New Sorcerer Pass - Does it require a blue member card?

[Lorana]

However, the lack of discount on the IncrediPass is upsetting. Sounds like blue card members need to let DVC know we want a discount on the IncrediPass and go from there.

What email address should we use for feedback? Because I for one want that Blue Card perk to return!

 

[ckb_nc]

The short of it is if you bought AP a 6 day park hopper ticket was break even with photo pass for 3 people. The savings above that were minimal because of how the day tickets priced adding days. So a 6 day was like $700 or so per person but a 7 day was like $718 per person. Then $169 for photopass.

In 2020, I had a 5 day pass for a trip. Realized it was cheaper to get a Gold Pass with the DVC discount (blue card member) than add the Photo Pass. Especially when we had to re-arrange the trip thanks to COVID. I got the Gold Pass on the last day the parks were open in March 2020. Activated it that Sunday. Well those days are gone...

 

[Lorana]

After that the idea of universal annual pass sounds pretty awesome. Stay DVC and have some resort mornings, and the premier pass includes express pass after 4pm, with no blackout dates. For less than half the price of the incredipass or 300 less than the sorcerer pass.

Right? Previously we wouldn’t have considered it, but with Magical Express going away we need to pay for transportation, which means we would indeed consider a car rental. Long ago, before ME, we often went outside of Disney for part of our trips. But then ME came along and with no need to rent a car, we started staying at just Disney world. Which meant spending all our money there. DH and I were just talking about how we might consider Universal passes in the future after these next few trips. Especially as our crowd experience has been MUCH better at Universal than at Disney.

Which is also why I feel the pricing as a means of crowd control doesn’t make sense. My experience at Universal these last few years has told me that they’ve figured out the crowd control (10+ years ago was another matter) without exorbitant prices. Disney has gotten crowded, charges extra for a lot of things that were free, and the quality has been decreasing. We’re not giving up on the Mouse, mind you, but it is time after these next few trips if we really want to spend that kind of money on APs. And if we don’t that means fewer WDW trips.

 

[Sammie]

Be careful if you have multiple tickets. I have a friend whose son had an old no expiration pass plus a new one. She assumed it would take a day from the new one, it took it from the no expiration she was saving. It was a hassle to get it back. You need to get the tickets prioritized before entering.

I will probably wait and do it in person. Can't you upgrade as long you do it before you use the last day on a multi-day pass?

 

[DebbieB]

DVC pays for those discounts so they absolutely have control over it.

Disney agreed to match FL Resident discounts for Gold and up for DVC in the past, but they didn’t continue FL Resident discount for Incredipass so I don’t think it was offered to DVC either.

 

[mustinjourney]

Right? Previously we wouldn’t have considered it, but with Magical Express going away we need to pay for transportation, which means we would indeed consider a car rental. Long ago, before ME, we often went outside of Disney for part of our trips. But then ME came along and with no need to rent a car, we started staying at just Disney world. Which meant spending all our money there. DH and I were just talking about how we might consider Universal passes in the future after these next few trips. Especially as our crowd experience has been MUCH better at Universal than at Disney.

Which is also why I feel the pricing as a means of crowd control doesn’t make sense. My experience at Universal these last few years has told me that they’ve figured out the crowd control (10+ years ago was another matter) without exorbitant prices. Disney has gotten crowded, charges extra for a lot of things that were free, and the quality has been decreasing. We’re not giving up on the Mouse, mind you, but it is time after these next few trips if we really want to spend that kind of money on APs. And if we don’t that means fewer WDW trips.

my guess is that part of the problem is that they haven't really increased theme park capacity for over 20 years. And when they do add rides -- they take others away, so it's not like they're even adding additional rides too often. Tron and GOTG are going to be the first pure adds in a while (in addition to pandora).

They could really use a 5th gate.

ETA -- I have been corrected -- GOTG is not an add -- but a replacement for Universe of Energy. I also should have included Remy -- so swap out GOTG with Remy.

 

[New Mouse]

my guess is that part of the problem is that they haven't really increased theme park capacity for over 20 years. And when they do add rides -- they take others away, so it's not like they're even adding additional rides too often. Tron and GOTG are going to be the first pure adds in a while (in addition to pandora).

They could really use a 5th gate.

Gotg isnt an add.

 

[Lorana]

my guess is that part of the problem is that they haven't really increased theme park capacity for over 20 years. And when they do add rides -- they take others away, so it's not like they're even adding additional rides too often. Tron and GOTG are going to be the first pure adds in a while (in addition to pandora).

They could really use a 5th gate.

GOTG is replacing the Universe of Energy. Admittedly, UoE has been closed for a while, but it’s still a replacement.

I agree about a Fifth Gate! Though I’m still disappointed we never got the Land of Creatures That Never Were (“Beastly Kingdom.”). The dragon is so prominent on the AK logo, they really should build that land!

 

[BlackTea]

We have platinum APs expiring in December, can I call to get them renewed now? I think a few weeks ago I read somebody saying they are allowing this because of the park pass system.

 

[igrsod]

Did anyone get an answer to this yet? My assumption would be you need a blue card to purchase Sorcerers Pass, but I'm hoping not.... as that would be best for our family.

 

[Sandisw]

Did anyone get an answer to this yet? My assumption would be you need a blue card to purchase Sorcerers Pass, but I'm hoping not.... as that would be best for our family.

Yes, it has been confirmed and the details are on the DVC website. It is part of membership extras which means blue card DVC owners only.

 

[erionm]

Did anyone get an answer to this yet? My assumption would be you need a blue card to purchase Sorcerers Pass, but I'm hoping not.... as that would be best for our family.

