While Disney has removed a lot of the planning required for a day at the theme parks with the removal of FastPass+ and the shortening of the Advanced Dining Reservation window, there is still the matter of having to plan well in advance to actually get into a theme park. For Annual Passholders, it’s never been more difficult.
Since the introduction of the Disney Park Pass reservation system back in late June, Annual Passholders stopped constantly refreshing for a FastPass on Flight of Passage, and started refreshing constantly for a chance to even get into the theme parks. As of this morning, the next 12 days are completely full for Annual Passholders.
During yesterday’s third quarter earnings call, Disney CEO Bob Chapek revealed that half of all of the guests visiting Walt Disney World right now are locals. This means that the resort is relying quite heavily on Annual Passholders during the reopening phase. Chapek noted that Annual Passholders spend less than the average guest because they typically stay on site for a shorter period of time and spend less once they’re in the parks. Even so, Passholders are the only ticket type with any sort of demand for a visit to Disney World right now. Last month, we hypothesized that there was a real lack of demand for a Disney World vacation right now, an observation that Chapek confirmed during the call. That said, Passholders are itching to get back into the theme parks, as evidenced by the sold out reservation dates in the screenshot above.
Shortly after the theme parks opened, Disney announced that they would be redistributing more Park Pass availability to Annual Passholders, all while keeping the overall capacity for the theme parks at the same level. This meant taking some reservations from resort guests at regular ticket holders and moving it to Annual Passholders. It’s probably time to do that again. A quick glance at the availability calendar shows zero sold out dates for regular ticket holders and only two dates sold out for resort guests. This means that Disney has capacity at the theme parks to hold more guests, but perhaps not the guests that they necessarily want (Annual Passholders who are getting into the parks at a massive discount).
Another noteworthy discussion point during the earnings call was that per capita spending is “very, very strong” at Disney World. Disney believes that guests are spending more than normal due to the fact that they haven’t been able to get into the theme parks in months. If guest spending it up, it would make sense to get more bodies into the parks by opening up more availability for Annual Passholders. On their part, Disney is doing everything they can to entice Annual Passholders to spend money in the parks by introducing a 30% merchandise discount.
Passholders are able to secure up to three days in the theme parks at a time, and make new reservations on a rolling schedule beginning at midnight the day of your most recent visit. It’s not just the immediate future that is posing a challenge for Annual Passholders, it’s also figuring out when they will be able to visit Disney’s Hollywood Studios again.
As of publish time, the soonest an Annual Passholder would be able to reserve a trip to Hollywood Studios is September 8th – over a month from today. That said, if you’re looking for the furthest date into the future that the park is sold out for, you’d have to flip the calendar all the way to October 10th. That means that in order to plan a visit to Disney’s Hollywood Studios and ensure that you have a chance to visit, you should be planning your visit at least 60 days ahead of time if you’re an Annual Passholder.
And that’s just Hollywood Studios, we sort of glazed over the fact that the next 12 days are completely sold out…at all four theme parks. Beginning August 7th, even more Annual Passholders will be able to visit the theme parks with the lifting of the blockout dates for the Silver-level Annual Pass. While those Passholders have been able to make reservations since the system went live in June, they will soon be looking to make new reservations as they visit the theme parks and get to make new reservations to fill up their three-day limit. They likely won’t be met with very many options.
As always, keep checking back with us here at BlogMickey.com as we continue to bring you the latest news, photos, and info from around the Disney Parks!
Thanks for doing this piece. The irony of the statements in the earnings call was not lost on those Passholders that are paying attention. My family of 6 would love to get a Spice Road Table reservation for Epcot in the next couple days before it goes the way of Tangierene Cafe, but we’d like to secure a reservation to the park first! I sincerely hope we can reliably get into the parks our usually 3 to 4 times a week over the next couple weeks as we have the past couple weeks.
It’s all about money. Disney already has passholders’ money, that’s why they cater to those who are willing to ante-up for full cost vacations when there is only 60% at best atrractions operating.
After an even 30 vacations at WDW, I think I just might be done. Ther magic is gone.
