Magic Key Program

[Epicnemesis]

No credit card is giving away free loans. Those payments schedules that credit cards are offering for large purchases charge fees anywhere from 3-6% depending on how many months you want to stretch payments over.

PayPal let’s you stretch and there are dozens of credit cards with interest free financing from anywhere eternity 12-24 months.

 

[DLgal]

PayPal let’s you stretch and there are dozens of credit cards with interest free financing from anywhere eternity 12-24 months.

Don't think you can buy a Disneyland pass with PayPal.

 

[DonMacGregor]

I don't think that's it. The locals are largely okay with this system. It's the people who have to travel in that are having trouble.

I think the bottom line is, they didn't want 1 million+ passholders again. This system is how they weed people out of wanting one.

Unfortunately, many of those people will be weeded out AFTER shelling out $1,400 for each Dream Key this year, but won't renew in 2022.

 

[DonMacGregor]

PayPal let’s you stretch and there are dozens of credit cards with interest free financing from anywhere eternity 12-24 months.

I've been following the posts on the Magic Key Facebook page, and I'll go right out on a limb and say a SIGNIFICANT percentage of those people unhappy with the reservation system and lack of open days, consistently comment on the cost of the passes, access to discounted or included parking, etc. I'm also going to guess that many, if not most of those people are younger guests, or those on limited budgets, who aren't toting high-limit, zero-interest rate cards around in their wallets. For them, the Disney financing was/is the only way they can afford to purchase the passes. Many, many posts in that group prior to the issuance of the new passes voiced concern when that very subject of no financing was raised in discussion.

 

[SherylLC]

Unfortunately, many of those people will be weeded out AFTER shelling out $1,400 for each Dream Key this year, but won't renew in 2022.

Don't underestimate the Disney Effect. I don't see a drop off on $1,400 level. It's not the good old days but it's not so horrible I want to give up.

 

[DonMacGregor]

Don't underestimate the Disney Effect. I don't see a drop off on $1,400 level. It's not the good old days but it's not so horrible I want to give up.

I watched a VLOG by Chris Provost yesterday where they had put up a poll on their Instagram (?) and had asked current Dream Key holders: "Would you get a Magic Key again? Or if you don't have one, are you going to get one? The poll came back with 72% in the "No" column. When asked "Are you happy with your Disneyland Magic Key", the poll came back at 35% "Yes", 65% "NO".

Provost Park Pass

I think it will calm down after the holidays, but if things go sideways again at Easter or 4th of July, when renewals will be right around the corner, opinions may swing back into the negative.

 

[gelatoni fan]

I watched a VLOG by Chris Provost yesterday where they had put up a poll on their Instagram (?) and had asked current Dream Key holders: "Would you get a Magic Key again? Or if you don't have one, are you going to get one? The poll came back with 72% in the "No" column. When asked "Are you happy with your Disneyland Magic Key", the poll came back at 35% "Yes", 65% "NO".

Provost Park Pass

I think it will calm down after the holidays, but if things go sideways again at Easter or 4th of July, when renewals will be right around the corner, opinions may swing back into the negative.

Disney doesn't need to satisfy keyholders now, they just need people to feel less frustration at the end right before they renew. There's studies where doctors were told to leave devices inside colonoscopy patients longer than necessary. Patients who experienced this discomfort from a longer procedure said they experienced less pain and were more likely to do the procedure again compared to patients who just had normal procedures. Psychologically, the end will distort the memory of the pain experienced during the worst parts.

With how bad things are, Disney may actually have been smart by dropping Magic Keys before the busy Halloween and Christmas seasons. Later on, capacity will improve due to seasonality. Many keyholders will wrongly attribute this to Disney taking measures to improve guest experience. So in people's minds, Disney will have seen a problem and solved it even though in actuality, Disney created the problem and seasonal fluctuations in demand solved the problem. So even though the worst parts were bad, people will just remember the end part where they think that Disney "fixed" the problem. If Disney had chosen to launch Magic Keys in January, reservations may be bad in October to December of next year which leaves people are left with a bad end. They would likely have forgotten the low season when things were better. It would be like how many people hate their ex-boyfriend or girlfriend because of a bad breakup even though they had many good times together.

 

[DonMacGregor]

Disney doesn't need to satisfy keyholders now, they just need people to feel less frustration at the end right before they renew. There's studies where doctors were told to leave devices inside colonoscopy patients longer than necessary. Patients who experienced this discomfort from a longer procedure said they experienced less pain and were more likely to do the procedure again compared to patients who just had normal procedures. Psychologically, the end will distort the memory of the pain experienced during the worst parts.

