Increased ticket prices coming soon?

[HollywoodTowerHotel]

Do discount ticket brokers like Undercover Tourist ever offer Annual Passes? Is the only place to get an Annual Pass though Disney without any discount?

 

[doconeill]

Do discount ticket brokers like Undercover Tourist ever offer Annual Passes? Is the only place to get an Annual Pass though Disney without any discount?

I don't know if they still do, but some AAA offices in FL and maybe GA used to sell APs. But other than that you can only get them at Disney. However, to get a discount, you can purchase a MYW ticket from UT, use it at least once to lock in the value at the current gate price, and then upgrade it to an Annual Pass.

 

[Maineiak]

I don't think the Brazilians just stay at WDW... I think part of the allure of the Orlando trip is the shopping, it's not just about WDW.

Ever been to the Premium Outlets on Vineland Ave??? The number of foreign visitors is always amazing, about to tip over with the number of bags they're carrying. I always get a chuckle with the amount of suitcases they buy, presumably to haul it all back home. The economics must be great if the cost of the extra suitcases + the cost of the added airline baggage fees + the cost of the items here is still less than the cost of the items domestically (wherever that is).

 

[HollywoodTowerHotel]

Have we heard any rumblings about a Disney price increase this week?

 

[doconeill]

Have we heard any rumblings about a Disney price increase this week?

I have not seen anything different this week than last week so far - but sometimes no one really knows until the Saturday before.

 

[rteetz]

Have we heard any rumblings about a Disney price increase this week?

No but I have heard that it likely will be tiered pricing when it happens.

 

[mab2012]

Based on their proposal, yes and no.
If you wanted to buy the Bronze level, you would only be able to go during "Bronze" times.
If you bought Silver, you would be able to go during Silver AND Bronze times.
If you bought Gold, you could go whenever you wanted.

That's their game on how they're going to sell it - they're still offering tickets that allow "flexbility" and the "ability" to go whenever, just at a very high premium cost. But they're offering cheaper options for those looking for them.

Basically, the same thing as what Uni is doing - if you know your dates, you pick them. But if you don't, then you just buy the "Anytime" ticket (which is the most expensive).

This.

I've seen a lot of confusion in this and other threads over the logistics of how Disney could possibly implement this. I don't see why it has to be complicated, even with multi-day tickets. They can do exactly the same thing they've already done with the annual passes. You buy a ticket at a particular level; aside from the highest level, which would presumably be unrestricted, your ticket has certain dates blacked out. You can't use that ticket to visit on those dates. If you are planning a 10 day trip, and 9 of your days are included in the "Bronze" ticket but one is blacked out, then you either upgrade to a Silver ticket (or even Gold, depending on the dates), or you don't visit the parks on that one day.

For example, due to the unfortunate placement of Easter this year, the last couple of days of our March Break trip overlaps the premium Easter dates. I considered picking up a DVC Gold annual pass for this trip, but I wouldn't be able to use it on those last couple of days. I'd have to buy a Platinum pass, and that's not worth the cost. So I'll stick with my 7-day base ticket, which for now will get me into the parks on all days of our trip. If the base tickets were tiered with the same dates as the APs, we would have had to decide whether it was worth it for us to pay the additional cost for tickets that covered the premium dates, or whether we would buy a shorter ticket and just skip the parks on those days. Or change our dates, which wasn't really an option for us.

Nobody has to like it, and it might not be what Disney is actually planning. But unless I'm overlooking some complication here, it's not logistically difficult, or even particularly confusing.

 

[Eoghann]

The confusion comes from the fact that the majority of WDW visitors are not actually planners. Up until FP+ most guests didn't even use FP never mind assigning parks to specific days or booking ADRs.

They bought a park ticket months in advance and the ticket was valid whenever they went. The end.

 

[doconeill]

The only people that would have problems are the people who did not purchase the tickets as part of a package (which would insure the tickets are "right-tiered"), or did not purchase from Disney without wading through lots of web pages/CM speak explaining the differences, or willfully ignored them.

So that leaves those who purchase through resellers.

