Lightning Pass and more Virtual Queues-How does it all affect you as a DVC Member?

[WilsonFlyer]

With all the rumors floating around of increased pricing, and maybe even less availability of "E Ticket" rides with the advent of virtual queues, I'm not interested in the rumors so much as how this particular audience views the continued advent of the seemingly endless propagation of providing less and less for more and more money at WDW.

My wife and I were just discussing this, and as always is the case, a natural question came up. When will the "rich peoples' " money run out, and will it be too late for Disney to recover and punt when it does? Maybe it will never run out, and they finally have enough statistical data to support that theory. But then again, maybe they're wrong.

See? I think DVC is more representative of the population at large than one may think at first glance. I consider us middle to upper-middle income America. I know for a fact that they are quickly approaching pricing us out of the "price of admission," and I use that term as a sum of all the parts. It is getting ridiculously expensive for a family of 3 adults to vacation repeatedly at WDW several times a year, and if we only go once every year or two, APs and even DVC (for us) no longer makes financial sense. I'm certain that we wouldn't even go multiple times per year if it weren't for DVC, but with all the necessary add-ons, even with DVC, that is starting to pinch the billfold. There was just a year-long GLOBAL pandemic, for Christ's sake. Do these people not know that it affected everybody else also?

This is not intended to become a complaints thread. Quite the contrary. I simply want to know if we, as loyal DVC members, are the only ones feeling more and more squeezed out with almost each and every passing month. Is it just us?

 

[WilsonFlyer]

Wow. 53+ views and nothing. I'm not sure what the subliminal is here.

 

[vicarrieous]

This is not intended to become a complaints thread........That's why I didn't respond lol. I just wanna complain!

 

[WB1971]

I’m becoming convinced there are too many people with money to burn for Disney to ever run out of willing participants. The current price of DVC points and hotels just isn’t reasonable anymore, but it doesn’t seem to dissuade enough for it to force a market adjustment. I’m seeing the companies that lost the most last year, trying to make a killing and get it all back at once. Business I guess. Will see when the economy gets rough if money ever dries up.

 

[WilsonFlyer]

This is not intended to become a complaints thread........That's why I didn't respond lol. I just wanna complain!

Oh don't even get me started. I'm just trying to keep the thread from getting shut down before it even has time to provide any relative feedback.

 

[RivShore]

First off, I think we need to let this pandemic and the changes it caused run it course. Then we can see where the prices, and what's offered for those prices, stand.
That being said, I really think Disney has been trying to flatten out/lower attendance since they moved to flexible pricing a few years ago. Pre-pandemic, they had still been hitting new attendance records so, no they have not hit that breaking point yet. It's a good problem for a company to have but it will leave some of us in the dust, at some point.
DVC brings an interesting twist to it as we are a somewhat captive audience that "has" to visit annually and pay whatever the going rate is, if we want to include parks in our visit. Is it possible they will keep us in the fold with something like real park ticket discounts or free admission to the many special events that close parks early? Maybe, but history is not on our side.
In summary, the rumors are just that, rumors. It's way too early to know what post-pandemic will look like and cost.

 

[jo-jo]

What's the difference between a FP and a virtual queue ? No stand by line at all?

 

[DisneyStarWisher]

What's the difference between a FP and a virtual queue ? No stand by line at all?

I was also wondering what a Lightning Pass is.

 

[JETSDAD]

I was also wondering what a Lightning Pass is.

It's one vloggers guess....also known as click bait.

 

[The Jackal]

I was also wondering what a Lightning Pass is.

Rumored to be WDW version of the unlimited line skip pass. Rumored for a good fee $100-300 per day per person. Just rumors for now. Universal and Six Flags has a version of this.

 

[ziravan]

Universal’s version includes offering it as a free add-on for their deluxe hotels. By extension if WDW did similar that would mean DVC.

It would not be possible to exclude DVC from such a huge change to the value of deluxe without, in effect, downgrading DVC from deluxe. That would make selling it very difficult. “So you’re saying DVC is deluxe without the benefits of being deluxe??!?”

It would start to differentiate their deluxe product and that seems in line with their current thinking.

And THAT could be your explanation of moving to 150 point minimum and adding VGF rooms to sell.

Buy DVC and have unlimited front of the line access when you stay on points (subject to holding a blue card).

 

[ziravan]

If WDW offers a FOTL (Front of the Line) pass and doesn’t make it part of the deluxe hotel experience, the comparisons and advertising opportunities for/to USO will be immediate and obvious.

If they offer it to deluxe, DVD is going to have to negotiate to include it as part of the DVC experience and that sounds like a separately expensed “perk” aka a blue card special.

And that would explain some of the pieces currently being moved: 150 pt minimum with no currently obvious perk justification, hints of FPs type return for 4th of July but 60 day window is already history, etc.