As I said, I think it will calm down after the holidays, but if things go sideways again at Easter or 4th of July, when renewals will be right around the corner, opinions may swing back into the negative. If, after Easter and into July when school is out and spring and summer breaks kick in and traditional DL crowds increase, if you have Dream Key holders back complaining that they can't get reservations, then the issue will be a more immediate one for Disney, as a massive number of Key Holders will be hitting renewal 6 weeks after the 4th. You will have the same number of passes issued then as now, and while the holidays are absolutely the busiest time of the year, by spring and summer you will have the influx of foreign visitors and the return of out of state guests (which are still far below pre-pandemic levels). By most observations, the Park is operating at or closer to regular capacity right now, even in the absence of many foreign and out of state guests.

As for Disney being "smart" about dropping the Keys, that's like saying its smart to take your hand out from under the scalding tap water. Also, they haven't "dropped" anything. They stopped selling the Dream key, but there are already thousands of active, newly minted Key Holders who recently bought in, didn't have the past 60 days to lock in their 6 reservations, and are looking at completely sold out dates from now until Christmas. They are also still selling all of the other tiers. The best any Disney apologists can muster is "Well, if you look every day, starting at 3 am and checking every 30 minutes for the next 6 hours, Disney will "often" add reservation capacity and you can get a spot". Exactly what you want to do after dumping $1,400 on an annual pass.

From what I am hearing and seeing in Facebook groups, in Blog Posts and YouTube videos, people are most definitely NOT interpreting this as Disney valorously identifying a problem and proactively solving it. People are seeing the move by Disney and ascribing it to a failure on the Mouse, plain and simple.

People are most definitely saying "Doctor, you left something up my ***. It hurts, and you'd better take it out. Now".

 

[MonocularVision]

I watched a VLOG by Chris Provost yesterday where they had put up a poll on their Instagram (?) and had asked current Dream Key holders: "Would you get a Magic Key again? Or if you don't have one, are you going to get one? The poll came back with 72% in the "No" column. When asked "Are you happy with your Disneyland Magic Key", the poll came back at 35% "Yes", 65% "NO".

Provost Park Pass

I think it will calm down after the holidays, but if things go sideways again at Easter or 4th of July, when renewals will be right around the corner, opinions may swing back into the negative.

I take those sorts of polls with a huge grain of salt. There is no way to limit the poll to only key holders. And it costs nothing to answer “No” to express your dissatisfaction and “send Disney a message”.

 

[DonMacGregor]

I take those sorts of polls with a huge grain of salt. There is no way to limit the poll to only key holders. And it costs nothing to answer “No” to express your dissatisfaction and “send Disney a message”.

I don’t disagree, however the first question wasn’t directed to key holders anyway. I’m not sure I understand your second point. Regardless of whether it costs anything or not to answer “no”, the dissatisfaction leading to the negative response must exist, or there would be nothing to express (unless you’re suggesting people logged on simply to answer in the negative arbitrarily). Keeping in mind that Chris Provost is a Disney uber-fan and apologist, and it’s safe to assume his Instagram followers are of the same mindset, any dissatisfaction needs to be viewed through that lens.

Regardless, it’s just a random poll, based on two unscientific questions posited by a popular blogger. Nothing more, nothing less. No margin of error/confidence intervals, no sample size deviation, no sample means distribution. Just an opportunity to weigh in on the questions asked within a pretty Disney-centric fan community.

 

[MonocularVision]

I don’t disagree, however the first question wasn’t directed to key holders anyway. I’m not sure I understand your second point. Regardless of whether it costs anything or not to answer “no”, the dissatisfaction leading to the negative response must exist, or there would be nothing to express (unless you’re suggesting people logged on simply to answer in the negative arbitrarily). Keeping in mind that Chris Provost is a Disney uber-fan and apologist, and it’s safe to assume his Instagram followers are of the same mindset, any dissatisfaction needs to be viewed through that lens.

Regardless, it’s just a random poll, based on two unscientific questions posited by a popular blogger. Nothing more, nothing less. No margin of error/confidence intervals, no sample size deviation, no sample means distribution. Just an opportunity to weigh in on the questions asked within a pretty Disney-centric fan community.

I don’t really disagree with anything you are saying. My point I was trying to make is that folks often answer poll questions thinking about how their answer might affect change they want. So many might say “I won’t renew” in an effort to try to get changes from Disney, even though they probably will renew.

