Anyone cancelling trips due to lack of AP?

[HHMcG]

I am coming to the realization I will have to cancel a trip if AP are not offered again before the end of the year. I can't be the only one. Let's commiserate.

 

[HHMcG]

I have an AP voucher sitting in MDE. It’s my first and likely only AP. It’s my 50th birthday present. A couple years ago after my husband’s 50th, I thought about how I wanted to celebrate mine. I quickly decided I wanted to be in Disney as much as possible for MY YEAR. So, I bought the AP voucher that week knowing buying early is the best way to get a deal on a AP.

That was 4 years ago. In the meantime I’ve thought about all the trips I want to take with my AP. An individual trip with each of my kids, one with DH, one solo. Oh now my mom wants to go – that’s another trip. And the whole family will do a big two-week trip next summer. That is a makeup from the Covid - 2020 trip we canceled, which we still have 10 day park hopper + from.

At last it is 2022 the year of my 50th. We are thinking about more detail and DH says “we should really be in Disney for your 50th.” Well, you can’t say that to a Disney freak without ending up with a trip booked the next day. So that means my immediate family has a 4 day trip on my birthday, a 3-4 day individual trip with me, and a 14 day trip in the summer. At a minimum because you know I’ll add on some “it’s a good deal” trips.

So, I’ve decided they all need APs too! I have saved up my ‘fun money’ to be able to cover the cost to upgrade those 10 day tickets to APs. My gift to my family is those APs.



Unless they don’t come back this year. Then I think the birthday trip will have to go. I’m just coming to terms with this.

 

[RoseGold]

Reading the AP DVC threads has really made me think they aren't coming back until the CA lawsuit is handled. This is a big problem for me. I can renew my AP, sure. But without APs in general, then it's time to sell DVC, because of the overall market. I wouldn't have even considered DVC without APs. I have a lot of money tied up in this, and the way Disney has behaved has been disappointing.

 

[Rm4OneMore]

The annual pass situation has made us rethink everything. We bought into DVC in the middle of 2020 with the plan of going once or twice a year and buying APs for our family. After we had to cancel our Oct 2021 trip, we decided to play catch up and do four trips in 2022, especially because we want our kids to enjoy Mickey's Not So Scary & Mickey's Very Merry before they think they've "outgrown" them. We've already cancelled our spring trip. We're definitely keeping our summer trip, although it will be a DCL trip with resort only stays before & after. Please don't get me wrong, we'd love to let the kids attend the flower and garden festival but $500+ dollars for one day is unreasonable. We have rooms already booked for trips over fall break & the week before Xmas, but those really are still up in the air. My wife and I have been together since 2001 and before Oct 2021, we never had to cancel a vacation. Now we've cancelled two in the span of six months. Yes, part of our hestitation is the increase in prices, being charged for previously free services, and other little things, but we could overlook all of those things for at least one or two years IF annual passes were available for purchase. I keep hoping that if we hold on long enough, everyone will have their revenge vacations over and Disney will become a bit more reasonable. I know, wishful thinking.

 

[mistysue]

We had to cancel our Boardwalk view 9 day trip for last October because there was just no way to justify spending more on tickets. I've never stopped being sad, we gave up on waiting and rented out our reservations shortly before they sold them briefly, but we weren't going to prepurchase APs for the single trip we have planned this year. Last year was sort of the "big year" for us- two of us turned 40 and our oldest turned 18. We spent two birthdays in the parks and had to cancel trip #3.
We have a plan to go back next year and use our DVC suite while visiting Universal for the first time. I'm nervous/excited/sad all at the same time.

 

[StitchandPooh'sMom]

Yes - this was supposed to be the year that my daughter and I got APs. We have a trip scheduled for August that we will cancel if APs aren't back.

 

[HopperFan]

I let our expire Aug 2019 to take break and go to Disneyland, that got COVID cancelled. Part of me wished I hadn't let them go because it would have been nice to visit all that first year with low crowds.

But we held off because I wanted APs, so I guess the answer to your question would be yes. BUT after 2 years DS was really getting down so the whole family (6) went for a week, bought regular tickets (made me twitch a bit) and tickets to Universal and had a great week.

So I was on go for the minute they opened them for sale, knowing that there was a possibility the situation could change. I bought both our APs first day. My other son just added his AP last month. We opted for Pixie APs because they are reasonable and allow us to spend other funds on a 2nd AP for Universal or SeaWorld etc. meaning no block out dates for us.

If I couldn't have gotten one we def would not be doing our 4-6 week trips anymore. I think we might do one 4 day trip combined with Universal every other year, Disney only trip the every other. After time we'd adjust because that what we used to do before AP.

APs bring in the extra cash, get rooms booked, we have the extra cash to buy the upsells and drink around the world. It really is easy cash for them. Those are the numbers they need to crunch because Disney can't survive on just their own hotel room guests. APs commit us to Disney. Without it my bucks likely split and we head to the other parks. (Can't wait for Epic Universe.) Given so much will be back to normal in next month or two - if Disney will spend the money to hire CMs then I think they can be back at normal operations, making the crowds more doable and guest spending up.

I do think APs will be back, even if adjusted in some ways maybe by end of summer. I think it really depends on what they see are their dollars coming in. I wouldn't be surprised if they raised the cost of the Incredi-Pass, and restructure what they offer DVC. Either way regular tickets are still available so folks just have to decide if they want to go to Disney or not.

 

[kilik64]

Having read a lot of the discussion on the dvc forum like RoseGold, I dont think they will be back any time soon. CA lawsuit appears to have some teeth. Too much of a coincidence they stopped selling any AP but the pixie pass (most likely obligated to sell that one due to local tax etc breaks requiring them to offer locals a pass, which is also the most restricted pass...) within days of the CA suit being filed.

