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Disneyland passholder lawsuit alleges Magic Key deceptively advertises no blockout dates - OCR
- Thread starter AJFireman
- Start date
Disstevefan1
Well-Known Member
If nothing else, this would be great!
Professortango1
Well-Known Member
Disney's fans will still show up. They are paying far more than $150 currently. And with many jobs no longer being M-F 8-5 and schools being year round for many, off season is greatly diminished. When I was a kid my family would buy day tickets to visit and we'd go about 3-5 times per year.
All Disney would need to do is keep prices about the same for a few years and let inflation catch up a bit. I mean, I go for $104, only a smidge above the $71 value a $42 ticket was in the late 90's.
Professortango1
Well-Known Member
From my understanding, all tiers couldn't get in when availability was gone. They also never said that the park had no availability, but merely the reservations for Keys had no availability.
CaptinEO
Well-Known Member
The advertising and fine print on the keys does not seem to mention separate availability buckets for them. That is the lawsuit.
Professortango1
Well-Known Member
The Fine Print is FOR the Keys. Why would they mention availability for the General Admission when this is for the Keys? Subject to availability.
DoleWhipDrea
Well-Known Member
I'm very curious to see how this all plays out. The moment I heard that DLR was going to utilize the same system as WDW for park reservations, I knew the actual guest market was going to have these issues. Having a version of an AP for theme parks in Southern California is so deeply ingrained in the culture, and the area is so vastly overpopulated, that this was absolutely going to become an issue.
Much like Fastpass/Genie+/Lightning Lane, the Annual Pass/Magic Key programs have just become bigger and bigger problems. Price regular day tickets reasonably (without a ton of add-on markups to get on rides) and things will balance themselves out. But Disney will never lower prices.
Much like Fastpass/Genie+/Lightning Lane, the Annual Pass/Magic Key programs have just become bigger and bigger problems. Price regular day tickets reasonably (without a ton of add-on markups to get on rides) and things will balance themselves out. But Disney will never lower prices.
mickEblu
Well-Known Member
If that isn’t stated in the fine print then I agree there could be a case here. At first glance I thought they didn’t have a chance in hell. With that said, while this is a technicality that gives them a punchers chance, Disney didn’t really deceive anyone so this is just really exploiting our messed up legal system. Any key holder had the ability to go on a certain day if it wasn’t blacked out. I imagine Disney can define “available” however they want. I think the bigger question is at what point does the court deem something to be unreasonable? Like if you sell somebody an annual pass with no blackouts (or any annual pass really) and they can’t get a reservation for 3 months straight unless they refresh a screen all day I’d imagine could be an issue. Just an example - not that it’s that bad. I have a Believe Key and have gotten every day I’ve wanted since August with multiple cancellations and re booking different dates. Of course, a few dates took a little bit more effort and mental activity than I care for.
This is why when the keys were announced I thought that Disney was going to have to give people a reasonable chance at getting most dates. I think they walked a very fine line this holiday season and perhaps crossed it - which is why we have this lawsuit.
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LA Times posted an article today. This was included in the article .
"She is asking the court to certify the complaint as a class-action suit on behalf of the 3,600 people who have purchased Dream Key passes."
That seems like a very low number and uncertain where they would get that number. I feel it just might be a number thrown out there so that they broke the 5 million dollar judgement amount and can take it to a higher court.
- The lawsuit was originally filed in November in Orange County Superior Court but was moved to U.S. District Court because the case is a potential class-action lawsuit that involves “a matter of controversy that exceeds the sum or value of $5,000,000,” according to court records. The lawsuit says Disney collected more than $5 million selling the Dream Key."
Also a statement from Disney - "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,” spokeswoman Liz Jaeger said. “We will vigorously defend our position as the case proceeds.” -
"She is asking the court to certify the complaint as a class-action suit on behalf of the 3,600 people who have purchased Dream Key passes."
That seems like a very low number and uncertain where they would get that number. I feel it just might be a number thrown out there so that they broke the 5 million dollar judgement amount and can take it to a higher court.
- The lawsuit was originally filed in November in Orange County Superior Court but was moved to U.S. District Court because the case is a potential class-action lawsuit that involves “a matter of controversy that exceeds the sum or value of $5,000,000,” according to court records. The lawsuit says Disney collected more than $5 million selling the Dream Key."
Also a statement from Disney - "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,” spokeswoman Liz Jaeger said. “We will vigorously defend our position as the case proceeds.” -
Vegas Disney Fan
Well-Known Member
It’s common knowledge to any frequent Disney visitor that the parks only hit capacity a handful of times per year, I think a judge will see that as what a reasonable person would believe when they say “availability”.
I think Disneys going to have to make changes to the program again (actually tying it to availability) or pay up, probably both because if they lose this lawsuit it’ll be followed by many more.
