Disneyland Reaches Settlement in $5 Million Dollar Magic Key Lawsuit
Disneyland has reached a settlement in what’s being called the “Magic Key lawsuit.” The Los Angeles Times is reporting that an agreement between the parties has been reached.
Related – Disneyland Magic Key Price Increase, Renewals, and Changes
Magic Key holder, and self-described Disney enthusiast Jenale Nielsen, brought the lawsuit against Disney on behalf of all Dream Key pass holders. The suit accused Disney of deceiving people who bought top-tier annual passes thinking they would get unlimited access to the parks only to find that they were blocked in favor of daily-pass purchasers.
Both parties have until the end of next month to hash out the details of a preliminary agreement and formally ask the court to approve it. “We are satisfied that this matter has been resolved,” Disney officials said in a statement emailed to The Times.
Nielsen filed the lawsuit in 2021 after she purchased the Dream Key (the top-tier annual pass) for $1399. At the time, Disney advertised the pass has having no “block-out dates”. However, Disney required all guests to make park pass reservations and Nielsen soon discovered that she couldn’t make reservations for almost any of the days she wanted to visit the parks.
“As a frequent Disneyland visitor, Ms. Nielsen thought it unlikely that all tickets and/or reservations for both Disneyland and California Adventure had already been sold out for seventeen of the 30 calendar days in November 2021,” the suit says.
Nielsen checked the Disneyland website and found that park pass reservations were still available for single- and multiple-day ticket buyers.
“The problem was not that Disney had reached its capacity and therefore could not provide reservations to its Dream Key pass holders,” the suit says. “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 pass holders.”
Disney denies any wrong-doing, stating that reservations were “subject to availability and are not guaranteed for any specific dates or park.” Nielsen argues that Magic Key Holders did not expect Disney to “artificially limit” the number of reservations available.
The settlement notice was filed last Thursday and says the agreement will resolve the case “in its entirety on a class-wide basis.” We don’t have answers regarding the proposed terms or the dollar amount of the settlement.
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