Any news when DVC members can get an annual pass???

[heynowirv]

Don't make me quote the 2022 annual meeting!

"All you bought was a room."

Seriously? Someone from Disney said that? Even tho it is true it's disrespectful.

 

[New Mouse]

For DVC at least they bank on the fact that people HAVE to come and enough will pay for the inflated single day tickets which will make up for those that do resort only or Universal visits.

At $150 a ticket, it's not hard to make up for that loss of revenue.

It's big business 101 these days where the execs literally do not care about the long term prosperity of a company, they care about their next job and paycheck.

 

[RoseGold]

They are trying to offer more staff. They can't just manufacture them.

They are trying to make more money, and it's working. The parks are making more money than ever. They haven't staffed up things like the Belle ride or Akershus, for one reason. Money.

They'd rather leave Belle's cottage empty than staff it.

 

[Titanium]

Seriously? Someone from Disney said that? Even tho it is true it's disrespectful.

If that's true then in my opinion, it is right up there with with Bob Chapek's comment about an "unfavorable" guest mix in Anaheim causing revenue shortfalls. One of the stupidest things to come out of Disney management's collective mouth in recent history.

 

[SL6827]

Can't imagine owning a decent amount of points and having no AP. I think that is just awful for some.

 

[Einstein509]

It's investing in future savings; which is basically the same thing you did when you purchased DVC in the first place. No one would have expected you to realize the full savings of purchasing DVC the year you purchased it. The ROI is years in the making.

Lets say I am able to renew my AP for 3 years, but I am not able to replace it. I do not use it this year which costs me about 1K per person. So I spend 1K to retain that future savings. Now say next year I want to take 3 trips. So I am still paying 1K. The next year I take 2 trips, and it costs me 1K. I have spend 3K per person for 3 years and 5 trips.

Now say I did not pay the 1K for year 1. Year 2 would have cost me 2.5K and Year 3 would have cost me 1.5K, for a total of 4K (assuming an 8 day ticket)

Am I likely double my investment of 1K in stocks? POSSIBLY. .

Now lets say Disney chooses to allow renewals for more than 3 years, but not allow new purchases. I know it seems unlikely, but then again no one thought AP sales would have been paused for 3 years, and here we are... Each future year brings more savings.

Bottom line - if I intend to keep going to Disney (and as long as I continue to hold DVC, I do), then it's cheaper to invest the 1K in future savings right now then to let that drop.

There is risk; just like there is risk in stocks; that Disney opens up AP sales again and that investment I did goes to waste. It's the same risk you take in any investment. I am betting that I am going to go to Disney MORE than once next year and that AP sales will not kick in prior to those trips. (Note, my annual cycle is September, and I am expecting a late September or early October trip). As long as that happens, I break even.

That does not include the ancillary savings that I get from an AP (discounts that do not apply to DVC), nor other extras like collectables for magnets, pins, and such.




Ok, you make a fair point. I agree with that. People who go a lot may save a lot more than people who do not go as much, but it still boils down to each individual making the assessment based on their expected travel which is the same as an AP today.

I withdraw my protest.

This made my head hurt. LOL!

 

[Einstein509]

We have a trip in a few weeks and another one for the RunDisney Springtime Surprise weekend, and we will not be going to the parks. We let our passes expire in October. Disney’s utter failure on Epcot’s 40th after the poor showing on Magic Kingdom’s 50th was the final straw.

Our trip later this month will involve some spend to Disney because we want to try some restaurants at Disney Springs and the resorts that we haven’t tried before, but on future trips I am going to do my best to spend money off property only.

Disney has been treating WDW like a cash cow long before Covid. They funneled money to Shanghai when the build went over budget and messed with their employee’ schedules to cut costs. I swear their ride maintenance plan seems to be “turn the lights down so the guests don’t notice the broken stuff” (Dinosaur, The great Movie Ride, Small World, Living With the Land, Spaceship Earth- all were allowed to deteriorate and their fix was to turn the lights lower (Dinosaur), just remove broken elements (or whole attraction- movie ride), or move elements ( that little boy selling newspapers used to face forward and was closer to the track on Spaceship Earth.)

I have zero desire to figure out the tax ramifications of renting out my points, or to give Disney fresh victims, err, guests. Disney only owes me a room for being a dvc member. Okay, I only owe them dues. We spend lots of money on our trips on souvenirs and food, but that gravy train is coming to a stop. The pendulum always swings back and forth, and I am petty enough and patient enough to use my points in ways that provide me lovely non-Disney-park vacations, untilDisney remembers the value we as dvc members bring. We’re planning on some Universal trips on an AP, probably in 2024 or 2025. (It would be sooner, but as advance planners, most of our vacation time is already spoken for about 18 months out.)

I just have to decide HOW petty I want to be. I’m thinking a shirt about using my pre-paid Disney hotel to visit Harry Potter world, that I could wear all over Disney….

AMEN! I am being very petty, so no need to feel bad if you follow along.

