Written by Gregg Condon Today news broke that the Disneyland Annual Passholder Program has essentially been cancelled. We will try to outline this, what we know now, and what we think is going to happen in the future for any kind of passholder program. The official statement is below. So what does mean, and what can we decipher from this statement.
The words that pop out in that statement are "choice" and especially "flexibility". It's no secret that Disney has been seeking to roll out more Flex passes in recent years, that was our Annual Pass of choice when we got our new AP's in December 2019, after not having AP's for about 7 years. Obviously we don't know, but don't be surprised if the Annual Pass program looks like a Flex Pass program when it returns. And honestly, for me personally, I'm ok with it. We're planners, we live 100 miles away from the parks, so for us it's not that big of a deal. The people this is really going to impact are those who use Disneyland as a "hang out" or "babysitter", and these are the types of Passholders Disney has been trying to weed out for years, and they've finally come up with an excuse to do so. It's also not any accident that this announcement comes approximately 10 months after the parks closed. This is something that's most likely been in the works for some time, but from an "agreement" standpoint, they probably had to wait for a certain timeframe for this to happen. But it was inevitable. So why do we think some sort of Annual Passholder program will come back in the future?
What likely isn't coming back? SoCal passes. Sorry. They're gone. Done for. Kaput. No more lower tier passes that caused the parks to be busier on a Tuesday in October than a Saturday in July. Why does making all Annual Passes "Flex Passes" make sense.
Let's face it. Daily and resort visitors, you know, the people who spend money when they go to the parks, were getting hosed the past few years. Because the park was constantly packed with Annual Passholders who, let's face it, don't spend a whole lot of money. When Universal Studios Hollywood opened Wizarding World, they discovered a few things. One, attendance was not as high as was anticipated during the first summer it was open. And two, guest spending was through the roof during that same time period. Guess word spread that people will be more than happy to spend money on merchandise when they're not fighting through oppressive crowds all day. As we get through the next couple of months, and the vaccine becomes more readily available, and there is a light at the end of this awful tunnel, I'd anticipate we will start to hear about the new program. They already have it, they just aren't saying yet. And that's smart. There is pent-up demand for theme parks, and Disneyland in particular. By controlling the amount of people who will want to go to the parks ASAP they are setting themselves up for a smooth roll-out in a couple of months (we hope). What are your thoughts on these changes? Pro? Against? Let us know in the comments below. Related Videos
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Today we have a rather large update from Disneyland and Disney California Adventure for you to feast your eyes on. During our visit last weekend we were kind of all over the place, which was a good thing. So this update has a bit of construction stuff, some Galaxy's Edge stuff, and some food and wine stuff (which we WILL get back to soon). Enjoy! Written by Gregg Condon Me: My kids are grown, I avoided ever getting a mini van! Disneyland: Hold our Moof Juice. Our first stop in the morning was to get the Indy pop. I have to be 100% honest, I didn't realize it was a big one. When we walked into Wunderland Gallery in Downtown Disney to get ours I was shocked, as you can see below. Before taking Indy back to the car for the day, had to take him around the park a bit. After getting our Rise boarding group (18 FTW) I had to actually leave to run an errand. We made it to Rise with 5 minutes to spare. I also had to try out my new iPhone 11 Pro, rather impressed with the results. Check out a Rise of the Resistance Slide Show below. Video of the amazing ROTR Pre-Show and "transport" Jake and I also had some fun and did a reverse POV The extensive rehab for The Haunted Mansion is continuing Apparently some of these scrims have come down since Saturday Over at DCA we took a quick look at the Food and Wine festival. Didn't try any treats, but we'll be back. Avengers Campus construction is continuing as well. As well as the admin building next to Luigi's. They're still claiming "Summer" for this to open. We'll see. There was some cone'struction going on in Cars Land Back over at Disneyland, couldn't remember if we had a shot of this during our last update And there was this thing. If you've followed our site for any length of time you'll know we are huge fans of single rider lines. That said, not sure it really works for Star Tours. I think our wait was pretty much the same as the stand-by line. No lie, I don't think I'd ridden "regular" Space Mountain since 2012. So yay!! Wonder if they'll bring back the Dick Dale soundtrack for 90's night? That would be worth the admission alone. After saying goodbye to Jake (he had woof'ers to take care of) I went and did some other single rider things. Like Indy!! Look into my eyes Mark Twain ... Maaaaark