Disney World annual passholders feel slighted as theme parks navigate COVID-19 pandemic

[Travisma 1,317]

Some interesting pieces in this article...

Full article below in the link

https://www.orlandosentinel.com/business/tourism/os-bz-disney-annual-passholder-20200806-j247clpv25bh5k6gqleflrfgom-story.html

 

There are a litany of complaints: No open advance reservations since resort guests and people playing full price for tickets snag them first. Waiting in long lines at guest services or being on hold for hours with Disney to troubleshoot problems. And confusion over how their refunded passes are calculated in a formula that isn’t clear. Some people are still waiting for their money to arrive, too.

Last month, the company mistakenly charged lump bills for people paying monthly installments for their annual passes at a time when many are out of work and when the parks were still shut down.

 

Disney apologized and refunded the amounts, but the company is now facing three lawsuits over what happened, including a federal one filed Monday by Flagler County resident Jamie Heindl, who said the company charged her in July even though her pass already had expired.

“Disney had a bad hand and played it poorly,” said Rick Munarriz, an analyst for the investment website Motley Fool, adding that Disney hasn’t communicated well with passholders. “Disney dropped the ball. They dropped the Epcot ball.”

“For the most part, it’s right for them to feel cheated. They paid for something and aren’t getting it,” said Munarriz, a Disney annual passholder himself. “Disney is keeping a very tight leash on how many people they are letting through the turnstiles. It’s a very brutal business call that Disney is making, but it’s one that’s understandable if you take three steps back and take off the Mouse ears and look at ... supply and demand.”

On Tuesday, Disney CEO Bob Chapek gave some insight on the company’s priorities.

“Typically someone who travels and stays for five days to seven days is marginally more valuable to the business than someone who comes in on an annual pass and stays a day or two and consumes less merchandise and food and beverage,” Chapek said during an earnings call.

Chapek said as Florida’s coronavirus cases rose, a higher than expected number of travelers were nervous about flying to Orlando and have canceled their reservations. Disney has used those cancellations to add more availability for locals and annual passholders who account for about 50% of the attendance now at Disney World, Chapek said.

But Munarriz warned that in the future, possibly after a coronavirus vaccine is available, Disney will eventually want to grow attendance to theme parks. If the economy and international travel are still slumping, Disney will once again need to turn to its passholders, he said.

“There’s some ownership that Disney is not taking on behalf of their passholders. I don’t think it’s right, pandemic or not. It’s their brand. It’s their product. It’s their parks,” said Vargas, 42, of Orlando.

Hicks expressed frustration at the out-of-towners who ultimately cancel their reservations, taking up spots from everybody else. Why couldn’t Disney charge a $10 cancellation fee like it does with dining reservations? he asked.

 

Even so, not all those in the passholder ranks are unhappy.

Disney recently announced a surprise 30% merchandise discount exclusively for passholders, so Amanda Napier saved a few bucks when she bought a new pair of Mouse ears.

“I thought that it was really nice of them to do,” said Napier, who lives in Pasco County.

Disney also announced Wednesday it will mail special magnets as a free gift to passholders this month.

“It’s our way of saying, ‘Welcome back to the magic, Passholder family!‘” Disney said.

Napier’s last visit to Disney World impressed her with the short lines at the Magic Kingdom and the strictly enforced safety rules.

It was harder to book a reservation for Hollywood Studios but there was plenty of openings for the other three parks, said Napier, 40, an employee in the New Port Richey city manager’s office.

“Honestly, they’ve done a great job,” Napier said.

 

 

[kadancer 82]

The comment in red is totally not us - we spend much more on all but the first trip on our pass.  Once the ticket expense is covered it allows us much more room in the budget for both dining and specially events like tours.  Additionally, if we buy tickets each trip, we get one a year - with an annual pass we go, at minimum, four times.  I don't know if we are typical, but from my point of view, this is a miscalculation.

[lightbikes 73]

5 minutes ago, kadancer said:

The comment in red is totally not us - we spend much more on all but the first trip on our pass.  Once the ticket expense is covered it allows us much more room in the budget for both dining and specially events like tours.  Additionally, if we buy tickets each trip, we get one a year - with an annual pass we go, at minimum, four times.  I don't know if we are typical, but from my point of view, this is a miscalculation.

I agree - Disney indulges is "fuzzy math" when it suits them.

 

[h2odivers...Ray 952]

15 hours ago, kadancer said:

The comment in red is totally not us - we spend much more on all but the first trip on our pass.  Once the ticket expense is covered it allows us much more room in the budget for both dining and specially events like tours.  Additionally, if we buy tickets each trip, we get one a year - with an annual pass we go, at minimum, four times.  I don't know if we are typical, but from my point of view, this is a miscalculation.

