any word when we can start buying annual passes again?

[Hakunamatata]

You really shouldn't be bringing reality in here. People have to believe that APs are locked out and park passes are impossible to get on short notice so they can complain. I just checked and pretty much every day for the next month has AP availability every single day.

My bad.

 

[Disstevefan1]

You could use that day and go to Knotts. But I agree, it’s frustrating. I’m much more likely to visit Disneyland sooner than Disney World that’s for sure.


Disney can get used to not having my $2,000 + dining + hotels + Merch each year. If Bob’s happy, fine.

Bob is happy! Per guest spending is 40 percent up compared to PRE pandemic numbers. Bob is very happy..

 

[TrainsOfDisney]

Bob is happy! Per guest spending is 40 percent up compared to PRE pandemic numbers. Bob is very happy..

Where is guest satisfaction levels compared to PRE pandemic numbers?

 

[LuvtheGoof]

Disney can get used to not having my $2,000 + dining + hotels + Merch each year. If Bob’s happy, fine.

Is it really that much of a hassle to dedicate 20 minutes to do park reservations?

 

[TrainsOfDisney]

Is it really that much of a hassle to dedicate 20 minutes to do park reservations?

Yes it is. I thought we were supposed to “vote with our wallets”?

 

[Vegas Disney Fan]

Is it really that much of a hassle to dedicate 20 minutes to do park reservations?

Depends, I just looked for March and there’s not a single weekend available in all of March for DL or DCA, and April weekends are already selling out. So DL will be missing out on at least $750 from us next month because we can’t get a reservation, not to mention the Holiday Inn missing out on another $300. Park reservations stink! On the plus side I just saved another $1000 towards Europe, every time we get locked out of Disney the money goes straight into out Europe fund. Disneys loss is Europes gain.

If you are good with booking 6+ weeks in advance it’s not a hassle, if you want less than 6 weeks it’s a major hassle, at least out west it is.

 

[LuvtheGoof]

Yes it is. I thought we were supposed to “vote with our wallets”?

True. If the system is too much for you then definitely vote with your wallet.

 

[LuvtheGoof]

Depends, I just looked for March and there’s not a single weekend available in all of March for DL or DCA, and April weekends are already selling out. So DL will be missing out on at least $750 from us next month because we can’t get a reservation, not to mention the Holiday Inn missing out on another $300. Park reservations stink! On the plus side I just saved another $1000 towards Europe, every time we get locked out of Disney the money goes straight into out Europe fund. Disneys loss is Europes gain.

If you are good with booking 6+ weeks in advance it’s not a hassle, if you want less than 6 weeks it’s a major hassle, at least out west it is.

Ahh, ok. I thought everyone was talking only about WDW. I guess living in Vegas, you are only looking for DL and it looks like DL is filling up a lot faster than WDW. Yes, that does suck.

 

[Gillyanne]

Questions about renewing: I'm currently on the Silver Pass which expires the first week of March. Should I renew to the comparable level (which I guess is Pirate) or maybe start out at Pixie Dust for now? Second, can I upgrade to another class later? I think my understanding is that you can renew to one of the new classes but can't upgrade. Is that correct?

I can't speak to which you should get (most of my family always had the low tier, we don't need to go weekends), but WRT the upgrading, you are correct, you cannot upgrade after purchase, UNLESS/UNTIL the pass you want to upgrade to becomes available for regular sale again. When we renewed my niece's pass, this was explicitly stated to us (which I'll give them kudos on, b/c they didn't at the start of it all when we we did downgrade the one higher pass, and then couldn't bump it back up, we were kinda mad). I kind of recall they would have let us renew to anything since it was a now defunct pass (the Weekday select) but we still just opted for Pixie or whatever it's called so I didn't really pay attention/let her get through all that.

 

[JohnD]

I can't speak to which you should get (most of my family always had the low tier, we don't need to go weekends), but WRT the upgrading, you are correct, you cannot upgrade after purchase, UNLESS/UNTIL the pass you want to upgrade to becomes available for regular sale again. When we renewed my niece's pass, this was explicitly stated to us (which I'll give them kudos on, b/c they didn't at the start of it all when we we did downgrade the one higher pass, and then couldn't bump it back up, we were kinda mad). I kind of recall they would have let us renew to anything since it was a now defunct pass (the Weekday select) but we still just opted for Pixie or whatever it's called so I didn't really pay attention/let her get through all that.

Yeah. I’m thinking Pixie Dust. Pirates already blocks out Federal holiday weekends. So I could give up all other weekends as well. It seems like it’s always busy at WDW but hopefully less busy during the week. And start off with the least monthly amount.

