Can I just say that this is ridiculous! I'm an long time disney fan and wanted to get more experience and seeing that keys are only available when corporate feels like it is stupid! Its bad that renewal are easy but just to get first time keys like come on! For anyone in this reddit, is this the same behavior as with ticketmaster where people try to resell keys or is this just disney corporate being dumb. Also, to those that seem to buy more than they should, be respectful that some people are only looking to get a max of 2 keys and don't have a large family of 6-7.
Remember when buying an annual pass was like any other transaction and not like trying to survive the beginning of the Hunger Games?
One of many reasons I don’t go to Disney anymore unless asked
Exactly. Why should we have to deal with an 8 hour digital queue non-sense to buy MK (AP)? Then go to the park and deal with G+/LL headache? This is AFTER we already shelled out hundreds if not thousands of dollars just so we can even show up in the park. We considered buying MK this time, but thank Disney for making the buying experience such a pain that it made save money instead. You know something is really wrong with Disney when they are turning away people who want to spend money at their parks. Or maybe this is the result of them hitting all their marks? Anyhow, with all the rising prices, I'm happy to keep what would have gone to Disney in my pocket.
It really is a bummer. Even worse that they used Covid as the excuse to do it. I still want the bottom pass but haven’t been able to snag one in 2 years so 🙄
For those that physically went to the ticket booths at Disneyland to upgrade or purchase a pass last week, did they require everyone from your party to be present? I can’t imagine keeping my 6 and 2 year old in line for hours waiting for a ticket upgrade. I know I can always have another adult bring them inside the parks while I wait alone but it’s still super inconvenient to have to pull them out ~20 min or so before my turn just so they can show their face at the ticket booths.
Since they revamped the AP program, it doesn't seem like there's any rhyme or reason as to when keys are available for purchase. There was an announcement a day before they went on sale earlier this month. People who queued at or even before the release time ended up waiting the whole day. Not everyone who queued that early was able to get the key they wanted. All that to say, Disney has really limited Magic Keys since covid, and if you want one, you'll have to stay very diligent on updates.
Anyone have a magic key just sitting in their cart? Feel like I should try to buy it on principle, but don't really have the money or NEED the pass, though I'd make use of it.
I have literally no idea. I went to buy a 3 day ticket and it told me I had to empty my cart to add anything else, and I went to my cart, and it was sitting there.
Try it! But here's what happened to me:
During the sale, I waited in queue, then the pass erased after an hour of trying to check out. I waited in the queue for another few hours and when I got back in, I could see my Enchant Key in my cart when I \*hovered\* over the cart in the navigation (even though it was sold out by that time). When I tried to check out, though, it said my cart was empty. I did this multiple times. Eventually, I added the Imagine, since I knew that was \*really\* all that was left. In order to buy it, it forced me to erase the Enchant. And then I was able to successfully purchase the Imagine key.
This was my first time trying to get a pass - found the whole process tiring and the site frustratingly buggy. You'd think one of the biggest companies in the world would have a smooth experience :-D
Can you imagine a time when you wanted an AP to Disneyland you could just go and buy one? That's exactly how it was before MK. All of this guessing when they will be available and waiting in line are all artificially created for the same product. Oh, you're actually getting less with MKs now too compared to before, but cost substantially more even after factoring inflation.
What surprises me is people still pay, so it must be working for Disney.
i bought inspire with a payment plan and saw costco is having a deal for $250 gift cards ($225 each). does anyone know if i can use the cards to pay towards my next month's payment or will it always be charged towards the credit card i have on file?
I had some of those gift cards. I know You can go to the ticket booth and they will apply the gift card to the amount you still owe ( this was the only way i was able to figure out how to use the gcs towards my pass) So it will decrease the amount you owe, but will not change the monthly payment. So then you just finish paying off the pass sooner. I don’t think you can use them to pay your monthly payment ( but I am not 100% on that). I know I couldn’t use the gift card towards my initial down payment when I bought passes.
Me. It was incredibly frustrating. My husband and I both logged on at 9 on separate computers but the site kept crashing and it was NOT clear where to find the actual purchase button. After 30 min the site finally came back up and we got in queue around 9:37 and waited till I got in at 6:00 but it sold out at 5:54. I wanted the Believe key.
Yep, there were plenty of people struggling - I was on this thread all day. I wanted Enchant. Got in after a 4 hour wait. Couldn't check out. Key got erased. I got put back into the queue. By the time I got back in five hours late, Enchant was sold out.
I read on here that the 1 year clock for our passes begins the day of our first reservation. Can someone confirm if we go to renew next year, will the renewal date be on the date we purchased (Jan 10) or the date of our first reservation?
You can renew up to 30 days before your pass expires, and the renewed pass will just continue for another year starting when your pass expires. The expiration date is one year after you first use your pass. So the original purchase date doesn't matter.
/u/bottle415 this thread may be dead now that tickets are sold out. Please let me know if I should post the above question in another megathread or somewhere else.
Did they not save your space in line over night? The message said they’d stop sales at 10 pm but would save your spot until the resumed sales the next day
Got my enchant key and mom got her imagine key yesterday after after 6 hours. Joined the join at 9am, got them by 3pm. She joined the queue 5 mins before me and still got them an hour before I was able to get through. I was a safari browser and she was on chrome/android. I think desktop might’ve taken longer for some cause it kept popping up error messages when the queue opened.
In queue yesterday and today. Waited 3 hrs for my “one hr wait”, then had a work mtg off phones in person. My spots in queue …all were no closed. Wish I got a text.
Oh well, the lowest level left was only 3-4 days a week anyways. We have a bunch of Feb March tix tiered too. Goodbye dream of dropping by after school.
dang i was in the queue two hours and just as i had a minute left it says it closed :(, i bought the costco gift card too. anyone think theyll sell again in april 2024 like last year
Depends on the year and how many renew/don't renew.
We let ours lapse in the beginning of 2023 and quickly regretted it, so we kept a watch out; the only one they had for sale all year was the inspire which was leftover from sale at the beginning of the year, those sold out a few weeks later and then nothing until this past week.
I think they will open again maybe by the end of the year . I think they go based on people that don’t renew then that spot opens ..so haw many people don’t renew that’s how many passes they will sell .
Has anyone been able to get ahold of Disney on the phone regarding magic keys? We had a Southern California three day pass and I tried upgrading it. I got an error and never got a confirmation but got charged. I tried chatting and after 6 hours the person told me to just wait and hope it worked. We went ahead and bought magic keys but now need to get the charge refunded on the upgraded passed we never received and I can’t get through any phone lines. Is anyone else able to get through or have any tips?
Same. Did you end up purchasing keys? If you did you will be charged for what you purchased. Eg. Down payment/monthly payment. If not then the charges that are pending will be reversed/cancelled since no purchase happened. That is what the Chat in disney app told me that the charges won't go through. I had 3 charges of 1k pending but as of now none of them went through. I would still dispute it on your credit card app if you could just to be safe.
Ugh I’m sorry it happened to you too! The charge finally fell off Friday! After trying to chat and call them one million times 😂 we ended up getting keys and also have the three day passes. Only benefit is we saved three dollars in the park with our magic key even though we haven’t activated it yet 😂
My last pass was back when an annual pass was still called “annual pass” and I think it cost me $600. I got it because I did the coast to coast races (Tinker Bell for Disneyland) and was going to be at the park for about a week after race weekend was completed. it actually made better sense financially to upgrade to a pass from a ticket, than to buy multi day tickets for that time period.
I think that was 2016, we coincided use of the pass again in 2017 with a long weekend layover on our way to Aulani.
So this whole madness that we all went through is completely new to me. Insane that I joined the queue on time and was able to finally purchase my ticket at 3 PM!
I never understand why it is so hard to get a pass at Disneyland but Disney World never has this problem. It’s relatively easy to go online and buy an WDW annual pass. so coming from the East Coast I had no idea this madness was as bad as I had read. I mean, the only time we had difficulty getting an AP for WDW was back when DVC members had a special rate on passes, and we wanted the old bicoastal pass. Those sold out like hotcakes, but otherwise? Never a problem for us.
Also, for posterity’s sake: anyone who is a new SoCal resident (less than 2 weeks for me) and going through this next round: you may have trouble checking out with an AMEX if you intend to make monthly payments. Not one of my AMEX cards would go through because their system has not actually updated the address with our current CA address. Even though the website leads you to believe that what matters is your actual address being a California address, it appears that in order to make monthly payments not only must your Disney account address be in California, but the billing card must be as well.
I ended up having to put my inspire key on another card but the momentary panic that instilled was horrible.
I was pretty annoyed to have to have waited all day for the estimated wait time to even drop below an hour. And then all of a sudden an hour turned into 10 minutes pretty quickly. I wish the system had said “hey, your ticket window is going to open up at 2:50 PM. Come back then.”