 

[RoseGold]

have zero desire to figure out the tax ramifications of renting out my points, or to give Disney fresh victims, err, guests. Disney only owes me a room for being a dvc member. Okay, I only owe them dues. We spend lots of money on our trips on souvenirs and food, but that gravy train is coming to a stop. The pendulum always swings back and forth, and I am petty enough and patient enough to use my points in ways that provide me lovely non-Disney-park vacations, untilDisney remembers the value we as dvc members bring.

Just sell. DVC will still be there if they decided to "value" DVC. I wouldn't hold my breath for that one.

The world is full of wonderful places to vacation, and most of them cost less than Disney. You are only tied to DVC because of your decisions, and you can make new ones.

 

[Anal Annie]

We have been renewing ours and even though we consider ourselves lucky to have APs, I am still annoyed that I am "forced" to keep renewing "just in case" they stop selling them again.

I will play the game for now/a little longer. I finally decided not to book a second Disney trip this year. I did not want to go again just because I want to get my moneys worth and have an AP. Planning an Italy trip instead.

There are times when I want to take take a break when my next trip is more than six months away and buying a new AP makes sense for us.

Time will tell.

No one knows though.

We've also been "playing the game". We've always had AP's but would sometimes let them lapse if we had no immediate trips planned and would then re-buy. We seemed to be on a renew every other year and let lapse every other year pattern in order to get full value of them. We let them lapse in the fall pre-covid because our next planned trip was to be for the 50th. Then came covid and they suspended sales. We made a couple of trips during covid having to buy length of stay tix and we had pretty much decided that our planned trip for the 50th would be our last until we could buy AP's again because the reg tix were too expensive. Then miracle of miracles they restarted the AP sales just days before our trip and we immediately upgraded our tix to the Sorcerer pass when we arrived. We felt so lucky! THEN they suspended the sales again and we felt even luckier. But NOW we're feeling "stuck" because if we don't keep renewing them we don't know if & when we'll ever get them again. We renewed again last Sept for this year even tho we didn't have another trip actually booked until NEXT Sept again (going to Aulani in April). Well, so I started feeling like we weren't getting our money's worth if we didn't plan ANOTHER trip for them so we booked 5 nights for the July 4th holiday. But this definitely feels like we're being had. The fear of the unknown situation on the future of APs has us by the short hairs.

 

[jimim]

I'm really frustrated that we have not yet been able to buy ANY kind of annual pass or discount tickets for multiple trips--what good are all our points when one trip's tickets costs are so exorbitant that we can't return. We banked our points after one trip last year and are still waiting for some announcement about DVC annual passes. Why haven't they come up with a DVC specific ticket? We have routinely added points to our ownership over the years, but after this experience, I don't think we will do that anymore.

What is frustrating is that we had a brand new annual pass the week the parks closed so we gave them up and now we haven't been able to buy them again. It's just not the Disney service I expected.

Has anyone heard anything?

Welcome to my world. I’m on 1 trip per year plan right now till it changes with multiple beach trips instead which personally make me happier at the moment and some long weekend fishing trips with the boat now also. I’ve been renting extra points out to provide for other fun without cutting into monthly life costs.

 

[WilsonFlyer]

See? Here's the thing... Something ain't passin' the sniff test here.

They sold thousands upon thousands of APs prior to covid to the tune of millions of dollars. And then along comes covid, and they suspend sales under the pretense that 'people are complaining that the parks are too crowded.' If they were losing so much money on AP sales for 30 years, why the sudden epiphany when nobody was there at all during the pandemic?

This whole thing stinks to high heaven. Might as well call it what it is. A stench. And a strong one.

The whole thing makes no sense. They need the parks crowded to make money. Everybody knows that. They can pretend all they want, but we all know they're lying through their teeth. They don't want to control crowds. Unless it's to maximize crowds. And even if they did mean it, it's not working. I understand that attendance is somewhat falling off gradually, but for the last couple of years, the parks have been as crowded as I have ever seen them, at least when we go. That being the case, why wouldn't you let AP sales resume again? AP sales create a LOT of immediate cash-in-the-bank that really has no immediate cost associated with it, and really even the long-term costs to support APs is already budgeted into park overhead anyway. If they really wanted and needed cash flow, there is no better immediate cash cow at the parks than selling APs.

OK. I realize I'm just babbling at this point, but I hope it means something. None of this makes sense. There are just pieces of this puzzle that don't fit together. And Disney is usually really good at putting together puzzles. We're all upset over AP sales, but surely I can't be the only one questioning why it doesn't make sense in the first place.

 

[jimim]

<snip>



We opened quite the discussion for this type of ticket a while back as you remember. I think that it's important that Disney doesn't over-complicate a ticket like this with 25 different 'tiers' and I hope that's not one of the things that's holding up considering an offering like this. If you buy 10 and decide to go for 15, you're going to 'expect' some sort of upgrade offering mid-cycle. Then they have to deal with all of that. One ticket. No restrictions, other than the big one. You gotta stay at a WDW resort.

