Disney World just announced their NEW Annual Pass Program!
©Disney
Disney had previously said Annual Passes would be back before the 50th anniversary on October 1st. Passes have not been on sale for Disney World since before the closures in March of 2020. The new Annual Pass Program does have quite a few significant changes compared to the last program, so we want to talk to you about the pros and cons about the new Annual Passes!
Pros:
Free Parking
When Disneyland didn’t include free parking with all of their pass options in their new Magic Key program, we wondered if the same would happen with Disney World. But, don’t worry! Free standard parking is still included with all Annual Pass options!
Welcome!
So, you will not have to dish out even more cash just to drive to the parks!
Upgrade Current Tickets
If you already have purchased tickets for Disney World for the future, you can upgrade those into an Annual Pass! Eligible tickets can be upgraded to a select Annual Pass starting September 8th. You will be able to apply the entire price you paid for your tickets into your new annual pass.
Hollywood Studios Ticket Booths
For right now, you have to upgrade your tickets in person or over the phone. You can’t do it through Disney’s website or My Disney Experience. Also, the monthly payment plans will only be available in person. You can upgrade your tickets at a theme park ticket window, at the Disney Ticket Center at Disney Springs, or you can call Disney at 407-W-Disney (407-934-7639).
Click here to read more about upgrading your tickets
Many Options for Florida Residents
This is a positive for those of you who live in Florida. Of the 4 passes in the Annual Pass Program, 3 of them are exclusively for Florida residents — the Pixie Dust Pass, the Pirate Pass, and the Sorcerer Pass. So, residents have a decent amount of options and flexibility for how they want to visit Disney World! DVC Members are able to purchase the Sorcerer Pass as well.
Florida T-Shirts at Uniqlo
As of now, Florida residents are also the only ones who can pay for their pass using a monthly payment plan after an initial down payment (which, again, must be done in person).
Discounts
The discounts for Annual Passholders remains at 20% off for select food, merchandise, and activities. Activities include things like select tours, spa treatments, rounds of golf, and after-hours events in the parks!
Annual passes are coming back to Disney World!
From time to time, Passholders can also take advantage of special offers on stays at Disney World.
More Theme Park Reservations
Annual Passholders will now have access to more theme park reservations than they have had previously! The Pirate Pass will let you have 4 park reservations at once and the Sorcerer Pass and Incredi-pass will both let you have 5 reservations at once!
Park Pass Reservation availability © Disney
Previously, all Passholders could only have 3 theme park reservations at one time. Also, Passholders will still be allowed to make theme park reservations for the duration of their stay at Disney World in addition to the number of reservations they’re allowed to hold at once.
Bonus Theme Park Reservations
Annual Passholders will also now have access to bonus theme park reservations! Disney says from time to time, bonus reservations will be added to the calendar, allowing you to make extra reservations on select days at select theme parks.
If you want this view, be sure to make your park pass reservation!
The bonus reservations do not count towards the park reservations you can hold at one time. So, if you can hold 5 reservations at once, you could technically hold 6 or more if you get a bonus reservation!
PhotoPass and Water Park and Sports Add On
PhotoPass and the Water Parks and Sports options can now be added to your Annual Pass for $99 plus tax each! They were included with some of the Annual Passes before, but not all. So, for people that had more limiting Annual Passes, this option is actually less expensive than it was before when they would’ve had to add it on separately or upgrade their pass.
©Disney
Only Gold, Platinum, and Platinum Plus Annual Pass had PhotoPass included in their passes before. All other passes had to add it on at either $169 (advance purchase) or $199 for the duration of their vacations.
Water Slides at Blizzard Beach
Only the Platinum Plus Annual Pass had the Water Park and Sports option included with their pass before. All other passholders had to add it on at $139 for an annual water parks pass, $89 for an annual pass that you could only use after 2PM, or they had to buy individual tickets.
Cons:
No More Free PhotoPass or Water Park and Sports Access
On the contrary, for the previous Annual Passholders that DID have PhotoPass included, they now have to pay $99 to add it on for the year.
Blizzard Beach Water Park
The same goes for the Water Park and Sport Option for Platinum Plus Annual Passholders. The option was included before, and now they have to pay $99 for the year for the add-on. So while this change will end up being less expensive for some people, it will be more expensive for others.
