News Disneyland cancels Annual Pass program

[Minnesota disney fan]

If you're only spending two days at the resort, I would recommend that you skip DCA and focus on DL. You should be able to hit most if not all of the major highlights of DL with two days.

I actually don't know how long to plan to see each park? I just guessed at 2 days. What would you suggest would be a good number of days to plan for? We are older and tend to move slower and take in the ambience. In other words, we don't just rush to rides all day (that was for when we were younger, lol)
Thanks for this info.

 

[mickEblu]

I still think this entitled AP thing gets way overblown. I went to the parks 15-20 times a year and I can’t remember one example of this type of behavior. And I’m someone that says “please” and “thank you” so frequent in any given exchange that I have to tell myself to stop. So I’d notice. Not saying it doesn’t exist but I’m wagering that it’s way overstated around here. Unless by “entitled” people just mean showing up often for a few hours here or there. Which would be a misuse of the word.

It’s the look at these guys showing up 6pm and taking a spot for the fireworks type of thing that made non APs mad and much less of people being impolite and rude towards CMs and other guests.

 

[Deleted member 107043]

Disneyland is a local park and correct me if I am wrong, the majority of visitors are annual pass holders

Primarily because Disney deliberately set up ticketing that favors a certain group of guests over others and let a subset of those guests run amok. What many of us are hopeful for is a system that is more equitable and fair for EVERY Disneyland visitor, not just the most fanatical.

 

[Vegas Disney Fan]

I still think this entitled AP thing gets way overblown. I went to the parks 15-20 times a year and I can’t remember one example of this type of behavior. And I’m someone that says “please” and “thank you” so frequent in any given exchange that I have to tell myself to stop. So I’d notice. Not saying it doesn’t exist but I’m wagering that it’s way overstated around here.

I always think the same when I see comments about entitled APs, I go on average 1 weekend a month (half day Friday, full day Saturday, and half day Sunday) and can’t recall ever seeing someone “play” the AP card. I’m sure it happens but if it were as big a problem as people claim wouldn’t it be noticeable?

 

[Vegas Disney Fan]

A few years ago the Register quoted a Disneyland talking suit saying that APs averaged about 10 visits per year. I don't have time to scrounge up the old article right now, but it's been posted in this forum before.

I believe Micechat has claimed similar numbers from their sources - i.e. APs account for about 10 million gate clicks annually, or a bit over 1/3 of total attendance.

My wild guess is that TDA would prefer to see attendance recover to its previous totals, while having the AP proportion drop down to around 20-25%. Of course it will likely take multiple years to get back to 28 million guests, regardless of what they do with APs. So if there ever was a time to play the long game, it's now.

Good to see some semi official numbers, I can’t argue with your Disney goals either, I think Disney has been trying to decrease APs through price increases for the last decade.

Even with the modified numbers the attendance loss from eliminating all APs would still likely be 7-8 million visits a year, it’s a safe bet some modified form of AP will return once Covid capacity restrictions end.

 

[Californian Elitist]

I still think this entitled AP thing gets way overblown. I went to the parks 15-20 times a year and I can’t remember one example of this type of behavior. And I’m someone that says “please” and “thank you” so frequent in any given exchange that I have to tell myself to stop. So I’d notice. Not saying it doesn’t exist but I’m wagering that it’s way overstated around here. Unless by “entitled” people just mean showing up often for a few hours here or there. Which would be a misuse of the word.

It’s the look at these guys showing up 6pm and taking a spot for the fireworks type of thing that made non APs mad and much less of people being impolite and rude towards CMs and other guests.

I think some folks were just frustrated by crowds and chalked it up to being the fault of annual passholders. In regards to showing up to see the fireworks, I know plenty of people, my own family included, who get to the parks in the morning and will still camp out early to see shows. Not everyone who stakes a spot early is an annual passholder who dropped in at 5 or 6pm.

 

[Communicora]

I actually don't know how long to plan to see each park? I just guessed at 2 days. What would you suggest would be a good number of days to plan for? We are older and tend to move slower and take in the ambience. In other words, we don't just rush to rides all day (that was for when we were younger, lol)
Thanks for this info.

