News on Annual Passes

[Arguetafamily]

Southern California and Florida are comparable in size, with Southern California being a bit larger than the entire state of Florida, by square miles and by population. However, any populated area in Southern California is less than a 4 hour drive to Disneyland. (Even Las Vegas is within a 4 hour drive) A day trip to the park is very possible with a drive under 4 hours each way. Not so much with longer drives.

It is when comparing the population density in the immediate area of the parks, you can really see the difference that I was referencing.

Orange County, CA has a population of over 3 million with a population density of about 4000 per square mile.

Orange County, FL has a population of 1.4 million with a population density of about 1500 per square mile.

With over twice the population within a short drive, and even the availability of public transportation to the park, the demographics surrounding Disneyland are vastly different than the demographics surrounding Walt Disney World.

(Numbers are from the 2020 census)

I can assure you driving to Disney from Vegas is definitely longer than 4 hours, especially when you consider our horrendous traffic.
Sometimes it takes me one hour to drive 10 miles!

Outside of the of some of the more local Orange County cities in Cali, it takes at the very least 1 1/2 hours to get to Disney and that’s during non traffic times, which seem to be between the hours of NEVER.

I live what should be a 30-45 minutes drive to Disney, it takes me at least 90 minutes on any given day at any given hour.

 

[Mrs.AMC]

Attendance may be up but appears it’s down compared to Universal. Would be interesting to be a fly on the wall to see if Disney execs care about that or not

 

[Mexacajun]

I have a trip coming up in a few months. Been holding out buying tickets hoping on an AP. If I buy my tickets and APs come out, will they credit the amount I have spent on tickets to the APs?

 

[CarolMN]

I have a trip coming up in a few months. Been holding out buying tickets hoping on an AP. If I buy my tickets and APs come out, will they credit the amount I have spent on tickets to the APs?

Only if the tickets are unused or if you upgrade while you are actually on your trip and haven't used all of the park ticket entitlements.

 

[Mexacajun]

Only if the tickets are unused or if you upgrade while you are actually on your trip and haven't used all of the park ticket entitlements.

Ok. Let me play that back to make sure I am clear. If I buy them today and my trip is in Jan and APs come out between now and then, I can upgrade them to APs before I arrive. That correct? And also if they come out while on my trip and I haven’t used all the days, I can upgrade them at the park.

 

[Mrs.AMC]

Ok. Let me play that back to make sure I am clear. If I buy them today and my trip is in Jan and APs come out between now and then, I can upgrade them to APs before I arrive. That correct? And also if they come out while on my trip and I haven’t used all the days, I can upgrade them at the park.

Yeah
You can even do it right on the app if you do it after you get there

 

[jkh36619]

Before you could also ugrade your AP on a partially used ticket but they would set the anniversary date of the AP to the day the ticket was first used. Things may have changed.

 

[Mrs.AMC]

Before you could also ugrade your AP on a partially used ticket but they would set the anniversary date of the AP to the day the ticket was first used. Things may have changed.

Still the same, AP will start on the date the ticket was first used. Not the upgrade date.

 

[Ms Bibbidi]

BREAKING NEWS (or rumor).

Two Florida resident WDW passholders just sued Disney over what is reported to be the same issues as in the pending California lawsuit. One is from Orange County and the other from Palm Beach. Their suit apparently alleges Disney had denied park reservations on an unblocked day according to their annual passes while continuing to sell tickets and have available park reservations for ticketed guests for the same day. (Website, “Florida Politics” 10-19-2022.)

It was filed Tuesday 10-18-2022 in Federal Court in Orlando.

 

[Jrb1979]

BREAKING NEWS (or rumor).

Two Florida resident WDW passholders just sued Disney over what is reported to be the same issues as in the pending California lawsuit. One is from Orange County and the other from Palm Beach. Their suit apparently alleges Disney had denied park reservations on an unblocked day according to their annual passes while continuing to sell tickets and have available park reservations for ticketed guests for the same day. (Website, “Florida Politics” 10-19-2022.)

It was filed Tuesday 10-18-2022 in Federal Court in Orlando.

Like I said in another thread all this does is going to give Disney another reason to completely change the way APs work going forward. That's if they come back.

 

[Ms Bibbidi]

Like I said in another thread all this does is going to give Disney another reason to completely change the way APs work going forward. That's if they come back.

Disney already changed language in the terms and conditions.

I do not know what the filed pleadings say. From the blog posts there might be nuances challenging the park reservation system.