Limiting Options for Out-Of-State Guests
Only 1 of the passes is available to non-Florida residents — the Incredi-Pass. So, while Florida Residents have 3 different options for passes, out-out-state guests only have 1, and it’s the most expensive option (but it also has the most perks).
©Disney
The Incredi-Pass is $1,299 and is the only pass with NO blockout dates!
Not As Many Options
Before, the Annual Pass Program included 8 options for passes, and now, there are only 4 options. The 8 options gave people a little more flexibility to find a pass that worked best for them.
EPCOT
Disney also no longer has an EPCOT After 4 Annual Pass. This pass gave you admission to EPCOT after 4PM and had no blockout dates for $319. Now, people just wanting to go to EPCOT will have to buy one of the 4 annual pass options that gives them access to all of the parks, but 3 of the 4 passes have blockout dates.
More Expensive
Some of the new Annual Passes are more expensive than the previous passes. For example, the least expensive pass that still gave you access to all 4 parks before was the Florida Resident Weekday Select Annual Pass for $369. Now, the least expensive pass is the Pixie Dust Pass for $399, however, this pass has fewer blockout dates than the Weekday Select had.
Walt Disney World Annual Pass
Those are all of the major pros and cons of the new Annual Pass Program for Walt Disney World! Passes go on sale on September 8th. Stay tuned to DFB for more Disney news and updates!
Click here to learn more about the new Annual Pass Program
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Do you know if you buy the pass when they become available, can you activate it at any time. we will not be in Disney until January so does activation begin upon 1st use?
Patty, that’s how it’s been in the past. I don’t see info either way on the Passholder page right now, but you may want to reach out to Disney to see what they say. I’ll pose the question for the team as well.
Great break down of pros and cons, except for the “More expensive” section, where the new passes are described as being slightly more expensive than previous similar options. At $ 899,00, the Sorcerer Pass costs $ 180,00 more than the comparable Gold Pass. If you take into account that you now have to pay for photopass, the difference is actually $279,00. Even though a price increase was to be expected, that’s a 38,80% increase. For me, that’s an absurd raise. But it makes sense for the company, since this will in large part impact DVC members, who will either have to buy whatever Disney comes up with or sell their points. No sense in having your accommodation paid for if you can’t get into the parks.
Do you know if dvc members will receive discounts on annual passes like we do now?
Slightly more expensive??? Seriously? The new top tier pass (Incredi-Pass) costs nearly 30% more than the current comparable near-top tier pass (Platinum) and gives you LESS (no PhotoPass!) The vast majority of passholders will be VERY disappointed – if not OUTRAGED – at these changes and how they illustrate Disney’s blatant disregard for their AP community!
Also, if DFB continues to claim objectivity in their reviews of Disney happenings, it needs to be a bit more transparent when changes and offerings are NOT favorable. It is very clear that nearly all recent changes at WDW conform to the theme of “offering you less and charging you more”…yet DFB is not saying much about this disappearing magic!
Do you know does 5 park reservations mean you can only book five parks at a time? What if you plan on going to the parks for ten days?
I don’t understand the theme park reservation “you can have five at once” so-called perk. So if we are visiting for 10 days, as things stood in July, I was able to reserve 10 days at the parks. And we just hopped at 2:00. IS this new perk allowing us to add 5 more parks (on the same day as our main park reservation) so that in essence we can hop before 2:00 since we have a second park reservation? OR is this perk not really a perk at all and is just limiting us to five different days worth of park reservations?
I did not see if the Pixie weekday pass is a park hopper.? I wonder if I can go from a waterpark to a main park on a pixie pass with a waterpark option…?
SMeyers, if you are not staying onsite at a Disney Resort, you will be locked into five Disney Park Pass reservations at a time. When you use the first day, you can book your sixth, and so on. If you are staying at a Disney Resort (or Shades of Green/Swan/Dolphin/Disney Springs Area Resorts), you can book DPP for your length of stay.
Ken, Park Hopping will be included in all four Annual Pass options.
Tim, if you’re visiting Disney World and staying onsite, you’ll be able to book length-of-stay Disney Park Pass reservations. However, if you’re visiting for ten days and staying offsite, you’ll be limited to the number of Park Pass reservations that are allowed under your Annual Pass. This does not apply to Park Hopping, which at this point is still only allowed from 2PM onward and IS included in the new Annual Pass levels. Let me know if this doesn’t answer all of your questions. I can get into other details if you need them, Tim.
