Walt Disney World is pausing new sales of some of its annual passes.

[PinkPixel]

This is a bummer! We have an AP rate on our room for December. I’ve tried calling to upgrade our tickets but the wait times are too crazy. Any chance they’ll honor the rate or let us buy passes? We were going to buy the DVC one.

Curious how you booked AP rate without being ap?

 

[CarolynFH]

Curious how you booked AP rate without being ap?

Anyone can do that, have to call in to book - just need to show an activated AP within 24 hours of checkin.

 

[PinkPixel]

Anyone can do that, have to call in to book - just need to show an activated AP within 24 hours of checkin.

Thanks! I’m thinking of buying a pass just for any potential room discount in the spring and that’s good to know. Maybe it will come back by then. Good luck!

 

[A Mickeyfan]

In the old pre pandemic system I don’t know the blackout calendars for lower tiers like weekday or resident select but silver & gold were blocked out two weeks at Christmas as well as two weeks at easter with silver also being blocked most of summer

present tiers are blocked out Christmas & Easter again for all passes aside from the out of state/no block out incredi-pass pirate and pixie dust are also blocked thanksgiving week, the week of local spring break, holidays

In the real prehistoric days, they only had AP with no blackouts and the Fl Resident that blacked out 2 weeks Christmas, one week Easter and all summer...that was it. There were no other passes

 

[npatellye]

Does anyone know if you will still be able to exchange an AP Voucher?
Mine was purchased quite some time ago and due to the international travel ban, December 2021 will be my first opportunity to exchange it.
The voucher is all showing as present and correct in MDE

You should be fine! Technically, you already purchased your AP so all you’re doing is activating it. We had purchased APs right before the closure of WDW and we were able to bring our vouchers and activate our passes in November 2020 (when no new passes were being sold). I don’t see how they could have a suspension on activating already purchased passes (though that doesn’t mean it can’t happen).

 

[accm]

My husband called yesterday to try and upgrade my son's ticket for our January trip to an AP. After talking to two different CMs, they said because he's 4, they couldn't do it. Even though we're both AP holders, and he hasn't been to the parks since before he needed a ticket.

They also said they expect tickets to be back on sale by the beginning of January, and to call back before our trip. I'm hoping that even if they're not selling APs yet by then, they'll make an exception.

 

[GillianP1301]

“How dare you sell me an AP when I can’t get a reservation”

“How dare you stop selling AP’s before people start complaining they can’t find a reservation.”

people will never be happy, combine that with the propensity of people to just complain in general on the Internet and it will always be their fault. As poster says above, shouldn’t be a surprise. They have unbelievable demand now and that’s before international is back. It’s a problem. People are delusional here thinking they are limiting attendance too. They’re not and I think you’re going to see a lot of Issues with crowds/wait times this week and the same for Christmas and they see it coming so “pause” I’d be surprised if they’re not back on sale by the end of January.

I disagree and I believe capacity is still not at 100% that is why you are seeing more days sold out now than you would in pre-COVID times when you would see MK only stop letting people in on 2 or 3 of the busiest days of the year. Entire sections of resorts are still shut down so for sure resorts are not running at full capacity. Restaurants have obviously visible fewer tables due to distancing, so they are definitely not at full capacity.
Things are not back to "normal" or pre-COVID ways and it kind of surprises me that people don't realize that.

 

[CP3uhoh]

I disagree and I believe capacity is still not at 100% that is why you are seeing more days sold out now than you would in pre-COVID times when you would see MK only stop letting people in on 2 or 3 of the busiest days of the year. Entire sections of resorts are still shut down so for sure resorts are not running at full capacity. Restaurants have obviously visible fewer tables due to distancing, so they are definitely not at full capacity.
Things are not back to "normal" or pre-COVID ways and it kind of surprises me that people don't realize that.

Ok, I'll bite, what factual information do you have? I was only there three weeks ago, bought the AP (first timer) when they actually went on sale and didn't attempt to cheat the system and aren't surprised they stopped selling them after they announced 40% of Disneyland Magic Key holders were "new". I also know people in Burbank who will return my emails if I don't bother them much, a lot of the people on here have Touring Plans spreadsheets from 2018. Come on. Someone on here the other day said it was "crowd level 4" attendance the other day due to limiting attendance. They are allowing pictures and cameras in there, you can see if you want. They were barely spacing people in June in restaurants. Might still be having staffing issues for some places, but it's not related to less tables due to covid. They just had a massive job fair this month trying to hire more housekeepers and probably tram drivers with hiring bonuses. The park attendance is not being limited. You can pretend it is all you want, but you can just go there and see for yourself. There's also an issue of skilled labor, they just can't hire anyone to work at some of the places (Victoria and Alberts for example). Why do you think the quality of food went up a lot of places like Crystal Palace, some of the head chefs were reassigned and reworked those menus, now they have to ship some of those back and find more people. Had a person text me yesterday "Never seen Epcot more crowded in my life". His family goes at least once a year for the last decade plus.