That’s not to say that there isn’t a huge amount of dissatisfaction among key holders! I could see their renewal rates being way lower than in the past if Disney doesn’t make changes to the program.

 

[DonMacGregor]

I don’t really disagree with anything you are saying. My point I was trying to make is that folks often answer poll questions thinking about how their answer might affect change they want. So many might say “I won’t renew” in an effort to try to get changes from Disney, even though they probably will renew.

That’s not to say that there isn’t a huge amount of dissatisfaction among key holders! I could see their renewal rates being way lower than in the past if Disney doesn’t make changes to the program.

I agree. The big thing for me is the idea posted above that people will forget about the problems now by the time renewals come up and I’m just not too sure about that. 1. We’re talking about $1,400 and people, especially folks inside California, but not locals, who can’t make spur of the moment plans to hit the parks, are basically unable to use the pass. Especially more recent purchasers who didn’t get their 6 reservations in last month. 2. People unable to make reservations at the holidays, arguably the primary reason many of them bought the pass to begin with.

I don’t think that sting is going away any time soon.

 

[PirateBrigade]

It's almost always the case that reservations are available a day in advance so at this point we will be making last minute decisions of when to go based on what else we have going on and how we all feel and what's available at that point.

Came up with a few new slogans...

Magic Key™: The World's Most Magical Standby List​

​

Magic Key™: Russian Roulette in the House of Mouse!​

​

Magic Key™: French Laundry reservations for McDonald's-level food!​

​

Magic Key™: Because we all know you're not going to Knott's​

Did I miss any? If anyone from Disney marketing is reading this, feel free to use these

 

[PirateBrigade]

I think it will calm down after the holidays, but if things go sideways again at Easter or 4th of July, when renewals will be right around the corner, opinions may swing back into the negative.

When lack of reservations is a bigger obstacle than actual blackout dates, people will de-risk and drop down to lower tier passes. Like, I wouldn't want to pay $1500 for a semi-functional BMW, but I'll pay $700 to drive an equally semi-functional Honda Civic. At least I'll get my money's worth in fewer visits with the latter.

 

[Epicnemesis]

Yea I’m sitting here with my “test the waters” enchant key and I’m slightly frustrated with how booked everything is. Sympathetic to you dream key holders, because if this sucks at 700 it must really suck at 1400.

That said, I’ve been able to get all the dates I’ve wanted thus far, just with a little more calendar massaging than I’d like.

 

[DonMacGregor]

When lack of reservations is a bigger obstacle than actual blackout dates, people will de-risk and drop down to lower tier passes. Like, I wouldn't want to pay $1500 for a semi-functional BMW, but I'll pay $700 to drive an equally semi-functional Honda Civic. At least I'll get my money's worth in fewer visits with the latter.

Exactly. And if you bought that Dream Key last week, you’ve got 50 weeks to plan how you’ll use that sweet sweet Enchant Key you can score next October. Lol.

 

[DizMe]

Came up with a few new slogans...

Magic Key™: The World's Most Magical Standby List​

​

Magic Key™: Russian Roulette in the House of Mouse!​

​

Magic Key™: French Laundry reservations for McDonald's-level food!​

​

Magic Key™: Because we all know you're not going to Knott's​

Did I miss any? If anyone from Disney marketing is reading this, feel free to use these

I can't come up with anything as good as yours, but I'll throw in a couple...

Magic Key: Watch reservations disappear before your eyes!

Magic Key: We've made trip planning the biggest coaster ride of all!

Magic Key: Faith, trust, pixie dust, and your smartphone!

 

[cruisehopeful]

Is there a particular address to email feedback to regarding the Keys and the food reservations? I was going to do the "contact us" link which is on the bottom of the Disneyland website, but none of the choices for topics from the drop down menu seem to be what I'm contacting them about. I know they already know this, but I want to send in feedback about how difficult it is to make reservations with a Dream Key and hard it is to book dining. I end up booking dining on days I don't have a reservation in hopes of getting a reservation and vice versa.

 

[DonnerB]

FYI, they just opened up a ton of November dates!

 

[DizMe]

Ugh, I just booked Blue Bayou for Nov 16 and then canceled. In my haste to grab it, I neglected to notice that it was a special dining event for Merriest Nites! Looked good, too, but I'm not going to Merriest Nites.

Just thought I'd mention that there is a Blue Bayou Boil for Magic Key holders ($65 pp adults, not sure about kids). I've read it's for MK holders but the wording also mentioned a MK discount so ???

Ok, I went back and looked it up and it's definitely for Magic Key holders. Here is the info from Disneyland's dining page: