Disneyland recently ended their Annual Passholder program and are now refunding the massive amount of people who held the passes. Now many are questioning what the new “membership offerings” could be in the future. We’ve been saying that it will likely be less for the same price or more and we could see them being set for points or tiers, even more so than before.

The OC Register was able to shed some light on what Disney may be thinking after Disneyland resort President, Ken Potrock did an interview with reporters.

According to what we’re hearing, Disney is looking at “choice, flexibility and value” which sounds like points or tiers to me.

The OC Register says that Potrock and Disney’s goal is to “Spread out attendance at Disneyland and Disney California Adventure while satisfying the largest number of people.”  And I’m sure satisfying the shareholders is high on the list too.

They do that at Walt Disney World now, it’s called the Park Pass Program and Annual Passholders can use it too…for now.

Potrock stated:

“We’re going to use this time as an opportunity to develop new offerings and a new way to think about the business given the situation we find ourselves in.

We’re trying to understand: What do people want in this new world? When do they want to access our parks? How frequently do they want to access our parks? With what level of spontaneity? With what level of value? All of those kinds of things and many more.”

He continued:

“There’s nothing off the table as we begin to think about things that are important for people. Whether it’s the number of times that they visit on a product offering. Whether it’s when. Is it midweek or weekend? Is it morning or afternoon? Is it day-part oriented? It’s all of those kinds of things that we’re incredibly curious to hear back from the guests about.”

Wait? This sounds a awful lot like how can we make people think they are getting more, but we limit them and get more money?

Potrock insists it’s not designed to limit choice and flexibility (sounds like it to me.)

“This is not designed to limit choice and flexibility. It’s designed to enhance choice and flexibility. People may say, ‘Here’s how I’ve always used it.’ People may say, ‘Here’s what I bought, but I didn’t quite use it and optimize it.’ People may say, ‘I have a different family structure or my financial situation is different. I would love to do it a little bit differently than I’ve done in the past.’ What we’re hoping to be able to provide is the choice and flexibility for all of those different evolving states.”

So again, it’s going to be far more limited under the guise of “flexibility” and if you want to be unlimited you will need the higher tiers or more points.

I hope they don’t use the same model that the Disney Vacation Club does. You get so many points for the price and it if you want to go during busier times you need to use more points.

Ironically, I did an article on investors liking the removal of annual passes because it means more daily ticket visitors as annual passholders are usually locals and don’t spend as much. This is especially true at Disneyland.

If you don’t believe me, then listen to what industry expert Dennis Speigel told the OC Register:

“When you boil it down, people who come to parks can pretty much be put in two categories: Time-sensitive and price-sensitive.

Meaning that “Time-sensitive” guests will pay more to go whenever they want, while “Price-sensitive” guests are just trying to find deals and may be more willing to go off times to keep their “new membership offering.”

Another “theme park expert” also feels there will be more restrictions put on lower-priced passes and higher prices for no restrictions.

No matter how Potrock is spinning this, I expect it to cost more for less value. I think the same thing will happen at Walt Disney World as well. But I will be very happy to be proven wrong!

What do you think? Comment and let us know!

Source: OC Register