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

[AdamsMum]

I don't hold an annual pass, I live too far away for that. I would like to know what the comment made on the earnings report was though. I agree with you that Disney is lacking respect for repeat guests that have kept them going. I'm still thinking about the "waistline" comment made a couple of months ago when discussing portion sizes for their overpriced food.
All the changes since reopening have left me feeling less magical about my DVC and Disney trips. I'm not considering selling yet though. Fewer park days isn't really a solution, the bulk of the cost is the first 5 days of the ticket, past that it's $20-$30 per day. Maybe I'll try a non park trip this year or next, go to UO, Sea World shopping, I could rent a car with less than the cost of my theme park ticket.

 

[Marionnette]

I don't hold an annual pass, I live too far away for that. I would like to know what the comment made on the earnings report was though. I agree with you that Disney is lacking respect for repeat guests that have kept them going. I'm still thinking about the "waistline" comment made a couple of months ago when discussing portion sizes for their overpriced food.
All the changes since reopening have left me feeling less magical about my DVC and Disney trips. I'm not considering selling yet though. Fewer park days isn't really a solution, the bulk of the cost is the first 5 days of the ticket, past that it's $20-$30 per day. Maybe I'll try a non park trip this year or next, go to UO, Sea World shopping, I could rent a car with less than the cost of my theme park ticket.

I think you will find the comment discussed here:
https://www.kennythepirate.com/2022...-in-chapeks-more-favorable-theme-park-guests/

 

[peabody58]

Careful with these poll results. Disney is watching, always watching. We should skew the results to help encourage Disney to bring back APs!

As for us, we are still going to be frequent visitors, but we are already stratagizing about how to do our visits differently. A few less trips, more non-park days, try outside the bubble things, more 1 BR visits.

Having an AP always made us feel like we owned the place. Come and go as we pleased. Oh well, everything changes... we're just rolling with it. We have the kid's inheritance to spend so money's not an issue, but after 40+ years of saving, it's still hard to freely spend without getting the best ROI.

 

[CarolMN]

....... its a “chicken and egg” situation for me. I have an AP because I own DVC and I still own DVC because I have an AP.

think that I would probably sell my DVC points if I couldn’t get an AP and save over 2 or more trips.

This is me, too. I'd hate to sell, but that would probably be the proverbial straw.

 

[thanxfornoticin]

The AP discount is a nice perk, but it's only a part of our overall ownership. I'd be very disappointed, but not enough to throw away our DVC membership. We enjoy it way too much.

 

[Ruttangel]

It’s the lack of communication that is annoying, we don’t know when AP will start, when borrowing restrictions will end, when VGF will go on sale, when park reservations will stop, how they mess up point charts etc.....

 

[WDWEPCOT]

I’ve had AP for decades - would do about 3 trips a year - but now I’ve sold two of my bigger contracts - I’m debating on purchasing Bay Lake -But without APs I won’t be going more than once a year - maybe every other year and less Park days - I’ll be enjoying other things in the area - like Universal / Sea World etc / then I’ll be exploring other areas of interest in Central Florida - Disney is not going to receive all my cash for Park tickets for 7-9 days which is almost as much as an AP - I am but receiving no ROI there to drop that kind of cash for multiple trips - just my two cents
I like the DVC and I love my Florida - there’s plenty to do besides Disney - I love Disney but not that much as I don’t have bottomless pockets of cash - oh wouldn’t that be nice??

 

[Murron]

Disney will make more money off of tickets vs annual passes. I envision APs will become a thing of the past. But if y'all give up/sell your DVC membership, they'll ultimately make a ton of money from that as well through ROFR and their quest to destroy the resale market. It's a win/win for Disney. Personally, our membership is paid for, we will use our un-activated APs sometime in the unforeseen future and in the meantime, rent our points for non-Disney vacations or just head to Vero, Hilton or Aulani. I think Chapek's choice of words was awful. P.S. As we see today Disney made a ton of money this quarter on streaming and the parks....absolutely nothing any DVC group says will change their direction to please the shareholders.

 

[Chuck S]

While APs were always an option, they weren't always discounted. There were a few trips we did regular park hoppers before moving to non-discounted APs, and then the DVC APs. So yes, I will continue my membership even if I can't renew my current AP, BUT I will spend fewer days in the Disney parks and visit some offsite attractions.

 

[Geomom]

I said "yes" as we've been without a pass since they expired in 2020 and have been forced to buy tix for our trips due to the short period of time APs were being sold. This will cut our trips down to once a year in a 1 bedroom vs 2-3 trips in studios as I'm not normally going to buy tix more than once a year. Disney is actually getting less of our spending money...normally we do one TS a day, so fewer days of that, and other expenditures. It's also making us look at the non park resorts which we've never done before. There may also come a time that we'll use DVC as a hotel and venture out to other parks, especially with Magical express gone...no more captive audience. Disney has made lots of changes that will come back to haunt them.

