Annual Passes returning?

[Leigh123]

Now that the Disneyland has opened up some of their annual passes, do we think Disney World will soon? My current annual passes expire on September 10 (our trip ends in the 8th). I am hesitant to renew because in the past I have always let it lapse between September and April. I always buy a new one in April and that gets us through three trips of more than a week long. If I renew now, those passes will be llaying dormant from September to April. Just hate to take the chance of them not selling them again. Anyone have any inside scoop?

 

[jade1]

No idea, but I (not saying you should) would take the renewal discount and burn the 6 months.

Then again, I would then sneak in a trip in the winter, but that's just me.

I just know too many folks kicking themselves currently.

 

[lanejudy]

Will your 3 future trips be covered if you renew now? Or is 1 (or more) later than 9/8/2023? If you always travel in the summer and those trips for 2023 will be covered, I'd go ahead and renew. There's no guarantee APs will come back anytime soon. People have been speculating about that for months now.

 

[Marionnette]

Now that the Disneyland has opened up some of their annual passes, do we think Disney World will soon? My current annual passes expire on September 10 (our trip ends in the 8th). I am hesitant to renew because in the past I have always let it lapse between September and April. I always buy a new one in April and that gets us through three trips of more than a week long. If I renew now, those passes will be llaying dormant from September to April. Just hate to take the chance of them not selling them again. Anyone have any inside scoop?

It's important to note that DLR only opened renewals. They will not be selling new APs. At least not yet. They did away with the Dream Key, which had no blockout dates, and added a new pass that has limited blockouts at Christmas time.

I'm hopeful for WDW AP sales to restart soon but the fact that they are not selling new APs at DLR kind of hints at them limiting the total number of APs there. Once they get a feeling for how many will renew, they may open up to new purchases.

OTOH, WDW has been permitting renewals all along so who knows whether this is a sign for East Coaster.

 

[scrappinginontario]

Nothing has been announced for WDW at this time. Any thoughts are pure speculation at this time.

WDW and DL function differently from one another so what happens at one park does not indicate it will happen at the other. (E.g. The Genie+ changes re:’stacking’ announced last week at WDW has not been changed at DL.)

 

[Disneylover99]

Now that the Disneyland has opened up some of their annual passes, do we think Disney World will soon? My current annual passes expire on September 10 (our trip ends in the 8th). I am hesitant to renew because in the past I have always let it lapse between September and April. I always buy a new one in April and that gets us through three trips of more than a week long. If I renew now, those passes will be llaying dormant from September to April. Just hate to take the chance of them not selling them again. Anyone have any inside scoop?

I’d do the renewal. If they do come back, I’m sure we’re in for some sticker shock.

 

[Anal Annie]

Now that the Disneyland has opened up some of their annual passes, do we think Disney World will soon? My current annual passes expire on September 10 (our trip ends in the 8th). I am hesitant to renew because in the past I have always let it lapse between September and April. I always buy a new one in April and that gets us through three trips of more than a week long. If I renew now, those passes will be llaying dormant from September to April. Just hate to take the chance of them not selling them again. Anyone have any inside scoop?

I don't think we can count on anything anymore from Disney. We're in a similar-ish situation where our trip ends Sept. 24 and ours expire on Sept. 25th. We always used to wait to buy new ones too when our next trip was months & months away. We're planning on going to Aulani in the spring and aren't sure WHAT our WDW plans will be for next year but I'm actually renewing ours today because I'm afraid there will be a price increase soon. I definitely think if they DO bring back new sales for awhile like they did last fall they'll increase prices again first. If you price out daily / weekly park tix they're SOOO expensive anymore the renewal price on the Sorcerers pass pays for itself pretty quickly. We may end up doing a couple of long weekend type trips next year (depending on resort availabilty and flight prices) given that we're doing our big vaca in the spring as we usually go to F&W in the fall. I had the photopass option added to mine and I'm renewing without it for the time being. We can add that again at the parks next year if / when we go. We just don't want to let go of the AP with the uncertainty of their sales being stopped for new ones.

