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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