During one of Disney’s quarterly earnings calls back in August 2020, it was revealed that HALF of the total attendance at Disney World at the time consisted of locals. And it’s probably a safe assumption that a LOT of those locals coming to the parks are Annual Passholders.
Annual Passholder Sticker
For Disney World, 50% is HIGH for Annual Passholder attendance on any given day. So if the demand is clearly there for Annual Passholders to be a part of Disney’s phased reopening, it would make sense for Disney to welcome even MORE Passholders into the fold. But to this day, new Annual Passes are still not for sale (with the exception of two specific groups of guests).
So, why aren’t Annual Passes for sale when such a high percentage of guests coming to Disney World these days fall into that category? Let’s break down the possible reasons.
Click here to learn more about the two specific groups of guests currently eligible to purchase Annual Passes
Disney World wants to manage the percentage of Passholders visiting
As we mentioned, if we’re assuming a majority of the locals visiting (as well as out-of-staters) account for Passholders taking up 50% of their daily attendance, it’s safe to assume that’s probably higher than what even Disney was expecting.
EPCOT
It’s possible Disney does not want to resume the sale of Annual Passes quite yet because they want to manage the number of Passholders visiting. If existing Passholders are already taking up 50%, imagine what the percentages could potentially be if they started selling more Passes!
Magic Kingdom AP preview entrance crowds
So, until park capacity is raised again or the Park Pass Reservation System goes away, we may continue to see a pause on the sale of Annual Passes. With Disney offering Passholders the option to cancel their passes, Disney may be trying to place some sort of control over the volume of Passholders at this time.
Read more about Disney allowing Passholders to cancel their Annual Passes here!
Disney World may be showing a preference to higher revenue guests
While Passholders are among Disney’s most loyal customers, they aren’t necessarily the most profitable. During that quarterly earnings call where we learned about Passholders accounting for nearly 50% of daily attendance, Disney CEO Bob Chapek commented on how a single day guest spends more than an Annual Passholder. This makes sense — if you visit more often, you’re less likely to shell out as much cash per day on souvenirs, pricey sit-down meals, and more as someone who rarely visits.
California Grill
It’s probably safe to say that Disney is looking for ways to bring in more revenue post-closures. They may stand to earn LESS per guest if those guests are predominantly Annual Passholders than if there were more Single Ticket Guests or Resort Guests. Sure, they’ll make some initial money off of the sale of the Pass, but Disney stands to earn WAY more if they can make those would-be Passholders remain single day ticket holders and resort guests.
Mickey and Minnie’s Runaway Railway Annual Passholder MagicBand
Regular Ticket Guests are more likely to be staying at the resorts as well as spending more money on food and souvenirs. And resort guests are a captive audience who are essentially living on Disney property for several days and dependent on all Disney has to offer, rather than Annual Passholders who may just be visiting for a couple of hours. Combined with the discounts Passholders can get on rooms, merchandise, and potentially on food, an out-of-town hotel guest is likely spending more than a typical Annual Passholder across the board.
Disney’s Polynesian Village Resort
A hotel guest staying at a Deluxe Resort, like Disney’s Grand Floridian Resort and Spa or Disney’s Polynesian Village Resort, could add more revenue to Disney World’s pockets in one night of resort fees than a local Annual Passholder will in an entire year from the purchase of their Annual Pass (depending on what pass they have). Passholders may not be the source of steady income that Disney can find in a “normal” ticket holder.
Just HOW many people canceled their Annual Passes? We asked our readers!
Disney World is still “figuring it out as they go”
Since Disney World’s unprecedented closures began back in 2020, it seems as though they’ve operated on a “figure it out as we go” model. There have been some bizarre glitches to indicate that they haven’t quite nailed everything down, like when they charged Passholders 4 months’ worth of fees at once. Or the multiple times the Disney World phone lines and website basically died due to the number of guests trying to get assistance.
Walt Disney World Annual Passholder
It’s very possible that Disney simply hasn’t figured everything out yet when it comes to what to do with their Annual Passholders, and until they do, they’re pausing sales.