Disney probably doesn't care about that. They can turn around and say, "If you purchased your tickets directly from us, you wouldn't have this issue..." It will be up to the resellers to heavily educate purchasers on the new options - at no expense at all to Disney.

 

[mshanson3121]

The confusion comes from the fact that the majority of WDW visitors are not actually planners. Up until FP+ most guests didn't even use FP never mind assigning parks to specific days or booking ADRs.

They bought a park ticket months in advance and the ticket was valid whenever they went. The end.

Yes, but even that doesn't explain how this would be complicated. They still don't have to be "planners". They obviously know the dates they're traveling, so they buy the tickets for the time period they're traveling. Easy peasy. I imagine what we will see happen, is that all parks will end up costing the same, to make that aspect easier - a ticket gets you into any park. It's genius on Disney's part, because if they set it up the same as Uni, there'll be a nice little button that says, "Don't know your dates?" and there you will be prompted to buy the "Anytime" ticket... which is more money in Disney's pocket.

 

[Eoghann]

Yes, but even that doesn't explain how this would be complicated. They still don't have to be "planners". They obviously know the dates they're traveling, so they buy the tickets for the time period they're traveling. Easy peasy. I imagine what we will see happen, is that all parks will end up costing the same, to make that aspect easier - a ticket gets you into any park.

Do they? Historically they haven't had to and I know I have bought park tickets months before getting plane tickets for example so there was definitely some uncertainty about exact dates. Now doing the DVC thing it is a bit different of course...

But the bigger confusion would be the specific dates you plan to be in the parks. Last trip we had a 5 day pass, but we were on property for 10 days and we were able to visit the parks on any 5 of those days without worrying about other factors (though I did because I'm a planner). Now everyone will have to plan around which days are gold, silver or bronze.

Great for Disney, not a plus for guests and definitely more work and complexity.

 

[jknc]

Is it best then to buy now if traveling in early June?

 

[Eoghann]

Is it best then to buy now if traveling in early June?

Depends how you are financing it. The prices certainly won't get cheaper and your tickets will be honored so if you have the money and are definitely going I'd say buy now.

But if you're just going to put it on a credit card and not pay it off...

 

[IbeAbitGOOFY]

Is it best then to buy now if traveling in early June?

If you KNOW you are going (no chance of cancellation), you are not getting a package, and you have the funds, then yes. Getting it now would provide the benefit of cheaper tickets. If they don't go up, then you haven't lost anything other than interest you may have earned with the money sitting in your account.

 

[Budshark]

So the people who would be affected are people who buy tickets, not part of a package, months in advance, on a timeline that happens to overlap between different tiers? And the only downside is the person who starts at the higher tier and buys for the higher tier for days they could have bought lower tier. Because otherwise I'm sure Disney would be happy to upgrade your lower tier to a higher tier for a small cost.

I think the 0.005% of affected folks will be manageable by Disney.

 

[Eoghann]

So the people who would be affected are people who buy tickets, not part of a package, months in advance, on a timeline that happens to overlap between different tiers? And the only downside is the person who starts at the higher tier and buys for the higher tier for days they could have bought lower tier. Because otherwise I'm sure Disney would be happy to upgrade your lower tier to a higher tier for a small cost.

I think the 0.005% of affected folks will be manageable by Disney.

Oh I'm sure Disney will be entirely happy to upgrade. But I was talking about confusion so their willingness to do that doesn't reduce confusion at all. It's hard to know how many people might be affected by the tiering timeline because we don't know what that will be. There have been versions suggested that would have different tiers on weekends etc.

There is no version of this that is simpler than what's already in place, therefore confusion...

Seriously talk to retail people about the confusion that even the most basic coupon offers create in stores on a regular basis.

 

[Mackenzie Click-Mickelson]

This.

