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Disney Reopens Passholder Previews for New Fantasyland

Rikki Niblett
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With the debacle that happened over the last week with Annual Passholders not being able to obtain spots for the AP Preview of the New Fantasyland, Disney has announced a new way for AP Holders to be able to preview the area.

The Magic Kingdom will now have 11 days of previews for Passholders to take advantage of. However, the change is that AP Holders will be able to attend via a sweepstakes to ensure that those who have not registered yet will have a chance to attend as well.

According to Disney, you will have multiple days to be able to submit your entry (but entries must be received by October 31 at 2:59 am EST) and guests will all have an equal opportunity to attend the preview. Guests will be chosen randomly and will receive an email with your date sometime around November 2. You will only have an opportunity to enter the sweepstakes once, but you will be able to choose more than one time period, increasing your chances at being chosen.

The same rules that were mentioned before on the AP previews apply to this one. Passholders are able to register up to eight guests total, but every member of the party must be a valid Annual Passholder at the time of registration and event. Valid Magic Kingdom admission is required for all guests. Guests must be 18 or older to sign up for the sweepstakes, however, guests of all ages may attend.

Keep in mind, if you already have registered and have your date to visit, you do not need to re-register.

To enter, click here. You will then be able to choose the dates and times you would be able to potentially participate in the preview. Dates are November 6, 7, 8, 9, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, and 18. You will then need to select the number of Passholders attending and then hit enter to submit you entry.

Hopefully, this new way of signing up for the AP Previews of New Fantasyland will go much more smooth than the previous way.

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Rikki Niblett

I am a co-host of the Be Our Guest Podcast and do lots of other fun Disney stuff all around the interwebs! You can follow me on Twitter or Instagram at @RikkiNibs or on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/rikkinibs

25 thoughts on “Disney Reopens Passholder Previews for New Fantasyland”

  • I signed up for and “won” the Disney Passholder Sweepstakes to see the new Fantasy Land. But good old Disney was letting ANYBODY in and there were long lines because of this. I couldn’t get into the restaurant because anybody in the park was allowed in! This really sucked but not as much as the 2 attractions they had opened.
    Ariels Undersea Adventure was stupid. With all the technology available they came up with a ride that was totally boring (unless you’re 5 years old). Belle’s Tales was even worse. It was like attending a second grade play. I hope the other attractions, when they are open, show some imagination and technology to suprise and amaze guests.

  • For all those mad about the preview just remember that the New Fantasyland is not scheduled to open until December 6. Disney could lock things down and give no one a chance to view but instead they are having ‘Dress Rehersal’ on some days. Just check while you are in the park and you might get a surprise but this is really nothing to get upset about. It is not like it will be closing next year sometime.

    • I think you are missing the point. What we care about are the potential crowds that may result of the passholders to flood the park after their viewing of new fantasyland. We are going from predicted crowds of 1.1 to potential 9.1. I could care less about seeing the expansion. What I do care about is that I am pulling my child out of school and spending a lot of money for low crowds, to have Disney spring these previews on us a couple of weeks before our planned arrival.

  • Many of the comments here are directed at park hours and crowd calendar changes.

    Fred Hazelton of our statistics team addresses the crowd level concerns here:
    http://blog.touringplans.com/2012/10/31/i-know-you-guys-know-what-youre-doing-but-9-1-on-nov-14th/

    In addition, we have a post about the unprecedented weekday November hours changes here:
    http://blog.touringplans.com/2012/10/25/magic-kingdom-operating-hours-extended-for-select-days-in-november/

    For all of you going to Disney World in November, I’d much rather be in WDW this November than during any traditional school vacation period. To play it safe, tour smart. As Fred suggests, arrive before park opening (which is always a good idea, and it is even more valuable when the park opens to all at 8:00 am) and have a touring plan.

    And remember that you’re in Disney World, so have fun!

  • MAD MAD MAD!!! I too planned our vacay over a year ago AND pulled kids out of school to avoid crowds! Our travel dates are 11/14-11/20 and now it will be ruined by this bologna! When is disney going to realize that EVERYONE pays money to go to disney!! Is it just me or do the rest of the non-AP holders feel like chopped liver! Not knocking AP holders b/c yes they pay money for their passes but we paid THOUSANDS of dollars for our vacation too! I just can’t help but feel like the “red-headed” step child in this deal! How about do a lottery for ALL RESORT GUESTS with the pass holders! I feel really sorry for those people who are staying offsite and won’t be able to take advantage of EMH! Imagine their dissapointment when they arrive at 9am for park opening and the park is FULL!! OK now I’m off my soapbox and will resume my magical day! 🙂

  • We don’t do a park the first day either. We’ll be at Bay Lake Tower. Good luck to you as well! Guess we’ll be using our touring plan:)

  • I’m going to do the same thing! We leave the 10th so we’ll be there at the same time!!

