LL Premier Pass is here!

[gottalovepluto]

I can’t stop chuckling at the fact that even after dropping this dough you are only allowed ONE ride. No repeating those teacups without getting in line, absolutely not!!

 

[Brian rhymes with dyin]

Remember when Disney opened a brand new luxury experience to chase that luxury pocketbook and it folded within 2 years.

 

[Brett Wyman]

I can’t stop chuckling at the fact that even after dropping this dough you are only allowed ONE ride. No repeating those teacups without getting in line, absolutely not!!

That and no hopping version! I suppose you could save a few bucks by buying non-hoppers(sorry APs!) and move that money to the LLPP.

 

[Miffy]

Well, they sell VIP tours, so I'm pretty sure they'll sell these too. Just not to me.

 

[JoJoGirl]

My thoughts:

1. This will be a good offering for people who are willing to pay for it. Those people would very probably have been buying LL passes or VIP tours anyway, but will now use this option instead. Since the new Premier Pass only includes one ride a day per attraction, the LLs shouldn’t be that much busier than before.

2. I probably won’t use Premier Pass, because attractions with LLs are less than half of the reason I visit the parks. LLMP and LLSP should still work great for my needs. But the people who buy it will love it.

3. Unless the economy really tanks to zero, Disney will never include Premium Pass with any hotel stays, even club level. They would give Multi Passes long before that, and we haven’t seen a hint of that happening yet.

 

[ocdb8r1]

Well, they sell VIP tours, so I'm pretty sure they'll sell these too. Just not to me.

For MK (prices), a VIP tour may be a better way to go if you have a full party of 10. At least then you can do repeats and/or park hop (and you get a few other pluses on a VIP tour).

 

[Chuck96]

For all of my personal opinions and thoughts...these will definitely sell out. I'd bet big money on that. I can even see the attraction. As Brian said...it's not the ride, it's the freedom. As the Disney scheduler in my family, having a day where all I need to worry about is my lunch order might be worth a splurge. And if I can make a 5 day trip a 4 day trip with this, then the money works itself out as well with one less hotel night (for 2-3 people total, which is my usual Disney footprint).

But all in all, I still think it is a bad trend line.

 

[dez1978]

I don't think that's the right question. A better question might be: Why anyone would find value in this? And, in my experience there are two possible answers.

One is: "It lets me turn my planning brain off for the day." As the person who Does The Planning, there is a fair amount of work leading up to each day, and then during the day constant adjustment as things don't work out exactly the way I thought they would. This removes all of that work.

The second is: "I have a group who is not good at following directions." This happened to me when we traveled with a second family. They did not "get" the idea of a touring plan, because they'd never done it before. When their kids saw something they wanted to do, they wanted to do it RIGHT THEN, and it took a bit to help the parents understand why that might not be wise. We ultimately followed the plan, but not without some resentment on everyone's part.

Another planner here, and this is the thing that interests me about it. People don't want to get up early, or follow my plans, and its frustrating. This would alleviate this somewhat. But that price....

The equivalent Universal express pass would be $1,595 for one day express for a family of 5 at the highest range as well. Its not for the average user. This is for people who wouldn't bat an eye at the price.

But for a couple hundred more per night than a value resort, I can stay at one of the premier resorts and get it for all 4 of us in our room there and for 2 days. Here I have to pay premium prices (well DVC dues lol) and still pay 1300+ a day.

The person on page 5 stated the price for VIP was like $850/hr during Thanksgiving which has to be one of the high end price ranges for this new pass.

In the end I dont think its that far off regardless if you have a sizeable group at all. We will see.

That was me. I still just can't see paying well over 10k (10 hr tour) for 1 day when you include tax and tip being worth it for a vip tour. Now, if I was doing a short trip, maybe. But I've already got 5 day hoppers for this trip. I'm going to be in the parks regardless. Seems like a better idea, and maybe a bit cheaper to buy it once for each park for the 8 of us and take our time at each park, get to ride all the rides and do it at our own pace, rather then trying to do all the big rides in each park in once day.

I can tell you the VIP pricing on 10/30 when this rolls out is $600 per hour or $4200 plus the 20% tip for $5,040. With 10 people you're around $504 per person. If you can't get 10 people that price goes up, if you don't want to share a tour with another family, that price goes up. Opening day for this at Magic Kingdom is $329 per person. It's about $180 savings per person at a minimum for opening day of the roll out.

Don't forget tax on that. that's an extra $273 for the tour. And the 329 becomes 350.

So on this day, a 10 hr tour would be 7590 with tax and tip. about 950pp for our group of 8. Or using the cheapest prices for this, I could get it once at each park for 954 over the 5 day trip and be able to take my time. I would never want to plan that we could find 2 random people willing to join our group and plan on that savings.

 

[disneydreamer1980]

I’d do it if I was on a short trip and didn’t have time to get everything done, but we go for two weeks and we’ve got an AH booked at MK already plus 2 deluxe EEH nights at MK and one at Epcot and I plan on getting LLMPs also so we won’t be needing this but I would definitely get it for MK and maybe DHS if we were only going for a few days. No idea why anyone would buy it for AK with so few rides and no repeats.

 

[Aims127]

You best believe VIP tour prices will go up accordingly, as will regular Multipass. This will have a domino effect in each direction.

