Universal Confirms New 2025 Reservation System, "Sad to See it Come to This"

With the news of Universal jumping, in a sense, on the Disney park pass reservation bandwagon in the coming years, fans of the theme park have begun to place their input on the new rules, and the reaction, overall, may not be what one would assume.

When Walt Disney World Resort opened back up from the pandemic, capacity limits were implemented to promote social distancing. This meant that far fewer guests were allowed in the theme parks, and in order to orchestrate these limitations, Disney began their park pass reservation system.

Pre-pandemic, guests would simply buy a ticket to Walt Disney World and scan into the park. You did not have to pick what park you were going to before the morning of, and things were very simple. The park pass reservation system added a second step to the Disney World vacation process. After buying a ticket, or if you have an Annual Pass, guests would have to go on their My Disney Experience app and select what park they were going to visit on which day, allocating their ticket.

This allowed Disney to know who was going into what park on what day so that they could keep a count for capacity. If a park ended up filling, no more guests would be able to reserve the park. As one might imagine, this led to disappointment for some who were not used to the system or did not know they had to use it, and to this day, it still does. 

While there are much more park pass reservations available now than in 2020, as we have seen over the holidays, there is still a chance that a park could hit capacity. Soon, we will see the system change once more, as theme park reservations for visits on or after January 9, 2024, have been automatically removed for guests with a date-based ticket. Annual Passholders, however, will still have to use the system.

Park pass reservations removed the ability for a guest to spontaneously choose what park they wanted to visit for the day, and significantly affected Annual Passholders who may not have been planning their Magic Kingdom visit for months in advance. This left Universal Orlando Resort with a lot of praise, as they had no reservation system.

The park did still have a capacity limit initially, during the pandemic, but would allow more guests in as others left. Now, the parks are running as usual.

Recently, a change was noticed on the Premier Pass, which is the highest Annual Pass for Universal Orlando Resort, which affected the complimentary Halloween Horror Night ticket that Passholders are allotted, which will soon come with a reservation system attached. The Premier Pass includes a lot of excellent perks like early access into the parks each day, Universal Express Pass after 4:00pm, as well as discounts on food and merchandise in the parks.

It also comes with a free ticket to Halloween Horror Nights, and is the only pass that does so. Now, the language regarding that ticket has changed on the site:

“One (1) free night admission to Halloween Horror Nights (on select nights only)^. Advance online reservations are required starting with the 2025 event. Reservation is subject to event capacity. One (1) reservation per valid Premier Annual Pass. To redeem, you must present your valid Premier Annual Pass at any Universal Studios Florida turnstile.”

Previously, guests would be able to use their ticket on any night without a reservation, but now, it appears that Universal is looking to have reservations in place that will also be subjected to event capacity. Since Halloween Horror Nights does have quite a few nights hit capacity, like opening day, certain days may require a reservation far in advance to lock in that spot.

This system will not be put into place for another year, however, so Passholders need not worry during this 2024 spooky season.

Guests are now chatting about the new rule, and the idea of Universal adding in a reservation option so long after Disney. Horror Night Nightmares (@HHNightmares) shared, “Sad to see it come to this, eventually for everyone probably. It’s much needed though with the way crowds have been. The event has outgrown itself and one park. Glad we got to experience #HHN before it became a monster (no pun intended).”

Sad to see it come to this, eventually for everyone probably. It’s much needed though with the way crowds have been. The event has outgrown itself and one park. Glad we got to experience #HHN before it became a monster (no pun intended). pic.twitter.com/mFQW1qu2rB

— Horror Night Nightmares (@HNNightmares) January 2, 2024

Quite a few of others have chimed in on the discussion, with opinions very heavily varying.

AndrewOfPeace (@AndrewOfPeace) said, “Instead of expanding the event’s capacity through increased F&B options and additional entertainment, they’re choosing the Disney way of just increasing pricing & making it difficult to visit,” comparing the system to Disney. The original poster replied, “That’s the thing. Whats the breaking point for people? Will HHN be the one vacation/trip you take per year? They are starting to out price a lot of people between tickets, hotel, flights, food, etc. How much are you willing to pay for an event, local or non-local?”

Austin S. (@ItsFreakinHarry) wrote “It sucks, but they have no real competition atm. Howl-O-Scream’s quality is far below HHN, Disney isn’t doing any horror events, and there’s no other place that can match what Universal can fund and make happen. Until they get some competitors, prices will always rise.” So, it seems that Universal is getting a pass due to their dominance in the horror market.

Others were glad to see the change. Thrills (@Thrills_Orlando) said, “This makes a ton of sense and actually should benefit premier passholders who utilize this benefit IMO”.

Austin S. (@ItsFreakinHarry) even changed their tune, “Honestly I’m fine with this system in a vacuum. My fear is that this is just a test of their ultimate plan of making the entire event reservation based for all tickets. Start off slow with reserving a start date for FFP, then for reserving the free ticket, then for everyone.” It seems that the issue is not this reservation system, but the fear of a larger reservation system.

Michael Civitillo (@MichaelCiv) said, “I’m OK with this. The HHN crowds are crazy. Now let me reserve valet with it and we’re golden.”

Overall, it seems that fans are divided on the issue, but no one is nearly as upset as we have seen, as we continue to see Disney Annual Passholders when it comes to Disney’s much more in-depth reservation system. It appears that in small doses, guests do not mind these changes if they remain as such.

When visiting Universal Orlando Resort, guests can enjoy attractions such as Rip Ride Rockit, MEN IN BLACK Alien Attack, Transformers: The Ride, and more. Visit Diagon Alley in the Wizarding World of Harry Potter, where you can venture into Gringotts!  Islands of Adventure has some fantastic attractions like the new Jurassic World VelociCoaster, Jurassic Park River Adventure, The Incredible Hulk Coaster, Doctor Doom’s Fearfall, The Amazing Adventures of Spider-Man, and more! Volcano Bay is also open for those who want to get their splash on.

What do you think about this new reservation system?