Disneyland’s new Magic Key holder system has definitely been controversial since it first debuted this past August. One fan however, believes that its most loyal fans have been deceived by the “no block-out” annual pass.
What’s Happening:
- According to the OC Register, a lawsuit filed against Walt Disney Parks and Resorts alleges that Disneyland deceived its most loyal fans by artificially limiting theme park capacity and blocking passholders with “no block-out” annual passes from making reservations.
- The $5 million suit, filed on behalf of all Magic Key holders, alleges Disneyland relegated them to “second class” ticket holders by artificially limiting Magic Key reservations and the number of passholders that can visit on any given day.
- The case was originally filed on November 9th in the Orange County Superior Court by Magic Key passholder Jenale Nielsen of Santa Clara County. Yesterday, the case was moved up to the United States District Court because the “matter in controversy exceeds the sum or value of $5 million” and Walt Disney Parks and Resorts is based in Florida while the plaintiff lives in California, according to the court filing.
- Neilsen, who purchased a Disneyland Dream Key pass for $1,399 in September, alleges in the lawsuit that she has been unable to make theme park reservations for many days in October and November.
- The complaint accuses Disneyland of breach of contract, negligent misrepresentation and false advertising and seeks civil penalties to prevent Disney from engaging in similar unlawful trade practices, restitution based on the harm consumers experienced and repayment of all revenue gained by the practice.
- Walt Disney Parks and Resorts has not yet filed an answer, and a spokesman responded by saying “we intend to respond as the case proceeds in court.”
What The Suit Says:
- “Given that Disney advertised and promised that there would be no ‘blockouts’ for Dream Key holders, Ms. Nielsen was surprised.”
- “The problem was not that Disney had reached its capacity and therefore could not provide reservations to its Dream Key passholders. The problem was that Disney had decided to block out reservations so that they were only available to new purchases and were not available to Dream Key passholders.”
- “Disney appears to be limiting the number of reservations available to Dream Key passholders on any given day in order to maximize the number of single day and other passes that Disney can sell.”
- “This is a far cry from what Disney advertised to consumers and from what Disney sold to its customers.”
- “Ms. Nielsen did not know — and had no way of knowing — that the Dream Key was, essentially, a ‘second class’ ticket with limited availability because Disney had reserved an unknown majority of the available reservations for single day or other full price ticket purchases.”
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