Annual Passholders Claim They Were Misled by Disney

Things with Park Passes and Annual Passholder requirements are changing, but that doesn’t mean the Park Pass lawsuit brought by Disney World Annual Passholders against Disney World is over.

Annual Passholder Card

The lawsuit was filed back in October of 2022 and essentially argues that the Platinum Pass and Platinum Plus passes promised “no blockout dates.” But, according to the Passholders, the Park Pass system has essentially created blockout dates for Passholders and modified their contracts with Disney. The Passholders also argue that Disney is prioritizing regular ticket purchasers to make a bigger profit, “abused a global pandemic,” and is “taking advantage” of their loyal passholder fans. So what’s happening now? Well, there have been some big developments.

Motion to Dismiss

Back in March, we covered the fact that Disney filed a motion to dismiss the Passholders’ complaint. Here are the key arguments from Disney’s motion:

• Annual passes are governed by express terms and conditions, and Disney reserved the right to CHANGE those terms (and park access).
• Disney insists that the Plaintiffs did NOT have an implied contract with Disney.
• Disney focuses on the express contract which provided that the terms and conditions of Annual Passes were subject to change.
• Disney claims its terms make “no express promise ‘to supply the Platinum Pass with no Blockout Dates.’”
• Disney also argues that the Park Pass availability limitations do not count as blockout dates because it’s not as though no Passholders could get in on those dates. Instead, those dates filled up because other Passholders booked them quickly.

Annual Passholder Minnie Mouse Hangtag

Disney has made its arguments, but now the Plaintiffs have clarified what they think about the situation.

The Latest Update

On March 21st, 2023, the Plaintiffs/Passholders filed their response to Disney’s motion to dismiss, arguing why their complaint should NOT be totally dismissed by the Court at this stage.

The Passholders argue that Disney’s “unethical business practices” “unlawfully restricted Platinum Pass holders’ ability to enter its Florida theme parks to garner more daily ticket sales.”

Annual Passholder magnet

The Plaintiffs claim that they bought their Platinum Passes because Disney had advertised them as having “no blockout dates.” They say that they “reasonably understood” this meant they’d have access to the Disney theme parks every day of the year as long as the parks were open and not at full capacity.

But, they claim that now (thanks to the Park Pass system), there are times when they can’t use their Annual Passes to get into the parks even though the parks are open and aren’t at capacity, and even at times when Park Passes are available for other ticket holders.

Annual Passholder Magnet

The Passholders argue that they’ve brought their claim about an express contract and their claim about an implied contract — as alternatives to one another and that this is allowed at this stage of the lawsuit.

When it comes to the express contract, these are the Plaintiff’s main arguments:

• The Plaintiffs don’t ever recall seeing the express terms and conditions Disney attached to its motion before this lawsuit
• Plaintiffs couldn’t really negotiate the terms of their Passes (Disney had all the bargaining power)
• No reasonable person would have anticipated that the contract would allow Disney to “take away” one of the Platinum Pass’ key features — no blockout dates

Minnie

Since the Plaintiffs feel the express contract is unfair and invalid, they’ve also argued that they had an implied contract with Disney and that Disney breached that. In terms of the implied contract, the Plaintiffs argue:

• Disney advertised that there would be “no Blockout Dates” with the Platinum Pass
• Disney breached this by limiting how many Platinum Passholders can go into the parks on a particular day to allow for more ticket sales to non-passholders (even on days when the parks weren’t at capacity)
• This essentially created blockout dates (and those blockout dates were imposed for Disney’s “own financial gain”)

Magic Kingdom

The Plaintiffs also argue that Disney’s actions were deceptive because they “led consumers to believe that they were purchasing something they were not – a Platinum Pass with ‘no blockout dates.'”

For the reasons outlined above and more included in their response, the Passholders argue that their complaint should NOT be dismissed at this stage.

What Happens Next?

Well, in terms of an overall summary Disney has argued:

• there was no implied contract
• the express contract governs
• the express contract lets them change the terms at any time
• these aren’t true “blockout dates”
• the complaint should be dismissed

Plaintiffs have argued:

• the express contract is unfair/invalid
• the implied contract should govern and Disney breached that by promising no blockout dates and then restricting how many Park Passes were made available to Passholders — that meant that Platinum Passholders couldn’t get into Disney World even on days when Park Passes were available to other ticket holders and when the parks weren’t at capacity
• those constitute “blockout dates”
• the complaint should not be dismissed

Happily Ever After

So whose arguments will win? That remains to be seen. The next step could be a hearing or other opportunity for argument on the matter, after which a judge should decide whether the complaint should move forward or if parts of it/all of it should be dismissed.

We will be on the lookout for updates there. In the meantime, you can click here to see what changes are being made to the Park Pass system as it relates to Passholders, and click here to see why more Park Pass changes could be made soon.

Click here to see why 47% of Disney fans say they WON’T buy an Annual Pass

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What do you think about the arguments made in this lawsuit? Tell us in the comments.

The post Annual Passholders Claim They Were Misled by Disney first appeared on the disney food blog.

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