With less than a month until the first Walt Disney World theme park reopens, Disney has sent out an email to Annual Passholders thanking them for their patience and trust during these uncertain times.
Dear Valued Passholder,
Soon it’ll be time to return to the enchantment. To laugh. To wish. To dream. To once again sing along with a small world. Journey to a galaxy far, far away. Conquer Everest. And sail through a Frozen land.
But first, we wanted to offer our most sincere thanks. For your patience. For your trust. For always keeping the magic in your hearts. And for being some of our most cherished fans.
As we adjust to these unprecedented times, the Theme Park experience will understandably be different from what it was when you last visited. At least for the time being. But one very important thing will remain the same: the magic will still be there. And we could all use some of that!
Thanks again. For everything.
We’ll be sure to stay in touch.
Sincerely,
Your Walt Disney World Resort Family
The note comes at a time when Annual Passholders have more questions than answers when it comes to the value and usefulness of their pass.
As of publish time, Disney has stated that they plan on resuming monthly Annual Pass payments when the parks reopen.
The problem that many Annual Passholders have flagged with that statement is that Disney will be implementing a new reservation system to enter the park. Disney has already stated that Annual Passholders will only be able to hold a certain amount of reservation days at a time. Disney has not said what that limit will be. On top of that, it looks like Disney will limit each guest to visiting one park per day.
Many Annual Passholders note that these restrictions have devalued their Annual Pass.
While we await more information from Disney as to what the reservation system will look like for Annual Passholders, we can look at Shanghai Disneyland and the fact that they said that they would not resume Annual Pass payments until the reservation system isn’t in use anymore. That would be a wonderful solution for Disney’s “most cherished fans”, but Disney hasn’t announced anything like that for the domestic theme parks yet.
Disney has announced that Annual Passholders will be among the first to be able to reserve dates at the theme parks when the reservation system opens up. Disney has also announced that there will be soft opening preview days for Annual Passholders before the parks open to the public on July 11th.
If Disney simply offers early reservation access and soft opening previews, it remains to be seen if that will satisfy Passholders who still might not be able to get into the parks when they would have normally been able to. It also remains to be seen how Disney would handle the lack of park hopping that many Annual Passholders view as a perk of their pass.
As always, keep checking back with us here at BlogMickey.com for the latest Disney Parks news and photos. We’ll continue to bring you news and photos, where possible, through the Disney Parks closure due to Coronavirus (COVID-19) and will resume our normal coverage once the parks reopen to guests on July 11th!