Ticket Price Increases for Disneyland Announced

[Ingrid0382]

Would anyone be willing to ask someone at the ticket counter for me if this will be possible???

I'm on hold, waiting for a representative. I would be happy to ask them your question if you could tell me exactly what it is.

 

[cyclenut]

I was shocked, and then cried because a I have had to change a trip 4 times, and now cancel indefinitely because of the price gouging Disney is doing. I thought maybe a few bucks increase on APs, since Disney has been raising prices yearly, but the gouging on both ticket and AP prices are nothing but greed kicking in. The economy is horrible and families that have been saving for one or more years to pay for a vacation, not to even mention to upgrade to APs to make it less expensive for another vacation, are now priced out of a Disney vacation all together. I am one of those people right now. I have sent Disney 2 emails and I will go to the Disney blog and voice my opinion there too. I am now looking at other places to spend our hard earned and saved money. Knotts Berry Farm is one of them. Shame on them for raising all tickets prices. If they truly wanted to limit APs then don't raise the price of regular admission. That is bad business. It may look good on their P$L with all the rush for AP and ticket sales, but in the long run, but it won't last.
Congrats to all who have managed to get locked in on current prices.

I am sorry you are having to cancel your trip. I can certainly understand your frustration, but I don't see this as price gouging or greed. Look at all the threads complaining about heavy crowds and warnings of park closures due to overcrowding. Disney has few choices but to raise ticket prices. Demand for Carsland and other park upgrades is going to be very steep. They have to pay for these upgrades that the guests have demanded and at the same time curb the crowds. The product sold is of very high quality and in very high demand.

I'm not happy about it, but I can understand it. I most certainly don't see it as gouging.

 

[starshine514]

Third party resellers, such as GAT, Ares, and LMT, will continue to sell their old stock at the old prices until they run out. I think they almost have to, say that you decided to upgrade to an AP, but you ticket had a price of $218, instead of the $248 that you paid. Disney would only give you the $218 towards an upgrade. So, old stock, old prices. Last year it was months before all the third party resellers sold out.

On a related note, does anybody know of third party resellers that sell APs? The only one I ever saw was a CA teachers union website. This would also make the AP vouchers that someone reported were sold in NorCal Safeway stores a fantastic deal, if they are still available.

 

[Ingrid0382]

I just hung up with a CM.


Any days added to a ticket will be done at the current prices.


Any upgrades to current APs also will be done according to current prices, no exceptions. Even if, say, you were planning on being at the park next week to upgrade your pass to a Deluxe so you could visit the parks during the summer.


After talking to my husband, we decided its worth it to us to upgrade, even at the new prices. It's just really sad that with the economy being where it is right now, some people really can't absorb this kind of increase. I guess I hope it helps with crowds and prevents instances of full blown chaos (One More Disney Day, anyone?) in the future. Ultimately, this has just made me feel a little disenchanted with Disney and I don't know what to do with that. I don't think there is anyway to be "heard" by people that make these decisions and judging from the CM I just spoke with, they could care less.

 

[TheZue]

I just hung up with a CM.


Any days added to a ticket will be done at the current prices.


Any upgrades to current APs also will be done according to current prices, no exceptions. Even if, say, you were planning on being at the park next week to upgrade your pass to a Deluxe so you could visit the parks during the summer.


After talking to my husband, we decided its worth it to us to upgrade, even at the new prices. It's just really sad that with the economy being where it is right now, some people really can't absorb this kind of increase. I guess I hope it helps with crowds and prevents instances of full blown chaos (One More Disney Day, anyone?) in the future. Ultimately, this has just made me feel a little disenchanted with Disney and I don't know what to do with that. I don't think there is anyway to be "heard" by people that make these decisions and judging from the CM I just spoke with, they could care less.

I would be a lot of money that One More Disney Day had a lot of influence on the scope of this price increase. They clearly couldn't handle the crowds or traffic in the surrounding areas. There is unfortunately only one way to stop so many people from showing up. And it seems like everyone knew about the price increase; but I would be a lot of people missed this. It was only 1.5 days notice and not everyone checks that often.

 

[Sphyrna]

I was checking the Disneyland site and noticed something interesting. I have the Premier AP which will expire 5/31. Although the new prices are posted online if I go to renew my AP online it's showing the old pricing. I can renew it as a Premium AP for $479!

I'm not sure what I'm going to do this year. Will be at WDW this Saturday. I'm thinking of doing an October DL trip. I was torn between getting another Premier or just regular tickets. If I can still get the Premier for $749 when I'm at WDW I might do it. Otherwise I'll probably just get a DVC WDW AP and then buy tickets for DL. I'm trying to get everything together for this WDW trip. Don't need Disney putting me in a panic about what to do for my October DL trip.

