I am so excited because I am a Disneyland Annual Passholder again! We recently moved back to Southern California and my husband surprised me with the new Disneyland Flex Pass (thank you, honey! ðŸ˜). I’m already planning all of our trips! Now that we’ve used the pass and I know more about it, I wanted explain the details a little better and share my thoughts on who I think this pass is for:
WHAT IS THE DISNEYLAND FLEX PASS
The Disneyland Flex Pass is the newest Annual Pass, just released on May 21, 2019. With this Annual Pass (AP), you get admission to Disneyland and/or California Adventure on select days of the year.
Each AP has blockout dates where you cannot enter the parks, but the Disneyland Flex Pass also has “reservation-required” dates where you must first make an advanced reservation to enter the park.
The Disneyland Flex Passport costs $599. If you are a Southern California resident, you can split up the cost into 12 monthly payments after $154 down payment.
WHAT’S THE RESERVATION PROCESS LIKE
To make a reservation, log into your account on the Disneyland App or online. You can make reservations for yourself and/or anyone in your reservation party (anyone with their pass linked in your account) up to 30 days in advance. Just select the park(s) you’ll visit and the date you want to reserve, then confirm. You can hold two reservations at a time.
Cancel your reservations by 11:59pm the day before if you are unable to visit the parks, otherwise, you’ll be considered a “no-show”. If you get three no-shows within a 90-day window, you will lose the ability to make reservations for 30 days. 😬
Making (and cancelling) reservations is super easy from your Disneyland app. With reservation-required days, your Flex Pass gives you basically the same access to the parks as the more expensive Signature Pass.
PARKING AND DISOUNTS
Parking is not included with the Disneyland Flex Pass, so factor that in if you are considering this pass. It’s currently $25 a day per car which is a lot, but might not be a huge deal to you if you won’t be going that often. If you plan on going more often and you buy parking each time, it’s actually a better value to get the Disney Signature Passport if you will go 22+ times in the year.
With the Disneyland Flex Pass, you do get discounts (up to 10%) throughout the park on food and merchandise but unfortunately not online at Shop Disney Parks.
When we first used our Disneyland Flex Passes, we used our discount on lunch at Smokejumpers Grill in California Adventure, and I bought a few souvenirs: Rainbow Minnie ears, Rainbow Spirit Jersey, and a Small World mystery pin box.
MY EXPERIENCE WITH THE DISNEYLAND FLEX PASS
We bought our tickets online and immediately had the digital passes available. I added the digital passes to my Disneyland App, and I was able to make reservations right away. I noticed, a few days later, that the expiration date of the AP was already counting down but we hadn’t even used the passes yet. So I called the Disneyland help desk and Mike was super helpful, and answered all my questions.
Basically, your AP isn’t “activated” until you use it in the parks for the first time. But, until you go in, the system just counts down from the date you bought the pass. Also he told me that you can use your AP on any date (even blockout) when you activate the pass for the first time, but he strongly discouraged that since this summer is going to be very busy with Star Wars Galaxy’s Edge opening and everything. I thought that was good information though.
I also asked about adding Max Pass to our Flex Passes, and he explained that we could do that on the phone or at the gate only since we already bought the passes (usually you can buy it through the app or at the time of purchase). With Max Pass, you can easily reserve Fast Passes to your favorite rides from anywhere in the park. It includes Photo Pass so you get all the photos that Cast Members take right to your phone, and you can download them for free. A daily Max Pass is $15, but you can add it to your AP for $100.
We went to Disneyland on our reservation day and went to one of the ticket booths to add Max Pass and collect our Annual Pass cards (if you ordered your AP online, you always have to go to the ticket booth the first time in order to get the actual card). It took a little bit of time to add the Max Pass and get our the AP cards, but we were soon on our way to start our day in the parks.
We had reservations to both Disneyland and California Adventure. If you have reservations to both parks but only visit one, it does not count as a no-show; so no worries about that.
WHO IS THE DISNEYLAND FLEX PASS FOR?
If you live close enough to randomly go to Disneyland for lunch or something, then this pass could be for you. So far, I haven’t had any issues making same day reservations, so you could probably do the same and just pop over whenever it’s convenient for you, but there is a chance that you won’t get the reservation you want. The Disneyland Flex Pass will give you more access than the SoCal Select Pass but it is $200 more expensive, and you’d still have to pay for parking, if applicable. If you go more than 22 times in a year and pay for parking, it’s actually a better value if you get the Signature Pass (parking is included).
If you’re a lot farther from Disneyland, then you are probably doing a lot of planning for each trip anyway. The Disneyland Flex Pass could be a good option for you because you are already making hotel reservations and planning everything else, so the Flex Pass reservations won’t be an issue. However, you can only hold two days of reservations within a 30 day period, so if you want to go to the parks for a third day, you wouldn’t be able to make it until after your first day in the park reservation was used. (Example: We fly down to Disneyland Friday night and have reservations at the parks for Saturday and Sunday. I can’t make reservations for Monday until Saturday after we enter the parks.) It’s just something extra to consider and plan for.
If you live reasonably close to Disneyland where you could go for a day trip (like I do), then I think the Disneyland Flex Pass is a great option. You’re already planning out your trip because it takes a couple of hours just to get there; so making the reservations isn’t a big deal. The Flex Pass is great because you can get the Signature Pass-access to the parks for a fraction of the price. So if you want to take advantage of the option for extra days, but you aren’t going frequently enough (22+ times in a year) that it would be worth it to get the Signature Pass, then the Flex Pass is perfect for you. *Also, just keep in mind that only one person in your party needs to have the Signature Pass to get the free parking (and they have to be present to use it).
OVERALL THOUGHTS
So far, making reservations has been easy and I have never been denied a day that I wanted to reserve. Of course, there’s more to the Disneyland Flex Pass than just the reserve dates, but that’s what make it unique from the other passes and so far those are all the dates that are available during these summer months.
I think the Disneyland Flex Pass is a great value for all of the days you have access to and it’s even better with Max Pass. If you are a planner and will visit Disneyland between 3 – 21 days out of the year, the Disneyland Flex Pass is a great option. Thanks again to my amazing husband for buying these for us; I am so excited for all of our Disneyland trips this year! ♡♡♡
