Would You Still Own DVC if APs were No Longer an Option

[DVCsloth]

I so wish DVC people could get the fla passes. I'd gladly give up weekends and Christmas for less than half the price.

What's the reasoning Fla people get this deals? You hear really local people go every week or two for the 4-6 hours. They probably spent very little on those visits.

I'm actually considering the Pixie Dust pass since the weekends have been so crowded lately. DVC Sorcerer pass looks like a pretty good deal still with minimal blackout dates.

 

[WilsonFlyer]

But if they don't spend anything in the parks.......

We have found ourselves as the prices for tickets, meals, etc, goes up, we are spending less and less in parks

Again; you just answered your own question.

 

[cmarsh31]

Night before our cruise... normally we'd hit Epcot, have a nice dinner, shop the Festival of the Arts. No annual passes for my DH & DS means we're going to grab quick service take-out from our resort and watch a movie in our room. December weekend trip - usually 3 days, parks, adult dining etc. This time it was 2 days, more resort time. Probably won't go next December. August family trip. Flying in Monday night instead of Sunday - 3 days in parks instead of 5, before cruise. Definitely less park time, shorter trips and fewer trips. 2023 will be even fewer. No APs? We'll probably try out Hilton Head or Vero Beach instead.

After our cruise, we have a full day until our evening flight... normally, Park Day. Nope, going to have lunch at Universal CityWalk instead.

 

[SteveAZee]

Back in the 90's when I was first an owner we would plan to fit two trips into a one year period so we'd get annual passes and take advantage of the cost savings (this was after 'free' passes we no longer a part of ownership). Since then I've sold all contracts but recently bought back in with the intent of only going once every two or three years... enough points for a three bedroom for a week or two. Annual passes hold no interest for me as a result... so yes to DVC ownership and no to annual passes.

 

[ILoveMyDVC]

I didn't vote because I probably won't sell off all of my DVC contracts. But I've been saying for a while now that we are going to have a trial separation, rent our points out and decide whether to divorce ourselves from DVC in a year or two, keep a few contracts or keep them all. Tough question to answer right now.

I missed having the same choice - sell some of my contracts

 

[ILoveMyDVC]

We should have a poll on how many DVC owners have an AP.

I actually thought DVC owners - like us and many that I know - go multiple times a year. It makes sense to buy the AP for many. We have the room - we book before another trip to two before the AP expires, renew and so on.

There have been times where my trip was 6 months or later down the road and did not renew. Re-purchase for that next trip booked. But that did not happen often.

Yes, some owners buy a few points so they can bank and borrow to make one trip. We always recommend that DVC is a good fit if (one reason) one plans on going at least once or once every other year. The percentage of people who add on not long after I think is high too.

I could be wrong of course. I don't have facts/figures but curious. But we are also only a small percentage of DVC owners here on DIS.

I did not vote on this poll - but replied - it is a tough question. I never say never......who knows what the future holds down the road.

Probably should have voted I don't know - but I definitely don't see us selling in the near future.

I agree - have over 1600 points and without APs, they are almost worthless

 

[cheryl.UK]

We're UK based owners. We have enough points for 3 weeks every year. We usually buy an AP that will take us on 2 trips which saves us $$$ but now I'm worried The 3 week UK pass has also gone so now our option is the 14 day pass which expires 18 days after first use. 2 of these is more expensive than an AP but I'd actually need 4 to cover 2 x 3 weeks. Either that or I'm on site with no pass for 7 days of our vacation. Way to go Disney, you're leaving me with no option but to go to US or Seaworld and spend my money there. If that's the case, I'll be eating breakfast, lunch and dinner off site and buying souvenirs from other companies. That or I sell one of my contracts and only go for 2 weeks per year. Either way, Disney will lose my money.

 

[bumbershoot]

I haven't been to the parks, other than two DVC parties, since... Hmm. On a similar poll I think I said December 2016, but that's wrong because we didn't go to the parks then. So it would have been 2015.

I go once a year for Princess and haven't yet felt the urge to pay to go into the parks. We amuse ourselves around the resorts just fine.

