Will you renew at new prices?

[ArchOwl]

I thought I would try to collect some data on how pricing will affect APs. For purposes of this poll, assume that next time your pass is up for renewal, you will be paying the new prices that will be charged May 20th, 2012. This poll is only for APs, not general tickets.

The link to the new pricing structure can be found here: http://disneyparks.disney.go.com/blog/disneyland-resort-ticket-prices-2012/

Premium: $649
Deluxe: $469
SoCal: $329
SoCal Select: $269

Would you renew at these prices? And if you do renew, would you keep your current level or downgrade?

 

[mommy2allyandaveri]

I can't downgrade, we already do the deluxe. I just renewed at the old prices today. I tell myself that the price is totally ridiculous but I'm sure I will be sitting here at this time next year talking about renewing before the NEXT price increase.

It does seem to be getting a little nuts though. Last year or 2 yrs ago it was a $50 increase (I think) and how it's nearly $100. Where does it stop?

 

[LisainCalifornia]

I can't downgrade, we already do the deluxe. I just renewed at the old prices today. I tell myself that the price is totally ridiculous but I'm sure I will be sitting here at this time next year talking about renewing before the NEXT price increase.

It does seem to be getting a little nuts though. Last year or 2 yrs ago it was a $50 increase (I think) and how it's nearly $100. Where does it stop?

I agree--I did renew, but at the 359.00 level (Deluxe). If I had to pay the new price, I don't think I would have done it. I guess I will see next year how it goes, but for me--going over 400.00 makes it not worth the expense.

 

[CamoMama]

I just bought my first Premium AP, and I'm not sure yet if I'll renew. I will be activating it tomorrow, so I have a year to decide. It will depend on how many trips I plan to take next year.

 

[BayAreaMom]

I will renew my DAP but i will space out when i "renew"
I will get 20 park days out of my current $329 D AP, so $16.45/day (not accounting for the food discount benefit!).
I think this is a good deal!

This year I am taking a 5 month AP "break" to maximize getting the most days out of my next pass. I think this is a good approach. We live 6 hours away so its not like we pop in all the time.

 

[isisisme]

We just got our first Premium AP. I am not sure if we will be renewing. We have a year before we have to decide. It took me 2 years to talk my DH into getting them. And now....

 

[FireflyJar]

deleted

 

[PinkBudgie]

I said no, for another reason. We buy APs every other summer. We just bought our new AP for July before the increase. After next July we will let it lapse for the year. In 2014 we plan to go to WDW for the first time. We'll have to see if it makes more sense to get the Premier pass or just WDW tickets at that time.

As expensive as it is, this still isn't my breaking point and I know we'll be getting an AP again one way or another. I don't like the increase but I feel like we are getting our money's worth. Since it is driving distance, it is still a cheaper vacation for us than many other places. Or maybe I'm just addicted!

 

[Girimama33]

I would buy it as long as it made financial sense. We recently purchased DAP's to activate in October. We are also going April and September 2013. I have a lot of family in the area, so we like to come back often.
At these prices though, I may have to hit up SIL to sign us in.

 

[DLR29]

As much as I really don't like the price increase, it makes sense for me to actually UPgrade my Premium pass when it expires in October. I'm considering doing the WDW 1/2 and full marathon in January and so to "save" money the best choice for me would be to get a Premier.

But in future years if prices keep going up, I can't see myself getting Premium for many more years. I'm a poor college student!

 

[gokdog]

We have one more trip scheduled before our current year APs expire and were on the fence for this upcoming year already, due to closing on a house in a few weeks and just generally lots of expenses related to that.

This seals the deal, trip in July that is already scheduled and only one for next year, gonna buy hoppers through the Air Force Base.

 

[taaren]

My passes expire in September. The past few years we have been letting our Deluxe AP's expire, then getting new ones 6 months later. (Ie May trip, Fall trip, May trip, expire, new AP for Fall trip, May trip, Fall trip, expire, new AP ... etc) Then we try to squeeze in a day or two whenever we're in SoCal.

