What's going to happen with Annual Passes?

EPCOT-O.G.

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
We know that Disneyland's AP has been phased out for a yet-to-be rolled out "Legacy" system, and now today it appears Disneyland Paris is halting new sales and renewals of their APs.

Anyone have any guesses as to what happens to WDW's Annual Passes as we presently know them?
 

Disney Glimpses

Well-Known Member
My uneducated useless take:

The WDW AP program consists of more vacationers than DLR does; so the program has much more stability in terms of distribution. Also, having 4 theme parks as opposed to 1.5 makes the situation very different from DLR.

My expectation is that AP sales resume soonish (without any drastic changes to the program). But major program changes should be expected in the nearish future.
 

Mark48

Well-Known Member
My uneducated useless take:

The WDW AP program consists of more vacationers than DLR does; so the program has much more stability in terms of distribution. Also, having 4 theme parks as opposed to 1.5 makes the situation very different from DLR.

My expectation is that AP sales resume soonish (without any drastic changes to the program). But major program changes should be expected in the nearish future.
I agree with all of this with the reservation requirements becoming the main control factor . In other words, length of stay reservations for pass holder resort guests .....Limited monthly reservations for all other passholders.
 

"El Gran Magnifico"

Bring Me A Shrubbery
Premium Member
But major program changes should be expected in the nearish future.

That's my worry. Even things that may not on the surface seem drastic could have great impact. Say, if they eliminated free parking from the AP. The locals that go 4x a month could end up paying more in parking than they do on tickets. Even for someone like me who walks into a park about 25x a year on average - that's an extra ~$600 a year on top of the AP price. And they ain't lowering the AP price to account for charging for parking.
 

Disney Glimpses

Well-Known Member
I agree with all of this with the reservation requirements becoming the main control factor . In other words, length of stay reservations for pass holder resort guests .....Limited monthly reservations for all other passholders.
Totally, which is already occurring. However, when operations are back to normal and there are no capacity limits, we'll see the true belly of the beast that is the Park Pass system.

It will be a very, very unfortunate scenario if come a Friday afternoon an AP decides they want to go to Magic Kingdom to watch fireworks but cannot because the Park Pass system is sending them to EPCOT or Animal Kingdom because their attendance is too low that day.

That's my worry. Even things that may not on the surface seem drastic could have great impact. Say, if they eliminated free parking from the AP. The locals that go 4x a month could end up paying more in parking than they do on tickets. Even for someone like me who walks into a park about 25x a year on average - that's an extra ~$600 a year on top of the AP price. And they ain't lowering the AP price to account for charging for parking.
I don't expect them to eliminate things like that, because it is against part of the point of being a local AP. But I do expect their use of the Park Pass system to be borderline evil towards APs.
 

Zummi Gummi

Pioneering the Universe Within!
I can’t imagine they’d get away with charging AP’s for parking, but they will be able to closely monitor attendance with the reservation system and limit how many low-spending AP’s are in the park at any given time.
 

Mark48

Well-Known Member
Totally, which is already occurring. However, when operations are back to normal and there are no capacity limits, we'll see the true belly of the beast that is the Park Pass system.

It will be a very, very unfortunate scenario if come a Friday afternoon an AP decides they want to go to Magic Kingdom to watch fireworks but cannot because the Park Pass system is sending them to EPCOT or Animal Kingdom because their attendance is too low that day.


I don't expect them to eliminate things like that, because it is against part of the point of being a local AP. But I do expect their use of the Park Pass system to be borderline evil towards APs.
Boderline evil is a good way to put it. Unfortunately the CEO ( me no likey da Chapek ) is already on record as not being a fan of AP holders spending patterns. Reservations will allow control of how many of us " Low spending " passholders get in .
 

TrainsOfDisney

Well-Known Member
I would doubt they would have one system for Florida and a totally different system for California and Paris but of course there’s no way to know for sure without making an unfortunate deal with a sea witch.

Chapek doesn’t like AP’s... I wouldn’t be surprised to see the whole program go away to be replaced with a limited “yearly membership” that offers so many days per year.
 

Dad 2 M & M

Well-Known Member
Has anyone checked the Park Availability Calendar lately? If you are an AP you have the pick of the litter....most days available other than weekends. Wonder if they'll play with that and reduce the allocation a bit?
 

"El Gran Magnifico"

Bring Me A Shrubbery
Premium Member
And what would he do with the Florida Resident AP program?

Depends on your credit score. And how much available credit you have - that’d be my guess. Anybody with a high utilization and under 5k in available - “No Disney for you”

Unless of course you have some collateral- in which case there’d be some “special” Disney financing options - starting from a low 42% APR.
 

Mark48

Well-Known Member
Has anyone checked the Park Availability Calendar lately? If you are an AP you have the pick of the litter....most days available other than weekends. Wonder if they'll play with that and reduce the allocation a bit?
Mr. Chapek will see to it the" Litter " dwindles down after opening Port Orleans, All stars and Animal Kingdom lodge fully.
 

TYOTimer

Well-Known Member
Has anyone checked the Park Availability Calendar lately? If you are an AP you have the pick of the litter....most days available other than weekends. Wonder if they'll play with that and reduce the allocation a bit?
It was constantly full, until a certain coaster opened up at Universal, then the floodgates opened for AP availability
 

TYOTimer

Well-Known Member
I’d say passes won’t go back on sale until they figure out how to put paid FPs in with them, and wether it’s going to be like Universal’s Express Pass in that regard. I will say though, Disney will never get rid of them in Florida, even if it is only kept for locals.
 

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