flynnibus returns to DLR - thoughts and experience

[chadwpalm]

Perhaps it just me. The bottle drinks inside the parks are 6 dollars after tax. No thank you. I am not supporting that price gouging.

That's why I bring one of these:

It's got its own filter, so I can fill it anywhere and not just the bottle filling stations. They tend to have long lines on a hot day.

 

[mickEblu]

Food prices are ridiculous. I do NOT buy bottle drinks inside the parks. Only sit down I would dare and tolerate a soda. Otherwise I am going BACK to my car to get my free water bottles.

I change it up by buying outside of Disneyland resort to get better prices and good meal by supporting small businesses around the area.

Yeah I don’t let them get me on drinks either. They sure do get me about everywhere else though. We bring water bottles and refill them at Plaza Inn/ Alien Pizza Planet / Paradise Gardens all day. Which are the same spots we’ll grab a soda here n there with some refills.

 

[truecoat]

Perhaps it just me. The bottle drinks inside the parks are 6 dollars after tax. No thank you. I am not supporting that price gouging.

Have you been to the movies lately?

 

[DLR92]

Have you been to the movies lately?

I haven’t gone on spanning decades!

 

[PiratesMansion]

Food and drink is expensive everywhere now. Regular restaurants, the grocery store, you name it.

This summer, I did a five week long road trip from IL to Santa Barbara and back. It didn't matter where I was, whether I was in Santa Barbara or middle of nowhere, Kansas; food was exorbitantly priced everywhere. Disneyland prices didn't seem all that shocking after several weeks of buying food on the road.

I'm not going to suggest that Disneyland food prices are a bargain, or that everything is perfect. I'm not going to pretend I haven't noticed some portion shrinkage here and there. But honestly, counter service prices aren't that much worse than, say, your average fast food restaurant right now.

And just about every other theme or amusement park out there is going to offer higher prices and MUCH worse variety than Disneyland. You're certainly not going to find better at SeaWorld, Knott's, Six Flags, or Universal.

So if people don't want to buy food at the parks, I suppose that's their prerogative, but if they truly believe that Disneyland food is the worst value around, I might suggest they haven't looked closely at food prices at lots of other places any time recently.

 

[mickEblu]

Food and drink is expensive everywhere now. Regular restaurants, the grocery store, you name it.

I did a five week long road trip from IL to Santa Barbara and back. It didn't matter where I was, whether I was in Santa Barbara or middle of nowhere, Kansas; food was exorbitantly priced everywhere. Disneyland prices didn't seem all that shocking after several weeks of buying food on the road.

I'm not going to suggest that Disneyland food prices are a bargain, or that everything is perfect. I'm not going to pretend I haven't noticed some portion shrinkage here and there. But honestly, counter service prices aren't that much worse than, say, your average fast food restaurant right now.

And just about every other theme or amusement park out there is going to offer higher prices and MUCH worse variety than Disneyland. You're certainly not going to find better at SeaWorld, Knott's, Six Flags, or Universal.

So if people don't want to buy food at the parks, I suppose that's their prerogative, but if they truly believe that Disneyland food is the worst value around, I might suggest they haven't looked closely at food prices at lots of other places any time recently.

As someone who recently ordered the worst slice of $20 pizza I ever had in my life from Hurricane Harbor this past summer I second this notion. Ok it did come with a bag of chips but my God, was it awful.

 

[Parteecia]

Food and drink is expensive everywhere now. Regular restaurants, the grocery store, you name it.

This summer, I did a five week long road trip from IL to Santa Barbara and back. It didn't matter where I was, whether I was in Santa Barbara or middle of nowhere, Kansas; food was exorbitantly priced everywhere. Disneyland prices didn't seem all that shocking after several weeks of buying food on the road.

I'm not going to suggest that Disneyland food prices are a bargain, or that everything is perfect. I'm not going to pretend I haven't noticed some portion shrinkage here and there. But honestly, counter service prices aren't that much worse than, say, your average fast food restaurant right now.

