Disney Announces New Premier Passport

[laracroft]

Wow with the economy still in the toiley, I am shocked it's so much. I am still praying they put the AP on a payment plan for 2011.

 

[tiggerrr]

Well, that's interesting, but I'm not sure how much sense it makes. FL and CA are on opposite sides of the country.

Cedar Fair has a similar annual pass for its parks, but most of them are all in the northeast United States

I, too, wondered who this is really for. On the surface it is a good deal against the cost of both passes ($619 for WDW and $439 for DLR = $1058 vs. $700 for the combined pass).

How many people truly buy the WDW PAP? And how many of them would go to DLR? Because I can certainly see that one. As a PP said, it's only another $80 over the WDW PAP to get the combined one.

How many DLR annual passes are owned by people outside of California? I can't speak for anyone else, but the tickets we've needed at DLR are usually 3 or maybe 5 day tickets, which doesn't approach the cost of an annual pass.

So who really would buy this, other than maybe a SoCal resident that visits DRL often and is planning a trip to WDW this year? Or am I missing something?

 

[Reddog1134]

Anyone shocked that it's the same price for DLR & WDW?

6 parks in FL vs 2 in CA for the $ame $$$$$?

It's a singular pass good for both parks.

 

[tiggerrr]

Anyone shocked that it's the same price for DLR & WDW?

6 parks in FL vs 2 in CA for the $ame $$$$$?

I'm not sure what you mean. It is a single pass that covers both DLR and WDW. If a person is only visiting one, they would only buy that locations AP, which are priced differently (619 for WDW, 439 for DLR)?

 

[dr&momto2boys]

I wish there was a non-premium option (no waterparks, etc.) and a DVC discount. That would be awesome!

 

[tiggerrr]

I wish there was a non-premium option (no waterparks, etc.) and a DVC discount. That would be awesome!

I'm with you. We're going to DLR and WDW this year, and have made 1 trip already to WDW this year. A non-premium, DVC-discounted price would have been great.

The more I think about that and why it is not offered is that maybe this is designed to be an upsell option. If I'm a DLR PAP holder looking at the price, it's only another $260 to get the combined pass. That's the cost of a 10day NON-PH ticket at WDW with no Water Parks or more. Maybe that's the hook to get them to say lets go to WDW.

Vice versa, if I'm a WDW traveller with maybe multiple trips planned so I want to get a regular AP for $489, then its only another $210 and "I get all the water parks AND maybe a trip to DLR where we haven't been since I was a kid."

I'm having trouble believing there are many people today who currently hold both premium annual passes.

 

[disneyfav4ever]

I think it's awesome that they are offering this. Maybe a trip to Disneyland will be in my future sooner then I think.

 

[PAL_1]

So who really would buy this, other than maybe a SoCal resident that visits DRL often and is planning a trip to WDW this year? Or am I missing something?

That's us. We're local to DL, and coming to WDW in just a few weeks.

A WDW Premium AP: $619 w/ waterparks, DQ and golf.
A Disneyland Premium AP: $439

Even going with lesser passes, a DL Deluxe AP with parking is $378 and a WDW Theme Park AP is $489 (without discounting).

We were thinking of resuming DL APs this fall. We paid $280 for WDW 6-day hoppers for our upcoming trip. Add the DL Deluxe AP, the total is $768, about the same as this new pass with tax.

It has me considering returning or upgrading my unused 6-day ticket, instead opting for one of these new passes for the parking and discounts. For the rest of the family I'm not so sure. Its a ton of money to invest all at once. What do you think?

 

[CR Resort Fan 4 Life]

http://www.wdwnewstoday.com/archives/5130

 

[TLPL]

I wonder how many people would go to both resorts more than once in one year. I can see Ap for one or the other, but go to both coasts?

 

[NYDisneyKid]

well for a non-Florida and California resident i think its a good deal

 

[PIRATEGIRL007]

I agree, I see it working for a few people, but most will only visit one resort multiple times in a year, not both. We would love to got to DLR and get WDW AP's every year but we won't make more than 1 trip to DLR and a multi day ticket would still come out cheaper. We also buy regular WDW AP's and not premuims so we would be paying more for a feature we probably wouldn't utilize.

 

[ear_poppin]

This is fabulous for us - we are going to WDW next month, then in August , and over to Disneyland at the beginning of next year. I wonder what the renewal price will be and if they do discounts for DVC ??

Denise

 

[marshwiggle]

I may be missing something (not the first time) but this seems like a pretty good deal to me (I've been hoping for something like this for years except worldwide).

I think it's intended to encourage people that already plan to go to both places to make an extra trip to the "away" park. It might be worth it but probably isn't for someone on the fence about visiting the other coast once, depending on the park and length of stay - DL seems to always be running some ticket promotion or other.

In our case, we're not local to either side but we visit DL about 3-4 times a year and WDW twice as a family unit (with an occasional trip or 2 involving some subset). We have non-premium WDW APs because we're not all that interested in the water parks and DisneyQuest and premium DL APs since we usually end up going on weekends at peak times. We've tried to stagger the expiration dates (for both parks) to lessen the cash flow hits, but that strategy probably hurts us the most; I just renewed my WDW AP a few weeks ago before I read about this (then) rumor and my DL AP expires in October - should have kept up on my DIS lurking...

I hope the consolidated pass is a DL-style plastic card - getting rid of those annoying WDW floppy tickets might be the most attractive benefit of all although those pictures always look worse than the DMV's.

 

[Willow1213]

This will work out very well for me. I am an existing WDW AP holder (regular, not premium) and I am planning a DL trip. It will cost me approx. $200 for a multi-day DL ticket. Or I can upgrade to the Premier AP. They haven't announced the upgrade price yet, but I am assuming it can't be more than $250 since the WDW AP is currently priced around $500. Maybe I'm over analyzing, but until I figure out what they are going to charge for an upgrade, we will see.

 

[SuzanneSLO]

[snip] We've tried to stagger the expiration dates (for both parks) to lessen the cash flow hits, but that strategy probably hurts us the most; I just renewed my WDW AP a few weeks ago before I read about this (then) rumor and my DL AP expires in October - should have kept up on my DIS lurking... [snip]

It looks like anyone holding any DL AP and any WDW AP (except the after 4pm pass) will automatically get a free upgrade to the Premiere Pass with an expiration equal to the latest current expriation date. So if you just renewed WDW, you should be good with this Premiere Pass at both parks for almost 12 months! -- Suzanne

 

[Brian_WDW74]

I've merged a couple of similar threads together.

 

[Diznygrl]

If you're a resident of Florida or California, it sounds like pretty much full price for both passes, just combined into one card. It might be a discount for people who don't live in either of those states though.

You have to be a resident of SOUTHERN California (specific zip codes)to get a SoCal DL pass, there is no discount for Premium or Deluxe passes no matter where you live. The SoCal Resident annual passes may be cheap, but they have MASSIVE amounts of blockout dates. Florida resident discounts are given no matter where you live in Florida and both WDW passes are good 365 days a year.

A DL Premium pass is currently $439. Add the price of a WDW Premium at $619, that's a total of $1,058. If you happen to want/need Premiums for both resorts, $700 is a STEAL! Even if you were a Florida resident and got your WDW Premium annual pass for $520, that's still a $259 savings.

 

[itradehilton]

I just checked the Disney site and can't find this pass. Where can I find more information?

 

[JDUCKY]

I just checked the Disney site and can't find this pass. Where can I find more information?

http://d23.disney.go.com/articles/031010_NF_BN_PremierPassport.html

That's about all we all have as of now. Might see something on their site tomorrow.