Walt Disney World Annual Pass Discount Change

18 thoughts on “Walt Disney World Annual Pass Discount Change”

• We just got here & bought my 3 yr old a $67 Mac the truck with cars (no comments about spoiling my child) and whipped out my premier pass and only got the 10%, so it does not matter if you have owned your pass prior to Jan 1. This is classic bait & switch. I can expect this from a sleezy sub-contractor, but not from Disney!

• I really hope they change this back. We pay a butt load for the premier passport and really did it for the discount. We were considering going to DL and I could have stuck with my regular annual pass and just paid for DL tix. The price is a wash. The only price differential for us is the extra % off on merchandise. Seriously, makes me quite mad.

• I’ve heard others make the argument that Disney does not care about their passholders, I’m not inclined to agree. I don’t understand how you can cut one benefit, not replace it and still raise prices. The annual passholder events are more and more rare and we still don’t know how the new fast pass system will impact the passholders. A free screening of John Carter? Really? The new Fanstasy Land preview was nice, but it was still pretty crowded and it was already in the soft opening phase. I’ve had a premium pass since 2006, but this has forced me to reconsider.

  • Autocorrect again bested me. Here’s what I meant to say:
    I’ve heard others make the argument that Disney does not care about their passholders, I’m now inclined to agree. I don’t understand how you can cut one benefit, not replace it and still raise prices. The annual passholder events are more and more rare and we still don’t know how the new fast pass system will impact the passholders. A free screening of John Carter? Really? The new Fanstasy Land preview was nice, but it was still pretty crowded and it was already in the soft opening phase. I’ve had a premium pass since 2006, but this has forced me to reconsider.

• I’m disgusted and my husband and I decided we just won’t buy like we used to. Normally, every time we go to a park, we always leave with a bag of something. We live in Florida, but try to make a pilgrimage to Disneyland once a year, and will save our merchandise shopping for there since they still give the 20% discount. Disneyland treats their annual passholders so much better than WDW, even giving a discount at ALL restaurants, counter as well as table service.

• This is just one more “slap to the face” for locals and annual pass holders to show us that they don’t value us and could care less about people who are in the parks bi weekly/bi monthly or even bi yearly. They feel they make more money on first time visitors then people who live here or come often. It’s frustrating.

• I wonder if maybe this is to help offset the losses incurred by offering DVC members a Premium Annual Pass for such a heavily reduced price? With the limited-time discount, my Premium AP cost me less than a 10-day Park Hopper!
  Perhaps so many people took advantage of this offer, the merchandising end started to worry about their potential loss in earnings, by having so many return visitors suddenly paying 10% less on merch.

• Oh, I didn’t know about this change. That’s kind of a bummer, but it still won’t stop us from going and buying a few souvenirs to remember the trip.

• Is this on newly-purchased passports, or will this change for current passport holders? Doesn’t seem like they should be able to change the terms for those of us who already have our passports…?

• Terrible. Am really concerned now about the other shoe dropping in Disneyland, too.

• To me, the percentage is not my primary issue with the passholder program. I have the Premier Passport and have found compared with Disneyland, I hardly ever received a discount at WDW. The past couple of years, WDW has never had availability in the passholder rate code for guest rooms whenever I attempted to book one, even though I am never there in super-peak periods. It almost never worked inside the park and they would look at me like I had two heads for even asking. At WDW, it only worked at a few places at Downtown Disney, whereas at Disneyland, every time I had a meal or a snack, or bought something even as small as a pin, they were giving me discounts. The percentage varied from place to place, but I felt appreciated for my business. I’d rather get 10% than asking and being told there is no passholder discount. I particularly appreciate the discount on counter service meals at Disneyland. It’s just a couple of dollars, but it reminds me multiple times a day that I am valued as a passholder. At WDW, the way the passholder program works (and doesn’t work) makes me feel more like they think of me as a cheapskate.

  • I’ve used the AP discount for everything I’ve bought in WDW for the last 3 years and have never been denied. The only problem I’ve had was that they often gave me a 10% discount instead of the 20% discount but they always changed it when I pointed it out. I’ve never been stared at or received confused looks. I’m sure I’ve made over 50 purchases with an AP.

  • Passholder room discounts at WDW are available almost every day of the year, but discounts aren’t necessary great, and they are not necessarily for the resorts and room types I’d prefer. For example, I often see room discounts on “preferred” value rooms when I want a standard one. That’s disappointing, but it doesn’t mean that discounts are not available at all.

    Disneyland discounts are, of course, a lot better. There are lots of food venues that offer discounts, whereas at Disney World Passholder dining discounts are pretty limited in terms of venues and times.

    Disney World has gotten better in recent years. The widespread Passholder discount (10% for standard, 20% for Premium/Premiere) on merchandise at WDW is a relatively new thing (2-3 years, maybe?). I seemed to emerge as the recession kicked in. Prior to that, I could only get a discount at World of Disney, which was a pain. Now, I can get a discount at almost any Disney-owned merchandise store. This includes some venues that offer food (like Writer’s Stop and Sweet Spells at Hollywood Studios).

    Of course, I’d love a 20% discount over a 10% one, and I’d prefer discounts at more places rather than fewer. But things are better now (and still will be after January 1) than when I got my first WDW annual pass.

• For those who wish to notify Disney of your complaint over this matter please email them at wdw.guest.communications@disneyworld.com! The more of us email them on this matter the more we can make a difference!!

  • While emailing Disney is great, if you do have a really big problem with something that they do, I have always found that mailing them an actual letter gets heard with more weight than an email (since it takes more time to send an actual letter, rather than fire off an email). If you would really like to notify Disney of your displeasure about this issue, please send a letter to:

    Walt Disney World Guest Communications
    PO Box 10040
    Lake Buena Vista, FL 32830-0040

• The merchandise is SO ridiculously overpriced to begin with – this is a complete slap in the face. Even when they were giving AP holders a 20% “discount,” the margin on merchandise was huge. Now the margin will be extra greedy super-sized. The Disney Cruise for FL residents continues to prove to be the better deal.

• I agree with the last post, that was one of the main things I used to help justify the $800 price tag.

• This angers me a lot!! How do I make a complaint about this matter? The 20% discount is one of the things that drew me into getting a premium annual pass!

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