Walt Disney World Annual Passes Return!
With a few surprises on several levels, the new annual pass program has been announced for the Walt Disney World Resort. Passes will again be sold to all starting September 8th. There are four tiers and we give you the run through of each, discussing not only what is included but what is not. We also look at water park and photo pass add ons, and what they mean. Is it a good value, and how does it compare to what they did before or how Disneyland’s program was announced.
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Key Points:
- Good to hear all parking is free no matter what level.
- Passholders staying at select Disney Resort or other select hotels are eligible to make park reservations for each day of their Resort stay(s), in addition to holding 3 park reservations at a time
- No clarification still as to what “up to 20%” on dining, merchandise and more really entails.
- No comment on Tables in Wonderland made at this time.
- Monthly payments and 0% APR continues.
- Disney can turn off sales. Not sure if and when that would happen.
- Disney has increased the number of reservations. Not sure if that is going to be needed.
- If your renewal is up currently, you can renew through September 7th.
- Starting on September 8, 2021, Silver, Gold, Platinum and Platinum Plus Annual Passes will be eligible for more reservation holds at a time
- No reason why one person can hold the photo pass upload option and everyone else couldn’t get into the picture.
- Bonus reservations will be added to the calendar from time to time, allowing you to make extra reservations on select days at select theme parks.
- Blockout dates have changed considerably, removing them almost entirely from summer.
- There is a renewal price discount when renewing.
- No premiere passes probably will ever happen again.
- They all provide for park hopping, but that ability doesn’t happen until after 2.
- Disney will introduce an enhanced theme park reservation calendar that shows booked reservations, park availability and blockout dates.
- No After 4 Epcot passes will probably happen again sometime soon.
- A new annual Passholders magnet is underway
- No discussion on Genie or Genie+ amenities exclusive to different levels of Passholders. There have been under 1,000 positive likes and over 11,000 thumbs down on their video posted on YouTube.
- The first two weekends shows Disneyland’s calendar booked. Little word on how well the system worked or didn’t when Magic Key passports were made available.
- It costs more to attain an annual pass.
In short, does Disney want you to buy an annual pass? Yes. If they didn’t they wouldn’t offer it. Or, they wouldn’t offer a monthly plan with 0% interest. That said, they do want you to pay more, even if that means that rather than buying a pass, you end up buying tickets. Moreover, they want more annual pass holders on off days, and less on weekends and holidays. They want to better distribute the flow of guests.
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