 

[Pooh12863]

I'd keep my DVC, I would most likely just go to other attractions in the area. I'm sure Universal and Busch Gardens/Sea World would sell me an AP. As it stands now I'll continue renewing our annual passes as long as they're available.

 

[Nennie]

I would probably still go once per year (or maybe every other year), and rent out my remaining points. I currently have trips booked for March, June and August. I purchased a 4 day ticket for March, with the plan to do the parks every other day, and do pool days and/or non Disney stuff on the off days. If AP become available before then, we will upgrade and do the other trips too. If not, we will keep the current plan of 4 park days in March, and then rent out the June and August reservations.

I confess I'm not feeling into Disney right now, but am going to hope for the best with the March trip.

 

[Pens Fan]

There would be no reason for us to have the number of points we currently do if AP's were not an option. As much as we love Hilton Head, we didn't plan on using our points there for multiple trips a year. I'd love to go Aulani more often, but living in the Eastern half of the country that gets cost and time prohibitive. We mainly own DVC to go to the parks and need AP's as we planned on multiple trips a year.

So, to answer the question - no we wouldn't sell all of our contracts, but would probably sell some. We also are currently considering picking up some more points, but are waiting to see what happens with the AP's. I'm not about to spend another $ on DVC contracts until we see what happens there.

ETA: I didn't vote in your poll, as you didn't include an option for selling some of our points. It's not a yes or no answer. We would still own DVC, but would go less often without an AP so would need less points.

 

[The Jackal]

My family has never purchased AP’s. If we lived closer to Florida I probably would but being from the northeast and going 2 or 3 times a year doesn’t justify the cost.

I’m not sure how long your trips are, but if your going for more than 1 park days per trip you would save with the pass. We take 2 trips for ) nights. Probably 5 park days per trip and your looking at around $800 to renew a Sourcerer’s pass and a 5 day park hopper ticket with tax is $575 non park hopper about $478. Prices will vary a little based on time of year. So 2 trips non park hopper you save a little. But park hopper you’ll save $350 per person in 2 trips, 3 trips Is $925 per person. Savings were more when it was the gold pass, since DVC got a discount on the pass and it included Photo Pass.

 

[chicagodisneyguy]

No APs really won't affect us enough to sell. We only get an annual pass ever 2-3 years. It mostly aligns when we take our extended family for a longer trip. We tend to then add a couple short 3-4 day trips in the same year. But we never renew because the next year we might only do one 3-5 day trip. We also try to go to Aulani once every 3 years so continuing to renew really doesn't work for us. We also bought 10 years worth of 5-day hoppers about 7 years ago and have only gone thru half of them.

I do understand how the people that have loads of points and go for multiple long trips really need the AP to make it affordable. I love WDW, but would never buy multiple 10-day tickets in a year. If they do eliminate APs, I hope they do at least give DVC a break on 10 day tickets or introduce a new, longer ticket like 15 or 20 days good for 1 year from first use.

 

[RoseGold]

I am going to sell one, or probably two, contracts this summer if APs don't return. Even a DVC-exclusive AP or a very, very expensive AP would be enough for me to hold, or even something like a 30 day/year ticket.

I bought DVC planning to get an AP, and I'm not the only one. I have mine now, so yay, but I think no APs impacts DVC as a whole dramatically.

I can stay at Swolpin and rent points and keep my AP. I'm not married to DVC.

I'm not going to be holding the bag with a product that is being undermined by decisions like this. When the day comes I can't renew my AP, I might be out completely. I don't want to be blindsided by that day, when the writing is on the wall for it right now.

 

[Prince John Robin Hood]

Disney should at least let us know when AP's will return. It's not fun planning multiple trips and not knowing if you'll be visiting the parks or not.

 

[LSchrow]

We would probably sell at least a big chunk of points, if not all.
WDW is our relaxing, less expensive vacation: DVC, APs, free flights (SWA).
Without APs, tickets for 2 weeks, twice a year would be too costly to bother with - we would rather spend the money on more amazing international trips (for us, FL "attractions" are not nearly as interesting as the cultures & many wonders of the world: the pyramids of Egypt, Pompeii, art museums (Academia in Florence, Louve in Paris, etc), an African safari, Rainforests, and so, soooooo much more).
Not having APs & DVC would make it more feasible (cost & vacation time) to visit different countries for at least 4-6 weeks at a time. That's actually not a bad thing

 

[RoseGold]

Disney should at least let us know when AP's will return. It's not fun planning multiple trips and not knowing if you'll be visiting the parks or not.

From those Chapek comments, it sounds like they are never coming back for us cheap plebs. Shareholders demand profit.

 

[NoTime42]

It depends on the available ticket options.
Although since we are in a borrowing mode and can only access half of our points, I guess an AP doesn’t make a bunch of sense.