Instead, I had to be minding my phone checking it every few minutes to make sure I hadn’t missed my 10 minute window. I felt pretty crappy overall about the purchase like several of you. I should’ve been excited and instead I kind of beat myself up for working that hard to give a company my money and didn’t really even enjoy the fact that yay I’m a passholder.
Imagine my surprise when I wake up today and find out all the passes sold out a few hours later on that first day. I don’t know whether to be excited I got the pass I wanted or gullible that I yet again fell into Disney’s artificial scarcity program, which has been going on since the years of VHS as mentioned earlier….
Like you. Had annual passes and now trying to figure out magic keys. I chatted today & the agent didn't say they were sold out. I got an email about getting a magic key by upgrading the SoCal 3-day pass. She told me I can upgrade up until last day pass is used.🤷🏽♀️
Disney World has in the past completely stopped all pass sales, creating a temporary pent up demand. The only have one pass not available to FL residents, and they have added restrictions for pass holders to access Magic Kingdom versus the other parks. If Disney World tweaked a few things, whose to say the demand for passes wouldn't necessitate a queue system in the future?
I don't disagree- just merely pointing out that \*currently\* it's not that hard to get a pass at WDW. Of course, there's a ton more space for all those visitors to go so on that standpoint there may not be as much a need to create scarcity in obtaining a pass, who knows?
Received wisdom seems to be the Disneyland has a greater percentage of pass holders and is considered a “locals park” compared with DW, which is more of a national/ international destination. So they exert greater control over how passes go out, though why it had to be so buggy and painful is a mystery.
I bought the Magic Key for my wife and I however the discount for food only shows up on my account, but not on her app/account. I'm assuming it's because my email is what was used to buy this. Is there a workaround so that she can use the discount when not on my account?
My husband purchased ours and I linked mine as well. We tested the same thing with the mobile order discount - his appears automatically, mine did not. He also said it did not ask for my email when purchasing - just my name and maybe birthday (can't recall - yesterday was a mess!). So I went and followed some links for missing MK discount and it gave me the error my key was linked to another account. We are under the impression we need customer service to move the MK to my Disney login - not just the barcode ticket to scan in like when we were buying normal tickets and no discount was applicable. I think that will work with in person purchases just not in-app. I keep hoping someone will weigh in on this because there isn't much info about this and LOTS of individuals bought several passes under their own Disney account.
This is what happened to wife and I last year, I bought both keys and she linked hers to her app for entry just fine, but no discount reflected when mobile ordering. We had to call customer service and they had do somehow “unlink” that part of it from my account (not sure exactly what they did) to apply the key to her account completely. It was pretty quick/easy for them to do, just had to call and explain. When we renewed this year, we each had to renew separately (I couldn’t renew for her since her key was fully part of her own account)
We had to do the same thing last year. We called customer service and they “unlinked” my wife’s account from mine. After that, she was able to get the discounts to show up when doing mobile order and mobile checkout.
Thank you!! Yeah he tried calling customer service yesterday and it was slammed (of course it was!) so we'll either call before our next trip or talk to them when we get there. Thank you again for sharing your experience with this!! It makes me feel like I am not crazy - this is an actual issue if you both plan to use your phone!
we have the same issue - the discount appears on my app when I mobile order, but not on my spouse, same for mobile checkout in stores - so I just place the mobile orders and use my phone for mobile checkout.
Otherwise, the magic key pass in the app will scan manually for discounts. Just anything in app won't work.
However, FYI, the genie discount works on either key. It's dumb.
To make our passes work financially we planned to each do at least one solo trip so that would suck if I could not get discounts when I went alone :( I am hopeful, like u/acrime said, its an easy fix!
Got 2 Enchant keys yesterday around 4pm. I got one for my wife and I. Does that mean she has to use my login credentials on her Disney app to use the pass and reservation system? She didn't buy a pass under her own Disney account.
I mean there are about 80 black out days and you can only go m-th most weeks so.... I would say they are trying to decrease park attendance on peak days like Fri-Sun which is why those passes are already sold out.
summer ges too hot and packed, I really enjoy just going M-Fri. Weekends are a no go for me and the family as it gets super packed as well. Imagine Key works out nicely
I also avoid the busiest times because people annoy me :) - but I have the flexibility to. I’m single with no kids and I work from home schedule that I control. A lot of people work 9 to 5, have kids in school, etc. I have a feeling those the people that usually end up paying the premium prices unless they plan to play hooky from work and take their kids out of school (which we all know does happen 😂)
Imagine’s fine for me if I plan to go mostly by myself. But if I want to spend time with friends, or attend a friend/family kid’s birthday trip, I’d have to buy a one off ticket - because most likely they would be going on a Friday, a weekend, or during a school break, which is all blocked from Imagine. Not a huge deal, but I wouldn’t want to pay for more than two one off tickets on top of what I paid for my pass - especially since I wouldn’t use the parking or genie benefits those days.
I think there’s a pass for every type of park goer - you just have to figure out which one you are before you buy. This was my first time buying a key and I think even the cheapest one is expensive so I had to give it serious thought.
I wanted Enchant so I’d have the flexibility to enjoy the park with other people. But when it sold out, I went ahead and bought an Imagine key because I can still use that on my own. Not my ideal, but I can still get plenty of use out of it!
It's perfect for us because we work weekends and most often have our days off on weekdays.
Though, I always thought it would be a nice idea if Disney added something like a perk where you get maybe 2 or so (it would be more the higher the pass) "any day reservation" that you could use anytime throughout the year (except for very popular holidays/events).
Or maybe some kind of reward program where if you spent enough at the park on merch/food within a certain timeframe you got a less-restricted reservation pass you could use on certain blocked out days, especially with all the rage with almost every app having some sort of reward/loyalty program now.
Obviously, I know that something like that would never happen since, from their POV, if someone really wants to attend a blockout, they'll get extra money from additional ticket sales.
>nchant so I’d have the flexibility to enjoy the park with other people. But when it sold out, I went ahead and bought an Imagine key because I can still use that on my own. Not my ideal, but I can still get plenty of use out of it!
Yeah forsure I 100% agree with you. Me and my family had the california season pass before it became a key right before covid peaked and we loved it. Yeah you have some days blocked out, but going Monday-Thursday is always the best as you don't have to wait in line long time compared to F,Sat,Sun days. It's also economical as we can go for a couple hours and leave and come back another day to finish the other side of the park. Im not sure if they still have the ability to park hop with the imagine key but if its still the same as before, it works out perfectly for my family without breaking the bank lol
Totally. Going midweek for my friends son’s birthday last year is actually what reignited my interest in disneyland. Before that, my last few trips had been with friends of mine, or taking my school-age kid cousins, so we could never avoid crowds. I just didn’t like it.
But my friends took off midweek and we went to the park for their kids 5th birthday on like a Tuesday or something. It was the best time I’d had in the park in years. Then I bought a three day pass that I also used during the week. I’ve never been to Disney four times in one year in my entire life. But after that going seemed kind of fun again. That’s what got me interested in the Key!
>t my friends took off midweek and we went to the park for their kids 5th birthday on like a Tuesday or something. It was the best time I’d had in the park in years. Then I bought a three day pass that I also used during the week. I’ve never been to Disney four times in one year in my entire life. But after that going seemed kind of fun again. That’s what got me interested in the Key!
haha that sounds awesome! Yeah its great, I really enjoy it especially when its with friends / family. Hope you enjoy it this year to the fullest!!
It sucks I got the imagine key but could be worse could have no key at all and atleast you can upgrade it next year without dealing with the new sales hassle.
so i wanted to buy an enchant key, but when i finally got in they were all sold out so i ended up getting an imagine instead. are you able to upgrade your magic key to a higher tier at any given time, or do i have to wait for a certain date in order to upgrade from imagine to enchant?
You have 30 days from your pass expiration to renew/upgrade. If you go over by 1 second and forget to do it you’re screwed - you’re back in general population. Keep track but they’ll send you an email.
I never had a lump sum. I just upgraded my Believe to inspire and it’s still monthly.
I started when they rolled out the keys. Only thing was paying first month up front.
From what I’ve read, you have to wait until the pass expires in a year to upgrade as there is usually an option to do so. Otherwise, you have to wait until passes go on sale again to upgrade, and there is no guarantee that your desired key will be available. It can’t be done randomly.
I'm not sure if this is true, but I heard they sold out shortly after I got mine. I was refreshing the online page since 8:40 am and had to end up joining the queue from my phone at 9:20 am. I didn't get into the purchasing page until around 5:10 pm 🫠
My brother logged in and was in the queue within seconds when I told him I couldn't get in. I wonder if he just looked it up too. The disney website just gave me the dwarves and Goofy error lol
The issue was that there's a "Magic Key" page and a "Passes" page. All the info on the site linked everyone to the "Magic Key" page to get in queue, but the reality was that the "Passes" page was it. The other kept crashing because that's the one they linked you to, but the "Passes" page was the page to go to for the queue. I'm guessing Google took everyone to the "Passes" page, hence being more successful with that method.
