At Walt Disney World, Disney is introducing "Silver," "Gold," "Platinum" and "Platinum Plus" passes, replacing the old Florida Seasonal, Annual, Premium and Premium Plus Annual Passes.
The Silver Pass sells for $414.29. The Gold Pass sells for $584.69 and includes admission to all WDW parks, with several blockout dates. The Platinum Pass sells for $797.69 and is good every day of the year, and now throws in Photopass downloads. The Platinum Plus Pass is $882.89 and adds the water parks and ESPN Wide World of Sports admissions and Oak Trail gold course greens fees. Discounts for renewals and for Florida residents remain available.
The Gold Pass is blocked out from Dec. 17- Jan. 1, Mar. 19 - Apr. 1, then Dec. 16 - Jan. 2 of 2017. The Silver Pass is blocked out for those dates, as well as for June 6 - Aug. 11.
Previously, Florida Resident Seasonal Annual Passes (closest to the new Silver AP) sold for $350.39 and Annual Passes (roughly the equivalent of the new Platinum Pass) sold for $696.51.
In addition, the cost of parking at the Walt Disney World Resort is now up to $20 per vehicle per day, up from $17.
At Disneyland, the Disney will no longer sell Premium Annual Passes, while adding Signature and Signature Plus levels. The SoCal Select Pass increases from $299 to $329. The Deluxe Pass increases from $549 from $599.
The new Signature AP costs $849, an increase from the $779 for the old Premium Pass, however the Signature Pass will be blocked out for two weeks over the Christmas holidays. The Signature Plus Pass will have no blockout dates, and costs $1,049. The two Disneyland Signature passes also now will include Photopass downloads, as well.
Parking is up $1, to $18, at the Disneyland Resort.
The two-resort Premier Pass, which includes both WDW and Disneyland, now sells for $1,439, an increase from $1,099.
The changes in names, tiers, and benefits help obscure what is the largest percentage increase in annual pass prices in recent Disneyland history. If you discount the value of the Photopass downloads, the prices of a no-blockout Disneyland AP is rising from $779 to $1,049 — a 35%, $270 increase. And keep in mind that Disneyland will be reducing the number of attractions available to guests next year, with Fantasmic!, the Disneyland Railroad and all of the Rivers of America attractions closed for 2016.
The addition of the Signature and Gold passes at Disneyland and Walt Disney World, respectively, appear to be an attempt by Disney to entice annual passholders who do not want to pay a large price increase to accept new blockout dates during the parks' busiest period instead. The two weeks around Christmas and New Year's are the most crowded at both the Disneyland and Walt Disney World Resorts, with parks sometimes having to close their gates to new guests during that period.
Local residents will continue to be able to pay for their annual passes with monthly payments, instead of having to come up with all the money upfront, a payment scheme that has allowed Disneyland especially to increase substantially the number of annual passholders to its parks.
If you are wondering about day tickets to the parks, insiders report that the price of one- and multi-day tickets to the resorts are expected to increase in November.
Previously:
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The FL Weekday Select Pass is still available for $275.84.
The biggest change is that all the new Florida passes will now include parking at the theme parks. That includes Silver, Weekday Select, and Epcot After 4. That's an overwhelmingly positive for lower-level passholders.
"Plus Tax" ??? I thought Disney fought against admission taxes. Explain someone.
But after researching, I think it will cost me about $3 more a month.
Old MONTHLY prices for a family of 4 = $97.19ish. This is for 3 FL seasonal and 1 FL annual.
New MONTHLY prices for a family of 4 = $100.80ish. This is for 4 silver passes.
(of course these prices are after a $112 per person downpayment.)
So yes $60 more a year to go from FL resident seasonal to silver. But now we can get all silvers as FREE PARKING.
All you FL seasonal pass folks, please let me know if I have this wrong!
The reality is that Disneyland is a luxury and is only going to increase in price as time goes on, so you just have to decide what it is worth. For me, I'd say the Deluxe Pass is what I'd consider a fair price, and unless I was certain I would be visiting on several of the blockout days the benefit of a higher level pass would be negligible. Typically, I visit once every 5-7 weeks (aka 7-10 visits per year), so parking is not necessary for me either. For some, however, the benefits of the new Signature Passes will be worth the cost, so I'm glad that Disney is offering something for those who want them. I'm also glad the lower tiers are remaining intact to offer an affordable option to those who can work with the restrictions, although phasing those out will probably be necessary prior to the opening of Star Wars Land.