My last visit was in February and we had two parkhopper days with Maxpass. We really enjoyed ourselves and experienced a lot but I think one more day would have made it more relaxing and satisfying. It's always hard to balance park time with all of the other things California has to offer.

 

[J4546]

My gf would go almost every weekend with AP, Id go once a month. We only moved here 2 years ago so we only have 1 year of dl experience but I will say that there was a huge difference between a busy day and a not as bust day. When the park was full, it was packed and i felt uncomfortable in it.

 

[shambolicdefending]

They’re happy to see you 10 times a year. What they are not happy about is when you come if you are the type that stress park ops by coming on the peak event days.

The point isn’t necessarily to reduce admissions- but to better manage the potential impact of ap admissions.

I think there has to be a bit more to it than that, because Disney already had a perfectly effective system for keeping APs out of the park on given days.

 

[flynnibus]

I think there has to be a bit more to it than that, because Disney already had a perfectly effective system for keeping APs out of the park on given days.

No it was not 'perfectly effective'

1) It didn't apply to all APs
2) It was static
3) It was set too far in advance
4) It was not flexible
5) It did not allow variable amounts of people - it blocked an entire tier
6) The calendar was based on visiting patterns - not operational needs (like opening a new attraction)

 

[Disstevefan1]

Primarily because Disney deliberately set up ticketing that favors a certain group of guests over others and let a subset of those guests run amok. What many of us are hopeful for is a system that is more equitable and fair for EVERY Disneyland visitor, not just the most fanatical.Not sure what you mean by favor certain groups?

Not sure what you mean by a certain group of guests?

Do you mean Disney created a program, a program they created on their own, not forced by the government, a program created in their own self interest, that a lot of folks thought was a value and used that program within the rules of that program; did not cheat in any way, just used it, those folks?

Don’t you worry. The new Disneyland membership program will be “equitable”. Di$ney Win$ again.

 

[MarvelCharacterNerd]

Interesting! Here are the two variations I saw - these are really all over the place!

View attachment 526236

or this version:


View attachment 526237

And another set of options!

Instagram

www.instagram.com

The new passport options would be:

Passport Option 1 — $999 Adult / $809 Child
Calendar
Blockout Dates: Easter, Christmas, and New Year Holidays
Reservation Features
Reservation Window: 90 days
Reservations Held at at Time: 4
Anytime Reservation: 6 per year
Ticket Features
Blockout Day Tickets: 1
Friends & Family Tickets: 0
Discounts
Merchandise: 10%
Food and Beverage: 30%
Special Event Tickets: 20%
Other Features
Parking: 20% discount
MaxPass: Yes
Unlimited PhotoPass: Yes
Dedicated Entrance: Yes
Rewards Program: No.

Passport Option 2 — $1,399 Adult / $1,399 Child
Calendar
Blockout Dates: Easter, Christmas, and New Year Holidays, June, July, early August
Reservation Features
Reservation Window: 90 days
Reservations Held at at Time: 6
Anytime Reservation: None
Ticket Features
Blockout Day Tickets: 2
Friends & Family Tickets: 0
Discounts
Merchandise: 30%
Food and Beverage: 10%
Special Event Tickets: 20%
Other Features
Parking: Included
MaxPass: No
Unlimited PhotoPass: Yes
Dedicated Entrance: Yes
Rewards Program: Yes

Passport Option 3 — $999 Adult / $899 Child
Calendar
Blockout Dates: Easter, Christmas, and New Year Holidays, June, July, early August
Reservation Features
Reservation Window: 120 days
Reservations Held at at Time: 2
Anytime Reservation: 4 per year
Ticket Features
Blockout Day Tickets: 1
Friends & Family Tickets: 0
Discounts
Merchandise: 30%
Food and Beverage: 10%
Special Event Tickets: None
Other Features
Parking: No
MaxPass: No
Unlimited PhotoPass: No
Dedicated Entrance: Yes

 

[Disstevefan1]

And another set of options!