 

[jilld11]

I can confirm that our disney hopper passes have not gone up yet. This would be booking through a travel agent who uses Holiday House. I'm sure there are other places you can buy them at that haven't increased prices yet.

 

[dismom73]

I'm so mad at myself for not buying them last week! We are getting AP's this year and going on our first trip in July and my plan was to buy them last week, but we've been dealing with Prom for my DD and had dress issues, etc. and I just didn't get around to it and I've been too busy to get on the boards so I didn't see this until this morning...the morning of the 20th!

 

[dismom73]

I can confirm that our disney hopper passes have not gone up yet. This would be booking through a travel agent who uses Holiday House. I'm sure there are other places you can buy them at that haven't increased prices yet.

If you purchase through someone like this can you do the payment plan for the AP's?

 

[nottellin']

This thread save my mom money. She is coming to DL with us in August. So she bought a 4 day hopper yesterday. Thanks!

I am sad to say that I don't think we will be getting AP's after our expire though. We live in Canada, and normally go 3 times a years. But with the price increase, I don't think DH will be onboard again.

Disney already costs us a lot, with food, hotels and transportation.

We might have to whittle it down to one trip a year.

 

[kkmcan]

Our APs (our first ever) expired a couple of days ago; we just bought vouchers today that we'll activate in September. We're so happy to get another year, but this will likely be our last year with APs for quite a while.

Congrats Starshine on your new AP's! Ours expire this October and we've got a trip planned for those last few days but we are pretty Disney'd out. We even cancelled a June trip just cuz no one really wants to go. I know, imagine that!

We won't be getting new passes but we will probably go for a 4 day trip in Oct 2013 and just get hoppers. We'll be saving up our Disney Reward Dollars for this and the new prices wont affect us too much.

 

[longtimedisneylurker]

I was checking the Disneyland site and noticed something interesting. I have the Premier AP which will expire 5/31. Although the new prices are posted online if I go to renew my AP online it's showing the old pricing. I can renew it as a Premium AP for $479!

I'm not sure what I'm going to do this year. Will be at WDW this Saturday. I'm thinking of doing an October DL trip. I was torn between getting another Premier or just regular tickets. If I can still get the Premier for $749 when I'm at WDW I might do it. Otherwise I'll probably just get a DVC WDW AP and then buy tickets for DL. I'm trying to get everything together for this WDW trip. Don't need Disney putting me in a panic about what to do for my October DL trip.

If you have an AP within it's renewal period, so expiring before July 1, then your renewal price was already locked in, so, yes, your premium AP renewal price would be $479, the $499 price before the price increase minus the $20 renewal discount. Your expiration date will be one year from your current expiration date.

 

[jilld11]

Unfortunately this does not help out people who want APs. We only sell the 3 - 8 day park hopper or one park per day passes, no APs. Sorry

 

[DebbieB]

So after running down to Disneyland last night at 10pm, I found out that I was able to renew my Premier pass for the $749 rate even though it was not to expire till July 21st. In fact the funny part was the supervisor had no problem at all giving me the approval for the override when he saw what I was doing.

This whole issue about the price increases was just a mess!! Disney had really dropped the ball with this issue and I think they will be hearing about it from the AP's. Calling Disneyland took over 40 mins to reach a reap, and the lines at the ticket booths last night were over 1 hour. They new that there would be AP's going to renew or getting vouchers to meet the deadline, yet they did not act with staffing. What were they thinking AP's would do when you would jack the rates up 30% for passes ? My wife and I are diehard Disney fans, but this truly may be the last AP's I get for some time. I just came justify spending almost $2000 in passes for us when there are much better entertainment offerings available.

On another note, mark my words that this year will be the year more AP's become more vocal and speak up about this non-sense. Make it creating a petition on Change.org or starting a group on Facebook, I think you will see more AP's taking up the issue first hand.

Dr D

I'm happy they gave notice. They could have just increased it with no notice and everyone would have been stuck with the higher prices.

 

[arthur06]

I am sorry you are having to cancel your trip. I can certainly understand your frustration, but I don't see this as price gouging or greed. Look at all the threads complaining about heavy crowds and warnings of park closures due to overcrowding. Disney has few choices but to raise ticket prices. Demand for Carsland and other park upgrades is going to be very steep. They have to pay for these upgrades that the guests have demanded and at the same time curb the crowds. The product sold is of very high quality and in very high demand.

I'm not happy about it, but I can understand it. I most certainly don't see it as gouging.

I agree with most of what you are saying. Disney has spent over a BILLION dollars to upgrade much of DLR. I am not going to let an additional $7 to $50 per ticket deter my admission to see all the exciting changes.

