! I’ll try to see what I can find out and let you know!

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