New Florida Residents and Annual Passes

[Just Theo]

So I’m just wondering how many people are in the same situation as me. I moved to Florida in May of last year, 2020. I made all the arrangements to move in February with the idea that I’d get here, buy my annual pass and be visiting the parks a few times a month, who knew that a few weeks later the world would virtually be shut down? But that happened. Now I’ve been here for almost 10 months. The parks reopened in July and to many peoples surprise Disney made the decision to suspend new Annual Pass sales, (Current Passholders can renew and new ones are being sold under very specific circumstances). Obviously I know the reason for the suspension is because of the pandemic and limited capacity being allowed into the parks right now and that is completely understandable. However I feel there is something to be said for people like me who changed their lives to be closer to the parks and we’ve been given absolutely zero information on if and when we will be able to buy the pass. I’ve contacted Disney several times and am just given vague non-answer answers. “We hope to be selling them again soon” and believe me I worked in customer service for 8 years so I know that the CMs are being told to be vague in the answers. Last year I was at least given the answer at one point that they will not go back on sale before the end of 2020 so that gave me piece of mind to buy the Discounted Flex Passes they made available for Florida Residents since I wouldn’t have to worry about them making the APs available after buying the flex pass and feel like I got “double dipped”. The most frustrating part of buying the flex pass though is that you still have to pay for parking and at $25, it ain’t chump change. Now that 2020 is over and we’re into 2021 they’ve gone back to giving me vague answers about when and if the APs will be on sale again so I’m hesitant to buy any tickets. It’s just very frustrating how tight lipped they are being about this. I’ve been in limbo for almost a year now and it can be depressing and frustrating being in the dark about this. Additionally I work from home full time which has made it difficult to find new friends, so being shut out of the parks makes it even more of a downer. Hopefully this thing ends sooner rather than later and they will make the APs available to people like me again soon. In the meantime I’ll just continue to watch Friday Night Live and make bad jokes in the chat.

Anybody else have thoughts here?

[Brewbud]

That is some bad timing for sure. I would be bummed too. Such a big life change and then.... wham! We are feeling some of the pain too. We have Premier passes. Disney has canceled the Disneyland portion of our passes and offered us the opportunity to buy FL passes. I believe we have to buy the Platinum though. We are in limbo because we don't know if they will offer a Premier pass again. We only get to WDW once or twice a year so a Platinum pass is overkill but it will give us the AP discount on the resort rooms. If they were still offering passes we would just wait and buy before our next trip but we now have to buy by the end of April. Big $ decision.

Hopefully, things can get back to normal soon.

Cheers!

[jt04]

They recently stated that park reservations are happening through next year. No doubt a function of an unknown future and the 50th.

My personal opinion is that the old system may have been effected by the law of diminishing returns. No doubt they are using the current situation as an opportunity to test different business models. I have a sense they won't return to the old system.

But that doesn't mean they can't create new types of APs. Perhaps a high priced one that doesn't require reservations or parking fees but are also limited. A sort of Club 33 for admissions.

They could also offer a more limited option that only allows 2 or 3 visits per month with reservations to control crowds (and overhead).

Something along these lines is likely I think.

[Just Theo]

They recently stated that park reservations are happening through next year. No doubt a function of an unknown future and the 50th.

My personal opinion is that the old system may have been effected by the law of diminishing returns. No doubt they are using the current situation as an opportunity to test different business models. I have a sense they won't return to the old system.

But that doesn't mean they can't create new types of APs. Perhaps a high priced one that doesn't require reservations or parking fees but are also limited. A sort of Club 33 for admissions.

They could also offer a more limited option that only allows 2 or 3 visits per month with reservations to control crowds (and overhead).

Something along these lines is likely I think.

It doesn’t make sense that they would be allowing current passholders to renew and allowing people in certain circumstances (passes that have expired since the March shut down, and 3 year olds that turned 3 after the shutdown in AP families) to buy new ones if they were planning on changing the system entirely. Additionally if you look at the Annual Pass options webpage https://disneyworld.disney.go.com/passe ... mmer-room/ 2 new pass options were added in mid January, the Disney Theme park Select pass, and the Disney Weekday Select pass. Believe me, I check this webpage daily, it was taken down for a week or two and then came back with the new pass options added. So it seems like they are adding options vs removing them. In my conversations with the CMs at Guest Services they said they are most likely waiting for capacities to increase beyond the current 35% to begin selling again. We just don’t know when that will be.

[jt04]

They recently stated that park reservations are happening through next year. No doubt a function of an unknown future and the 50th.

My personal opinion is that the old system may have been effected by the law of diminishing returns. No doubt they are using the current situation as an opportunity to test different business models. I have a sense they won't return to the old system.

But that doesn't mean they can't create new types of APs. Perhaps a high priced one that doesn't require reservations or parking fees but are also limited. A sort of Club 33 for admissions.

They could also offer a more limited option that only allows 2 or 3 visits per month with reservations to control crowds (and overhead).

Something along these lines is likely I think.