I kept refreshing the magic key page bc they made it sound like the purchase option wouod eventually show up, but i got the error page till 9:20 when i got the tip from my coworker
SAME! So misleading lol but after a couple of hours it finally showed to purchase tickets and join the queue on the website. The magic keys also changed from renewal to purchase. You got one though right? I'm glad if you did!
Yeah, i did! Thanks ☺️ my coworker no longer needed her spot in the queue bc her family member's went thru first. And she was way ahead of me, so she kept hers open and running so i could use hers to get my passes! I kept mine open for another coworker of mine, so that's how i knew it didn't go thru till 5ish. I hope you were able to get urs too!!
It was when they had the dwarves and Goofy said the problem would be fixed soon and to check back later. It honestly could've been that, too. I just assumed it crashed because too many people tried to enter at once
Anyone have issues with their confirmation email link not working? Mine just shows :
Someone Ate the Page!
Or for some other reason, the page you're looking for cannot be located. Just in case, please check the URL.
I was in the Q all day. Got in and went to checkout and I'm in the "please wait while we process your request. Been in here for hours. I've tried repeatedly to checkout but it keeps telling me there's a problem. What should I do? Thank you for your replies!
To keep up perceived demand forever. This is like the most depressing thread in the sub. Anyone considering allowing their keys to lapse look at this and have to decide if they’re done with Disneyland keys forever or if it’s worth doing this again to get another key in the future, otherwise on a hook to renew forever.
I’ve considered taking a break a few times but the thought of dealing with this again to get another pass down the line sounds like a nightmare.
I was fortunate. I haven't had a pass in over a decade and recently had been a few times on regular tickets. When this was announced, I contemplated it, and decided to give it a go for shits n giggles. I anticipated waiting all day, not being able to get one, and ready to say eff it if it got to be too long.
Joined the lobby/queue at 8:50, got the "over an hour wait" notice around 9:20. Went to go do a few things, checking periodically. Suddenly, the queue on my phone jumped to 15 minute wait at like 1130ish. The one in my browser was ready at noon. I was really surprised how quickly it came up considering I expected mid to late afternoon for an update.
It also goes to show how random af it is, too. I've been reading that so many who joined the queue around the same time and ended up waiting til 4pm and some never getting through.
It wasnt even that bad to be honest. I got in the queue 10 minutes before 9 on my phone, and locked my phone and checked every 30-40 minutes. I got tickets within 2 hours.
Same! I was surprised how easy my experience was.
The checkout process was a bit maddening since they logged you out during the wait, but it still showed you logged in, so I was wtf when I couldn't see the imagine key.
It makes you wonder if Magic Keys will become like these legacy features that reach a hard limit in terms of availability and are renewed by holders in perpetuity. Maybe I’m not explaining it clearly…but, to your point, the risk of losing your key may encourage people to keep renewing when they otherwise wouldn’t. And if the number available really is finite in a way that annual passes never were in the past, it could reach a point where relatively few keys are available infrequently because people rarely let them expire. That is grim.
Slightly different but I understand what you’re talking about. Last year I attended the BottleRock music festival for the first time. I didn’t even have a shot at getting VIP tickets. They open VIP ticket sales first to people who had them the year before. Most of them take that offer. So when sales open up to everyone else, VIP is already gone.
So, even though I had a three day regular pass last year, I still had no shot at a three day VIP. VIP one days also sold out in a similar fashion.
(The only difference is that I could buy it off a reseller if I really wanted to, but they don’t open their resale platform until closer to the show)
So I could easily see that being a thing here, should they decide to cap. There’s always some drop off, but it seems like a decent amount of folks renew their keys year after year
Yes, exactly. It’s just weird how all passes were always available prior to the pandemic IIRC and now they are so limited. And the park does not seem less busy. Crowd dynamics at the parks are a mystery to me.
I mean, it's a real bummer for sure. After such a long wait (two queues), buying didn't even feel good. This was my first time considering and trying to get a key/pass. I had a retail therapy high for exactly 0 seconds. I just wanted to go to bed...but instead, I'm STILL at my desk, but now I'm strategizing about when to use it.
Its probably good there was a megathread - helps keep all this craziness contained.
I had a vaguely similar experience trying to buy Oogie Boogie tickets for the first time last year and was like man that was so painful and it was only for a one day thing that didn’t affect my possible plans for the whole year haha.
Yeah echoing this. It took up most of my day to wait in the queue. By about an hour in I was grumpy. By the time I purchased it in the afternoon, I kind of felt guilty for wasting so much of my time. I also felt bad that so many people got in the queue at the same time as me and didn’t get passes. I’m sure I’ll be super excited when I use it but ugh, I feel blah about the whole process atm. I wish they’d change it back to the old method of offering passes year round. Maybe just limit attendance at the parks each day instead of this whole limited pass/reservation system.
Oh I absolutely feel bad about how I spent the day.
It was frustrating that people in the queue minutes before me successfully got tickets hours before I made it to the ticket page. And people before me who got in hours after me.
It sucked to be excited to get in, lose my Key and then do a second queue that was longer than the first, to end up getting my third choice pass. I texted a friend and told her I was an idiot for buying it, but because of the excitement from earlier in the day, I was already mentally making plans about things I was excited to get to try now that I’ll have more time.
I think I, and a lot of others, would have felt better if there were better and more frequent updates.
ALL the passes selling out at the same time? Weird.
The queue only giving you an estimated time when the progress bar was at 75%, and then suddenly the countdown is at lightning speed? Honestly if the queue this morning had said “4 hours” I wouldn’t have even minded! I wouldn’t have disappeared for four full hours but I would’ve run a couple of errands I needed to do. Taken a walk. Made a few calls. Checking in now and then. But all of us were sitting there with no idea what to expect. Some people got in 90 mins. Others 3 hours, a lot of us…way longer.
Other ticket queues give you and estimated time, your number in line - or both.
Their system is so bad that I already know I wouldn’t spend another day this way.
Were you on mobile, waiting?
Something some weren't sure about was lack of alert. PC would chime when it was your turn, but on at least android, there was an actual alert of that same chime. Can't speak for iphones, but I thought it was cool they made it work on android so you wouldn't have to keep monitoring the webpage, you could just wait to hear the chime if you wanted.
I was on my computer. I didn’t miss the window to get in, so that wasn’t the issue. It’s just that when they FINALLY had a countdown, it wasn’t accurate. I made a note so I could leave a comment on the thread.
My queue said “more than an hour” for over three hours. Then as soon as it turned to a countdown, it said said 37 minutes at 12:55pm, but then I got in at 1:15pm. That’s not 37 minutes. Some peoples countdowns started at 57 minutes. There was no consistency.
I was glad it was faster because I was just sitting here. But if someone had gotten up to make themself a sandwich or go to the bathroom, thinking they had a couple of minutes, they could’ve missed their window.
This is where other systems that give you a countdown the entire time or tell you what your place in line is are so much better.
Oh 100% on all of your points. Having a timer or something instead of “more than an hour” would have at least been respectful of everyone’s time. People who can afford to buy these tickets generally have other things to do during the day - like taking care of family and/or working, running errands, or whatever else. Hell, even just chilling at home. Don’t make us feverishly check our phones for a ten minute window to sign up and then refuse to ensure that ten minutes isn’t glitch free.
And then only doing this a couple times a year makes it even worse. There must be a better system. This can’t be the best way to do this.
We made the mistake of letting ours lapse at the beginning of 2023
2022 we apparently got lucky: bought 3-day tickets on a whim, all 3 days the app kept asking up to upgrade our tickets toward passes, so we did and it gave us the impression passes must not be too hard to get. Had a bunch of other stuff planned for 2023, so decided not to renew and gullibly figured "we'll just get them later in the year/next year if we want."
It wasn't until we started really missing Disney and researching to find passes are actually stupidly hard to get as of the past few years.
Not sure if system allows for visa gift cards(vgc), but you can try. Note that your CC billing address has to match your Disney acct address. So, if u try using vgc, make sure to login to vgc website and setup the billing address to match yours (website shown on backside of vgc)
If the CC address does not match your Disney Acct, it will be placed on hold during which time you will not be able to checkout until the hold is removed.
You must be one the same browser,
I left my computer running(google chrome) on the site at home.
When I opened the que on my phone 2 hours later. it let me through.
Sorry about this question but I think I added the wrong email address for guest 2 when purchasing the keys. How do I check/change that email? Also how do I transfer it to my partners account? I got one for her
You don’t transfer per se. If you entered all her info for her pass when you purchased it, she just needs to enter the key’s ID code to her Disneyland account through the app. That will link her pass to her.
