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

[bianca]

I would imagine you are in the vast minority of disney guests. Probably less than 5%...especially now that they have practically forced people to do online check-in.

I still refuse to do online check-in, as we have had past problems with room charges. I just won’t do it anymore.

 

[brazzledazzler]

Too many hits (DME, G+, AP) at once.

For real! It’s just been one after another.

I haven’t been into the parks since Covid hit. So, I need to see how WDW runs over the next year to decide if we want to buy more points.

Until we see Genie+ in action….and if they bring back shows and parades…I’m not jumping on any add-ons.

 

[Airb330]

Yup. Only buying enough for a week every year or other year.

I think that's smart. Disney feels like they dont want AP/DVC people to vistit too often! You can always reassess once all of these changes are in the rear-view mirror.

We can combine our 3 contracts at 7 months for larger 2 bedrooms when we can, still use AUL at 11 months for hoidays bi-annually, and have VGF at 11 months for about a week every year unless we save it up for a 2bedroom at 7 months. We really are fine. But somehow we talked ourselves into more VGF...but G+ and these AP prices (~31% for gold/sorceerw/ photos and ~55% for plat/incredipass w/ photos) have really brought us back to reality. Sounds like we aren't the only ones.

For us personally, we know DVC is saving us a ton on rooms (and that is all we bought), but we are starting to feel nickle and dimed elsewhere on G+, APs, etc. We can still feel DVC is a huge value, but feel like WDW is not.

 

[Matildadeb]

$899 is for brand new AP purchases. $749 is if you are renewing an AP

I wonder the same thing is the DVC price for blue card members ONLY or can resale owners by as well???

 

[CarolynFH]

I wonder the same thing is the DVC price for blue card members ONLY or can resale owners by as well???

Sorry, it's a blue card perk.

 

[Jwaire]

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

If you sign into your DVC account, there's a help & contact link and you can fill out your feedback there. They actually do call you back. They are collecting feedback regarding this issue. I'd suggest if this is important to you to actually contact them in some fashion.

 

[mustinjourney]

My assumption is that they have a yearly target on guests and they want to increase revenue per guest. So, if they drop 10% of guests but make 15% more per guest they are ahead of the game.

again -- you also need to take into account how much was customer acquisition. New customers -- are expensive to obtain. Old customers -- cheap.

Nevermind -- I can't tell you how many people I have PERSONALLY talked into going to disney...and I've talked 2 people into DVC. Since 2019 -- I have stopped recommending DVC. The DVC management started acting in THEIR best interest instead of the member's interest. Consider how much that has cost Disney. But it won't show up in their spreadsheets. so they don't care.

 

[mustinjourney]

and in 5 years prices have essentially doubled.

And one thing to consider with all these price increases is the things they have done (not just things they are taking away). I took a long hiatus on WDW until I had kids of my own. Went in 2019 and have been several times since and was surprised with how much was new. In just the past 5 years in domestic parks they have added Pandora, Toy Story Land, 2 galaxy’s edges, avengers campus, mickeys and Minnie runaway, remy, and are building tron and guardians of the galaxy. While also building the skyliner and starting a complete overhaul of EPCOT. Fairly significant amount of work.

 

[bp2412]

A lot of Disney guests pay cash or use a Disney gift card for purchases and so they can not track those purchases. My husband and I pay cash or with gift cards while vacationing at WDW because our banks flag our cards (if we don't let them know beforehand) and deny transactions in FL. So, to save the hassle, we bring $1200 on GCs and $$$$ . we do not charge back to the room.

We do the same thing with GCs. My credit card gets 6% cash back at grocery stores and it's pretty much the only card I use so I would be using it in Disney anyways. So before a trip I go to the grocery store and buy large GCs (usually around $1,000) and use that for our dining, snacks, merch and so on. Man though every single response I get from the cashier is the exact same- "Wow you really like the Disney Store". Use to be funny, now I just feel judged!

 

[Brian Noble]

Disney feels like they dont want AP/DVC people to vistit too often!

In another thread, someone with an AP was spending less than $21/person/day to be in the theme parks and ride all day.

I'm not sure Disney wants that person as a customer.

 

[Airb330]

In another thread, someone with an AP was spending less than $21/person/day to be in the theme parks and ride all day.

I'm not sure Disney wants that person as a customer.

Right. I don’t begrudge someone who uses the AP to the fullest but Disney doesn’t want that person compared to someone who paid $125 to enter the park. Now they can at least potentially get $21+$15 from that person with G+.

 

[zavandor]

Do all APholders use their pass that much? I'll probably buy a Sorcerer pass for my December stay because I'll probably be back in September. Il 899 for around 21 days. That's $42 per day. On top of that I do a table service and a quick service a day. Someone pays $21 per day, others $50, on average the house wins.