 

[MakiraMarlena]

Just because the parks are crowded does not mean that attendance is not capped below the official capacity set by the fire marshal.

 

[MillauFr]

They just way under priced the annual passes and will use this pause to correct the problem. I'm surprised they even sell annual passes

 

[gottalovepluto]

They just way under priced the annual passes and will use this pause to correct the problem. I'm surprised they even sell annual passes

For once I don’t think they’ll change the price. WDW hasn’t actually appeared to have an annual pass overselling problem at all (unlike disneyland with its extremely limited and convoluted AP bucket inventory) this year. I think Disney simply didn’t want anyone applying expensive holiday tickets towards an annual pass. They want to have their cake and eat it too.

Yes they’ll sell fewer APs as a result but I think the guiding principle here is get more cash.

 

[rdaky]

Just because the parks are crowded does not mean that attendance is not capped below the official capacity set by the fire marshal.

True. And there currently aren't mid-day parades that would cause people to line up for hours and therefore impact the mid-day ride lines. I was going to compare ride times to this time in 2019, but all of those rides and shows that people line up for really do impact crowds in other areas of the park.

 

[jrsharp21]

True. And there currently aren't mid-day parades that would cause people to line up for hours and therefore impact the mid-day ride lines. I was going to compare ride times to this time in 2019, but all of those rides and shows that people line up for really do impact crowds in other areas of the park.

Agree. Without entertainment, really only things to do are rides, shop or eat. Even then eating is a challenge. So ride or shop, and a majority will be on rides. So ride lines are so much longer than the past.

 

[CBMom01]

I just looked today. Park reservation availability for Incredipass is way more than for regular ticket holders in the last two weeks of December

 

[PKdisboards]

update: we are silver pass holders, daughter turned 3 on sunday while we were at the transportation ticket center, they sold us a pirate pass

 

[gharter]

Still a mess. We have current APs. They will work for our April trip, but expire in September. Our next trip is October. We currently cannot renew the APs until August (60 days before they expire). BUT, we also cannot book park passes for the October trip without tickets, even though we have a DVC room already reserved. It looks like our only option at this point is to get regular tickets so we can get the park passes and then upgrade when we can.
For people trying to spend money there, Disney is not making this easy.

 

[MouseyMin]

Does anyone know if you will still be able to exchange an AP Voucher?
Mine was purchased quite some time ago and due to the international travel ban, December 2021 will be my first opportunity to exchange it.
The voucher is all showing as present and correct in MDE

I successfully activated my AP Renewal Voucher 2 weeks ago. No problem doing it.

 

[starry_solo]

Still a mess. We have current APs. They will work for our April trip, but expire in September. Our next trip is October. We currently cannot renew the APs until August (60 days before they expire). BUT, we also cannot book park passes for the October trip without tickets, even though we have a DVC room already reserved. It looks like our only option at this point is to get regular tickets so we can get the park passes and then upgrade when we can.
For people trying to spend money there, Disney is not making this easy.

Do you think you need to make park reservations more than 60 days out? What if they don't sell APs at the time you go?

 

[gharter]

Our last trip, we wanted to move a couple of park days around, but the park passes for 2 of the parks were gone. So, for planning purposes, yes. ADRs are at 60 days and no point in making an ADR in a park if you don't have a pass for the park.
If they aren't selling APs, or renewals, then we go to regular tickets.

 

[AprilsZoo]

Has anyone had any luck with getting a an AP for their kids who have aged into tickets?

Accm, I noticed no one had addressed your question, so I gathered a couple posts from people who were able to do that.

I have an update from my own situation!

I called this morning and when I finally got through I explained that I'm currently an AP and needed a new pass for my 3 year old. She said that she was able to do this since he just became three and we are already pass holders. I didn't want to take any chances that things would change, so I just did it in the moment and renewed our passes at the same time.

update: we are silver pass holders, daughter turned 3 on sunday while we were at the transportation ticket center, they sold us a pirate pass