To limit the number of guests inside Walt Disney World during the pandemic, the theme park giant stopped selling new annual passes.
Earlier in August, Disney officials promised that passes would resume this year, but they didn’t say when.
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But Walt Disney World officials recently announced that new annual pass sales would resume on Wednesday (Sept. 8).
That gives guests just under a month to get their passes before the 50th Anniversary celebrations start on Oct. 1.
The theme park said it is offering different annual pass benefits, based on passholder feedback.
“Disney is trying to balance out keeping the locals happy and coming versus maximizing the revenue from out of state people so that’s why we see some of the blackout dates on some of these passes during spring break. During Christmas,” Len Testa, president of TouringPlans.Com, explained.
According to the Disney Parks blog, depending on your pass type members can hold up to five Disney Park Pass reservations at a time. And from time to time, “bonus reservations” would be added to the calendar without it counting against their hold limit.
Also, if annual passholders stay at a Disney resort, “they will also be eligible to make theme park reservations for each day of their stay – in addition to the reservations you can hold based on your pass type.”
All new passes will have different add-on options, including water park, sports and PhotoPass download options.
Disney officials said there are new enhancements to the reservation system, including “a new integrated calendar that lets passholders quickly see blackout dates for each pass type, view available days and make, modify or cancel a reservation all in one place.”
Passholders will still have Park Hopper options, standard parking and discounts on merchandise and dining, according to officials.
Current passholders still have their same benefits, according to Disney, and will be able to renew into the new passes at the time their pass comes up for renewal.
The new passes include four options ranging in price from $399 to $1,299, according to the Disney Parks blogs. You can read the full pass details here.
“I think the big thing for Disney going forward is they really want to see Florida get its COVID numbers under control. That’s the big thing that they are worried about from an attendance perspective because that makes the news nationally and the higher Florida’s numbers are, the fewer people want to visit,” Testa said.
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