News Disneyland cancels Annual Pass program

CaptinEO

Well-Known Member
In regards to the "membership" options in the future. I wonder if you can pay to visit DL but not DCA. I'd definitely opt for this route.
 

SamusAranX

Well-Known Member
Hopefully they eliminate all the cheap passes and move forward with something that is only in the $1500+ range and requires full payment. Too many poors were allowed in and it gummed everything up for the rest of us. Disneyland should always feel more exclusive than it has recently, and I hope this is the first step in bringing that feeling back.

Wow, just wow. Too many "poors"? Think you may wanna rephrase that?
 

CaptinEO

Well-Known Member
I don’t see them offering this. If anything, the other way around. Pay to go to DCA but not Disneyland.
You're probably right. They know they have trouble driving traffic to California Adventure so have to make people pay for it with their Disneyland Passes.

Costco a few years back offered a California Adventure only AP but that program failed miserably.
 

mickEblu

Well-Known Member
You're probably right. They know they have trouble driving traffic to California Adventure so have to make people pay for it with their Disneyland Passes.

Costco a few years back offered a California Adventure only AP but that program failed miserably.

Oh that’s right. Did it ? So people had no interest in going to DCA only, not surprising. Was it priced right?
 

Travel Junkie

Well-Known Member
I don’t doubt that. My only question is in this “less” will we be seeing lower crowds? I’m guessing in the short term yes but not necessarily because of the programs but because of the limited capacity due to COVID. With that said, if they are Penny pinching and staffing accordingly, will it feel like less people? Especially with one way traffic zones, inconvenient mobile ordering, social distancing and lower capacity on attractions. Using WDW as an example, it seems that when they moved up from 25% to 35% is when the parks stopped feeling like their were low crowds. And the parks are bigger over there.

The ultimate goal of My Magic +/Next Gen at WDW was to become uber efficient. It was sold to the exec team as a way to trim costs. A guest's day was planned out and so they would know exactly how many guests would enter a day and what they planned on doing. After knowing all of this information and removing some of the uncertainty, they could trim off the fat so to speak.

Even pre pandemic Touring Plans was reporting on the effects. Certain rides were running at way under capacity at WDW. The result was that going on a slow day vs a really crowded day mattered less in terms of attraction wait times. WDW was cutting staff on what they knew would be slow days to the point that wait times on really low attended days was practically the same as a really crowded day.

If Disneyland adopts a similar standard, I doubt we will see the good ol days of low wait times. Less crowded walkways for sure. However, you will probably still have to wait a long time to get on rides.
 

mickEblu

Well-Known Member
The ultimate goal of My Magic +/Next Gen at WDW was to become uber efficient. It was sold to the exec team as a way to trim costs. A guest's day was planned out and so they would know exactly how many guests would enter a day and what they planned on doing. After knowing all of this information and removing some of the uncertainty, they could trim off the fat so to speak.

Even pre pandemic Touring Plans was reporting on the effects. Certain rides were running at way under capacity at WDW. The result was that going on a slow day vs a really crowded day mattered less in terms of attraction wait times. WDW was cutting staff on what they knew would be slow days to the point that wait times on really low attended days was practically the same as a really crowded day.

If Disneyland adopts a similar standard, I doubt we will see the good ol days of low wait times. Less crowded walkways for sure. However, you will probably still have to wait a long time to get on rides.

Makes sense. I certainly remember more than a few times parking at DLR on a day with low crowds only to wait longer in the security line than I did on a slammed day. If they aren’t interested in staffing accordingly to ensure a good guest experience then crowds matter a lot less and may actually make more sense to go on weekends and holidays when you know they will be staffed appropriately, be open longer and offer more entertainment.

With that said, even less crowded walkways would be nice.
 
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Brad Bishop

Well-Known Member
The consumers have the power...

A nice, noticeable 25% decrease in annual attendance will turn that ship around in a Wall Street minute.

Maybe.

Passholders are "fillers", meaning, Disney (at least at WDW - I know there's a whole different thing happening at DL) doesn't really value you except when they need you to fill the park.

I'd guess two things have happened:

1) The population has reached a point to where DL is going to be filled everyday. Since 1955, the population has grown quite a bit. They're not making any more Disneylands (or WDWs), at least in the USA. In the USA it'd be far too much of a hassle with government regulations and protestors. They may have reached the point where demand far outweighs supply so that they no longer need APers and can charge people, multiple times per day, to visit DL. People will still line up and scream, "TAKE MY MONEY!"

