Disneyland AP price increase?

[HootDad]

I bought my passes yesterday for my August trip in anticipation of an increase. I bought them from a discounted site at work ($228 each for 3-day Park Hoppers). I am curious to check Monday to see if the prices at that site went up too.

 

[aan1701]

Big increase is on the Premier Pass. $130 increase. Ugh!

Glad we went yesterday to renew the wife's Premier. I still think it's a good value even at its new price tag. Still cheaper than a combined price for my DL premium and a DVC premium at WDW. Since we go to WDW 3 weeks out if the year it's still so worth it for us.

Sent from my iPhone 5 using DISBoards

 

[Disney Dory]

I just want to say to Dana278 that I really appreciate your heads up on this. You helped a lot of people make a good financial decision and there is nothing wrong with you stating that you have a valid reason for believing it's true. Hats off to you

 

[Niebz]

I think I'm going to cry. Can't believe how much the premiers went up. We're planning to buy some in August

 

[MillauFr]

I think it is so sad that Disneyland keeps increasing the price of tickets so much. I think they are already ridiculously too high, BUT, people pay it so they keep increasing it...

They really need to get supply and demand in balance and the only way to do that is by price. I think it would be great if the price varied by time of year. You would pay 250 points to get into DL during Christmas break but only 30 points if you wanted to go when the park had less visitors. This would allow more people who aren't loaded to go to DL.

 

[taaren]

Aargh. Disney ticketing was closed by the time I got home from work today and saw the price increase. Was planning on buying Deluxe APs, then activating them in December. Website won't let me buy them with Disney Gift Cards (which I wanted to use for my DVC dues anyhow).
So the other alternative since I'm a California resident is locking in the price now by going on the monthly plan.

Does anybody know, if I buy the Deluxe AP on the monthly payment plan for Californians, will I be able to activate it in December or will it automatically start today?

Got all the way to the contract part of buying the APs online, but still can't tell from the language ... I really want these APs for trips in December '13, May '14, and October '14.

Thanks.

 

[GenGen22]

Aargh. Disney ticketing was closed by the time I got home from work today and saw the price increase. Was planning on buying Deluxe APs, then activating them in December. Website won't let me buy them with Disney Gift Cards (which I wanted to use for my DVC dues anyhow).
So the other alternative since I'm a California resident is locking in the price now by going on the monthly plan.

Does anybody know, if I buy the Deluxe AP on the monthly payment plan for Californians, will I be able to activate it in December or will it automatically start today?

Got all the way to the contract part of buying the APs online, but still can't tell from the language ...

Thanks.

I've asked this question before & as long as you activate it before December 31st. your safe.

 

[cel_disney]

Thanks for posting the price increases here! I was able to find the WDW info but not the DL info when I was looking on the disney page earlier! I ended up pulling the trigger and buying tix for our September trip thru our work discount site tonight just incase they also go up (4 day hopper - regularly 275 discounted to 245...not bad I dont think?)...cant wait for our first DL trip!

 

[taaren]

Thanks! Went ahead and pulled the trigger! Super excited to have the APs and be a Californian now!

 

[sherilaine]

Thanks! Went ahead and pulled the trigger! Super excited to have the APs and be a Californian now!

If you buy the AP today, as long as you activate it before Dec 31 then it will be valid for a year from that date - so your Dec 13, May 14 and October 14 - you only have to activate before end of year and then from there on you have your year!

 

[cyclenut]

We already have our DLR AP renewal offer so the price isn't going up for us, unless we don't renew by the deadline. We were considering a Premier pass but just can't make the math work out. Unlike PP, we are not DVC members and would only be making one trip to WDW.

Now the question is, should we renew our DLR AP, we are Premium now? Our kids are growing up and we are now paying for college, making it harder to justify.

Considering the cost of other entertainment options in SoCal, it still seems to be a good value. AP cost is roughly equivalent to 8 professional sporting events, depending on seat location and team. You get more baseball and less basketball. But we have Lakers, Clippers, Ducks, Kings, Angels and Dodgers.

Knott's Berry Farm is much cheaper for their AP and it could be a good change a pace for a couple of years. They are making huge improvements to that place.

If you want to do live theater, there are plenty of options but you will be expected to pay $50 a ticket, typically more, depending on what you go to watch.

All of those things provide good entertainment, but for only a couple of hours (except Knott's). There is so much variety at DLR that you get many hours of entertainment and other options. So, an AP is still a good value.

