Annual pass changes coming........

[SarahInMN]

What if the increase in prices led to a decrease in guests? Would customers be happy then? What if they doubled the price of the annual pass, but it reduced crowds 30%? I think I might be willing to make that trade-off....

I too would be willing to make that trade off but I suspect Disney is more interested in the infrequent travelers - the ones who go once or every 5 years who always buy the souvenirs, who eat every meal on property, who try to cram in (i.e. spend a lot) as much as they can. DVC owners and AP holders I suspect are much less profitable in terms of spending once they get on property. The TiW and AP price hike are directed at frequent visitors, I think, and that can be seen in the Gold blackout dates as crowd control measures.

 

[rfc0001]

Thank you so much for taking time out of your day to add your experiences !

Could you clarify something for me, though? A supervisor told me today that any annual passes bought or renewed before October 4th would retain their original benefits through their valid time frame; i.e., no photopass attached, no blackout dates. Once those passes were up for renewal, only at that point would a new pass be mandated, with its associated benefits and conditions.

A quick look at the T&C of the passes also indicates that all existing passes will continue with the same benefits as before, and upgrade time would be when the parameters would change.

Can I confirm that neither of these is actually true as per what Guest Services is being told to do, and all previously purchased annual passes in fact do not retain their original benefits and must be slotted into one of the new tiers?

Why would Disney add the photopass perk for free for previously purchased passes? It doesn't make sense to me...?

My guess is it comes down to how this is technically implemented. They can't issue the new APs any longer, so have to issue you a new one or force you to upgrade to a new once (which would cause major CSAT issues to either add blackout where you had none. causing people like me to cancel their December Vaca since a gold AP simply won't work then or force them to spring $400 for a family of 4 to upgrade to Platinum). Between those two options, giving people something free (PP Download) beats downgrading them or charging them $400. Keep in mind, they don't have to, but it's what's actually happening, which I trust more than what we are being told.

 

[tinkerhon]

Guess what not every benefit of something is going to fit someone perfectly. There are many that use photo pass and are excited for the addition. Prices go up every year, pretty expected. Prices everywhere in the tourism/entertainment area, not just at Disney go up too. At least they didn't take anything away this time.

Totally understood--- to each, their own --- if people love PP, that's great--- if the free parking works for people, that's great as well--- the problem that people have is that disney is basically asking you to pay an increase, and trying to justify it by offering "perks" that people might have absolutely no use for-

I brought this up on a previous post- let say, for example, you purchase a "Magic your way" ticket, and you don't plan on park-hopping at all- You are the type of people that like to spend each day at only one park ( I know many ppl like this) . What if disney raised the price of your ticket by adding the park hopper that you had absolutely no intention of using ?

 

[DisDadDVC]

I too would be willing to make that trade off but I suspect Disney is more interested in the infrequent travelers - the ones who go once or every 5 years who always buy the souvenirs, who eat every meal on property, who try to cram in (i.e. spend a lot) as much as they can. DVC owners and AP holders I suspect are much less profitable in terms of spending once they get on property. The TiW and AP price hike are directed at frequent visitors, I think, and that can be seen in the Gold blackout dates as crowd control measures.

But that is what would happen IMO. In my extreme example, you have person A that buys AP, visits frequently but eats and stays offsite and doesn't buy any merch. Person B is a DVC member and makes 3 trips a year staying on site. Often brings friends and family for larger trips. Eats onsite and spends most of their money at disney.

If person A and person B were both paying $500, I think disney would rather just have person B paying $1000. And person B will have less crowds because person A will not pay the higher prices.

Disney can "discriminate" via their pricing. If they only want 1%ers in their parks, they can make APs $100k a year. The cheapest souvenier would be $100

 

[pangyal]

My guess is it comes down to how this is technically implemented. They can't issue the new APs any longer, so have to issue you a new one or force you to upgrade to a new once (which would cause major CSAT issues to either add blackout where you had none. causing people like me to cancel their December Vaca since a gold AP simply won't work then or force them to spring $400 for a family of 4 to upgrade to Platinum). Between those two options, giving people something free (PP Download) beats downgrading them or charging them $400. Keep in mind, they don't have to, but it's what's actually happening, which I trust more than what we are being told.

But I assume they would still have the infrastructure to support grandfathered parameters in their system, no? Just because they aren't letting us buy them doesn't mean they were wiped from the system altogether, I'd think...

 

[DisDadDVC]

Totally understood--- to each, their own --- if people love PP, that's great--- if the free parking works for people, that's great as well--- the problem that people have is that disney is basically asking you to pay an increase, and trying to justify it by offering "perks" that people might have absolutely no use for-

I brought this up on a previous post- let say, for example, you purchase a "Magic your way" ticket, and you don't plan on park-hopping at all- You are the type of people that like to spend each day at only one park ( I know many ppl like this) . What if disney raised the price of your ticket by adding the park hopper that you had absolutely no intention of using ?

Just wait until next year....

 

[MattsPrincess]

I'm unsure how I feel about this. We're seasonal pass holders, valid through next august. We're used to blackout dates so would probably opt to stay with the "same" pass, the Silver, I believe? The added perk of free parking would be nice for us, and the monthly payment increase is less than $10 each. However, i'd also like to have the PP option, so may even consider upgrading to the next pass up. However, we're only a few months into our first year, and don't know how we'll feel when it comes time to renew. It will depend on a lot of other things too. But for people in our position, I can see where this would be good news, or even prompt an upgrade.

 

[rfc0001]

But I assume they would still have the infrastructure to support grandfathered parameters in their system, no? Just because they aren't letting us buy them doesn't mean they were wiped from the system altogether, I'd think...

