Flex Pass Superthread: Disneyland Resort Introduces New Annual Passport that Combines Value and Flexibility

[pharmama]

Maybe we got lucky with DD's then. Or maybe upgrading in the app somehow bypasses all the replacement nonsense...

 

[dieumeye]

Maybe we got lucky with DD's then. Or maybe upgrading in the app somehow bypasses all the replacement nonsense...

Same here. It's annoying that it's happening to some people, but it doesn't happen to everyone. When I got an AP this past December after a couple years off, they didn't say anything about reactivating or having my old AP card either.

 

[Reepicheep]

I haven’t had time to look through past posts, but what is the general consensus on the new flex pass versus the other passes? Is it a better deal? The thing that throws me off is the reservations.

I'll give you my opinion, and see if other posters agree with me.

Thanks to those of you who answered my question about the number of blocked out days so far for the Flex passports. It is my understanding that, to date, there have been 3 or 4 days where it would have been difficult to get into Disneyland with a Flex passport, and no days where California Adventure was blocked out. If this pattern continues, then there will be very few days, over the next year, where Disneyland is blocked out, and no days when California Adventure is blocked out (EDIT: except for Christmas season, of course) (CAVEAT: this is, of course, a huge assumption; there could very well be many tens of thousands (even hundreds of thousands???) of locals buying Flex passports in the months ahead, which could result in block out days becoming much more common).

Current prices:
$599 - Flex
$799 - Deluxe
$1149 - Signature

Based upon the performance of the Flex pass to date, the Flex provides superior access to the parks than the Deluxe. And, the Flex provides access to the parks which is pretty well equal to the Signature. So, in my view, the Flex is the clear winner of the three.

Opinions from others about this would be very much appreciated. Thanks.

 

[sgrap]

I'll give you my opinion, and see if other posters agree with me.

Thanks to those of you who answered my question about the number of blocked out days so far for the Flex passports. It is my understanding that, to date, there have been 3 or 4 days where it would have been difficult to get into Disneyland with a Flex passport, and no days where California Adventure was blocked out. If this pattern continues, then there will be very few days, over the next year, where Disneyland is blocked out, and no days when California Adventure is blocked out (EDIT: except for Christmas season, of course) (CAVEAT: this is, of course, a huge assumption; there could very well be many tens of thousands (even hundreds of thousands???) of locals buying Flex passports in the months ahead, which could result in block out days becoming much more common).

Current prices:
$599 - Flex
$799 - Deluxe
$1149 - Signature

Based upon the performance of the Flex pass to date, the Flex provides superior access to the parks than the Deluxe. And, the Flex provides access to the parks which is pretty well equal to the Signature. So, in my view, the Flex is the clear winner of the three.

Opinions from others about this would be very much appreciated. Thanks.

We just upgraded to the Flex pass last week when we were there. My only concern is that as out-of-state folks, we like to visit for around 5 days, and if more than 2 of them need reservations, we might have difficulty doing that on a trip. So this is kind of a test for us. We had 5-day hoppers, so it wasn't that much more to upgrade to the Flex pass before we left. We have a daughter currently going to college in So Cal, so we might have more frequent but shorter trips this year. I figure if we use the pass for 2-3 more days, we'll come out even. I bought our 5-day hoppers from LMT club for $55 off the regular Disney price, and they bridged the full value, so it basically saved us $55 on each Flex pass.

 

[njchris]

I'll give you my opinion, and see if other posters agree with me.

Thanks to those of you who answered my question about the number of blocked out days so far for the Flex passports. It is my understanding that, to date, there have been 3 or 4 days where it would have been difficult to get into Disneyland with a Flex passport, and no days where California Adventure was blocked out. If this pattern continues, then there will be very few days, over the next year, where Disneyland is blocked out, and no days when California Adventure is blocked out (EDIT: except for Christmas season, of course) (CAVEAT: this is, of course, a huge assumption; there could very well be many tens of thousands (even hundreds of thousands???) of locals buying Flex passports in the months ahead, which could result in block out days becoming much more common).

Current prices:
$599 - Flex
$799 - Deluxe
$1149 - Signature

Based upon the performance of the Flex pass to date, the Flex provides superior access to the parks than the Deluxe. And, the Flex provides access to the parks which is pretty well equal to the Signature. So, in my view, the Flex is the clear winner of the three.

Opinions from others about this would be very much appreciated. Thanks.

For how many days I visit, getting anything but a signature would cost way more. According to the Disneyland site when I log in, it says I've visited about 72 times since 9/4/18. That's 72 times I've parked. 72*$25 = $1,800 in parking. I think people need to consider the amount of times they will go and how much in parking that will cost. Also the food/merchandise discount is more.

 

[starry_solo]

I'll give you my opinion, and see if other posters agree with me.

