Well, the much-awaited Disney Park Pass theme park reservation system went live yesterday — and it had some issues.
We’re Working On It
As Disney World resort guests with existing reservations became the first to access the Disney Park Pass system, there were apparently some serious glitches to deal with. Reports flooded in of lengthy wait times, inaccurate reservation limits, and falsely unavailable park days.
Let’s take a look at some of the glitches that guests encountered — and how to handle them for the next big Disney Park Pass day on June 26th (for Passholders without Resort reservations) or June 28th (for guests with just tickets).
Wait Times
First off, let’s talk about wait times to get into the site. According to the Tampa Bay Times, many people reported super lengthy wait times. We here at DFB were even stuck with some long waits! Our readers experienced this as well. We had commenters explain that they had spent HOURS waiting to get to the Disney Park Pass page by midday yesterday.
I have been on for over 4 hours, kicked out, I finally got into the calendar to see that all months are grey, you cant make any reservations. Im back waiting for orbit.
— Julie (@julieellen1978) June 22, 2020
Such an overload was likely due to high demand. In fact, we had issues accessing all sorts of pages on the Disney World site, even those completely unrelated to the Disney Park Pass. Since yesterday, wait times have apparently settled down. We haven’t heard nearly as many complaints about being unable to access the system.
Disney Park Pass Error Message
But, that doesn’t mean that these wait times won’t crop up again. Yesterday was just the first round of the Disney Park Pass opening. Those with existing resort reservations have access to the system now, but June 26th will allow Annual Passholders (without hotel reservations) to reserve and June 28th will bring existing ticket holders into the mix.
It’s definitely possible that these big release days will see extended waits and glitchy virtual queues once more. But fear not, dear reader! We have a few tips and tricks to improving your chances of making it to the Disney Park Pass screen.
Stitch, you dastardly little guy.
For one, folks reported that using Google Chrome, Microsoft Edge, or Firefox worked much better than Safari or Internet Explorer. Theme park journalist Carlye Wisel reported that, while using Safari, she got stuck on a blank white screen when she loaded in.
mine will load through all the way but do so to a blank white screen — I hear other people having this issue too!
—
carlye wisel (@carlyewisel) June 22, 2020
If you end up stuck in a waiting room for some time, try using an incognito browser and/or clearing cookies. This might give the site the clean slate it needs to load you in. Just keep in mind, your wait may be long just because there are a lot of people ahead of you. If these tips don’t work, remember to be patient and keep trying. Wait times and demand on the site WILL lighten up the longer the system is up.
Click here to learn more about the Disney Park Pass system!
Annual Passholder Limit Glitch
Still, the issues don’t end once you make it to the Disney Park Pass page. Though Annual Passholders without hotel reservations cannot access the Disney Park Pass system until Friday, Annual Passholders WITH hotel reservations got to make their theme park reservations yesterday. Unfortunately, a few of them ran into some glitches.
The official policy for Disney Park Pass for Annual Passholders limits them to three Park Passes at a time, UNLESS they have a Disney World resort reservation. The resort stay trumps the Annual Pass limit and allows Passholders to book for the length of stay — or at least it’s supposed to.
Screenshot From Disney World’s Website
Lots of Passholders reported yesterday via comments and social media that they were being limited to just three days, despite having an active resort reservation for longer. For some, the limit was longer than three, but the system was still cutting them off when they had more days left on their resort reservations.
I finally got in just by waiting on the castle screen for 2.5 hours but I now have a park “pass limit reached” error at 7 reservations. We have APs and hotel reservations. I was not able to get a park reservation for each day of the trip
— Alyssa (@alyssamurray) June 22, 2020
Shannon at @brbgoingtodisney explained on Instagram that her reservations were inexplicably capped at eight days and another Annual Passholder in her party was limited to two days. That certainly sounds like another glitch! Lots of folks ran into this issue, but it wasn’t the case for every Annual Passholder. We had no trouble booking through our resort reservations and didn’t run into any wonky limits.
Some Annual Passholders, including @brbgoingtodisney’s Shannon, WERE able to get past the inaccurate caps and limits when they tried later in the day. So, if you had this issue and it hasn’t resolved, try again today. You may be surprised to see the cap lifted.
Just got off the phone with Disney IT – they put in a ticket regarding the 3 day AP limit and know about the issue for hotel guests. It is currently the top priority and they told me keep checking later today or tomorrow morning for it to be fixed. It’s being worked on now
— Hilary Klein (@hrk85) June 22, 2020
If you’re STILL having trouble, you should contact Disney. Some of our readers and other guests are reporting that they are getting an IT ticket through contacting Disney’s Website Support at (407) 939-4357. Disney may be able to personally fix your account. Just keep in mind, the phone lines are EXTREMELY busy right now so be patient and keep trying if this is what you need to do.
Did you have issues with the system yesterday? Click here!
No Availability Glitch
The final glitch is a super strange one that seemed to affect a lot of Disney guests. Lots of folks were reporting that the Disney Park Pass looked completely booked up — all the way through the end of the year. This is definitely NOT the case. As of now, only a few days are booked up for only a few parks, so this is most definitely a glitch.
For some, the system is showing that parks are unavailable because they are outside of a guest’s specific booking window. For others, there’s a glitch that shows no availability for days they SHOULD be able to book. If you see this, make sure you check that you should be able to book a park reservation that day and take a look at the Disney Park Pass Availability Calendar to see what should be available to you.
Lots of people saying they are seeing “no availability” for certain dates. This is related to likely system issues with linked tickets/reservations.
I can confirm *as of right now* NO dates are completely booked.
— Scott Gustin (@ScottGustin) June 22, 2020
According to theme parks reporter Scott Gustin, Disney is aware of this issue and is working on a fix. You may also be able to repeatedly select the desired date until the available parks show up as they should. If they STILL won’t show, clear cookies or use an incognito browser and try again.
Click here to see what parks and days ARE booked up!
Disney has reportedly received contact about these glitches and is currently working through them. Some folks have seen success later in the day after running into glitches so don’t be afraid to give your theme park reservations another go. If you have any questions, feel free to ask them in the comments and we’ll do our best to help out with your situation!
Disney Park Pass Screenshot
Hopefully, the Disney Park Pass system will be running smoothly soon. We guess we’ll get an idea of how stable the system is with Friday’s Annual Passholder opening!
Click here to see our coverage of the technical difficulties with the Disney Park Pass!
Did you deal with any of these glitches? Let us know in the comments!