AP Price Increase June 18th, 2019

[hertamaniac]

I won't gain fans on this comment, but the Weekday Select is still reasonable for those that take advantage of it.

 

[mikebb]

Holy Cow! Crazy that just 2 years ago we got in on the $559 DVC deal for Platinum Plus passes. That was a great deal, but now almost double!

We expected an increase for SWGE but not this. Def looking like a Uni/Sea World year in 2020.

 

[SaintsManiac]

Absolutely ridiculous.

 

[Jfsag123]

I was planning on upgrading my ticket to an AP on our trip next month and possibly taking one or two additional small trips between our big family trips with it. Will not be doing that now. This is nuts.

 

[tlmadden73]

$225/person increase is significant.

That is the price of a single night in a moderate resort.
That is the price of 2-day standalone ticket (on average).
That is the price for a family of 4 to dine at a character meal.

A price increase that large is basically saying .. we dont WANT people to have APs. We dont want people coming down for two vacations in a year unless they are buying our new daily tickets (and thus letting Disney know when they will be in the park).

In the end, I guess the less AP holders, the more Disney will know who is coming to their parks and when.

Just shocking ..
An AP (no matter the cost) .. gets people in the parks and spending money, so they must think they will get people in the doors without APs.

I am glad I got an AP when I did. It was fun. It got me there 3 (maybe 4 with SWGE previews) times .. I spent a lot of money at Disney that I wouldnt have. If I was just buying rack-rate tickets, I would not have gone that many times .. food, hotel, sovuenirs .. all money spent at WDW beyong the price of the AP - because the AP cost was a GOOD DEAL

 

[Merida816]

Absolutely insane of them to increase that much over night. I was contemplating renewing again in August, but I can't afford it now. I always loved the AP program as it gave extra discounts and I didn't have to worry about getting tickets every time I went, but at this rate it's not worth it. Horribly disappointed with how much they're raising prices. I know they have a lot of construction project to pay for, but if they continue to increase their ticket rates, only a handful of people are going to be able to afford it.

 

[Disxuni]

As a fan of both Disney and Universal, I've decided to go back to USF due to the new ride coming out (massive Harry Potter fan) in the Fall and was going to keep Disney as well. I've been going back and forth about whether I should really do it, or not, but this has definitely tipped the scale of me dropping Disney and getting only a premier Universal pass. When I originally got my Gold pass a couple of years ago, it was a little over $500, now it's almost $700.

It's sad that knowing Disney, by the time I'll want to go back again, it'll only be probably double the amount of again (at this rate) and I'll resort to doing what I used to call a "poor man's Disney trip" (monorail hotel hopping, or Disney Springs, or do any of the free activities at the resorts), or only staying for a day, or two.

 

[Wreckem]

This sucks. Was waiting to upgrade my tickets to APs during my June trip because we are also doing Dec 24-Jan 1. Upgrading would still save about $350 long term but I really would rather not plunk down another $450 on top of what the upgrades would have been. That’s about $1100 total to upgrade our two tickets to APs.

 

[prettypatchesmsu]

Wow. We were going to upgrade our package tickets in September to APs and come back in December. Now I'm not sure what to do. That's a lot more money now.

 

[OSUZorba]

This is insane. Platinum Plus went up 22.6%, IIRC it went up about the same last year. This is basically a middle finger to AP holders, IMHO.

I don't see how they intend on keeping this up. I could afford it, but I could also go to Hawaii for the cost of just APs. The next economic downturn is going to be pretty interesting.

 

[OSUZorba]

Just wait until they also announce paid FP+, so you can pay hundreds more for a pass, then pay another $50/day to have what you had before.

 

[EddieValiant]

I just got an AP and am on Day 1 of my first trip on it. Sure won't renew, gonna be a long time away after it expires.

 

[ELLH]

A price increase that large is basically saying .. we dont WANT people to have APs.

That was my first thought as well. We all wanted lower crowds... Disney says the price increases in tickets is done (at least in part) in an effort to lower those crowds. Well, if the AP customer was a statistical effector, then I think this is one time where I can believe Disney's doing exactly what they say they are.

 

[ELLH]

Last month I posted in this thread regarding the 'break even' of an AP vs the cost of doing multiple trips/multiple day tickets for non-Florida residents. I have updated that graphic to reflect the new AP pricing and provided both below. But first, the standout takeaway: with the old pricing Platinum APs would cover the cost of two trips at 4-days each but now with the updated pricing you can't 'break even' in 2 trips; you'll have to go 3 trips for a minimum of 3 days each trip.