Unfortunately I think we're going to have to let that pattern go with the prices of the Deluxe rising so high. The new pattern we'll be going to will be trips 11 months apart (with some in the middle), then no trips for 13 months. (Ie, AP for December 2013 trip, November 2014 trip [probably a May or June one too], then let it expire, then not go again til December 2015, then October 2016). That way 2 APs will cover 4 years worth of "big" trips, plus a few little ones in the middle. It will be very sad to us to not be able to "pop in" to DLR whenever we want to, and the resort in the long run I think will be losing some revenue by pricing many of us out of our extra "I have an AP so I might as well head down for a weekend" trips. But I'm sure some person in corporate has a spreadsheet that shows how they'll be making more money based off of this price scheme ...

 

[ACDSNY]

My passes expire in September. The past few years we have been letting our Deluxe AP's expire, then getting new ones 6 months later. (Ie May trip, Fall trip, May trip, expire, new AP for Fall trip, May trip, Fall trip, expire, new AP ... etc) Then we try to squeeze in a day or two whenever we're in SoCal.

That was our pattern too and we dropped it when last year's increase hit. This increase means we won't be getting APs any more.

We didn't purchase any multi day tickets for last year's WDW either. We bought the Halloween party ticket, went to Discovery Cove for one day and then cruised. It's looking like we'll repeat this for our Nov 2013 trip as well.

 

[Ingrid0382]

I don't think we'll be renewing. As much as I love being able to spend time at the parks, I'm really upset about the fact that we aren't going to be able to upgrade our APs next Monday like we've been planning on doing for weeks unless we want to pay an additional $200, as opposed to $110 that we were expecting under the old prices. Where we weren't offered the chance to upgrade over the phone or online before the price change, I was hoping Disney would offer some kind of grace period to allow Passholders to get to the parks and take care of the upgrade in person. The complete indifference and "tough luck" attitude from the CM I spoke with this morning was just the icing on the cake.

When we do go on the days that aren't blocked out before our passes expire in December, we won't be staying on property and we won't be spending any money in the parks.

I understand raising the prices and that's not my issue, I'm just really upset at the way this was/is being handled. Maybe I'll feel differently someday, but I really can't see myself wanting to put any more money towards Disney at this point.

 

[disneychrista]

I won't be renewing because I don't have any trips planned after our passes expire in October. It was unique that we got passes this year because I knew we would be going 3 times, (October '11, May '12, August '12). Well May got cancelled but we went in April. And we have tentatively planned a trip for October '12. After our passes expire, I don't expect to go again until maybe December '13.

 

[AquaDame]

I said no because of the expense... We go 2x a year at most and that has been due to the shorter vacations we go on. Only I have gotten an AP since we took the discount into account as well. Now with the price increase it doesn't make sense to pay the first day premium more than once a year for my husband, so we'd just take one longer vacation (5-6 days instead of 3-4) with discount park hoppers. At DL the AP discount at the hotels are a joke when i can stay across the street at a perfectly fine hotel for half the price of a Disney hotel AFTER the discount! If they had something like the value hotels in WDW we'd possibly stay there, but the discount wouldn't be enough to offset the AP price I bet, and there is no dining discounts that make sense either for their ' dining plan'... I don't think we could make up the $100 difference with 5-6 days of cheaper meals either (we split plates a lot, and there is no discount on the tiki drinks at Sam's!), and we don't buy a lot of merchandise.

 

[M&C]

Whoa, when we recently renewed, I thought it was $499 with a price increase of $20-30 per year. What happened? That's a $150 per ticket increase!

 

[cmwade77]

I said yes; however, we will probably go to every other year, unless DVC starts offering better discounts on APs at the DLR.

 

[CalvaryMike]

DL is so crowded these days, especially ever since they went to the monthly payment plan. They raised their prices on the annual pass because they can (supply and demand). This polls shows 50% are not planning on renewing. I guess this should be good news for those that are renewing. It almost seems that everyone I know that has kids also have some sort of DL annual pass.

 

[PrinceOfPeace]

Got our Select for the first time for the fam. I will not renew. For the price, I much rather go to WDW and have an awesome vacation. The price increase is ungodly!...a slap in the face to all those who are faithful fans....they make so much money on us as it is! So glad I was on disboards when they announced the increase.