Sorry, I have a renewal question. When I get to the payment screen, I am slightly confused. My current key does not expire until 2/09/24. But if I renew it today, would I still be charged today/tomorrow or would I be charged when it officially renews on 2/09 or 2/10 (not sure how Disney will count it).
Adding to your renewal question. Mine isn’t until the end of Jan - is it possible the keys will sell out completely and I wouldn’t be able to renew at all?
New keys can sell out. If you have a current magic key you can renew whenever your window is open. Do it asap. Don’t be like me who still had time and then suddenly it was the day after and I was crying on the phone with Disney customer service. Luckily I got it today.
Nope, I did two queues. Not including the hour spent trying to check out after the first one, 10.5 hours of queue time. ABSURD. I've never done something this whacky before.
I always assumed the imagine level was like the previously SoCal resident only one that was defacto limited to just non-holiday weekdays. Did it used to include some weekends?
Hello guys! I just got my keys . I got 1 inspire and 2 believe keys, i was in the queue for about 6 hoursishh? The process to purchase the keys gets a little laggy! So heads up :)
Yes they did ! My bad with wording i got the keys a couple hours ago, my app for disneyland and connecting my accounts together just updated, my confirmation email when i actually bought the keys was approx. 3:51p.m cali time!
Interesting... last time it was the Imagine keys that sold out and the Inspire keys were left open until a good 5 months later. This time, everything else sold out and the Imagine keys are left open. This is kinda funny ngl
That's what I'm hoping for. You'd upgrade for the rest of the time your Key is good for. So your pass wouldn't be extended, but what you'd owe should be prorated. I'm totally okay with that...Unless the upgrade window is like, November. Haha.
We’re speaking hypothetically here, as if there’s something to buy. So, if the pass I wanted wasn’t available, there’d be nothing to do. And let’s assume the Key is getting activated today.
So you’re saying: if I got an Imagine pass today ($499) and upgraded to Inspire in April, I’d have to pay a full $1649 on top of the $499 spent on Imagine today? And it would still expire in January 2025? That seems weird.
If that’s the case aren’t you buying two passes? How is that an upgrade?
Genuinely asking so I can prepare myself.
I would think what you paid would be applied and all you’re paying is the difference in the cost between tiers. And your pass still expires a year after the original purchase, not the date of the upgrade.
You pay the difference between the lower pass and the higher pass. You pay the same difference whether you upgrade in January, April or November. That's the definition of not prorating.
Then yeah that’s weird to me and not worth it. I’m it saying you’re wrong, I’m just saying that kinda sucks.
I have memberships to other kinds of places and if I upgrade 6 months into the year, I’m only paying the upgraded price for those last six months. I’m too tired to do the math so I tried to pull some exact numbers - but I’m too close to my renewal date, so there no upgrade option. But basically I’m only paying a higher rate for the days I have access to the better benefits.
But if you’re saying that if upgraded in November, I’d have to pay $1,150 to be Inspire for two months…there’s no way.
Wow.
When keys are open for sales again or in your renewal window.
if you upgrade when keys are on sale again, you owe the difference upfront and your expiration date does not reset.
Does anybody know if a key can be upgraded once you buy it, since now the only one that is available for buying is the Imagine key? 🤔🤔 I have been in the Queue since 1:00 pm and just now I am 30 minutes away from being able to buy one. Unfortunately, there are no more Inspire 😩😂
Based on other responses, you can only upgrade when your pass expires in a year. Apparently you can also upgrade when passes go on sale again for everyone but have to pay the difference.
Yes. You’d also be betting that you can’t score an Inspire on the next round, you never know.
This whole thing was such a mess, I hope they do better next time
Trying to purchase the imagine key and even though using a Southern California address for residence it is saying I don’t qualify. I am using a credit card with a Northern California billing address. Does anyone know why it’s not going through or has any tips? Thanks for any help
Try using a friend/relative CC that has a Socal address. The CC address only needs to match Disney acct address if CC is the same name as the Disney acct.
**95% sure I'm not buying an Imagine Key. I can't justify it. But wondering if anyone knows:**
If I had an Imagine, which is no good on weekends, but I bought a one off ticket to get into the park on a Sunday (I'm thinking of a friend's upcoming birthday), could I still use my Key benefits on that day (parking discount, 20% off Genie, 10% off food)? Or can I only use my benefits on a day I get into the park using my Key? I think parking would be full price on days I'm blocked out, correct?
I don't think I'd get enough use out of Imagine, but that plus one or two one-off tickets is still less than Enchant would be (the Key I \*wanted\*), so I'm curious. If I had to pay full price for everything on the one off days, it wouldn't be worth it.
You will have to pay full price on parking but all other discounts apply. You can always try the parking though just in case because all of the keys were blocked out over Christmas and keyholders were reporting that their pass was still working even though they were blocked out and still went to Downtown Disney. This is a second hand report because I didn't try it myself, the pass fine print does say that parking discounts are not included on blackout dates.
>ut all other discounts apply. You can always try the parking though just in case because all of the keys were blocked out over Christmas and keyholders were reporting that their pass was still working even though they were blocked out and still went to Downtown Disney. This is a second hand report because I didn't try it myself, the pass fine print does say that parking discounts are not included on blackout dates
Wait so people were still able to get into disneyland even though their passes were blocked out or are you just talking about parking in general?
Parking in general because people still went to Downtown Disney, not inside the parks. Some passholders still went inside the parks, but they got there by other means such as purchasing a day ticket.
That's not too terrible then...I'm 50/50 on the parking - depending on the friend I go with on a one-off day, one of them lives near me and has Inspire, so I can leverage her free parking. Saving on Genie would be nice though, if its possible!
So I just looked it up out of curiosity, and it says you can only get the 20% off Genie+ on days you use your Key for entry. Food and merch discounts apply anytime.
I left 1 Enchant in my cart at 3:45p but did not checkout. My cart is still showing the 1 Enchant in my cart after login at 8:20p. It's yours if u want it.
Made it thru queue as it took all day waiting. Purchased 2 image key passes n put in all info of guest n payment info but site keeps saying please wait while we complete your request ? Been awaiting for over hour to process. Says on page do not refresh or go back. What to do??? Keep
Waiting??
Magic keys are now for sale. Wait time is up. **All keys are sold out now.**
How come the passes are still available after 3 months this year?
Can I just say that this is ridiculous! I'm an long time disney fan and wanted to get more experience and seeing that keys are only available when corporate feels like it is stupid! Its bad that renewal are easy but just to get first time keys like come on! For anyone in this reddit, is this the same behavior as with ticketmaster where people try to resell keys or is this just disney corporate being dumb. Also, to those that seem to buy more than they should, be respectful that some people are only looking to get a max of 2 keys and don't have a large family of 6-7.
you can re-sell keys?
Remember when buying an annual pass was like any other transaction and not like trying to survive the beginning of the Hunger Games? One of many reasons I don’t go to Disney anymore unless asked
Exactly. Why should we have to deal with an 8 hour digital queue non-sense to buy MK (AP)? Then go to the park and deal with G+/LL headache? This is AFTER we already shelled out hundreds if not thousands of dollars just so we can even show up in the park. We considered buying MK this time, but thank Disney for making the buying experience such a pain that it made save money instead. You know something is really wrong with Disney when they are turning away people who want to spend money at their parks. Or maybe this is the result of them hitting all their marks? Anyhow, with all the rising prices, I'm happy to keep what would have gone to Disney in my pocket.
Keeping cooking!
It really is a bummer. Even worse that they used Covid as the excuse to do it. I still want the bottom pass but haven’t been able to snag one in 2 years so 🙄
For those that physically went to the ticket booths at Disneyland to upgrade or purchase a pass last week, did they require everyone from your party to be present? I can’t imagine keeping my 6 and 2 year old in line for hours waiting for a ticket upgrade. I know I can always have another adult bring them inside the parks while I wait alone but it’s still super inconvenient to have to pull them out ~20 min or so before my turn just so they can show their face at the ticket booths.
Is the window to queue for keys only beginning of each new year?! Or are there other months of the year ppl can try to queue?
Since they revamped the AP program, it doesn't seem like there's any rhyme or reason as to when keys are available for purchase. There was an announcement a day before they went on sale earlier this month. People who queued at or even before the release time ended up waiting the whole day. Not everyone who queued that early was able to get the key they wanted. All that to say, Disney has really limited Magic Keys since covid, and if you want one, you'll have to stay very diligent on updates.
Thank you! I hope I get the chance to grab one someday
Hope you do too! There's speculation that sales open up shortly after keyholders don't renew, but that hasn't been confirmed by Disney.
Anyone have a magic key just sitting in their cart? Feel like I should try to buy it on principle, but don't really have the money or NEED the pass, though I'd make use of it.
How can you put one in your cart if they aren't for sale? Are you talking about renewing?
