It's been interesting reading this thread and seeing the differences of opinions on who spends more: tourists or APs.
Both sides are calling the other side "entitled". Fun stuff!
We live out of state so have sometimes gone once per year or every 2 to 3 years on 5-day Parkhoppers. We've also had Annual Passes 3 or 4 times over the past 20 years (including starting in January 2020....). Obviously tourists are paying more per day for
Disneyland access than anyone with an AP, otherwise the AP holder would have just bought Parkhoppers. So tourists clearly have an argument for being more valuable to Disney for entrance cost. But who pays more overall on everything in a year? Depends on the individual person's spending habits once inside the park. Wouldn't surprise me if many APs pay way more in a year, and also wouldn't surprise me if many APs pay way less in a year than a "tourist". But either way, on a per-person cost the crowded feel, I'd imagine, is due to the large number of APs. And Disney wants/wanted it that way so APs clearly win that argument: Disneyland wants APs.
With limited access in 2021 once the Park opens, makes more sense to me to make sure those clicks through the turnstiles are the higher-paying entrance costs a tourist pays. I'm betting Disney thinks people will spend big inside the Park for the days they are there since there will be so much to catch up on, eat, buy etc and fewer days in-Park to spread those costs over. So, my completely uneducated guess is that Disney is hoping for the best of both the AP and Tourist world: high per-day entrance cost and high per-day spending once those people are in. Makes great sense to me for 2021.
I'm super curious to see what the new "membership" plans are when those come out. I've always been jealous of those who live close enough to Disneyland to bring their cost-per-day entrance down into the $20 or lower range, sometimes much, much lower. So, as a mostly out-of-town tourist, I do feel cheated when I pay a large cost per day to enter only to find it way crowded so my cost per ride goes way, way up. When we are AP holders, we enjoy it more even if it is crowded because we know we are coming back in 2-3 months so we enjoy the "experience" and don't have to crank out the rides. Disneyland just isn't as fun to us if we pay a ton then fight crowds all day. And for a family where that might be their once-in-a-lifetime trip, must be discouraging.
Well, I've rambled. But at this point I am very, very excited the AP program is going away as we know it, even though we've taken advantage of it in the past and even though our vacation plans for the 10 months (time left on our APs) after Disneyland reopens have to be revised. The thought of a less crowded park is very interesting. Man I wish we could see the spreadsheet/model the accountants/marketers/managers at Disneyland have to analyze maximizing revenue via tourists and APs. I could geek out over it for days.
