DVC Discount on Theme Park Tickets - Will it ever return?

[Robbie Cottam]

Back in May i sent a letter to sr. Management about a number of things, Chapek‘s statement, dinning plans, annual passes, treating DVC members like a revenue stream rather than GUESTs….

within 24 hours I received a phone call from there complaint department, telling me everything will be ok, and the service I addressed would be coming back soon.

6 months later I‘m pretty sure it was lip service…..

annual passes will come back when it is profitable to bring them back.

 

[hglenn]

I'd be fine with them just offering APs to DVC members at this time - no discount required. As of now we have 18 nights booked for Disney trips next year. We only plan to do parks 4 of those days and one night-time extra hours event. If the option to purchase APs existed we would buy them and be in parks 18-20 days spending money on merch and food. As it currently stands, we'll likely eat primarily at Disney Springs but will likely have more grocery items in the room just for convenience. We'll just lounge at the pools and take advantage of free amenities like transportation. Certainly we'll still buy merch but I do not feel as compelled to buy outside of the parks as inside.

 

[Robbie Cottam]

Did you know a 10 day ticket is almost the same price as a DVC renewal....

I have 3 trips in the next 4 months......

I'm the only one with an annual pass

Extra 4000 dollars in park passes... over what an annual pass would have cost....

 

[HIRyeDVC]

I wonder how long it would take APs to sell out if it went on sale again. I too would settle for APs with no discounts. The days of AP and ticket discounts for DVC members are long gone IMO.

 

[hglenn]

I wonder how long it would take APs to sell out if it went on sale again. I too would settle for APs with no discounts. The days of AP and ticket discounts for DVC members are long gone IMO.

I think they will sell out very quickly. And I think it would be mostly DVC members....

 

[HIRyeDVC]

I think they will sell out very quickly. And I think it would be mostly DVC members....

 

[Sandisw]

I think they will sell out very quickly. And I think it would be mostly DVC members....

There are plenty of cash guests who buy APs so I think the sell out would be fast because of that as well.

IMO, It’s why they haven’t come out with something unique for DVC to buy during the pause.

We are simply a small subset of AP holders It would be cool though to see that info in terms of how many DVC owners actually buy them.

Most of my DVC friends do not as they are once a year visitors.

 

[DonMacGregor]

View attachment 715251

 

[keishashadow]

The days of AP and ticket discounts for DVC members are long gone IMO.

I’m up to bat again to renew my AP in early Feb ‘23, feeling lucky.

Of course, I thot that too, when I bought my last powerball tix too, wound up with zero numbers.

Hope springs eternal

 

[Yankee626]

I go to DW 4 weeks a year. If they canceled the Annual Pass program I would sell all my points in a Heartbeat. It would be crazy to buy weekly passes every trip.

 

[Robbie Cottam]

I go to DW 4 weeks a year. If they canceled the Annual Pass program I would sell all my points in a Heartbeat. It would be crazy to buy weekly passes every trip.

I don’t know if I would sell…. As a lot of trips I don’t need to goto the parks, I only go because I have the AP…. So resort vacations would be what I do for the shorter no kid trips …..

But the 400 points I want to buy at poly 2….

Well, that ain’t happening !!!!!

 

[HIRyeDVC]

The DVC department really has to be frustrated that they can’t offer APs as one of the main perks.

 

[Robbie Cottam]

The DVC department really has to be frustrated that they can’t offer APs as one of the main perks.

From what I have been told, and I may be operating under false information….

The average DVC owners buys enough points for one trip a year, or one trip every other year….

If you are traveling so your two once a year trips are within the same annual pass.

If the savings on an annual pass is a make or break on purchasing DVC. I would Strongly recommend against it….

Where DVD is or will be slightly sad, is more likely to be DVC member per buy. For the new resort(s).

Because it is hard to sell me, and others in my position on the “value” of adding more DVC, when each additional trip starts with 6000 dollars in park passes….