We are basically in the same boat as you are. I’m willing to bet we spend as much if not more money as a non annual pass Does.

we eat at a park and/or DS everyday. 
we buy disney merchandise every trip. 
we buy snacks, drinks, beer, that’s for me. lol. 
 

it seems like Disney thinks all AP holders only come for a day or two at a time and are locals.  
or live within a short drive of wdw.  And I’m sure most AP holders fit into that category. 

But what about us that don’t??

What about us out of staters that have kids in school and have to plan their trips so they can go for 5-7+ days.  It’s not worth the cost of 3 airline tickets to go for 1 or 2 days like the article says  

 

ive called several times to find out what my refund would be, if I cancelled and no one can tell me.  The last CM told me I have to cancel and then they will let me know how much it will be. 
WTF???

because of the 30 day extension my APs won’t expire till the end of October. So we might be able to go during my DDs fall break.  But what’s the point of going if we can only make 3 park reservations at a time. 
what are we supposed to do the other 3-4 days we would be there?

 

it seems to me WDW is pushing away AP holders at a time they should be courting us. 
 

 

[PghBob 31]

1 hour ago, h2odivers...Ray said:

We are basically in the same boat as you are. I’m willing to bet we spend as much if not more money as a non annual pass Does.

we eat at a park and/or DS everyday. 
we buy disney merchandise every trip. 
we buy snacks, drinks, beer, that’s for me. lol. 
 

it seems like Disney thinks all AP holders only come for a day or two at a time and are locals.  
or live within a short drive of wdw.  And I’m sure most AP holders fit into that category. 

But what about us that don’t??

What about us out of staters that have kids in school and have to plan their trips so they can go for 5-7+ days.  It’s not worth the cost of 3 airline tickets to go for 1 or 2 days like the article says  

 

ive called several times to find out what my refund would be, if I cancelled and no one can tell me.  The last CM told me I have to cancel and then they will let me know how much it will be. 
WTF???

because of the 30 day extension my APs won’t expire till the end of October. So we might be able to go during my DDs fall break.  But what’s the point of going if we can only make 3 park reservations at a time. 
what are we supposed to do the other 3-4 days we would be there?

 

it seems to me WDW is pushing away AP holders at a time they should be courting us. 
 

 

 Completely agree.  We live a thousand miles away and are annual passholders.  When we come south to  WDW, we don't stay a day or two, rather we are usually there for weeks and sometimes a month or more in winter.  Coming for a day or two is a financial loser for us.  Maybe, the new CEO is befuddled confusing WDW with Disneyland data.

[LONE-STAR 370]

All you have to do is stay on disney property and then you can have more days. I believe it's up to 14 in a row. Remember they have hotels they need to fill. 

But I agree we are AP holders and we spend like its vacation because it is. My daughter gets told no quite a bit at home, but she knows when were at Disney with in reason its going to  be a yes answer. 

 

[h2odivers...Ray 952]

14 hours ago, LONE-STAR said:

All you have to do is stay on disney property and then you can have more days. I believe it's up to 14 in a row. Remember they have hotels they need to fill. 

But I agree we are AP holders and we spend like its vacation because it is. My daughter gets told no quite a bit at home, but she knows when were at Disney with in reason its going to  be a yes answer. 

 

“All you have to do is stay on Disney property...”

That’s a expensive way to get what I already paid for.   We have a condo/timeshare at bonnet creek.   And since we would have to make an unplanned trip to use our APs, before they expire, we have to use our condo.   When we come at Christmas or do our May/June trip we stay 10-15+ days. And we stay half the time at bonnet creek and the other half at a WDW Resort. 
 

If you had to plan a last minute trip to use or lose your APs and they closed the Fort. 
would pay $200+/night to stay at a Disney hotel or $50/night to stay in a camp ground 2 miles from epcot and Hollywood studios?  
 

our timeshare costs us Approx $50/ night. 
our maintenance fees are $612/ year.  We have 14 nights per year. 
 

My daughter doesn’t hear to many nos at WDW either. Lol. 

[h2odivers...Ray 952]

I’m on hold with WDW, agian, to find out what my refund would be if I canceled our APs. 
just curious has anyone canceled their passes?

if so, what was the refund?

Does anyone know how they are figuring refunds?

just in case you’re curious I’ve now been waiting 55 minutes for someone to pick up. 
On a happy note I am enjoying the music they’re playing. Lol. 

[lightbikes 73]

11 minutes ago, h2odivers...Ray said:

I’m on hold with WDW, agian, to find out what my refund would be if I canceled our APs. 
just curious has anyone canceled their passes?

if so, what was the refund?

Does anyone know how they are figuring refunds?

just in case you’re curious I’ve now been waiting 55 minutes for someone to pick up. 
On a happy note I am enjoying the music they’re playing. Lol. 

