15% renewal

[dannyd88mph]

Question- just purchased our first set of annual passes- but now considering adding more points and maybe not borrowing next years points to maximize our APs- when you renew you get a 15% discount? Does that 15% apply every year and the price keeps diminishing? (I dont think this is the case- just wishful thinking)

 

[Chuck S]

Well, no renewal disciunt is ever guarantedd, but it has been about 15% of the full price AP for a few years now. It does not increase every year.

 

[Epcot Forever Forever]

The renewal discount isn’t worth it if you don’t have a trip planned early in the second year. 2 months = 17% of your AP year. Over the long run most folks would come out ahead buying an AP right before their first trip post-expiration vs renewing, unless they go quite frequently.

That, of course, assumes Disney is selling APs though…

 

[Genie+]

Does that 15% apply every year and the price keeps diminishing? (I dont think this is the case- just wishful thinking)

The 15% off will be discounted off the new full price each year. It doesn’t stack on last year’s renewal price.

DVC AP Sorcerer pass is 969+tax (up $70 from last year). Renewal with 15% off is around $825 I think. People with a renewed AP this year won’t get another 15% off next time, they’ll just continue getting 15% off the full Sorcerer price.

 

[TiggerBouncy]

People with a renewed AP this year won’t get another 15% off next time, they’ll just continue getting 15% off the full Sorcerer price.

Assuming AP's are being sold (not guaranteed), and the discount is continued (also not guaranteed).

 

[Genie+]

Assuming AP's are being sold (not guaranteed), and the discount is continued (also not guaranteed).

That’s true. I get the feeling they’re not going to play around with access anymore though, and instead just use pricing to achieve whatever those goals were. Even the discounted DVC AP renewal is $830 now.

To put that in perspective - the publicly available highest AP tier with no blockout dates cost the same $830 in 2018. The comparable discounted DVC renewal cost was just $439. That has almost doubled in 5 years.

The optics of people getting shut out were much worse than just increased pricing alone. I think WDW will try to avoid that moving forward.

 

[Anal Annie]

The renewal discount isn’t worth it if you don’t have a trip planned early in the second year. 2 months = 17% of your AP year. Over the long run most folks would come out ahead buying an AP right before their first trip post-expiration vs renewing, unless they go quite frequently.

That, of course, assumes Disney is selling APs though…

And that's the rub right there....no guarantees anymore that the AP's will be available on a continuous basis. We went ahead and renewed ours last fall even though we didn't technically have a trip planned at the time. We did eventually plan 2 trips on them but we got caught in the pandemic without them so we had to spend big bucks to buy length of stay tix for about 3 trips during that off time. We were to the point that we were going to start skipping WDW if they didn't start selling them again - then we were fortunate to be able to get them on our trip for the 50th and we were afraid to let them go. We're up for renewal again in Sept. right after our trip. Not sure if we want to roll the dice on whether or not they'll pull the plug again... If they stop selling them again before our Sept. trip then we'll definitely renew them so we don't lose them.

 

[TiggerBouncy]

The optics of people getting shut out were much worse than just increased pricing alone. I think WDW will try to avoid that moving forward.

While I do not disagree - especially about the optics of it. I will add that the thought they were going to sell AP's then completely cut them off right after they started again would have been called crazy not but a few years ago.

We might have been convinced they would stop AP's altogether (since that's been tossed around) - but selling them for 2 months and then stopping? Inconceivable (you keep using that word... I do not think it means what you think it means).

So... I mean with the mouse, you never know, you know?

 

[🍀TwinsMom]

Does anyone have any insight as to AP sales since they resumed, if it has gone gangbusters with pent-up demand, or meh, that ship has sailed -- to Universal and other places less consumer hostile.

I keep reading the company needs to make money to subsidize Disney+/Hulu/ESPN/Fox/StarWars, hence the price gouging, but I sure would be curious to know if the AP sale resumption is meeting or exceeding expectations -- or fallen flat.

 

[jimim]

Listen discount or not I m glad I was able to get mine back. . . without them even at full price pulling off multiple trips a year is a no go for us.

 

[tjkraz]

Does anyone have any insight as to AP sales since they resumed, if it has gone gangbusters with pent-up demand, or meh, that ship has sailed -- to Universal and other places less consumer hostile.

I keep reading the company needs to make money to subsidize Disney+/Hulu/ESPN/Fox/StarWars, hence the price gouging, but I sure would be curious to know if the AP sale resumption is meeting or exceeding expectations -- or fallen flat.

No insight, but it's possible that late 2021 - 2022 was a perfect storm of pent up demand which will rarely be replicated. 2 years of cancelled vacations has a way of doing that.

Judging by factors like current hotel promotions, extra AP perks, business is undeniably soft now. The combination of no APs, Genie+, hotel parking fees and other up-charges dug a hole that Disney is still trying to climb out of. But I doubt WDW has reached some tipping point from which it can never recover. There's always been some ebb and flow over an extended period of time.

With demand now closer to "normal" and Chapek gone, it's possible that AP sales will never be suspended again. If nothing else, DVC claimed that the Sorcerer pass would be more available than the Incredi-Pass, and so far neither has been removed from sales.

 

[gparr]

My AP runs out on July 10 (2 days after my last trip ends) and we will not be able to make it back home before a renewed pass would run out. My thinking is to wait until after 30 days have passed after expiration and buy new AP’s and not activate until we return home again next summer.

 

[Ralph&Pam]

My AP runs out on July 10 (2 days after my last trip ends) and we will not be able to make it back home before a renewed pass would run out. My thinking is to wait until after 30 days have passed after expiration and buy new AP’s and not activate until we return home again next summer.

That sounds like a good strategy. You still have the option to renew within the 30 days post expiration if they happen to stop selling new Sorcerer passes. We are planning to do something similar unless we happen to change travel plans for the second half of 2024. Right now, we’ve booked a transatlantic cruise instead of doing a fall WDW trip. We will have gotten 3 WDW stays out of the Sorcerer passes we purchased when they went on sale again in April.

 

[gparr]

That sounds like a good strategy. You still have the option to renew within the 30 days post expiration if they happen to stop selling new Sorcerer passes. We are planning to do something similar unless we happen to change travel plans for the second half of 2024. Right now, we’ve booked a transatlantic cruise instead of doing a fall WDW trip. We will have gotten 3 WDW stays out of the Sorcerer passes we purchased when they went on sale again in April.

Trust me…I will be watching the next 30 days like a hawk - LOL

We are here now to complete our last visit on the pass. We have been very lucky to have gotten 31 days out of it.