The Epcot Explorer's Encyclopedia

Star Tours 2 is opening on May 20th at Disney’s Hollywood Studios and nary a peep has been made over the apparent lack of passholder previews for the attraction. In fact, it seems the utter disregard for the annual passholder population in Florida has just been accepted as common-place business-as-usual in the fan community. Some call it lowered standards, other call it Walmarting – regardless a Disney World annual pass is worth a lot less then it used to be worth.

As Disney moved forward with various initiatives the AP program at Walt Disney World has essentially fallen apart. The AP website was once a place to go for the latest discounts and to sign up for AP-exclusive events. We can’t remember the last time that website was updated though. From poking around the net it’s pretty obvious most AP’s are lucky to be able to even log-in or get the page to load. While Disney has spent millions on their “DisneyParks” presence through blogs and twitter and other social media the Passholder website for Walt Disney World has been left to rot like some relic of the mid-90′s. There might as well be MIDI music and flashing text.The pages, which are almost entirely just short bits of text – can take 3-5 minutes to load on a fiber optic connection.It’s really quite pathetic.

Looking at the website itself, there appears to be some clues as to when Disney just stopped caring about it’s Disney World passholders. Take for example the last time the Blockout dates for the Seasonal passes was updated on the website:

June 2010 – almost a full year ago. We could give them the benefit of the doubt and say perhaps the website was ignored sometime around the beginning of August 2010, but where’s the fun in that? Also, remember when that thrilling new Toy Story Mania attraction opened..? Back in May 2008..? Well, it’s the headliner attraction on the Passholder website in the community section – which hasn’t been updated since 2008. The girl referenced in the photo was 15. She’s at least 18 if not 19 by now. I wonder if she still even own an annual pass.

In all likelihood she does, as around the time Disney stopped caring about AP’s is when they introduced the dreaded California pay-over-time pricing plan to Florida residents. This plan for selling AP’s dirt cheap is responsible for creating many of the Disneyland Resort’s capacity issues during peak periods. In many ways, an annual pass over at Disneyland can be cheaper then going and buying a cafe macchiato monthly from Starbucks. Disney World had long avoided this tactic to gain butts-in-seats during the slower periods but finally gave in.

In case you were wondering.. the monthly payment plan was rolled out June 2010. The passholder website has not been generally updated since – after writing this whole article we still can’t get the “Passholder Offers” page to even load. The last AP special event or preview was the Duffy the Bear opening at Epcot in October of 2010. Better join the Moms Panel or D23 if you want any special treatment or even a functional website from Walt Disney World in the future.