I actually don't think so. Speaking from a family of 3-4 (Sometimes bring a friend for my son) this would make it considerably less. I have done a VIP Tour and you are most definitely visiting at least 3 parks for most so factoring that cost in and to be honest we are only cramming in that much time because we are required to do 7 hours and we are honestly exhausted by the end of that 7 hours so thinking of splitting it up amongst days at our own pace would be heaven. I almost think myself that they will have to let VIP tours maybe cut the front of LL lane line again to make it more favorable with this addition. Otherwise for me I'm considering dropping my VIP tour for my future trip if I am able to get premier pass for four days.

 

[MIChessGuy]

The price levels for this thing leave me dumbfounded. I suppose there is effectively no limit to just about any theme park-related expense, all the more aggravating since whenever I am there, most of the headliners are broken anyway. It won't be long until Universal Orlando hits similar price levels. Still, I suppose I shouldn't be too surprised to see them retooling into ultra-premium destinations if that's where the money is.

 

[Aims127]

For MK (prices), a VIP tour may be a better way to go if you have a full party of 10. At least then you can do repeats and/or park hop (and you get a few other pluses on a VIP tour).

Also certain rides you can't do repeats with VIP ( I honestly don't remember which ones but I want to say at least Tron and ROR)

 

[traveler9]

Remember when Disney opened a brand new luxury experience to chase that luxury pocketbook and it folded within 2 years.

Only difference is this one (probably) came at less of a cost than the other.

 

[NickC]

I really don't like waiting in long lines---we did 2 1/2 hours when Midway Mania first opened. Never again.
BUT, aside from that, I kind of like being in line with the family. There's no escape. The kids have to talk to us. And not the basic 'how's school' stuff. We air that out in the first queue. Now we are on to deep topics and the best jokes.
I'm not sure I'd even want to skip the line on every ride. This is a hard pass for me. But, I guess it's not supposed to be for everyone.

 

[Pyxie]

Yes, they do. Per their website 21 deluxe hotels & villas.
8 deluxe hotels:
Disney’s Animal Kingdom Lodge
Disney’s Beach Club Resort
Disney’s BoardWalk Inn
Disney’s Contemporary Resort
Disney’s Grand Floridian Resort & Spa
Disney’s Polynesian Village Resort
Disney’s Wilderness Lodge
Disney’s Yacht Club Resort

13 deluxe villas.
Bay Lake Tower at Disney’s Contemporary Resort
Boulder Ridge Villas at Disney’s Wilderness Lodge
Copper Creek Villas & Cabins at Disney’s Wilderness Lodge
Disney’s Animal Kingdom Villas - Jambo House
Disney’s Animal Kingdom Villas - Kidani Village
Disney’s Beach Club Villas
Disney’s BoardWalk Villas
Disney’s Old Key West Resort
Disney’s Polynesian Villas & Bungalows
Disney’s Riviera Resort
Disney’s Saratoga Springs Resort & Spa
The Cabins at Disney's Fort Wilderness Resort
The Villas at Disney’s Grand Floridian Resort & Spa

Not including Shades of Green, the Swan, & Dolphin which will qualify as well.

Also, again, the price if you are buying it outright, its similar. Universal just offers another option that makes it more affordable by staying at one of their hotels. I'm not comparing this part.

This is somewhat of a stretch considering those deluxe villas are technically a part of the same resorts listed in the first list. It's really more like 8 deluxe resorts and 12 if you count Swan, Dolphin, Swan Reserve, and Shades of Green.

But I still agree with you. There are too many deluxe resort guests at Disney to offer this for free like Universal does. It would diminish the overall experience.

 

[Disturbia]

Well at these prices you can easily spend the money on a three night DCL cruise (inside rooms) that includes all your food for same/less per day/night. I'm a bang for my bucks kind of person and even though I *could* afford it I refuse to spend that amount of money on one day when as others have pointed out you can get close to all you want to do with LL or even one of the special events (if you spend the time on rides vs shows/parades/characters).

Same here. I’m keeping my March cruise on the Treasure!

 

[Lewisc]

Remember when Disney opened a brand new luxury experience to chase that luxury pocketbook and it folded within 2 years.

Disney remembers. This will generate $$$ revenue. Nominal cost to Disney. No risk to Disney

 

[peder]

This is somewhat of a stretch considering those deluxe villas are technically a part of the same resorts listed in the first list. It's really more like 8 deluxe resorts and 12 if you count Swan, Dolphin, Swan Reserve, and Shades of Green.

But I still agree with you. There are too many deluxe resort guests at Disney to offer this for free like Universal does. It would diminish the overall experience.

And also Disney is the number one player in this space. They simply do not need to offer anything for free. It's Universal that needs to offer more perks as a way of swaying guests over from Disney.

 

[2vets]

They’d kill it first. Those are the target spenders. Launching to Deluxe only was quite telling, the only deal here is vs a VIP Tour. If you want this they expect you to dropping Bucks already. I wouldn’t be surprised to see it stay limited in scope (like the CL FP program that never expanded beyond CL guests).

If CL guests get anything "special", it will be an opportunity to buy something else - say, an add-on for a second park for the LLPP. That's my guess. They sure aren't going to include it.

 

[Brian rhymes with dyin]

Disney remembers. This will generate $$$ revenue. Nominal cost to Disney. No risk to Disney

I think the similarity is that lots of people in this income bracket will try it once, say it was great, then say they don't need to do that again for the cost, which Disney will certainly adjust as needed. But who knows!