No. I'm going to disagree. Tie it to resort stays. No 'good neighbor.' No S&D. No nothing unless it's a WDW hotel. Price it like an AP with a discount over 'normal' APs because it is tied to a WDW stay. And leave it alone. It will be no different than evaluating any other AP offering. The consumer decides if the value is worth it to them, just like we do with APs now. People with 1000+ points won't 'gain' the system, any more so that somebody with 200 will lose out. There are always outliers in any system, but the median is the median. KISS. This is an easy problem. With an easy solution. Personally, I'm amazed Disney didn't do this 20 years ago and find it fascinating actually, that it still doesn't exist today already.

I concur

 

[jimim]

Don't make me quote the 2022 annual meeting!

"All you bought was a room."

And there it is. After I read the op post I was wondering how long before we hear this.

I get it. But it still stinks.

 

[jimim]

See? Here's the thing... Something ain't passin' the sniff test here.

They sold thousands upon thousands of APs prior to covid to the tune of millions of dollars. And then along comes covid, and they suspend sales under the pretense that 'people are complaining that the parks are too crowded.' If they were losing so much money on AP sales for 30 years, why the sudden epiphany when nobody was there at all during the pandemic?

This whole thing stinks to high heaven. Might as well call it what it is. A stench. And a strong one.

The whole thing makes no sense. They need the parks crowded to make money. Everybody knows that. They can pretend all they want, but we all know they're lying through their teeth. They don't want to control crowds. Unless it's to maximize crowds. And even if they did mean it, it's not working. I understand that attendance is somewhat falling off gradually, but for the last couple of years, the parks have been as crowded as I have ever seen them, at least when we go. That being the case, why wouldn't you let AP sales resume again? AP sales create a LOT of immediate cash-in-the-bank that really has no immediate cost associated with it, and really even the long-term costs to support APs is already budgeted into park overhead anyway. If they really wanted and needed cash flow, there is no better immediate cash cow at the parks than selling APs.

OK. I realize I'm just babbling at this point, but I hope it means something. None of this makes sense. There are just pieces of this puzzle that don't fit together. And Disney is usually really good at putting together puzzles. We're all upset over AP sales, but surely I can't be the only one questioning why it doesn't make sense in the first place.

Because since covid that’s the go to so you don’t need to explain your actions.

Why? Covid.
Ooooooh yah right. I forgot. covid.

 

[WilsonFlyer]

Because since covid that’s the go to so you don’t need to explain your actions.

Why? Covid.
Ooooooh yah right. I forgot. covid.

You ain't wrong.

 

[AnnaKristoff2013]

What isn't open at the theme parks?

1. Enchanted Tales with Belle;
2. Meet Characters at Pete’s Silly Sideshow;
3. Meet Ariel in her Grotto;
4. A bunch more character stuff in MK I’m likely forgetting;
5. VOTLM;
6. A bunch of restaurants at Epcot;

That’s just off the top of my head, there’s a lot more.

 

[gmi3804]

1. Enchanted Tales with Belle;
2. Meet Characters at Pete’s Silly Sideshow;
3. Meet Ariel in her Grotto;
4. A bunch more character stuff in MK I’m likely forgetting;
5. VOTLM;
6. A bunch of restaurants at Epcot;

That’s just off the top of my head, there’s a lot more.

Certain restaurants closed two days out of the week. Even during "busy" periods.

 

[RoseGold]

The whole thing makes no sense. They need the parks crowded to make money. Everybody knows that. They can pretend all they want, but we all know they're lying through their teeth. They don't want to control crowds.

It makes sense because it is working. The parks are making more money than ever before. That's despite annual passes. Prices on everything bananas. G+ printing money. And they're packed. So, if the objective is to make money, then why would they sell more APs?

I actually do think they will pop up for a few days eventually, maybe just Pirate Pass or something. But I don't see why Disney would want sell Incredipasses at all right now. Heck, I'm not even sure why they are renewing them.

 

[jimim]

Certain restaurants closed two days out of the week. Even during "busy" periods.

Most are back up to 7 days a week when we were there thanksgiving. Jiko still was closed 2 days. Flying fish was back to 7 along with citricos off the top of my head.

 

[WilsonFlyer]

It makes sense because it is working. The parks are making more money than ever before. That's despite annual passes. Prices on everything bananas. G+ printing money. And they're packed. So, if the objective is to make money, then why would they sell more APs?

I actually do think they will pop up for a few days eventually, maybe just Pirate Pass or something. But I don't see why Disney would want sell Incredipasses at all right now. Heck, I'm not even sure why they are renewing them.

Because AP sales are immediate cash flow 'on the phone' with no immediate expense whatsoever other than the cost of the agent to carry out the sale. To the tune of millions and millions of dollars. To be honest, I'm surprised even the BOD directors hasn't asked the obvious question, "With millions and millions of dollars of free money sitting out there, why aren't you collecting it?" I'm not stupid. I know it's not that simple. But it isn't that complicated either.