Originally Posted By Moderation This is where I found the schedules Hans. In summary, the Socal APs are blocked out wednesday to Saturday the last two weeks and June, all of July and the first half of August. I chose early June because the weather won't have peked yet (I hope). https://secure-disneyland.disney.go.com/disneyland/en_US/ap/index?name=AnnualPassholderGatewayPage&appRedirect=<a href="http://disneyland.disney.go.com/disneyland/en_US/ap/gated/landing?name=AnnualPassholderLandingPage" target="_blank">http://disneyland.disney.go.co...dingPage</a>
Originally Posted By WestWind I still think it is a very good deal. You just have to look at how many times you go and see what you are paying per visit. An annual pass at our local ski hill is $775. Most Disney APs have block out days, but the ski hill only operates for 6 months if you're lucky. I have no objections to the price increase (glad I got my AP in December though).
Originally Posted By WorldDisney ^^You know, thats why I'm glad I never been a huge sports fan or into outdoor things like skiing, becuase yeah, compared to what you pay for all year for a theme park fan vs those is a STEAL!! I had a friend was a HUGE Lakers fan...he paid THOUSANDS for those seats. He had no problem paying several hundred to see one game. I remember I went once with him, I paid $300 for the seat. It was fun to see Kolbe so close and Shaq lol, but I couldnt stop thinking I wouldve had a full PAP to DL I couldve enjoyed for another 364 days vs the ONE 2+ hour Laker game I paid for. Once was fine, but never again. What it cost to go for a day at Disneyland compared to a year is bar none one of the most economical things you can pay for, IF you go often. In all honesty, they can charge you $700 and its still a great value and its for TWO parks!! (Okay a park and a half ) So even for $440 dollars, its not a bad deal at all, it just depends how often you go in a year AND how much you want to pay inside the parks themselves when you do go. And DL is the most expensive AP you can get. Every other AP for a major theme park is hundreds cheaper with zero to few black out dates. So if you go to DLR just once a month, the PAP IS worth it, how can it not be? You get TWO parks and free parking everytime. Just think of a single day parkhopper plus parking--that's $111 for a single day, not including food and souvineers, which is all discounted with an AP. So the reality is when people look at in that way, they WILL continue to pay no matter how Disney raise its prices---as long as they can afford to. But I never felt Disney was overcharging for these passes and $10-25 more dollars is peanuts, especially if you are on the payment plan anyway. Thats an additional 80 cents-$2.00 a month, so I doubt it will turn away many people away.
Originally Posted By FerretAfros Just to throw in some food for thought, a DL premium AP (365 days at 2 parks, food and merchandise discounts, occasional special offers and hotel prices) costs $439. A WDW 'standard' AP (365 days at 4 parks, occasional special offers for food, merchandise, and hotels) costs $489 (a WDW PAP adds the water parks and DisneyQuest for $120). The attraction count is about the same between the two resorts, but the sheer size of WDW certainly adds something. Each of the parks is a seperate experience, while at DLR, they are seperated by turnstyles and little else. True, there are those special little areas in DL that make it stand out in many fans' minds, but there are just as many of those spots in each of the 4 parks in WDW. It's starting to make me think a little more about what exactly it is that I'm paying for.
Originally Posted By WorldDisney ^^True, that is a HUGE steal at WDW!! Of course though, there simply isnt as many locals there (think how many people actually live in the Greater Orlando area vs the people in the Greater L.A alone! L.A. has 4 times the people AND about 20+ million all in a 4 hour radius)) so the local population at DLR pushes the passes up alone. A perfect example, look at TDR, also in a huge high density city and enough people have no problem paying for a PAP (since that is ALL that is offered) and THOSE AP's are actually around $700 a year for 2 parks. About $400 a year for just TDL or TDS, so if the demand is there, Disney can raise them for whatever and people will pay. That said, their one day passes are still under a reasonable $60, UNLIKE the American parks . And all that said, I have no clue how well they sell at WDW and TDR. Until the last year, I had no clue how well they did at DLR either, but with all the talk about them lately, you cant really avoid it lol. In fact, I would guess if the vacationers have a huge decrease in WDW visits, they might do montly programs and oher incentives to grab locals more, but they dont seem as much of a concern like they do at DLR.
Originally Posted By FerretAfros I believe that central Florida residents also get additional discounts on their passes. Not cheaper ones with lots of blackout days like at DL, but the same one for a lower price. They also have season passes for locals, which are more like the SoCal passes, but seem like they're so inconvenient that they're not really worth the price difference.
Originally Posted By SuperDry If they want to put some sort of cap on the number of APs in order to strike a balance between selling as many as possible and having the parks terribly crowded on certain days (sometimes filling up parking and/or closing the entrance gates such that day visitors wanting to pay full price can't get in), then I think raising prices $10-20 at a time, 2-3x a year as they've been doing, is the smart way to do it. This way, they can measure price elasticity as they go along: when the prices approach the level where it substantially reduces sales, they'll know it without risking going "too far" and then having to do something embarrassing.