And I'm not sure I have had more than maybe two WDW APs at all.

 

[DVCsloth]

But we don't have to go to the Parks. Actually, staying DVC and going to Universal/Sea World etc. may become the new normal. People are just not feeling the magic anymore despite desperately trying to hold on to it...

We usually try to include a water park day at Blizzard Beach or Typhoon Lagoon, I think we would probably stay at a Universal Hotel if we were going there. I think they get early park entry when staying

We're UK based owners. We have enough points for 3 weeks every year. We usually buy an AP that will take us on 2 trips which saves us $$$ but now I'm worried The 3 week UK pass has also gone so now our option is the 14 day pass which expires 18 days after first use. 2 of these is more expensive than an AP but I'd actually need 4 to cover 2 x 3 weeks. Either that or I'm on site with no pass for 7 days of our vacation. Way to go Disney, you're leaving me with no option but to go to US or Seaworld and spend my money there. If that's the case, I'll be eating breakfast, lunch and dinner off site and buying souvenirs from other companies. That or I sell one of my contracts and only go for 2 weeks per year. Either way, Disney will lose my money.

I hope they offer some sort of pass for you all soon!

 

[jo-jo]

I agree - have over 1600 points and without APs, they are almost worthless

Yeah, it's possible you'd pay more in tickets than dues if you went to the parks all the time. I'm guessing you're paying for more than one person.

 

[ILoveMyDVC]

Yeah, it's possible you'd pay more in tickets than dues if you went to the parks all the time. I'm guessing you're paying for more than one person.

Good assumption but lately oddly not true. I tend to travel alone or invite friends.

 

[ITGirl50]

I voted not sure and then changed we would still go without them. We have been buying APs for years and still have the gold/sorcerer passes.

I’m not sure I would buy a ticket for every day though. Right now, we will go to a park even if we come in later in the afternoon. We will eat at a QS or make a reservation for dinner. If we don’t have AP, then we won’t eat out. We will buy groceries on our way to the resort, maybe get Chick-fill-a! Lol With no ME, we are now renting a car and will spend more money off property. We can now go to buy groceries a couple of times or eat away from the parks. IMO, their analysis for what AP holders spend is not 100% accurate. Last year I renewed my AP and only got 7 partial days at the park. If I just bought tickets they would have gotten less money from me. It was the last cheap pass (only $650 renewal).

We will see…Another thing to be mad at Disney about. The arrogance of the leadership is unbelievable… it will come back to bite them. Guarantee it.

 

[ITGirl50]

Adding…as AP holders we would spend more money in restaurants if the food were better. The quality has decreased so much! We used to eat out for breakfast and stopped because it just wasn’t worth it. The last trip we had so many mediocre meals for dinner we aren’t going out for dinner anymore. Now just a QS lunch or maybe just the snacks. The occasional travelers don’t know the food sucks so they spend lots of money on mediocre food. I guarantee if they went more often, they wouldn’t.

 

[Memorymakerfor4]

I wrote earlier that we are non AP people but liked the buy 4 get 2 deal. I want to add that we are headed to WDW for 5 nights at Thanksgiving. If there was the same ticket deal available, we would go into the parks all 6 days for at least a little while and eat on site the majority of the time. But as it stands now, we'll probably just buy a 4 day ticket, or possibly 3 with hopper.

 

[DVCsloth]

We've had pretty good luck with the food at the parks and resorts. Sometimes the restaurants are not as good as the previous time, so we just try another.

 

[kboo]

We should have a poll on how many DVC owners have an AP.

I actually thought DVC owners - like us and many that I know - go multiple times a year. It makes sense to buy the AP for many. We have the room - we book before another trip or two before the AP expires, renew and so on.

There have been times where my trip was 6 months or later down the road and did not renew. Re-purchase for that next trip booked. But that did not happen often.

Yes, some owners buy a few points so they can bank and borrow to make one trip. We always recommend that DVC is a good fit if (one reason) one plans on going at least once or once every other year. The percentage of people who add on not long after I think is high too.