I also dont think its a coincidence that the AP bucket for park res has not been "selling" out either. You'll see no availability for resort tickets etc, but it'll still be green for current AP holders.

Throw in the fact they dont need ap holders to help fill parks right now, and I doubt they sell APs again at least for the rest of this year and possibly longer depending on how quickly (or not) the CA suit moves.

ETA: link to main thread in DVC Forum regarding discussion of AP sales, its long but lots of good stuff in it. https://www.disboards.com/threads/ap-sales….3876364/

 

[ScottOKW2K]

I have 4 stays booked in the second half of this year. If no AP sales I will most likely only keep one of them. I have one on the Independence Day weekend that I may keep without admission if I can score a California Grill reservation for the 3rd or 4th. I would love to see the fireworks and I realized it's probably less expensive to have a meal and a view than have a ticket and a view.

 

[Beachmom0317]

Yes. We are DVC owners heading to WDW this week and I was planning on coming down in November but I cancelled that. We have a small DVC contract, so we plan to bank points and travel less frequently in larger accommodations

 

[T-i-double-guh-er]

My wife and I have annual passes that we have renewed through the pauses. We didn't have passes for our kids (now 9 & 7), because at the time we were eligible for the Military Salute tickets, so we used those for the kids. We were going to buy Sorcerer passes for them when they came back available last year, but hadn't done it before they paused sales again. We have 275 DVC points and usually do multiple 3-7 day trips each year.

Our trips booked for this year included:
February - Aulani
April - Port Orleans Royal Guest Room
May - Animal Kingdom Lodge DVC value 1BR
June - Fort Wilderness campground
October - Fort Wilderness campground
November - Animal Kingdom Lodge DVC value studio
December - Animal Kingdom Lodge DVC value 1BR

So, 3 cash stays and 4 DVC stays (including Aulani).

Buying 3-6 day tickets for the kids for each trip isn't feasible. We cancelled the Port Orleans trip this month, and may cancel the June trip or skip the parks (except hopefully Moonlight Magic). We'll keep the trip in May because it's the week after the kids get out of school and I already bought their tickets - hoping to be able to upgrade. I think the fall trips will depend on whether or not passes are back by then.

 

[jsbowl16]

We have a 12 day Poly/BW split stay and bought ten days worth of tickets with the PH+. We would give up those tickets tomorrow to buy APs as we usually go on two 10 to 12 day trips each calendar year to make APs worth it. If they don't sell them before we go in July, we have decided to skip DW and make our first trip to DL and Aulani next year instead of buying 10 days worth of tickets to DW again next year.

 

[kanerf]

I was able to renew my AP this year so that is not a problem for me. Wonder what will happen next year. Can I still renew? Will AP holders become as rare as an honest politician?

 

[BillSears]

I canceled a few trips due to the lack of an AP. But looking at it now I'm not sure I'd book more trips even if the APs were released. I have a May trip booked and I'm happy to go. But with all of the changes and extra charges I don't feel WDW is where I want to visit often. I may swap over a a visit every 2-3 years instead of 5 visits a year.

 

[EilonwyWanderer]

We are really on the fence. We went in March and I was hoping they would be back when we went so I could upgrade...but nope. We have another trip planned in December and I don't want to disappoint my kids, but for a family of 4 for the length we stay it's like $3100 a pop. That's half the new deck I want to build

IF they come back before December I will be really happy and upgrade and we'll probably do a short trip next year sometime to make it 'worthwhile' but uuuugh it's really going to suck if they don't.

 

[Disney mac]

I'm supposed to go 3 different times this year with family members and am coming to the realization I will have to pick one trip for my kids to go to the parks and 2 others to wish their cousins fun in the parks while they stay in the hotels due to a lack of AP. So, I figure staying in our hotel on DVC points and not spending money otherwise is only way to do it and have Disney care. Sadly, I find myself rooting for the stock to crash like a HUGE rock, as that seems to be the only thing they actually care about....

 

[boxer]

So I understand this correctly--Disney started selling AP's last September (I know because I bought mine then)--and have again placed a 'hold' on AP sales recently? What is the reason for this--since they have sold them as recently as a few months ago?

 

[RoseGold]

So I understand this correctly--Disney started selling AP's last September (I know because I bought mine then)--and have again placed a 'hold' on AP sales recently? What is the reason for this--since they have sold them as recently as a few months ago?

The DVC thread is long, but there's some good theories in there. I think the theory of the CA lawsuit (filed in November) having teeth might be true. The lawsuit argues Disney was misleading about the blackouts because it used the bucket system to make more blackout dates for APs, when other categories had availability. The outcome of the lawsuit could impact the whole AP/bucket/park reservation plan.

https://www.disboards.com/threads/ap-sales….3876364/

 

[scrapquitler]

Yes, we usually buy AP every other year or so and do 4-6 trips while we have the AP. Ours expired at the end of 2020. We would have gone in January and this month if we had the AP, but alas, no trips.
Also we will NOT be purchasing new APs unless they allow AP holders to make more days of park reservations. If I'm coming from New England for 10 days, the fact that I can't make park reservations for each day of my trip means I'm just not going to come.

 

[wilkydelts]

Yes, we usually buy AP every other year or so and do 4-6 trips while we have the AP. Ours expired at the end of 2020. We would have gone in January and this month if we had the AP, but alas, no trips.
Also we will NOT be purchasing new APs unless they allow AP holders to make more days of park reservations. If I'm coming from New England for 10 days, the fact that I can't make park reservations for each day of my trip means I'm just not going to come.

If you are staying on-site or good neighbor you will get to book the full 10 days plus still get the 5 non-resort days