Originally Posted By Darkbeer On Sunday, January 3rd, 2/3'rds of the park attendance was AP holders..... Yep over 66% of the guests that entered Disneyland had an AP.... Scary, eh?
Originally Posted By davewasbaloo "Scary, eh?" That is. And there is little to convince me that a local popping in for a few hours will spend as much as someone on vacation (except for a lot of us die hards). Also, the behaviours exibited by many are an issue too. This is where $700 APs may not be a bad thing at all. In fact, that is still a fair price.
Originally Posted By Kar2oonMan >>And there is little to convince me that a local popping in for a few hours will spend as much as someone on vacation<< Disney must disagree. Otherwise, they wouldn't be pushing the APs like they are. Do many APs really pop in and not spend a dime? I'm sure some do. But I'd bet that most at least get a few sodas or a meal, and those are sodas and meals that wouldn't be sold otherwise. Again, if Disney was scared or concerned about the number of APs, they would cut back on them tomorrow. It wouldn't take some elaborate pricing system to do it, they'd just stop selling them is all.
Originally Posted By tashajilek Being an out of towner the AP works great for me. Its much cheaper for me then to buy passes 2x a year for 2 people. I like that i am able to go to knotts for half the day and then come back to DL for the night time where if i only had park hoppers i would not be able to return. I do spend tons of money on food and especially merchandise. If the AP's went up to $700 ever it would not be worth it for me. I think they should sell ap's with a set amount of days you are able to use and when you run out tough luck. So each person pays more or less. There would be no reason for anyone to need a pass for a 100+ days that is just crazy.
Originally Posted By Kar2oonMan I think they should sell ap's with a set amount of days you are able to use and when you run out tough luck.<< If they were truly concerned about the number of AP holders showing up, this would be a logical first step and cutting down the numbers. But it also would create huge headaches for all the frontline CMs. "I paid for X amount of days!!!" you can hear people shouting.
Originally Posted By tashajilek "I paid for X amount of days!!!" you can hear people shouting." Thats true but im sure the computers would keep track the number of days left or people would be able to check online. They might not be concerned about the # of Ap's but if it were done this way they can squeeze more money out of people. It just makes sense the more you go the more it costs and that is very fair.
Originally Posted By Moderation First off, I think we will continue to see a slow creep up of both prices and block out dates for the limited APs, until we see a point where the price point and the limits actually have even a nominal effect on AP demand. And when you are talking about a million APs, each of these small bumps means a significant spike of revenue, the last one garnered roughly $15mil per year, and with constant renewal rates it's money Disney can rely on. Eventually I expect DL to turn into almost a biforcated experience with certain days geared specifically to pass holders and other days (weeks?months?) where they try to shut them out and concentrate on the traditional tourist base. If they can get the mix right, they can actually make this an excellent expereience for both groups- After all, most AP holders are tolerant of secondary ride closures (say, roger rabit or Snow White)for refurb, but are heavy consumers of entertainment options, while touristas want every single ride but aren't all that interested in the food and wine expo or the holiday parade filming. DL may need to tighten up the time needed for refurbs though. I don't find the AP numbers scary though, because it appears that Team Disney is scared for me. The demographic shift caught them a bit flat footed as to parking capacity, but now that they have seen what's going on,DL seems committed to spending the resources needed to make it all work. Having the steady stream of income from the AP base and the commensurate need to increase park capacity has meant that the numbers guys and the creative guys are actually lining up together to improve DL. Al's column this week had alot of fast track discussion of what have been blue ski project conjecture from this site over the years. A TL reboot with new major rides and a new frontierland in the old nature train area and even beyond the berm into the under used annimal paddock have both been kicked about as 'someday' hopes. Aparently someday is today.
Originally Posted By SuperDry <<< Again, if Disney was scared or concerned about the number of APs, they would cut back on them tomorrow. >>> I think what Disney wants is to sell as many APs as possible, while at the same time have as many guests in attendance on any particular day be other than AP holders.
Originally Posted By SuperDry <<< On Sunday, January 3rd, 2/3'rds of the park attendance was AP holders..... >>> Darkbeer, do you know the correlation between AP holders and others when it comes to average F&B and merchandise spend per guest?
Originally Posted By cheesybaby <<< On Sunday, January 3rd, 2/3'rds of the park attendance was AP holders..... >>> Maybe because this was the first day since 12/23 that non-Premiums were not blocked out? Yes that percentage is huge, but it is also the result of weeks of pent-up demand, not a normal day.
Originally Posted By Sparrow <<I'd bet that most at least get a few sodas or a meal, and those are sodas and meals that wouldn't be sold otherwise.>> I have an AP and I don't think I've ever gone in and not spent money on something. At least a meal or a snack and a drink. A locker sometimes, to hold jackets or bags. You never know...
