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Disneyland Resort (DL, DLR, DCA) Discussion Thread

p. 393 - 70th Anniversary events and lineup announced!

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I'm kind of curious as an outsider, how much money/time do the AP pass holders spend when they visit each time? My closest comparison is Everland and living not too far away, I do notice a lot of pass-holders (including whole families of my students who go almost every other weekend) tend to just go for a few hours grab a quick few rides and then leave without spending a penny. The shuttle buses are always packed even in the evening with families showing up for a free night parade and fireworks show. The cost for a normal annual pass here is just under 4 trips worth and a 2 year pass makes it an even better bargain but some spend almost nothing in park, especially since most just bring their own snacks/lunch to eat somewhere while waiting for a show, is it a similar situation?

 

Its been a few years since I had an AP there but they used to scan the passes if you brought anything, I think it gave discount or if you spent so much you got vouchers etc as an incentive to encourage AP's but back then I wasn't sure what they were saying when they scanned it each time I brought something so my memory is fuzzy on the subject.

Edited by Garet
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I actually just renewed mine on Sunday. Sure, the $50 increase wasn't great, but it is just $4 a month extra. I don't mind paying the AP pass price, I only average around 8 visits a year and it is still a savings for me personally.

 

A couple of trip observations. I rode the Mark Twain one last time before ROA changes, Tom Sawyer's Island etc. I for one will like seeing the ROA & the island change to make way for actual attractions that are entertaining. If the back side of Star Wars that faces the ROA looks as good Carsland's mountains do, it will be a huge improvement with the shorter route for the boats, train, and canoes. On the island, that back section is pretty barren with little to do except walk around. No great loss in seeing the unused and rarely visited portion of the island shrunk down. Should be interesting to watch it develop.

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I'm kind of curious as an outsider, how much money/time do the AP pass holders spend when they visit each time?

It honestly varies. When we lived in SoCal and had a pass, there would be weekends we would go down (we lived 1-2 hours away based on stupid traffic) and spend the whole weekend including a hotel stay, other times we would go down just for the day. We would probably go once a month on average. Probably about 20 "park visits" per year.

 

Here in Orlando, where we live 15 minutes away from the park without any annoying traffic, we'll go 2-3 times per week sometimes. And those visits could be just few a few hours all the way to an entire day depending on who is in town or what we are doing. In the past 30 days alone, I've probably made 15 visits with about 5 of them being close to "full days."

 

As far as what we spend in the park, it's usually at least one full meal each full-day visit, a couple of drinks, and maybe some small item. For a shorter visit, I will usually almost always get 1-2 drinks and/or a snack. Honestly, we probably drop anywhere between $30 - $150 per visit. I realize that's a large range, but it really depends on if it's all three of us, just me, how long we stay, etc.

 

I'm guessing I do about 100 visits per year at WDW now.

Edited by robbalvey
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^I think it's also important to note though that we are NOT your normal pAssholders. Most of them are similar to your Everland analogy where they don't spend a lot per visit.

 

Most of the ones I knew in SoCal wouldn't spend a lot of money at all. Here in Florida there are not nearly as many pAssholders. The ones we hang out with still spend money at the parks but I think that's more because they're similar to us and not representative of the rest of the pAssholder community.

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One of my co workers here at my office is crying because they raised prices. "Why does Disney keep raisin prices?!"

 

My response: "Because people keep going!! You're going to go regardless. You can't have kids and not take then to Disneyland. You're stuck and Disney knows that. Too bad. So sad. Disney has a good product and you get what you pay for."

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I actually just renewed mine on Sunday. Sure, the $50 increase wasn't great, but it is just $4 a month extra. I don't mind paying the AP pass price, I only average around 8 visits a year and it is still a savings for me personally.

 

THIS! If you're still making a saving then does the increase really matter? The only reason I dropped my AP at Everland was because with foreigner discounts or different monthly offers with Korean cards, including queue passes, I'd have to end up going a lot more times than I was to make my AP more worthwhile than starting to buy day tickets. I had a pass that blocked out peak season weekends and since that was when I avoided the park anyway (and I worked weekdays) it all came down to which one was the better deal for how often I visited.

 

If you're claiming the new pass prices are not worth the value or your not saving any money on them, maybe you have to realize that you just aren't vising the park that much and that's why Disney sells another option... day passes!

