Disney World Annual Passholders are getting a glimpse of what it was like to visit the theme parks before COVID-19 changed everything back in mid-March. According to the Disney Park Pass availability calendar, Annual Passholders are waking up to full Disney Park Pass availability at all four theme parks this morning. It’s an article that we couldn’t have fathomed writing at the start of the year, but this is the new normal for Annual Passholders. Of course, “forever” isn’t the right word here, but there isn’t a hit song called “for the first time since the Disney Park Pass system was put in place”.
Since Disney World reopened, Annual Passholders have been forced to abandon the traditional way of touring the theme parks on a whim and instead make reservations to enter the parks. Limited to just three reservations at a time, most Annual Passholders found it difficult to visit a theme park in the next seven days, let alone the day of. Of course, park hopping remains blocked at this time, which is another important way that Annual Passholders would tour the parks, but Passholders can be a little spontaneous today will full availability.
The Disney Park Pass system was one of many factors that led Annual Passholders to cancel their passes en masse before the August 11th deadline to cancel.
So, why the sudden availability? There are a couple of factors that could be at play here. First, Disney recently reallocated more space to Annual Passholders a few days ago. When Disney has put out more availability in the past, we’ve seen it snagged up in hours, but not this time. With about 50% of the guests in the theme parks comprised of “locals” we have to consider the local school schedules. More counties have welcomed kids back to school today. In total, over 90% of Florida counties have called school back in session. Nationwide, that number is reported to be somewhere in the 50-60% range.
Another factor is all the cancellations of Annual Passes that happened less than 2 weeks ago. With less Annual Passholders, it’s possible that the availability might look better going forward as Disney (hopefully) continues to reallocate availability to get as many feet in the parks as it is safe to do. The September availability calendar doesn’t look as great as the next few days do, but it’s possible Disney will rebalance a week or so at a time.
As we look forward to post-Labor Day, it’s likely that Disney is forecasting lower crowds until the holiday season arrives. There is no Mickey’s Not-So-Scary Halloween Party to draw guests in for a fall vacation, and with the fate of Mickey’s Very Merry Christmas Party uncertain, Disney has cut back hours beginning September 8th. A reduction in hours signals even lower crowds than the “summer crowds” that Disney hoped would fill the parks up in the few months they had before school was back in session.
As always, keep checking back with us here at BlogMickey.com as we continue to keep an eye on the crowds and more to help you plan your upcoming Disney World vacation and stay connected to the theme parks!
Hopefully this trend continues! We’ve eaten table service meals more than ever before while we try and get the most out of our Tables in Wonderland membership. It’s a lot more difficult to use when we can’t get into a park!
When do you think annual passes will go back on sale?
As always they depend on the “locals” to save them when business gets slow but treat us like we are not as valued as those who are coming in from further away. Yes they spend a lot while they are here but we spend more because we come all year. We buy toys . We eat. And many of us stay in the on-site hotels. We spend as much & more in a year as do the visitors from other areas. Disney should start treating us like we are important too! That is the reason many cancelled their passes. Had there been some assurance that we would have some compensation for what we lost I’m sure that most of those would not have cancelled. I did not because being the optimistic person that I am I figured that we would be back to normal by the beginning of the new year anyway.
Disney/ABC has only gotten worse as time goes by and I believe management will only get worse in the weeks and months to come. I have worked at in the parks on and off for years (they could not pay me enough to ever mistreat good people who spend so much again). Anyway, most of the upper management sees pass holders as a liability, in safety.planning meetings it is always top subject matter of tge damage pass holders do in the park on a daily basis. Back when, any person who spends any amount of money was looked at as a key reason why the business was successful. But with Disney not so much they are doing the guest a favor by allowing them to enter the gates and as for pass holders that is another story. It’s the cast members that makes the visit magical.
Love the fisheye pic looking down Main Street!
I used to have annual passes all the time. It was recently suggested that this was an excellent time to visit disney if you can tolerate the mask wearing all day long. I was enormously disappointed to find that I could not get a florida resident annual pass. I intended to stay at a disney hotel. Since there are no fast passes, staying at a disney hotel loses it’s main appeal in the ability to book FP 60 days out, but then they are not really needed. I ended up at holiday inn disney springs for 65 a night. I’m guessing though that after paying for resort fees and parking it would have actually been competitive to stay at a disney value hotel. I hope I’m not disappointed.
As a new local I without an annual pass I was hoping to buy one so I could go to the parks and buy food and souvenirs. However, Disney currently does not want my money. Things must not be too bad when Disney is turning away money.
There is one change I would like to see. If on any given morning there is availability for that day, AP can book without it counting as 1 of the 3.
I listened to the govenors talk with the major parks people today, Most of the parks are honoring their passholders, but seems like most of what the disney people cared about was airports opening up to people that are out of towners. We still arent appreciated. My husband and I spent over 400 dollars last week in the one park we could get passes for and disney springs. That is honestly more than I read online that people are spending from out of town. I am very dissapointed that they didnt ask for more than 20% capacity in the parks so more APs can get in. When the air ports open up and out of towners come in more, ( which is ok) the APs will probably be shoved into the catagory of , if there are spaces open at certain parks, we will be able to try to get in. This is not what I signed up for