I agree...but I'm not complaining

 

[SarahInMN]

But that is what would happen IMO. In my extreme example, you have person A that buys AP, visits frequently but eats and stays offsite and doesn't buy any merch. Person B is a DVC member and makes 3 trips a year staying on site. Often brings friends and family for larger trips. Eats onsite and spends most of their money at disney.

If person A and person B were both paying $500, I think disney would rather just have person B paying $1000. And person B will have less crowds because person A will not pay the higher prices.

Neither Person A or Person B though are as valuable as families of 4 who come every 5 years who stay on property and want it to be "a vacation to remember" and who presumably spend a ton of money. We spent way more and paid to do way more our first few trips vs now where we are more leisurely. granted, this keeps us off rides and out of lines because we are being more leisurely so we are "auto crowd controlling" ourselves.

 

[notnothin]

Anyone with an entitlement to download photos can download the photos belonging to anyone with whom they are "Family And Friends."

Thanks for clearing this up!

 

[DisDadDVC]

Neither Person A or Person B though are as valuable as families of 4 who come every 5 years who stay on property and want it to be "a vacation to remember" and who presumably spend a ton of money. We spent way more and paid to do way more our first few trips vs now where we are more leisurely. granted, this keeps us off rides and out of lines because we are being more leisurely so we are "auto crowd controlling" ourselves.

I agree. And those people make up the other 50-70% of the park. The decline in attendance would have to come from the AP "freeloaders". And yes that is said with sarcasm.

 

[focusondisney]

When I bought my pass last Oct it was $1044 (or close to that and I can't remember if that included tax). The price now is $1439.

We just upgraded WDW APs to premier passes on Sept 18. Cost was about $1129, tax include. Remember WDW had increased the AP rates already this spring.

 

[rili]

As a FL resident, we're not happy about this at all. There's no longer any real fl resident discount. We had annual passes that expired last July and loved them, used them all year long - took all kinds of day trips. But we never used photopass, just not our thing. So we didn't renew thought we'd take a few months off, and now the price increase is huge, unless we start to put up with blackout dates. That sucks - I don't want to get blocked out at Christmas, those are some of the best times to go. Looking at this, we probably won't buy passes at all. I know Disney doesn't care about losing individual customers as long as they make more money in the long run, but it's pretty disheartening.

I agree. I have been "surveyed" about a dozen times in the past few years. They always catch me right after I go through the turnstiles. When asked how many times I have been to Disney I have responed "100s" (which is true) I thought they appreciated my patronage, but it seems I was wrong! My first trip was in 1976, I guess my last might be 2016 when my AP expires.

 

[roadtripper]

How will that work? If your child is too young to have his own MDE account, can you as parent managing his tickets get the photopass downloads on your mde account??

He is 18, so we should be OK. Totally messing with my mojo though--I was rocking some nice Disney gift card deals. All of that is now secondary to the HUGE price increase for a platinum ticket, which wiped out any savings I was trying to accrue--the mouse always wins, it seems...

 

[DisDadDVC]

I agree. I have been "surveyed" about a dozen times in the past few years. They always catch me right after I go through the turnstiles. When asked how many times I have been to Disney I have responed "100s" (which is true) I thought they appreciated my patronage, but it seems I was wrong! My first trip was in 1976, I guess my last might be 2016 when my AP expires.

They really don't. After all these trips they know they are making much lower margins on you per trip. They would be more than happy to replace you (and me) with higher margin customers. So one of two things will happen. 1) they will turn you into high margin by charging you for PP that you don't want. That's pure profit for them. Or they force you out and make room for someone who is willing to pay through the nose.

 

[WillAustin]

I'd bet that most AP holders don't care much about Photopass.

They may have exceeded our price level to renew.

 

[asmit4]

We were going to buy MM for 170 bucks.....we only have 3 days hoppers....but if I upgrade my hopper to an AP---and go again within the next 12 months I will effectively get the MM twice (170x2) plus another 3 day hopper (we tend to go to the parks for 3 days)....this would work out to my benefit if I understand correctly.

What bothers me is that the MM and free parking as an 'extra' is stupid since only ONE person needs it. My 3 year old isn't paying to park....and if I have the MM then tag all my family and friends who are going I can download ALL of them making the MM worthless. So now an AP for any more than ONE member in your group is a waste of $$$ over the old system.

 

[DisDadDVC]

I'd bet that most AP holders don't care much about Photopass.

They may have exceeded our price level to renew.

AP holders are notoriously low margin. They want to raise their margin by including mandatory products that you don't need/want. If you aren't willing to pay for it, they don't actually WANT your business anymore. The truth is, for all of the people that are saying "this is too much, I quit" (maybe including me) Disney is saying "good riddance". This is what they want to have happen.

 

[lovethattink]

Guess what not every benefit of something is going to fit someone perfectly. There are many that use photo pass and are excited for the addition. Prices go up every year, pretty expected. Prices everywhere in the tourism/entertainment area, not just at Disney go up too. At least they didn't take anything away this time.

I'm happy about the PP addition. But really only 1 of my 3 family members needs it. It if we're optional for the other 2, they'd opt out.

Free parking is a must for us. We live close by and go to a park once a week or more.

We'll renew our AP. But not our TiW.

 

[lovethattink]

He is 18, so we should be OK. Totally messing with my mojo though--I was rocking some nice Disney gift card deals. All of that is now secondary to the HUGE price increase for a platinum ticket, which wiped out any savings I was trying to accrue--the mouse always wins, it seems...

Ah ok! My son is 11 and he just had his renewal date last week. Is like to upgrade his pass to get the PP. Dh and my renewal date isn't until June. So I wonder how that would work with PP and my son not having his own MDE?