From the member website:

To purchase the Disney Sorcerer Pass, Disney Vacation Club Members must be eligible for Membership Extras.

So, no different than what was required to purchase at member pricing previously.

 

[Brian Noble]

A problem is that we are still waiting to see how much they are going to raise multi-day passes.

I think the (non-Floridian/non-DVC) AP is priced consistently with how I've always thought of them.

The general rule of thumb I've had in mind is: Two "long" trips or three "short" ones in a single year == get a pass. Right now the "list price" of a six day PH for our upcoming March trip is $644 + tax. Two of those are $1288 and for an extra $11 I'd get the pass if only to pop in for an hour on arrival day once. The pricing seems to be in reasonable balance at this point. I don't think there is any need for Disney to offer discounts for someone coming for only two trips within a calendar year, but pricing significantly above that makes it hard to get people to bite on the third visit.

Seems like they hit the sweet spot to me.

 

[Brian Noble]

DVC pays for those discounts so they absolutely have control over it.

But, they are only going to pay for them if it helps the bottom line at the end of the day---and the thing that pays for DVD's bottom line is new timeshare sales, not existing members. I suspect offering the 2nd-tier pass is going to be enough of a carrot for Guides to make hay out of, and that's all DVD needs.

 

[Jelly563]

6 pages of concern over the increases of annual pass pricing. And many people think Disney is going to lower the price of VGF2 for new owners. If u think the cost of AP's is unreasonably up, wait till u see the extra special magic they do to everything else during the 50th anniversary extravaganza. It's a party !!!! A party for Disney's pockets

 

[RobDoc]

We have platinum APs expiring in December, can I call to get them renewed now? I think a few weeks ago I read somebody saying they are allowing this because of the park pass system.

I think that would be worthwhile checking on before September 8.

 

[drusba]

6 pages of concern over the increases of annual pass pricing. And many people think Disney is going to lower the price of VGF2 for new owners. If u think the cost of AP's is unreasonably up, wait till u see the extra special magic they do to everything else during the 50th anniversary extravaganza. It's a party !!!! A party for Disney's pockets

We have the economic disaster due to the pandemic and the 50th. In the past, Disney has always viewed both economic disasters and big Disney celebrations as reasons to raise prices significantly on just about everything (including DVC point prices). Now we have the combination of both those events so what we are seeing, such as an effectively a 38% price increase for the gold pass when you consider you now have to pay extra for photo pass, and the addition of the Genie+ and separate other ride prices to add to your ticket price, is undoubtedly just the beginning.

 

[fumanchu2488]

We have the economic disaster due to the pandemic and the 50th. In the past, Disney has always viewed both economic disasters and big Disney celebrations as reasons to raise prices significantly on just about everything (including DVC point prices). Now we have the combination of both those events so what we are seeing, such as an effectively a 38% price increase for the gold pass when you consider you now have to pay extra for photo pass, and the addition of the Genie+ and separate other ride prices to add to your ticket price, is undoubtedly just the beginning.

Disney tracks dollars spent per guest in hotels and increased revenue for admissions and experiences in their annual report every year. Year over year it has gone up around 5% - 7% (looking at 2019 and not 2020 obviously). Disney knows who their guests are, how much they spend, how often they come and how to maximize that profit. To me, what this says is Disney knows that the biggest bang for their buck is the once in a lifetime to once a year guests. Like it or not, this AP system, with blackout dates, reservation requirements and higher costs (not to mention the fine print that they could sell out) is going to continue to cater to the once a year guest and not the 15+ day per year guest. You can get the same bottom dollar if you had twice as many people at half the cost or twice as much cost with half the people. They are definitely moving to lower people at higher costs and probably have a reason for it.

They also know exactly their demand and this pandemic probably gives them a very long runway to get this accepted since vacationing is so stacked up and demand for travel is high. Look at the parks now with essentially no international guests. Think of all those people that over the next 12 - 18 months will want to make their Disney trip, not to mention the rest of America (like me) who has been pushing their trip for months. Disney probably isn't interested in having locals and DVC members come and visit the park 20 days per year where all they are realizing is AP income and maybe some merch and food. They want a family of four coming for the 7 to 10 day trip, spending $8,000 on hotels and tickets, buying $800 worth of Genie+, spending $1,000 on food and $500 on merchandise. Unfortunately for us, DVC is kind of getting left in the dust of all of this with no real acknowledgement of our unique value.

That being said, the AP system, Genie+, attraction selections, increased food costs all point to Disney maximizing return on guests. For me, this does make me rethink about adding points. I would love to do 10 - 15 days per year over 2 trips to make an AP 'worth it', but at this point the vacation is just too expensive, even with DVC. For me, I would rather add a smaller contract so I can spend my 7 or 8 days with my family in a 1 BR every year or every other year and buy the Genie+, some attraction selections, car service to and from airport, Ubers around property, etc... In the future, I may add more points to accommodate different seasons or 2 BR units, but I really have no interest in trying to stretch points to longer stays because the price of everything outside of DVC is going to keep going up.

 

[mustinjourney]

GOTG is replacing the Universe of Energy. Admittedly, UoE has been closed for a while, but it’s still a replacement.

I agree about a Fifth Gate! Though I’m still disappointed we never got the Land of Creatures That Never Were (“Beastly Kingdom.”). The dragon is so prominent on the AK logo, they really should build that land!

oh yeah -- I forgot about that ride since it was never opened except the very first time I went.

 

[mustinjourney]

Gotg isnt an add.

you're right -- I had forgotten about UoE.