Disneyland New "Flex" Annual Pass

[Chris Jarrett]

I’m intrigued by this pass. The video shows you an option to book at your choice of Disneyland, DCA, or park hopper. Obviously you’d assume that it’ll be competitive for park hopper or Disneyland options but I’d assume the DCA option should be available if you don’t book 30 days out. Right now I have to pay for 5 passes (3 kids, Wife, and I) and in a few years when our fourth turns 3 I’ll have to buy 6 passes so this could be a really nice pass for us.

That would make it hard to plan a Friday-Sun trip in advance and know before you get there that you can get into the parks all three days

I guess what I’d try to do for a 3 day weekend is get the park hopper or Disneyland option for the first 2 days with my reservations and then hope for the best for Sunday getting DCA only as your fallback option and save your most important things you like to do for that morning before you hit the road back home. Not a perfect scenario but for the price it sounds like a good deal compared to the signature passes and better availability than the deluxe.

 

[truecoat]

I’m intrigued by this pass. The video shows you an option to book at your choice of Disneyland, DCA, or park hopper. Obviously you’d assume that it’ll be competitive for park hopper or Disneyland options but I’d assume the DCA option should be available if you don’t book 30 days out. Right now I have to pay for 5 passes (3 kids, Wife, and I) and in a few years when our fourth turns 3 I’ll have to buy 6 passes so this could be a really nice pass for us.



I guess what I’d try to do for a 3 day weekend is get the park hopper or Disneyland option for the first 2 days with my reservations and then hope for the best for Sunday getting DCA only as your fallback option and save your most important things you like to do for that morning before you hit the road back home. Not a perfect scenario but for the price it sounds like a good deal compared to the signature passes and better availability than the deluxe.

I'm betting the DCA alone option will almost always be available.

 

[gsrjedi]

The value of this really depends on how full the reservations are. Hopefully they have a calendar showing if dates are available for everyone to see and not just the Flex passholders. I’ll be checking to see if the dates for my June trip are available when this goes on sale

 

[DLR>WDW]

This seems to be the opposite of everything I have experienced. The parks are always packed on weekdays and moderate or light on Saturdays. (Sundays were ruined by the SoCal Pass being brought back). The people are friendly on Saturdays and you don't have people lining up for popcorn buckets, it is super nice, the best day and only day to go.

Saturdays will now be mobbed now.



This has not been reflective of my experience. I have found that Saturdays are light, Fri and Sunday are unbearable, and the rest of the week is crowded. I have owned multiple passes since 2015 and visit once a month and this has been my experience.

I also agree this is the worst time to offer this pass. Disney clearly is looking to boast numbers in conference calls for next quarter's financial earnings statement about the parks being at capacity x months in a row to show their share price as being worth more.



Absolutely agree with this as well. My wife and I were premier pass holders this last year and we had two trips to Disneyworld for a week and it was amazing how little we spent vs someone who would not be a passholder. I think Disney is ruining the guest experience for the average vacationer in order to get more bodies in the parks buying food or merchandise. Disney probably sees the cheap passholders as a $25 purchase (parking) + food and would rather have the park be at capacity than miss out on any money.



Most passholders visit the park 10 times. This does not seem to limit attendance IMO.

And don't even get me started on the SoCal Resident Ticket... Love how it makes the park accessible to many who may've not been able to previously attend, however it just swamps the parks every single day of the week. Was hoping for a moderate summer, as almost all passes are on blackout periods and no SoCal Resident Deal, but my dream seems to be in jeopardy due to this new Flex pass. :/

 

[chadwpalm]

Maybe I'm wrong and haven't researched this pass enough, but this seems like a good pass for someone like me who lives in Northern California. The cheapest pass I can get is the Deluxe and at $799 I can't justify going enough to pay for itself. With a $599 pass, it would pay for itself with a couple of three-day trips a year and still get the perks of having an AP (discounts, etc.). I could just arrange my reservations around when Southwest is having deals and since I'd be making monthly payments it would make paying for airfare more reasonable. I get tired of making the 6.5-hour trip each time I want to visit.

 

[mickEblu]

This seems to be the opposite of everything I have experienced. The parks are always packed on weekdays and moderate or light on Saturdays. (Sundays were ruined by the SoCal Pass being brought back). The people are friendly on Saturdays and you don't have people lining up for popcorn buckets, it is super nice, the best day and only day to go.

Saturdays will now be mobbed.



This has not been reflective of my experience. I have found that Saturdays are light, Fri and Sunday are unbearable, and the rest of the week is crowded. I have owned multiple passes since 2015 and visit once a month and this has been my experience.

I also agree this is the worst time to offer this pass. Disney clearly is looking to boast numbers in conference calls for next quarter's financial earnings statement about the parks being at capacity x months in a row to show their share price as being worth more.



