I could see that -
* Sell a limited number of "Ultimate" packages at a high price point (maybe limit to onsite guests and (possibly) a limited # of APs per day
* For those that don't purchase ultimate, move everything to ILL - so that day guests can still purchase attractions that they want to skip the line for - but increase the price point so that things like Rise are $30 and normal attractions are $10-15.
I think this is a good idea in theory and I do think resort guests should be priori in order to get some value for paying top dollar. However, we usually stay on-site in deluxe and I don’t think I would pay a further ‘high price point’ for a skip the line package. There will certainly be guests for whom money is no object that wouldn’t have a problem with that, but we already feel deluxe is not good value for money given the decreased benefits.
For example when we started staying deluxe we got free parking, EMH, magic bands, free dining plan (from the UK), free memory maker, $200 gift card and 14 day park passes for the price of 7. This year we only got those last three plus a $68 total per night dining credit. And obviously prices are a lot higher than they were in 2014.
My point is I’m already not finding much value in the £4.5k I’ve dropped on five nights at Yacht Club with 14 day tickets, so if I was offered to spend maybe $80 - $100 per person per day for this ultimate line skip even if it meant short lines, with four of us in the family it would be a no-go on top of the expensive cost we’ve already paid. I’d much prefer to do early entry / park close and buy the odd ILL but I don’t know whether other families who stay in deluxe feel the same, or at values / moderates. Maybe there‘s a bit more value there.
People compare WD to Universal's Express Pass. But isn't it free for the people staying in their deluxe resorts? I wonder what the breakdown is at Universal - how many people are actually paying the high price as opposed to getting it included with the resort stay. And I wonder how many of those people would buy it at that price if it wasn't. Also, for some reason, this site seems to have a whole lot of single visitors to WDW, at least the ones who post. Charging those prices for the type of families Disney markets to may be an entirely different story.
We’ve used Express Pass staying on-site at Universal for our last seven Florida trips. We like the hotels anyway, but getting hundreds of dollars worth of free Unlimited Express Passes each day for all four of us is a no brainer for us. We love how relaxed and spontaneous things are with the system, and on the rare occasion we’ve had quite a long wait with Express (45 minute wait at Christmas 2021, Gringotts springs to mind although I think there were technical issues) we’ve not been annoyed because of how much value the passes provide overall across our stay, how enjoyable the system is to use, liking the resort we’re staying at, and we get it for ‘free’ (we’ve got to stay somewhere, and the Universal deluxes are good hotels and better value than Disney deluxes imo.)
But to answer your question, even though we love having the ‘free’ Express Pass and would be unlikely to go to Universal without it now, we wouldn’t pay for it if we didn‘t have it included. It would be too expensive on top of travelling to the US, accommodation, park tickets and food / spending.
Thinking about it, this is slightly amusing as the premium hotels with Express included are definitely a lot more expensive than their most basic hotels. This week I booked a night at Endless Summer Dockside for August for around $130, the only deluxe still available was Portofino Bay at around $500. But the difference in price is still less than what we would pay for four Express passes for the two full days you get included on a one night stay (and obviously there’s a difference in quality and facilities too). But it has definitely become my mindset that onsite Express is ‘free’ lol.
I definitely think your point about single visitors is important. Paying for a family is an entirely different thing to paying for just yourself or even just as a couple. This rings true even at $15 price point because when there‘s four of you and you’re there for multiple days it really adds up. If you were meeting friends or a partner and only had to pay for yourself, even a high price point becomes more appealing.
