Disney World has been accused of cheating customers who paid hundreds of dollars for yearly passes to gain unlimited access to its Florida parks — by imposing COVID-19 restrictions on their visits even as it sold access to other park goers, according to an explosive lawsuit.
Two Florida-based theme park customers — who each paid between $600 and $800 for a yearly “Platinum Pass” — said in court papers they believe the pricey passes gave them the option to book theme park visits whenever they wanted.
Instead, the suit claims the customers were told their subscriptions were subject to “blackout dates” because of pandemic rules aimed at limiting capacity — a pretext to squeeze more money out of visitors.
“On some days, Platinum Pass holders and Platinum Plus Pass holders cannot make reservations to go to a Disney theme park, even though there are single day passes available for purchase,” according to the class action lawsuit filed against Disney in Orlando federal court last week.
“Disney appears to be unfairly favoring single ticket or multi-day ticket holders, while restricting Platinum Pass holders, in order to make a larger profit,” according to the plaintiffs, who are accusing Disney of a “predatory business practice” and “exploiting the customers who support it most.”
One of the anonymous plaintiffs, who goes by the initials “M.P.,” is a resident of Orange County, Fla., who has been a passholder since 2013 and paid $633 for each Platinum Pass for her family. The second, “E.K.,” a resident of Palm Beach County, Fla., has been a passholder since 2010 and shelled out $67.75 a month for her subscription, according to the suit.
E.K. and M.P. allege that in May of 2020, they tried to book reservations in November of that year. They claim they were told by Disney that they could only choose from three days out of the entire month to plan their visit.
“Annual Passholders continue to be some of our biggest fans and most loyal guests,” Disney spokesperson Avery Maehrer said in a statement. “We’ve been upfront with Passholders about the updates we’ve made, and we offered them the flexibility to opt in or opt out of the program early in the pandemic, including refunds if they desired. This lawsuit mischaracterizes the program and its history, and we will respond further in court.”
Before the onset of the coronavirus pandemic in March 2020, those who purchased the “Platinum Pass” and “Platinum Plus Pass” were allowed to visit all four Florida parks “365 days a year without any Blackout Dates or restrictions,” according to the lawsuit. The two passes also allowed visitors “unfettered Park Hopping between Disney’s Florida parks within the same day,” the suit claims.
After Disney reopened, it instituted a “park pass system” requiring guests to make a reservation “in addition to a valid admission ticket to gain entry to a Disney theme park,” according to the lawsuit. The park imposed the measure as a way of limiting capacity in line with pandemic-era social distancing requirements.
But the plaintiffs allege that the parks have kept the system in place despite the fact that the state has lifted all coronavirus-related restrictions on businesses.
Specifically, they allege that Disney has “seemingly implemented a system in which only a certain amount” of passholders “can make a reservation per day, despite the park still having availability for other types of reservations” such as single day passes or reservations made by other pass holders.
The plaintiffs claim they made “dozens of phone calls to Disney expressing their frustration” and that one such phone call included a “thirteen-hour hold period.” The lawsuit states that M.P. even sent “numerous emails” to then-Disney CEO Robert Iger, “but received no helpful action.”
The passholders also allege that Disney has reneged on its pledge to allow for unlimited “park hopping” in which visitors could shuttle between more than one theme park during the same day-long visit at no extra charge.
Instead, Disney has limited the “park hopping” benefit to visitors who patronize the parks after 2 p.m. — offering a more narrow window than passholders were accustomed to from before the pandemic.
The plaintiffs accuse the theme parks operator of a “breach of implied contract” by limiting the days on which they could make reservations — in contravention of the terms of their annual passes.
Passholders traditionally spend hundreds of dollars per person so that they and their families can freely visit the four Disney theme parks in Florida year-round whenever they choose — including EPCOT, Magic Kingdom Park, Disney’s Animal Kingdom Theme Park, and Disney’s Hollywood Studios.
Last month, a new study found that a majority of respondents said Disney World has “lost its magic.”
Last week, it was revealed that an elderly Florida man died after suffering a heart attack while riding the PeopleMover attraction at Disney World.
[Written in collaboration with other media outlets with information from the following sources]
