After a year of speculation, the unthinkable has just been confirmed, Disneyland IS ENDING its Annual Pass Holder Program immediately Pass holders will be contacted today and informed that the unused portion of their contract will be automatically refunded. annual pass.
End of Disneyland Pass Holder Program
In October 2020, we shared information that Tokyo Disneyland was terminating its pass holder program due to the park’s limited capacity and the difficulty of securing reservations for pass holders. At the time, we speculated that the same situation could also happen in Disneyland. Today, this suspicion has been confirmed.
Ken Potrock, president of Disneyland Resort, is sharing the following letter with all current passport holders. The letter explains the reason for the sudden change, addresses the huge impact it will have for many and indicates that more information is yet to come.
Letter from the president of Disneyland to passers who are leaving now:
The truth is that Disneyland really wouldn’t have been able to maintain the end of the annual pass contract for an unknown number of months after the parks reopened due to the park’s expected drastic capacity limitations. And while Disneyland hasn’t created their new ticket structure yet (they’re busy sending surveys now to find out what guests want), they know that people prefer to be guaranteed to buy a ticket and get access than to pay the amount higher for an annual pass and not having guaranteed access to something you’ve already paid for.
As a result of the high number of pass holders and the expected low capacity of the park, something drastic had to be done. But don’t despair yet. Disneyland knows that many of you identify with the parks. It is an important part of your lifestyle and the idea of not having access is probably causing some tears (or even anger) for those who are reading this. Therefore, Disneyland hopes to embrace fans, continue to offer advantages and opportunities, but to have a new flexible ticket structure that will allow Disneyland to control access to the park and better serve guests in these difficult times. What the exact ticket structure will be has not yet been finalized. But it will probably be incorporated into the park’s new reservation system.
What current annual pass holders need to know
First and foremost, you will automatically receive a proportional refund for the number of unused days on your annual pass. If you are curious to know how much this value is, you can visit Disneyland passport refund page which will calculate the refund due.
But even with all Disneyland passes canceled, if you had an active park pass on March 14, 2020, when the Disneyland Resort was closed, you will continue to receive some benefits. Discounts for the pass holder will continue for now at Downtown Disney and Buena Vista Street. And from January 18 to February 25, pass holders will receive a 30% discount at selected locations in Downtown Disney and Buena Vista Street from Monday to Thursday (regular discounts still apply from Friday to Sunday).
Disney promises to ensure that pass holders are the first to know about the new ticket program once it is finalized. We’ll be sure to share it for you and explain the changes here on MiceChat as well.
That Disneyland feeling
We had a few moments to talk to Ken Potrock, president of Disneyland Resort, about these changes. It was clear that he understood and was concerned about how these changes would make pass holders feel. On the one hand, Disney did everything it could to expand the program over the decades and make pass holders feel special, but current business demands would make it impossible to offer the same level of access in an era of distance and extreme capacity constraints in the parks.
Ken is committed to creating new ways to engage Disneyland’s best fans and ensure that they continue to feel connected. Nothing is out of the question now, as they try to find out exactly what the fans want and how Disneyland can deliver that in very challenging circumstances.
If you have ideas about things Disney can do to help you feel the magic once the parks reopen, share in the comments below. Wanting a Passholder program is simply not possible at the moment, but there are certainly things that Disney can offer, clubs, special ticket events, fan merchandise, etc. that will help maintain that sense of connection to Walt’s original Disneyland.
VOTING
In October 2020, we conducted a survey asking whether the Passholders program should be closed, as it was in Tokyo, to allow Disneyland to better control the park’s capacity. We were shocked not only by the number of votes and opinions, but also by the results.
At the time, more than 72% of you voted for a version to end the program. Only 19% said the program should not be terminated or changed.
The question now is how would you like the park tickets to be treated when Disneyland reopens? Should dated tickets be offered simply on a variable price scale based on demand? Would you like to be able to buy vouchers at a discount on the number purchased (which would later need to be booked in the park reservation system)? Should the park have the same price every day or do you like a sliding scale? Should park hopping be allowed or should parks require separate entrance for now? Let us know your opinion below.
Let’s hear from you
As a holder of an almost lifelong pass, this news touched me very personally. Although I have been waiting for exactly this news for several months, Disneyland is still a very important part of my life (the fact that I have this blog is proof of that), but I UNDERSTAND the very difficult position that Disneyland is in. I would like to think that this redefinition will allow Disneyland to resolve the conditions that caused the park’s overwhelming overcrowding whenever something new was introduced (everything from a new bucket of popcorn to the opening of a new attraction would make the park times crash). Regular visitors were increasingly finding the park not fun to visit because it was too crowded. There is potential for Disney to fix this with a limited number of tickets available on any given day.
The rapidly rising cost of annual passes made the renewal decision increasingly difficult for many. $ 1,450 for a pass without blackouts just last year. Therefore, many of you have already given up your passes and started taking advantage of the special ticket offers.
Would I be willing to buy tickets only when I need them? Yes. But I want to see some kind of discount for people who visit more than just once a year, or maybe just discount ticket offers for locals during less frequent times. And I would like to see Disney bring back a version of FlexPass, which still allows the park to limit the number of visits by scheduling.
Let’s hear from you guys. How do you feel about this news? What can Disney do to keep you engaged? And would you like to see tickets processed in the near future?