As to the return of sales of new APs, it appears we are back to square one with Disney now having to assess how serious this threat to one of Chapek’s favorite management tools may be.

If I were Disney’s top management, I would not even think about new AP sales until this is sorted. Especially since the parks are still crowded.

 

[jkh36619]

I believe the whole AP system is going to get revamped within the next 3 years.

Just a guess.

 

[Jrb1979]

I believe the whole AP system is going to get revamped within the next 3 years.

Just a guess.

I'm thinking sooner then that. From rumors I have heard the plan is those with our of state APs with resort stays will no longer have to have reservations for their parks and will be able to hop whenever they want.

Locals and non resort guests would have the existing rules.

Another possibility is locals will only be able to purchase the lower 2 tier passes.

 

[AvidDisReader]

I sympathize with those filing the law suite, I do believe this will not have the same traction as California. California has laws that are very pro consumer, as opposed to Florida that is not so much. Also the language was changed after the California law suites to close the loop holes along with the ability to obtain a full refund. All this will do is give Disney an excuse to not re open the sale of annual passes. Just hope they do not cancel all together prior to when I go to renew my annual pass.

 

[Jrb1979]

I sympathize with those filing the law suite, I do believe this will not have the same traction as California. California has laws that are very pro consumer, as opposed to Florida that is not so much. Also the language was changed after the California law suites to close the loop holes along with the ability to obtain a full refund. All this will do is give Disney an excuse to not re open the sale of annual passes. Just hope they do not cancel all together prior to when I go to renew my annual pass.

I doubt they cancel passes as that would be a lot of money to refund. My guess is there will be major changes. I wouldn't be surprised if locals no longer will be able to purchase the top tier pass. They will keep the locals to weekdays for the most part. The top passes will be for DVC and out of state.

 

[Miffy]

Despite all the AP doom and gloom talk, a couple of days ago WDW released AP discounts for January through April 2023. It may not be the 35% or 40% off deluxe resorts it sometimes was in the past--it's 25% off--but it's still something, and I took advantage of it.

 

[rdaky]

I doubt they cancel passes as that would be a lot of money to refund. My guess is there will be major changes. I wouldn't be surprised if locals no longer will be able to purchase the top tier pass. They will keep the locals to weekdays for the most part. The top passes will be for DVC and out of state.

I just don't see that happening. Florida residents actually have the advantage because all 4 tiers of passes have been available vs out of state only being able to purchase the most expensive. DVC was only able to purchase the top 2. And FL residents are the only ones who can currently even purchase a pass. If Disney wanted to focus on out of State or DVC, they'd be offering passes for those. They know the out of State people and DVC members are coming, so from a financial perspective it makes sense to make them buy day tickets. Not saying I agree or disagree but people are still coming. There might be lots of complaints online, but they're still coming from all over the Country (and World) and Disney really doesn't have an incentive to offer them a pass.

I think local passes are trickier because there are a lot of cast members who have passes either for themselves or their families, or 3rd party vendors who have passes for their families. There might be more to the story with this with keeping the peace. Just guessing on this one, though.

 

[Jrb1979]

I just don't see that happening. Florida residents actually have the advantage because all 4 tiers of passes have been available vs out of state only being able to purchase the most expensive. DVC was only able to purchase the top 2. And FL residents are the only ones who can currently even purchase a pass. If Disney wanted to focus on out of State or DVC, they'd be offering passes for those. They know the out of State people and DVC members are coming, so from a financial perspective it makes sense to make them buy day tickets. Not saying I agree or disagree but people are still coming. There might be lots of complaints online, but they're still coming from all over the Country (and World) and Disney really doesn't have an incentive to offer them a pass.

I think local passes are trickier because there are a lot of cast members who have passes either for themselves or their families, or 3rd party vendors who have passes for their families. There might be more to the story with this with keeping the peace. Just guessing on this one, though.

I don't think local passes are that tricky at all. It's simple. They will offer them but it will have lots of blackout dates. They want locals on slow days and weekdays.

 

[randumb0]

I don't see much changing until the Florida lawsuit is resolved

 

[rdaky]

I don't think local passes are that tricky at all. It's simple. They will offer them but it will have lots of blackout dates. They want locals on slow days and weekdays.

Possibly. I don't disagree with you. That's basically all that is available right now to purchase. But I also don't think they're going to be offering any kind of top tier for out of State residents only and excluding FL residents. It's not any financial advantage for Disney to offer a discount (an annual pass) for someone who lives in Ohio and wants to come 3x per year. It makes more financial sense to charge a ticket price per visit.