Walt Disney World sued by passholders over reservation system

This one is more absurd than the Cedar Point suit. These cats bought the passes knowing about the reservation system. If Disney wants to allocate some percentage of reservations to day-of ticket buyers, that's their prerogative. But the most special kind of stupid you have to be to take on this case is that Disney can throw availability data at you to show that if you plan ahead, you can in fact go pretty much any day you want. I'm an anecdote, sure, but I've had one day all year where I couldn't get a reservation the day before, and that was the week of 4th of July. I've been able to get same-day reservations for casual Epcot lunches a bunch of times, and even a few days out they're pushing reservations at two or more parks that don't count toward your five-at-once allocation (which I've never used). In fact, right now I can book any day after the holiday blackout (Sorcerer's Pass) up through April 27. Tomorrow, a half-day before opening, Epcot and Magic Kingdom are booked, and that's not unusual for the weekend. Otherwise, I can pick any day not in the holiday blackouts. You're just an entitled idiot if you find it difficult to visit the parks as a passholder.

We are sorcerer passholders and there is plenty of availability from what I can tell. I used the Magic Kingdom and the rest of the month is open except today and tomorrow. November is completely open except for blocked out days. That lawsuit won't hold up.

I would be disappointed by the change but it is what it is.

I just visited Phantasialand which has no annual pass and walked on everything including Taron and FLY. It was glorious and relaxing.

I'm not a passholder – but I sympathise with those bringing this suit.

If you sell annual passes, then it's a scummy manoeuvre to say that you're at capacity for pass holders while still selling day tickets. Either you're full or you're not.

Just a thought.

^ I completely agree Richard, and enjoyed being a passholder without reservations much more. I wish it would go back to the old way. Just know that the lawsuit isn't going hold up.

I wished that Disney worked their reservation system like Hersheypark(my home park.) They tried reservations out for a few weeks and realized X% of passholders are in the park daily. We'll just make their reservations automatic.

Richard Bannister:

If you sell annual passes, then it's a scummy manoeuvre to say that you're at capacity for pass holders while still selling day tickets. Either you're full or you're not.

But that's not what's going on. They're deciding that they will be full and the mix will include a certain number of day-of tickets. They're planning for those slots to be filled, they just don't know by whom. That may sound like a subtle difference, but it's an important one. It's certainly their right to plan for that mix. That entitled passholders are looking at as a personal slight is the problem. And as we've shown, plan a few days out and the problem is solved. They knew this was the situation before they bought the pass on a renewal.

Richard Bannister:

I'm not a passholder – but I sympathise with those bringing this suit.

If you sell annual passes, then it's a scummy manoeuvre to say that you're at capacity for pass holders while still selling day tickets. Either you're full or you're not.

Just a thought.

my guess is that Disney knows that a certain percentage of pass holders who book in advance dont end up showing up for whatever reason. That’s why they still sell walk ups.

Richard Bannister:

Richard Bannister:

I have the Pirate Pass and rarely have trouble getting into a park. Maybe 2 or 3 times in the past year at the last minute I wanted to take a day trip and all 4 parks had nothing. Most of the time it seems like there are reservations for pass holders but day tickets are sold out when it is really close to the day you want to go.

Even if the park I want to go to isn't available, I can just park hop. Last month I wanted to go to Magic Kingdom, no reservations but Epcot was available. I parked at Epcot, scanned in, walked right out (after 2 pm) and took the monorail to the Ticket and Transportation Center to get to Magic Kingdom.

Jeff:

But that's not what's going on. They're deciding that they will be full and the mix will include a certain number of day-of tickets. They're planning for those slots to be filled, they just don't know by whom. That may sound like a subtle difference, but it's an important one.

Maybe I'm too used to consumer-friendly legislation in this side of the world, but with no disrespect intended, that distinction – subtle or otherwise – is nonsense.

If it's still possible to pay for admission to a park, then it should still be possible to book using a season pass, provided of course that you're not attempting to do so on a designated black out date.

I totally disagree. They "budget" for a certain number of walkups everyday to meet whatever threshold for attendance that they've set. Whether it's sold that day or not is immaterial, they've decided in advance that some specific component of attendance will be walkup, pass, multi-day, resort, etc. If I assert that my inability to spontaneously go to Magic Kingdom today isn't fair (which isn't true, since I could go to Animal Kingdom first and park-hop 17 minutes from now), I'm exhibiting the worst kind of 'Merica entitlement ever (or DVC owner entitlement, zing!). That I couldn't make the decision two days ago to get a reservation is not an afront to consumer rights anywhere. I have the same passes as anyone else, and this arrangement has not fundamentally changed the way I visit the parks. If I felt otherwise, I wouldn't have renewed the passes. No one made me do it despite knowing the arrangement.

Jeff:

These cats bought the passes knowing about the reservation system. If Disney wants to allocate some percentage of reservations to day-of ticket buyers, that's their prerogative.

But that's two different things isn't it?

Knowing a reservation is required is one thing. Knowing those reservations are limited based on anything other than overall attendance availability is something entirely different.

I don't think it's all that unreasonable to say there's a difference between:

- You can get in any time reservations are avilable

and

- You can get in any time passholder reservations are available

Fair enough, greater transparency is the right thing to do. But in the universe of things to cry about, this shouldn't even be on the list. There's also a difference between:

- Not available

and

- Not available because I didn't think to make a reservation a few days earlier

If you could retroactively go back to 2019 or earlier and be told about the current reservation system, the way in which passholder reservations are limited in a way that is not known and seems to change without notice, and be told that even with a pass you still might need to make a reservation days ahead of time to simply enter the park, would you be okay with it?

Or is it okay because there was enough of a pause between the four month park closure and then the stretch when the reservations made sense because of capacity limitations?

I agree the lawsuit is silly simply because enough time has passed where no renewal has taken place without the knowledge of the reservation requirement and the way it works. But as a passholder, I would appreciate more transparency on the "how" and "why" behind continued reservations and how it makes for a better experience, because even with all of Chapek's talk about how it is making the in-park experience better, I have yet to see it.

This is a sidebar to the main convo, but if I understand correctly, if MK is not available for a reservation, I can enter at AK then just park hop over?

If that's the case then why the hell can't I just start at MK? Seems like an unnecessary hoop to jump through and a waste of an hour or so. Either let me go or don't. Why does it matter where I start?

You can't park hop until 2pm each day, which is likely the reason you can't just start at MK.

Not having the ability to park hop until 2pm is also a big change from "the before times" to now. Add that to my "ask yourself?" from above. If you were told in 2019 that starting next year you would not be able to park hop until after 2pm with an Annual Pass or a park hopper ticket, would that be okay? Again, no current Annual Passes started before this happened, so I am not at all saying I agree with the lawsuit. It's stupid. But there are enough changes that have taken place that limit the way passholders can utilize the park that are definitely cause for the unhappiness in the passholder community.

The pass you bought in 2019 has long since expired. And there aren't any changes without notice either... a reservation system by default suggests that you need to plan in advance. The butthurt here is about not being able to decide to make a park visit right this minute. And that situation is not even remotely new.

Like I said, my experience may be an anecdote, but nothing about this has fundamentally changed my visit frequency. I'm off the next week, and guess what... I can go to any park, any day, if I decide now.

Who are these people who just decide to drop in to Disney? This is so foreign to me!