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Sunk Cost Fallacy is at the heart of a lot of bad season pass holder arguments on the internet. The truth is that once you pay the money, it is gone. You aren't getting "$8 a visit" or whatever because often times those people choose to go more often (and spend more as a result) because, "Well, I have the pass, I might as well use it..."

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^I think it's also important to note though that we are NOT your normal pAssholders. Most of them are similar to your Everland analogy where they don't spend a lot per visit.

 

Most of the ones I knew in SoCal wouldn't spend a lot of money at all. Here in Florida there are not nearly as many pAssholders. The ones we hang out with still spend money at the parks but I think that's more because they're similar to us and not representative of the rest of the pAssholder community.

 

Haha... pAssholders. Or pAssHoleders. (Took me a second to catch up while reading your post).

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It's kind of interesting what's going on at WDW and DL, every year they raise prices and every year attendance keeps increasing. I can't really think of an example where a well established brand has done that and sustained it over a long period of time. Maybe the iPhone but that's still a relatively new product in the market.

 

Has DL ever been rumored to introduce the tiered pricing for daily admission like was mentioned for Orlando a few years ago? I remember hearing that WDW may start charging more for days in the busy season and less for days when it is historically slower, which sounds like a great option to me.

 

It made the news when Disney put out surveys asking about it...so I'm going to assume it will be here at some point.

Edited by robbalvey
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Look, bash me all you want. It simply comes down to this...

 

Disneyland introduces monthly payments and the number of passholders start to skyrocket. Years down the road, Disney realizes and admits they have crowd control problems. While they don't actually admit it's due to the number of passholders, of which I read somewhere now tops 1 million, they make major modifications to the annual passes, and change parking rates and policies due to locals abusing the 3 hour parking at DtD. So it sure looks like that's the root of the problem doesn't it?

 

Rather than remove the option of monthly payments to get the number of pass holders in check, they just keep raising prices, WHICH DOESN'T FIX THE PROBLEM. People will continue to pay whatever Disney wants them to pay monthly, and that's fine, but this won't solve the problem. Forcing people to pay something like $300+ at one time for a pass, then they would see a considerable drop off in the number of passholders. I'm all for surge pricing too. Make the tickets cheaper on days when the park is least crowded, but that doesn't solve the problem with annual passes

 

They have already gotten rid of the So Cal tier so they will probably get rid of the deluxe passes before they get rid of monthly payments and that is why people are upset. Hell people would be upset too if they got rid of monthly payments but at least that move makes sense since that started the whole problem to begin with.

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JUST. STOP.

 

People like you are the problem: "I'll gladly pay the current $700 for a pass...it's all the other folks causing the crowding! How dare they raise the price on me!"

 

BTW, Disney has had an annual pass holder problem long before monthly pricing was introduced. The numbers have always been absurdly high. The difference is that for much of the early 2000's, the economy was down so the tourism industry was down as well. That's not the case anymore.

Edited by Jew
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If they would just re-open the People Mover it would seriously solve everything.

 

 

I have enjoyed reading the last 3 or 4 pages. I'm sure with all the bitching about the price change Disney will be rolling them back to what they were!

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JUST. STOP.

 

People like you are the problem: "I'll gladly pay the current $700 for a pass...it's all the other folks causing the crowding! How dare they raise the price on me!"

 

BTW, Disney has had an annual pass holder problem long before monthly pricing was introduced. The numbers have always been absurdly high. The difference is that for much of the early 2000's, the economy was down so the tourism industry was down as well. That's not the case anymore.

 

They also built a second park, which while not terribly popular compared to their goals, still alleviated some of the crowding issues. Fixing the park made it much more popular, which made passes more popular, which perpetuated the cycle of growth and crowding. But let's back up.

 

Rather than remove the option of monthly payments to get the number of pass holders in check, they just keep raising prices, WHICH DOESN'T FIX THE PROBLEM. People will continue to pay whatever Disney wants them to pay monthly, and that's fine, but this won't solve the problem. Forcing people to pay something like $300+ at one time for a pass, then they would see a considerable drop off in the number of passholders. I'm all for surge pricing too. Make the tickets cheaper on days when the park is least crowded, but that doesn't solve the problem with annual passes

 

The "problem" is that as a business, Disney is committed to making money. Rather than cut down on the guest experience significantly at Disneyland by removing services or goods at will (very different than Rivers of America being closed for construction) in order to increase revenue, they've instead decided to increase pricing. Why? Because they know that people will continue to pay more to have access to the same thing, and use individuals own personal budgets to be the deciding factor as to whether or not they renew.

