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As the month of June quickly approaches, Disney fans are anxiously awaiting the possible news of the theme parks reopening. With less than 30-days to go, the 30-day booking window for FastPasses for Annual Passholders for June is starting to open. When browsing My Disney Experience, it appears guests with valid annual passes are able to lock in these FastPass reservations for June dates without room or vacation package reservations. Could this be a sign of a possible reopening for June?
The Disney Parks remain closed without an official announcement for a reopening date. The Task Force for reopening Florida is diligently working with local businesses on guidelines and re-opening phases to get a select number of businesses to open their doors back to the public as early as May 4th. However, Florida Governor DeSantis has given the local theme parks, like the Walt Disney World Resort, Universal Orlando, and the like, room to make their own decisions regarding when they should reopen.
Speculation has been floating regarding all the theoretical details of possible protocol changes for the Walt Disney World Resort to re-open. One of the questions circulating the reopening has a lot to do with social distancing and the potential of limiting guest capacity at the parks. So, what are some ways Disney can accomplish this seemingly impossible feat?
Social Distancing at Disney Parks
How can a theme park that welcomes millions of visitors a year even remotely consider a successful attempt at Social Distancing? If anyone can do it, Disney can! But we know it won’t be an easy feat to accomplish!
Some potential scenarios fans have been predicting might happen include options where only parts of the theme parks will open, attractions running on virtual queues only with no stand-by, cancellations of parades and fireworks to avoid big crowd gatherings, and other similar game plans to attempt successful social distancing in a landscape where crowds are unavoidable.
These ideas could possibly work, however, if a theme park is welcoming tens of thousands of guests at once, crowd control would be near impossible. So, then there’s the thought of limiting entrance in early phases only to local annual passholders. Could this be what Disney is planning? Could the availability of FastPass reservations be pointing to that possibility?
Early Phase Re-opening For Annual Passholders Only?
Chances are, the fact that Annual Passholders are still able to view and reserve FastPasses for June is just the My Disney Experience site working as usual. Why make massive changes to a complicated operating system only to have to revert them in (hopefully) a few weeks’ time?
Related: Disney Emails Annual Passholders the Latest Updated Information
But don’t get your hopes up too high, local AP’s! This is all still speculation with no official word from Disney about who or when they will reopen the parks. However, it wouldn’t hurt to have a few pre-booked FP’s for June ready… just in case!
FastPass Reservation Cancellations for late May
Guests with reservations for late May are reporting their pre-booked FastPasses were automatically canceled, even though their room reservations are still showing up in their My Disney Experience account.
As you can see in this screenshot below, the room reservation is still active on this guests’ account, however, all the pre-booked FastPass reservations they had are gone.
Do you think these available FastPass+ for June point to a possible reopening date? If they do reopen, but only to local annual passholders, would you agree that’s a smart social distancing effort? Or would you rather see Disney try something altogether different? Let us know in the comments!