Edit: I just renewed to Pixie Dust. I still get M-F Friday access with the same weekly blackouts as Pirates. Might as well renew at the lowest tier and wait-and-see on future options (e.g. upgrade higher if want which I can't right now).

 

[wendysue]

I wish I could sell you ours...

 

[thomas998]

The current price of an out of state AP is $1299 plus tax (approx $1384) if they were for sale.

The current cost of a 7-day park hopper during the last week of May/first week of June is $620.11.

Still think an AP is the best way to go?

I've been an out of state AP'er in the past. Under the right conditions it used to make sense even though if you look at the price of the pass verses the length of a stay was giving a big difference in cost. In my case some years the amount of discount on a room for an AP'er versus a regular guest was substantial... You could also find other little perks that had value so that we would often take a trip where I had an AP and the rest of the family had a regular ticket. Unless things have changed, only the person paying for the room has to have the AP for the discount. I suspect there may still be times now when you could find that an AP would work if they bring back AP's and the AP room discounts.

 

[Hcalvert]

I've been an out of state AP'er in the past. Under the right conditions it used to make sense even though if you look at the price of the pass verses the length of a stay was giving a big difference in cost. In my case some years the amount of discount on a room for an AP'er versus a regular guest was substantial... You could also find other little perks that had value so that we would often take a trip where I had an AP and the rest of the family had a regular ticket. Unless things have changed, only the person paying for the room has to have the AP for the discount. I suspect there may still be times now when you could find that an AP would work if they bring back AP's and the AP room discounts.

Agree. We have been out-of-state APers for three years now. We usually visit WDW 3+ weeks each year (one week during Christmas and two+ weeks during June), so APs are a must for us and work out fine with the dining and merchandise discounts. I have yet to use a AP room discount as usually I rent someone's points for our stay. Saying that, when the APs are up for renewal in August, we have decided not to renew and visit family in Europe instead.

 

[bjlc57]

Agree. We have been out-of-state APers for three years now. We usually visit WDW 3+ weeks each year (one week during Christmas and two+ weeks during June), so APs are a must for us and work out fine with the dining and merchandise discounts. I have yet to use a AP room discount as usually I rent someone's points for our stay. Saying that, when the APs are up for renewal in August, we have decided not to renew and visit family in Europe instead.

if you don't renew you may never get them back.. and if so ... does this say something about not going to disney at much if at all..?

 

[JohnD]

i am watching the covid numbers finally start to drop and I was wondering about a trip in either the last week of May or the first of June.. and I think the best way to go would be with an out of state annual pass.. any one have any true feeling when the gates are going to reopen on this?

No

 

[Mark48]

I need your opinions on this thought I am having . Is it possible that Disney is holding off on
making AP'S available in WDW for purchase until there is a resolution of the class action suit in California over
Annual Passes? My greatest fear is if Disney loses this suit they may just eliminate AP'S altogether. Thoughts ?

 

[thomas998]

Agree. We have been out-of-state APers for three years now. We usually visit WDW 3+ weeks each year (one week during Christmas and two+ weeks during June), so APs are a must for us and work out fine with the dining and merchandise discounts. I have yet to use a AP room discount as usually I rent someone's points for our stay. Saying that, when the APs are up for renewal in August, we have decided not to renew and visit family in Europe instead.

The problem with AP room discounts is that they don't advertise them much when they happen and they would often pop up maybe a couple of months before the time for them opened. So if you were one of the families that plans for a year or more in advance it would be a gamble to buy one for a room discount. My job was one where I could never plan for a year in advance so I simply keep updated on the discounts and if one happened to pop up during a slow time at work I would take advantage... but in general if you can't do something like that you are just looking at the pure ticket price AP price and I think the break even point used to be at about 10 or 14 days.

 

[Sirwalterraleigh]

if you don't renew you may never get them back.. and if so ... does this say something about not going to disney at much if at all..?

If they don’t sell them again…then everyone else’s will be retired when they expire.

So you don’t have to worry about that. There would be no point in keeping them.

 

[thomas998]

if you don't renew you may never get them back.. and if so ... does this say something about not going to disney at much if at all..?

If Disney decides to ditch AP's then it won't matter if you have one or not, when it expires they simply won't allow you to renew it.

 

[MichWolv]

I had concerns about the reservation system as well. We moved here last summer and got the top level AP when they started selling in October. There has not been a day that I couldnt get a reservation where I wanted to go, or park hop, day off. There have been a few days where MK was not available but you could still park hop there.

I'll second that. While it is annoying to have to make reservations at all, and limited numbers of them at that, there have been zero days that I literally couldn't get into any park (Epcot and DAK being available all the time), and zero days that I couldn't park hop after 2 to whatever park I wanted to in the two instances (out of around 40 days in the past 18 months) that I couldn't get into the park I wanted.