 

Would asking people to pay $1050 up front eliminate some passholders? Possibly. You know what I insinuate with this argument? That the issue you have isn't that the prices even cost more, it is that the passes are still being offered in a manner that individuals who are not you and simply haven't "worked as hard" or "tried as hard" as you have might have access to every benefit you do. Deep down, you're bothered because other people have passes and they should just be for you and people just like you (I wonder what their demographics are? Hmmmm). And now, EVUL DAZNEY has marched in and threatens your financial stability with yet another price hike targeted at you, the hard working, financially responsible and proper guest. If only they'd do something with the scum!

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If they would just re-open the People Mover it would seriously solve everything.

 

 

I have enjoyed reading the last 3 or 4 pages. I'm sure with all the bitching about the price change Disney will be rolling them back to what they were!

 

And put the Rocket Jets back where they belong.

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Would asking people to pay $1050 up front eliminate some passholders? Possibly. You know what I insinuate with this argument? That the issue you have isn't that the prices even cost more, it is that the passes are still being offered in a manner that individuals who are not you and simply haven't "worked as hard" or "tried as hard" as you have might have access to every benefit you do. Deep down, you're bothered because other people have passes and they should just be for you and people just like you (I wonder what their demographics are? Hmmmm). And now, EVUL DAZNEY has marched in and threatens your financial stability with yet another price hike targeted at you, the hard working, financially responsible and proper guest. If only they'd do something with the scum!

 

How I imagine sokalkostr will handle this -

 

yUAIfSN.gif

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It's ok, folks, I took care of the "sokalkostr problem." One less SoCal self-entitled attitude among us...

 

Look, bash me all you want.

 

Challenge accepted.

 

Turns out this IS a stereo-typical SoCal a$$hole we've known for a while and was banned from the forums before. Apparently he just couldn't stay away and just HAD to create a new screen name because, you know, he's Californian and WHAT HE HAS TO SAY IS IMPORTANT!!!

 

But no, he was just an obnoxious jerk when we knew him then, and apparently he still is now. You can't change people. You can't fix stupid. And you most certainly cannot reason with your self-entitled SoCal jerk. Bu-bye, Jon LoCoco. You weren't welcome here before, and you're most certainly not welcome here now!

 

It would seem to me the basis of the complaints are due to not being able to afford the *most expensive* pass, but perhaps the lesson here is to make better or different life choices so you can afford stuff you want? No one is forcing anyone to get the most expensive pass and I refuse to believe that people cannot work around the block out dates for the least expensive pass.

 

What frustrates me is that, in most cases, the monthly payment for either a Disneyland or WDW pass is probably less than someone would spend on a nice dinner somewhere. Let's put this into perspective here... An average dinner at a place like Outback Steakhouse will run you about $45 for an app, entree, dessert, and a beer. That's about the same amount as one month of going to Disneyland or Walt Disney World.

 

Can someone please explain to me how a month of theme parks is NOT a better deal than one meal?

 

You can't.

 

And this is what I mean when i say "make better or different choices."

Edited by robbalvey
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Maybe the lesson here is to make better or different life choices so you can afford stuff you want?

 

In all fairness (even though he doesn't deserve it), living in SoCal is so expensive that even shopping at Walmart is a scary idea for a budget.

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Maybe the lesson here is to make better or different life choices so you can afford stuff you want?

 

In all fairness (even though he doesn't deserve it), living in SoCal is so expensive that even shopping at Walmart is a scary idea for a budget.

But this is exactly why Disneyland offers different tiers. I get that not everyone can afford every pass, but the lowest tier is still less than $50 per month and a one-day, one-park ticket is $99. And it's not like the blackout dates are THAT insane. I'm sure someone could figure out time to visit the park once a month if they were that big of a fan and make it work.

 

What frustrates me is that, in most cases, the monthly payment for either a Disneyland or WDW pass is probably less than someone would spend on a nice dinner somewhere. Let's put this into perspective here... An average dinner at a place like Outback Steakhouse will run you about $45 for an app, entree, dessert, and a beer. That's about the same amount as one month of going to Disneyland or Walt Disney World.

 

Can someone please explain to me how a month of theme parks is NOT a better deal than one meal?

 

You can't.

 

And this is what I mean when i say "make better or different choices."

Edited by robbalvey
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