Surprise AP & Ticket Increase

[pharmama]

I would definitely NOT count on the promo tickets bridging to full price ticket credit if buying an AP. I think there is very little chance of this happening.

Price bridging seems most likely to happen when a ticket was discounted by the seller (LMT Club, UT, GAT etc.) but not by Disney itself. It seems that with some of these tickets Disney can't actually tell the price you purchased them for. With the spring promo tickets, Disney will definitely know it was one of the promotional tickets since that's a Disney promo. That said, I see UT is still offering some further discounting on the promo tickets, so you might be able to get bridged on that ~$20 UT is discounting off the promo ticket. Price bridging in general is hit or miss, though, and not guaranteed (though you seem to already know that )

 

[Kender]

Seems like crowds have decreased. Why else would Disneyland be offering their ticket special and WDW is offering free dining (in the Summer!) right before their respective Galaxy's Edge lands open? Maybe crowds are down because everyone is holding out for SWGE but maybe they aren't. Only time will tell.

They have definitely not decreased. My crowd anxiety is very sure of that, lol! There are some slow days, though, scattered here and there.

It's being discussed in another thread that some major work is coinciding with the ticket deal that goes beyond the standard refurbs this time of year. Honestly I have a feeling more might pop up that haven't been announced.

I admit I was a little confused by the deal myself. Considering crowds still look to be huge as many try to get in trips prior to SWGE. Now knowing the additional work that will be done (besides the normal refurbs) and the shows that will be down? This deal softens the blow. And has the potential to encourage two trips (one to "get in before the crazy" and another to "experience the new shiny").

As stated above by others, someone who was going to go up SWGE might happily squeeze in another trip because of this deal. More people in the parks, more money for Disney. Or those "taking time away" might come back with tickets to get their fix.

It will be interesting to see what affect the deal has... and then how many people didn't look up the refurb schedule before going

 

[bryanb]

Disney's objective as a business is profit maximization.

When people say they care about crowd control, what they really care about is smoothing out the crowds year-round. They don't want to miss out on ticket sales because some days it's too crowded -- while other days the park has too much capacity that's underutilized.

Also, if they're too crowded (running too close to full capacity), it means that they're leaving money on the table. Every human being attending the park that day could've been squeezed for a little more money. This includes the annual passholders, by the way. If people are going to come crowd the parks as APs, you don't need to get rid of the payment plans, but you might as well squeeze more in the AP pricing out of them.

It's all just economics, but of course, when you're priced out of the market that doesn't make it any less sad for the person who is priced out. If I worked for Disney, the only responsible answer to maximizing profit is to charge more when it's this crowded. Even if the economy tanks, they can always run specials and I'm sure people will come running back.

For me personally, my Premier Pass will be ending in June. I'm kind of sad about that, because it was already a stretch for me to buy it this time. Many of my friends already can't afford Disneyland APs anymore, so I sometimes pop into the parks by myself. I'll probably take a solo trip to WDW this year to get the most out of it. And then perhaps I take a break... we'll see.

 

[MacMama0930]

Whoa. I just made it. Bought my Sig + AP a few days ago.

 

[Sandeep1]

Just bought 3 day park hopper tickets (non promo price) on UT. Planning for first couple days of June (2-4). Memorial day vacationers would have already finished, APs are supposedly blocked out, and grad nite isn't until the 4th. Hoping SWGE isn't open yet either. Decent crowds would be nice.

 

[VandVsmama]

Just bought 3 day park hopper tickets (non promo price) on UT. Planning for first couple days of June (2-4). Memorial day vacationers would have already finished, APs are supposedly blocked out, and grad nite isn't until the 4th. Hoping SWGE isn't open yet either. Decent crowds would be nice.

That’s one of our family’s favorite times to go!

 

[Sandeep1]

That’s one of our family’s favorite times to go!

Just praying I don't get a SWGE preview on one of my days.

 

[rentayenta]

I am sooooo glad we renewed the kids' Deluxe APs with MaxPass a couple days ago.

 

[OneLittleSpark2014]

Awful timing for me! We're going in July and I had my tickets w/Maxpass in the shopping cart, ready to purchase last night but a wind storm hit and we had power outages, so I decided to wait until the morning to finalize the purchase. I was afraid that a power or internet outage would mess up my purchase. Big mistake! I went back and tried to purchase and of course they refreshed to the new, higher price. I knew the price increase was coming (usually in February) and I thought I was in the clear purchasing this weekend. Oops.

 

[Sandeep1]

Awful timing for me! We're going in July and I had my tickets w/Maxpass in the shopping cart, ready to purchase last night but a wind storm hit and we had power outages, so I decided to wait until the morning to finalize the purchase. I was afraid that a power or internet outage would mess up my purchase. Big mistake! I went back and tried to purchase and of course they refreshed to the new, higher price. I knew the price increase was coming (usually in February) and I thought I was in the clear purchasing this weekend. Oops.

Buy them at Undercover Tourist.

 

[OneLittleSpark2014]

Buy them at Undercover Tourist.

I know I could still get them but I want to purchase Maxpass now and I can only do that through Disney. I'm actually concerned that they will increase the cost of it AGAIN before our trip in July. If I buy direct from Disney, at least I lock in the price now and they can't raise it. I also do the Disney Gift card method at Target, so at least I get 5% off.

 

[ZBSW]

We just purchased our DL promo tickets from the official site and Max Pass was still available for $10 a day.
Just about an hour ago.

