Starting 9 January 2024, Theme Park Reservations will not be needed for most general public tickets at Walt Disney World and Disneyland.
This does not apply to both kinds of Military Disney Tickets!
Date Based Tickets
Disney has removed the need to make theme park reservations for date based tickets in 2024.
Tickets sold to the general public are date based. These are sold at full price as part of a Disney Resort Reservation Package or at the gate. When purchasing a package your resort room dates are set and the tickets are for the dates of the trip. When you walk up to the gate, they will ask if you will start using the tickets that day or on another date
Since September 2018, Disney has sold only Date Based Tickets to the General Public
- Date Based Tickets are only valid on the days for which they are purchased
- Date Based Tickets vary in price by the start date of the ticket
- Popular, high attendance dates are more expensive (sometimes way more expensive)
- Slower periods that are less popular are cheaper
- Date Based Tickets are full price plus sales tax
Park Based Pricing – In December of  2022, Disney World introduced Park Based Pricing for general public single-day tickets. THis means with singlr day ticket you will pay a different price for each theme park.
Non-Date Based Tickets
Both the Disney Armed Forces Salute and Regular Disney Military Ticket Discount for Walt Disney World and Disneyland tickets are non-date based! Meaning that you can purchase them and then use them on any day that you’d like (within their validity period). The Salute Tickets can be used on any day during the offer reriod (excluding blockout dates), while the Regular Military Tickets typically have an expiration date of 31 December the following year.
The various annual passes, general public and discounted military are also non-date based.
What this Means
What this means to the US military community is that continuing on into 2024 we will continue to have to purchase your tickets well in advance so that we can make theme park reservations.
This means purchasing your tickets at your local base or from a Ticket Office that Ships if a base is not convenient.
Unrestricted Park Hopping also returns 9 January. This means that you will again have the ability to Park Hop at any time of the day that you desire as you did prior to the 2020 closure. No more waiting until 2 p.m. to park hop!!!
However, there is a caveat for military tickets due to the theme park reservations. You still have to enter the park where you have a reservation before you can enter another park (Park Hop). You do not have to spend any time in the park with the reservation if you don’t want to, you can enter then exit.
The need to do this would only come into play if you changed you mind on what park that you wanted to start your day at and you couldn’t just switch reservations to that park.
Virtual Queues –Â Because theme park reservations are required for military tickets, you will need to have a reservation for the park where you would like to join the virtual queue at 7 a.m. (while the general public can attempt to join any virtual queue at 7. There is no change to the 1 p.m. virtual queue, you need to have tapped into the park where you’d like to join the queue.
Wrapping it up
In my mind, I can’t believe the volume of military folks on property each day would be enough to make a single park’s attendance unbearable!!! SO I don’t know why DIsney is making the military community continue with this artificial, unneeded procedure!
We’ve got no clue yet what the reservation landscape will be like in 2024 with so many fewer people using it. Will parks ever become full and have no reservations allowed? Only time will tell.
As of the date of this post (20 Dec ’23), every single day of 2024 (Including peak periods like Spring Break and Christmas) are green, meaning all 4 parks are available.
Links:
Buying Disney Military Tickets Long Distance
​The Military Disney Tips Guide to Park Hopping​
This MDT Post By: Steve Bell Steve is the the Military Disney Tips Founder. He a retired U.S. Military Member who's been touring the Disney Parks since 1971! Steve's mission is to help military families with their Disney vacations in every way. Check out Steve's Bio. Subscribe to Steve's email newsletter to get website updates and news by clicking this link. |
Planning a Disney Trip? Want to get the best military discounts that are available? Feeling a little confused? See Our Great Disney Discount and Planning Info:
- Disney Veteran & Military Discount Eligibility Guide
- The Military Family’s Walt Disney World Comprehensive Vacation Planning and Preparation GuideÂ
- Military Disney Tips Disney Packing ChecklistÂ
- Disney Military Tickets – Your Start to Finish Guide
- Resorts/Hotel Overview Page
- Dining Overview Page
- Transportation Overview Page
- Technology Overview Page
- Shades of Green, WDW’s Military Only Resort
Military Disney Tips' Recommended Disney Travel Agent Ears of Experience Disney Only Travel Agency. Military family owned and operated! They know all the ins and outs of Disney military discounts! |
CARLA says
Hello, I have a question about Regular discounted Disney tickets. If I purchase a 7 day BASE ticket, but I am on vacation for 10 days, do I have to use the 7 days in a row or can I take some days off? I read that the 7 day Hopper pass expires 14 days after the first day. I was wondering if this is the same for BASE ticket.
Steve says
Hi Carla,
The base are the same. This is true of all the Regular Military Magic Your Way tickets (whether base or any of the add ons), they expire 14 days after first use.
You can take days off with any of the regular mil tickets and with a 10-day trip there will be no issue with the expiration. If your trip was several days longer it would be different.