Southern California resident Jenale Nielson has filed a $5 million lawsuit against Disney, claiming the Magic Key program is deceptive and manipulative. She states that Disneyland treats Magic Key holders as “second class” because they limit the amount of reservations and the number of key holders that can visit on any particular day.
For example, Disney’s reservation system can only take x amount of Magic Key reservations in a day, regardless of the capacity status. They do this to ensure that those visiting the park and paying full price for a ticket are guaranteed to be admitted. This is what Nielsen is calling deceptive for the highest tier of Key, which is supposed to have no black out days.
If she wanted to go on any given day and there were no more reservations available, it would essentially be blocking her out. But if she would plan her trip even just a week or two out it wouldn’t have been an issue.
Nielson holds a Dream Key Pass which is the highest tier and at the moment sold out. Despite the actual pass being sold out there are quite a few days that can be reserved. Though users of the system are saying that the reservation system is confusing and difficult to use. And though weekends are blocked out in the near term, planning ahead by just a few months would ensure your visit. You’ll notice in the screen clip above that all weekends are available in February.
Nielsen said she was interested in turning it into a class-action lawsuit for all pass holders but has made no effort to do as such.
“The problem was not that Disney had reached its capacity and therefore could not provide reservations to its Dream Key passholders. The problem was that Disney had decided to block out reservations so that they were only available to new purchases and were not available to Dream Key passholders. Disney appears to be limiting the number of reservations available to Dream Key passholders on any given day in order to maximize the number of single day and other passes that Disney can sell,” according to the suit via OC Register.
Nielson is probably most upset that she had to purchase tickets to go on the days she wanted even though she held Dream Key status. The suit says that Disney is being unfair, unlawful and are breaching their contract with pass holders. She also states that Disney is practicing deceptive business methods and advertising it in a way that is confusing on purpose.
But seriously, the fact that she sees the pass as “status” and feels they treat her as a “second class citizen” is pretty telling. We all knew that Disneyland wouldn’t be the same post pandemic, it’s just harder for some people to adjust.
