Eliminating some Florida resident annual passes?

["El Gran Magnifico"]

Here's my fear. Not suggesting this will happen. I'm just fearful of it happening.

AP's start to function as DVC does. The pass you buy entitles you to x amount of points. Park Admission is then tied to a point value and that value would be different based on seasonality (Value, Moderate, Peak). The "loyalty" incentive is then given by the way of additional points (as a way to reward you for spending and/or to give you incentive to behave a certain way). And if you run out of points, well, you can always buy more (at an inflated cost). At that point, nobody really knows what it costs to go to Disney anymore. They just know how many points they need - based on the day they select to go.

As every other type of points system - it is skewed. The acquisition would be costly, and would not correspond to the same value as the redemption. But hey, if you got Disney points to spend - you can only spend them at Disney. And if you don't - it's breakage. It's a really good deal for Disney. Not so good for us. That's why it scares me.

 

[cattle]

They better not get rid of the Epcot after 4 annual pass.

It is great!

 

[Vegas Disney Fan]

Same. This "freeloader" gives the Mouse plenty of my money.

I don’t know about you but as AP holders (DL for us) on many days we only go on a ride or two. I think we are the ideal guests for Disney, we spend money on food, drinks, and shopping but are not adding to the queues.

The bigger benefit to Disney is our APs feed our Disney addiction, we may not spend as much as tourists at DL (where we have APs) but last year we spent 5 nights in WDW at POFQ (our 7th WDW trip in 10 years) and 7 nights in Disneyland Paris at the Newport Bay club (our 3rd DLP trip in 5 years).

Tokyo, Shanghai, and Hong Kong our on our to do list but we want to do another cruise first.

Keeping us happy at DL = $$$ for Disney’s other parks and the Disney cruise lines.

 

[The Visionary Soul]

They may not see your physical card number, but there are consistent device specific details that are tracked. Try googling Payment Account Reference (PAR).

I know for a fact that Disney doesn’t use PAR Tokens currently, and they have little incentive to really use them ever, simply because they are tied to accounts and not people.

 

[Tony the Tigger]

IF they just made them feel special - treated them to a few perks and privileges.

Perks like:

Discounts on rooms (more than FL resident and general public discounts) and earlier access to those discounts vs. the GP.

Discounts on a fair amount of dining.

Free magnets & pins.

Free parking at the parks.

Discounts on most parties & tours.

AP exclusive merch

AP customer service

V.I.Passholder offers

 

[SSH]

Perks like:

Discounts on rooms (more than FL resident and general public discounts) and earlier access to those discounts vs. the GP.

Discounts on a fair amount of dining.

Free magnets & pins.

Free parking at the parks.

Discounts on most parties & tours.

AP exclusive merch

AP customer service

V.I.Passholder offers

I agree that WDW offers some things, but imho, as an AP holder at both WDW and UO for a number of years, I still feel like the perks at UO are better. (Maybe they're just a better fit with what I'm looking for.) I also like that their restaurant and merch discounts are valid park-wide at all QS, TS - even CitiWalk places - everywhere but booths. And I sure wasn't hating the "6 months free" deal: 18 months w/Sat & Sun for less than my 12 mo WDW weekday. (Of course, it is 2 vs 4 parks, to be fair.)

 

[Vacationeer]

Perks like:

Discounts on rooms (more than FL resident and general public discounts) and earlier access to those discounts vs. the GP.

Discounts on a fair amount of dining.

Free magnets & pins.

Free parking at the parks.

Discounts on most parties & tours.

AP exclusive merch

AP customer service

V.I.Passholder offers

After ticket expense, the biggest savings I personally see from AP is Memory Maker. We always pay for MM and although not cheap, we find value even for our usual 5 day trips. Right there MM saves us $350 on 2 trips but spread across needing to buy 3 APs, it only deducting closer to $100 per AP.

We also use it to save a decent amount on Merch/Dining w/AP, and we're more likely to indulge in Parties/DAH with those discounts. Room savings also interests us but we don't mind renting DVC as an alternative.

Walking thru the AP line at Rope Drop is a huge benefit

But... it's still too much of a commitment for us currently at this price, it's value totally rides on whether we can make it back at least once that year. We are part of the gig economy and our earnings can be quite different year to year along with unplanned personal, extended family and/or business expenses. So WDW does get higher per capita spending for the 1 yearly trip we'll take but they've locked themselves out of us taking the second. That helps their crowding issues and maybe they prefer getting 6k out of me on one trip rather than 9-10k for 2 trips. It could bother them if attendance slumped but with so many new attractions on the horizon I don't think they're overly concerned... yet.

 

[Tony the Tigger]

I agree that WDW offers some things, but imho, as an AP holder at both WDW and UO for a number of years, I still feel like the perks at UO are better. (Maybe they're just a better fit with what I'm looking for.) I also like that their restaurant and merch discounts are valid park-wide at all QS, TS - even CitiWalk places - everywhere but booths. And I sure wasn't hating the "6 months free" deal: 18 months w/Sat & Sun for less than my 12 mo WDW weekday. (Of course, it is 2 vs 4 parks, to be fair.)

My first thought: as the number two theme park in the area, they have to offer more/work harder(?)

After ticket expense, the biggest savings I personally see from AP is Memory Maker.

I appreciate this comment because it reminds me how different we are and how different all our needs are. We have never used Memory Maker, so that doesn't even factor in for us (and as you can see, I left it off my list.) We are two adults, we can take a few pics ourselves or spring for the cash if Photopass comes up with something especially nice or it's a special occasion. It works out way cheaper to buy a few pics than to buy Memory Maker. I understand people with kids or other folks who like pics more than we do may find more value in it.

Our little Weekday Select passes don't come with MM, and I'm glad, because if they did, I'm sure they'd be more expensive!

Walking thru the AP line at Rope Drop is a huge benefit

Forgot that one as well! We do use the AP lines, even though it's only once in awhile we see a big difference in wait times. I still appreciate getting in even a minute or two faster LOL.

 

[Touchdown]

Got $280 off my outer building room at the GF for a 6 and 2 night stay this winter, so I’m pretty happy.

 

[Kman101]

Perks like:

Discounts on rooms (more than FL resident and general public discounts) and earlier access to those discounts vs. the GP.

Discounts on a fair amount of dining.

Free magnets & pins.

Free parking at the parks.

Discounts on most parties & tours.

AP exclusive merch

AP customer service

V.I.Passholder offers

I think they can do a little better, honestly (sometimes it feels hollow, but that's just my personal perspective). Where they lose me a bit is saying "sorry, this pass isn't good enough" but "we want you at the event where you can buy merchandise" so that just personally irks me a bit. But I guess it's how you choose to look at it, lol.

But yes they do offer discounts which is beneficial as a passholder, no doubt. I for sure use it (and just a few years ago I don't think any castmember ever asked me if I had a 'discount with them' but now they do so that has improved).

 

[TeriofTerror]

I still think, even if it's allowed (credit card tracking), that it's a lot of work. More than it's worth. Paying someone $20 an hour to track thousands of transactions in an effort to maybe squeeze $5 out of people? These are low dollar amounts and not worth it, IMO. It'll cost more to pay employees to track this information that they'll make back, again my opinion. I'm sure some of it is automated, but even then, with people having multiple cards and family members, it would be hard to make it all guest specific and be accurate. They can paint a picture, but it won't be 100% accurate, nor is it worth it, IMO.

My daughter is a Customer Segmentation Analyst, and this is actually remarkably close to her job description. For what it's worth, with the right data collected it's surprisingly accurate and useful to their sales team.