Twaaaiiiin It was a beautiful late afternoon, so decided to do a POV of the Mark Twain Boop Sunset over Galaxy's Edge Did single rider on the Falcon. I had only done this once before, as a pilot. I will say, there is definitely a difference between being a pilot and an engineer. The ride itself was still a ton of fun, more a difference in the movement of the cockpit. Another slideshow, because why not. :) What a piece of junk There was some kind of lightsaber meet in Galaxy's Edge. This was super cool. These photos aren't watermarked so if you participated and want to use any of them, feel free to do so. :) I had never noticed all of the hidden mickey's before Over in Fantasyland, some work going on with the Carousel and Snow White It's going to look amazing when it's done Goodnight sweet Disneyland. We'll be back soon!! Related Videos
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As you may have seen, this morning Disneyland (and WDW) raised ticket and AP prices, which caused the typical outcry from fans as we've seen every other time they've raised prices. Since most sites are concentrating more on the WDW side of things, we're going to look at the Disneyland side. The typical arguments are flying around, Disney is greedy being chief among them. As we always try to do, we're going to try and give these things a bit of reasoning. Here we are, less than a year after the grand opening of Star Wars Galaxy's Edge and barely a month after the opening of Rise of the Resistance opening at Disneyland, there are over a million Annual Passholders. But unlike years past, the parks aren't slammed each and every day. In fact, on our 3 visits over the last 2 months, it's never really been overwhelming. And this is exactly what Disney has wanted with the increases in APs over the past few years. Don't let the light crowds for the opening of Star Wars Galaxy's Edge fool you though. There was legit panic going on. But now that panic has subsided and they're ready to debut their new pricing structure. With all of that said, let's let's look at the new AP prices: Disneyland Resort Disney Premiere Annual Pass (admission to DL and WDW) = $2119 (increase of $70) Disney Signature Plus = $1449 (increase of $50) Disney Signature = $1199 (increase of $50) Disney Deluxe = $829 (increase of $30) Disney Flex Pass = $649 (increase of $50) Disney Southern California Select = $419 (increase of $20) In addition, the MaxPass is now $20 a day (increase of $5 per day) or $125 to add to an Annual Pass (increase of $25) As of this time we do not know if parking has gone up. As for Day Tickets, they've gone up but it depends on the day you go. For example, a 1-day park-hopper will cost you $209 most days. But you really need to determine when you're going in order to get an accurate cost. As we've done in the past, we're also going to look at the Annual Pass prices for Disneyland and compare them to the other theme parks in Southern California. (click any of the links to be taken to the AP pages for each park)
Legoland California: Silver Pass = $149.99 Gold Pass = $199.99 Platinum Pass = $239.99 Elite Pass = 299.99 So let's break this down a bit. You can get a Universal Studios Hollywood Gold Pass, Magic Mountain Gold Plus Membership, Cedar Fair Platinum Pass, Legoland Silver Pass and SeaWorld San Diego Silver Pass for a grand total of $833.19. Believe it or not, that's a collective reduction in price of about $80 from the prices in 2018 due to some of the parks restructuring their AP Programs. If you won't be visiting any other Cedar Fair Parks other than Knott's, that drops your price. If you don't have small kids and don't need Legoland that drops your price. If you don't like roller coasters and don't want Magic Mountain, that drops your price. The point is, this gives you some freedom, and maybe you'll find something you love outside of Disneyland. There is a difference this year, at least for us, and that is that we're Disneyland Annual Passholders again, for the first time since 2012. We had our visits to the parks about every 18 months between January 2012 and December 2019. In fact, up until our visit in December it had been almost 2 years since we'd visited. You know the saying "absence makes the heart grow fonder", well, it's totally true in this case. We've kind of fallen in love with Disneyland again. We've gone 3 times on our new Flex Pass and are planning on going again on Saturday. We're just enjoying taking everything in again, enjoying the time we're spending there. Are we going to renew every year? Probably not. We've talked about maybe every other year, or every 3 years at this point. This might not work for you, but it works for us. Sometimes it's good to take a break from things. There are also a ton of other non Theme Park Options, a few of them are below: The point is, there are other options out there. There are things to do other than Disneyland. If you enjoy going to Disneyland, if the price makes sense to you, by all means, keep your AP. Do what makes you happy. If you find yourself increasingly bitter about the rise in APs, then maybe it's time to look elsewhere to spend your entertainment dollars. So what are your thoughts on the new prices for Disneyland? Are they going to prevent you from renewing or making your yearly visit? Related Videos
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