Review: Why you should get a Disneyland Flex annual pass right now

If you’re in the market for a Disneyland annual passport, you should buy the Flex pass — immediately.

Disneyland’s Flex pass seemed too good to be true, but somehow the new annual passport has surpassed even my high expectations.

If you’re in the market for a Disneyland annual passport, you should buy the Flex pass — right now.

The Flex pass can save you hundreds of dollars a year on your annual pass and get you into Disneyland and Disney California Adventure nearly every day of the year.

Disneyland issued me a complimentary Flex pass in May to test out during the initial launch of the new $599 annual passport. So far, I’m in love. The love affair is still in its passionate beginnings stage, so there is still plenty of time for disillusionment. But at the moment, I’m ready to get down on one knee and make Flex my forever annual pass.

Believe me, it’s taken a long time to make the leap again. Because I’ve been burned before by the Disneyland annual pass. I was in a long-term relationship with the Disneyland annual pass that lasted 17 years until I couldn’t take the constant price increases anymore. It was never a fair relationship. Disneyland kept taking away perks like parking and adding more block-out dates while charging more for less.

I finally broke it off with the Disneyland annual pass in 2017 when I realized my four to five visits per year were costing me nearly as much as the daily general admission ticket price.

I’ve met a lot of other spurned lovers over the years that have broken up with their Disneyland annual passes and they all tell a very similar story. It just became too expensive. There just wasn’t enough return on investment to justify the continually increasing costs. They miss the good times, but not the big bills.

But enough about the bad ol’ days. Let’s talk about young love.

First, the basics. The new annual pass comes with a unique twist: Flex pass holders need to make advance reservations to get into Disneyland and Disney California Adventure on busy days. In theory, the Flex pass offers visitors access to Disneyland and California Adventure every day of the year but the two weeks around Christmas. In practice, Flex pass holders could face more than 200 block-out days a year when reservations are required.

When I first got the Flex pass I was really worried that I was going to get blocked from the park all the time. But that has never happened. Except for the Fourth of July, Disneyland has never blocked the Flex pass on a “requires reservation” day. Which means, so far, the $599 Flex pass has worked just like the $1,149 Signature pass at nearly half the cost.

The first few weeks I had the Flex pass I religiously booked the maximum two dates at a time out of fear that the dates I wanted to go to the park would be blocked out at the last minute. I would show my Flex pass at the Disneyland front gate and immediately make another reservation a few feet inside the park. It took me about a month to realize my fears were completely unfounded. The last few times I’ve been to Disneyland I booked my reservation as we headed out the door from home to the park. Once I booked a reservation while I was sitting in Downtown Disney because I figured, “Why not, I’m here.” Currently I have no reservation dates booked on my Flex pass. Why worry? I can go any day I want. Now that’s a trusting relationship.

That’s not to say everything is perfect with the Flex pass. Its Achilles heel is the lack of parking tied to the pass. That means the more you use the Flex pass, the more it costs. Disneyland’s $25 daily parking fee serves as a de facto users fee built into the Flex pass. And that’s not lost on Disney’s number crunchers. It’s no accident the Flex pass launched just as the $100 million Pixar Pals parking structure was opening. Disney’s got to pay for that garage somehow.

Another minor issue I have with the Flex pass is the inability to cancel your reservation when you book on the day of your visit. Now that I’m doing that regularly, it’s become more of a problem. That means you can’t cancel your reservation if you book at the last minute.

Disney allows Flex pass holders to make last minute cancellations up until 11:59 p.m. the night before your visit. After three no shows, Flex pass holders will find their existing reservations canceled and a hold put on new reservations.

Once I went to the park for an hour just so I wouldn’t end up in the Disney doghouse. On the spur of the moment, I made a last minute Flex pass reservation and then made other plans for the evening. That’s not the world’s biggest problem, but it would be nice if Disney gave same-day bookers an hour-long grace period to bow out.

One unexpected consequence of the Flex pass is that I’m ending up at Disneyland on really busy days. That never used to happen when I had the Deluxe annual pass. I loved the Deluxe pass because it was typically blocked out on the busiest days of the year when locals don’t need to be anywhere near the parks. I miss that unintended backstop.

I was also worried that the unfettered access of the Flex pass would come to an abrupt end when all the annual pass holders who were blocked out all summer started returning. But so far, those fears also appear unfounded. Flex pass reservations are still available on the dates when Deluxe passholders can return to Disneyland on Aug. 19 and Southern California passholders can return to the park on Aug. 26. Flex pass reservations are not required when SoCal Select passholders can return to Disneyland on Sept. 3.

Breaking up with your existing annual pass could be hard to do. As you might expect, Disneyland doesn’t want annual pass holders with the $1,149 Signature or $799 Deluxe passes dialing them down to the cheaper $599 Flex. On the other hand, the Mouse is happy to upgrade pass holders with the lower-priced Southern California and Southern California Select passes to the Flex.

Of course, not everybody needs a Disneyland annual pass. I once heard a Walt Disney Imagineer refer to Disneyland as Southern California’s country club. It’s a luxurious perk of living so close to the Happiest Place on Earth.

I understand $600 is a lot of money and there are many other things that are more necessary in life than getting into Disneyland. I also agree that Disneyland is expensive and annual pass prices have skyrocketed in recent years. If you don’t want to go to Disneyland or you think it’s too expensive, that’s your prerogative. Feel free to vent in the comments section below.

But for those in the market for a more affordable way to get into Disneyland, the Flex annual pass is an amazing bargain. My advice: Get a Flex pass right now before everybody has one and Disneyland has to actually start using the “reservation unavailable” option.