There's no question the passes are currently underpriced though. I just renewed mine and for 223Euros (about 190 at the exchange rate) I now have a pass valid from this August until February 2018 because of the 6 months free offer they're currently giving to renewals. An annual pass to Europa park, which is the second most visited theme park in Europe after
Disneyland Park and gets more visitors than Walt Disney Studios, is 180Euros for one park and gives less discounts.
The problems I can see are -
- They've conditioned us to expect these prices and offers now - increasing them threefold in one go will give really bad PR.
- The American parks raised the prices so much because they had too many AP holders and they were trying to manage attendance - don't think DLP has that excuse to be honest.
- If they're going to put the prices up they really need to increase the benefits, even if it's similar to what the American parks did with including Photopass for free.
- How will they even administer the free-Fastpass situation? Unless they build in something like My Disney Experience it could be a logistical nightmare to policy AP holders getting extra Fastpasses for every day. How will they even do that? Will they send us a FP for every day of the year? Will we have to collect our Fastpass every day we enter the park?
I think the changes are definitely incoming, but some of the options will need quite bit infrastructure changes which make me think they won't come in as soon as November. I think maybe a regular price increase in November then the real changes next April to cash in on the feel good factor of the 25th anniversary.