So Disneyland Paris have finally announced news on the new Annual Passes which are now called the Disneyland Pass and there are a LOT of unhappy people.
They have replaced the top tier pass with a new one which is a lot more expensive and has lost a lot of perks.
The official press release has said:
- Guests up for renewal: from Jul 19
- Existing Holders: from Jul 19 at desks. Full price minus prorated cost of days remaining on existing pass.
- New purchases: later this summer
- All passes subject to availability (limited release).
You can check out the official page for the new Disneyland Pass here
So later this summer ? We are guessing September, the 30th will be all but over and we are hoping to snaffle some AP’s or should that be DP’s before our trip at the end of September, but we will see. They are also limiting the amount of passes for each tier. Personally we would want the Gold one as we can come and go as we please and get the Extra magic hours and the Annual photo pass, but we may not be able to get one due to the “limits”. You will still have to pre book your park days and can currently only do 3 days at a time, which is great if there is park availability for that day, so gone are the mad spontaneous trips of decide on a Tuesday we fancy going next week.
Judging from what we have seen on Facebook and Twitter today there are a LOT of unhappy people. As well as the price rocketing for the top passes (its almost €200 extra), a lot of benefits and perks have been removed such as:
- Stoller/Wheel chair rentals
- Free storage lockers
- Privilege tickets
- Hotel discounts
- Day ticket discounts
- Dedicated entrance
- Reserved areas
- Infinity (top level) parking
For us the big ones are the Privilege tickets and the Infinity parking – we did used to take advantage of these all the time, especially with Sam’s back, hip, knee issues. The fact we could park closer to the park entrance was a huge thing. The privilege tickets we also a handy perk for taking one of the kids or a friend with us for a trip too.
Judging from the disgruntled current AP holders we have seen talking about this the biggest issues are the reserved areas and hotel discounts. Personally we didn’t see the point of staying on property with an AP, we save more money offsite and take advantage of the free parking, but then some AP holders don’t drive and they have already had the issue that the Eurostar now doesn’t run direct any more.
New things that have been announced are:
- 4 AP Parties a year guaranteed, focused on seasons or themes (holder + 1 Guest), first on Sep 29
- Exclusive meet and greet space several times a year (a few weeks each time). 1 visit per holder to book in advance.
The AP parties have always sold out so quickly we have never managed to get tickets, but who knows what the future brings as there will be “limited” passes.
So what do we think? Well the old – is it worth it, it’s not like it used to be, we can’t do .. etc. has been discussed this morning. But when it boils down to it DLP is home, and we are homesick like you wouldn’t believe. To make it worth our while we would need 10 park days a year for the top pass and we used to do that and some when we had APs for years before.
I can see a video coming up on this subject in the very near future so watch this space for that and more news as we get it as Sam is the queen of stalking the DLP pass news as much as Sharon is on Epic universe 🙂