Thanks to those of you who answered my question about the number of blocked out days so far for the Flex passports. It is my understanding that, to date, there have been 3 or 4 days where it would have been difficult to get into Disneyland with a Flex passport, and no days where California Adventure was blocked out. If this pattern continues, then there will be very few days, over the next year, where Disneyland is blocked out, and no days when California Adventure is blocked out (EDIT: except for Christmas season, of course) (CAVEAT: this is, of course, a huge assumption; there could very well be many tens of thousands (even hundreds of thousands???) of locals buying Flex passports in the months ahead, which could result in block out days becoming much more common).

Current prices:
$599 - Flex
$799 - Deluxe
$1149 - Signature

Based upon the performance of the Flex pass to date, the Flex provides superior access to the parks than the Deluxe. And, the Flex provides access to the parks which is pretty well equal to the Signature. So, in my view, the Flex is the clear winner of the three.

Opinions from others about this would be very much appreciated. Thanks.

Except for parking! You can't get parking in anything other than the grandfathered in passes (for new passes, only Signature & Signature Plus have parking). So someone is going to have to get a Signature Pass *unless* you stay at a hotel/motel and walk over to DLR?

 

[Reepicheep]

@njchris and @starry_solo, I agree that parking is a consideration when comparing the Flex passport to a Signature passport. In my case, we always fly to Disneyland and walk to the parks, so free parking isn't important. I can see where it would make sense for at least one member of a family to have a Signature passport for the free parking, and the remaining members having Flex passports.

The larger discount on food (extra 5%) and merchandise (extra 10%) that the Signature has is also a factor, although a person would have to buy a lot of food and/or merchandise to justify the additional $550 cost of the Signature passport.

 

[pharmama]

Between the parking and larger discounts that’s exact what I do. I have a Sig and DD has Flex. I’ve thought about dropping down to Flex but probably won’t.

I used to do this “pre-Flex” too- sig for me and deluxe for DDs tho I had let their passes lapse (because Of cost) until I upgraded DD14 earlier this year to flex. Haven’t bought Flex for the other two DDs because we’ve been using up some tickets earned at the CHOC walk last year but those will be gone after our visit in oct. We’ll see what happens then.

 

[Tinkerbell19672]

We had AP's in 2014. Just upgraded from 5-day hoppers to Flex pass without reinstating anything. We were in the system, I think, from our old ones but I don't believe that impacted anything to do with the Flex pass other than some info already being in the computer.

The worst part was waiting in the bloody long line (long in length of time, not that long in # of people) for the ticket booths. We didn't have any problem upgrading, but it took at least 20 minutes actively standing at the ticket booth window for the CM to get it done. I don't know what takes so long. Other people seemed to have similarly long waits at the window (which is why the line took so long, I'm sure). So try to go upgrade them at a slow time. We thought we were, but no!

20 minute is good. It took us 45. CM wasn’t happy that we didn’t bring our expired AP cards with us, kept saying next time bring them because they reuse them. Not fun that it took so long but I wanted to do it at the window because we were upgrading LMT tix.

 

[pharmama]

FWIW, I upgraded DDs from an LMT ticket so you don’t have to go to the window. Before the purchase was complete in the app I could see that it was crediting me the full gate price and not what I paid LMT.

 

[longtimedisneylurker]

20 minute is good. It took us 45. CM wasn’t happy that we didn’t bring our expired AP cards with us, kept saying next time bring them because they reuse them. Not fun that it took so long but I wanted to do it at the window because we were upgrading LMT tix.

This is so ridiculous. They need to pick a policy, publicize it very clearly in multiple ways, and stick with it. I have in fact been told to bring my expired AP cards with us to have them reactivated after buying new passes online, and I have actually done this successfully on multiple occasions. Back in March, I again brought the expired APs with me. Our signature APs expired in December. I bought new signature plus APs online in January. I presented the new APs from the app and asked the CM if she wanted my old APs to link them. She looked at me like I was crazy and asked why she would want them if I was activating new APs. I explained to her that I had always been told in the past to bring them with me for reactivation and she flat out told me that Disney doesn't do that, has never done that, and she didn't believe that my APs had ever lapsed and been reactivated at the ticket booth. I don't care one way or the other if I use old AP cards or get new ones. I just want the transaction to be completed in as little time as possible, so I just shrugged off her rudeness and what I regarded as rather poor customer service and let her issue us new APs. She then lectured me about getting rid of the old ones so I wouldn't get them mixed up. I decided that the CM who issued me my latest APs has probably been working at Disney for a far shorter time than I have been getting APs.

 

[bwvBound]

For how many days I visit, getting anything but a signature would cost way more. According to the Disneyland site when I log in, it says I've visited about 72 times since 9/4/18. That's 72 times I've parked. 72*$25 = $1,800 in parking. I think people need to consider the amount of times they will go and how much in parking that will cost. Also the food/merchandise discount is more.

That is the way to work the AP! Well done!

My account no longer shows me how many times I’ve visited. I miss that feature!

