Does Disney Still Like Annual Passes?
According to Florida Politics, two Walt Disney World annual passholders announced a lawsuit against The Walt Disney Company.
This news isn’t the least bit surprising to anyone keeping up with the acrimony between Disney and its most loyal Disneyland fans.
Photo: Disneyland
A class action suit is underway in California due to Disney’s new Park Pass requirement for theme park admission.
The only shock about the latest flare-up is that it took this long for Walt Disney World annual passholders to follow suit. And the whole thing raises a question.
Credit: Disney
Does Disney still like the annual pass program?
What Are Annual Passes?
Okay, you should know this one, but let’s go over it just in case. Disney theme parks have historically sold annual passes to encourage repeat business.
Photo: Disney
These annual passes provide a way to ensure that the parks maintain excellent attendance throughout the year.
Fans who live close to Anaheim, California, and Orlando, Florida, gain access to the parks whenever they want in exchange for an annual fee.
While the cost of an annual pass has turned into a moving target over the past decade, some basics apply.
Disney sells variations of these annual passes, some of which feature better benefits than others.
Photo: Disney
For example, a cheaper annual pass may allow guests to visit on weekdays only.
A more expensive one provides year-round park admission plus various discounts and other perks.
Photo: Disney Parks
The concept of annual passes dates back 40 years at Walt Disney World, as management introduced them in 1982.
Photo: Walt Dated World
Notably, the implementation proved controversial as it occurred at a time when Disney transitioned from pay-per-attraction to single-day access to all rides.Annual passes soothed this change, as they allowed guests to visit the parks more cheaply than ever before.
In fact, Disney priced its initial annual passes a bit too low, causing near-immediate price increases in 1983.
Annual price increases have become standard practice since then. However, one premise has rung true for nearly 40 years now.
When you owned the best annual pass, you could visit Disney theme parks whenever you wanted…until the pandemic.
Park Passes – The Fly in the Ointment
Photo: Disney
Something changed when Walt Disney World reopened in July 2020. The government mandates forced capacity limits at the various theme parks.
COVID-19 health precautions caused Disney to take what I can only describe as digital head counts.
The Centers for Disney Control and Prevention asked Disney to honor social distancing in this manner.
Disney’s on-the-fly solution turned into the Park Pass. It’s a digital reservation that guarantees park admission for a given day.
You still need a regular admission ticket as well. So, now you must possess a Park Pass plus paid admission to enter the park.
Importantly, one doesn’t automatically come with the other. Disney doesn’t sell admission tickets for a specific park. You choose where you want to go.
However, the Park Pass requirement changes that. When you own an annual pass, you no longer gain access to your park of choice…unless you reserve a Park Pass.
Image Credit: Disney
You can understand the distinction here and why it matters. An annual pass doesn’t get you anything without a Park Pass, even though you’ve paid hundreds of dollars.
Many annual passholders expected the Park Pass requirement to vanish once the pandemic ended. That hasn’t happened.
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In fact, we know that the Park Pass system will last into 2024 at a minimum.
The Park Pass Problem
Photo: Disneyland
Disneyland annual passholders quickly recognized the system’s innate flaw.
Park officials promised an exclusive Park Pass inventory for annual passholders. While that has technically happened, availability isn’t total.
Image Credit: Disney
Some people with annual passes struggle to book Park Passes. Then, when they can’t, they’re shut out of the Happiest Place on Earth.
The lawsuit addresses that problem. It argues that Disney has failed its customers due to “predatory business practice(s)” that are “exploiting the customers who support (Disney) the most.”
Photo: cba.cj
This most recent lawsuit has forced a Disney spokesperson to respond anew. The previous official Disney statement was:
“We have been clear about the terms of the Magic Key product and we know that many of our guests are enjoying the experiences these passes provide. We will vigorously defend our position as the case proceeds.”
Photo: Miriam-Webster
The new reply is:
“We’ve been upfront with Passholders about the updates we’ve made, and we offered them the flexibility to opt-in or opt-out of the program early in the pandemic, including refunds if they desired. This lawsuit mischaracterizes the program and its history, and we will respond further in court.”
Photo: Disney
Those statements occurred ten months apart, but they say the same thing. Disney will do whatever it takes to defend its Park Pass position.
That fact lends itself to the essential question here…
Does Disney Still Like Its Annual Pass Program?
That’s the (multi) million-dollar question here. Obviously, Disney likes the program enough that management brought it back to Disneyland.
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The same statement applied to Walt Disney World for a while, although both parks have drastically limited the annual pass options available for sale.
However, potential new customers cannot purchase annual passes at Walt Disney World right now.
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I know this because I have a weird and legitimately hilarious confession. While I’ve been an annual passholder during the pandemic, I’m not currently one.
My pass expired at a time when Disney wasn’t accepting renewals. In November 2021, I added my wife and my “new” annual passes to the cart.
However, I don’t make multi-thousand-dollar purchases without speaking to her.
Even though I knew she would be okay with it, I waited until the following morning to speak with her about it.
That morning was November 22nd, 2021, the day that Walt Disney World stopped selling annual passes. Unfortunately, that’s a real thing that happened to us.
Since then, we have anxiously awaited the return of annual pass sales for out-of-state residents. And it still hasn’t happened.
Photo: Disneyland
The Disneyland class action suit scared Walt Disney World officials enough that they effectively shut down both programs.
TL: DR – NO!
The conclusion I draw here is that Disney executives desire the millions of dollars they gain from annual passes.
However, they vastly prefer the flexibility they gain from the Park Pass program.
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This system allows Disney to staff their parks more efficiently than ever. And there is a LOT more money to be made from reduced labor costs than from annual passes.
Also, annual passholders notoriously spend less money per park visit than tourists from other areas.
So, Disney has come to view them as damaging the per-capita spending average, a bragging point on Wall Street.
Photo: Sand and Snow
For these reasons, I don’t believe Disney still likes annual passes and likely won’t until the economy tanks.
At that point, Disney’s leadership will try to kiss and make up with the disgruntled fans it has recently pushed away with its post-pandemic practices.
Photo: MickeyBlog
