Walt Disney World Annual Passholders continue to face very low Disney Park Pass availability

Aug 10, 2020 in "Ticket - Platinum Pass Annual Pass"

Posted: Monday August 10, 2020 12:54pm ET by WDWMAGIC Staff

Walt Disney World may be struggling with attendance, but its Annual Passholders continue to find it difficult to visit the parks due to a lack of Disney Park Pass availability.

A check of the Disney Parks Pass availability calendar this morning shows full availability for Disney Resort Guests and Theme Park Ticket guests, but very little for Annual Passholders during August 2020.

There is no availability at all for the next two weeks at any park, and when availability does open on August 24, only EPCOT is available.

Local schools begin to reopen with a mix of in-person and remote learning from today, with the majority of areas schools back in session by August 24. With children back in school, we may see more availability as demand decreases. 

Disney leaders said during a recent investor call that demand for the theme parks was less than originally expected as COVID-19 cases in Florida began to surge, and Walt Disney World has cut hours to its parks by up two 2 hours per day from September 8.

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Tom Morrow14 days ago

Oh, good. This wasn't totally clear, I ended up finding it mentioned as in a line near the bottom of the park reservations start page. This is a little better.

Brian14 days ago

Yes, unless it's a weekend at Magic Kingdom, in which case, a reservation is still required (unless it happens to be a Good to Go day).

Tom Morrow14 days ago

Wait, can someone clarify this? Whether it's a "good to go" day or a "reservation required" day, if it's after 2 PM, do Annual Passholders not have to worry about the reservation? That would help a lot as I rarely go before 2 PM anyway.

DisneyDodo14 days ago

I feel like they’re keeping the park pass system around in this form not to limit guests, but to anticipate how many there will be. APs are being used as a proxy for overall attendance. They’re forcing a subset of customers to disclose their plans ahead of time so they can plan accordingly, even though they will ultimately let them in regardless.

twilight mitsuk14 days ago

look at Hagrid's wait time at closing sign says 60 minutes waited about 25 minutes

Andrew2514 days ago

Yup - Universal also plays the inflated posted wait-time game so people don't hop in line at the last minute. It wasn't difficult to see why Cinematic Celebration, a spectacular show, didn't draw guests as intended... you never knew if the park would open late enough to see it lol

Tom Morrow14 days ago

The way they're still playing wildcard with the Annual Pass "good to go" days is insane to me. Like, how much of a difference can it really make? Oh no, if we drop these AP reservations we might get 100 additional guests in the park today! Even though we're nowhere near capacity! Clinging to this system after all this time is so very anti-consumer. Not only that but they often allow the people attending those events into the park early, resulting in a huge surge of guests, making the day more unpleasant for the day guests.

Andrew2514 days ago

I hope so. Love Universal, but I'd argue having to check park hours whenever you plan on visiting is just as annoying as the park pass system. Randomly closing the parks at 6PM for a private event on a Friday/Saturday is just bizarre.

Fido Chuckwagon14 days ago

Meanwhile, it looks like Universal is about to beat Disney and have the first combination drone/fireworks show in Orlando. I bet anything we see Universal start to close later and keep people in the parks after they do that.

Jambo Dad14 days ago

They are opening for Annual Passholders for 1 day every month but won’t let you know until that day and only if MK is less than 50% full with a relative humidity above 90% and if it’s not a Saturday, Sunday and it’s not a night with a full moon. We value our AP holders and hope to offer even more benefits in 2025.

Sirwalterraleigh14 days ago

No no…you gotta pump BEFORE you dump

monothingie14 days ago

How much $DIS did Bob unload again?

Sirwalterraleigh14 days ago

They just have to act like they care for another month… How’s the ticker doing? 💰

monothingie14 days ago

I mean in all fairness they've been perfectly good running things into the ground before, why would that change now?