And just about every other theme or amusement park out there is going to offer higher prices and MUCH worse variety than Disneyland. You're certainly not going to find better at SeaWorld, Knott's, Six Flags, or Universal.

So if people don't want to buy food at the parks, I suppose that's their prerogative, but if they truly believe that Disneyland food is the worst value around, I might suggest they haven't looked closely at food prices at lots of other places any time recently.

1. I eat a lot of salads. The meal sized ones at Plaza Inn (Cobb) and Boardwalk (Wedge) are far more reasonable than the average diner or even takeaway.

2. Back in the '70s when I worked in Foods we were told that they would be increasing prices because in their last survey the outside world had caught up. Same as it ever was.

 

[Parteecia]

As someone who recently ordered the worst slice of $20 pizza I ever had in my life from Hurricane Harbor this past summer I second this notion. Ok it did come with a bag of chips but my God, was it awful.

Pizza and chips??

 

[flynnibus]

So if people don't want to buy food at the parks, I suppose that's their prerogative, but if they truly believe that Disneyland food is the worst value around, I might suggest they haven't looked closely at food prices at lots of other places any time recently.

The argument that 'there are worse out there' isn't a argument for 'worth' - It's a discussion on 'who is more obscene'. It's not justification, it's what people will tolerate before breaking.

I was just at a NFL game yesterday, one of the venues where you historically get raked over the coals because concessions are a HUGE part of the model.. yet, I had a $3.99 coke.. $5 beers.. $3.50 hot dog... That's CHEAP compared to Disneyland.

The whole comparing to other worse offenders is just a self-serving argument. Prices rise because of price tolerance.. and relative comparisons is a huge part of that psychology. It's why theme parks that do nothing alike, somehow have prices strikingly similar.

Disneyland charges worse than your airport convenience store.. which is another example of the worst fleecers.

Disney's prices are what they are because they can get away with the fleecing. There is nothing to justify it. I mean, it's a completely vertically integrated market with huge economies of scale. All that means they have some of the LOWEST COSTS... yet they have the highest prices. And yet they charge $16 for chicken tenders and fries.. nearly $20 for a brisket sandwich. You can goto the top venues in a major metro like Dallas where said meats are legendary and pay way less.. and it's not the quick prep stuff you find in a theme park.

No - Disney's food prices are absurd. The only justification is people are willing to pay it....

 

[mickEblu]

Pizza and chips??

One slice of bootleg Costco pizza and a bag of lays.

 

[mickEblu]

Food and drink is expensive everywhere now. Regular restaurants, the grocery store, you name it.

This summer, I did a five week long road trip from IL to Santa Barbara and back. It didn't matter where I was, whether I was in Santa Barbara or middle of nowhere, Kansas; food was exorbitantly priced everywhere. Disneyland prices didn't seem all that shocking after several weeks of buying food on the road.

I'm not going to suggest that Disneyland food prices are a bargain, or that everything is perfect. I'm not going to pretend I haven't noticed some portion shrinkage here and there. But honestly, counter service prices aren't that much worse than, say, your average fast food restaurant right now.

And just about every other theme or amusement park out there is going to offer higher prices and MUCH worse variety than Disneyland. You're certainly not going to find better at SeaWorld, Knott's, Six Flags, or Universal.

So if people don't want to buy food at the parks, I suppose that's their prerogative, but if they truly believe that Disneyland food is the worst value around, I might suggest they haven't looked closely at food prices at lots of other places any time recently.

But I do find some of their moves to be in poor form. Like seemingly overnight not only raising the price of burritos at Rancho Del Zocalo but then replacing the rice and beans with chips. You have to pay another $6 bucks or so now for rice and beans. It’s friggin rice n beans. How much cheaper does it get? Just raise the price of the burrito a little bit.

 

[Vegas Disney Fan]

LL, tiered pricing, blackout dates, and reservations have eliminated “slow” days at DL, the main difference we notice between a 2 day and a 6 day on touring plans now will be how crowded the paths are, DL has become experts at staffing just enough CMs to maintain 20-30 minute lines on the lessor rides and 45+ for the bigger rides on even the slowest days.