 

[jimim]

I have been saying for moooooonths now I would gladly buy an annual pass at full price vs DVC price or renewal price yearly. It just makes sense for us with the number of trips we used to take. I almost lost my lunch when I saw how much I paid for 4, 10 day passes for this November trip (which I really did not want to to take but family had. the final say). It just hurt forking out all that cash.

 

[mac_tlc]

I would be surprised if the AP's or any discount at all comes back any time soon. We are up for renewal of our Pixie Pass in February and will probably do it, but our number of park days goes down every year. The kids and grandkids are not FL residents, so they have no option other than trip-by-trip tickets. Their choice, unfortunately, has been no trips due to the costs.

I think we will be renting out all our points this upcoming Use Year.


mac_tlc

 

[Ms Bibbidi]

I see several posters talking about discounted DVC annual passes. That's a little confusing. Ever since the character based annual passes (not the metals -- platinum, gold etc) came out on September 8, 2021, there has not been any discount for DVC members. Instead, DVC members are just became "eligible" for the Sorcerer pass -- which blocks two weeks at Christmas and New Year's. Florida residents pay the same price as DVC for the Sorcerer. So, it is not like DVC got a discount on the Incredi-pass, which has no block-out dates.

 

[Ms Bibbidi]

There are plenty of cash guests who buy APs so I think the sell out would be fast because of that as well.

IMO, It’s why they haven’t come out with something unique for DVC to buy during the pause.

We are simply a small subset of AP holders It would be cool though to see that info in terms of how many DVC owners actually buy them.

Most of my DVC friends do not as they are once a year visitors.

Sandi, I have seen some blog language saying they think there will have to be a virtual queue if new annual passes go on sale again. As to when -- we know that Disney put a cap on the number of annual passes distributed. However, if the California litigation impacted the pause at all, then the newly filed litigation in Florida will probably have the same effect. Although Ms. McCarthy's statements at the Q4 2022 Earnings Report a few days ago indicated they might be restructuring their annual pass program to provide more flexibility to Disney. So, there is hope; but nobody knows what it will look like. In order to avoid the litigation issues, they might have to get rid of the structure that is based on a block-out calendar.

 

[dcfromva]

I wonder.... if DVC sales slow down -- if they will offer APes as an incentive to purchase? (They were offering APes as an incentive for BLT and VGC when they first went on sale. )

 

[Sandisw]

I wonder.... if DVC sales slow down -- if they will offer APes as an incentive to purchase? (They were offering APes as an incentive for BLT and VGC when they first went on sale. )

I would be surprised because its a completely different division that is in charge of sales..they Have their own goals and reasons and what is happening for DVC isn’t part of it.

I think it’s pretty clear that if DVD had the power to get APs for new sales since they suspended them last year, we would have them by now,

I know many of us here on the DIS benefit from them, but no one but Disney knows how many DVC owners use them.

I have shared but out of all the owners I know personally, only one other person has one. Every one else are once a year visitors…so they buy tickets.

What is more disappointing to me is that DVC hasn’t been able to strike a deal with the Park division to offer eligible DVC owners a discount on multiday tickets instead.

 

[DonMacGregor]

I really don't understand this whole idea that keeps popping up in thread after thread, that if DVC wanted to offer discounted tickets or annual passes, they would do so. There is no other singular Membership Extra that is lamented over more, or cited as a greater motivation to purchase DVC, than AP's and other discounted park entry media. DVC is intimately aware of this, through direct complaints, social media, you name it. To assume that DVC has no interest in the ability to use what was arguably the biggest sales arrow in their quiver is ridiculous. They'd love to offer discount on entry media, and would do it yesterday if they could.

But they can't. The DPEP overlords hold the admissions purse strings tightly, and just because DVC is a division of a subsidiary of DPEP, and both are part of the happy House of the Mouse, doesn't mean that DPEP has any interest in giving away cheap admissions. Every Membership Extra that DVC offers has to be paid for, and paid for using funds not related to any member dues. Lounges, special events/parties in the parks, merch and other discounts all cost DVC cash. That cash is limited and can only go so far, so DVC can't even go to DPEP and offer to offset costs of discounted admissions without a serious output of additional cash, or significant concessions in cost by DPEP.