2) I bet the Bobs don't like APers because they see it like a soda fountain. Why are we letting these guys go back to the soda fountain again and again when we could be charging them $7.50 for another drink? (going back to an earlier post where I mentioned that I don't think the Bobs like anything on the shelf that isn't immediately/directly paid for - it's just not how they think).
 

ppete1975

Well-Known Member
It will come back but different. My opinion.. they are trying to remove the every day disney people (vloggers, instagramers) who basically go every day, or the ebayers that go and buy up everything to put on ebay or just wait till you order from their online shop and go to the park and pick it up. They also know that due to the design of the park when the park is reopened, the next year it might hit capacity as we have gone from a "some day" society to a... "that time may never come" due to the lockdowns and just the entire covid situation.

I figure it will come back but will be limited in amount of days per year or per quadrant. Most people 50 days is plenty (almost once a week), where it will cut down on the instagram, youtube, ebay crowds.
 

Disney Irish

Premium Member
awww they might have to get real jobs... i feel bad for them
Just an FYI, they have "real" jobs. She is a nurse and he was doing something in Hollywood (production assistant or some such postion) I believe.

I know that a bunch of people here have disdain and hate on Disney Vloggers for some weird reason, we shouldn't fault someone who try to turn their passion into a career. Most Vloggers do it as a side business, very few actually quit their daily jobs to do it full time. Those that do are actually small business owners, the backbone of this country.

Also if there wasn't a demand for their content they wouldn't exist in the first place.
 

flynnibus

Premium Member
An alternate system of discounts could be like what's done with Tables in Wonderland: For a one time fee, all your restaurant meals will be discounted.

It's like what the big box club-stores do (Costco, BJs, etc...). You pay a fee up front for access to discounted product. Or Amazon Prime: with an up front fee, you get free and expedited delivery (and the perk of Amazon Prime streamer).

So, e.g., Disney could could have a package where you pay $1,000 and then you only pay $50 for each entry ($30 after 4p). And you get Disney Plus for a year.

I still am gambling that disney won’t charge per admission... they want those bodies filling the parks. They will just have much more strict controls on how many and when.
 

mickEblu

Well-Known Member
When dca opened... it was separate admission. That was part of the opening flop.

True but it wasn’t the park it is today.

We were talking about possible DCA only APs. Day tickets and park hoppers to go to both parks would still be available in this hypothetical scenario.
 

el_super

Well-Known Member
The population has reached a point to where DL is going to be filled everyday. Since 1955, the population has grown quite a bit. They're not making any more Disneylands (or WDWs), at least in the USA. In the USA it'd be far too much of a hassle with government regulations and protestors. They may have reached the point where demand far outweighs supply so that they no longer need APers and can charge people, multiple times per day, to visit DL. People will still line up and scream, "TAKE MY MONEY!"

Sort of. You're right to say that the demand has outstripped the supply, but the problem with Disneyland is, without the AP community, that demand would instantly evaporate. Classic Catch-22.

Disneyland has always been a locals oriented park, going back to the 1950s. Keeping the local audience coming is still very important and they've run locals oriented discounts for as long as they've had APs. That's why everyone is pretty sure some alternative is coming, and whatever alternative comes, will still make it easier/cheaper to access the park than just buying a one-day ticket at the gate.

The other side of the coin is: if you continually offer discounted admissions, you condition the audience into thinking that access should be nearly free (like people going every week and basically paying $10 a visit). That conditioning has to end, and that's where they are taking the opportunity to end the current program. Admission can't be basically free, and there's no reason to believe people should be allotted a hundred visits a year or more, in any circumstance.

I do think the vloggers and Instagrammers (at least the most popular ones) will be fine. Disney will find a way to keep them happy with free parties and events.
 

Sirwalterraleigh

Premium Member
Maybe.

Passholders are "fillers", meaning, Disney (at least at WDW - I know there's a whole different thing happening at DL) doesn't really value you except when they need you to fill the park.

I'd guess two things have happened:

1) The population has reached a point to where DL is going to be filled everyday. Since 1955, the population has grown quite a bit. They're not making any more Disneylands (or WDWs), at least in the USA. In the USA it'd be far too much of a hassle with government regulations and protestors. They may have reached the point where demand far outweighs supply so that they no longer need APers and can charge people, multiple times per day, to visit DL. People will still line up and scream, "TAKE MY MONEY!"

2) I bet the Bobs don't like APers because they see it like a soda fountain. Why are we letting these guys go back to the soda fountain again and again when we could be charging them $7.50 for another drink? (going back to an earlier post where I mentioned that I don't think the Bobs like anything on the shelf that isn't immediately/directly paid for - it's just not how they think).

Your descriptions of APs sound more like disneyworld than Disneyland. In wdw - beyond vacation club - they really are fillers...in California it’s a much larger chunk of core audience.

But as Dylan sings: “the times...they are a changin’”
 

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