CaptinEO
Well-Known Member
It's not my suit and I don't own a "Magical Key". But again there is nothing noting that Magic Keys have less availability than tickets. Thats what the lawsuit is about.
I could see why a customer would find if deceptive that their thousand dollar pass says the park is "sold out" that day but someome with a day ticket can still get in. Especially when Disney never mentioned how availability is split up.
From my knowledge Disney has some of the best lawyers in the world though and wins 99% of their cases.
RollerCoaster
Well-Known Member
It really took some business acumen to come up with your idea and that’s exactly why you’ll never be employed by Disney.
They don’t have to limit to 50,000. If there were such a limit the price point per pass would be significantly higher than $2,500.
RollerCoaster
Well-Known Member
if there were only 3,600 Dream Key holders the reservation thing would be a non-issue.
My single takeaway is Disney seems to recently just make bad decisions in their product offerings.
mickEblu
Well-Known Member
Or they could say Keys actually have more availability, there’s just more of them. Who knows. Does anyone outside Disney really know the numbers?
My two biggest complaints about the pass is:
1. The inability peruse other dates and or change your park without cancelling your current day's reservation or if you are full. I think there should be an option for both without losing what you currently have.
2. Disney really needs an Single Sign On Session when accessing these reservations or have it incorporated into the app. It's a pain to have to log into the site despite the app signing you already in prior.
1. The inability peruse other dates and or change your park without cancelling your current day's reservation or if you are full. I think there should be an option for both without losing what you currently have.
2. Disney really needs an Single Sign On Session when accessing these reservations or have it incorporated into the app. It's a pain to have to log into the site despite the app signing you already in prior.
flynnibus
Premium Member
That is also an ASSUMPTION based on a model that no longer exists - the model before park reservations were used.
The plantiff is trying to make a case out of the idea that Disney has different availability buckets - which is something well within Disney's right to do. The plantiff just ASSUMES their pass is always the highest priority - a promise Disney never made.
dovetail65
Well-Known Member
Easy fix, get rid of the reservation system altogether.
dovetail65
Well-Known Member
Disney did make a promise, pretty straightforward, NO BLACK OUT DATES unless they are capacity. Disney has not been full but a very few select days. If Disney allows a person to buy a single day ticket that factually proves they are not full on that day! If single day tickets are available then the pass for 1399.00 should get you in 100% of the time!
What I don't understand is how anyone isn't on the side of any pass-holder in this particular case.
waltography
Well-Known Member
You can modify dining reservations this way, surely they can add the same functionality for park reservations? It's asinine how unintuitive and unhelpful the current system is.
I'm curious where they made that promise? Not trying to sound contradictory, just wondering because if they did say that then the case has more merit than I first thought.
dovetail65
Well-Known Member
Disney Incredi-Pass
Admission to one or more Walt Disney World Resort theme parks during the year with an advance reservation¹- This pass can hold up to 5 reservations at a time on a rolling basis.
(View current Disney Park Pass reservation availability.) - No blockout dates apply
- Standard theme park parking
- Save on select dining²
- Up to 20% off select merchandise in store²
That says no block out dates apply to me, Now if when they purchased for Disneyland it was different fine, I do not have a screen shot from when the purchased.
As of today for WDW anyhow(not Disneyland like for this lawsuit) it states no block out dates for this particular pass for WDW. So at a cursory glance anyone pays for this pass thinks hey no block out dates. As you go further in the purchase process there is fine print that states they can stop you going in any day for almost any reason or hey check the reservation schedule for your days(when I checked there was zero days I could not get a pass) but we all know what is meant by this pass. It is the most costly and the main difference is no block out dates where all the other passes do have bock out days and those block out dates are stated right there when you purchase.
- Again, I have no idea about the Disneyland pass they bought on that day referring to this suit, I am guessing it was at least similar to this wording though because they are suing.
For the most expensive pass the reservation system shouldn't even be a factor and I believe that is going to a be sticking point both for the lawsuit and future purchasers. How can Disney use the wording no block out dates and at the same time say unless the days are reserved up in a reservation system that doesn't even seem to correlate to the reality of how many people are in the parks. This has nothing to do with the suit that is saying hey they blocked me out on days I could actually still get in if I bought(and they did) a single day ticket It's is outrageous. It has nothing to do with the reservations being filled up or being at capacity at all. Disney just blocks out dates to the pass because they think they will be busy, nothing more and for a pass that supposedly has no block out dates. Then I go to the park, purchase a single day pass walk right in, walk on half the the rides happen to go online and check and the incrdipass is still blocked? I see Disney in the wrong here.
Disney needs reword the passes rules or not sell passes at all, they cant take 1500 per person and then do whatever they want as they seem to have been doing.
Right now for WDW only the cheapest pass is even available today, wonder why that is and if those were pulled as the suit came to light.
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