It’s easy to understand why Disneyland was forced to kill its annual pass program amid the protracted closure of the coronavirus pandemic, when you realize that one in two visitors to the Anaheim theme park was a pass holder.
With an estimated 1 million passengers, there would have been an impossibly long virtual queue of stubborn fans waiting anxiously to get an online pre-booking for Disneyland’s reopening day.
According to UBS’s financial analysts, there are about 50% of annual passers-by.
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It is unlikely that Disneyland and Disney California Adventure will be able to operate again until the spring or summer according to the guidelines for the reopening of the COVID-19 issued by the state.
Disneyland stunned fans by ending its annual passenger program and announcing the launch of a new membership program later.
Disneyland officials would not say how many people have passes annually, but observers at the theme park estimated the number at 1 million.
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It’s hard to imagine a million people. These numbers usually appear only for victory parades, mass protests, free concerts and the annual pilgrimage to Mecca.
A million passers-by have never turned up en masse at Disneyland. But the problems would be huge if even a fraction of the supporters wanted to be on hand when the park reopened after the closure of COVID-19.
Disneyland attendance reached 18.7 million visitors in 2019, according to the Themed Entertainment Association / AECOM. According to TEA / AECOM, Disney California Adventure attracted 9.9 million visitors that year.
According to TEA / AECOM, Disneyland and DCA attract an estimated 28.6 million visitors annually. Passengers make up 14.3 million of these visits annually, based on UBS estimates.
According to TEA / AECOM, Disneyland attracts an estimated 51,000 visitors a day, while Disney California Adventure attracts another 27,000 people daily. According to TEA / AECOM, Disney’s two Anaheim parks attract about 78,000 visitors a day.
At this rate, it would take Disneyland nearly twenty days just to let each passenger in the park once. DCA would take almost twice as long. And this without allowing one day ticket buyer or Disney hotel guest to enter the parks.
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COVID-19 health and safety guidelines issued by California will limit Disneyland and DCA attendance to a 25% capacity limit when the parks reopen. It extends the length of time it takes to get each passenger in the parks only once from days to months: nearly three months for Disneyland and about five months for DCA.
The attendance numbers of TEA / AECOM do not represent the capacity of the park, but it does give an idea of the challenging challenge of accommodating 1 million passengers at Disneyland.
Disneyland passengers expect relatively unrestricted access to the park – depending on the restrictions on their year pass. No Disneyland year pass passes passengers to just a few visits a year – and that’s the problem with Disneyland. You can not give passengers access to the park and then deny them access. Disneyland had only one option: end the annual pass system as we know it and start a new membership program again.