Magic Keyholder Andrew Rich found out the hard way that Disneyland has a Magic Key Review Board and Revocation Team after he sold a pair of Sweethearts’ Nite tickets on eBay and had his annual pass revoked for a year.
Andrew and his wife, Jen, both in their 50s, are hard-core Disney fans who have been annual passholders since the late 1990s and travel to Disneyland from their home in Spokane, Washington, half a dozen times a year.
They renewed their Disneyland Magic Key passes in September — paying $2,198 for a pair of Believe passes.
Just before Christmas, Rich bought Sweethearts’ Nite tickets as a Valentine’s gift.
During the holidays, the couple spent New Year’s Eve at Disneyland, flew to Florida for the Disney World Marathon Weekend, hopped on a cruise aboard the Disney Wish and then jetted back to Anaheim for the Disneyland Half Marathon.
After the New Year’s trip, they both came down with COVID-19 — forcing them to cancel their plans to travel to Disneyland for Sweethearts’ Nite on Feb. 6.
Rich put the tickets for the sold-out event up for sale on eBay — without reading the fine print on his annual pass or the special event tickets.
“To ensure somebody would use the tickets, I offered them for sale at face value,” Rich said by email.
The tickets got snapped up almost immediately.
That’s when the trouble started.
An eagle-eyed Disneyland fan notified the park that Sweethearts’ Nite tickets were being resold on eBay and Rich immediately lost his annual pass privileges.
“Because I was logged into my Magic Key account when purchasing the tickets, my Magic Key privileges were revoked for one year,” Rich said by email.
His annual pass suspension stretches to Jan. 24, 2025.
The Disneyland website says special events tickets may not be resold or transferred. Disney reserves the right to cancel, suspend or revoke any Magic Key pass at any time for any reason, according to the park’s website.
Issues related to Magic Key policy are handled on a case by case basis, according to Disneyland officials. Guests with extenuating circumstances are encouraged to contact Disneyland regarding potential options based on ticket type, according to Disneyland officials.
Over the past few months, Rich discovered through calls to Disneyland’sMagic Key Revocation Team that appeals were not accepted.
Rich wrote follow up letters to Disneyland Resort President Ken Potrock and Disney Parks Chairman Josh D’Amaro admitting with a “heavy heart and regret” that he’d broken the rules and took full responsibility for his mistake.
The Disney executives — through their representatives — declined to overrule the decision of the Magic Key Review Board.
Besides losing his pass, Rich learned he’d get no refund for the 257 unused days on his revoked $1,099 Believe annual pass that he paid for in full.
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The monthly payment plan would not have saved him any money. A member of Disneyland’s Executive Correspondence team told Rich that Magic Keyholders must continue making monthly payments after their annual passes are revoked — before wishing him a magical day.
Feeling unfairly treated and with no recourse, Rich now calls the consequences for selling his Sweethearts’ Nite tickets a “wildly out of scale response” to a comparatively minor infraction.
Rich reached out to the nonprofit consumer advocacy organization Elliott Advocacy to intervene with Disneyland on his behalf. Disney told Elliott Advocacy it would not consider changing its decision.