Disneyland President Ken Potrock joined the D23 Inside Disney podcast today to talk about the reopening of Disneyland. In the discussions, Potrock talked about how it was necessary to sunset the Annual Pass program, and discussed the future of the Annual Pass program.

First, Potrock said that it was necessary for Disneyland to sunset the Annual Pass program because of capacity restrictions from the State of California. As you likely know, Disneyland will be operating at 25% capacity when it reopens tomorrow, and with a vast Passholder base of hundreds of thousands, if not more than 1 million guests, there simply wasn’t a way to get everyone into the relatively low capacity theme parks at the Disneyland Resort.

Next, Potrock said that Disney thought that this was a great opportunity to reimagine the Annual Pass program. He said that they wanted to think about how guests would visit their parks in the future, not how they have visited for decades. Potrock described the new program will be consumer-centric.

Finally, Potrock said that they are working on the program right now, and said that Disney will “clearly be launching something before the end of the year”. Potrock said that Disney is just now receiving the research and data from their earlier surveys, and will use that feedback to craft the Annual Pass options.

While the theme parks will initially operate with no Annual Passholders, it is clear that Disney will not drag their feet too much longer and introduce their new membership program in the months to come.

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!