Disney increases prices for Annual Passports

It's that time of the year, time for the annual increase of Annual Passes for both Disneyland and Walt Disney World. This year there are definitely some major restructures to Annual Passes in an obvious attempt to cut down the extreme overcrowding of the west coast parks which are busy pretty much every day of the year. 

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Written by Gregg Condon

We'll start off with Disneyland

The biggest news, NO MORE PREMIUM PASS. In order to get no Blackout Days you will have to get the all new "Disney Signature Plus Passport". 

Current Premium Annual Passholders will also not have the option to renew their pass once it expires, but it is good until it expires. See the pricing breakdown below: 

The two passes valid for Disneyland that are essentially replacing the "Premium" pass. 

The only two passes valid for "Disneyland Only". 

Obviously people are going to not like this very much. There are a LOT of Premium Annual Passholders. Disney created this problem, they are trying to fix it, we'll have to see how it works out. 

Full disclosure, we were Premium Annual Passholders from 1998 to about 2012 (our first AP cost $199). We haven't had passes since early 2013 simply because we weren't getting our money's worth due to distance to the park, etc. So now we make about 1 visit a year. 

For those infrequent visitors such as us, this is a GOOD thing. It gives us a chance to visit the park when it might not be crammed with Annual Passholders. 

For passholders who like to go bi-weekly, weekly or even daily, this is obviously going to be a bad thing. This is going to cause a lot of people to drop down to the Deluxe or, as Disney probably hopes, reduce the number of AP's to a manageable number. 

For those going for a day or 2 or on vacation, we stress to check the Deluxe Annual Passholder blackout days, because those days will be even busier. 

Obviously it's going to take at least a year for these changes to really start showing their impacts. It will be interesting to see what happens for sure. 

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Next, let's take a look at Walt Disney World. To say that WDW has far less Annual Passholders would be a gross understatement, but they did make some changes nonetheless. 

Interestingly enough, if you look at the Florida Passes, the Disneyland/WDW pass isn't even listed. It's not as big of a deal in FL as it is in CA. 

So what do you think of the AP increases. Let us know below. For/Against? Why? 

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