Instagram

www.instagram.com

When they say, “Easter, Christmas, and New Year Holidays”, do they mean only Easter Sunday, Christmas Day and New Years Day OR several days/weeks around these holidays I wonder?

In any event, compared to the pre COVID APs, these are really bad! But then again, we knew they were going to do this anyway....

 

[Deleted member 107043]

Not sure what you mean by a certain group of guests?

Do you mean Disney created a program, a program they created on their own, not forced by the government, a program created in their own self interest, that a lot of folks thought was a value and used that program within the rules of that program; did not cheat in any way, just used it, those folks?

Don’t you worry. The new Disneyland membership program will be “equitable”. Di$ney Win$ again.

I sense hostility.

It's well documented here and elsewhere the many ways in which the AP program has contributed to the decline of the Disneyland experience for everyone, including pass holders.

 

[shambolicdefending]

No it was not 'perfectly effective'

1) It didn't apply to all APs
2) It was static
3) It was set too far in advance
4) It was not flexible
5) It did not allow variable amounts of people - it blocked an entire tier
6) The calendar was based on visiting patterns - not operational needs (like opening a new attraction)

I understand there were limits in flexibility, but this is a theme park. Not a NASA mission. It's not that complicated.

In any case, the bottom line for me is that there's no way Disney would have nixed the whole program the way they are if they expected it to just resurrect itself later with no major alterations in who buys it.

I think this makes a major drop in total AP purchases and visits inevitable, even when capacity restrictions are gone. So why would they make it so inevitable if it's not what they really wanted?

 

[waltography]

These prices are disappointing, but not shocking - the price points feel like a mix of knowing they can charge more post-COVID with the pent-up demand as well as reducing the number of pass holders.

While Disney's polling what we want, I'll just say my ideal pass would be a Flex pass with a 90 day window and 4 reservations plus MaxPass and parking. I'd pay $999 for that. A dedicated entrance if you want but I'm not picky.

Also, apologies if it's been mentioned in the thread earlier, but what are they referring to when they talk about a rewards program?

 

[J4546]

is park hopping still gonna be a thing or will you need 2 tickets to go to DL and CA?

 

[flynnibus]

I understand there were limits in flexibility, but this is a theme park. Not a NASA mission. It's not that complicated.

It's one of the top theme parks in the world... you don't run that successfully without effort.. nor maintain it's popularity for 50+ years.

In any case, the bottom line for me is that there's no way Disney would have nixed the whole program the way they are if they expected it to just resurrect itself later with no major alterations in who buys it.

I think this makes a major drop in total AP purchases and visits inevitable, even when capacity restrictions are gone. So why would they make it so inevitable if it's not what they really wanted?

Because you are looking at one thing alone instead of the bigger picture. # of APs sold isn't the only metric that matters.

"cancelling the program" is just a simplistic way to label what is really happening.. which is "a radical change to the program". It's just far easier to convey 'cancelling' so that people won't focus so much on transitions and equivalences.

 

[asianway]

I sense hostility.

It's well documented here and elsewhere the many ways in which the AP program has contributed to the decline of the Disneyland experience for everyone, including pass holders.

You should go on the fb groups if you want a healthy dose of hostility vs denial

 

[Disstevefan1]

I sense hostility.

It's well documented here and elsewhere the many ways in which the AP program has contributed to the decline of the Disneyland experience for everyone, including pass holders.

No hostility, I am not a Disneyland AP and never visited DLR. I agree, DLR created and marketed a AP program that was super successful; DLR did this to themselves. Maybe to make the most money the fastest and not looking at the long term?

I will not blame folks who purchased the old AP and used it. I will blame DLR for selling too many of them that set them up for this mess.

From the standpoint of the existing (now former) DLR AP holder, this new membership program is garbage, there is nothing folks can do about it, Disney will do whatever it wants for whatever reason, in this case they are using COVID.

I totally agree, the overcrowding was killing the guest experience. Going forward DLR will be much less crowded if/when it reopens as many of the locals that previously could afford to go to DLR will now be priced out..