Former Disneyland annual pass holders complain about lack of priority access
Disneyland annual pass holders accustomed to VIP treatment will miss out on the biggest perk of them all: Priority access to purchase theme park tickets and make advance reservations for the reopening of Disney’s Anaheim theme parks after a yearlong coronavirus closure.
After blaming the death of the four decade-old annual pass program on the COVID-19 pandemic and promising to shower love on former annual passholders, Disneyland has left some members of its most loyal fan base feeling forgotten when it comes to advance reservations and ticket sales for the April 30 reopening of the parks.
Instead of VIP treatment, APs have been left out in the cold like John Q. Public. Talk about a bad break up.
“Wow, what a terrible day to be a Disneyland passholder,” All Ears theme park park blogger Carly Terzigni wrote on Twitter following the Disneyland announcement.
Reservations for the limited-capacity reopening of Disneyland and Disney California Adventure will be available to visitors with previously purchased tickets on Monday. Tickets go on sale to the general public on Thursday. Disneyland announced no priority access for passholders to buy tickets and make reservations or any AP preview days as the park has done with other special events and grand openings.
Disneyland is working on creating a special Legacy Passholder location after the parks reopen.
The priority ticket access policy left pass holders feeling like they just got left off the guest list of the “Light at the End of the Tunnel” party. Did the invitation get lost in the mail?
“Why create a Legacy Passholder program if you have no intention of providing any sort of benefit or perk,” Disneyland passholder Alysha Lorraine wrote on Twitter.
If 2020 wasn’t bad enough for Disneyland pass holders, 2021 just keeps getting worse. Disneyland killed the annual pass program and announced plans to launch a new membership program in January after the parks were closed by the COVID-19 pandemic for most of 2020. Now annual pass holders will have to get in a virtual line with the general public behind visitors with unused tickets — something APs essentially had before Disneyland ended the program.
Once Disneyland and DCA finally reopen, pass holders may not be able to get into the parks for weeks and even months depending on how quickly tickets sell out.
“This makes no sense. Like at all,” wrote @ethermac on Twitter. “Legacy passholders get no type of early access for tickets? Like nothing at all?”
In January, Disneyland bestowed the title of “legacy passholder” on those who had active annual passes when the parks closed in March 2020 and promised plenty of upcoming perks and surprises.
“Legacy Passholder apparently get no benefit as we no longer have ‘valid’ tickets since they canceled our passes,” Disney fan @erinshay wrote on Twitter. “I feel like CA residents should get some sort of ‘preview’ like Universal
did with their passholders.”
Universal Studios Hollywood, Six Flags Magic Mountain and Legoland California all offered priority access to pass holders and held “welcome back” preview days for them as a special thank you for sticking with them throughout the pandemic.
So far, Disneyland legacy pass holder perks have included “WandaVision” photo opportunities, free refrigerator magnets and shopping and dining discounts. But not priority access ahead of those with unused tickets and the general public — something Disney World annual pass holders got.