As theme park fans, we all like to visit the parks as often as we can, and we all enjoy getting the best value we can out of them. For many, that means taking advantage of annual pass programs to get as many visits as possible for what is presumably a lower rate, and parks push that as an option to guarantee revenue for themselves. But is that a good model for the guest or the park? Let's consider that question, particularly with regards to destination parks.
For model A, let's use the structure employed by Disneyland. One-day, one-park tickets vary by day, ranging between $104 and $224, but for practical purposes dates below $149 are few and far between. Let's say $177 is the expected cost for a one-day ticket. Multi-day tickets are less per day, but for this analysis we'll assume our guest can't benefit from them. For passes, Disneyland offers four levels: Imagine ($599), Enchant ($974), Believe ($1,474), and Inspire ($1,899). We'll ignore the lowest level as it is the most restrictive and consider the other three. Lastly, we'll add parking which is $40 per day with a day ticket, $30 with Enchant, $20 with Believe, and $0 with Inspire.
Let's start with five visits in a year. On day tickets, you'll be paying out $1,085 for tickets and parking. It might be tempting to then consider the Enchant key, but when parking is added five visits with that key comes to $1,124. Once we get to the sixth visit, the key becomes favorable...$1,154 vs. $1,302, but only if we can use the blackout calendar. For the Believe key, we need eight visits to come out ahead, and due to the free parking benefit, just nine for Inspire. Thus, if we're visiting at least every other month, a key is worthwhile, but if we're not confident we can meet that target, the park comes out ahead. Now, if we're visiting monthly, the per visit cost drops to $159 per visit with a pass, and it can keep dropping with more visits, but there is a point of diminishing enjoyment from visiting too frequently. As we used averages, this also opens up another possibility...for someone who has the flexibility to visit on the cheapest days, savings on a pass diminish significantly, and even with paying for parking a pass might not be the best deal.
For model B, I'm going to adapt what Tokyo Disneyland does, as the resort itself matches pretty well to the Disneyland Resort. Unlike the Disneyland Resort, Tokyo Disney does not sell multi-day tickets or annual passes. The only tickets sold at Tokyo Disney are one-day, one-park tickets, which range from ¥9,400 to ¥10,900 (roughly $62-72 USD, but we won't worry about that). Given Disneyland's longer operating hours and the higher cost of everything in America, let's say the rough translation would be admission plus parking for roughly $170 per day at Disneyland.
Under this model, it would take seven visits (vs. six) to reach the cost of the Enchant key, ten visits (vs. eight) to reach Believe, and twelve visits (vs. nine) to reach Inspire. For most passholders, having to buy a lower priced ticket each time would probably not wind up costing them more in the long run, and it's only those super frequent visitors who would be hurt by this (though high visitation, low spending guests are not a desirable market for a park). Two other big downsides exist with this model: 1. Because guests have to buy a ticket each time, it might decrease the desire to visit regularly, and 2. Because parks don't have guaranteed revenue in advance, they might be more adversely affected by events beyond their control. However, there are also a few upsides: 1. If guests are buying a ticket each time, they'll treat it as a special occasion and not as another hangout spot, 2. If guests aren't using the parks as a free hangout, average crowd levels will likely be lower, 3. Parks aren't able to phone things in if they don't already have their customers locked, 4. There's no need to pump up prices to offset the small but significant proportion of guests who are visiting at a loss, and 5. There's less feeling of classism if everyone visiting is paying the same thing to get in. There is definitely a risk to the park's total revenue being lower under this model, but it's also possible that it might be higher through higher spending in the park.
Obviously, both these models work well for different reasons, as both are employed at extremely well visited theme parks. There's also going to be differences in preference among guests based on different individual factors. So, the question I'm posing is a bit more of a "would you rather?" than something with a right or wrong answer. Specifically, it is this: Do you like the season pass model currently employed by major theme parks in the United States, or do you think you would like it better if passes were eliminated and day tickets were 20-30% less than current rates to compensate?
Wow, I just saw an article for $200 for a One day ticket at Disney.
If you live near park and go once a month then Yes get the AP...
Like we said they should have some kind of discounted parking pass for AP holders.
Brian, my Pirate Pass includes parking.
Having an annual pass works out fine for my wife and me. We check the weather forecast (as if that has any validity in Central Florida), make a park reservation, buy our Lightning Lane passes, hit the park for about 4-5 hours, have a nice meal in the park, and then go home. We also time our visit to avoid rush hour.
Disney and Universal parks are so much better when you don't have to stress about getting every last bit of value for your money in a short period of time.
It would be very interesting to know how you theme park fans use your annual passes. How often do you visit each park? How long are your visits? How many different annual passes do you currently own? (Thanks.)
I don't own an annual pass for any major Orlando park, but I do have a pass for Busch gardens Tampa. I visit that once a month or two. I'd rather visit Universal/Disney/SeaWorld once or twice a year and do a small variety of them.
I have annual passes for Disney (sorcerer), Universal (premier), SW/BG (platinum) and Legoland (silver).
I'm retired, so go to the parks 4 or 5 times a week. A couple of times a week I walk Disney, mainly park and resort hopping. Usually I'm there 4/5hrs.
Legoland and BGT I visit 3 or 4 times a year. Riding coasters at BGT and walking around Legoland, especially the old Cypress Gardens area.