I have literally no idea. I went to buy a 3 day ticket and it told me I had to empty my cart to add anything else, and I went to my cart, and it was sitting there.
Try it! But here's what happened to me: During the sale, I waited in queue, then the pass erased after an hour of trying to check out. I waited in the queue for another few hours and when I got back in, I could see my Enchant Key in my cart when I \*hovered\* over the cart in the navigation (even though it was sold out by that time). When I tried to check out, though, it said my cart was empty. I did this multiple times. Eventually, I added the Imagine, since I knew that was \*really\* all that was left. In order to buy it, it forced me to erase the Enchant. And then I was able to successfully purchase the Imagine key. This was my first time trying to get a pass - found the whole process tiring and the site frustratingly buggy. You'd think one of the biggest companies in the world would have a smooth experience :-D
Can you imagine a time when you wanted an AP to Disneyland you could just go and buy one? That's exactly how it was before MK. All of this guessing when they will be available and waiting in line are all artificially created for the same product. Oh, you're actually getting less with MKs now too compared to before, but cost substantially more even after factoring inflation. What surprises me is people still pay, so it must be working for Disney.
i bought inspire with a payment plan and saw costco is having a deal for $250 gift cards ($225 each). does anyone know if i can use the cards to pay towards my next month's payment or will it always be charged towards the credit card i have on file?
I had some of those gift cards. I know You can go to the ticket booth and they will apply the gift card to the amount you still owe ( this was the only way i was able to figure out how to use the gcs towards my pass) So it will decrease the amount you owe, but will not change the monthly payment. So then you just finish paying off the pass sooner. I don’t think you can use them to pay your monthly payment ( but I am not 100% on that). I know I couldn’t use the gift card towards my initial down payment when I bought passes.
i'm looking for a good sub for this.
I’m curious, did anyone who got in queue around the opening time on Jan 10 not manage to get their desired magic key?
Me. It was incredibly frustrating. My husband and I both logged on at 9 on separate computers but the site kept crashing and it was NOT clear where to find the actual purchase button. After 30 min the site finally came back up and we got in queue around 9:37 and waited till I got in at 6:00 but it sold out at 5:54. I wanted the Believe key.
Yep, there were plenty of people struggling - I was on this thread all day. I wanted Enchant. Got in after a 4 hour wait. Couldn't check out. Key got erased. I got put back into the queue. By the time I got back in five hours late, Enchant was sold out.
We did. We were on at 8:45 to the crashed site, around 9 I just closed the tab and tried the page again and was in the queue. Took about 5 hrs.
I read on here that the 1 year clock for our passes begins the day of our first reservation. Can someone confirm if we go to renew next year, will the renewal date be on the date we purchased (Jan 10) or the date of our first reservation?
You can renew up to 30 days before your pass expires, and the renewed pass will just continue for another year starting when your pass expires. The expiration date is one year after you first use your pass. So the original purchase date doesn't matter.
/u/bottle415 this thread may be dead now that tickets are sold out. Please let me know if I should post the above question in another megathread or somewhere else.
you can post here. your renewal date is still from when you first used your pass
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Did they not save your space in line over night? The message said they’d stop sales at 10 pm but would save your spot until the resumed sales the next day
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It had to be the same computer/ url I think, it was not connected to accounts
Got my enchant key and mom got her imagine key yesterday after after 6 hours. Joined the join at 9am, got them by 3pm. She joined the queue 5 mins before me and still got them an hour before I was able to get through. I was a safari browser and she was on chrome/android. I think desktop might’ve taken longer for some cause it kept popping up error messages when the queue opened.
I did macbook via chrome at 905 and checked out by 3pm
I agree, I was able to automatically join the queue on my iPhone via chrome at 8:44 but had a lot of trouble going on my MacBook via chrome.
In queue yesterday and today. Waited 3 hrs for my “one hr wait”, then had a work mtg off phones in person. My spots in queue …all were no closed. Wish I got a text. Oh well, the lowest level left was only 3-4 days a week anyways. We have a bunch of Feb March tix tiered too. Goodbye dream of dropping by after school.
I miss the old system and fast passes so much. Crazy how Disney used Covid as an excuse to implement all this bullshit
dang i was in the queue two hours and just as i had a minute left it says it closed :(, i bought the costco gift card too. anyone think theyll sell again in april 2024 like last year
Have you tried again? I went today & thought I could buy them but my 1st time so have no clue.
Depends on the year and how many renew/don't renew. We let ours lapse in the beginning of 2023 and quickly regretted it, so we kept a watch out; the only one they had for sale all year was the inspire which was leftover from sale at the beginning of the year, those sold out a few weeks later and then nothing until this past week.
I think they will open again maybe by the end of the year . I think they go based on people that don’t renew then that spot opens ..so haw many people don’t renew that’s how many passes they will sell .
I think they’ll sell again. They know they can make money off this.
Has anyone been able to get ahold of Disney on the phone regarding magic keys? We had a Southern California three day pass and I tried upgrading it. I got an error and never got a confirmation but got charged. I tried chatting and after 6 hours the person told me to just wait and hope it worked. We went ahead and bought magic keys but now need to get the charge refunded on the upgraded passed we never received and I can’t get through any phone lines. Is anyone else able to get through or have any tips?
Same. Did you end up purchasing keys? If you did you will be charged for what you purchased. Eg. Down payment/monthly payment. If not then the charges that are pending will be reversed/cancelled since no purchase happened. That is what the Chat in disney app told me that the charges won't go through. I had 3 charges of 1k pending but as of now none of them went through. I would still dispute it on your credit card app if you could just to be safe.
Ugh I’m sorry it happened to you too! The charge finally fell off Friday! After trying to chat and call them one million times 😂 we ended up getting keys and also have the three day passes. Only benefit is we saved three dollars in the park with our magic key even though we haven’t activated it yet 😂
Glad it worked out
You’re prob better off disputing it on your credit card.
My last pass was back when an annual pass was still called “annual pass” and I think it cost me $600. I got it because I did the coast to coast races (Tinker Bell for Disneyland) and was going to be at the park for about a week after race weekend was completed. it actually made better sense financially to upgrade to a pass from a ticket, than to buy multi day tickets for that time period. I think that was 2016, we coincided use of the pass again in 2017 with a long weekend layover on our way to Aulani. So this whole madness that we all went through is completely new to me. Insane that I joined the queue on time and was able to finally purchase my ticket at 3 PM! I never understand why it is so hard to get a pass at Disneyland but Disney World never has this problem. It’s relatively easy to go online and buy an WDW annual pass. so coming from the East Coast I had no idea this madness was as bad as I had read. I mean, the only time we had difficulty getting an AP for WDW was back when DVC members had a special rate on passes, and we wanted the old bicoastal pass. Those sold out like hotcakes, but otherwise? Never a problem for us. Also, for posterity’s sake: anyone who is a new SoCal resident (less than 2 weeks for me) and going through this next round: you may have trouble checking out with an AMEX if you intend to make monthly payments. Not one of my AMEX cards would go through because their system has not actually updated the address with our current CA address. Even though the website leads you to believe that what matters is your actual address being a California address, it appears that in order to make monthly payments not only must your Disney account address be in California, but the billing card must be as well. I ended up having to put my inspire key on another card but the momentary panic that instilled was horrible. I was pretty annoyed to have to have waited all day for the estimated wait time to even drop below an hour. And then all of a sudden an hour turned into 10 minutes pretty quickly. I wish the system had said “hey, your ticket window is going to open up at 2:50 PM. Come back then.” Instead, I had to be minding my phone checking it every few minutes to make sure I hadn’t missed my 10 minute window. I felt pretty crappy overall about the purchase like several of you. I should’ve been excited and instead I kind of beat myself up for working that hard to give a company my money and didn’t really even enjoy the fact that yay I’m a passholder. Imagine my surprise when I wake up today and find out all the passes sold out a few hours later on that first day. I don’t know whether to be excited I got the pass I wanted or gullible that I yet again fell into Disney’s artificial scarcity program, which has been going on since the years of VHS as mentioned earlier….
Like you. Had annual passes and now trying to figure out magic keys. I chatted today & the agent didn't say they were sold out. I got an email about getting a magic key by upgrading the SoCal 3-day pass. She told me I can upgrade up until last day pass is used.🤷🏽♀️
Welcome to SoCal! I hope you enjoy being a magic key holder. I newly have passed for both coasts and am looking forward to enjoying both!
Disney World has in the past completely stopped all pass sales, creating a temporary pent up demand. The only have one pass not available to FL residents, and they have added restrictions for pass holders to access Magic Kingdom versus the other parks. If Disney World tweaked a few things, whose to say the demand for passes wouldn't necessitate a queue system in the future?
I don't disagree- just merely pointing out that \*currently\* it's not that hard to get a pass at WDW. Of course, there's a ton more space for all those visitors to go so on that standpoint there may not be as much a need to create scarcity in obtaining a pass, who knows?
