It’s been nearly a year since we covered Annual Passholder “Good-to-Go” dates. The last time that we wrote about them was back in July 2025, and that was due to the debut of the Disney Starlight: Dream the Night Away parade. In short, we view Good-to-Go dates as rather pointless, along with the entire Disney Park Pass theme park reservation system, but there has been a notable change recently, and we wanted to offer some commentary.
Disney World Closer Than Ever to Getting Park Reservations Right
Briefly, the Disney Park Pass theme park reservation system is a COVID-era creation of now-CEO Josh D’Amaro. At the time, D’Amaro was the head of Disney’s theme park division, and his team viewed COVID-19 as a good opportunity to reset how Disney operates its theme parks and leverages technology. A lot of things have changed due to COVID-19, and while many changes have been rolled back, there are still a number of changes that look to be “permanent”. One such “permanent” change is the Disney Park Pass theme park reservation system.
While theme park reservation requirements have been lifted for many ticket types, there are still a few ticket types that require reservations, and Annual Passholders are the largest contingent of guests who need to make reservations to enter the theme parks. Of course, not every day is wall-to-wall busy at Walt Disney World, so Disney has come up with the idea of “Good-to-Go” dates. Good-to-Go dates are days when theme park reservations are not required.
My argument has been that if we’re going to keep the Disney Park Pass theme park reservation system (and the new CEO is one of its biggest champions), then I would like to see Disney acknowledge its uselessness during the 80-90% of the year when not a single park sells out.
The latest development, and the prompting of this article, is how Disney is going to use the Disney Park Pass system over the next two weeks. As seen in the screenshot below, Disney has loaded eight Good-to-Go dates for Monday through Thursday over the next two weeks. I would like to think that this is an acknowledgment that there simply isn’t a reason to make Annual Passholders reserve entry into the theme parks on those dates. In fact, there is only one theme park that is sold out on one date over the next year, and that’s Disney’s Hollywood Studios on May 4th – understandable.
If we try to come up with a why for these Good-to-Go dates, there isn’t an immediately obvious answer beyond an acknowledgment that they simply aren’t needed. Sometimes, we’ll see Good-to-Go dates when some of the Annual Pass tiers are blocked out, but that’s not the case here. Sometimes, we’ll see Good-to-Go dates when there are very low crowds expected, but if we look at Disney’s demand-based ticket pricing, some of these dates are the highest prices until October. Which brings me to my next point.
If Good-to-Go dates were truly utilized to manage demand, we should see a lot more Good-to-Go dates throughout the Summer. What I’d really like to see is Disney shifting to where Good-to-Go dates are the norm (as is the case over the next two weeks), with reservations required during high-demand periods.
A good example of a high-demand period would certainly be May 4th at Disney’s Hollywood Studios. Even things like the reopening of Big Thunder Mountain Railroad on May 3rd, or Rock ‘n’ Roller Coaster Starring The Muppets on May 26th, would be good examples of high-demand dates.
While I haven’t been paying much attention to Good-to-Go dates over the past few years, I’ll certainly be interested to see if Walt Disney World continues with the trend that they’re setting over the next two weeks, or if it’s an outlier.
What are your thoughts on the Disney Park Pass theme park reservation system? Let us know in the comments below or on social media!
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