Lawsuits and theme parks are no strangers to each other. Anyplace where thousands of people are filling a small space every day is going to have its share of issues, but most theme park lawsuits that Disney World or Disneyland deals with regularly are about people who get injured at the parks. More recently, however, Walt Disney World has been entrenched in a pair of lawsuits with its home state of Florida and Governor Ron DeSantis, and both American resorts have been fighting lawsuits against their own fans. However, now one of the suits is coming to an end.
Back in December 2021, Disneyland Resort was sued by a California resident for $5 million claiming breach of contract. The woman filling the suit had purchased a Disneyland Magic Key (an annual pass to the park) and was suing over the park’s reservation system. She claimed that despite the fact that her pass was sold as having no blockout dates, the fact that reservations to the park were limited meant that there were still days she could not use her pass. Less than a year later a similar lawsuit was filed against Walt Disney World over its annual pass and reservation systems.
Now at least one of those suits looks to be in the past, as theme park reporter Scott Gustin posted an image of a legal document stating that following an in-person mediation yesterday, both sides have reached a tentative settlement. The terms should be finalized by the end of August.
The lawsuit against Disneyland had obtained class-action status in the interim, and the settlement is reportedly set to cover the entire class, which is likely every person who purchased a Magic Key during their initial availability. A few months after the lawsuit was filed Disneyland stopped selling Magic Key annual passes. While they are available again, in limited quantities, the terms of purchase now require any buyers with problems to go through arbitration rather than sue.
Getting these lawsuits off the plate of Disney lawyers is probably a reasonably big priority considering that the company has some even bigger lawsuits to deal with. Disney World has sued Governor Ron DeSantis in federal court claiming that a series of laws enacted in the state of Florida are retaliation for the company speaking out against Florida’s Parental Rights in Education Act.
One of those laws replaced the Reedy Creek Improvement District, which had been in place since the 1960s to oversee Disney World, with the Central Florida Tourism Oversight District, a new board made up of the Governor’s own appointees. That board is also suing Disney World in order to repeal a deal that Disney made with the original board over the use of land within Disney World’s boundaries.
One certainly has to wonder how the settlement might impact the similar suit in Florida. If Disney has found a deal that is acceptable to one group, it might also work with the other. In February Disney made a motion to get that lawsuit dismissed, but we haven’t heard much about what’s going on with it since.