Absolutely agree with this as well. My wife and I were premier pass holders this last year and we had two trips to Disneyworld for a week and it was amazing how little we spent vs someone who would not be a passholder. I think Disney is ruining the guest experience for the average vacationer in order to get more bodies in the parks buying food or merchandise. Disney probably sees the cheap passholders as a $25 purchase (parking) + food and would rather have the park be at capacity than miss out on any money.



Most passholders visit the park 10 times. This does not seem to limit attendance IMO. Disney is looking to boost attendance to ensure every space of capacity is filled to make their return on Star Wars Land look nice.

Oh I haven’t been on a Friday or Sunday night in forever purposely to avoid crowds. To your point Friday’s and Sunday’s are worse than Saturdays because more APs are allowed in. My point was that Saturdays in 2015/2016 felt lighter than Saturdays in 2017/2018. To the point where I didn’t feel the need to spend the extra money when for 1/3 the price I could find the same amount of pleasant days throughout the year. I think that when they eliminated the So Cal pass a lot of people who didn’t renew/ new APs went with the Deluxe or Signature instead.

 

[mickEblu]

And don't even get me started on the SoCal Resident Ticket... Love how it makes the park accessible to many who may've not been able to previously attend, however it just swamps the parks every single day of the week. Was hoping for a moderate summer, as almost all passes are on blackout periods and no SoCal Resident Deal, but my dream seems to be in jeopardy due to this new Flex pass. :/

Yeah there is no offseason anymore. They make sure of that with things like the So Cal 3 day tickets and the Food and Wine festival. Their Spring offerings seem to be more popular than their summer offerings like Marvel superheroes and Pixar Fest. Or maybe that’s just because more people are blocked out in the summer.

 

[socalifornian]

Oh I haven’t been on a Friday or Sunday night in forever purposely to avoid crowds. To your point Friday’s and Sunday’s are worse than Saturdays because more APs are allowed in. My point was that Saturdays in 2015/2016 felt lighter than Saturdays in 2017/2018. To the point where I didn’t feel the need to spend the extra money when for 1/3 the price I could find the same amount of pleasant days throughout the year. I think that when they eliminated the So Cal pass a lot of people who didn’t renew/ new APs went with the Deluxe or Signature instead.

Same with 2013/2014. Pre 60th crowds were amazing compared to now

 

[mickEblu]

Same with 2013/2014. Pre 60th crowds were amazing compared to now

Yeah I seemed to always change passes with the rest of the herd.

 

[mickEblu]

Maybe I'm wrong and haven't researched this pass enough, but this seems like a good pass for someone like me who lives in Northern California. The cheapest pass I can get is the Deluxe and at $799 I can't justify going enough to pay for itself. With a $599 pass, it would pay for itself with a couple of three-day trips a year and still get the perks of having an AP (discounts, etc.). I could just arrange my reservations around when Southwest is having deals and since I'd be making monthly payments it would make paying for airfare more reasonable. I get tired of making the 6.5-hour trip each time I want to visit.

Yes so long as you make sure you don’t need a reservation for one of the three days of those trips.

 

[Old Mouseketeer]

It all just makes my head hurt.

In 15 minutes it will be six o'clock, and I am going to make a martini and take two aspirin and pretend the most advance planning needed for a day at Disneyland is counting the leftover E Tickets in the shoebox on top of the fridge.

Word.

 

[Old Mouseketeer]

I have been expecting this for more than a year. With the technology they have available, this was inevitable. IMO. And I expect some seasonal limitations to CMs, as well.

What if, instead of total blockouts for summer and holiday CMs and the cheapest SoCal pass could pick one or two dates in each of those seasons? I know CMs who would not object. Right now CMs are blocked for all of this summer and have access limited to the early holiday season.

This allows Disney to better estimate crowds for stocking and staffing. It also aids in scheduling corporate events and special promotions. I think it's smart business and could be beneficial to CMs and certain APs.

This all goes back to Eisner asking "why are we closing Disneyland for two days per week in the winter instead of finding new ways to attract paying customers?". There are a lot of things I criticize Disney for being greedy, but this isn't one of them.

 

[DanielBB8]

Most passholders visit the park 10 times. This does not seem to limit attendance IMO. Disney is looking to boost attendance to ensure every space of capacity is filled to make their return on Star Wars Land look nice.

I’m sure most people go once a month with their annual passes, but they are more motivated by the price of their passes. They feel they need to get their money’s worth.

The Flex Pass limits attendance based on ability to get a reservation that is already limited by how many you can get (2 reservations every 30 days). This is compared with an opened ended Southern California Annual Passport where you’re only limited by the blockout dates. The SoCal AP price point is low enough to cause Disney to no longer offer it. It likely contributes to overcrowding since it is available to be used most Fridays and Sundays. This Flex Pass is only available to SoCal residents and it spreads out the crowds since you can go on a Saturday.

