Diehard Star Wars fans will get left out in the cold.

Image: Disney

Once you’ve figured out whether or not a pass makes financial sense for you in the new year, the next thing to consider is how you spend your time at the parks. As we mentioned earlier, 2019 will usher in a new era at the Disneyland Resort, one in which passholders are no longer guaranteed park-hopping privileges on every day that their passes are activated.

What that means, basically, is that all SoCal passholders will be unable to use their passes to access Disneyland—and, by extension, Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge—during the months of June, July, and August. Deluxe passholders will be blocked out entirely during the month of July and limited to about a two-week stretch in both June and August, while neither tier of Signature passholders will feel any effects from summer blockout dates. So, if you have your heart set on exploring the newest corner of Disneyland Park this summer, prepare to not only shell out the cost of an annual pass, but the several hundred dollars it’ll cost to get a multi-day pass in June or July, too.

This is undoubtedly a disappointing change for anyone hoping to slurp down some blue milk at Oga’s Cantina or test-drive the Millennium Falcon, but it would also be disingenuous to paint it as a purely selfish move on Disney’s part. Yes, that Venn Diagrammed-subset of Disneyland passholders and Star Wars aficionados will be forced to purchase daily admission at peak prices along with the rest of the Star Wars-loving public, but chances are, many will also be put off by the extra costs. This, in turn, should help thin out what Disney expects to be an unprecedented number of park guests once Black Spire Outpost officially opens for business, and hopefully, keep guests just a little saner and happier in the process.

Non-Star Wars fans may benefit from the hype around Star War: Galaxy’s Edge.

Image: Patrick Pelletier, Flickr (license)

On the flip side, the addition of Galaxy’s Edge promises to be a boon for those who don’t count themselves among the space opera-obsessed (or those who have enough patience to wait until the crowds become more manageable, assuming they ever do). There is, after all, a pretty clear benefit to splitting up blockout dates by park. Disneyland will remain shut to many passholders during the summer of 2019, but Disney California Adventure will be wide open… with more available dates than ever before.

SoCal passholders will be limited to just three days of DCA access in June and eight in August, while July remains completely off-limits for either park. For Deluxe passholders, however, the deal is a little sweeter. They’ll have full and unlimited access to Disneyland’s sister park for the entire stretch of June, July, and August (with the exception of Saturday, August 31), without any of the Saturday summer blockouts that normally go hand-in-hand with that passholder subscription level.

Over the past two decades, Disney California Adventure has generally been the less-popular of the two parks, but the recent re-theming of Paradise Pier and a full slate of upcoming attractions should keep visitors plenty busy this year. Although ‘Marvel Land’ is still a year away from its anticipated debut, Pixar Pier is slated to get two more attractions sometime in 2019: the Incredicoaster-adjacent Jessie’s Critter Carousel and the Inside Out Emotional Whirlwind, the latter of which has come under mild scrutiny as an underwhelming, albeit colorful redesign of the now-shuttered Flik’s Flyers.

Just as Disney’s decision to block out passholder access to Disneyland wasn’t a purely selfish move, their decision to open up DCA isn’t entirely selfless. There’s no doubt the company will be raking in boatloads—er, freighters full of cash once Galaxy’s Edge premieres, but that doesn’t necessarily signal subsequent revenue losses in non-Star Wars sectors of their parks. On the contrary: While most tourists will likely flock to the Falcon this summer, Disney California Adventure should see a healthy spike in attendance from seasonal guests and passholders alike, enabling Disney to turn a profit at every opportunity.