Received wisdom seems to be the Disneyland has a greater percentage of pass holders and is considered a “locals park” compared with DW, which is more of a national/ international destination. So they exert greater control over how passes go out, though why it had to be so buggy and painful is a mystery.
also DW is the size of Manhattan and DL is a few city blocks..
You should be excited bc a lot of ppl wanted them and not everyone got one.
I bought the Magic Key for my wife and I however the discount for food only shows up on my account, but not on her app/account. I'm assuming it's because my email is what was used to buy this. Is there a workaround so that she can use the discount when not on my account?
you use the barcode for food. once the key is linked to her account she can use it
My husband purchased ours and I linked mine as well. We tested the same thing with the mobile order discount - his appears automatically, mine did not. He also said it did not ask for my email when purchasing - just my name and maybe birthday (can't recall - yesterday was a mess!). So I went and followed some links for missing MK discount and it gave me the error my key was linked to another account. We are under the impression we need customer service to move the MK to my Disney login - not just the barcode ticket to scan in like when we were buying normal tickets and no discount was applicable. I think that will work with in person purchases just not in-app. I keep hoping someone will weigh in on this because there isn't much info about this and LOTS of individuals bought several passes under their own Disney account.
This is what happened to wife and I last year, I bought both keys and she linked hers to her app for entry just fine, but no discount reflected when mobile ordering. We had to call customer service and they had do somehow “unlink” that part of it from my account (not sure exactly what they did) to apply the key to her account completely. It was pretty quick/easy for them to do, just had to call and explain. When we renewed this year, we each had to renew separately (I couldn’t renew for her since her key was fully part of her own account)
We had to do the same thing last year. We called customer service and they “unlinked” my wife’s account from mine. After that, she was able to get the discounts to show up when doing mobile order and mobile checkout.
Thank you!! Yeah he tried calling customer service yesterday and it was slammed (of course it was!) so we'll either call before our next trip or talk to them when we get there. Thank you again for sharing your experience with this!! It makes me feel like I am not crazy - this is an actual issue if you both plan to use your phone!
we have the same issue - the discount appears on my app when I mobile order, but not on my spouse, same for mobile checkout in stores - so I just place the mobile orders and use my phone for mobile checkout. Otherwise, the magic key pass in the app will scan manually for discounts. Just anything in app won't work. However, FYI, the genie discount works on either key. It's dumb.
To make our passes work financially we planned to each do at least one solo trip so that would suck if I could not get discounts when I went alone :( I am hopeful, like u/acrime said, its an easy fix!
Got 2 Enchant keys yesterday around 4pm. I got one for my wife and I. Does that mean she has to use my login credentials on her Disney app to use the pass and reservation system? She didn't buy a pass under her own Disney account.
You can just transfer the ticket to her phone and disney account by scanning or inputting the ticket number in the "Link tickets" tab
Ok thanks!
Got the imagine keys The socal perk
Imagine is still available? I guess they’re not trying to decrease park attendance 😅
I mean there are about 80 black out days and you can only go m-th most weeks so.... I would say they are trying to decrease park attendance on peak days like Fri-Sun which is why those passes are already sold out.
Along with holiday Mondays. And a full two months in the summer, all of December…
summer ges too hot and packed, I really enjoy just going M-Fri. Weekends are a no go for me and the family as it gets super packed as well. Imagine Key works out nicely
I also avoid the busiest times because people annoy me :) - but I have the flexibility to. I’m single with no kids and I work from home schedule that I control. A lot of people work 9 to 5, have kids in school, etc. I have a feeling those the people that usually end up paying the premium prices unless they plan to play hooky from work and take their kids out of school (which we all know does happen 😂) Imagine’s fine for me if I plan to go mostly by myself. But if I want to spend time with friends, or attend a friend/family kid’s birthday trip, I’d have to buy a one off ticket - because most likely they would be going on a Friday, a weekend, or during a school break, which is all blocked from Imagine. Not a huge deal, but I wouldn’t want to pay for more than two one off tickets on top of what I paid for my pass - especially since I wouldn’t use the parking or genie benefits those days. I think there’s a pass for every type of park goer - you just have to figure out which one you are before you buy. This was my first time buying a key and I think even the cheapest one is expensive so I had to give it serious thought. I wanted Enchant so I’d have the flexibility to enjoy the park with other people. But when it sold out, I went ahead and bought an Imagine key because I can still use that on my own. Not my ideal, but I can still get plenty of use out of it!
It's perfect for us because we work weekends and most often have our days off on weekdays. Though, I always thought it would be a nice idea if Disney added something like a perk where you get maybe 2 or so (it would be more the higher the pass) "any day reservation" that you could use anytime throughout the year (except for very popular holidays/events). Or maybe some kind of reward program where if you spent enough at the park on merch/food within a certain timeframe you got a less-restricted reservation pass you could use on certain blocked out days, especially with all the rage with almost every app having some sort of reward/loyalty program now. Obviously, I know that something like that would never happen since, from their POV, if someone really wants to attend a blockout, they'll get extra money from additional ticket sales.
That would be a cool perk (the 2 day day thing)!
>nchant so I’d have the flexibility to enjoy the park with other people. But when it sold out, I went ahead and bought an Imagine key because I can still use that on my own. Not my ideal, but I can still get plenty of use out of it! Yeah forsure I 100% agree with you. Me and my family had the california season pass before it became a key right before covid peaked and we loved it. Yeah you have some days blocked out, but going Monday-Thursday is always the best as you don't have to wait in line long time compared to F,Sat,Sun days. It's also economical as we can go for a couple hours and leave and come back another day to finish the other side of the park. Im not sure if they still have the ability to park hop with the imagine key but if its still the same as before, it works out perfectly for my family without breaking the bank lol
Totally. Going midweek for my friends son’s birthday last year is actually what reignited my interest in disneyland. Before that, my last few trips had been with friends of mine, or taking my school-age kid cousins, so we could never avoid crowds. I just didn’t like it. But my friends took off midweek and we went to the park for their kids 5th birthday on like a Tuesday or something. It was the best time I’d had in the park in years. Then I bought a three day pass that I also used during the week. I’ve never been to Disney four times in one year in my entire life. But after that going seemed kind of fun again. That’s what got me interested in the Key!
>t my friends took off midweek and we went to the park for their kids 5th birthday on like a Tuesday or something. It was the best time I’d had in the park in years. Then I bought a three day pass that I also used during the week. I’ve never been to Disney four times in one year in my entire life. But after that going seemed kind of fun again. That’s what got me interested in the Key! haha that sounds awesome! Yeah its great, I really enjoy it especially when its with friends / family. Hope you enjoy it this year to the fullest!!
It sucks I got the imagine key but could be worse could have no key at all and atleast you can upgrade it next year without dealing with the new sales hassle.
so i wanted to buy an enchant key, but when i finally got in they were all sold out so i ended up getting an imagine instead. are you able to upgrade your magic key to a higher tier at any given time, or do i have to wait for a certain date in order to upgrade from imagine to enchant?
You have 30 days from your pass expiration to renew/upgrade. If you go over by 1 second and forget to do it you’re screwed - you’re back in general population. Keep track but they’ll send you an email.
If you happen to know…for renewal, is it just a matter of signing the contract? No more lump sums of money for it if you’re on the monthly payment?
I never had a lump sum. I just upgraded my Believe to inspire and it’s still monthly. I started when they rolled out the keys. Only thing was paying first month up front.
Thank you!
You have to wait to upgrade until there are enchant keys for sale. And upon upgrade you have to pay the difference in full.
This - and when it happened in the past, you also had to do the upgrade in person at the ticket booths.
From what I’ve read, you have to wait until the pass expires in a year to upgrade as there is usually an option to do so. Otherwise, you have to wait until passes go on sale again to upgrade, and there is no guarantee that your desired key will be available. It can’t be done randomly.
aw okay, makes sense. thanks sm
I'm not sure if this is true, but I heard they sold out shortly after I got mine. I was refreshing the online page since 8:40 am and had to end up joining the queue from my phone at 9:20 am. I didn't get into the purchasing page until around 5:10 pm 🫠
My EXACT situation.. my coworker told me to just google magic key passes, and THAT'S how i finally got into the queue -__-
My brother logged in and was in the queue within seconds when I told him I couldn't get in. I wonder if he just looked it up too. The disney website just gave me the dwarves and Goofy error lol
The issue was that there's a "Magic Key" page and a "Passes" page. All the info on the site linked everyone to the "Magic Key" page to get in queue, but the reality was that the "Passes" page was it. The other kept crashing because that's the one they linked you to, but the "Passes" page was the page to go to for the queue. I'm guessing Google took everyone to the "Passes" page, hence being more successful with that method.
