No Codes - More Money for Disney???

[DJNOWICK]

To solve some of the problems with people only buying one AP, Disney could institute something along the order of ALL people in your party must have an AP to get the rate. That would be the only way they could change it for the better (for Disney). We have 4 AP's and b/c of this we have ventured to WDW several times a year now b/c of them, instead of vacationing at other places.

That would do it for me! I get the AP for the great hotel discounts and THEN I make another trip or 2 BECAUSE I have the AP. If everyone in my party had to get an AP to get an AP hotel rate, we'd not buy APs (a total waste on DH who at best tolerates 1 WDW trip every 18-24 months). That said, I'd then try for FL resident discounts since I am a P/T resident.

But without codes we'd also not stay at deluxe hotels -- no occasional concierge treats, either. We'd stay at mods or off-site or rent DVC points. And in the latter 2 scenarios more of my dining dollars would be lost to Disney.
Even so, Disney doesn't make as much money on me as a pretty knowledgable AP holder as they do on a rack rate once in a lifetimer who doesn't know how to make the season and code system work for them.

On the AP perk side, though -- they did add DDE which only used to be available to FL residents, right?

jackie

 

[Lewisc]

The internet based best rate program for AP holders may have convinced Disney it's easier to just limit the AP hotel discount program than to try and make changes that benefit Disney but will annoy some guests.

Requiring an activated AP at the time of reservation would change the AP resort discount from a way to motivate some guests into purchasing an AP to a way to motivate AP holders into making extra trips.

AP holders don't pay extra for park admission. I doubt AP holders spend as much $$ on souvenirs as other guests. The entire reservation system is bogged down with guests making reservations on "spec" and then calling trying to rebook at a discount.

Disney seems to be experimenting with Priceline to dump onsold rooms. Sell fewer rooms but at a higher rate and then just use PL for excess inventory.

 

[Lesley]

We're on our third set of AP's since 2002. I can guarantee there are several trips we would not have taken to WDW without our AP's....trips we hadn't originally planned when we bought the tickets where Disney got our money for a room (usually AP rate, though several times the general public code was better...), meals and some souvenirs. Not nearly what a "once in a lifetimer" might spend...but it certainly amounts to quite a bit.

Personally I liked the BRP system...I like to plan ahead, what can I say? I'll admit I wasn't much of a fan of the non-refundable deposit though.

But honestly, not having AP's would save us a lot of money. Even paying as much as we'd pay for an AP on 10 day MYW premium passes that don't expire...we'd be much less tempted to plan an extra visit in the middle of the year (as we're doing at the moment for Star Wars Weekends) than we are now. In a strange, sad way I think it would be a very good thing for my family personally if they stopped offering AP room rates, or continued to make booking those rates as much of a PITA as it is now. We're DVC members so we'll be back....but probably not as often and we will likely be in the parks and restaurants (and non-DVC resorts) quite a bit less if we choose to stop getting AP's.

As for June, I'm trying my best to simply wait for the AP rate and book it then....but at a certain point I'm just going to have to make sure we have a reservation, since we comitted ourselves to this already. If AP rates are released after that I'll do my best to switch. Honestly I think what is getting to everyone is that AP rates have been a standard practice for long enough that we assume they will be there when we're ready to book (particularly only a month in advance!) and its not a fun surprise to find out you've planned a vacation based on a false assumption and will now have to quite literally pay for that mistake.

I guess what I'm saying is that while most of us will just go ahead and pay rack rate now....that will have an effect on our future choices. Whether or not this makes any difference to Disney's bottom line remains to be seen.

 

[Sammie]

Sell fewer rooms but at a higher rate and then just use PL for excess inventory.

That sounds about right.