Here’s the problem Disney is having as they increase the price, people are expecting more of it and cutting back on expenses.
On the expectations, how many people outside of hard core Disney people did you see complain about FP? Sure some thought it was cumbersome but most GP didn’t think it was evil, it was a perk. Now I would say a large minority if not majority of GP I know hate G+ even though it’s not really different, they hate it because they have to pay for it. Another poster recently pointed out that Disney is flummoxed why lately they have been besieged by far more park commandos, I’m not, Disney has jacked up the prices so much people feel the need to squeeze everything out of their day and by cutting back hours they’ve made it physically possible to do so (even I a dedicated park commando cannot survive a week of summer DL 16 hour days, but 10-12 hour days with a few 14 hour days mixed in most can do.) This too will be the case with APs, if you charge the monthly salary of the top 28% ($6000) people are going to expect free parking, no reservations, no black outs and perks, I cannot believe that will sell at all. Also charge that much and the few that do buy will be commandos and not wait in long lines for meme food or merchandise but instead do attractions to squeeze value out of something so expensive.
The other issue I see is people aren’t spending on the ancillaries, Disney continues to change deluxe rooms to DVC which is far less profitable for them if they could regularly fill those rooms. They have also been extremely slow on fully staffing and opening signature restaurants. This is all a sign we are nearing the end to increases in per cap spending, we have cut so deep, we are cutting bone. This goes for all tickets. It’s so obvious the current parks are a deck of cards waiting to collapse.
