Say it isn’t so! I want to chalk this up to rumor/gossip, but my gut is telling me it isn’t…
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well there’s this line in the piece that I like the sound of:
“New annual passes continue to be unavailable for purchase at Walt Disney World as well, but since capacity increases have been announced, we’d expect Disney to resume selling annual passes on the east coast again in the near future”
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Yes that part is great news! Just really bummed about DL APs. I had anticipated the APs to take on the characteristics of the flex pass, but truly thought they would come back in some form.
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Funny, I just got off the phone with member services about communicating to DVC members about future tickets/annual passes…again.
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How are you feeling about this?
@PrincipalTinker I contacted WDW yesterday too about this 
Since Disney is more about the bottom line than customer satisfaction; yes they do care about us but not more than $$$ IMHO, and APs spend ‘less’ that other guests (according to their data) they want to capitalize on them instead of us 
At least other parks are not ditching their APs. Which means Disney might lose some of their customer base. Why would I spend 10x as much to go to Disney as I spend to go to USO w/ my AP? I won’t, I have limited funds and they’ll lose me as a customer if they don’t reinstate APs. They will price me out of going to visit the parks. Right now I have an AP but my DH doesn’t and it’s costing a small fortune for him to come w/ me. So, I mostly go alone.
It is the third response I have received from my email that started:
“Yesterday I read multiple reports that Disneyland President Ken Potrock announced a “reimagined Annual Pass Program” for Disneyland. I am sure that all the Disneyland Guests were excited to hear that there was a plan AND to hear the general timeline.”
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I can see why the lower tier passes were a bad value for Disney…being able to buy an AP (So Cal passes) for the same price as a 3-4 day ticket is throwing money out the window for Disney. DL had been so crazy busy (pre-Covid) that it really made visiting tough sometimes, so I am happy they are revamping the program. BUT, I wish they would bring back APs, just at the higher prices. Charging what they do for a non-DVC, non-FL resident AP (so like $1100) would help lessen the crowds quite a bit, but would still allow us die hard Disney fans a way to go multiple times a year. Payment plans should also go away, us out of staters never had them anyway.
I really would like some details on the new program. Right now I have a 4 day non hopper (with Maxpass for all the good that does me), and a 3 day PH sitting in my account. I would sure like to turn at least one of them into some sort of an AP. I more than likely will get a WDW AP if they begin selling them soon, but sure would like a DL one as well.
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I really think they need some kind of APs for DVC owners. There is too much DVC designated property at WDW for them to ignore this population.
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True in Florida, but there isn’t much of that in CA with only the GCH being DVC. I guess right now they know people will just pay for tickets. I mean, I have been a WDW AP off and on for years (was not during the shutdown time), and have had a DL AP for years as well. But I still paid out of pocket for tickets to WDW last July, last October, January, and likely will again in July, September, and maybe December. Disney seems to know we will keep paying, so there isn’t much incentive to offer APs. I would love to have one, all I have is my UOR AP these days, and while fine I much prefer WDW to UOR.
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I completely agree! The system absolutely needed to change, but I was hoping to see varied versions of the flex pass. I recognize the need to have more control over the crowds and the all the So CA guests coming on a whim made that impossible to do. I suppose I need to reserve judgment until I see what they come up with. I had a pass for several years, but would only go 3-5 times per year. I liked the pass because it I felt better about going in for a few hours on arrival and departure days. Not sure I would want to do that with a full days ticket.
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I talked to wdw today and was assured “I am sure they will allow you to bundle any tickets you buy to one ticket in any new system”.
Yeah- I didn’t believe her either.
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Same. Several 4-5 day visits, some with my kids (they always had tickets not APs), and some with friends. The Flex pass actually worked quite well for me before the closure.
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Yeah I wouldn’t believe that either. I’d like to put my 3 previous tickets bought during the closure into an AP…since they cost more than an AP did. I got lucky and was able to get a military ticket in January thanks to travelling with Dreamer, but the other 2 were full price. $$$$ But Disney certainly isn’t going to give me credit for past trips!
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I thought of something else… if all the other parks in the Orlando area are continuing their APs can Disney really be the one that doesn’t? USO actually had awesome deals last year to get ppl to buy APs. If WDW can be peer pressured to change a mask policy in the middle of the night in a game of covid-restriction-chicken w/ USO it seems probable that they will resume AP sales to compete for the market share. I’m hoping 
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I’m sure Disneyland will come up with something, just not right now. I’m another one who agrees the system needed a total change. Way too many APs at all levels. I understand they are a business and not a charity so they need to make money but I too had hoped at least for a flex pass type AP but will still buy tickets regardless of AP offerings or not. I’ve been a passholder for almost as long as the program has been. Always the So Cal pass. I was totally cool with blocked weekends and holidays. I could get way more done on a weekday anyway. I’ve spent my share on special event tickets and the occasional So. Cal PH tickets ( so I could join friends on weekends if needed) Hell I could have joined DVC and Club33 for what I’ve spent the last 2 years at DLR so it’s definitely not the APers who spend less
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Don’t forget all the merch too! You spend way more on that as a semi-local than I ever have as a tourist. They get money from me on tickets/APs/restaurants/hotels…but that is where it ends! I guess there are a lot of local APs that don’t spend that kind of money though? At least that is what Disney execs think.
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I gotta invite them over to my place 
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Before we realized how much money we were losing NOT buying an AP, it was very easy to talk ourselves up from 3 day tickets to 5 day tickets. The first time we went as a family with our own kids it was with hubby’s siblings and their kids and they planned 3 days but we decided with how young our kids were and knowing we would be spending a huge chunk of midday doing a nap, to get 4 day tickets (and spend the day they the rest of the family were going to rest from traveling into California getting a jump start on being the parks). It wasn’t much more at all. And then the next couple of trips we easily talked ourselves into a 5th day because it was only $15 more than 4 days and it allowed us to go into the parks for a few hours before starting the drive home and we felt the price was so worth it. But then by that same logic (and after we went 4 times in 14 months), we came home from our 4th trip with APs (finally realizing that we just needed to stop buying 5 day tickets each time we wanted to go).
I REALLY hope they bring back an pass of some kind. They can call it whatever they like and I am happy to reserve days since we usually have to plan at least a tiny bit in advance (even trips we don’t know if we’re really going on until last minute need a hotel booked- and we have booked a hotel as we are packing the car to head out last minute- so adding a reservation to the park wouldn’t be a huge obstacle on top of that for our “last minute” trips). If we have to go back to day tickets our trips would drop to 1-2/year vs. the 6-15 trips/year we’ve done ever since we got APs summer 2014.
And I have to imagine they want to do a pass of some kind. Each trip we do spend less than a guest there for 5-6 days but over the course of the year I promise we spend WAY more on merch and food than we would ever in a week (we’ve done the math on what we spend just inside the parks in a year and I could never afford to do that all in one trip), so they would lose money from us and I imagine from a lot of out-of-state APers. But maybe we’re still not quite their target audience? But I do worry that we’ll get priced out.
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I really hope you are right! I keep envisioning a “buy 10 days get one free” card punch when they say loyalty program. Well not really, but sort of.
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