Walt Disney World is also known as the vacation kingdom, but if you’re on vacation for spring break next week, you won’t be visiting the theme parks in Florida or California unless you’ve already booked your reservations. All four Disney World theme parks are sold out most of next week, and the Disneyland parks are also booked solid for pretty much the rest of the month of March.
A look at the reservation calendar for both domestic theme park resorts shows that they’re going to be pretty crowded in the coming days. While it’s still unclear if they are back to running at full capacity, they will be maxed out to their current capacity next week. All four Disney World parks are full for both standard ticket holders and resort guests March 14-17. Disneyland is full for single park tickets every day from now until March 26. Park hopper tickets have some additional availability March 12 and 19, but are otherwise also sold out.
Exactly when spring break takes place varies depending on the area, so if yours is closer to Easter, which isn’t until the middle of April, you can still book a trip, but it’s clear that things are getting busy and that there are plenty of guests ready to hit the parks. This means we could see the days that do have availability in the coming weeks fill up as we get closer to them.
At this point nearly all, if not all, of the pandemic restrictions that had been instituted when the parks reopened have been repealed. Masks are technically still encouraged for unvaccinated guests indoors, but since there is no verification or enforcement, you can guess how much that is happening.
The one interesting exception is that at both Disneyland and Disney World, reservations for Annual Pass holders are more readily available. Disney World has nearly full availability for any date that isn’t a blackout date for that particular pass. Disneyland doesn’t have perfect availability, but reservations are much more widely available for pass holders than standard ticket holders.
This is especially interesting at Disneyland Resort, where in the past reservations for Magic Key holders (the California version of the Annual Pass) have often been difficult to obtain. It’s been such an issue that there’s actually a lawsuit pending in U.S. district court regarding the situation. Of course, getting the actual annual passes at either resort is still a problem.
The reservation system is quite unpopular with a lot of people, but as long as the parks are literally filling to capacity there’s value in it. It’s better to know you won’t get in early than it is to be turned away at the gate. And if Disney World and Disneyland becoming full on a semi-regular basis is part of the new normal, the reservation system certainly won’t be going anywhere.