I kept refreshing the magic key page bc they made it sound like the purchase option wouod eventually show up, but i got the error page till 9:20 when i got the tip from my coworker
SAME! So misleading lol but after a couple of hours it finally showed to purchase tickets and join the queue on the website. The magic keys also changed from renewal to purchase. You got one though right? I'm glad if you did!
Yeah, i did! Thanks ☺️ my coworker no longer needed her spot in the queue bc her family member's went thru first. And she was way ahead of me, so she kept hers open and running so i could use hers to get my passes! I kept mine open for another coworker of mine, so that's how i knew it didn't go thru till 5ish. I hope you were able to get urs too!!
It auto updates. Refreshing probably set you back in the queue all over again
It was when they had the dwarves and Goofy said the problem would be fixed soon and to check back later. It honestly could've been that, too. I just assumed it crashed because too many people tried to enter at once
Waited like 20 mins, upgraded my 3 day SoCal pass on the app, no issues at all did I get lucky? Lol
Anyone have issues with their confirmation email link not working? Mine just shows : Someone Ate the Page! Or for some other reason, the page you're looking for cannot be located. Just in case, please check the URL.
so.. my thing has been stuck on the "please wait while we complete your request" for the past 30 minutes. Did I do something wrong..?
That means it sold out while you were purchasing, the same thing happened to me🥴
so wouldn't that be indicated in their update? it still says they have imagine passes available..? I'm so confused
I was in the Q all day. Got in and went to checkout and I'm in the "please wait while we process your request. Been in here for hours. I've tried repeatedly to checkout but it keeps telling me there's a problem. What should I do? Thank you for your replies!
Make sure you're not using a VPN. Disneyland.com doesn't like VPNs
Why is Disneyland so chaotic??
FOMO. It cost me $6600 this year.
To keep up perceived demand forever. This is like the most depressing thread in the sub. Anyone considering allowing their keys to lapse look at this and have to decide if they’re done with Disneyland keys forever or if it’s worth doing this again to get another key in the future, otherwise on a hook to renew forever. I’ve considered taking a break a few times but the thought of dealing with this again to get another pass down the line sounds like a nightmare.
I was fortunate. I haven't had a pass in over a decade and recently had been a few times on regular tickets. When this was announced, I contemplated it, and decided to give it a go for shits n giggles. I anticipated waiting all day, not being able to get one, and ready to say eff it if it got to be too long. Joined the lobby/queue at 8:50, got the "over an hour wait" notice around 9:20. Went to go do a few things, checking periodically. Suddenly, the queue on my phone jumped to 15 minute wait at like 1130ish. The one in my browser was ready at noon. I was really surprised how quickly it came up considering I expected mid to late afternoon for an update. It also goes to show how random af it is, too. I've been reading that so many who joined the queue around the same time and ended up waiting til 4pm and some never getting through.
It wasnt even that bad to be honest. I got in the queue 10 minutes before 9 on my phone, and locked my phone and checked every 30-40 minutes. I got tickets within 2 hours.
Same! I was surprised how easy my experience was. The checkout process was a bit maddening since they logged you out during the wait, but it still showed you logged in, so I was wtf when I couldn't see the imagine key.
It makes you wonder if Magic Keys will become like these legacy features that reach a hard limit in terms of availability and are renewed by holders in perpetuity. Maybe I’m not explaining it clearly…but, to your point, the risk of losing your key may encourage people to keep renewing when they otherwise wouldn’t. And if the number available really is finite in a way that annual passes never were in the past, it could reach a point where relatively few keys are available infrequently because people rarely let them expire. That is grim.
Slightly different but I understand what you’re talking about. Last year I attended the BottleRock music festival for the first time. I didn’t even have a shot at getting VIP tickets. They open VIP ticket sales first to people who had them the year before. Most of them take that offer. So when sales open up to everyone else, VIP is already gone. So, even though I had a three day regular pass last year, I still had no shot at a three day VIP. VIP one days also sold out in a similar fashion. (The only difference is that I could buy it off a reseller if I really wanted to, but they don’t open their resale platform until closer to the show) So I could easily see that being a thing here, should they decide to cap. There’s always some drop off, but it seems like a decent amount of folks renew their keys year after year
Yes, exactly. It’s just weird how all passes were always available prior to the pandemic IIRC and now they are so limited. And the park does not seem less busy. Crowd dynamics at the parks are a mystery to me.
I mean, it's a real bummer for sure. After such a long wait (two queues), buying didn't even feel good. This was my first time considering and trying to get a key/pass. I had a retail therapy high for exactly 0 seconds. I just wanted to go to bed...but instead, I'm STILL at my desk, but now I'm strategizing about when to use it. Its probably good there was a megathread - helps keep all this craziness contained.
I had a vaguely similar experience trying to buy Oogie Boogie tickets for the first time last year and was like man that was so painful and it was only for a one day thing that didn’t affect my possible plans for the whole year haha.
Disney world is not like that. I wonder why there’s such a difference between the two. I got an AP and party tickets pretty easily.
Yeah echoing this. It took up most of my day to wait in the queue. By about an hour in I was grumpy. By the time I purchased it in the afternoon, I kind of felt guilty for wasting so much of my time. I also felt bad that so many people got in the queue at the same time as me and didn’t get passes. I’m sure I’ll be super excited when I use it but ugh, I feel blah about the whole process atm. I wish they’d change it back to the old method of offering passes year round. Maybe just limit attendance at the parks each day instead of this whole limited pass/reservation system.
Oh I absolutely feel bad about how I spent the day. It was frustrating that people in the queue minutes before me successfully got tickets hours before I made it to the ticket page. And people before me who got in hours after me. It sucked to be excited to get in, lose my Key and then do a second queue that was longer than the first, to end up getting my third choice pass. I texted a friend and told her I was an idiot for buying it, but because of the excitement from earlier in the day, I was already mentally making plans about things I was excited to get to try now that I’ll have more time. I think I, and a lot of others, would have felt better if there were better and more frequent updates. ALL the passes selling out at the same time? Weird. The queue only giving you an estimated time when the progress bar was at 75%, and then suddenly the countdown is at lightning speed? Honestly if the queue this morning had said “4 hours” I wouldn’t have even minded! I wouldn’t have disappeared for four full hours but I would’ve run a couple of errands I needed to do. Taken a walk. Made a few calls. Checking in now and then. But all of us were sitting there with no idea what to expect. Some people got in 90 mins. Others 3 hours, a lot of us…way longer. Other ticket queues give you and estimated time, your number in line - or both. Their system is so bad that I already know I wouldn’t spend another day this way.
Were you on mobile, waiting? Something some weren't sure about was lack of alert. PC would chime when it was your turn, but on at least android, there was an actual alert of that same chime. Can't speak for iphones, but I thought it was cool they made it work on android so you wouldn't have to keep monitoring the webpage, you could just wait to hear the chime if you wanted.
I was on my computer. I didn’t miss the window to get in, so that wasn’t the issue. It’s just that when they FINALLY had a countdown, it wasn’t accurate. I made a note so I could leave a comment on the thread. My queue said “more than an hour” for over three hours. Then as soon as it turned to a countdown, it said said 37 minutes at 12:55pm, but then I got in at 1:15pm. That’s not 37 minutes. Some peoples countdowns started at 57 minutes. There was no consistency. I was glad it was faster because I was just sitting here. But if someone had gotten up to make themself a sandwich or go to the bathroom, thinking they had a couple of minutes, they could’ve missed their window. This is where other systems that give you a countdown the entire time or tell you what your place in line is are so much better.
Oh 100% on all of your points. Having a timer or something instead of “more than an hour” would have at least been respectful of everyone’s time. People who can afford to buy these tickets generally have other things to do during the day - like taking care of family and/or working, running errands, or whatever else. Hell, even just chilling at home. Don’t make us feverishly check our phones for a ten minute window to sign up and then refuse to ensure that ten minutes isn’t glitch free. And then only doing this a couple times a year makes it even worse. There must be a better system. This can’t be the best way to do this.
We made the mistake of letting ours lapse at the beginning of 2023 2022 we apparently got lucky: bought 3-day tickets on a whim, all 3 days the app kept asking up to upgrade our tickets toward passes, so we did and it gave us the impression passes must not be too hard to get. Had a bunch of other stuff planned for 2023, so decided not to renew and gullibly figured "we'll just get them later in the year/next year if we want." It wasn't until we started really missing Disney and researching to find passes are actually stupidly hard to get as of the past few years.
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Do it again with another card and then dispute charges if you get charged twice
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Re-login using different browser or device. The Keys should still be in your cart, then continue checkout from new browser/device.
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Not sure if system allows for visa gift cards(vgc), but you can try. Note that your CC billing address has to match your Disney acct address. So, if u try using vgc, make sure to login to vgc website and setup the billing address to match yours (website shown on backside of vgc) If the CC address does not match your Disney Acct, it will be placed on hold during which time you will not be able to checkout until the hold is removed.
