We spend somewhere around 30 days a year at WDW. We’ve been AP holders every year for at least the past 10 years and intermittently before that. Every time they raise prices I think that I won’t renew but as much as we go it still makes sense especially when I factor in hotel discounts. At some point it won’t anymore but I don’t know when that will be. Probably if they no longer offer resort, merch, and dining discounts anymore.
If you are staying off property you can reserve as many days as you have tickets linked to your MDE account.
I actually get no use out of the discounts with DVC but I am able to do Gold AP to make up for that. When we all stop enjoying it, I'll cancel and sell DVC or rent it out. Until then they've got me. Our last trip was so worth it to all. Even though park hours and passes annoyed me, it was great in the end.
If they aren't going to drastically increase park ticket prices (god knows they are already ridiculous), then they have to watch what they do with AP prices at WDW. In my view, the "unlimited" pass can't be more than right around the cost of two 7 night park hoppers. A lot of people buy them to get in a 2nd (and maybe a 3rd) trip, but if it's cheaper to just buy tickets for two trips, most people will skip the AP as soon as they see it's more. And you're way more likely to take that second trip if you already bought an AP then if you didn't and it's just an idea. Also, if it's cheaper to just buy tickets, then I might be inclined to spend one of those trips at Universal and hit sea world, but probably not if I've got an AP.
This is all what the Disneyland news has me expecting for WDW. All of the lower tier passes get a reservation cap rule. Maybe even gold, since the only out of state availability is DVC and staying onsite guarantees you entry.
Sadly…since the base passes aren’t priced the same way - as in the pet day cost really doesn’t drop until you get to day 5/6 - the passes are a better deal for out of state quickly.
Not true for many, an AP can be the difference between Disney and somewhere else. I bought an AP for a 9 night fall 2017 trip knowing I was going to the Daytona 500 in February. The cost of upgrading to an AP was worth it to get the photos and led me to add 2 DVC nights before heading to Daytona and a 3 more day trips back to the parks for the festival of the arts. Prior to that we had intended to go to Universal Studios instead since it was closer to the hotel we had in Sanford. We also had a cruise in Fall 2018 and since it was close to Thanksgiving flights were a fortune, because we had an AP we ended up paying cash to get 5 nights at Disney (cheaper flight on Monday and cost of hotel balanced out a bit, tickets would have ruled it out) and then drove to Miami.
Will staying onsite guarantee you entry though? I know it does now, but will they change it?
Only the cheapest pass has the two reservation limit. Next up is four reservations and top two passes are six.
Right, but there is nothing about a length of stay. I know people stay at DL for less time but I would have thought a SoCal resident with the cheapest pass might stay 2 nights and so want 3 days of park reservations. Can they do that if staying onsite?
I was trying to provide an example of why the old AP system (think 2019) needs to change. I wasn't trying to layout math on what value a new system (with park reservations) provides.
They can move the Platinum AP up to the new Disneyland price, $1,399 (I believe); I don't know how they would add park reservations to out-of-state visitors unless it is a big number of days. But really I think they have to up the price on Florida passes. A $100-$200 increase each pass tier (or $8.33 - $16.66. month) plus park reservations. All of this will help alleviate some of the crowds.
Normal ticket windows work in my experiences
Either one will work- I would go to whichever one has a shorter line (usually a ticket window).