Magic Kingdom
It’s arguably tougher being a Passholder right now than it was before the closures. With the Disney Park Pass Reservation System in place, there’s FAR less availability to visit the parks at a moment’s notice. In addition, there’s simply less to do in the parks at this time, with no fireworks, no parades, no character meet and greets, fewer places to eat and shop, and shorter park hours.
UPDATE: Plus, Disney recently announced that free MagicBands will soon be discontinued for Passholders — another perk to disappear.
Annual Passholder Availability for August. EPCOT was the only park available as of August 10. More availability was later added. © Disney
With Passholders unable to visit as easily and experience everything they initially purchased their passes expecting, there’s a serious question of whether the value paid for Passes is still the value they hold. Disney may still be in the process of determining their next steps forward in taking care of their Annual Passholders.
That said, in the announcement that MagicBands would be discontinued, Disney did mention “Annual Pass purchases and renewals.” It’s possible that this change comes as a precursor to the return of Annual Pass sales.
©Disney
After all, we’ve seen significant strides toward normal in the recent weeks such as capacity increases and relaxing health measures. These shifts bring us closer to a pre-closure Disney World — and that might mean closer to the return of Annual Pass sales.
Click here to see what our readers said about renewing their Annual Pass in 2021
We will surely see Disney World resume the sale of Annual Passes someday, perhaps sooner rather than later! Disney has remained rather tight-lipped on the sale of Annual Passes so until they reveal more, we’ll all be waiting to see what happens. This prolonged pause on the sale of Passes, however, is rather unprecedented and is yet another example of just how significant the closures have been to Disney World.
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Are you a Disney World Annual Passholder? Have you been back to Disney World since the parks reopened in July? Let us know in the comments!
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We are a family of 4 Platinum Plus Passholders whose passes expire at the end of September. As you said, we’re paying for no blackout dates (allowing us to typically go on a whim if it’s a nice day/evening, or after work if we feel like it) and we like to use the Water Parks frequently all year round. These passes consume a large portion of our entertainment dollars, while we also like to stay at Disney Resorts a few times a year as well for staycations. We’re worried that the only options for our family is to renew (with none of those perks/values in place) at full price or letting them expire with no idea if we’d ever be able to purchase AP’s again. Disney really needs to make some decisions, because it is not right to keep us in the dark about this much longer. I understand what Disney Corporate is saying about AP’s not spending as much on visits each day, but considering the current situation, they really can’t be sending the message that they aren’t important or valued as part of the Disney family.
I am a born and raised Floridian with annual passes, my wedding is booked for next October at Disney and I just spent well over $2,000 on a 4 day trip to Disney, staying on property and going to their restaurants. The way they are treating their passholders is disrespectful and rude. We spend just as much money if not more in a year because we go more. We renew our passes, we bring friends and family members, and we still stay on property so the lack of consideration for passholders at this time who are keeping Disney afloat is outrageous!!
We are a family of 5. We all renewed this past weekend. 4 of us are platinum and 1 gold. We are FL residents who pay on the monthly plan. I was contemplating NOT renewing, but with them not selling new passes, I didn’t want to chance it.
Are passholders able to renew when they expire right now?
We are platinum/no blackout annual pass holders who live in Texas so we don’t have the luxury to go on a whim. We do plan several trips a year to visit. We always stay on grounds and spend plenty on food and staying at the resorts. So it aggravated me a little that Disney assumes annual passholders don’t spend as much. We come more often because we have passes and specifically got platinum so we could come with dates we can work with and have no worries about getting in. We plan to renew but who knows. I get making money but there’s something to be said for loyal customers, too!
Half the people going are Florida residents because no one wants to waste money to walk around in scorching heat with a mask on in parks that close early anyway
Part of this issue really isnt day guest vs AP . No where was it mentioned that folks aren’t coming down due to COVID. As a pass holder from NY it’s been near impossible to go-Florida said come on down but quarantine for 2 weeks on your own dime before you enter the parks. Then Once we got back NY said the same thing. Normally we would have been down 2-4 times during a calendar year. Even now with Florida lifting their restrictions on folks from NY-NJ-CT, our home states still have the 2week quarantine upon returning in effect. My job is following State guidelines. And unfortunately if I don’t work, I don’t get paid. Thanks to this viscous circle, we won’t be down anytime soon. Sorry folks, but this needs to be looked out from a different angle
We’ve noticed over the past few years that Disney’s Annual Passholders aren’t nearly as valued as we used to be. We go to the parks quite a bit, and *do* spend money there (although you’re right, not as much on souvenirs, etc. but rather on dining experiences) — but a lot of times we feel as though we are the red-headed stepchild, so to speak; tolerated but not much beyond that. We’re going twice next week, so yes, we are helping to keep the parks operating. We just wish they didn’t treat us so cavalierly.
