Shh, listen — can you hear that?
It’s the faint sound of a million Disney nerds in Southern California who are absolutely losing it right now because Disneyland just announced that it is putting an end to its Annual Pass program and will be canceling all currently active passes. I don’t care if you live on a different continent, underwater, or in space, you can definitely hear the sobbing. The southern California theme park has been closed since March of last year which has undoubtedly cost the park millions in revenue and Blog Mickey reports that the decision to ax the program comes as a direct response to new COVID-19 related restrictions the park will face when it eventually reopens.
BREAKING: Disneyland Cancelling All Annual Passes; Ending Passholder Programhttps://t.co/4HS0RkHtbu pic.twitter.com/LYvJ5xpEgO
— Disneyland News Today (@dlnt) January 14, 2021
Pass holders will be pleased to learn that Disneyland is at least working on some new sort of membership program according to a statement released by Disneyland president Ken Potrock,
“I know that sunsetting the Annual Passport program will be disappointing to many of our Passholders who are just as anxious as we are to reopen our gates and welcome guests back when the time is right… we plan to use this time while we remain closed to develop new membership offerings.”
What those new membership options will be is anyone’s guess but we can safely assume that they’ll be pretty expensive. Passholders not seeking a refund will still be able to enjoy pass holder discount benefits and an additional 40% discount on merchandise at select locations in Downtown Disney from January 18th through February 25th.
The response on Twitter was a pretty even mix of heartbreak and people celebrating the cancellation, as the passes are pretty much why the park was always prohibitively crowded pre-pandemic. One hour and 30 minutes for Space Mountain? F*ck out of here with that.
Disneyland getting rid of the annual pass program is a rough way to start 2021 😢
— Kayla (@dearheart_22) January 15, 2021
Whoa got an email from disneyland that they're discontinuing Annual Passes, that slaps honestly. The AP program and the culture around it was pretty bad
— Jenny Nicholson (@JennyENicholson) January 14, 2021
I missed @Disneyland so much, finally moved back and Covid takes down the annual pass. 😩😩😩
— Crystal Rose🌹 (@crystalroseshow) January 14, 2021
https://twitter.com/brownnsxga/status/1349837269071396865
Waiting for that Disneyland annual pass refund to hit like a third stimulus pic.twitter.com/wzdM7ZxwC3
— Kalie (@abitkales) January 14, 2021
there are no more disneyland annual passholders… nature is healing.
— monse. 🦋 (@monsibarra) January 14, 2021
Thanks @GavinNewsom There’s no reason that the parks in California couldn’t have opened under strict guidelines. The rest of the world has done it. They’ve shut down when needed but here we are twiddling our thumbs watching business after business leave and/or go out of business
— Shawn B. (@GetInTheBoxGuy) January 14, 2021
A lot of people just lost personalitieshttps://t.co/cjMjLPfZ0r
— Andrew Woods (@JimJarmuschHair) January 14, 2021