What’s burning my bacon now is the allowance of those newly 3/4 year olds grandfathered in & allowed a new purchase. If they’re capping the number and not releasing any until enough choose not to renew, then this is slowing that release down. And if it’s lawsuit related, they’re adding more potential complainants. Make it make sense.
Yes. I totally understand. When you find the truth, the details -- even the smallest details -- will fit.
Allowance of the new passes for the newly turned 3 year old is Disney's choice of policy. They don't want to block the whole family because a 3 year old has aged in. I personally don't agree with their policy of "free under three" but it is their policy.
Yes, giving a new pass to a newly minted 3 year old would slow down the replenishment of the renewal inventory from a new sales release. Collateral damage.
Lawsuit related. I am thinking that the strongest effect of the lawsuit is centered on
Disneyland. The Court won't issue an opinion on whether or not to certify the class action until about January. That's the latest info I saw.
So, Disney decides that the two bucket system or shorting the passholder bucket isn't the tool they will use because of the litigation. But, they decide to continue the limitation of the number of annual passes instead.
One of the tools McCarthy mentioned was lifting block-out days (for existing passholders.) Chapek talks about turning on a dime with dynamic pricing (sales) and higher discounts. They talk about afternoon entries (freeing up all day morning slots. Another idea floated is a membership like
Amazon for discounts. They have a detailed survey pending. Chapek may abandon the single lever of control through shorting a passholder bucket. All he needed to do was hold back some reservations for the family from Denver from all of the online buckets. They keep park reservations in their hip pockets.
With maybe 500,000 outstanding passholders at WDW, they have big numbers to play with. One that appears to be a favorite now is limiting the number of distributed passes.