 

[Sandisw]

Do all APholders use their pass that much? I'll probably buy a Sorcerer pass for my December stay because I'll probably be back in September. Il 899 for around 21 days. That's $42 per day. On top of that I do a table service and a quick service a day. Someone pays $21 per day, others $50, on average the house wins.

We do shorter trips, which is why it makes it worth it Have not done more than 4 nights in probably 10 years! But we do try to go 4 to 6 times just to get away.

Even for my adult kids, it works for their two trips…my DD is looking at $550 for 5 night pass with no hopper a weekend in October. So, even if she goes again only once for another 4 night trip, she saved. The plan is to get in a 3rd trip so her boyfriend and his friends can golf while we do parks!

Obviously, the old pricing made it even better, but we will still see savings with the new pricing.

 

[Airb330]

We do shorter trips, which is why it makes it worth it Have not done more than 4 nights in probably 10 years! But we do try to go 4 to 6 times just to get away.

Even for my adult kids, it works for their two trips…my DD is looking at $550 for 5 night pass with no hopper a weekend in October. So, even if she goes again only once for another 4 night trip, she saved. The plan is to get in a 3rd trip so her boyfriend and his friends can golf while we do parks!

Obviously, the old pricing made it even better, but we will still see savings with the new pricing.

Multiple short trips were great with the non-expiring tickets! That’s how we used to use our DVC. We still have three days left…

 

[FSUSammy]

Do all APholders use their pass that much? I'll probably buy a Sorcerer pass for my December stay because I'll probably be back in September. Il 899 for around 21 days. That's $42 per day. On top of that I do a table service and a quick service a day. Someone pays $21 per day, others $50, on average the house wins.

We do shorter trips but we are also in South Florida so it's easy to get away. We usually go in September for a long weekend, again in November for 3-4 days, again in January/February for a long weekend, around March/April for Spring Break for a few days, and against sometime in the summer for a long weekend (this was a resort only stay that may now turn into a waterpark during the day/regular park at night)

 

[Jwaire]

And one thing to consider with all these price increases is the things they have done (not just things they are taking away). I took a long hiatus on WDW until I had kids of my own. Went in 2019 and have been several times since and was surprised with how much was new. In just the past 5 years in domestic parks they have added Pandora, Toy Story Land, 2 galaxy’s edges, avengers campus, mickeys and Minnie runaway, remy, and are building tron and guardians of the galaxy. While also building the skyliner and starting a complete overhaul of EPCOT. Fairly significant amount of work.

And their competition has built just as much and is building an entirely new gate. So, Disney didn't have much choice.

 

[we"reofftoneverland]

Blue card

 

[Wakey]

Our UK tickets mean an annual pass is no good for us now. I’m not sure I’d even beat it with 3 trips, when you add on water parks, memory maker etc. And most likely I’d only ever get 2 trips in.

 

[Yinn]

I largely agree.

Only thing I'm wondering about is people seem to be making the assumption that disney is operating at 100% -- and if they lose an existing customer, it is being filled another, more high paying customer, and therefore, they aren't losing out on any revenue.

Obviously -- I do not know Disney's numbers -- but I would be shocked if they are at 100%. Sure, there are times when the parks are busy (the first week of august this year being an example I can personally attest to) -- but that is certainly not the case year-round. And that's where AP holders and DVC members help out. Most businesses love having that constant flow of repeat customers to keep the lights on and operations budget paid for. You can then focus on grabbing some of those one-time big-spenders to really drive home the profits.

I always thought DVC did a great balance of this with the upsell events to really go after that higher end market (VIP tours especially).

They most definitely are not at 100%. There are days where the park seems normal and other days where you look around and wonder where everyone is.

That said, it doesn't have to be at 100% to have the same effect. If it now costs me $1399 for the incredi-pass to get Christmas week, a week I go because I have a guaranteed week. They are in effect limiting my decisions. Sure, I could give up the premium I paid fo the week and use it another. But the reality is now I'm bumped up to the incredi-pass or forced to buy at the higher price point. So while not at 100%, they'll be able to convert me to a higher revenue customer.

At least that's the theory and I'm sure there will be a bunch of folks who will be successfully converted. But to your point, I fall in the other camp. Previously the breakeven was basically 1.5 trips at 4-5 days per trip. If you do one really long trip or two shorter trips it made sense to buy the discounted pass. Now, it's going to be 2 trips at 5-6 days a trip, that's a much more difficult sell to breakeven on the pass. So we will be forced to go up.....or step away and give up one of our vacations.

 

[disneydreamer781]

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!

If Disney sent out a guest survey today asking "What project at WDW would you like us to build next?" Beastly Kingdom would be my #1 answer. A Villains' land would be close behind. I'm not sure about a 5th gate though because they can't use most of Marvel.