They did not upgrade the parks to maintain there current customers only at current prices. Of course the additional content has additional costs. I will let Disney spend the $1,000,000,000 to upgrade the experience and I will pay an additional $25 for the added benefit. Sounds like I get a good deal.

I look at it this way. I can spend $2500 to take my family to SoCal for a week this year. The memories that my kids will take from DLR and especially the new Cars Land will be worth every penny. I am not going to let an additional $100 or $200 deter me from having a great time!

 

[Susie63]

I agree with most of what you are saying. Disney has spent over a BILLION dollars to upgrade much of DLR. I am not going to let an additional $7 to $50 per ticket deter my admission to see all the exciting changes.

They did not upgrade the parks to maintain there current customers only at current prices. Of course the additional content has additional costs. I will let Disney spend the $1,000,000,000 to upgrade the experience and I will pay an additional $25 for the added benefit. Sounds like I get a good deal.

I look at it this way. I can spend $2500 to take my family to SoCal for a week this year. The memories that my kids will take from DLR and especially the new Cars Land will be worth every penny. I am not going to let an additional $100 or $200 deter me from having a great time!

 

[AquaDame]

Can anyone tell me how upgrading an AP works now...? Will my current AP be worth its old price or its new price when I go to upgrade it to Premier? I'm so mad that you can't do so online... seems like it is the ONLY pass you can't buy online but have to do so at a ticket booth. What about the 95% of travelers who do not live within a distance to do so? I would have gone in person if there was ANY WAY I could have!

 

[taaren]

I agree with most of what you are saying. Disney has spent over a BILLION dollars to upgrade much of DLR. I am not going to let an additional $7 to $50 per ticket deter my admission to see all the exciting changes.

They did not upgrade the parks to maintain there current customers only at current prices. Of course the additional content has additional costs. I will let Disney spend the $1,000,000,000 to upgrade the experience and I will pay an additional $25 for the added benefit. Sounds like I get a good deal.

I look at it this way. I can spend $2500 to take my family to SoCal for a week this year. The memories that my kids will take from DLR and especially the new Cars Land will be worth every penny. I am not going to let an additional $100 or $200 deter me from having a great time!

This is a lovely sentiment, and from a fellow DVC-er, I'm certainly not going to stop going to DLR because they raised the prices. However, we do have a park budget set, and the prices of the Deluxe AP's we usually got just made that budget a little less manageable. At this point we'll probably be getting AP's every 2 years instead of the every 18 months we have been getting them the last several years. (We've been going twice a year, but will probably switch from that to a 11 month/13 month pattern.) Which unfortunately means that DL will be losing extra cash from when we go to restaurants/use parking/etc in our little "in-between" trips when we pop in for a day or two just because we have an AP and happen to be in SoCal.

I've seen some people comment that its been getting too crowded with so many APs and this might be a way of "thinning the crowd". I think while that is also a valid suggestion, Disney just has some actuaries in their offices crunching the numbers to project what the most they can charge to maximize profit is, and what the least amount they can invest to keep drawing crowds. Their accounting doesn't take in the economy or the fact that most visitors are on a budget, just that park goers want a premium experience and will pay for it. I will pay for it, but I'll pay less frequently, and if that's okay with Disney, its okay with me. We'll just have to find other places to spend what remains of our vacation budget in our non Disney off years.

 

[starshine514]

Congrats Starshine on your new AP's! Ours expire this October and we've got a trip planned for those last few days but we are pretty Disney'd out. We even cancelled a June trip just cuz no one really wants to go. I know, imagine that!

I actually can imagine that, especially if your last trip was over a MLK weekend (did I tell you that we stayed through Tuesday and Tuesday was dead - I mean 15 minute wait for TSMM mid-day, walk-on to Soarin' and ToT, etc?). We went during spring break...yikes, it was crowded! It made last week seem not so bad crowd-wise, but it also made me really appreciate the slow days - we're planning on doing shorter trips during the semester and just working around my teaching days for our trips the next go-round - the lower crowds are worth it to us.

 

[Eeee-va]

With these increases, I half-expected the Disney website to read:

Disney Gift Cards
$25 Disney Gift Card
$35.00
Buy
$50 Disney Gift Card
$60.00
Buy
$100 Disney Gift Card
$110.00

No such changes, though...not yet...

The increase for park hoppers is really harsh due to the lack of online discounts (it would cost me $4 more to get a 3-day hopper now than a 5-day hopper in November). But it's possible AAA and other third parties will maintain discounts even after their ticket stock runs out. We can hope! There's just no discount for buying an e-ticket from Disney.