I was close to 90 minutes on hold yesterday - killed the battery in two of the handsfree phones before I finally got through.  I cancelled our APs but they were not able to tell me how much the refund would be, or how they would be calculated, or even when we would receive them.

We really debated what to do about this because our passes would have been good until May 2, 2021.  However we live in Canada and a trip down is not cheap, even though we haven't stayed on property for 5 years because of how much the Fort costs now.  That didn't mean we didn't spend a bundle, between meals, snacks, souvenirs, drinks at the various bars when we resort hopped and everything else.  Our trips down are usually for at least two months, sometime from the middle to end of December to mid-March give or take.

However our rationale for finally cancelling was essential focused on COVID.  The border between Canada and the US is currently closed and expected to remain closed to non-commercial traffic until at least the end of December if not longer.  Travel is not recommended to many countries, including the US, and that doesn't look likely to change; and while we would try and create a "safe bubble" in the Orlando area we have to travel through a lot of states to get there.   All travel agents are also making recommendations with a pointed reminder to bump up on an extra health care premium to ensure we are adequately covered for COVID emergencies.   

So that was the final call, to cancel and just "let it go" for this year.  

I will post as soon as I know how much we get back. 

 

By the way - the music was ok for the first five or six replays, but boy after I counted it for the 23rd time I was seriously weary of it. 

[h2odivers...Ray 952]

On hold for 2 hours and 5 minutes. The CM says they need to talk to a different department to fix my problem with our APs. She puts me on hold. 5 minutes later I pull into Lowe’s and get disconnected!!!

I wish disney would call you back when Crap like that happens!
 

for some reasons they show my pass expiring 5 days before the rest of the family’s passes. 
My pass expires 10/15/2020 and theirs 10/20/2020. 
We are discussing going  to WDW for DD’s fall break.  Instead of canceling and getting back a few bucks. 
Possible travel dates 10/15/2020-10/20/2020. 

[LONE-STAR 370]

11 hours ago, h2odivers...Ray said:

“All you have to do is stay on Disney property...”

That’s a expensive way to get what I already paid for.   We have a condo/timeshare at bonnet creek.   And since we would have to make an unplanned trip to use our APs, before they expire, we have to use our condo.   When we come at Christmas or do our May/June trip we stay 10-15+ days. And we stay half the time at bonnet creek and the other half at a WDW Resort. 
 

If you had to plan a last minute trip to use or lose your APs and they closed the Fort. 
would pay $200+/night to stay at a Disney hotel or $50/night to stay in a camp ground 2 miles from epcot and Hollywood studios?  
 

our timeshare costs us Approx $50/ night. 
our maintenance fees are $612/ year.  We have 14 nights per year. 
 

My daughter doesn’t hear to many nos at WDW either. Lol. 

Actually had a similar situation happen in 2018. We had a trip planned to Disney to stay at the Fort. Our camper got totaled and we still wanted to go before our APs expired.

Called and got a reservation for P.O.R. and it was $200 a night. So yes if we want to go to Disney, we pay to stay at Disney.

Hope you get it all worked out.

[h2odivers...Ray 952]

After three hours and 45 minutes on hold and talking to Disney cast members they finally fixed her AP problems.  Btw. The best CM ever!  He knew his stuff and was just plain awesome!

Our annual passes now expire October 20.
my DD’’s fall break is the 14-20th of October. Since we have credit with Southwest airlines and our condo is free, sort of. 
We will be going October 14-19. 
Hopefully this COVID crap is gone or better by then. If not, and we have to cancel we would only lose the small refund we would have gotten if we canceled our APs.

Now I just need to find someone who’s going to the fort that same week and is willing to adopt the 3 us and put us on their reservation. That’s the only way I can think of how to get around the stupid three day park reservation rule. 

[h2odivers...Ray 952]

12 hours ago, LONE-STAR said:

Actually had a similar situation happen in 2018. We had a trip planned to Disney to stay at the Fort. Our camper got totaled and we still wanted to go before our APs expired.

Called and got a reservation for P.O.R. and it was $200 a night. So yes if we want to go to Disney, we pay to stay at Disney.

Hope you get it all worked out.

Close but your unfortunate situation is different then what I was asking. 
Would you have paid $200 to park your RV and stay at POR or would you pay $50 to stay at an offsite campground 2 miles from Epcot  

 

And if we didn’t have our condo we would stay on property.  Like we’ve done many times before.  Most visits we stay at bonnet creek and a Disney resort. 
but since this is an unplanned/budgeted trip, due to COVID-19 we have to stay in our condo. 

[LONE-STAR 370]

Glad its working out for you some what. Hopefully someone will be there and can add you to there reservation. And yes I would pay the money to stay on property its vacation, I don't leave the Disney bubble unless someone needs medical attention.