It’s easy to understand why Disneyland was forced to end its annual pass program amid the prolonged closure of the coronavirus pandemic, when you realize that about one in two visitors to the Anaheim theme park held the pass.
With an estimated 1 million pass holders, there would be an impossibly long virtual queue of diehard fans eagerly waiting to get an advance reservation online for Disneyland’s reopening day.
Annual pass holders account for about 50% of attendance at Disney resorts, according to UBS financial analysts.
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Disneyland and Disney California Adventure are unlikely to return to full operation by spring or summer according to state-issued COVID-19 health and safety reopening guidelines.
Disneyland surprised fans by ending its annual passport holders program and announcing that a new membership program would be unveiled at a later date.
Disneyland officials do not say how many people have annual passes, but observers in the theme park industry estimate the number to be 1 million.
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A million people are hard to imagine. These types of numbers usually only appear in victory parades, mass protests, free concerts and the annual pilgrimage to Mecca.
One million pass holders never made it to Disneyland en masse. But the problems would be immense if even a fraction of those fans wanted to be there when the park reopens after the closure of COVID-19.
Disneyland’s audience reached 18.7 million visitors in 2019, according to Themed Entertainment Association / AECOM. Disney California Adventure attracted 9.9 million visitors in the same year, according to TEA / AECOM.
Combined, Disneyland and DCA attract about 28.6 million visitors annually, according to TEA / AECOM. Pass holders represent 14.3 million of these visits each year, based on UBS estimates.
Disneyland attracts around 51,000 visitors a day, while Disney California Adventure attracts another 27,000 daily, according to TEA / AECOM. Disney’s two Anaheim parks attract approximately 78,000 visitors a day, according to TEA / AECOM.
At this rate, Disneyland would take almost 20 days to allow each pass holder to enter the park once. DCA would take almost twice as long. And this without allowing a single buyer of daily tickets or a Disney hotel guest to enter the parks.
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The COVID-19 health and safety guidelines issued by California will limit the frequency of Disneyland and DCA to a 25% capacity limit when the parks are reopened. This increases the time it would take each pass holder in the parks only once, from days to months: almost three months for Disneyland and approximately five months for DCA.
The TEA / AECOM service numbers do not represent the park’s capacity, but they do give an idea of the daunting challenge of accommodating 1 million pass holders presented to Disneyland.
Disneyland pass holders expect relatively unrestricted access to the park – depending on the restrictions attached to their annual passes. No annual Disneyland pass limits pass holders to just a few visits a year – and that’s the problem with Disneyland. You cannot offer pass holders access to the park and then deny entry. Disneyland had only one option: to end the annual pass system as we know it and to restart with a new membership program.