Tokyo Disneyland annual passholders are filled with questions as the extremely popular resort announces the end of annual pass lotteries for park admission and a massive refund effort for current passholders. The park did not come right out and say that the program was ending, but is ending the method by which passholders access the park. So the situation is a bit unclear. However, several Japanese-language fan sites are reporting the end of the program entirely (at least until things return to normal).
Given the extremely limited capacity of the park and the large size of the passholder program, it’s easy to see why Tokyo Disneyland would want to suspend the program to focus on dated-ticket sales instead. It’s a much easier way to manage park access and allows the park to make a bit more money in these difficult times.
That has us wondering if something similar could happen at Disneyland or Walt Disney World. And while our sources say that they were unaware of the Tokyo park decision and that they have not heard of anything similar for Disneyland, we could absolutely imagine it happening here if the results for Tokyo are favorable.
The Tokyo Disneyland Annual Pass Announcement
- “Park admission lottery will no longer be held after the lottery for December 2020 Park admissions ends.”
- The official website then outlines a massive effort to refund annual passes.
- The full (CONFUSING) page created for park lotteries, passholder refunds, and the mention above of the end of the lottery system is AVAILABLE HERE.
Could Disneyland End Annual Passes?
First, to ease your mind, there does NOT appear to be a current effort underway to do the same thing at Disneyland. However, consider the challenge Disneyland will have when it reopens, which is even larger than the one faced by Tokyo Disneyland. Disneyland has well over one million passholders. Disneyland will likely open with a capped daily attendance around 20,000 guests. There is simply no way for Disney to guarantee access to all of those people with such limited capacity. And for every passholder who takes a spot in the park, that’s one less full-price single-day paid admission that Disney can sell that would make them much more money.
You can see how Disneyland might look at Tokyo Disneyland and wonder if this is is a potential solution to Disneyland’s capacity issue. Further, the Disneyland Annual Pass program has been a growing problem for the resort for about a decade. It has created an always-packed situation and an expectation of access among passholders that makes it nearly impossible to control crowding on busy days. That problem has forced Disney to raise the price of front gate admissions as more and more space is taken by the ever-growing passholder program. A brief shutdown of Disneyland’s AP program could allow the resort to reboot and retool the program and relauch once the park is back to full capacity (whenever that may be).
What that theoretical new program might look like could be anything. But some variation of the Flex-Pass which has passholders schedule their visits in advance would allow Disney the most flexibility to control park attendance.
While no one yet knows what will happen here at Disneyland, one thing is for sure, the extended park shutdown now looks like it will stretch into next year. And when the parks finally reopen, Disney will have well over a year of lost revenue to make up for, but it could be late next year (or even longer) before they begin approaching full capacity again. It’s not hard to imaging the passholder program going away to allow Disney to charge full price for admission and better manage park supply and demand.
We’d suggest that if Disney decides to cancel the passholder programs at either Disneyland or Disney World, that they simply allow the passholders to be the first to purchase dated park tickets (at a discount would be a nice touch) so they can be the first to see Disneyland again when it reopens.
With limited capacity and the challenge of getting a park reservation, a temporary cancelation of the passholder program might just be the best thing for both Disney and guests . . . at least for now.
Let’s hear from you
Do you think a cancelation of the Disneyland Passholder Program is possible? Would you like to see that happen? What changes would you like to see to a future passholder program if the current program is suspended?
We appreciate your thoughtful comments below . . .
More Disney Parks News
It’s been a busy week for the Disney Parks. Here are some other recent news items involving Disney’s US parks.
BREAKING DISNEYLAND NEWS: California Issues Theme Park Reopening Guidelines
California Theme Park Operators Respond to Devastating Reopening Guidance
Walt Disney World Update – How Much of a Good Thing is Too Much?
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