RUMOR: Disney Looking To End Annual Passes???

[DizneyFreak2002]

Can the end of Annual Passes be far behind??? With Bozo Bob in charge, anything is possible today...

Annual pass sales in Toyko has been discontinued... What is unknown is if this is temporary or perm... Can that happen here in the States???? Of course...

My annual pass was due to expire in October 2020... I have not renewed yet, nor have I gotten an email from Disney stating I was due for renewal... When I cancelled my October trip, I was informed 4 months were added on, so my pass wouldn't expire until February now... However, that came from DVC and not the annual pass line... Which, now that I am remembering, I have to call and speak to someone there about the pass...

As always, with rumors, take with grain of salt and treat as a rumor until Disney confirms... And even then, sometimes their confirmation means nothing as plans and minds change....

[azcavalier]

Well, we know that they're not selling them right now, nor allowing for upgrades on regular tickets. But I would be very surprised if they stopped selling APs.

[dnickels]

I suppose nothing is impossible in 2020, but I'm with azcavalier in that I think it's extremely unlikely. Mine was set to expire at the end of the month and I just renewed a few minutes ago. I don't think I had received any emails about renewing it but did get a notice or two from the Disney App.

[Park Hopper]

This is an interesting rumor. The way the company has been trending, I can see them doing this for Disney World. But, I believe they have a much higher percentage of daily local visitors at Disneyland. On any given day, I wounder what the percentage of annual pass visitors they have.

[faline]

As a retired person living in Florida, I would certainly visit Disney far less should they discontinue annual passes. Before Covid, we visited a Disney park at least once per week and, most often, ate a meal while we were there - often in a table service venue.

[baldburke]

I'm sure it will all come down to supply and demand. My guess is that they won't do away with it, but COVID-19 certainly gives them an opportunity to revamp it without too many questions. We obviously don't have the number of annual passholders, but my guess is that Disney will evaluate the net revenue (pass plus all other aggregate purchases of the user) earned from AP as compared to what they believe could bring in with a new AP plan as to how they could maximize revenue. I can't imagine that AP has a big impact on daily attendance so I can't see any real benefit to the regular ticket purchasers. Maybe 10% per day when you look at it on an annual basis? If that's true then I doubt it would go away. Again, my guess would be just a relatively steep price increase once revived?

[PopPhan]

I would hope not, BUT if they do, I would hope they would honor the AP I have sitting in my MDE account. It has a Dec. 2030 expiration for first use. I have been holding out, due to employment situation and CoVID. Was actually looking forward to activating it for a couple trips during the 50th celebrations....

[Polynesian Dweller]

One cannot extrapolate from Tokyo Disneyland to other parks. Tokyo is exclusively owned by OLC and they pay a license fee to Disney. Disney has no ownership stake. Only OLC makes decisions there and have no impact on Disney.

As far as your AP expiration, what you were told is accurate. Everyone’s APs were automatically extended by the length of time that the parks were closed. You’ll renew in February.

Nothing in your post points to anything about APs ending at WDW.

[DizneyFreak2002]

I suppose nothing is impossible in 2020, but I'm with azcavalier in that I think it's extremely unlikely. Mine was set to expire at the end of the month and I just renewed a few minutes ago. I don't think I had received any emails about renewing it but did get a notice or two from the Disney App.

Yea 2020 has been one weird and horrible year... And Disney was not immune.... I agree with you all, I don't think Annual Passes will go away, especially with DVC members... But, yep, this is Disney, and sadly, Bozo Bob does not understand the theme parks... So, it also would not shock me to see this happen....

[DizneyFreak2002]

I would hope not, BUT if they do, I would hope they would honor the AP I have sitting in my MDE account. It has a Dec. 2030 expiration for first use. I have been holding out, due to employment situation and CoVID. Was actually looking forward to activating it for a couple trips during the 50th celebrations....

If, and of course that is a big if, annual passes go away, they better honor the current APs... I think they would honor any pass purchased up to a certain time obviously, and then just not allow renewals...

But, something tells me this is nothing but a strange rumor....

[Beatrice Callan]

To be honest, given the current environment, the worst can be expected. It seems like vaccines for COVID are already on the way, but there is no guarantee that this infection will not mutate or some kind of another sore will not appear. You will look at the trend of serious infections from SARS-CoV to today's coronavirus. More and more widespread infections.