Thank you for the feedback, Jack. I just want to add one note: for Passholders who renew into a new Pass type, as long as the move is lateral, Disney says you’ll retain your benefits like PhotoPass and water parks. The team and I have been honing in on that language today, so I know that will affect a lot of people.
Heather, our team checked with DVC today, and so far they have no information on a DVC discount on APs. We will continue to check and will report when there’s news.
Mariana, I hear you. I’ll ask an editor to revisit the language. I also wanted to note that for people who are renewing their Passes, as long as they renew into an equivalent Pass, they’ll retain the PhotoPass benefit.
What about “Park Hopping”? it was our favorite feature when staying in our DVC resort. Will PH be like it was before, or the least favorable way like it is now, after 2:00 and must enter the first park? Thank you!!!
Kimberly, at this point, Disney is still continuing the 2PM policy. If they change it (or get rid of it) we’ll update ASAP!
DFB Sarah. I saw your response to Jack. You said that if your move is lateral to renew, you keep your photopass and water park. I haven’t seen anything like that printed about the new passes. It says you now have to pay extra for the photopass. We are platinum members and DVC members. We live in Pennsylvania so we would purchase the incredi-pass, which is lateral as I see it. So again with what you told Jack, we would retain our photopass, and wouldn’t have to pay extra? Do you have anymore information on that? Like I said, we didn’t see anything about that. Thanks for whatever information you can help with. Jeff
What would a lateral move for a platinum be? I can’t seem to find the block out dates in order to determine which pass I would choose. Where would I find them?
Thanks for clarifying on renewing a pass and retaining the Photopass option. Did you hear any update on if you just activate an AP certificate that currently includes the Photopass option?
Lisa, our understanding is two-part. 1) If you activate the certificate before September 8, you’ll get your exact current Pass (the one for which you have a certificate) and its benefits. 2) If you activate after September 7, you’ll be activated into a new, equivalent Pass AND you’ll keep the benefits of the Pass you paid for/received a certificate for. Does that make sense?
Sherry, the blockout date calendars are linked under each new Pass description when you click Read More on the Disney World Pass page.
Hi, Jeff. Thanks for reaching out. We have received a lot of information from Disney beyond what they posted on the site, which I understand is causing a lot of confusion. Disney confirmed that if you renew your current Pass, you will retain its benefits — even if they require you to renew into a new Pass type (into Incredi-Pass, as you said). This is true as long as you renew and don’t have a lapse in your Pass. From the sound of it, you wouldn’t be activating your renewal until after September 7; in this case, you will have to renew into a new Pass, but (again) Disney is saying you’ll keep your benefits from your old Pass. Let me know if you have any other questions. I’m trying to keep all the details straight and double- and triple-checking with the team to be sure the info is accurate to what Disney is telling us. I hope it’s helping!
Thank you for the update! I was really just concerned about losing the PhotoPass so if I can activate my certificate after September 7 and keep that I will be happy. As a DVC member we only have one option for a less expensive pass anyway.
This is different from what I was told yesterday so I am sure Disney is scrambling to clarify all the details and not alienate their existing AP holders.
Lisa, I’m not saying you’re right, but I’m not not saying you’re right. 😉 It’s been a roller coaster — as we can all see from the comments!
Thank you for the current updates. Will there be an extra charge for the monthly payment plan?
Judy, I don’t think there’s any additional charge for the monthly payment plan. It does factor in taxes, I believe.
Hi DFB Sarah. I just received an email back from Disney’s VIPassholders and was told we’re were not going to be able to keep the photo pass if we kept the same level when we renewed. Everyone would have to purchase it as an add on. I would love to hear from someone who has been able to keep the photo pass perk without paying extra for it.
Shannon, thanks for sharing your experience. It sounds like Disney ended up only retaining PhotoPass for those who renewed before 9/8. I’ll see if we’ve heard otherwise from anyone.
With the magic express going away at the end of this year, I will be planning to rent a vehicle to get to and from Disney. As a pass holder the “free” parking is only for the theme parks and not the resorts correct? So if I wanted to stay at a Disney resort I would have to pay a daily fee to park my vehicle right?
Amanda, that’s correct.