If you are a pass holder you should have gotten the official e-mail about changes for next year’s blackout dates. Almost all of June 2019 will be blacked out for most pass holders. Also they are going to start splitting the blackout dates between Disneyland and the DCA. What do you think?
My thoughts are, the summer months are too busy anyway with people traveling in from out of town. They need to do something to address the crowding issue. And, if you have a So Cal pass, it is still such a bargain that you can go at other times throughout the year. If people don't like the blockout dates then they can pay for the Signature pass. Personally, I don't like the APs at all because of the crowding issue.
That is going to be about the time that SW:GE opens up next year if everything stays on plan. It's going to be crazy busy w/out AP's. I can only imagine the crowding if the AP's were there on top of that.
There are two things going on here. I totally understand all the blackout dates on June. SW:GE is going to be insane with crowds and the blackout dates is about the only way to start to handle the problem. What is more interesting is the access split between Disneyland and DCA. In the future might they send half the annual pass-holders to one park and the other half to the other? This would prevent park hopping but it would even out the crowds numbers between the two parks.
Well, I think it would be hard to send half of the pass holders to one park and the other half to another. For example, if I hold a pass and want to go to Disneyland, but they will only let me go to DCA, I'm going to feel jipped, especially if I want to go there for a specific thing like Star Wars. However, if they only allow them to use one park on a given day, for whatever reason, then they can blockout potential traffic and divert them to another park (or possibly force them to buy a ticket for the day or upgrade to a better pass).
Anyway you look at it; it sounds really complicated. Not too sure we will ever do the AP thing again.
I think allocating certain APs to certain parks on a given day would be too complicated (what if you have a group of people who are split between parks?), but having one park blacked out and the other available seems like an interesting notion I'll be really curious to see how this impacts crowd patterns. On days when DL is blacked out, will DCA attendance be significantly higher? Or will APs decide that it's not worth going to DLR at all if they can't get into both parks? As an out of town visitor, DLR's AP situation has gotten out of hand. The best days to visit the parks are now the traditional peak holidays (Christmas week, 4th of July, Labor Day weekend, etc), when most APs are blocked out. Yes, there are still holiday crowds, but they're relatively manageable compared to some peak AP days, and their behavior is more conducive to an enjoyable experience than APs (commando ride-hopping vs lounging around in walkways and reciting spiels)
It reminds me of the days when they thought DCA was going to be huge. They had AP passes with just Disneyland Only printed on them. That didn't last long. Since the common perception is that SWL will be packed, what if people actually stay away? What if perceived star wars overload in the movie theaters extends to the park? SWL could end up looking like a dud.
So far everything that the have shown us SWL does not look to be a dud. To my eyes it really looks amazing. While I do wish that there would be a few more C & D attractions to handle the extra people Both escape and the millennium falcon attractions look amazing.
I guess it's just the perception of giant crowds that could keep a lot of people away. Of course, we see huge crowds at Disneyland everyday and no one stays away.
