Disneyland Flex Annual Pass: Winners & Losers
Disneyland has announced the Disney Flex Passport, a new Annual Pass with both open admission and reservation-only days. Disney is billing the AP as being a way to deliver a world-class guest experience, while better distributing attendance throughout the year.
The new Flex Pass will allow access to Disneyland or Disney California Adventure park on select good-to-go days, plus the ability to make reservations on other days for more access. Some days, such as the weeks around Christmas and New Year’s, will be blocked out entirely, but the vast majority of the calendar is available one way or another.
Plans can be managed through the website and the Disneyland app, where they can access an interactive calendar and book a reservation. When it comes to reservations, Disney Flex Passholders will be able to make up to two reservations at a time up to 30 days in advance.
No shows will be penalized for not canceling their reservations at least a day in advance via the Disneyland website or app. After three no shows, Disney Flex Passholders will have existing reservations canceled and a hold put on making new reservations.
The monthly payment plan will remain available for California residents, and the Disney Flex Passport will also include 10% off dining and merchandise and 15% off guided tours–but it’s notable that parking is not included, and it doesn’t appear to be an add-on option. The Disney Flex Passport will go on sale May 21, 2019.
Now, for some commentary about Disneyland’s Flex Pass…
In comparing the respective Disneyland Annual Pass blockout calendars, the Flex Pass is all of the ‘good to go’ days of the Southern California Select AP plus the Signature AP’s dates as ‘requires reservation’ days. This positions it between those two Annual Passes, which already have the Deluxe between them.
At $599 for the Disney Flex Passport, you’re paying a $200 premium over the SoCal Select AP. However, you’re paying $200 less than the $799 Deluxe Annual Pass, which has fewer blockout dates but also lacks access to many of the days that are reservable with the new Flex Pass. Price-wise, it’s a far cry from the $1,149 Signature or $1,399 Signature Plus Annual Passes.
At first blush, I’m very intrigued by the Disney Flex Passport (side note: I’m also very intrigued about that ‘Add to Apple Wallet’ button, especially with how many problems I have with pulling up my Annual Pass in-app). It could be a great option for many locals who are inadequately served by the SoCal Select AP.
However, from my perspective, it’s too early to offer any kind of definitive proclamations about its usefulness or value. The true measure will be just how difficult it is to book Saturdays or popular holiday weeks when schools are out of session in Southern California.
If we’ve got an Avatar Flight of Passage FastPass+ or Be Our Guest Restaurant ADR kind of scenario (wrong coast, but I’m sure you get the idea), this AP may not provide a ton of added value for locals–especially ones who are more inclined to visit Disneyland on a last minute whim.
On the other hand, if it ends up being relatively easy to book most dates without setting an alarm or your schedule a month in advance, the Flex Pass could end up being great. We could see this replacing the Deluxe–or even Signature–Annual Pass for a lot of locals if some best case scenario assumptions end up coming to fruition.
At this point, it’s impossible to say whether they will, though. The Flex Pass is being offered to level out attendance, which is hardly insightful commentary given that the second paragraph of Disneyland’s announcement says: “We are always considering new ways to continue…better distributing attendance throughout the year.”
The Flex Pass is the ‘fill in all available space’ Annual Pass, cleverly positioned between existing APs. Disneyland is undoubtedly offering the Flex Pass to increase attendance on days where there are gaps between tourist turnout and the number of existing Annual Passholders who are blocked out. Right now, we don’t know how much available space there is to fill.
At this point, the clear-cut biggest winner is out of state Disney fans who want a lower tier Annual Pass, have flexibility in their travel dates, but are not eligible for a Southern California Select Annual Pass. The next obvious winner is locals with similar flexibility who don’t necessarily want to visit on Saturdays, but do want some access during the summer and more options during Halloween and Christmas seasons.
Another winner, I expect, is to be the overarching guest experience. Disneyland has a totally different vibe from Walt Disney World, and in many ways, that’s for the better. One way it’s not so great is in the sense that many Disneyland locals treat the parks as leisurely hangout spots. A laidback locals’ culture is great, but Disneyland should be special–not an alternative to visiting Irvine Spectrum or the Grove.
Limiting how many times locals can take advantage of the reservations will create a greater sense of urgency and appreciation when visiting Disneyland, which I view as a good thing. (And I say this as someone who has been guilty of treating the parks as hangout spots no different than a local mall.)
The biggest losers with the new Disney Flex Passport is existing Signature and Signature Plus Annual Passholders. Currently, non-holiday dates when SoCal Select and Deluxe APs are blocked out are the least-crowded days at Disneyland.
These windows of time are days and seasons when more blockouts are necessary due to an increase in tourists. However, the increase in vacation-goers is not enough to offset the number of lower-level APs who are blocked out. Consequently, tourist season has become a great time for locals with higher tier APs to visit Disneyland.
