I've heard the number of folks eligible is VERY low, which if true is much less of a market than I even thought (my personal estimate was somewhere in the 3-5K range). From what I understand, though, this info is pretty easy to find for most CMs.
Only a few hundred, actually. There's a list of those who were mailed both passes (which is fairly easily accesible to those in guest relations), and its small. That's of course, not taking into account any misses (which there are bound to be quite a few, since their merging of the two databases was not accurate or all inclusive).
That being the case, I believe that Disney is looking to build a market where one doesn't exist here. If they 'lose' a few bucks the first year by getting folks hooked on the all access pixie dust pass, they aren't worrried because in YEAR TWO when the fanbois need to pay full-price (minus a miniscule renewal discount) they'll get hit by the reality of the situation. You can also expect there to be 1-2 price increases in the next year, just like any other admission media.
It's a win-win for Disney. They encourage those right now with passes to both parks to continue that patronage by linking the two together and giving them a few free months (via the rule that allows the new pass to have the latter of the two expiration dates), and also intrigues those who were thinking about getting a pass to both parks. There will be no renewal discount, and from what's been said internally about this pass - there wont be an increase to the pass in price for quite sometime (to offset the fact that there will be no renewal discount).
Of course, now you're paying for a much pricier pass to two resorts that you may not have so much need for. BUT ... you'll feel special ... like D23 members ... and by then you can be sure the pass will be payable on the installment plan ... and folks will be hooked.
There will be no installment plan on this pass in the near future. Again, some internal conversations regarding the pass have alluded that an installment plan would only be possible if WDW adopted it as well, and again, limited it to only SoCal and FL residents. Disney stands to loose too much if they open it up to a wider market due to their lack of jurisdiction in obtaining owed dues.
The one thing that I keep getting conflicting info on is whether all WDW passes count (obviously the EPCOT AFter 4 is exempt) but everyone seems to have a different answer about whether someone can go buy a SoCal Select pass at DL and a weekday seasonal at WDW and walk to a window at either resort and say 'gimmee the SPECIAL pass, please'.
The rules are quite clear in the terms of conditions with this pass (however the written conditions are only available at Guest Relations though) - WDW Seasonal passes are EXEMPT, however the higher end SoCal Annual pass is not. And at this point, you had to have had a pass at both parks on March 10th to be eligible. Otherwise, the only way to get the pass would be through a normal upgrade process where you apply the value of each pass towards the $700 (i.e. a DL pass thats 6 months old would be given a pro-rated value based on the current market price of the pass and that would be allocated towards the $700)...so you cant just walk up and buy both passes and have them combined.
And from reading a nightmarish post from everyone's MAGICal old pal Merfie about trying to get his 'free' upgrade, it appears that as usual Disney's left hand doesn't know what its right is doing (probably reaching into a fanbois' pants ... I mean ... pant's pocket!)
They dont - and training has just started for most Guest Relations cast on this option (only one or two CM's per locations know how to issue them).