Contemplating.

 

[PinkBudgie]

We thought about it this way:

First reaction: $500 for a deluxe? That would cost us a $1000!

Second thought: We buy an AP every other summer. So each summer we go for 6 days. When our AP is active, we go in November for 3 days. So, 15 days total. Divide that up and it comes to about $33 a day. Not too bad. And you get the AP discount on food and merchandise.

The biggest park hopper you can buy is 5 days for $300. So two summers with only 5 days instead of 6 will still cost $100 more than having an AP. And that's not counting the times we mid year.

However, we are going to WDW next summer instead so we will not be buying APs until 2015. And who knows how much it be by then. We'll have to look in to it at that time.

 

[DisneyBiskit]

I have a question about renewals? I'm a premium AP holder that expires in July/ When I get the renewal notice, is that only to renew as a premium or can I downgrade to a deluxe AP and still get the discount? Just curious....

 

[Jaylens Papa]

We already have our DLR AP renewal offer so the price isn't going up for us, unless we don't renew by the deadline. We were considering a Premier pass but just can't make the math work out. Unlike PP, we are not DVC members and would only be making one trip to WDW.

Now the question is, should we renew our DLR AP, we are Premium now? Our kids are growing up and we are now paying for college, making it harder to justify.

Considering the cost of other entertainment options in SoCal, it still seems to be a good value. AP cost is roughly equivalent to 8 professional sporting events, depending on seat location and team. You get more baseball and less basketball. But we have Lakers, Clippers, Ducks, Kings, Angels and Dodgers.

Knott's Berry Farm is much cheaper for their AP and it could be a good change a pace for a couple of years. They are making huge improvements to that place.

If you want to do live theater, there are plenty of options but you will be expected to pay $50 a ticket, typically more, depending on what you go to watch.

All of those things provide good entertainment, but for only a couple of hours (except Knott's). There is so much variety at DLR that you get many hours of entertainment and other options. So, an AP is still a good value.

Contemplating.

A couple things I noticed with my renewal offer was no down payment so the monthley payment was higher. Also it starts when the previous one ends. If your not going right away, is the $20.00 increase worth losing time at the end of your year?
My pass ended mid April, I know I wasn't going for awhile so I purchased a new AP yesterday. It will start on my first visit.

 

[Sherry E]

Thanks! Went ahead and pulled the trigger! Super excited to have the APs and be a Californian now!

I'm trying to make sure I understand this correctly. So, if you start paying on the monthly plan now (and Disney will take the first monthly installment out of your account within a couple of days, even after whatever down payment was paid), to lock in the price before it goes up, the AP still won't be activated until you use it in December? Interesting! You learn something new every day!

I've done the payment plan a few times but have never activated my AP months later. In other words, when I first signed up for the plan it was activated right away and I was charged right away. Ever since then it has just been a renewal under the same terms, basically. So I've never had to deal with paying now and activating the AP much later on the payment plan. It's always been a pay now/activate now thing for me.

I knew that AP's could be activated later if someone bought a voucher now, but I didn't know it worked the same way with the California resident payment plan! Cool! That's good to know!

 

[Cbowman]

I wish the activation date trick worked for the Disney Premier Passport, but it doesn't. We live in San Francisco and had a friend run over to the Park last night to buy our passes. We have a big trip to WDW planned and it made sense to get the big pass this year. However, you buy it on June 1, it expires on June 1.

I was bummed since we won't be using it until August. But we saved $500 by buying it yesterday.

 

[taaren]

I'm trying to make sure I understand this correctly. So, if you start paying on the monthly plan now (and Disney will take the first monthly installment out of your account within a couple of days, even after whatever down payment was paid), to lock in the price before it goes up, the AP still won't be activated until you use it in December? Interesting! You learn something new every day!

I've done the payment plan a few times but have never activated my AP months later. In other words, when I first signed up for the plan it was activated right away and I was charged right away. Ever since then it has just been a renewal under the same terms, basically. So I've never had to deal with paying now and activating the AP much later on the payment plan. It's always been a pay now/activate now thing for me.

I knew that AP's could be activated later if someone bought a voucher now, but I didn't know it worked the same way with the California resident payment plan! Cool! That's good to know!

Yes, I had to scour the DIS and read the legalese of several pages of "Click Yes if you Agree" while buying the AP's to figure this out. Took me about an hour. But what arrived in my inbox are 2 Deluxe Annual Passes that say "Annual Passes will be valid one year from date of first entry into Disneyland Resort".