We are annual pass holders who live 6 hours away. So we always stay at resorts. Since we have resort reservations we have never had trouble getting the park pass we want since reopening. So for us, the much shorter wait times easily make up for the shorter park hours. We do miss the fireworks and some restaurants, but go often enough that we don’t mind for this short time. So for us we are still quite pleased. I can imagine, if you are local and used to just waking up and deciding to go, you would be frustrated. We plan to renew.
Or Disney is shutting off Annual Passes because they are trying to run-off all the customers and drive the Parks department into the ground so that they can sell-off the land to other investors (Chinese?) because Disney has figured out that running the parks is a money-losing proposition, what with the plandemics, hurricanes, etc. As many others have pointed out, the Digital Entertainment department makes the bulk of Disney’s money, not the parks. So selling off the parks to other interests (Chinese, NBA, etc.) makes Disney’s overall bottom line stronger, with less liabilities. Better get our fill of Disney in the next year, because there may not be Disney parks to visit in the near future.
I suspect there is a big difference between “local” guests (those for whom it’s a “day trip”) and “travel”guests, who stay on site or nearby for several days. Local guests not permitted to buy an AP may simply spend a lot less time (and so a lot less money) at Disney as a result. Travel guests probably won’t change habits very much, but they are likely to be skeptical of multiple trips per year without access to an AP. It’s hard for me to see where killing APs will increase Disney’s receipts.
We (adult son and I) have been Annual Passholders for years, never failing to renew. We live about half an hour away. Since Disney reopened here in Florida 6 weeks ago, on July 11th, we’ve been to Magic Kingdom and Animal Kingdom once each, Hollywood Studios twice and EPCOT three times. We have also spent one night at Pop Century. In this short amount of time we have spent plenty of $$$ on food, drinks, clothing, souvenirs and accommodations. I feel like we Annual Passholders are at the bottom of the barrel, so to speak, in guest relations, especially in the Park Reservation system.
It’s going to be time to renew these passes for another year in a couple of weeks and I’m having serious thoughts about not doing so. It appears they have gone up $200+ (Platinum), it’s difficult to get into the parks without several weeks of planning ahead and there is no park hopping. No fireworks or meet and greets either, but for us those two things are less worrisome.
I think APs are Disney’s bread and butter, should be encouraged to remain Passholders, and should be appreciated more than they currently seem to be.
I totally agree with Stitch0922 above!
I will say, we are a family of 4 and seriously thought about becoming annual pass holders. After seeing how very little Disney appreciates their pass holders, we decided to get the Universal studios passes (an extra 3 months free, and the count down doesn’t start until first use, even if you wait til 2022).
I’m annoyed because my husband and I have annual passes, and our daughter who just turned three does not. There’s no way to get her a pass, so we’d just have to buy her day passes. This is really going to add up. I wish they’d let existing pass holders at least buy passes for their kids.
I just tried looking for Annual Passes on the Disneyland site, and unlike Walt Disney World, they don’t even take you to the correct page! They just circle back ’round to Experience Updates when all I want to know is how much one costs depending on pass.
Hello
I have a platinum annual pass that will expire soon in September. Will I be able to renew it?
