Disneyland Resort announced today that it was ending its Annual Pass program. Disneyland has been closed since early 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic. While they have tried to reopen, restrictions in California have prevented them from doing so. After almost a year of trying to reopen, they have finally waved the white flag in regards to Annual Passholders. Here’s the statement released by Disney today:
— Disney Parks News (@DisneyParksNews) January 14, 2021
Disneyland will be issuing refunds to all existing members. They’ll also be issuing partial refunds to Premier Passport holders, the pass that allows unlimited entry into both Disneyland in California and Disney World in Florida. If you’re a current Passholder, you can probably find answers to your questions here.
As the statement says, Disneyland does plan to introduce a new Annual Passholder program in the future. It’s no surprise that there’s no date announced for a relaunch. As of the publishing date of this article, there still is no opening date for Disneyland. COVID-19 counts are hitting record highs in the region, so we don’t expect an opening anytime soon.
Wrapping Up The Magic
The timing comes as a bit of a surprise to us. It seems Disneyland would have reached this decision at some point in 2020. Now, almost a year after the initial closure, it certainly seems closer to the finish than the start of the closure. The termination of the Annual Passholder program is a clear sign that Disneyland is concerned about capacity when the parks do reopen. There has been some griping and groaning from Annual Passholders in Florida, where four parks yields plenty more capacity than Disneyland. This move seems to indicate that Disneyland would prefer a hard reset and some time to study customer behavior before relaunching the program. We’re confident some form of an annual pass will return to Anaheim. We wouldn’t be surprised to see it announced in 2021, even if it doesn’t launch until 2022.
We’ll keep you informed as we learn more. Stay tuned…..