Ok, so are the graphics showing the comparison on an AP vs 'regular' ticket between the old pricing as of 05/05/2019 (top) and the new pricing as of 06/18/2019 (bottom). (Side note: for the love of all that is sane, please read my 'notes' in the graphics; the comparisons do not take in to account AP discounts when comparing to non-AP tickets. The purpose is solely to illustrate the pricing differences between AP vs regular tickets, with the park hopper option.)


Previous AP pricing (as of 05/05/2019):







Updated AP pricing (as of 06/18/2019):

 

[Farro]

oh my god. I thought I was crazy for purchasing my AP back in February for a May 2020 trip. Thank God I did!!!

 

[BridgetBordeaux]

I have voiced this same opinion over on TPAS........we have cut back.
We have been spending our vacation dollars elsewhere.
This increase on top of the last 2 has been ridiculous.

 

[Eeyore daily]

Last month I posted in this thread regarding the 'break even' of an AP vs the cost of doing multiple trips/multiple day tickets for non-Florida residents. I have updated that graphic to reflect the new AP pricing and provided both below. But first, the standout takeaway: with the old pricing Platinum APs would cover the cost of two trips at 4-days each but now with the updated pricing you can't 'break even' in 2 trips; you'll have to go 3 trips for a minimum of 3 days each trip.

Ok, so are the graphics showing the comparison on an AP vs 'regular' ticket between the old pricing as of 05/05/2019 (top) and the new pricing as of 06/18/2019 (bottom). (Side note: for the love of all that is sane, please read my 'notes' in the graphics; the comparisons do not take in to account AP discounts when comparing to non-AP tickets. The purpose is solely to illustrate the pricing differences between AP vs regular tickets, with the park hopper option.)


Previous AP pricing (as of 05/05/2019):

View attachment 409920





Updated AP pricing (as of 06/18/2019):

View attachment 409921

It would be interesting to see with Gold pass. I’m somewhat in the mindset that since we’re FL residents it still makes a little sense to get that pass rather than individual tickets.

 

[TheMaxRebo]

That was my first thought as well. We all wanted lower crowds... Disney says the price increases in tickets is done (at least in part) in an effort to lower those crowds. Well, if the AP customer was a statistical effector, then I think this is one time where I can believe Disney's doing exactly what they say they are.

Feels to me like they want more of the groups that do a big trip once a year or every few years, vs the people that would do multiple trips within the year

They want the family that goes all out once - pays for the upcharge events, does BBB, does dessert parties, etc. - so really push to show that by spending more you get more, and can get this all accomplished in one busy week ..... vs people that would by APs and do multiple trips but do less per trip since they don't need to spend on the upcharges because they can take their time over those multiple trips to get to everything they want

 

[jade1]

Well it looks like "Guest Spending" will be up again.

 

[tlmadden73]

Last month I posted in this thread regarding the 'break even' of an AP vs the cost of doing multiple trips/multiple day tickets for non-Florida residents. I have updated that graphic to reflect the new AP pricing and provided both below. But first, the standout takeaway: with the old pricing Platinum APs would cover the cost of two trips at 4-days each but now with the updated pricing you can't 'break even' in 2 trips; you'll have to go 3 trips for a minimum of 3 days each trip.

Ok, so are the graphics showing the comparison on an AP vs 'regular' ticket between the old pricing as of 05/05/2019 (top) and the new pricing as of 06/18/2019 (bottom). (Side note: for the love of all that is sane, please read my 'notes' in the graphics; the comparisons do not take in to account AP discounts when comparing to non-AP tickets. The purpose is solely to illustrate the pricing differences between AP vs regular tickets, with the park hopper option.)


Previous AP pricing (as of 05/05/2019):

View attachment 409920





Updated AP pricing (as of 06/18/2019):

View attachment 409921

What an amazing chart. This is about what I calculated when I got mine in November. If we did 2 trips of 4 days .. that is the break even (not even counting the savings from discounts and getting memory maker included).

We found the value so great, we are doing 3 (possibly 4 (if we get a SWGE preview reservation) trips.

Now? Wow .. so unless you plan on doing 3 separate trips, an AP just isnt worth it.

That makes sense .. they seem to want to encourage smaller, yet more frequent trips with the AP.. rather than how a lot of out of state people were using it just to save money on two big trips 11 months apart.

Disney has done well to eliminate the cost savings ways around their base ticket price. Probably too many people were taking advantage of the bulk buying. Whats going away next? the huge per day ticket discounts for long trips?