    • We will be there on the 10th also. We usually don’t go to a park the first day. We are at the poly…how about you? Good Luck!

  • Yes, Debbie, I totally agree with you! We were there last year at thanksgiving with crowds at 8s and 9s and swore we’d never do it again. So we pulled kids out of school and we get this! It’s frustrating and we know its not the people at touring plans fault but we just want them to make us feel better 🙂

    • I feel sorry for those who don’t follow crowd levels like we do….they have no idea what they are in for until they get there. The up side is that we are as prepared as we can be. Since I’m not going until the week of the 11th….I am going to watch Lines during the previews on the 6th through 9th. If any of you are there those days please let the rest of us know how it goes.

  • Last Tuesday they had Mickey’s Not-So-Scary Halloween Party at MK. It was expected 1.1 crowd level. Next week we are gonna be beaten by the crowds on MK according to TouringPlans.

  • We were at the MK last Tuesday and were pleasantly surprised that we were able to just walk in to the new Fantasyland and ride the Little Mermaid ride. The crowds were very small as well, and we are not annual passholders. It was a nice bonus for us.

    • Last Tuesday wasn’t an annual passholder day was it? The point we are making is that the annual passholders are having previews every day Nov. 12 through 18 and making hours 8 am to 1 am every day. I think I can speak for the rest of us on this thread that we were expecting days like yours of 1.1 and getting to view New Fantasyland. Now we are looking at 9.5s some days and possibly not a preview. If I wanted this I would not be taking my kid out of school and would have gone Thanksgiving or Christmas. Someone at touringplans please respond and make us feel better about this….pretty please.

  • Why isn’t anyone from Touring Plans responding to Fabiano’s question? I’m not understanding how the numbers could jump so much either. Has anyone tried emailing Touring Plans since they aren’t answering on here?

  • I am right there with all of you! I am so mad, our entire trip is now messed up because of the new Fantasyland preview days. We plan a year ahead as well to beat crowds and pull kids out of school. I have a friend who works for Disney and she told me that us regular people can still see the new Fantasyland on preview days just not during during the alotted times for passholder people. She said when she was in there passholders were allotted a time of 2-4 then they started letting regular park guests in around 3:30.
    I’m still furious about these crowds!
    Does anybody know how they come up with the crowds? I’m with Fabiano who asked where are all these people coming from on a weekday? Do they not have jobs??

    • yes. did you notice that the crowds went from 2 to 6 and higher on some days. Who knows where the crowds are coming from, but the key here is that they are actually having a “sweepstakes” so the passholders will have an equal chance. How about the rest of us!

    • TouringPlan now says that almost every day in the two first week of november is to AVOID Magic Kingdown. Please, can anyone on TouringPlan
      explain us how is it possible crowds up to 9 in weekdays. I still have no clues about how this preview of the New Fantasy Land could bring so many people to MK. It seems that every passholders in the world will leave work or school and head to Disney. What I am trying to say is that I am not believing that MK will be so crowded as TouringPlans is saying. Who will give us some explanation about
      this ? Can anyone say something ?

    • Does Touring Plans have an estimate of how many passholders they are letting in per time slot?
      Also – how will so many people get down there (if they aren’t in the Florida area) on such short notice?

  • Let me ask you something, people : Where are most of the passholders coming from ? Most of these days will be school days. How is it possible MK to be so crowded as some people are expecting ? I can not understand. Am I missing something ?
    Another question: How can these events affect the crowds of the others Disney Theme Parks ?

  • Does this mean if we aren’t passholders that we can’t go to the soft opening on these dates?

    • @Shannon…yep…if you are not a passholder you will not see the Fantasyland. @ debbie…I also planned a year out and you are right, no way to change ADR’s to switch parks around. I understand it’s a great opportunity for the passholders but Disney has shut the rest of us out completely.

  • Still doesn’t do any good for those who will be there and NOT passholders. Things were looking good until Disney announced the new previews which take up every day of my vacation with a zero chance of seeing this. Thanks alot Disney!

    • I am really mad about this as I am going the same week. Four of my seven days are probably going to be ruined by large crowds. Of course, because of not being able to change ADRs there is no movement to just switch days around on a whim. I emailed Disney and of course they did not offer much up that made me feel any better about this. I plan this trip a year out, take my kid out of school…not to mention the boat load of money I dump there every year. Very disappointing.

      • Just read the dates of this again and realized the dates are every day that we are there. Now I’m really mad.

      • just re-read this…it is every day of our trip. This is really bad.

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