We had been Platinum been pass holders for years. We live about 30 minutes from Disney World. Visit sometimes several times a week. We have always enjoyed impromptu visits to restaurants on property and in the parks. We have also enjoyed celebrating grandchildren’s birthdays and other special events. Due to Disney’s new restrictive policies the convenience of visiting on longer exist. We have recently purchased Universal Studios and Sea World / Busch Gardens passes.
Look I love Disney and am a huge fan but let me tell you what happened to me several years ago and that’s the Disney mentality towards its pass holders…
About three years ago, we went out to dinner to celebrate our wedding anniversary at La Cellier in Epcot and for those who know the restaurant and those who don’t just know it’s a very hard reservation to get and it’s extremely expensive I don’t mind doing it it was our anniversary no big deal, we’re on our way out of the park it’s 9:05pm and it’s extra magic night At Epcot and there is literally no one waiting to get on spaceship Earth so I wanted to ride The park is it close like five minutes before and I did just spend 2 1/2 hours on a dinner and figured they would let me on… i’m a passholder there’s no line and I just dropped $300 on dinner for two:
-they absolutely refused
-guest relations absolutely refused
I mean it was my anniversary if I would’ve been staying in some bs value resort on Disney property no big deal I would’ve gotten to ride, but because I lived 15 minutes away I got turned away, after spending lots of money on the pass and a ton of money on dinner it’s not like the ride was crowded it’s not like it would’ve been a big deal this was a power trip for somebody.
I disagree with the CEO obviously I think by and large passholder spend a whole lot more money than resort guests over the course of the year because we visit a whole lot more! After this incident and refusing to help make my anniversary magical given the fact that i honeymooned there I really have felt very little desire to ever renew my pass again and in fact I gave the passes to cast relations on my way, I wanna try to insist I take them back I just kept walking towards my car … now if there’s a good deal for Florida residents I’ll buy it and go if not I’m OK too, The point isn’t a beat up on Disney because I do like Disney don’t get me wrong I love that place however that’s the mentality of how they look at passholders!
We visit Disney 3-4 times a year, not pass holders. We are just lovers of it. But, we just left Florida and made no attempt to try to get to Disney. Annual pass holders is their focus and whom they cater to so it’s whatever. We are Universal Studios annual pass holders and it was a blast are visiting this past week. The money we saved from not going to Disney which have cost us around $1500 per trip, we saved and enjoyed other stuff. I’ll miss Mickey, but It’s Disney’s loss.
Our Disney vacation was booked for August 12th. We did NOT cancel because of fear of covid! We canceled because we do not want to be restricted to death. The only haunting we want is from three grinning ghosts on the haunted Mansion…not from cast members telling us to pull up our masks. I’m not going to pay full price for time in the parks when live shows, and character greetings are not available. I’m a grandma…that’s why I go to Disney. If it takes a year…or 10. I’ll wait for the Disney I know and love, that we’ve visited over 10 times throughout my kids childhood.
Cast members are itching to get back in too. They’re blocked out through October, which is crap.
So Eric thinks because he spent money on dinner the park should let him continue to ride a ride even though the park was officially closed. So selfish! Those people have worked all day to give people a magical day and are ready to go home. So if the park is closed GO HOME! You are not entitled to after hours time just because you spent money on dinner.
Idk if maybe my family was just extremely fortunate or what, this was not the case for us. We planned a trip for a family of 5 to all 4 Disney parks in under two weeks. We made reservations and purchased tickets without any issue at all. During our time in the parks it was the most incredible Disney experience we have had(we’ve been 4 times). We rode every ride we wanted too and had minimal to no wait. Hand sanitizer and washing stations were present everywhere. At no point during our time at Disney’s parks did we ever feel unsafe. Guest and cast members all complied with mask and social distancing, more so than going to our local market. Fast passes weren’t needed, dining reservations were no issue. I cannot put enough emphasis on what a magical experience our family had, especially given current events across the globe.
Drop the restrictions and you will have visitors. It’s that simple.