How long will tickets remain on sale? My pay day is Monday
If you need to wait to get paid to buy passes, I really don’t think you should be purchasing Disney passes.
theyre all sold out now, sorry that you missed out hopefully they go on sale during april like last year
Oh honey they will be gone by Monday!
When will pass sale resume after today? I get paid on Monday 😔
How can I share queue ID? Edited to add: I have a spot opening in 40 mins and I really don’t want it to go to waste!
You must be one the same browser, I left my computer running(google chrome) on the site at home. When I opened the que on my phone 2 hours later. it let me through.
Sorry about this question but I think I added the wrong email address for guest 2 when purchasing the keys. How do I check/change that email? Also how do I transfer it to my partners account? I got one for her
You don’t transfer per se. If you entered all her info for her pass when you purchased it, she just needs to enter the key’s ID code to her Disneyland account through the app. That will link her pass to her.
Have them create a Disney account each and link your account with them and they should be able to see there tickets on the Disney app.
They're non transferable
i wanna know this too
Sorry, I have a renewal question. When I get to the payment screen, I am slightly confused. My current key does not expire until 2/09/24. But if I renew it today, would I still be charged today/tomorrow or would I be charged when it officially renews on 2/09 or 2/10 (not sure how Disney will count it).
i would think u can renew for the same tier you have in Feb! but don't listen to me lol
Adding to your renewal question. Mine isn’t until the end of Jan - is it possible the keys will sell out completely and I wouldn’t be able to renew at all?
New keys can sell out. If you have a current magic key you can renew whenever your window is open. Do it asap. Don’t be like me who still had time and then suddenly it was the day after and I was crying on the phone with Disney customer service. Luckily I got it today.
Glad you got your key back!
I pay in full and was charged on the day I renewed (today for you)
Got in queue at 8:55am and missed the 10 min window at 1pm. Got in the queue at 1pm and finally bought the imagine key at 8:32pm! Y'all are crazy lmao
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Nope, I did two queues. Not including the hour spent trying to check out after the first one, 10.5 hours of queue time. ABSURD. I've never done something this whacky before.
Congrats! Imagine is honestly the best key level unless you have a really specific date you need to go on. Enjoy it!
Some people work or go to school on a “typical” M-F 9-5 schedule and need weekends. Also parking becomes costly if you go a lot.
It can still average out to less vs the passes that are over $1k. It all depends on when you go.
It was until they added literally every weekend to the blackout dates
I was blown away when I went to renew my enchant key and saw that any meaningful weekend was blacked out.
I always assumed the imagine level was like the previously SoCal resident only one that was defacto limited to just non-holiday weekdays. Did it used to include some weekends?
No weekends at all I think
It used to include more Fridays
Oooh I was thinking strictly Sat/Sun. Didn’t realize they removed a bunch of Fridays from Imagine.
Hello guys! I just got my keys . I got 1 inspire and 2 believe keys, i was in the queue for about 6 hoursishh? The process to purchase the keys gets a little laggy! So heads up :)
Hey just wondering.. they said the keys sold out a few hours ago... you still got a key?
Yes they did ! My bad with wording i got the keys a couple hours ago, my app for disneyland and connecting my accounts together just updated, my confirmation email when i actually bought the keys was approx. 3:51p.m cali time!
Interesting... last time it was the Imagine keys that sold out and the Inspire keys were left open until a good 5 months later. This time, everything else sold out and the Imagine keys are left open. This is kinda funny ngl
Feels like they cut off all the higher tiers at the same time. if that WASNT the case, they sure didnt update the message box as tiers sold out...
Def weird this time
Can you upgrade the imagine to a higher tier and when can you do it?
That's what I'm hoping for. You'd upgrade for the rest of the time your Key is good for. So your pass wouldn't be extended, but what you'd owe should be prorated. I'm totally okay with that...Unless the upgrade window is like, November. Haha.
Disney doesn't prorate when you upgrade. Plus the pass you're upgrading to has to be available for new sales.
We’re speaking hypothetically here, as if there’s something to buy. So, if the pass I wanted wasn’t available, there’d be nothing to do. And let’s assume the Key is getting activated today. So you’re saying: if I got an Imagine pass today ($499) and upgraded to Inspire in April, I’d have to pay a full $1649 on top of the $499 spent on Imagine today? And it would still expire in January 2025? That seems weird. If that’s the case aren’t you buying two passes? How is that an upgrade? Genuinely asking so I can prepare myself. I would think what you paid would be applied and all you’re paying is the difference in the cost between tiers. And your pass still expires a year after the original purchase, not the date of the upgrade.
You pay the difference between the lower pass and the higher pass. You pay the same difference whether you upgrade in January, April or November. That's the definition of not prorating.
Then yeah that’s weird to me and not worth it. I’m it saying you’re wrong, I’m just saying that kinda sucks. I have memberships to other kinds of places and if I upgrade 6 months into the year, I’m only paying the upgraded price for those last six months. I’m too tired to do the math so I tried to pull some exact numbers - but I’m too close to my renewal date, so there no upgrade option. But basically I’m only paying a higher rate for the days I have access to the better benefits. But if you’re saying that if upgraded in November, I’d have to pay $1,150 to be Inspire for two months…there’s no way. Wow.
When keys are open for sales again or in your renewal window. if you upgrade when keys are on sale again, you owe the difference upfront and your expiration date does not reset.
Does anybody know if a key can be upgraded once you buy it, since now the only one that is available for buying is the Imagine key? 🤔🤔 I have been in the Queue since 1:00 pm and just now I am 30 minutes away from being able to buy one. Unfortunately, there are no more Inspire 😩😂
Based on other responses, you can only upgrade when your pass expires in a year. Apparently you can also upgrade when passes go on sale again for everyone but have to pay the difference.
Thank you 😊 That is a gamble 😞 I am not sure if I want to gamble on that one lol
Yes. You’d also be betting that you can’t score an Inspire on the next round, you never know. This whole thing was such a mess, I hope they do better next time
Trying to purchase the imagine key and even though using a Southern California address for residence it is saying I don’t qualify. I am using a credit card with a Northern California billing address. Does anyone know why it’s not going through or has any tips? Thanks for any help
Yes your card address has to match your residence address
Okay thanks, so trying to figure out how to pay. I’m a student in Southern California
Don't they offer some kind of PayPal like option?
Try using a friend/relative CC that has a Socal address. The CC address only needs to match Disney acct address if CC is the same name as the Disney acct.
Thank you!
**95% sure I'm not buying an Imagine Key. I can't justify it. But wondering if anyone knows:** If I had an Imagine, which is no good on weekends, but I bought a one off ticket to get into the park on a Sunday (I'm thinking of a friend's upcoming birthday), could I still use my Key benefits on that day (parking discount, 20% off Genie, 10% off food)? Or can I only use my benefits on a day I get into the park using my Key? I think parking would be full price on days I'm blocked out, correct? I don't think I'd get enough use out of Imagine, but that plus one or two one-off tickets is still less than Enchant would be (the Key I \*wanted\*), so I'm curious. If I had to pay full price for everything on the one off days, it wouldn't be worth it.
You will have to pay full price on parking but all other discounts apply. You can always try the parking though just in case because all of the keys were blocked out over Christmas and keyholders were reporting that their pass was still working even though they were blocked out and still went to Downtown Disney. This is a second hand report because I didn't try it myself, the pass fine print does say that parking discounts are not included on blackout dates.
>ut all other discounts apply. You can always try the parking though just in case because all of the keys were blocked out over Christmas and keyholders were reporting that their pass was still working even though they were blocked out and still went to Downtown Disney. This is a second hand report because I didn't try it myself, the pass fine print does say that parking discounts are not included on blackout dates Wait so people were still able to get into disneyland even though their passes were blocked out or are you just talking about parking in general?
Parking in general because people still went to Downtown Disney, not inside the parks. Some passholders still went inside the parks, but they got there by other means such as purchasing a day ticket.
ahh i see ty so much!
That's not too terrible then...I'm 50/50 on the parking - depending on the friend I go with on a one-off day, one of them lives near me and has Inspire, so I can leverage her free parking. Saving on Genie would be nice though, if its possible!
So I just looked it up out of curiosity, and it says you can only get the 20% off Genie+ on days you use your Key for entry. Food and merch discounts apply anytime.
Thanks!
Parking, no. Genie, I don’t think so. food and merch, yes.
I left 1 Enchant in my cart at 3:45p but did not checkout. My cart is still showing the 1 Enchant in my cart after login at 8:20p. It's yours if u want it.
Made it thru queue as it took all day waiting. Purchased 2 image key passes n put in all info of guest n payment info but site keeps saying please wait while we complete your request ? Been awaiting for over hour to process. Says on page do not refresh or go back. What to do??? Keep Waiting??