Magic Key Program

[tlovesdis]

Looked at December park reservations and almost had a heart attack. Then I figured it must be 90 days max, is that correct

Yes Magic Key holders can make reservations at 90 days, regular tickets can be made at 120 days.

 

[avalon451]

Re: Magic Key Terrace in CA: We had a reservation for 12:50 on Wednesday the 15th, but on looking at the menu, their gluten free items were pretty sparse and nothing looked appetizing for my 19 y.o. picky daughter. However, Wine Country Trattoria downstairs looked pretty good and they have a variety of gluten-free pasta (spaghetti as well as the usual undercooked penne we've had elsewhere in DLR). We went to the podium at noon (they opened for seating at 12:30) and both the Magic Key Terrace and the WCT hosts were there. When we told them why we wanted to switch, they cheerfully canceled our MCT reservations without penalty, and put us on the list for WCT, and there was plenty of availability, so we were seated right at 12:30. Our meal was great and the GF pasta was perfect. So that worked out well!

 

[mel2014]

We are now the proud holders of three Believe Keys and one Enchant Key, but to give everyone the benefit of our experience, I recommend doing whatever you can to avoid having to upgrade at a ticket booth unless you want to waste an hour of your vacation time. I decided to be penny wise and pound foolish and tried to maximize our discount on the purchase by ticket bridging 3-day discount tickets from aRes travel and then paying the balance in gift cards bought from Target for 5% off, which meant we had to go to the ticket booths to upgrade.

In hindsight I should have either paid with the entire cost with gift cards upfront or bought the third-party ticket with the biggest discount and paid the remaining balance via credit card. Probably the first so we could have had the discount on food all weekend (although I did get 3% cash back on the parkhopper ticket purchase since it coded as travel for credit card rewards), but I was worried in early August that park reservations would run out for this past weekend before the Magic Key sales even started between Gay Days and Halloween. That worry proved unfounded, but our upgrade was made more stressful by the fact that there were no reservations available by the time the weekend rolled around, so we weren't able to upgrade until the end of our day yesterday when we were trying to get to the airport (and buy all our souvenirs from World of Disney at the last minute to get the 10% merchandise discount). Probably wouldn't be such a big deal if it were midweek and you could upgrade midday when the lines were short and just make a new reservation.

One thing Disney doesn't seem to recognize is that when you drive as many transactions as you can to the internet/app, the remaining people in line for the ticket booths are are likely to have very complex, time-consuming transactions (not helped by the fact even though Disney already has full information about me and all of my ticketholders in my profile, they apparently still need to manually write down and then type all of that information into the online system). As a result, having 50% fewer people in line doesn't mean that you can reduce the booth staff 50% and maintain the same wait time. One person was at the booth a full 30 minutes and still hadn't finished by the time we were done.

 

[nerdgirl]

Is there a difference in going to a ticket booth versus going to City Hall?
Also, what do folks mean by "upgrade"?
I bought a Magic Key pass and I already have tickets.
I want to try to apply the tickets to the pass.

 

[Skyegirl1999]

Is there a difference in going to a ticket booth versus going to City Hall?
Also, what do folks mean by "upgrade"?
I bought a Magic Key pass and I already have tickets.
I want to try to apply the tickets to the pass.

I don’t believe you can apply unused tickets to an already-purchased pass. (I mean, you’re definitely not supposed to be able to. You’d have to hit a CM who will refund the tickets for you, basically.)

Upgrading is when you use the tickets, and then in the app it will give you a button to upgrade them into Magic Keys, applying the cost of the tickets.

They can’t do anything at City Hall.

 

[dina444444]

Is there a difference in going to a ticket booth versus going to City Hall?
Also, what do folks mean by "upgrade"?
I bought a Magic Key pass and I already have tickets.
I want to try to apply the tickets to the pass.

If you already bought the pass you typically can’t apply tickets to it. With tickets you would scan into the parks using the ticket and then upgrade to a pass to apply the value of the ticket towards the pass.

 

[Skyegirl1999]

I have a bunch of interesting data points on reservation availability collected, but I wanted to share that 10/31 has been gone for several days, and 11/11 and 11/13 are both currently DCA-start only.

So if you are interested in Veteran’s Day weekend, get on it. Those are the farthest-out days to book up so far.

 

[dina444444]

I have a bunch of interesting data points on reservation availability collected, but I wanted to share that 10/31 has been gone for several days, and 11/11 and 11/13 are both currently DCA-start only.

So if you are interested in Veteran’s Day weekend, get on it. Those are the farthest-out days to book up so far.

Well one of those is Veterans Day and the other is the first Saturday of the holiday season.

 

[mel2014]

I have a bunch of interesting data points on reservation availability collected, but I wanted to share that 10/31 has been gone for several days, and 11/11 and 11/13 are both currently DCA-start only.

