Well, one day in and Universal's passholders are connecting, all right. And they're rallying around one message: "We want plastic annual pass cards!" — not the current paper ones. Here are a few of the comments:
You pay several hundred dollars for a year long pass that you're expected to present for purchases and express pass, and they give you the cheapest piece of paper ever. Step it up UO! Even a laminated pass would be better.
My $60 six flags season pass came on a plastic card...but my $480 universal season pass comes on a pice of paper?
What do we want? PLASTIC PASSES. When do we want it? Anytime it's convenient, really.
I haven't been a Universal Orlando passholder since Universal Studios Florida's first year, but my pass back then was plastic. Here in California, Universal Studios Hollywood also distributes paper APs (at least to the "buy-a-day, get-the-year" passholders), which simply don't hold up as well in the wallet as Disneyland's plastic AP cards.
Of course, there's a third alternative — an annual pass that doesn't require a card. Whether it's on a MagicBand or a smartphone app, electronic annual passes provide another way for loyal visitors to get into the parks. Now, if only Disneyland's smartphone app allowed AP holders to get their discounts and Fastpasses without having to bring their card into the park, too.
Perhaps Universal could take this up a step and program interactive Wizarding World of Harry Potter wands to function as an annual pass, inspired by the scene in Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows where a Gringotts goblin accepts Bellatrix's wand as a form of identification. Now that would be cool!
What's the most convenient form of an annual pass for you?
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I have no problem also having a MagicBand, as I do with the Disney Parks Premier Passport, but the trouble with MagicBand pass is that you still need the actual AP to get the passholder discounts. I cannot for the life of me figure out why the passholder status cannot automatically attach to the transaction charged to the MagicBand, but it doesn't. So if I am carrying a card, let me have a durable card.
For that matter, every time I use the card for discount or parking, they ask me for photo ID. I do not keep my park passes (used seasonally, usually) in the same wallet as my DL, passport, so this always involves frisking myself looking for where the photo ID is. I would prefer either like Disneyland turnstiles and have the photo appear on a display (and spread that to point of sale also), or (lower tech) put a photo on the card.
I still have my Busch Gardens plastic pass with my photo on it so I don't have to use the fingerprint scanner.
I wonder if having paper passes is a bit of a conspiracy to entice people to buy the lanyards at the park. Universal tends to have several lanyard kiosks at the front of both Florida parks with different themed ones as well.
If I was spending the type of money that a UO AP costs, I would definitely want a hard plastic ticket.
Of course things like the fingerprint scan should still be in effect. And a physical pass of some sort should still given out for the phone-less... Just my two coins
I don't know the exact costs, but I believe the water resistant thermal paper used for most APs is probably just as expensive, if not more so, than plastic cards. However, there would be a cost to switch out all of the printers to switch from paper to plastic. Also, I know Busch Gardens/Sea World use the same cards/printers to print day passes, food vouchers, and quick queue, so changing to plastic passes would be an added cost.
I think having to carry a bulky magic band and carry a plastic card for discounts like Disney Anuual pass holders who stay in Disney hotels would be worse then only having to worry about one paper card and a plastic room key. I don't want to be banded like a cow
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