Disneyland, no the Disney Company’s decision to leave its most loyal fans, its Annual Passholders/Legacy Passholders/Magic Key Holders in the dark has created a very angry, very sad, very frustrated group of customers. Many started swearing off the resort when the AP program was discontinued but when the Magic Key program was announced, many came back. The problem right now is the information vacuum Disney has created in being its typical tight-lipped corporation has begun to make many many more people swear off the AP/MK program forever. My husband is one of them.
I am told multiple times daily about how current MKs have family or friends coming in to town and they can’t make reservations to join them. They are frustrated they’ll have to buy tickets for multiple days, that could end up being worth a pass…with no pass as the result. Every.Single.Day.
The reservation system has made a lot of people very frustrated too. Hence the lawsuit (Google it) which has a status of going forward since a judge in May ’22 said the “plaintiff has adequately pled facts supporting how a reasonable consumer may be deceived by the advertisement, which states ‘no blockout dates.’” So no matter how much people were good with the reservation system, some still thought a NO-Blockout pass would not be held to the same restrictions as other passes and certainly not be considered less than a ticket holder.
The reservation system isn't based upon capacity. It's a tool Disneyland uses to manage staffing and other things. They manipulate availability in each of the six buckets, One-Park Per Day Ticket Holders, Park Hopper Ticket Holders, and each of the four pass levels Dream, Believe, Enchant, and Imagine. Sometimes they'll open up availability just for MK Holders and other days they just give ticket holders availability. Yes, sometimes they give everyone availability at the same time but the issue here is it's manipulated as Disney sees fit.
To be honest, they really didn’t have to bring back the AP program. We know many people including the company hates all APs. They call us ‘entitled’ but my viewpoint is one of a customer who pays for a specific thing and wants that specific thing to still be the result of payment for it. If I am told I can go whenever I want, guess what? That’s what was advertised so you are damn right I want that.
Disney has created this current environment and we are in a terrible position here. The general consensus is the company screwed us and does not care. Why else would the keep us in the dark and let everyone stew in a panic over their future plans with friends and family?
They’ve lost two customers out of the three in this family. I will be the only one who will be the bearer of whatever new pass system they decide to tell us exists in the future. Hubby is too angry to renew and the boy is entering his senior year at HS and focusing on a college future.
And you? Will you renew? Or are you done with the shenanigans and being choked to death?