So if you are interested in Veteran’s Day weekend, get on it. Those are the farthest-out days to book up so far.

After I bought our Magic Keys Sunday and went to make our Dapper Day weekend reservations, I was surprised to see that 11/13 was already fully booked for DL. It works out for us, since we were planning on DCA Saturday and then Disneyland on Sunday for Dapper Day. I'm glad I jumped on that right away.

 

[gelatoni fan]

I have a bunch of interesting data points on reservation availability collected, but I wanted to share that 10/31 has been gone for several days, and 11/11 and 11/13 are both currently DCA-start only.

So if you are interested in Veteran’s Day weekend, get on it. Those are the farthest-out days to book up so far.

Grabbed Veretran's Day DCA and Friday DL. I haven't finalized my travel plans yet but if I go, at least I have these booked.

Thanks for the reminder.

 

[87disney]

We are now the proud holders of three Believe Keys and one Enchant Key, but to give everyone the benefit of our experience, I recommend doing whatever you can to avoid having to upgrade at a ticket booth unless you want to waste an hour of your vacation time. I decided to be penny wise and pound foolish and tried to maximize our discount on the purchase by ticket bridging 3-day discount tickets from aRes travel and then paying the balance in gift cards bought from Target for 5% off, which meant we had to go to the ticket booths to upgrade.

In hindsight I should have either paid with the entire cost with gift cards upfront or bought the third-party ticket with the biggest discount and paid the remaining balance via credit card. Probably the first so we could have had the discount on food all weekend (although I did get 3% cash back on the parkhopper ticket purchase since it coded as travel for credit card rewards), but I was worried in early August that park reservations would run out for this past weekend before the Magic Key sales even started between Gay Days and Halloween. That worry proved unfounded, but our upgrade was made more stressful by the fact that there were no reservations available by the time the weekend rolled around, so we weren't able to upgrade until the end of our day yesterday when we were trying to get to the airport (and buy all our souvenirs from World of Disney at the last minute to get the 10% merchandise discount). Probably wouldn't be such a big deal if it were midweek and you could upgrade midday when the lines were short and just make a new reservation.

One thing Disney doesn't seem to recognize is that when you drive as many transactions as you can to the internet/app, the remaining people in line for the ticket booths are are likely to have very complex, time-consuming transactions (not helped by the fact even though Disney already has full information about me and all of my ticketholders in my profile, they apparently still need to manually write down and then type all of that information into the online system). As a result, having 50% fewer people in line doesn't mean that you can reduce the booth staff 50% and maintain the same wait time. One person was at the booth a full 30 minutes and still hadn't finished by the time we were done.

I can vouch that Disneyland phone support is sending all the magic key upgrade issues to the ticket booths. That is where they told us to go to get our upgrade issue on the app fixed. Unfortunately we are out of state.

 

[WebmasterMaryJo]

Is there a difference in going to a ticket booth versus going to City Hall?
Also, what do folks mean by "upgrade"?
I bought a Magic Key pass and I already have tickets.
I want to try to apply the tickets to the pass.

As said earlier, you cannot apply ticket costs to the Magic Key after the fact. When I dealt with this the cast member told me that I could keep the ticket and use the value when I renew next year. Also, you can only upgrade one ticket at a time per pass. You can apply those tickets next year. Use them to enter the park, then upgrade to a Magic Key from the used ticket. Has to be done on the day you're using the ticket.

 

[Skyegirl1999]

Whew, ok guys, the reservation landscape is changing.

It's Wednesday, 9/22, and the first available Magic Key booking is Monday 9/27 - so you can't currently book today, tomorrow, Friday, Saturday, or Sunday right now. Tomorrow (Thursday 9/23) is the first time I've caught a Monday-Friday that's fully booked in advance.

So you CAN currently book next Monday-Thursday - but then Friday Oct. 1 is DCA-start only, Saturday and Sunday (10/2 and 3) are gone, and the following Saturday and Sunday (10/9 and 10) are DCA-start only.

Then 10/31 is gone, and 11/11 and 13 are DCA-start only.

**Ok, in the time I typed that, DL popped back up for tomorrow. Anyway, it's interesting to see how things are booking up and moving. I think a lot of people are getting Magic Keys after using up CA resident tickets and/or "keeping an eye on how reservations go" for a month - I know quite a few people in both those categories - so I'm curious if they'll start upping the proportion of reservations allocated to APs as that number increases.

 

[Mathmagicland]

Whew, ok guys, the reservation landscape is changing.

It's Wednesday, 9/22, and the first available Magic Key booking is Monday 9/27 - so you can't currently book today, tomorrow, Friday, Saturday, or Sunday right now. Tomorrow (Thursday 9/23) is the first time I've caught a Monday-Friday that's fully booked in advance.

So you CAN currently book next Monday-Thursday - but then Friday Oct. 1 is DCA-start only, Saturday and Sunday (10/2 and 3) are gone, and the following Saturday and Sunday (10/9 and 10) are DCA-start only.

