The Walt Disney Company will be paying out nearly $10 million in settlements to ticket buyers who purchased “All-Access Passes” only to find out later that they were more like “Some Access Passes.”
If approved by the court, the settlement will bring an end to more than 18 months of litigation around a class-action lawsuit filed in 2021, according to CNN.
Jenale Nielsen filed the suit after she spent nearly $1,400 on a “Dream Key” pass that turned out to be more of a nightmare.
She had been promised that the pass would work on any day, but when she tried to book a visit to Disneyland’s Anaheim, California, parks in November 2021, half of the days she looked at were blacked out.
She kept looking and realized that she could purchase a new ticket for the days her “Dream Key” pass wouldn’t cover, which told her that the park wasn’t at capacity. She just couldn’t get in using her pass.
She filed suit the following month, claiming that thousands of others may have received a similar experience from the happiest place on earth.
In fact, the settlement proposal says that over 100,000 people may be members of the affected class.
Disneyland officials were said to be “satisfied that this matter has been resolved,” according to a statement attributed to them by CNN.
However, a judge will have to give final approval to the deal and all of its terms according to University of California, Los Angeles, law professor David Marcus.
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“This step, where the parties announced that they’ve reached a settlement, is really the first step in a series that will take a minimum of 3 months to complete,” Marcus told the outlet.
Class members will be eligible to receive $67.41 each from Disney under the terms of the settlement proposal, but even that small amount will be months coming.
Pass-holders should be notified about the settlement soon, and then the judge will hold a hearing to seal the deal.
“Only after that final approval can people expect to see a check,” Marcus told CNN.
The “Dream Key” was launched in 2021 and for $1,399 promised “admission to one or both theme parks every day of the year,” according to a description on the Disney website.
The fine print, however, noted that “The number of theme park reservations that may be held at a time during a specific booking window is dependent on pass type and is subject to availability and other rules and restrictions, including excessive ‘no-show’ rules.”
The newer version, called the “Inspire Key,” sells for $200 more and promises “Reservation-based admission to one or both theme parks most days of the year, subject to availability of park reservations allocated to Magic Key passes, applicable pass blockout dates, and the Magic Key Terms and Conditions.”
Attendance at Disney’s theme parks has been strong in the post-pandemic era, but disappointing streaming revenue has helped push its stock price down by more than 57 percent off of its March 2021 high.
