Despite the exit of Bob Chapek, Disney Parks head Josh D'Amaro continues to back theme park reservations in latest interview

Jan 11, 2023 in "The Walt Disney Company"

Posted: Wednesday January 11, 2023 1:!6pm ET by WDWMAGIC Staff

In a new interview with Theme Park Insider, Disney theme park boss Josh D'Amaro again reiterates his support of theme park reservations and the message that they improve the guest experience.

 

The driving force behind theme park reservations has been a hot topic among theme park fans since their introduction in 2020, with many believing that former CEO Bob Chapek was the principal architect and supporter of the system. With Chapek now gone from Disney, it may surprise some observers to see the head of Disney's theme park division continue with the same message as Chapek, and suggest that reservations exist to improve the guest experience.

The Disney Park Pass reservation system has been hugely unpopular with guests post-COVID due to the many additional layers of complexity involved in visiting a Disney park and no sign of any improvement to the guest experience. In fact, park pass reservations combined with Genie+ are, in many people's opinion, making the parks a far less favorable experience than they were in 2019 before the changes. It costs more to visit a park than ever, reservations can be hard to come by, standby lines are long, and securing Lightning Lane or Virtual Queue reservations is tedious and stressful.

On several days in the busy holiday week, there were multiple attractions with over a 3-hour wait, with Star Wars Rise of the Resistance reaching more than 5 hours of standby wait, and 30 attractions with wait times above 60 minutes.

When asked about the theme park reservations and guest pushback, D'Amaro said, "It's a guest experience issue. This all starts with guest experience, and having been in this business for as long as we have been, we know what constitutes a great guest experience. We know that there are certain attendance thresholds that can potentially deteriorate the experience. So the reservation system change that we've made is completely premised on wanting to deliver [you] the best experience I possibly can. And to do that, I'm asking my guests to make reservations, which is change. Change isn't easy, particularly for Disney, where everybody watches every single move that we make, and if you change something that's tradition, or the way that it's always been, it's hard."

Many Disney theme park fans suspect the primary driver for theme park reservations is to allow Disney to manage attendance spread across its theme parks, and to tightly control its operational costs, specifically labor.

New Disney CEO Bob Iger recently commented on park pass reservations at a company-wide Town Hall meeting. At that time, in late November 2022, Iger said that he had not used the system and would need to discuss it with D'Amaro before commenting further.

In a day full of more upbeat Disney news yesterday, Disney announced that Walt Disney World Annual Passholders will be able to visit the theme parks after 2 p.m. without needing a park reservation, except on Saturdays and Sundays at Magic Kingdom Park.

We have also previously reported that there are major changes planned for the park pass reservation system in 2023, including eliminating reservations for guests purchasing date-based tickets.

You can read the full interview with Josh D'Amaro at Theme Park Insider.

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Sirwalterraleigh5 days ago

Right…prior to the last couple of years that week grew in magnitude by leaps and bounds. Literal foul on my part

Brian5 days ago

Should be very quiet with the initial battles of the second civil war and whatnot. ;)

threvester5 days ago

Didnt you just say the parks havent been busy for 2 years? According to you, you are 100% wrong about the parks being busy for Jersey week...respectfully

Sirwalterraleigh6 days ago

Jersey week. Been a thing for about 20 years… It falls on an election week often…it’s not slow People stay home for elections now?

SoFloMagic6 days ago

Election day and the day after. Should be slow

Sirwalterraleigh6 days ago

lol…jersey week? 🤪

SingleRider6 days ago

“Oh, welcome back, unfavorables! We have a few less busy days, so please come to our parks!”

DCBaker6 days ago

November 5 and 6 have been added to the calendar as Annual Passholder good-to-go days. The last good-to-go days were September 29 and October 1.

Sirwalterraleigh10 days ago

The hubris is what is shocking. I get that people were caged and Americans aren’t geared for that…so there was an artificial demand created…but that will subside and the cost will look insane. Disneyland has a totally different landscape. There is ZERO reason to have reservations for APs at wdw. They’re just trying to hold on to their desire to make you go where they want. I know of what I speak: those parks are NOT crowded and haven’t been for 2 years. Every “the parks are mobbed” is 100% wrong. You don’t know what you’re looking at and what to gauge. Respectfully 😎

SoFloMagic10 days ago

That sucks. For sure. But they clearly advertise that it's subject to bookings. Now they don't make it known that 100k locals want to get in each weekend, but.... I don't think I'll even understand disneyland culture.

Sirwalterraleigh10 days ago

Double layer of restrictions Blackout windows up front and a first come, first serve (so they say) on top of that stretches the bonds of logic

IanDLBZF10 days ago

DLR does not do that at this time.

SoFloMagic10 days ago

They're sold as requiring reservations. We just don't like it. Although it's not bad at WDW as we can enter after 2 with no reservations. Not sure if DL does that.

Sirwalterraleigh10 days ago

Crazy idea: honoring an annual pass as they are sold