Why Didn’t Disney Sell Dated Tickets to Begin With?

On Monday, May 8, Disney Parks announced a Theme Park Ticket change that finally helps eliminate the need for the Theme Park Reservation System. Dated tickets will soon be available for purchase, which lets would-be Disney World Guests trade flexibility for a Guaranteed spot in the Park of their choice on a particular day.

And now I’m left wondering why wasn’t that the standard practice to begin with.

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Instituted as part of Disney’s Covid-justified reopening restrictions, the Theme Park Reservation system was created to limit Theme Park Attendance by requiring all Guests to Reserve a place at Magic Kingdom Park, EPCOT, Disney’s Hollywood Studios, or Disney’s Animal Kingdom day by day. And since its inception, fans have hated it, as it constantly disrupted planned vacations and left some Guests with multi-day tickets with no Parks to go to.

There was never a connection made between Theme Park Ticket availability and Theme Park Reservation Availability. But after nearly three years, that looks to finally change.

Why did it take so long? Disneyland Paris Resort has already been offering dated tickets since at least its reopening of Parc Disneyland and Walt Disney Studios Park, and they are normally sold at a cheaper rate than un-dated tickets.

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Now, flexibility is a perk, but Walt Disney World Resort has had more than enough reason to justify a dated ticket for each Theme Park. In adopting the virtual queue system for its new and popular attractions, from Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance to Remy’s Ratatouille Adventure, Guardians of the Galaxy: Cosmic Rewind, and TRON: Lightcycle/Run, Disney World also restricted the virtual queue to Guests who were lucky enough to get a Theme Park Reservation for the host Park of the virtual queue.

The availability of dated tickets helps guarantee Guests the chance to fulfill the sole mission of visiting a particular Park. And rather than take a chance on purchasing a Theme Park ticket, sold-out dated tickets would eliminate any wasted purchases.

I am so glad Disney World is finally implementing this optimization, and I hope that this change, like all of the other wonderful changes announced with it, will help bring some of the magic back that was lost in 2020.

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We at Disney Fanatic will continue to update our readers on Disney Parks news and stories as more developments come to light.

Disclaimer: The opinions addressed in this article are the writer’s and may not reflect the sentiment of Disney Fanatic as a whole.