AP prices will not necessarily go up, but they probably will. There’s a possibility they won’t since they increased twice last year. But it’s Disney, so I’d expect them to go up some.
AP tickets do not include early entry to the parks and regular tickets give you one early entry to Disneyland ONLY. The only way to get daily early entry and the only way to get DCA early entry is to stay at a Disneyland Resort. When Carsland first opened AP holders were given some chances to have early entry at DCA, but it was only for a short period of time.
The blackout calendar is listed on Disneyland’s AP page. Different APs have different blockouts.