As for parking ... I was given a one-time-use “Free Parking” pass earlier this year that expires Jan 2020. I haven’t used it yet. We either book a timeshare nearby and walk over ... or, when I visit alone on day trips, I ride a CommuterLink bus from Riverside.

 

[Southerncal24]

There's a superthread on this if you get the time.
https://www.disboards.com/threads/f...and-flexibility.3749065/page-30#post-61017164

Thank you!

 

[EmJ]

This is probably a total “duh” question, but all Flex Passes are functionally park hoppers, right?

 

[aliceindisneyland]

Really confused now, you’re the one who has been talking about reactivating?

That is the word three different phone reps used and why I used it in quotation marks often. I have had an AP for 13 years with lapses of 1 to 10 months and never heard that word used when I got a new pass until this week, nor ever had the silly problems I encountered this week.

 

[Tinkerbell19672]

This is so ridiculous. They need to pick a policy, publicize it very clearly in multiple ways, and stick with it. I have in fact been told to bring my expired AP cards with us to have them reactivated after buying new passes online, and I have actually done this successfully on multiple occasions. Back in March, I again brought the expired APs with me. Our signature APs expired in December. I bought new signature plus APs online in January. I presented the new APs from the app and asked the CM if she wanted my old APs to link them. She looked at me like I was crazy and asked why she would want them if I was activating new APs. I explained to her that I had always been told in the past to bring them with me for reactivation and she flat out told me that Disney doesn't do that, has never done that, and she didn't believe that my APs had ever lapsed and been reactivated at the ticket booth. I don't care one way or the other if I use old AP cards or get new ones. I just want the transaction to be completed in as little time as possible, so I just shrugged off her rudeness and what I regarded as rather poor customer service and let her issue us new APs. She then lectured me about getting rid of the old ones so I wouldn't get them mixed up. I decided that the CM who issued me my latest APs has probably been working at Disney for a far shorter time than I have been getting APs.

I agree. I’m given different info by CMs a lot. It never seems to be across the board. It’s crazy your CM was the opposite of the one who helped me

 

[Ryan120420]

I let my Signature Annual Pass expire on 1/20/2019 and just activated a new Signature Annual Pass on 8/23/2019. I was printed a new card no questions asked.

The CM did make a comment saying that I had a lot of old AP cards in their system (been an AP for most years since 2002) and that they would no longer be valid and should throw them away or keep them as souvenirs. The CM never made me feel like she was doing me a favor or made me feel guilty for not bringing my old expired AP with me for them to re-activate.

Same in January 2018 when I activated a new AP, I was printed a new card no questions asked. In August 2018 one of my friend upgraded the $99 Buddy ticket to an AP, the CM did ask if she by chance still had her old AP card from 2016, when the answer was no, a new AP was printed without issue.


So I think CMs giving people a hard time for not bringing their expired AP cards to re-activate are isolated incidents. If it should happen to you always ask to speak with a supervisor.

 

[Reepicheep]

This is probably a total “duh” question, but all Flex Passes are functionally park hoppers, right?

A person can have two reservations in the next 30 days, and each reservation can be either:

(1) for Disneyland alone,
(2) for California Adventure alone, or
(3) good for both parks ( basically, a park hopper)

This leads to the question: why make a single park reservation, if a both reservation is also available? I see no reason not to make a both reservation, if it is available. There is no penalty (as I understand it) if a person makes a both reservation, and only goes to (for example) Disneyland on that day.

Also, to be clear: if reservations for either of Disneyland or California Adventure happen to be unavailable on a given day, then both is also unavailable on that day.

 

[cruisehopeful]

Opinions from others about this would be very much appreciated. Thanks.

I agree with you. I have Signature and my husband has Deluxe. We expire in about 2 weeks. We can both get a Flex pass for the price of my Signature alone. I am still thinking it all over. I have the option to buy parking with the Flex pass if I renew, but it looks like I'd need to use the parking 8 times in the year to break even and I am not sure that I'd park that often. I never visit as much as I intend to.

The big discounts have been great with Signature, but I think I only visit about 6 days/year and I was pretty annoyed that my husband couldn't visit DL all summer, but people who paid less could. The visit counter is a joke. It says I visit way more than I do. I remember one year when I visited 11 times and it said I visit over 40 times. Even if it counted all of my park hopping as different visits. I know I didn't visit nearly as many times as it says that I did.

 

[EmJ]

A person can have two reservations in the next 30 days, and each reservation can be either:

(1) for Disneyland alone,
(2) for California Adventure alone, or
(3) good for both parks ( basically, a park hopper)

This leads to the question: why make a single park reservation, if a both reservation is also available? I see no reason not to make a both reservation, if it is available. There is no penalty (as I understand it) if a person makes a both reservation, and only goes to (for example) Disneyland on that day.

Also, to be clear: if reservations for either of Disneyland or California Adventure happen to be unavailable on a given day, then both is also unavailable on that day.

Thank you! So on nonreservation days, is it good for both parks then?