I could be wrong of course. I don't have facts/figures but curious. But we are also only a small percentage of DVC owners here on DIS.

I did not vote on this poll - but replied - it is a tough question. I never say never......who knows what the future holds down the road.

Probably should have voted I don't know - but I definitely don't see us selling in the near future.

I went back and forth with my vote, which maybe means I should have stuck with "this is too hard" LOL. We were AP holders before joining DVC and have been continuous AP holders ever since. Yes, it was certainly a much better " value" The Old Way, when we had TiW and enjoyed at least one signature meal a day, sometimes 2.

We were lucky enough to keep our renewals and make them work for us - we had a 12-day trip over Christmas/New Year's 2019-2020 that was still a decent value even though we had to cancel multiple trips in 2020 (that would have been covered by the AP). But we might now be one of those familes who go to WDW because it's "cheaper" with the DVC and AP, and then who renew our APs because we have at least another 10 days in the parks coming up.

We do spend less time in the parks, overall, but still go almost every day of a trip. But sometimes it is just for a meal (EP), or to hit one ride (RotR), before doing more things outside the parks. Again, it is much easier to make dinner reservations when you don't have to work (too hard) around park reservations. DH would like to spend more resort days, and I have enjoyed the (slightly) more relaxed pace of our recent trips. If we had multi-day tickets I think we'd be more park commandos, and eat more QS (which, now that I think about it, might be a higher margin than the leisurely TS meals we like to do).

We've had pretty good luck with the food at the parks and resorts. Sometimes the restaurants are not as good as the previous time, so we just try another.

I have generally been really pleasantly surprised by the quality of the meals at the restaurants since 2020. Maybe the menu is a little more limited, but the quality of the food you do get seems better.

 

[EM Lawrence]

I was listening to the Disney Dish podcast this morning, and they mentioned the lack of hotel rooms available for bookings this Fall is because of staffing shortages that Disney is still experiencing. This corresponds to Bob Chapek's comments on the earnings call about capacity and staffing issues. There was a quick comment on the podcast that Disney does not want to sell hotel rooms to someone and then not have space for them to make park reservations, and it made me think of this discussion and the lack of AP sales currently. I wonder if AP's will only come back when Disney is fully staffed and can expand their hotel, dining and park capacity back to pre-pandemic levels? If that is the case, we could be in for a long wait to get AP's back.

 

[MrsNick]

I was listening to the Disney Dish podcast this morning, and they mentioned the lack of hotel rooms available for bookings this Fall is because of staffing shortages that Disney is still experiencing. This corresponds to Bob Chapek's comments on the earnings call about capacity and staffing issues. There was a quick comment on the podcast that Disney does not want to sell hotel rooms to someone and then not have space for them to make park reservations, and it made me think of this discussion and the lack of AP sales currently. I wonder if AP's will only come back when Disney is fully staffed and can expand their hotel, dining and park capacity back to pre-pandemic levels? If that is the case, we could be in for a long wait to get AP's back.

Hi, just curious if the podcast mentioned, or if you know, at what capacity the (non-DVC) hotels are operating? I'm just curious. I do think you are right that it's going to be awhile before AP's are offered again. The labor shortages aren't going away any time soon. And I think the earnings call made mention that park reservations aren't going away for another couple of years.

 

[3 Hobbits 2 Disney]

We have 2 contracts, and we have had APs almost continuously since the mid 2000s. We are taking our first Time Now trip next week using broker tix. I am eager but also have concerns. We don’t need to travel again until next year. If the experience remains devalued - reservations, no APs, degraded experiences, we may sell the smaller contract and just keep the blue card contract at SSR.
APs are important for our vacation style. If they’re not available, then like bell bottoms, we’ll move on.

 

[MonkeyKnifeFight]

Yes. We usually only go once a year or will be once every other year once we exhaust all banked point.

I don’t think I’d want to go more than once a year now that I’ve gone several years in a row. And since we prefer 1 bedrooms going more multiple times a year would require another 200-300 points…. Which we don’t want now and probably never.