Disney World has revamped their annual pass program and just released the details of the 4 new tiers. If you’re interested, they’re going on sale Sept 8, 2021.
They are apparently limiting the number of passholders, so they can sell out. If you’re definitely set on getting them, you may want to do so sooner rather than later.
If you currently have an active annual pass, you won’t switch to one of the new ones until your next renewal, which will still have the renewal discount against the new prices, but you will get the increased park reservation count starting Sept 8th.
From what I’m reading so far, Florida residents can choose between any of the 4, DVC members can choose between 2, and non-residents who aren’t DVC members can only buy 1. Each of the 4 vary with the number of park reservations and block out dates.
The key differences between these and the old annual passes are that you can make up to 5 park reservations now (currently, it’s 3) if you’re not staying at a Disney resort (resort guests still get length of stay), but PhotoPass photo downloads are not included anymore. That is now an add-on that you can buy for the year if you want to get all of your PhotoPass/ride photos. That’s a bummer, but you only need to buy one for your group if you’re all linked in the MDE app. Water parks is another add-on too. But, passes still includes park hopping and various discounts and other perks.
I know the price of annual passes may seem daunting, but if you tend to go to Disney World more than once a year or if your one trip is more than a week, you may want to do the math to see if it’s more cost effective to get an annual pass instead of buying individual tickets. It includes discounts on shopping and dining at certain Disney locations, along with a few other perks that may add up to be enough savings for you to get a pass. You may also consider getting a pass for one member of your group just to get the discounts. If you’ve already bought park tickets for an upcoming trip, you can upgrade them to a pass before the last day of your tickets and apply the cost you already paid towards them.
The chart below summarizes the key points of the four different passes, courtesy of Disney.
You can read Disney’s full article here:
I’m not sure if Disney will release more information than this, if there is anymore, but I’ll keep you posted if anything significant comes out. Feel free to contact me if you want to chat about this.
Adventures By Anne 