My wife and I are Florida residents and have been passholders for 21 years. After the terror attacks on 9-11, Disney did a lot of things for passholders. Significant resort discounts, 40% and 50%; Christmas gatherings with hot chocolate, cookies and Santa pictures; added days to passes; additional discounts on pass prices, and more. This all went on for approximately three years. Passholders actually kept Disney open (in my opinion) for those three years until people started traveling again. It’s really concerning to me the way passholders have been treated since then and especially with this situation. We live 85 miles away and are older so we don’t make “day trips” any more. We have a four day trip in October and a 4 day trip in Dec. Between the two trips we will spend at least $5,000 on room, food, presents for other people and other merchandise. We will make at least 6 of these trips per year. Given this, I think we are more valuable than a family who visits once every 2 – 3 – 4 years. Thanks for reading.
As a very longtime annual passholder, I have always benefited from the 15% renewal discount. My family’s passes are due to expire at the end of November 2020 (although I think they extended the expiration for a month). Does anyone know if WDW will honor the 15% renewal discount when they start selling annual passes again? We are DVC members so having annual passes is a must. I hope we don’t get stuck paying full price without the discount when WDW eventually resumes selling annual passes. EESH!!!
I have to agree somewhat with Stitch. Although I do realize single day tourist or resort stay tourist do completely depend on WDWR for basically everything during their visit. However, how about removing that 50% of AP from their attendance and now how is WDW doing on revenue? Personally I don’t really like the way Bob Chapek is handling this. We are part of a large AP family, with 1000’s of members and at this point you can feel the trending impression from members that Disney is sending a harsh message of ‘NO appreciation’ to our family of AP. One member said, “we’re the basement child”, another said, “we’re the third class passengers on the Titanic”, another said,”Disney isn’t Disney, it’s just another heartless corporation”, I could go on. But as we know for AP’s all our feelings and words fall on deaf ears. I understand it takes money to run such a giant company, but I hope someone at the WDW company remembers soon, no company small, big, or giant was ever built on money, it is built on people. Without people, without people to receive your goods and services, you have nothing.
Sallie, give Disney a call about this. It seems like some folks have been able to renew.
Cb, it seems like folks are able to renew now.
We’re in a weird situation. We have Premier passes but are only going to WDW once this year, next week. We live in southern CA but Disneyland has been closed for over 5 months now. WDW extended our passes from expiration in January 2021 to May 2021. Disneyland has offered a partial refund for the months Disneyland is closed. Not sure what to do?
I have read many comments from so many passholders feeling like we don’t matter anymore. I feel the same. It hurts. My husband and I were passholder for 6 years in a row and then decided to take a break then Jan. 2020 we bought passes again along with buying our son and family annual passes. Our grandson that just turn three, never been and thought it would be so much fun. We live about 35 minutes away and was looking forward to many outings and even staying at the Disney resorts so my daughter in law and my grandson could experience Disney like we have many times before and then of course the virus changed everything. Only got to go four times. Can’t change what happened but it is how Disney is handling the passholder situation is very sad and disappointing. We decided to cancel our monthly passholder and wait another year or two, but now I am not sure of Disney anymore. I cancelled 5 different times, by phone, chat online, email and thought I was cancelled every time. Last time on August 4th before the 11th deadline I was reassured again that I was cancelled and getting a refund for July charge. I checked today, and found there was another charge for August. So now I have two months charges on my credit card. I called the Disney today, August 27th and was told I was never cancelled. I am so upset. I can not believe this is happening. Again she reassured me that we are cancelled and that they extended the date from August 11th for cancellation till the end of the month because of so many passholder cancellation . We will see. If I am not cancelled again what is your suggestion on what step I need to take to make sure I am cancelled and refund my money for two months?
I’m just sad…we recently moved to Florida but have shelled out money for 20 years to visit on property. We still always plan on staying with Disney whenever we can despite the fact that we live here now. But it is sad that we now have to pay $600 to get a 4 day ticket instead of Florida annual passes. I do think it’s so unfair, especially if you’re living right here!!! Here’s to hoping they fix that soon. Because despite what Disney thinks, we do spend money more than just your daily ticket visit but you put a stop to it by not allowing us to purchase these passes.
I was supposed to celebrate my birthday with my parents in October for a few days, but the very day we were going to buy the annual passes, I read the newsletter with very sad news. I’m ok with waiting until next year, but it is still a bit of a bummer.
Disney is assuming they are way more important to people than they actually are. Less and less will go until the fun is brought back.
