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Chapek recently went on record to share why Disney is not selling new annual passes. Here, I take a deeper dive into why the real reason may actually be different from what he stated.
No new passes
In an interview with The Hollywood Reporter at this past weekend’s D23 Expo, Chapek shared the following statement. “We love all our fans equally. We love the superfans, obviously. But we also like the fans that don’t have the same expression of their fandom. We want to make sure that our superfans who love to come with annual passes and use [the parks] as their personal playground — we love that.
We celebrate that. But at the same time, we’ve got to make sure that there’s room in the park for the family from Denver that comes once every five years. We didn’t have a reservation system and we didn’t control the number of annual passes we distributed and frankly, the annual pass as a value was so great that people were literally coming all the time and the accessibility of the park was unlimited to them and that family from Denver would get to the park and not be let in.
Park passes
From this interview, we can gather that the pause of new annual passes and the park pass reservation system work in tandem together to create a different park experience. But, is it benefiting the Guest? Or, is it benefitting Disney?
Park passes are a great way to forecast park attendance for any given day, and that in turn means Disney can create an accurate Cast Member schedule for that day. Disney then saves money by having only the needed number of Cast Members to operate the parks on any given day.
But, it’s easier to market park passes for your great experience vs controlling the budget and saving some money, am I right? As for annual passes, I do not see new ones being sold until their supply and demand rebalances. Right now, they have much more demand than they have supply.
Fewer Guests spend more money in the park. By controlling who is coming into the parks, not only are they saving money by not having as many Cast Members on the schedule, but they are also making more money by charging more for things that used to be free (or cheap) in the form of tickets, food, merchandise, resort hotels, and Genie+.
What are your thoughts? Does Disney really have their Guests in mind, or is this a money thing? Let us know in the comments below and on Facebook.
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LBBK
Thursday 3rd of November 2022
We’ve been DVC members since the 1990s and travel to Disney 2-3 times a year and stay for at least a couple of weeks each time. I’m fine with the idea of renewals, BUT I don’t like that the new pass begins the day after the old one expires. October begins our use year and we usually got passes beginning in October. But with the extensions on the passes during COVID, our passes now expire June 26. So, we renew, but don’t use that pass for the first time until October — but day one is backdated to June. It’s a waste! At least let day one be the first day we activate the renewed pass!
Vk2469
Saturday 24th of September 2022
Haven't been to Disney World since 2017. 2018 came and went. Then came the pandemic and any plans to go went out the window. Now with all this BS building since the pandemic, we'll have not much issue with our next trip down and not going to Magic Kingdom, or Epcot. Sure we saw lines and busy areas, but before Chapek, it was all good. Now, we'd probably have a better time walking through the Bowery in NYC. Universal, we're coming back.
JWinPS
Monday 19th of September 2022
Disney doesn’t care about the visitor. It’s all about more profit and screw the visitor if it makes them more money. Their outrageous ticket prices is the reason I haven’t gone to Disneyland since approximately 2006. I refuse to pay their unreasonable ticket prices. Add to that their now equally overpriced add-ons make it even worse. The magic in The Magic Kingdom disappeared for me. It’s a shame as I loved both Disneyland and Disney World.
Sharon
Saturday 17th of September 2022
Chapek's argument for not selling new annual passes make no sense if Florida residents are still able to buy an annual pass. These are the quests that can go to the parks frequently and don't need to spend money at the parks because they live close by. Fans that live out of state aren't going to fly down frequently because of the cost of flights but when they do visit, they are the ones that spend money on dining and shopping.
Fred
Friday 16th of September 2022
Follow the money. That is where the answer lies on this subject.