 

[Anal Annie]

Nothing has been announced for WDW at this time. Any thoughts are pure speculation at this time.

WDW and DL function differently from one another so what happens at one park does not indicate it will happen at the other. (E.g. The Genie+ changes re:’stacking’ announced last week at WDW has not been changed at DL.)

Wait - I missed something on the "stacking". What's changing with the Genie+ now??

 

[Leigh123]

Thanks for all the replies. I think I better just bite the bullet and renew. Disney needs to wake up, these AP keep me coming back spending over 10k a year ( we do three day trips an stay deluxe). Even a day visitor is spending money on food and mercy.

 

[rdaky]

Thanks for all the replies. I think I better just bite the bullet and renew. Disney needs to wake up, these AP keep me coming back spending over 10k a year ( we do three day trips an stay deluxe). Even a day visitor is spending money on food and mercy.

I think you should just renew, too. No one knows except the very specific people who make those decisions at Disney, and I'm sure their jobs are on the line if that information is leaked at this point. Anything else is speculation. I think Disney knows what they are doing and not having all of the APs is not hurting them right now. The parks are busy, the resorts are busy, lots of first timers who are going all out and staying at the deluxe resorts, the expensive dining, the lightning lanes. I've heard that Bibbidi is booked for 2 months solid with its reopening. Once in a lifetime visitors are spending the cash. I think until that unless that changes, Disney isn't going to feel the need to open up annual passes.

 

[lovethattink]

I moved this over the the TP Community because at the moment, anything about new WDW AP would be speculation.

Here’s my observations. Every day available to Sorcerer’s pass shows green. Occasionally but not very often, bonus days show up.

I just made my Labor Day Weekend park reservations and all parks were available last night when I made them.

To me, those are good signs pointing towards eventual new passes. If we see bonus days more frequently, that would also be a good sign that they aren’t getting the attendance they want.

 

[glocon]

I’ve never had an AP, but if I did right now, I would surely renew.

It may be one year that you don’t get as much use from it as usual, or it may be that you take trips at different times than you normally do, but you are assured an AP where others without one are not.

Things in the world are always changing just as they are at WDW, and you may have to change how you vacation because of that… but the uncertainty of everything that WDW is doing now would make me want to renew so as not to miss out.

And also it would depend on if there were the funds to cover the cost of course.

 

[Mrs.AMC]

One other thing to consider,
While no one knows for certain when it will happen, we do know Tron is going to open sooner rather than later
It's probable to be later this year, sometime between that Sept to April time frame is fairly probable.
If you'd be inclined to want to come to an AP preview then that's another reason to keep that AP active
Between that and the likelihood of not being able to repurchase, I would not let mine lapse

 

[Mrs.AMC]

Wait - I missed something on the "stacking". What's changing with the Genie+ now??

Something to do with the hopping time
It's complicated to type out but basically, you can't book the 2PM slots until all the earlier slots are booked already.
It's almost a moot rule since most of the rides that it really matters with book up quicker and are booking 2PM and later slots pretty early in the day anyway. But I'm sure it's been a factor here and there.

 

[Richie248]

I don't see AP's coming back and eventually all AP's will be phased out. With all this talk of an Amazon Prime like program, I can see Disney replacing AP's with a loyalty based program. Much like casinos....the more you spend....the more perks you get. Just a thought so don't take this as insider info. Such a shift will continue to give more clout to those with money.

 

[tommygunn]

My friend I would renew your pass in a New York minute. Based upon the latest comments from this tightwad

https://insidethemagic.net/2022/09/disney-bob-chapek-gives-unpopular-comments-superfans-ab1d23/

AP holders are going to have to bend over soon. If I had to guess an announcement is forthcoming that increase AP prices by 50% and adds all kinds of restrictions including total days per year.

 

[gharter]

It really depends on how often you go. We had AP's for years and went twice a year and the AP was the obvious choice. For a host of reasons, we are now only going for 1 week a year. To renew our AP is over $100 more than the same number of days for park hoppers. But, if we don't renew, not sure we will have a chance to get APs anytime in the future.