I've seen a lot of confusion in this and other threads over the logistics of how Disney could possibly implement this. I don't see why it has to be complicated, even with multi-day tickets. They can do exactly the same thing they've already done with the annual passes. You buy a ticket at a particular level; aside from the highest level, which would presumably be unrestricted, your ticket has certain dates blacked out. You can't use that ticket to visit on those dates. If you are planning a 10 day trip, and 9 of your days are included in the "Bronze" ticket but one is blacked out, then you either upgrade to a Silver ticket (or even Gold, depending on the dates), or you don't visit the parks on that one day.

For example, due to the unfortunate placement of Easter this year, the last couple of days of our March Break trip overlaps the premium Easter dates. I considered picking up a DVC Gold annual pass for this trip, but I wouldn't be able to use it on those last couple of days. I'd have to buy a Platinum pass, and that's not worth the cost. So I'll stick with my 7-day base ticket, which for now will get me into the parks on all days of our trip. If the base tickets were tiered with the same dates as the APs, we would have had to decide whether it was worth it for us to pay the additional cost for tickets that covered the premium dates, or whether we would buy a shorter ticket and just skip the parks on those days. Or change our dates, which wasn't really an option for us.

Nobody has to like it, and it might not be what Disney is actually planning. But unless I'm overlooking some complication here, it's not logistically difficult, or even particularly confusing.

The thing is you are mostly looking at it from either Disney's business viewpoint of how they will implement it OR someone who has actually gone to WDW before or in recent enough years OR someone who loves to plan and has actually researched what going to WDW entails OR someone who is concerned about cost who has the flexibility to shift their vacation to minimize excess costs. Of course nobody has to like it and there is absolutely no way to please all the masses.

You're going about your statement, which does have validity to it, like someone who knows some ins and outs of Disney. I had never heard of DVC until last August (my in-laws have NO clue what in the world that is and I'm not even going to try) nor did I even know about AP and how it actually worked especially after they adjusted is last year; you already have experience with how the AP works, the blackout dates and how much more it might cost if you choose this week over another week due to the type of AP you bought. Last time I went to WDW in 2011 I bought our tickets 3 weeks before we went (at a stellar deal too) and we didn't know when were going to go until approximately 2 1/2 months in advance but we also stayed off-site due to cost reasons. However, for our next trip in Sep 2017 I've been planning since August 2015 and will be booking our on-site resort 1 year in advance.

My last company I worked at there was a software program that was one of the most vital things to us. The program however was never designed to handle too much thrown at it. Well every 2 months for roughly 1 year and a half they kept adding more functions to the program and every time the program would crash for a few days and every time it became less and less stable. If Disney only had the tiered pricing and maybe ADRs or FassPass+ (but adjusted the 60 and 30-day rule) people may be able to get it more. BUT it's the ADR (pick at 180 days and +10 if staying on-site), FassPass+ (pick at 60 or 30-days) in which both things cause peope to be locked into a certain park on a certain day if utilizing it or even know about it, MagicBand and how to use it and then you add in tiered..well business-wise you're already having people locked into a park for a specific day so it makes sense but at a guest level there is a point where it just becomes too much.

 

[Mackenzie Click-Mickelson]

Oh I'm sure Disney will be entirely happy to upgrade. But I was talking about confusion so their willingness to do that doesn't reduce confusion at all. It's hard to know how many people might be affected by the tiering timeline because we don't know what that will be. There have been versions suggested that would have different tiers on weekends etc.

There is no version of this that is simpler than what's already in place, therefore confusion...

Seriously talk to retail people about the confusion that even the most basic coupon offers create in stores on a regular basis.

Having worked in retail for 6 years before moving to the office world you are spot on with the coupon issue.

One of the surveys I saw had the following (though since it's quite outdated they may have tweaked it a bit over time):


Notice how gold, silver, and bronze criss-cross each other like crazy though most of the months on that survey were not like that some were. Yes due to the holidays there you would expect higher pricing at certain times but this can illustrate how confusing it could get to someone.

 

[Maineiak]

...you haven't lost anything other than interest you may have earned with the money sitting in your account.

I want to bank where you bank!

 

[IbeAbitGOOFY]

I want to bank where you bank!

Well, this assumes you've got more than the cost of tickets sitting in your account.