It is September 20th 2020. I am unable to renew my pass or purchase a new annual pass For my kids. Frustrated that Disney doesn’t seem to care about their AP family like they used to. Unfortunately it’s all about money to them. Get your fill while you can…who knows, Disney parks may be a thing of the past here in a few years.
Agree with disney is crazy….my family is a annual passholder and we live in Texas and this is our 5th trip here this year and only 3 of us have passes and I keep buying my youngest tickets every time we come since he does not have a pass….i drop 10k everytime we come minimum and my wife comes like every 5 weeks…
We are DVC owners and AP holders. As of now we have lost the Dining Plan, real Park Hopping, and all of the other discontinued activities.
We travel to WDW at least twice a year for a week each time, even in 2020. We always eat in sit down restaurants. At this point we are still spending the same as pre pandemic. Disney needs to take a look at how dedicated visitors are giving up things to still come to the parks.
Became DVC members right before the pandemic and the gold pass stopped being sold…I was devestated… I paid so much for DVC and so looked forward to many visits with a pass. We always dine innsignature restaurants and spend so much when we are there. As of now my ticke cost for 2020 was insane. I have paid for three trips-6 ppl each for a week, so close to 10k for tickets when a pass would have saved me more than half of that…reconsidering selling the DVC I bought into.
….seems WDW execs have turned a corner & realized the the AP holders are valuable. They are renewing for people who have/had active APs (even if you took the refund). With the extension, ours expire at the end of April, beginning of May. We renewed them 2 weeks ago.
Chapek cares only about the bottom line. He doesn’t care about cast members, he doesn’t care about guests, AP or others. He cares only about how much money is going in his pocket & he’ll run Disney into the ground.
It’s funny that after spending a half hour on the WDW Website and clicking the “Annual Passes” link that I finally figured out they aren’t selling them. A short Google and my question has been answered. We wouldn’t WDW just say it on their website, “Annual Passes are No Longer Available” and save customers the grief. If they are still just figuring it all out with COVID then let me say this, you still don’t have it figured out. My experience at the end of 2020 to use my final days of last years annual pass were tragic to say the least. You have this silly “Boarding Party” app for Rise which makes no sense, you have pushed your loyal fans out the door with no annual passes, your customer service, which WDW was BUILT ON, is completely been thrown out the door. You need to figure out, the Loyal, who have been fans and supporting you for years are now disenchanted to a point that it’s unlikely that we will return for years to come.
Trying to renew my Silver Pass and it seems my only option is to go platinum at double the price which I won’t do as It can’t afford. I won’t pay over $100 a time to visit WDW. They will lose millions in revenue on APs. What a disgrace to APs and Florida Residents. As a former Cast Member this is just not right. My love of Disney is about to go out the window. Calling them as soon as Guest Relations opens.
I was going to buy an annual pass last year but then covid hit. We cancelled our trips. I live in Canada and myself and my husband always stay on property and buy the deluxe dining plan. We spend a lot. It’s very disappointing that Disney has halted the sale of annual passes. They need to really take a hard look at this.
Regular AP’S are being reinstated to people meeting 1 of 2 requirements.
1. Having a child who needs one as parents are AP owners.
2. People who CANCELLED during the closure.
Since I qualify for #2…. I would appreciate & , as a DVC member, expect to
purchase my DVC AP ….ASAP to be ready for my 16 day October DVC stay.
Did call the “ticket” number & a cm took all my info & said that I will get a call back once my records are reviewed. THAT WAS 6 DAYS AGO ??? Does anyone know how long it might take?? Cannot make “park” ressies without a “ticket” on file !!! FRUSTRATED !!!!!! HELP???
We had been annual pass holders for 10 years, but decided not to renew February of last year cause I was pregnant and decided we would get our passes back when our baby turned 6 months ago. And unfortunately now we can’t get passes. I tried calling this past Saturday hoping that since we had been pass holders for so long and our passes were canceled less than a month before they shut down, they would let us get them back. But nope. I told my husband that when they finally go back on sale, we’re buying them that same extras.
We cancelled our annual because of the virus. Can it be replaced
Eileen, you’ll need to call Disney to find out.