Walt Disney World Cast Members are having trouble booking Park Passes to any of the four main theme parks this spring.
Cast Members, like Annual Passholders, have blockout dates depending on their type of complimentary ticket (though the tickets are mostly the same). According to the calendar for the final two days of March, all of April, and all of May, Cast Members are blocked out of some or all parks almost every day. Yellow indicates only some parks are available, red means no parks are available, and blue means all parks are available. Only Tuesday, May 10 is blue.
Twitter user @Monse_DP — who is not a Cast Member but knows Cast Members personally — shared screenshots of the internal Park Pass reservation calendar for Cast Members. In April and May, there is not a single day where Park Passes are still available for all four parks, and only ten days where Park Passes are available at some parks. Most days are full and greyed out on the calendar.
Monse writes, “How can Disney even claim that ‘park access’ is an employee perk when this is their blocked out calendar?! Keep in mind that even on non block days it is [all] dependent on them getting a reservation, so basically a Hunger Games situation for them.”
The Park Pass calendar is currently available into 2024 and the system is not going away according to executives.
How do you feel about the Park Pass reservation system? Let us know in the comments.
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And thats why most cms have annuals. Its a known fact!
based on this comment, i’d say you don’t know a single cm. i’m a cm myself and i can’t think of a single person i’ve known in 7 years with disney who’s had both. not to mention, annual passes are too pricey for what little disney pays us.
This NEVER used to be true. I worked for Disney 23 years and it was not necessary at all. This is not normal when they use it as a selling point in recruiting.
I mean it’s really not that big a deal. I’m a cast member and based on how popular the parks are…. I don’t want to go right now!
They are crowded, but it makes our guest passes also almost non existent. I’m understandable if I have to wait as a CM to enter, but the real perk is sharing access with my friends and family who shouldn’t have to pay for the magical(?) experience of going to Disney World.
The res system, like Genie, sucks. Take a system that has worked for decades and replace it with something like this. WHY???
Idk, I take it with a grain of salt since it didn’t come from the mouth of an actual CM, but overall I’m torn on the reservation system as a whole too. I don’t hate the fact that I can guarantee the park I want to go to won’t be turning me away the day of because the park hit capacity, I don’t hate that I can see which times are so slammed in advance that I know to avoid them altogether, but also I know the system is a tool for micromanaging and mind games like this.
The calendar is visible to anyone, so it’s definitely true lol
I think the reservation system undermines the very thing Walt wanted. A place when anyone could go at anytime. The spontaneity is gone ! A place where family and friends could gather to enjoy entertainment. And without any worries A place where the real world could be forgotten for a few hours. A place where we could lose ourselves in pure magical joy. And this has nothing to do with Covid.
I’m a cast member and it doesn’t bother me. I like to go during the cooler months anyway. The guests come first, that’s why I have a job.
I am a retired Cast Member and I look forward to my family’s visit and they live going into the parks! One of the perks of working and retiring from Disney is getting into the park, it certainly isn’t the pay! That is no longer a perk, because I am having trouble making reservations! Shame on the new management at Disney.
Mmm but it is a big deal — the problem is that they use that as a perk/valuation as part of your pay — and using it as an excuse to pay less. Used to be a CM and at one time on the there used to be a page under understanding your pay that showed your total valuation and included the park pass at frankly a much higher valuation than it’s currently providing value because of this. So it matters in THAT regard for sure.
Question If I buy the ticket make the reservation is it possible to ride some of the rides without adding Genie+ ?
I won’t go to Disneyland or world anymore. Not only is the magic gone with all the changes but reservations, Genie plus all the other hoops you have to jump through is not fun it’s a nightmare. I’ll spend my money at other amusement parks where I don’t have to have a PhD to have fun. I went to Disneyland and had passes for years and years. They ruined the magic.
Defund the Park Pass system. It’s awful.
Having to make a park reservation has turned the fun of the Disney experience a chore more than a “feeling you are part of Disney”. There are those that are Disney fanatics and there are those that have Disney in their hearts. For those of us that feel an emotional connection look at making a reservation is like scheduling a time to meet with a parent. It’s like a wall that says I can’t visit when I want but have to get the upper echelons permission first. So much for feeling the magic:(
I think that the park pass thing is critical anymore. Disney World wasn’t built for a world that has a massive traveling population like we do. When I went to Disney World in 2012, it was at max capacity (actually, I think it was over, but they wouldn’t admit it) on New Year’s Eve, and it was horrible. We couldn’t go on any of the rides all day, and were stuck doing the undesirable ancient and moldy animated “tiki room” (which was still at max capacity when we got in, after lines), and “swiss family robinson treehouse”, because nobody was interested in them. The fireworks show was overpacked, and not visible. Young staff were incredibly rude and snide. The crowd was so tight, I went into anaphylactic shock and had to leave when the fireworks had just started- so basically, we didn’t experience anything that was the whole point in going. Crowd control is sorely overdue.