Allowing Flex APs to reserve days that were previously only accessible to day guests and Signature APs is going to cause a surge in attendance those days, all but obviating any low crowd anomalies on Saturdays and in months that, intuitively, you’d expect to be busy (but weren’t). Accordingly, we’d expect Signature Annual Passholders and above not to be fans of this new offering.
Of course, the counterpoint to this reaction is that higher tier APs were never purchasing ‘low crowd anomalies’; they were paying for expanded access including the most popular times of the year. The fact that these days ended up being less crowded was a bug, not a feature.
Overall, the new Disney Flex Passport is an interesting option that could be a good Annual Pass for a number of locals and out-of-state Disney fans. It will undoubtedly create winners and losers. However, at this point, it’s really too early to tell whether the Flex Pass is worth buying or avoiding.
We won’t be able to make anything resembling a definitive recommendation until the pass actually goes on sale and we see how competitive reservations are for a couple of months. Of course, by that point, it’ll be too late for summer Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge access, so if you’re in urgent need of a new Disneyland Annual Pass in the near future, you might just want to roll the dice on this, and be prepared to be up early to book your visit dates.
If you’re preparing for a Disneyland trip, check out our other planning posts, including how to save money on Disneyland tickets, our Disney packing tips, tips for booking a hotel (off-site or on-site), where to dine, and a number of other things, check out our comprehensive Disneyland Vacation Planning Guide!
Your Thoughts
What do you think of the Disney Flex Annual Pass? Will you be purchasing this, or do you prefer another AP–or none at all? Do you agree or disagree with our assessment? Any questions? Hearing your feedback–even when you disagree with us–is both interesting to us and helpful to other readers, so please share your thoughts below in the comments!
Tom,
I’m curious if you might have an update to how the Flex Pass is working out for people now that it’s been in operation for a while.
Thank you!
Hi Tom,
I’m very happy about the flex pass. It will suit us nicely even without being able to make any reservations.
May
How quickly should we expect this to impact crowd levels? We were planning to go that last week if May (before star wars) but are now rethinking..
I highly doubt it’ll have a significant impact by then. That’s only a week after the pass goes on sale, and most people making reservations are going to aim for June, once Galaxy’s Edge is open.
I went on April 30 and May 1. (Tues and Wed). Thought it would not be crowded. WRONG. While waiting in the endless bag check line, I chatted with people. We were all doing the same thing, coming to Disneyland before the Star Wars mess begins. Tuesday the 30th was the busiest day I have EVER been to the parks. My crowd calendar had that day as a low time. This is just my experience, no idea what end of May will be like..
This may finally cause me to break down and buy an AP because I usually use the Disneyland Military Salute 3 or 4 day Hopper with its great discount. I’m not from California and I went to Disneyland 3 times within the last year for under $600 (tickets only) using the Salute hopper and all my trips were during “good to go” dates so the “reservation only” days aren’t a big concern. The prices compare favorably and it makes sense to have one of us get the Flex AP to at least use the 10% dining and merchandise discounts if we would visit at least three times during the year. Once the dust settles from the initial roll out of the Flex Pass and most of the growing pains of Galaxy’s Edge have passed I will probably pull the trigger on finally becoming and AP holder!
I guess I don’t see what’s not fair about locals going whenever they want. They pay for the annual passes and it’s great to be able to just go for a few hours and go home. Best way to do Disney in my opinion. I wish I could do Disney World that way but have no interest in living in Florida.
while I agree in part-a lot of the locals use the parks as an extended “shopping mall hangout” and don’t treat the parks with a lot of respect or decorum considering the amount of small children there. It ruins the experience for those with families or who travel to see this 8th wonder of the world. Disney needs to do a better job weeding out the trashier visitors
I live in Seattle and have the Deluxe Pass. I’ve been 4 times during my pass year and it paid for itself. I ONLY go on Tues, Wed, Thurs. Never on weekends and holiday periods. So, I’m thinking about the Flex Pass. I make my plan, months ahead, fly down and stay at my favorite off site hotel. It is a very special treat for me to get to do this. I know the locals treat this as their personal playground and if I lived next door I would too (maybe). There has to be a way to help out those of us who do make the plan, travel far, etc to have better experiences without having to fight for space with those that go daily. Every trip I chat with people in lines. They say, “I’m just here to ride a few things, then go home.” “Just eating dinner, then I’ll go home.” I get it but still…there needs to be a more fair system.
A
What I’m wondering is what constitutes a “reservation.” Is it one day or one trip? We live out of state (and just started considering getting our first APs) so if we want to take a trip to Disneyland we generally spend multiple days in the parks. Since you only make two reservations at a time, does that mean we could only reserve two
days during our trip? What do you think?
Correct, only two days. However, if you reserve Saturday and Sunday, and the rest of your days fall during a ‘good to go’ period, this wouldn’t be an issue.