This is my first year as a California resident since 2007, so we haven't done the monthly plan previously.

I was very happy to discover the pay-monthly-now, activate-later feature worked. Now I just have to see: if I have it paid in full before we go down in December (probably will pay them off just before the trip), if they'll give me my DVC discount in the form of a Gift Card like they did two years ago when I paid in full before the price raise.

 

[Sherry E]

Yes, I had to scour the DIS and read the legalese of several pages of "Click Yes if you Agree" while buying the AP's to figure this out. Took me about an hour. But what arrived in my inbox are 2 Deluxe Annual Passes that say "Annual Passes will be valid one year from date of first entry into Disneyland Resort".

This is my first year as a California resident since 2007, so we haven't done the monthly plan previously.

I was very happy to discover the pay-monthly-now, activate-later feature worked. Now I just have to see: if I have it paid in full before we go down in December (probably will pay them off just before the trip), if they'll give me my DVC discount in the form of a Gift Card like they did two years ago when I paid in full before the price raise.

taaren --

That's really good info to have. I'm glad I read your post about it because I don't think I ever would have guessed that I could start up a monthly payment plan for an AP that I wasn't going to activate for at least 6 months -- and yet, if I had known that I could do it that way I probably would have set up my AP like that to begin with! Drat! I know there have been times in which I probably would have preferred to start paying off an AP way in advance (6 months or more), but not actually activate it until December.

In fact, I have been asking myself for a long time why I have an AP that expires, basically, right at the very start of the holiday season in November. I actually prefer to go in early December. As much as I looooove me some Disneyland Holidays in December, you would think that I would have been wise enough to get an AP in December, that expires the following December, so that I could at least get 2 years of full December trips out of it. The schedule that my current AP is on has me only getting one December trip out of the deal. I timed it out all wrong!

So I always tell myself that one of these days I am going to have to let the AP expire/lapse without renewal in November, and then just start out fresh with a new one in December. However, if I end up skipping a year (without renewing at all) at some point, then when I eventually get a brand new AP I may very well do what you're doing and start the payments early, early on, with the intention to activate it in December.

 

[starry_solo]

Don't forget that if you can afford to pay the full price now, look for the vouchers at any grocery store (still). I'm not sure if these are considered "gift cards" for the purposes of gas rewards at Vons or anywhere else that is currently running the 4x gas rewards though.

 

[taaren]

taaren --

That's really good info to have. I'm glad I read your post about it because I don't think I ever would have guessed that I could start up a monthly payment plan for an AP that I wasn't going to activate for at least 6 months -- and yet, if I had known that I could do it that way I probably would have set up my AP like that to begin with! Drat! I know there have been times in which I probably would have preferred to start paying off an AP way in advance (6 months or more), but not actually activate it until December.

In fact, I have been asking myself for a long time why I have an AP that expires, basically, right at the very start of the holiday season in November. I actually prefer to go in early December. As much as I looooove me some Disneyland Holidays in December, you would think that I would have been wise enough to get an AP in December, that expires the following December, so that I could at least get 2 years of full December trips out of it. The schedule that my current AP is on has me only getting one December trip out of the deal. I timed it out all wrong!

So I always tell myself that one of these days I am going to have to let the AP expire/lapse without renewal in November, and then just start out fresh with a new one in December. However, if I end up skipping a year (without renewing at all) at some point, then when I eventually get a brand new AP I may very well do what you're doing and start the payments early, early on, with the intention to activate it in December.

I know exactly what you mean. We kept letting ours expire, the buying another one 6 months later to try to grab 3 trips out of each AP (we tend to travel in May and October). Renewing wasn't working out for us the one year we did it we felt we weren't maximizing the AP's value. This is the first time I didn't have the cash ready to go before a price hike due to moving and trying to furnish our house though.
I like to do one AP in Oct, then get trips in May and late Sept/early Oct, then let it expire. Then buy another in late May/early June, get a pre-summer trip, October trip, and a May trip out of it. Rinse and repeat. This way we're only paying for 2 APs every 3 years, and getting a minimum of 6 trips out of them, usually end up squeezing in a few extra weekends here and there when we were flying through L.A.. And now we can drive!

I'm excited to finally be going to DLR in early December (my birthday is the second week, and my best friend's is the first week) ... for some reason it never worked out in years past, but I intend to make it a habit from now on!