If you’re a procrastinator, it’s a risk that a reservation is not available the next day. You can’t just suddenly decide to go the same day.

For planners, you can plan 2 reservations in advance, but you cannot get another until the first reservation is used and the next reservation must be within 30 days. This limits the people who absolutely need to go more often. If this is unsatisfactory, the Deluxe or Signature passes should be the passes to buy. Yet it’s obvious few people buy them since Disney has never stopped offering to sell them.

 

[mickEblu]

You can have 2 reservations at a time but that does not mean you can only visit twice in 30 days. Many weekdays allow you to go without reservations. This pass is going to make the parks insane. Everyone who works weekdays will want those Saturday reservations and Disney will be happy to fill the parks to capacity.

A Saturday ticket for one park costs 149, parkhopper is 199. Someone just has to visit 3 or 4 times to get their money's worth. It's like a year round SoCal Resident Ticket deal.

Gotcha. I totally agree Saturdays were even nicer a few years back. Definitely seems Saturdays are about to get worse. The Sig and Sig+ owners like my family get the short end of the stick with this. Luckily mine expires next month so I'm glad I got to enjoy Saturdays for a year before they ruined it.

Well if this is the future and every pass becomes reservation based then I can see crowds becoming more manageable. But it would take at least a couple years and Disney eliminating at least the So Cal Select And Deluxe to start. Then the difference will be that Sig and Sig+ or the equivalent get first pick with reservations and probably more reservations in general.

It does kind of make me wonder if I should just not upgrade and keep my So Cal Select. This could be the start of summer, Saturdays and holidays being busier again and weekdays being less busy like they used to be. If that’s the case then why upgrade to a pass to go on Saturdays like everyone else is doing when I can just hang back and enjoy the less busy weekdays.

 

[Disney Irish]

Honestly I think everyone at SoCal Select is going to upgrade to the Flex Pass and everyone on the other tiers will downgrade. Weekdays will probably be nice again like you mentioned. In my case I feel why would I pay 1200 to go on Saturdays when I can pay 600 instead? I doubt most people even go more than once a month anyways.

You're forgetting about all the daily vloggers that must have content for their 100s of Youtube followers.... They have to promote that Patreon account somehow.

I kid of course. But I think you're underestimating the amount of locals that actually go to the parks all throughout the week and weekends. Its the reason why you saw a dip in attendance when the SoCal passes were adjusted and some discontinued.

I don't see this pass replacing the SoCal pass (at least not initially), I see it actually being the eventual replacement for the Deluxe pass (I see Deluxe being discontinued next year). So you'll have the SoCal Select, Flex, and then the two tier Signature APs, with a majority of people falling into either the SoCal Select or Flex Passes (And maybe in a couple years they eliminate SoCal too). At least that is the way I see it happening, I could be wrong (wouldn't be the first time).

 

[DanielBB8]

You can have 2 reservations at a time but that does not mean you can only visit twice in 30 days. Many weekdays allow you to go without reservations. This pass is going to make the parks insane. Everyone who works weekdays will want those Saturday reservations and Disney will be happy to fill the parks to capacity.

Have Disney ever stopped selling the SoCal Select AP? No. Where the issue was always unrestricted Friday and Sunday attendance from the SoCal AP.

The demand from weekday attendance isn’t anything to be concerned about. Locals are working.

The parks will only seem insane from your perception, but Disney is managing attendance with the Flex pass.

 

[Kram Sacul]

Anything less than a Signature Plus is a waste for me. Sad but it’s the reality.

 

[socalifornian]

Anything less than a Signature Plus is a waste for me. Sad but it’s the reality.

Looking at todays prices it’s hard to believe that a no blackout pass cost $779 ~3.5 years ago

 

[Darkbeer1]

Is it worth getting Disneyland’s new $599 Flex annual pass?

Weighing the pros and cons of the new Flex pass really boils down to who you are and what you want and need out of a Disneyland annual pass.

www.ocregister.com

>>Disneyland introduced the new annual pass on Thursday as the Anaheim theme park continues to tweak admissions policies ahead of the crowds expected to descend on the highly anticipated new Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge.


The new Flex pass fills a price gap between the bare-bones $399 SoCal Select which has the most restrictions and the pricier $799 Deluxe that has fewer block out dates. None of the existing annual passes — including the grandfathered $599 SoCal, $1,149 Signature, $1,399 Signature Plus and $1,949 Premier — are being eliminated.


The new Flex pass costs the same as the discontinued Southern California pass that is only available for renewal.<<

 

[DanielBB8]

June, July, and August require reservations on the weekdays too. Every day in the 3 summer months require reservations.