Not so much SWO these days, unless I need my Mako 'fix' ... :)
Universal is once or twice a week. Walking between IOA and USF, but riding VC when the line is short, and blasting the villains at VillanCon. I'm usually there 2/3hrs.
To answer Beacher's questions (and provide a bit more context on my perspective), I live in Southern California. Currently, the only pass I have is a Six Flags Platinum Pass, which covers both Knott's Berry Farm and Six Flags Magic Mountain, but I do rotate passes amongst Disneyland, SeaWorld San Diego, and Universal Studios Hollywood as well (generally I'll buy for a year when a major new ride is opening). When I have passes, these are my usual visitation habits...
DLR: This is the closest park to me (typically 30-40 minutes), but I'd still usually only visit once every two or three months unless joining out of area friends. Unless there's a special reason, I do not visit Disneyland if I can't dedicate a full day to visiting. On off years, I usually try to visit once, though since the pandemic I'm been doing a visit every other year instead.
KBF: My "home park," I still typically only visit every two or three months and usually spend 5-6 hours at the park each time. I've found this one increasingly frustrating to visit in recent years, hence why I don't go more often. I've had a pass for this park every year but one since I was in college.
SWSD: This one is about a 70 minute drive for me without traffic, so it's usually about three times a year in the years I have a pass (and rarely, if ever, in other years). Can range anywhere from a half day to a full day depending on what I'm feeling.
SFMM: The furthest from me, this one is theoretically a 90 minute drive but can be up to double that depending on traffic. I've had a pass to this park every year since I got my license and I usually visit at least three times per year, though typically double that the years they open new coasters. Because of the distance, it's pretty much always a full day visit if I'm driving up here.
USH: Ironically, despite being my least favorite of the five, I find myself here about once a month in the years I have a pass just because so many of my friends live in the LA area (it's too expensive to visit in off years). Sometimes I'll go for the full day, but more often it's a half day at the park combined with a half day doing something else in the area. Universal is about the same distance from me as SeaWorld, just in the opposite direction, but traffic getting here tends to be a lot worse.
Personally, the idea of visiting parks on a weekly basis is difficult to fathom as I have a hard enough time making it to a park once a month, but I also treat park visits as a day off rather than part of a normal routine. I tried the "pop in for 2-4 hours when you've got downtime" method for a year or two back when I was in college, and all it did was burn me out on the places. Perhaps it's a central Florida thing, as I've got plenty of theme park friends in the Orlando area that prefer visits of 5 hours or less even when they're traveling to non-local parks.
Giving my own answer to the question I posed, I'll say this: Passes tend to cause me to visit fewer parks each year (both locally and while traveling), but I probably average more park visits than I would if they didn't exist. As said above, I usually only visit two or three of my five local parks each year, but I'm visiting each of those three or four times (if not more), and when I'm traveling I usually try to maximize the number of Six Flags parks on my route to use my benefits. If passes weren't a thing and admission tickets were more reasonable, I'd probably visit each of the five parks every year, but would likely only pay for multiple tickets to those with new attractions or exciting seasonal events, and I'd be more likely to plan trips to parks I haven't visited in a while (or more remote parks I haven't visited period...there are a few) rather than mostly repeating the same destinations.
AJ, you seem to be looking at this from 2 very different points of view with 2 very different motivations. In my view, season passes are a way for parks to generate guaranteed, reliable revenue as well as a predictor of overall interest in their product for the next year. This is pretty valuable data, because passes are essentially a down payment or investment into the park for the upcoming year, and the park can gauge interest and get a pretty reliable check on how much people like what they're selling. From the park's point of view, passes are a hedge that a certain percentage of passholders will not extract "break even" value off their passes to offset the guests who visit many times beyond the break even point. Also, the benefits and bonuses that parks offer on passes help to justify the pass purchase for both sides of the coin. From the guest perspective, the reduced/free parking, in-park discounts, exclusive entrances/spaces, and special events/gifts are often seen as more valuable than their individual prices. Those perks create a feeling of superiority/exclusivity and that passholders are somehow "better" than a typical daily guest, thus making those perks worth far more to the passholder than those perks would cost if they could be purchased individually. Just look at the lines for APs to pick up their car magnets, something that Disney probably wouldn't sell for more than $10 retail, yet APs clamor for them and proudly display them like they're a prized possession plated in 24-karat gold.
From the park's perspective, even if guests are visiting dozens of times, the chances are that they're bringing friends, who typically have to buy tickets, and spending money in the parks. Even with additional in-park discounts given to APs, parks are still scoring huge profits from food and merchandise sales, and I'm sure the parks have data to tell whether the level of discounts are such to actually increase spending or just as a "giveaway" to court more passholders or maintain AP loyalty.
Ultimately, I think APs are valuable for both sides, but are not necessarily a good choice for everyone (including parks). Personally, I think the various tiers of Disney passes create a very confusing and frustrating system that is off-putting and annoying to navigate, and further complicated by an unpredictable reservations system. Perhaps Disney, particularly Disneyland, does this on purpose as a way to create artificial barriers for guests who might buy APs because of the value, but don't want to deal with all the extra red tape. From a guest perspective, an AP, regardless of the park, is a bet on yourself and your ability to at a minimum reach that "break even" point by making a certain number of visits. This is where I think Six Flags has gone completely off the rails by offering passes where guests break even after a second or sometimes 3rd visit - compounded by their crazy all-season dining plan that does work to extended visits, but has created a clear decline in food quality across the chain (prior to the CF merger).