 

[BecAus]

Yes, it appears they might be going to keep the MP at $10 for those promo tickets - which must be used by May (unless it's a mistake and they correct it)
For tickets outside those dates, like OneLittleSpark2014 needs for July, the MP is showing at $15 day unfortunately : (

I too wanted to get the MP added now so I purchased my tickets for our July trip back several months ago. I paid $720 USD for the 2 x 3day hoppers with MP but with our Aussie $$ the way it is that works out to be $1000 AUD for us - ouch! I purchased a few months ago as it was inevitable the price was going up before we went and given our crappy exchange rate I didn't want to pay anymore than I had - given that I wanted to purchase the MP up front on this occasion, last time I just bought day by day.

If I was to buy the old price tickets from UT and then pay the $15/day for MP on arrival in July I would only have saved $28 total so I am quite happy with my decision to have it already bought.

Sorry that you just missed out OneLittleSpark2014 - extremely annoying for you I'm sure.

 

[az4boys]

Just wondering... if you hurry and buy PH tickets from LMTClub (assuming you can still get them at the pre-increase rate), can you upgrade them to AP's and get bridged at the current ticket rate? I think it is a gamble - you won't know until you try it.

I just compared our once in a lifetime year of AP'S that lasted from July 2018-July 2019. We bought PH tickets from LMTClub then upgraded to AP's. The price was bridged so we paid somewhere between $575-$580 for our Deluxe AP's (I can't remember the exact number - I think it was $579) - then we added MP for $75 for a total of $654. That same pass with MP is now $195 more plus a lot of summer block-outs at Disneyland. Ouch. I'm so glad we splurged last summer. I miss the parks but hard to justify the cost for our family of 6.

 

[dina444444]

Just wondering... if you hurry and buy PH tickets from LMTClub (assuming you can still get them at the pre-increase rate), can you upgrade them to AP's and get bridged at the current ticket rate? I think it is a gamble - you won't know until you try it.

I just compared our once in a lifetime year of AP'S that lasted from July 2018-July 2019. We bought PH tickets from LMTClub then upgraded to AP's. The price was bridged so we paid somewhere between $575-$580 for our Deluxe AP's (I can't remember the exact number - I think it was $579) - then we added MP for $75 for a total of $654. That same pass with MP is now $195 more plus a lot of summer block-outs at Disneyland. Ouch. I'm so glad we splurged last summer. I miss the parks but hard to justify the cost for our family of 6.

I think the price is only bridged to the Disney price of the ticket batch you bought. So if it's still old ticket stock it will only get bridged to the old full price.

 

[MommyLove]

Wow, what a massive increase.

We've bought APs periodically since '05 (never renewing, we've always taken breaks in between). My how prices have changed over those years.

The last couple times we've done the trick where you get a multi-day ticket from LMT, use the magic morning, then upgrade to APs getting the full value of the day tickets applied. Even better for us was using those multi-day tickets over Christmas time and NYE and upgrading to Signature passes. When we did that at the turn from 2016 to 2017 it was especially great to get that extra month included in our APs.

Fast forward to our last trip; we just went again over NYE, but this time we decided to get the Sig+ APs. Mainly to have the Maxpass included. It will be a nice bonus to not get blocked out in late December. Or at any time; the language in the description of any of the other APs certainly made it sound like Disney could change/add block out days at their discretion and we we thought with SWGE coming, there could be a decent chance of that happening.

We're so glad we got the APs last week. It would have made a $1000 difference for the 4 of us we bought for with today's price increase!

 

[Sandeep1]

These increases make me realize what a bargain the 3 day park hopper ticket in Disney Tokyo is. Currently about $165 for adults.

 

[OneLittleSpark2014]

Yes, it appears they might be going to keep the MP at $10 for those promo tickets - which must be used by May (unless it's a mistake and they correct it)
For tickets outside those dates, like OneLittleSpark2014 needs for July, the MP is showing at $15 day unfortunately : (

I too wanted to get the MP added now so I purchased my tickets for our July trip back several months ago. I paid $720 USD for the 2 x 3day hoppers with MP but with our Aussie $$ the way it is that works out to be $1000 AUD for us - ouch! I purchased a few months ago as it was inevitable the price was going up before we went and given our crappy exchange rate I didn't want to pay anymore than I had - given that I wanted to purchase the MP up front on this occasion, last time I just bought day by day.

If I was to buy the old price tickets from UT and then pay the $15/day for MP on arrival in July I would only have saved $28 total so I am quite happy with my decision to have it already bought.

Sorry that you just missed out OneLittleSpark2014 - extremely annoying for you I'm sure.

Yep. I think we're on the same wavelength here! Wanted to get the MP ahead of time to streamline everything. Galaxy's Edge is going to be crazy and the last thing we wanted was to mess around with a system that we're not familiar with (we're WDW regulars) while we're trying to deal with Galaxy's Edge crowds. I recognize that when trying to get any MP that's worthwhile with those kinds of crowds, every second is going to count! Even if the MP gets us only one big "time saver" of a FP, it's worth the cost in the kind of crowds we expect to see at that time. We're probably still going to buy the tickets from Disney now anyway to protect against possible future MP price increases.

 

[Drew Perri]

https://fox6now.com/2019/01/06/disn...-percent-ahead-of-star-wars-themed-expansion/


This article quotes a disney rep saying more blackout dates will be added to most passes, to whoever said they don't see it changing much

 

[dina444444]

https://fox6now.com/2019/01/06/disn...-percent-ahead-of-star-wars-themed-expansion/


This article quotes a disney rep saying more blackout dates will be added to most passes, to whoever said they don't see it changing much

The article says this: Disney representatives said more days would be blocked out for most annual passes compared to last year but didn’t provide more specifics.

Which is true if you go and look at this current year's blockout calendars compared to last years.