Then 10/31 is gone, and 11/11 and 13 are DCA-start only.

**Ok, in the time I typed that, DL popped back up for tomorrow. Anyway, it's interesting to see how things are booking up and moving. I think a lot of people are getting Magic Keys after using up CA resident tickets and/or "keeping an eye on how reservations go" for a month - I know quite a few people in both those categories - so I'm curious if they'll start upping the proportion of reservations allocated to APs as that number increases.

I’m enjoying these posts, & find myself checking the reservation calendars a couple of times a week for curiosity to see how things are going. A couple of things I think will be interesting to watch for -

How many last minute reservations become available as people cancel day before - are people booking to “hold until I decide whether I really want to go “ dates?

whether things change as the Imagine and Believe keys hit more blackout dates.

 

[dieumeye]

It seems reservations are snowballing forward. That is, they are getting booked further and further in advance. I agree that’s probably because more people are becoming passholders. I wonder when that will stop and when we will hit a “normal” average. Although with Halloweentime and Holiday time coming, that’s probably not something we’ll be able to tell until into next year.

 

[l4dyj8]

Whew, ok guys, the reservation landscape is changing.
...
Then 10/31 is gone, and 11/11 and 13 are DCA-start only.

Oh no. I originally had 11/13 with a DL start. But switched to DCA after getting Lamplight Brunch reservations (a few days ago!) But I honestly prefer to start with DL and had hoped for Carnation or Minnie/Plaza for breakfast. The lack of DL dinning release/availability for that weekend has me keeping watch.

 

[Skyegirl1999]

I’m enjoying these posts, & find myself checking the reservation calendars a couple of times a week for curiosity to see how things are going. A couple of things I think will be interesting to watch for -

How many last minute reservations become available as people cancel day before - are people booking to “hold until I decide whether I really want to go “ dates?

whether things change as the Imagine and Believe keys hit more blackout dates.

It does change quite a bit, like now tomorrow is DCA-only and 10/3 is back available as DCA-only.

By far the most movement happens in the afternoon and evening. 9:30-10:30 pm is the most volatile time period, based on my screenshot tracking of the availability data.

Magic Key availability data is filling the Maxpass-sized data hole in my Disney heart, basically...

 

[Skyegirl1999]

Oh no. I originally had 11/13 with a DL start. But switched to DCA after getting Lamplight Brunch reservations (a few days ago!) But I honestly prefer to start with DL and had hoped for Carnation or Minnie/Plaza for breakfast. The lack of DL dinning release/availability for that weekend has me keeping watch.

Oh, that's far enough out that it's going to change up a lot. But you're going to have to gamble if you see DL open and hope you can drop DCA in time to get it. If you get at DL dining reservation, you might consider just dropping your DCA reservation and stalk for DL...

Hopefully Disney will release more rezzies for that whole block of time, so you'll know that there's a decent amount open and can make the switch.

 

[dina444444]

Oh, that's far enough out that it's going to change up a lot. But you're going to have to gamble if you see DL open and hope you can drop DCA in time to get it. If you get at DL dining reservation, you might consider just dropping your DCA reservation and stalk for DL...

Hopefully Disney will release more rezzies for that whole block of time, so you'll know that there's a decent amount open and can make the switch.

11/13 available at DL has been changing throughout the day both today and yesterday. I managed to grab a DL start yesterday evening around 10pm.

 

[Dudekiwi]

Whew, ok guys, the reservation landscape is changing.

It's Wednesday, 9/22, and the first available Magic Key booking is Monday 9/27 - so you can't currently book today, tomorrow, Friday, Saturday, or Sunday right now. Tomorrow (Thursday 9/23) is the first time I've caught a Monday-Friday that's fully booked in advance.

So you CAN currently book next Monday-Thursday - but then Friday Oct. 1 is DCA-start only, Saturday and Sunday (10/2 and 3) are gone, and the following Saturday and Sunday (10/9 and 10) are DCA-start only.

Then 10/31 is gone, and 11/11 and 13 are DCA-start only.

**Ok, in the time I typed that, DL popped back up for tomorrow. Anyway, it's interesting to see how things are booking up and moving. I think a lot of people are getting Magic Keys after using up CA resident tickets and/or "keeping an eye on how reservations go" for a month - I know quite a few people in both those categories - so I'm curious if they'll start upping the proportion of reservations allocated to APs as that number increases.

This is what we did. We finished our CA Resident tickets last Friday which also gave us time to watch the reservation calendar to see how far out reservations are getting booked. We liked what we saw so bought the passes when we got home from DCA Friday night. This is our first time having annual passes.

I know many on here are hoping to be able to book a last minute reservation. We live very close to the parks (we can walk there if we want to) and that is not important to us. I rather book out a few weeks or months and plan our trips.