If the new prices are too high, just downgrade. It always annoys me that a lot of the Disneyland fans (not necessarily here, but definitely on other sites) seem to have this mentality that if they can't afford the top tier pass it isn't worth visiting at all. News Flash: If you've got a Premium Pass, you can still afford a Deluxe no problem, and unless you typically visit during holiday periods or summer Saturdays, or you visit more than once a month, that pass has everything you need.
This past year was the first that I had an annual pass (So Cal Select) and ended up going 4 times total since I like to not go too often and lose some of the magic. Overall I felt I received a good value with the AP but did always have to take a day off from work to go. Personally, I prefer to go to the park when it's not that busy. A few years ago I went to Disneyland the week between Christmas and New Years and it was the only time I had a bad experience. The park stopped letting people in by 10am and the most popular rides had waits between 2 and 3 hours.
After that experience I try my best to avoid the busy days so have never really been interested in the Premium pass. When I upgraded yesterday I thought about what would be the best pass for me and was pleasantly surprised when the regular SoCal Pass was available when I renewed. I had always thought you could only renew this pass if you already had it. Now I'll be able to go most weekdays and Sundays. The times that are blacked out I wouldn't really want to go to anyway. I just went this past Wednesday and while not empty by any means, was able to go in 12 rides in about 9 hours and enjoyed a lunch at Carthay Circle followed by World of Color.
I do think that Disney could handle these things better though by notifying their customers ahead of time about the price change so that they can renew before the price increase. I also do agree that it's strange to increase prices when Disneyland is about to go under construction and lose part of the park but as others have stated this seems more about crowd control vs. increasing revenue from AP's. I will be interesting to see how Disney reacts next Spring when Harry Potter opens at Universal. I wouldn't be surprised if they hold these prices for a while until Star Wars opens in a few years.
The sensible thing to do is to vote with your wallets, it is expected by Disney, and prices will continue to rise until attendances drop. The good news is that less people at Disney, the more (theoretically) will attend smaller / more regional parks, which hopefully will lead to more investment due to the increased revenue. So parks like Knotts Berry, Sea World, Legoland can hopefully offer better attractions and be more competitive.
Disney, with the increased revenue should try to increase the supply they can offer. Even though they are developing new attractions, they should open new gates on each coast.
Huh. I knew about the whole supply-and-demand thing, but I never really thought about it that way.
I'll never go back to paying $18 to park in those concrete wastelands after living the good life. Plus you can buy better quality food and drinks for less money. The hotel lots have trees to park under and if you are slick you can swim or relax in the hot tub.
One another note that hasn't been reported here yet that I read on another site is that Disney added some additional dates for AP's. SoCal Select added 5 new days for 175 total, SoCal went from 215 to 229 days, and Deluxe added 5 days to 320 days.
I do feel like Disney is in a tough spot since there are peak days when the park is way to packed and just not fun. Worst yet are the days when they have go over capacity and have to stop letting people into the park. I can't imagine a family traveling to Disney and being told they can't enter. Clearly during the Christmas time the park just can't hold the amount of visitors currently coming and something had to be done.
No matter what they did it was going to upset people but as others have said, after every price increase everyone complains but it hasn't slowed down the amount coming into the park. I still have no idea why they put Star Wars land into Disneyland. From the moment they announced it I've wondered how can a park, already overcrowded on many peak days, handle a major addition that will spike traffic even more. Would much rather have seen it added to DCA to more evenly spread out visitors. I'm still hoping before the opening of Star Wars that Disney has something up it sleeves for DCA to draw interest to that side of the park.
Is it be possible that these price increases are partly to cover the increased pay rate for their Cast Members? I say partly, because clearly some of you guys think it's purely greed.
I'm of the opinion that Disney sees no real down side to raising the prices. Sure, they are alienating some fans, but it's all just hot air. "If Politician X wins the election, I'm moving to Canada".