It doesn’t make sense that they would be allowing current passholders to renew and allowing people in certain circumstances (passes that have expired since the March shut down, and 3 year olds that turned 3 after the shutdown in AP families) to buy new ones if they were planning on changing the system entirely. Additionally if you look at the Annual Pass options webpage https://disneyworld.disney.go.com/passe ... mmer-room/ 2 new pass options were added in mid January, the Disney Theme park Select pass, and the Disney Weekday Select pass. Believe me, I check this webpage daily, it was taken down for a week or two and then came back with the new pass options added. So it seems like they are adding options vs removing them. In my conversations with the CMs at Guest Services they said they are most likely waiting for capacities to increase beyond the current 35% to begin selling again. We just don’t know when that will be.

That's encouraging. Hoping for the best.

[jm1670]

I see people saying they understand why Disney stopped selling Annual passes. Count me among those that doesn't. It doesn't make any sense to me at all. It doesn't limit park capacity at all. The park reservation system does that. It certainly isn't improving sales or resort stays. It's almost certainly cutting both substantially. I'm really not sure what they believe they are accomplishing but canceling the sales. You would think they would want to sell as many passes as they can. Not only for the cash up front but they are encouraging people to find a reason to visit. After all they make way more money on us in the the park and resorts than the cost of a daily ticket would ever be.

Also it's not like they aren't selling them. If you already have one you can purchase a renewal so again that's inconsistent logic.

[Just Theo]

I see people saying they understand why Disney stopped selling Annual passes. Count me among those that doesn't. It doesn't make any sense to me at all. It doesn't limit park capacity at all. The park reservation system does that. It certainly isn't improving sales or resort stays. It's almost certainly cutting both substantially. I'm really not sure what they believe they are accomplishing but canceling the sales. You would think they would want to sell as many passes as they can. Not only for the cash up front but they are encouraging people to find a reason to visit. After all they make way more money on us in the the park and resorts than the cost of a daily ticket would ever be.

Also it's not like they aren't selling them. If you already have one you can purchase a renewal so again that's inconsistent logic.

Right after the reopening it was almost impossible for APs to get reservations. I think this was the main reason they suspended sales. If they put them back on sale again there would probably be another flood of people trying to get reservations and I think that is what they are probably trying to avoid with the park capacity still at only 35%. once capacity is raised they will probably go back on sale....the downer is we just don’t know when that will be.

[Just Theo]

I’m just marking the 1 year anniversary of having saved enough money for an Annual Pass and it sitting in my bank account for a year now. On the up side I earned about 70 cents in interest.

[Just Theo]

So there’s some new speculation about New Annual Pass sales today. In particular there was an email sent to current Passholders stating that Magic Bands would no longer be free with an New Annual Pass purchase after August 16th. This would imply that they are going to being annual pass sales before that, or just covering their butts if they do start selling them before that. Either way they are still being silent about this when I ask on Chat, Phone, and in Person, and at Guest Services. I’ve lived in Florida for over a year now and still am not able to buy an Annual Pass....It’s beyond frustrating at this point.

[Just Theo]

I’m just keeping this topic going because I have nothing else to do and this has been a very depressing topic for me and I need to vent about it.

Today Disney announced that Disneyland Paris will halt sales of annual passes. This is now 3 out of the 6 parks that aren’t selling an Annual Pass and with the CEO stating multiple times that they don’t make as much money from Annual Passholders as they do from people with regular tickets, it’s hard not to see a pattern forming here.

Additionally I called customer service last month to ask about if I buy a regular ticket will I be able to upgrade it to an annual pass. The CM responded, and I’m paraphrasing because I don’t remember exactly what she said, “Traditionally we would allow people to upgrade from a standard pass to a Annual Pass, but I don’t know if that option will be available with the New Annual Passes”

So with that it does seem that if/whenever Disney World does come out with a new Annual Pass if will be different then what current Passholders enjoy right now. If I were to venture I guess, probably more expensive and less benefits.

Anyway, I’ll just keep asking Disney and they’ll keep telling me “we don’t know”

—Stuck on the sidelines.

[ConnieK]

That is such a bummer you can't get an Florida annual pass.....My husband and I are planning a lot of short trips down to Florida from Illinois to scout out the different areas for a possible move in the next 2 years.... I am hoping they start annual pass sales for non Florida residence too....Do you think if they open up annual passes to Floridians they will to non-floridians as well?

[Just Theo]

That is such a bummer you can't get an Florida annual pass.....My husband and I are planning a lot of short trips down to Florida from Illinois to scout out the different areas for a possible move in the next 2 years.... I am hoping they start annual pass sales for non Florida residence too....Do you think if they open up annual passes to Floridians they will to non-floridians as well?

Your guess is as good as anyone’s. Disney is being extremely tight lipped about it. I’ve called multiple times, and spoken to cast members at guest services both in the parks and at Disney Springs and they are no help. They say they are selling them on a case by cast basis, but apparently my situation doesn’t warrant one, it has to be a situation where you were previously a passholder that had let their pass expire or a child of a passholder turned 3 after the reopening last summer. If you are new you’re stuck waiting until nobody knows when.