Hello, Katherine! Thanks for stopping by planDisney with your great question. I'm so glad to know that you are already thinking ahead to making park pass reservations.
To make sure you are able to secure
park pass reservations for the parks you really want to visit during your Walt Disney World vacation, I suggest sitting down and doing everything in one setting. First, even before purchasing Walt Disney World Theme Park tickets, I suggest visiting the
Walt Disney World theme park availability calendar. The calendar is broken down into three categories - Guests with a resort stay, Guests with theme park tickets only and Annual Passholders. Be sure you are viewing the calendar that most pertains to you because they do have different availability. If you are certain there is theme park availability for the dates you'd like to visit, I would then go ahead and purchase your Walt Disney World vacation package. Once you've done this and linked your tickets to your
MyDisneyExperience account (which will be done when you are buying your vacation package) you can then make park pass reservations. You'll first visit the park pass reservation website. Then, if you aren't already, you will be prompted to log in to your MyDisneyExperience account. From there, you'll be able to select your party, the date you wish to visit and the theme park you'd like to go to. Once everything is selected, you'll be taken to a confirmation page and will be able to make park pass reservations for another day. You'll repeat this process until all of your park pass reservations are made. Once everything is confirmed, you should be able to see your whole itinerary under the "My Plans, Reservations & Tickets" in your MyDisneyExperience account. As long as you've checked the availability calendar, purchased your tickets and then go to make your park pass reservations right away, you should have no trouble securing the parks that you want.
If certain theme parks that you'd like to visit do not have availability when you'd like to go, I'd consider upgrading your tickets to include the park hopper option. Park hopping is when you are able to visit multiple Walt Disney World Theme Parks in one day. Park hopping just recently returned to us at the start of this year and does look a bit different than it did before. To park hop, you must have valid theme park admission with the park hopper option. Then, you'll still need to make park pass reservations for an initial theme park each day. On that day, you'll need to scan in and enter that theme park first before continuing on to other parks throughout the day. Park hopping hours now start at 2:00 p.m. and last until each park closes in the evening. Park hopping is a great way to be able to spend some time at the theme parks that are no longer accepting park pass reservations. I think you'll be pleasantly surprised just how much you can check off of your must-do list after 2:00 p.m.
Katherine, I hope this helps you navigate purchasing your tickets and securing park pass reservations. If you have any other questions, please feel free to come back and
ask me. I'm happy to help!