Clad in a two-tiered ruffled dress, Minnie Mouse ears and a folding fan, all made of recycled Disney parks merch bags, Patt Haro reminisced about the days, decades ago, when Disneyland’s annual pass was just $99. Haro, 65, and her similarly decked-out husband, Richard, 66, have been annual pass holders for more than 40 years. The Fontana couple used to buy passes for loved ones as Christmas presents.
“Prices have definitely gone up,” said Haro, who also works as travel planner specializing in Disney trips. But that hasn’t stopped the couple’s tradition of visiting Disneyland every Sunday in coordinated, handmade outfits, similar to their get-up at the D23 Disney convention in Anaheim this weekend. For their most recent annual passes, known as a “Magic Key,” they paid about $1,600 — which Richard Haro estimates works out to $20 a day.
“It’s really worth it to us,” he said. What keeps them coming back? “The magic,” Patt Haro said, with a smile. At Disney’s biennial fan event this weekend at the Anaheim Convention Center, even the biggest fans acknowledged the higher prices for theme park admission and grumbled about the move to paid line-skipping perks.
But D23 attendees, a self-selecting group of superfans, were far from willing to cut out trips. That is good news for the Burbank media and entertainment company, which last week reported relatively soft financial results in its experiences division , which includes the theme parks, cruise line and me.