Credit: DisneyDisneyland has been closed for just shy of one year — an unprecedented closure for the iconic American theme park. Unfortunately, this closure has led to major changes for fans, notably the cancellation of the Annual Pass program at Disneyland Resort.
Now, Disney CEO Bob Chapek has spoken about the future of Disneyland, and the changes that continue to be made in the companies business model when it comes to the resort.
We have extensively covered the shocking cancellation of Disneyland’s Annual Passholder program. While Disney has temporarily replaced the program with the Legacy Passholder program as long as Disneyland Resort theme parks stay closed there will be no need to make a new ticketed pass program.
If you had a Disneyland Annual Pass you now are a Legacy Passholder, which gains you access to discounts on shopping and dining at Downtown Disney and Buena Vista Street at this time.
Recently, on the heels of these big changes at Disneyland, local Southern California news source the Orange County Register reports that Bob Chapek gave an interview to analysts. During the call, he discussed The Walt Disney Company’s strategy moving forward in regard to Disneyland and the Annual Passport program.
“Everything we do, the first lens we look at is to exceed guest expectations,” he said, according to a transcript of the conference call. “And it’s very tough when your park has more demand than supply, we have to put limits on it. Well, as you know, we have a wide variety of (profit) margins depending on the nature of the guest and how they visit and when they visit.”
“So with a lens toward maximizing the guest experience, we are now able to essentially reset many pieces of our business. Both on the cost and revenue side of the business in order to say, if we had a blank piece of paper, how would we set up our parks business and be a little bit more aggressive than we typically might be able to be without the impetus of, unfortunately, a year-long closure. So we’ve had a lot of time to think, particularly at Disneyland, about what could be.”
Chapek makes it clear that Disney is taking this time to reevaluate the business model of Disneyland, especially in regard to ticketing and Annual Passes. But also, as he said, the company is doing so in a way that will “maximize the Guest experience.”
While these changes are being made to the Annual Pass program Disneyland and California Adventure, both of the Southern California Disney Parks are still looking to reopen. But with no reopening dates in sight just yet, we likely won’t have information on Disneyland tickets and passes for a while. We will need to wait and see what Disneyland will choose to change when it eventually relaunches Annual Passes or other “membership offerings” for Disneyland.
Currently, Shanghai Disney Resort, Walt Disney Resort, and Tokyo Disney Resort are all open. Hong Kong Disneyland reopens this week after another closure from the ongoing pandemic. Disneyland Paris is also closed at this time.
Read More: Disneyland Hopes to Develop New AP Program “As Quickly As We Possibly Can”
What changes do you think will be made to Disneyland’s Annual Pass Program when it relaunches in the future? Let us know in the comments!