Hi Tom,
I’m wondering if one reservation for one day is good for one park or both parks, assuming both parks are open for reservation that day? I’m assuming it’s for both parks, but it doesn’t really say.
Disney’s page says you can hold 2 reservations in a 30 day window and you can make another reservation once your first one has passed. So to me that reads kinda like Fastpasses; so you could book Friday & Saturday, then if it’s available you could reserve Sunday on Saturday. We’ll have to see how full they keep reservations to see if that’ll work even.
Interesting. With a standard 5 day hopper ticket going for $395, this is only $200 more. So if you make 2 yearly trips you’ve easily paid for it. Add to that the dining discount (the way we like to eat it runs about $200/day for us 2 adults. So that’s another $100 discount for a 5 day stay).
The question I have is about using it at both parks on the same day. I could not find any info whether you could do that. And the reservation calendar shows for DLP the whole month is reservation. For CA the first few days are “good to go”. So, it would be strange if you went into CA on those days, but could not go to DL without a reservation. So, my question is if a make a reservation for a “blue” day, do I need to use up my 2 reservations to get into both parks on the same day?
I’m guessing that if both parks are blue on the same day, two reservations will be required. If only one is blue, one reservation.
We’ll see for sure once this pass goes on sale.
If it normally would require two reservations, then that is a significant downgrade. It would mean that virtually all blue days would NOT work like a park hopper, which all current APs do work like a park hopper. I suppose one could say that for a greatly reduced price that is one thing you give up.
For anyone browsing…if both parks are available on a day, you can reserve both and it counts as ONE reservation, working like a park hopper.
I don’t have much of an opinion on this. I agree with you that it could be good or bad. And, no, I don’t like people who use DL … or EPCOT like the local mall. Frankly, that was what I thought DD in Anaheim and DS were for. Disney experiences where you didn’t have to pay and could just hang.
That said, I saw the $1,399 price for the top tier pass (I am assuming this isn’t the bicoastal deal, right?) and truly almost spit onto the screen. … I know all the lines about Disney being a business and what the market will bear etc etc. But these prices are absolutely freaking insane. That top tier pass was $199 about a dozen years ago. I know because I lived there and had it. These prices are simply for the rich and the addicts. No other way to put it. DL will always be a special place. But these prices are not justifiable in any way beyond people with too much money and people who view Disney in a cult-like fashion. Disney’s pixie dust is their religion or drug of choice. You can go to theme parks (even Disney ones) around the country or globe for a fraction of these prices and have a much better experience. I wonder what the breaking point will be for these people. I know I didn’t reup at WDW after 37 years (not that they care) because I didn’t think $744 for their top tier park was within the realm of sanity. But I think my addiction problems are over …
Disney having a large contingent of guests who treat it with cult-like reverence is nothing new, though. I think the big difference is that they are finally starting to recognize the limits of their passionate fanbase, and price APs accordingly. (That, and I still think there’s the desire to thin the herd of APs–they are just too afraid to do what really needs to be done and eliminate monthly payments.)
I’ve maintained for a while that Tokyo’s pricing/approach is the most “fair” option if Disney wants to truly serve some of Walt’s founding principles: price single and multi-day tickets lower and APs higher. Make the parks more accessible to middle class families wanting to experience that rite of passage trip, and have the local/diehard audience pay more for frequent access. Beyond that, deal with excess demand by increasing capacity and entertainment, not toying with it.
Well, now that we have had the pass out a while, literally the only day that has “sold out” for reservations is July 4th, the rest have even been available day of, so I really think this pass makes sense. Would be even better if you could add parking.
in 2002, we paid $219 for the Premium pass. 365 days. We went at least 5 times that year for 5 days. Roughly $8.76 per day, and NO ONE was there when we visted. Now that would cost us $55.96 per day, times 5 because I have a family now, and we can only go on AP block days because otherwise it’s irritating and un-enjoyable there are so many people. I think we will give Disneyland a break for a while.
My last AP was a Deluxe in 2007. It cost $239. I believe it included parking, but it’s possible I bought an add-on. To look at passes that are largely all in the $1,000-1,500 range is something I can not in any way justify. The quality of the DL experience is vastly lower now than it was on my first visit almost 30 years ago. I don’t give two flying Wookies about Star Wars. I do agree with Tom’s comments above about TDR’s pricing. That IS what should come here. The fact that a day at TDL costs about $65 is astounding. … But again, Disney is relying on BRAND addicts in the USA. And people, some not even bloggers, who live their lives in theme parks. It isn’t sustainable long term.
Hey we loved hanging out at Disneyland when we were APs. It was like going to the park but I had fun too lol. I miss having Disneyland 15 minutes away. 🙂 Disney World is stressful because it’s this big dedicated trip.