Disney’s Park Pass system went live this morning for Annual Passholders (who didn’t have a resort stay) to make their Disney World theme park reservations. All guests are now required to have both a park ticket and reservation to visit during Disney World’s phased reopening.

The system came up early, and although it was sailing along a lot smoother than its initial launch, things were still very messy.

There are more conflicting reports than ever before now that Annual Passholders without a hotel reservation have been able to access the system. That’s why we want to share with you what some of our readers saying and what our own personal experience has been with using Disney Park Pass today.

The Annual Passholder “Either-Or” Issue

Disney announced Annual Passholders (without resort reservations) are allowed to make THREE days of Disney Park Pass reservations at one time, OR if they have a Disney World resort stay booked, they can reserve park passes for the length of their vacation. We were told you CAN’T have both by multiple Disney PR reps and Disney cast members.

Click here to learn how to deal with the most common glitches in the Disney Park Pass’!

But some Annual Passholders reported this morning that they WERE able to make reservations apart from their resort stays so it appears there are some discrepancies occurring in certain cases.

At this time, some guests are being told that the “bonus days” were glitches that Disney’s IT team has now fixed.

More Than Three Days

In addition to booking separate days on top of their resort stay, APs were also stating they were able to book more than three days without a hotel reservation if they weren’t holding on to a park pass for a later date.

Check out our Disney Park Pass FAQ here!

But others who contacted us could not book separate days on top of their resort stay. One of our AP readers tried booking three days in February 2021, but he had already booked park passes for a seven-day resort stay in October, so he wasn’t allowed.

One of our team members here at DFB, who had previously booked hotel reservation-connected park passes was able to book 5 floating AP park passes, while the other member of her traveling party who wasn’t on the hotel reservation could only book three days. We heard some Annual Passholders say they could book up to a total of 16 park passes if they had hotel reservations and more than three reservations if they picked earlier dates.

Rapidly Changing Availability for Annual Passholders

One of the things we noticed right away this morning was how quickly dates were filling up. Right around 7 AM EST was when most Annual Passholders seemed to hop onto the system (if they could even log on — several could not), we saw dates changing from green to yellow quickly!

While it does appear Disney added more spots for previously filled-up dates at Disney’s Hollywood Studios, either they didn’t add additional passes for July 11th and 12th at Magic Kingdom or Disney’s Animal Kingdom OR any additional capacity added blew out the door almost instantly.

Even though Annual Passholder park passes were being snatched up left and right, Resort Guest availability was staying pretty much the same. Magic Kingdom booked up for APs from July 11th through the 14th and then the 18th as well, but was still showing availability for hotel guests.

Certain Dates Were Unavailable for Annual Passholders, But Open For Resort Guests

This shows us that it seems the limited capacity isn’t in just one bucket. There seem to be separate availability caps for APs and hotel guests.

This means if you’re a resort guest, you get to draw from the pool of resort guest Park Passes, and if you’re an Annual Passholder, you’ll take from the pile of reservations set aside specifically for APs. There doesn’t appear to be any overlap. We’ll see what happens on Sunday when all ticket-holders can book park passes!

These theme park reservations are available through September 26, 2021, for both resort guests and Annual Passholders but park passes are subject to availability.

Can’t Book Park Passes After Your Annual Pass’ Expiration Date

Since Disney hasn’t extended many Annual Passes in their system yet, we were unable to reserve park passes after our annual pass expiration date. This might be a problem some of our readers have been encountering without realizing it.

For instance, one of our readers was unable to make park reservations for days that should have been available. When she tried to book a reservation for July 21st (a date that shows all parks available), she got an error message saying she had already reached her limit. This might have been the reason for the glitch, but the system is still having a lot of variances.

We’re still working through all the comments from our readers and compiling our Disney’s Park Pass FAQ with all the latest knowledge we’ve been able to piece together, so stay tuned for more important updates regarding Annual Passholder park passes!

Were you able to make your park passes this morning? Tell us what your experience was like in the comments below!