Annual Passes

[sandieb]

Hello - My husband and I will have 27 days at WDW off our current annual pass. This expires in May, and we won't be returning to Disney for at least one year. After that I am going to again plan 2 - 3 vacations off the annual pass I'll purchase.
Even though we own a lot of DVC points we are going to stay at Fort Wilderness in our camper in October. We will go to the Wine and Food Festival one day on old Park Hopper Passes, and then spend the rest of the time at Sea World and Universal...
It's too darn bad, but the expense of the annual pass really plays into us going to other parks. Sandie

 

[luv2vacation]

I would 4 each year!!

 

[TDC Nala]

well, I only need one, and I use the reward dollars from the Disney Visa card to renew mine... got $135 off the last one. But I'm in the process of also buying an AP for Universal, which means WDW's gonna lose a bit of in-park spending money on me from now on.

 

[Judique]

Same annual pass deal as Florida residents? I'm in....I think you've got a great idea! Not that DVC needs an extra selling point, but that would be a great one.

 

[Tagrel]

Yup, they'd have sold us 4 yearly with a discount, but as it is - it will now be APs every third year.

Buy in August for trip one, vacation in July trip two, and cruise or somewhere else every third year. (This year in fact!)

And it actually saves us lots of money so we could have APs for Universal last two years and off to Sea World this year! And going offsite now has us buying cheaper souvenirs at the outlets, visiting offsite restarants and attractions (like dinner shows, etc.)

I guess you can even find a silver lining in corporate greed!

Bad bean-counter - BAD!

 

[parrothead724]

Somewhere, recently, on one of these fabulous boards...a fellow DVC'er mentioned his or her "lifetime" pass...

ANYONE ever hear of these?? How does an average joe-ann like me get ahold of one??

THAT would be the answer -esp if you could do it on a payment plan... sort of like DVC!

Whaddya think?

 

[debbiedoo]

From my understanding at SSR we are suppose to get 10% of the annual. Plan on calling today for my future 2 trips, will let ya'll know!!

 

[Duckielucky]

I asked the same question when I joined. My guide told me that when Disnew World first opened lifetime passes were offered for a limited time to Florida residents. When the DVC first started membership included a free seven year pass.

It would be great if some sort of deal for members could be worked out. An annual pass option could be worked into our maintenance fee and paid each month.

 

[Johnnie Fedora]

For us it really comes down to whether we feel well treated and are viewed as valued customers. IMO Disney views DVCers as a "captive audience" that needs no incentive to visit the parks. They take for granted that we will spend all our money at Disney.

Everyone knows happy customers are more likely to spend more money. We currently have and will continue to curtail our "in park spending" because we don't feel "valued" as Disney frequent customers/property owners.

Disney would be wise to offer DVCers admission discounts based on the number of points owned. It would encourage add-ons and park useage. How about a 5% park pass discount for each 100 points owned with a max of 50-75% off?

 

[Jimbo]

Originally posted by debbiedoo
From my understanding at SSR we are suppose to get 10% of the annual. Plan on calling today for my future 2 trips, will let ya'll know!!

SSR owners, like all others, get 10% off of UPH passes, but nothing off of annual passes.

 

[GAwdwFan]

We have been frequent (avg 3 times per year) WDW visitors since 1989, with our first trip in 1980 and have owned in OKW & HH since the beginning of each. We always had an annual pass... until the last 2 years when prices went out of control and the "pixie dust" got thinner and thinner. Things are just not the same - and we no longer feel the need to be there as often, thus, even with DVC and AP discounts our best deal is the AAA pre-purchase discounts available in Georgia. Like others here, we ALWAYS spend heavily at resort resturants when on property, but this past trip (just returned yesterday) we only had lunch at one in Epcot. We chose to spend our money at resorts, and had a great experience at Swan where we got a 20% discount.

IF there were an incentive for us "captive" DVCers you can bet we would be in the world at least 4 times per year spending $$ at the parks.... this trip we only went to the parks 3 days ( not full days) out of 6.

 

[bub]

I agree with everyone here. We have switched to buying 7-day park hoppers, which we stretch out over our vacations by alternating park and water park days. We definitely spend less time (and so less $) in the parks now than when we bought APs in the past. We also plan for fewer days at WDW total this way, whereas in the past we often extended our stays with visits to Disney hotels.

With all of the new deals being offered to non-DVC members (such as that Fairytale package last year) it's a shame we don't get any breaks.

 

[larry_poppins]

Spend a day at the Morse Museum of AMerican Art in Winter Park on Park Ave. It has the largest collection of Tiffany glass anywhere. Then have lunch and shop on Park Ave. It is a great and affordable way for the family to spend a day in Central Florida now that Eisner has worn thin the magic at WDW.

Larry

 

[mmmcq]

"I agree but ours' would be six every year. I think someone in some department has figured incorrectly that they have us no matter what. What they don't realize is that many people (myself included) do the Annual Pass game where we purchase our AP's and go a couple of times on that AP, then skip almost a full year and then buy new AP's all over again. The way DVC is set up to bank and borrow almost invites this type of behavior. That's why I think you see that mentioned on this board a lot.

If there was a decent discount, it would cause people like me to review that startegy and actually make more trips to Disney and purchase more passes. Disney just doesn't get that point."

I'll second HBC's comments above.....

We have been on the every other year trip basis and have not purchased AP's until this past July. This corresponded with our purchase of new points at BCV in addition to our points at BWV. We are very much into borrowing and banking and don't plan to use the points every year......but if there was a discount it would be hard to pass up renewing the AP's each year and thus we might make more trips. I've always said they are missing out on some low hanging dollars.....

 

[littlestar]

We recently bought 7 day hopper passes for me and my husband. For the kids for Christmas we bought 3 day hopper plus passes. If Disney offered a discount for Annual passes, we would buy at least 4 a year. We only go one or two days a year to the parks. I agree, Disney definitely is losing out by not offering a discount on Annual passes to DVCers.

The bean counters definitely haven't thought the annual pass thing out too well.

 

[MelissathePooh]

Originally posted by Dean
Actually you signed acknowledging that owning DVC didn't qualify you for FL residency. That's entirely different though it would give you access to discounts if you qualified for residency. DVC could easily offer discounts to DVC members regardless of residency status, they simply choose not to.

sorry. We signed that it would not make us florida residents. But then, Disney doesn't determine what qualifies you as Fl. resident, the state of Florida does.

Edited to add - This was DR not Melissa, sorry, her computer - it is probably pointless to argue semantics of course.

 

[goofy & sleepy]

Count me in for 3. I guess its one of those forest for the trees thing.

 

[DebbieB]

Originally posted by MelissathePooh
sorry. We signed that it would not make us florida residents. But then, Disney doesn't determine what qualifies you as Fl. resident, the state of Florida does.

Edited to add - This was DR not Melissa, sorry, her computer - it is probably pointless to argue semantics of course.

The simple way around that is calling it a DVC Member Pass instead of Florida Resident.

At the BWV annual meeting in December, this very question came up. The board member responded that DVC does not make you a Florida Resident. She continued to say that the real issue is more pass discount for members. I give her credit for not hiding behind the Florida Resident issue and acknowledging that the real issue is more pass discount for members. I forget the exact %, but she said only about 15% of members have AP's so they don't see it as a need for most members.

 

[MelissathePooh]

yeah, I agree DebbieB-

DR

 

[LoveToDisney]

If only 15% of the members HAVE annual passes, can't Disney see the great opportunity to increase that to 30-50% if they give us a good discount. Seems like as easy apple to pick.