Those fans will be back. They might hate paying the higher prices, but they'll pay them all the same. A small number will stick to their word, but mostly, they'll return because it's Disney and they love Disney.
Disney will keep raising their prices and reconfiguring blockouts until they find the right balance. There's nothing wrong with that. It's a smart business decision, and I'd do the same.
I'm not sure how it will affect me, personally. I'll need to think about if if/when I move back to the U.S, and depending on how close I am to either DLR or WDW.
1. Increase prices (more per guest margin, fewer guests)
2. Targeted pricing (higher pricing for peak periods)
3. Expand offerings (more parks or more alternate attractions)
These changes address options 1 and 2. Annual passes have the lowest per visit revenue. The increases are higher for their 4 busiest weeks per year in Christmas and Spring Break.
A lot of their investments recently have been infrastructure behind the scenes to address guest growth. Investing inside the park, such as Star Wars and Fantasyland is there to maintain customers after the next slowdown (2001, 2008).
There is space for 1 more park based on the Reedy Creek 2020 plan. A lot of the remaining property is regulated out of use. I suspect a new park is a few years out. Just because the market is hot doesn't mean it will stay hot.
You do realize that all your arguements sound the same, right? They sound so similar, in fact, that I swear they're all written by the same person. "I've been a loyal Disney fan for X number of years and these price increases are too much! Disney doesn't care about us! If you need me, I'll be at Universal!"
Ok, first off, this isn't anything new. Every time Disney announces a new business decision, you're gonna have someone who's pissed off.
Second, say you actually stand by your word and spend all your time and money at another park. So what? No one ever said you have to go to Disney every single year! If you honestly would enjoy a trip to Universal or Six Flags more than a trip to Disney, than go to Universal or Six Flags!
Moreover, if you really wanna stick it to the Mouse, than saying that you're not gonna visit Disney anymore isn't gonna cut it. You're just a small fraction of their visitors. If you really wanna make a statement, then start a petition or something and try to get a thousand people to say that they won't go back unless the prices drop. Otherwise, they're not gonna listen.
And lastly, the situation is probably not as bad as you think it is. If Disney was really alienating itself from it's "loyal fans," than their attendance numbers wouldn't be this high. "Oh, but that's because people actually take the time to save up their money." Exactly my point! The fact that people can still work up the money to go to Disney proves that they're still affordable. Maybe Disney is doing this out of greed, but they're smart enough to know not to charge this much if people really can't afford it.
They seem to have taken the opposite approach, believing they can snatch more money if they don't over-saturate their product. Anyone who ever thought Disney - sorry, but even Walt IMO - didn't value profits above all else, was mistaken.
I'm in Florida so I can't speak for California, but every year I wait for the announcement that the Annual Pass will be removed all together. It would suck to not be able to go whenever I wantded (in theory) to the Magic Kingdom, but I bet we'd still go at some point. I also wonder how sweet that visit will be...
Chin up! We keep moving forward.
Disney should of keep the prices at Disneyland the same until the day Star Wars opens. Keep raising the prices of food, parking, hotels, you name it, but don't charge people more to experience less. Maybe this will be the last increase until Star Wars opens, but I doubt it. Ideally they would only raise prices every two or 3 years, but until more people say enough is enough, it will only continue to rise every time we blink. I love Disney, but I really think think they have decided to take advantage of us. And the only reason they can do it is because we keep letting them.
Disney has themselves a great business going on and in this country they have every right to make as much money as they can!
Disney does not care about all of you going to the parks 15 times a year. Disney created overcrowding with the AP program and now they are looking to "fix" the problem without taking away the program all together.
"Happiest Place on Earth".. who came up with that nonsense.. Look at the people who work there.. Miserable.. which passes down to the consumer.
Now I also venture to Universal, Busch Gardens, and a few other parks..
You don't have as much attitude there..
I am not griping about price.. more the experience!!!
Did you ever try to leave the park during The Electric light Parade.. you cannot see, as they shut down the lights, WDW have their staff out with flashlights..
I wonder if the Disney employees & theme park goers are happy in China, Japan, and Europe?
If they get their share of The Disney Experience? I suggest they start interviewing people as they leave the park. give them a lollypop for their reviews, at least they can leave with something sweet.
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