 

[starry_solo]

They could offer it to deluxe hotel guests vs deluxe villa guests.... cash reservations vs points reservations (FOTL passes)

 

[ziravan]

They could offer it to deluxe hotel guests vs deluxe villa guests.... cash reservations vs points reservations (FOTL passes)

They could. But then, good luck selling DVC as deluxe accommodations that lack what will quickly become the one KEY feature of what it means to be deluxe.

WDW would essentially be downgrading every DVC villa to a moderate and moderate co-located with a deluxe.

DVD couldn’t allow that. So. Some deal would be struck to include DVC in the new definition of deluxe.

 

[Castillo Mom]

First off, I think we need to let this pandemic and the changes it caused run it course. Then we can see where the prices, and what's offered for those prices, stand.
That being said, I really think Disney has been trying to flatten out/lower attendance since they moved to flexible pricing a few years ago. Pre-pandemic, they had still been hitting new attendance records so, no they have not hit that breaking point yet. It's a good problem for a company to have but it will leave some of us in the dust, at some point.
DVC brings an interesting twist to it as we are a somewhat captive audience that "has" to visit annually and pay whatever the going rate is, if we want to include parks in our visit. Is it possible they will keep us in the fold with something like real park ticket discounts or free admission to the many special events that close parks early? Maybe, but history is not on our side.
In summary, the rumors are just that, rumors. It's way too early to know what post-pandemic will look like and cost.

Exactly. Personally, come what may, our next trip in September which will be our first since the pandemic, will be a celebration of life. If things aren’t perfect or what we’re used to, that’s ok. We’ll go with the flow and will savor every moment. I‘m in healthcare, so perhaps I have a unique perspective. Don’t have the energy to care about the rumors. Que será, será.

 

[zavandor]

If they give FOTL pass for blue card owners only, they could easily get rid of the Riviera resale restrictions.
But they won't do it, I bet it would cost too much for a perk.

 

[ziravan]

If they give FOTL pass for blue card owners only, they could easily get rid of the Riviera resale restrictions.
But they won't do it, I bet it would cost too much for a perk.

The real question is whether they’d make it a deluxe resort perk like USO.

USO only has 3 such resorts compared with what? 20 WDW deluxe resorts? Of course WDW has more property and they’ve done something similar with FP before and this would eliminate the moderate and value users.

But. Talk about redesigning your clientele to get a bigger per customer spend. The deluxe resorts would be full.

 

[Sandisw]

It’s hard for me because honestly, we bought with both the parks and being in FL in mind.

I spend less and less time in the parks and love the resorts. Rides have become secondary for us. Even my adult kids have come so much that they have a more relaxed attitude toward the trips

So, if things become pay for play, we will adjust. Would we pay $100 a day per person? Only at MK and only if we had a special trip with a big group. If not, standby it is.

I believe APs will be back and even if they are more, they will be worth it for us.

One thing I have read is that guests have been enjoying the crowds being less and even that some have felt that for the cost, it’s been nice.

So, maybe the goal is to continue keeping crowds down at the expense of higher prices.

I do think and hope that we are going to see some DVC blue card perks.

I’m also willing to see how things are in another year to decide how the post Covid experience is.

 

[Makmak]

On the earnings call they were discussing increasing per customer spend by creating a “loyalty program” a lot of people interpreted this to be related to redesign of the AP but I was thinking about it more in terms of an overall experience redesign incorporating some of what pp have mentioned in this post. More perks for people spending more or with larger spending/visit history. I envision a system that is like the cruise lines (not exactly what DCL does as they ranked by number of cruises while other lines gave credit for the number of days sailed and added “extra credit” for suite sails).
What if they use a similar card color system for park/resort visits? This could apply to DVC as well as guests at all levels of resorts. Earn perks by the category of hotel/number of ticket days and “climb up” with repeated visits. This would allow the customer the feeling of getting perks based on how much they spend. It would also allow Disney to increase the return per customer by motivating them to spend more/visit more to “earn” more perks, even if the perks (like fast passes) don’t cost Disney much. This would be on par with the OP statement of charging more for delivering less than they did historically but most people would accept it, even if most of the perks you need to indirectly pay for were free at one time. They would have to have an option for the “once in a lifetime” visitors as well and that would have to have a pretty high cost. I’m just tossing it out as an idea because I also feel that we paid way too much for what we got on our last visit and will not be going back until more options exist.

 

[trivan]

Rumored to be WDW version of the unlimited line skip pass. Rumored for a good fee $100-300 per day per person. Just rumors for now. Universal and Six Flags has a version of this.

This is basically what a Private VIP tour is. Unless Disney wants to get rid of the VIP Tour this would make sense to do. I guess it would make it more accessible to others.