Earlier this year, Disneyland discontinued its regular Annual Pass program and later introduced its new annual pass program — Magic Key.

The different types of Magic Key passes come with their own perks and benefits regarding things like blockout dates, etc. But Magic Key holders must also abide by Disneyland’s current theme park reservation requirement. At the moment, all guests planning to visit the parks, including Magic Key holders, must have a park reservation for the park/day they want to visit. Sometimes park reservations can fill up for select guests. Now, a Magic Key holder has filed a lawsuit against Disney Parks and Resorts regarding Magic Key passes and park reservations.

According to the Orange County Register, a lawsuit has been filed against Walt Disney Parks and Resorts regarding Disneyland’s Magic Key passes. The lawsuit alleges that “Disneyland deceived its most loyal fan base by artificially limiting theme park capacity and blocking passholders with ‘no blockout’ annual passes from making reservations.”

The Orange County Register reports that the $5 million suit was filed on behalf of all Disneyland passholders (or Magic Key pass holders). It claims that Disneyland “relegated them to ‘second class’ ticket holders by artificially limiting Magic Key reservations and the number of passholders that can visit on any given day.”

The complaint was originally filed in the Orange County Superior Court on November 9th by Magic Key passholder Jenale Nielsen. It was moved to the United States District Court on December 15th reportedly because the matter exceeds the sum of $5 and because Walt Disney Parks and Resorts is based on Florida while the plaintiff is based in California.

Though this step has not yet happened, it appears the Plaintiff’s attorneys are seeking to “have the case certified as a class action.”

A Disneyland spokesperson has responded by saying “We intend to respond as the case proceeds in court.”

As the Orange County Register notes, Magic Key passes became available for purchase back in August after Disneyland discontinued its previous Annual Passholder program earlier this year. Since that time, both the Dream Key and the Believe Key have sold out. The Enchant and Imagine Keys are still available to purchase.

According to the Orange County Register, Magic Key reservations have been “frequently unavailable on weekends and near-term dates stretching for weeks have been completely ‘sold out’ to annual passholders still looking for a reservation.”

The Register notes that, in comparison, guests with daily admission (not Magic Key passes) have had availability on “virtually all weekdays, weekends and holidays — with a few near-term dates ‘sold out.’”

In the lawsuit, Nielsen claims that she purchased the Dream Key (priced at $1,399) in September. Again, this ticket has no blockout dates. Nielsen claims she was not able to make theme park reservations for certain dates in November. Nielsen claims she was “disappointed to learn Disneyland had already blocked out Dream Key passholders on many days and all weekends in November” when she went to make reservations in October.

At that time, Nielsen claims she checked the availability calendar for single-day visitors and says that, for those guests, “neither Disneyland or Disney California Adventure were sold out on any days in November.”

The lawsuit alleges, “The problem was not that Disney had reached its capacity and therefore could not provide reservations to its Dream Key passholders…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 passholders.”

According to the Orange County Register, the lawsuit claims that Nielsen believed “when she bought the Dream Key annual pass that passholders would be allowed to make reservations if Disneyland and DCA had capacity.”

The lawsuit alleges, “Ms. Nielsen did not know — and had no way of knowing — that the Dream Key was, essentially, a ‘second class’ ticket with limited availability because Disney had reserved an unknown majority of the available reservations for single day or other full price ticket purchases.”

The lawsuit also claims that Nielsen ultimately ended up having to buy a single day ticket to visit Disneyland on her desired date in November even though she was a Dream Key passholder. The complaint alleges Disney is “engaging in unfair, unlawful and deceptive business practices” and accuses Disney of “breach of contract, negligent misrepresentation and false advertising.”

Walt Disney Parks and Resorts has reportedly not filed an answer yet to the lawsuit. 

At the moment, the Disneyland park reservation calendar shows limited availability for 1-park-per-day ticket guests…

…and park hopper ticket guests in December.

There appears to be much more availability, however, in January…

…for both.

Here’s a look at the theme park reservation availability for Magic Key holders as a comparison. This is the availability for the Dream Key, which has no set blockout dates.

This is just a snapshot of what things look like today, but theme park reservation availability has and can vary greatly.

We’ll be on the lookout for more details and we’ll share those with you.

Click here to learn about a Magic Key holder celebration coming next year.

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The post NEWS: Million Lawsuit Filed Against Disney Regarding Magic Key Passes and Park Reservations first appeared on the disney food blog.