I can’t tell you how many times we’ve gone on “slow” days where there’s a 45 minute wait on Big Thunder and they’re only running half the trains, or there’s a 30 minute wait for Autopia and they’ll only have 2 of the 4 lanes open… we’ve watched CM teams of a dozen dispatch Space Mtn cars at insane speeds on super busy days and also watched teams of half a dozen dispatch half as many trains on slower days. That’s just how DL is ran now.

Anything over a 7 and it’s not even fun walking around in the parks, shoulder to shoulder and queues extending in every direction into the walkways, fortunately with reservations (and planning) I haven’t seen that since the pre-Covid days, unfortunately with reservations allowing lower staffing levels I also haven’t experienced a slow day with endless walk ons since the pre-Covid days either.

 

[DLR92]

LL, tiered pricing, blackout dates, and reservations have eliminated “slow” days at DL, the main difference we notice between a 2 day and a 6 day on touring plans now will be how crowded the paths are, DL has become experts at staffing just enough CMs to maintain 20-30 minute lines on the lessor rides and 45+ for the bigger rides on even the slowest days.

I can’t tell you how many times we’ve gone on “slow” days where there’s a 45 minute wait on Big Thunder and they’re only running half the trains, or there’s a 30 minute wait for Autopia and they’ll only have 2 of the 4 lanes open… we’ve watched CM teams of a dozen dispatch Space Mtn cars at insane speeds on super busy days and also watched teams of half a dozen dispatch half as many trains on slower days. That’s just how DL is ran now.

Anything over a 7 and it’s not even fun walking around in the parks, shoulder to shoulder and queues extending in every direction into the walkways, fortunately with reservations (and planning) I haven’t seen that since the pre-Covid days, unfortunately with reservations allowing lower staffing levels I also haven’t experienced a slow day with endless walk ons since the pre-Covid days either.

I have notice this too. I don’t feel Disney is being adequate with staffing at all on my Sundays visits. I have notice Pirates seem to have trouble with how fast CM load and dispatch the boats. None of the boats syncs with the scenes. It pauses a LOT, I thought the attraction broke down for a minute. It always backlogs before hitting the jail scene.

 

[SuddenStorm]

But I do find some of their moves to be in poor form. Like seemingly overnight not only raising the price of burritos at Rancho Del Zocalo but then replacing the rice and beans with chips. You have to pay another $6 bucks or so now for rice and beans. It’s friggin rice n beans. How much cheaper does it get? Just raise the price of the burrito a little bit.

I also swear those burritos are smaller.

 

[SplashJacket]

So I finally got an opportunity to make a DLR visit again. It's been awhile, probably since 2013 since I was there last. But this time, with the help of the Costco promo, I'd be there with a full 3 day, PH, MLL package. I'll share my thoughts and learnings from this trip.. and will follow on with other stuff from my LA stay.

Where to stay? Last time the wife complained about the walk after the park kind of took her out of the mindset, when we stayed closer to the convention center. So this time, proximity was a priority. It seems most of the properties have renovated and there are a ton of chains on top of the classic motels that used to be the harbor favorites. I considered the Garden Inn and Home2Suites.. but the extended walk past the HoJo was a turn off. The other alt was Hyatt House down on Katella.. but ultimately wanted to give one of the motel classics a try and opt'd for the Camelot Inn. The location was great. It was right next to Panera for breakfast, and distance wise feels hard to beat. The only negatives were.. we were in the very last rooms on the floor.. which meant maximum walking distance. And two.. probably the worst water pressure I've ever experienced.. like.. barely spitting at you showers. Otherwise the room was modern, tho the wife didn't like the bed.

Crowds? I'm normally a fan of Touringplans.. but I really felt let down. For Sept 12th, they were predicting a 3. I was hoping that would mean 15-20min max on lesser rides, and hopefully 30-45 on popular stuff, with the few outliners like Rise of course being hour plus. While I got a ton of rides in on Friday (I think I counted 13), that was all totally using LL, I paid for Rise Single use LL, and the park still felt jammed. If this was a 3.. I was like.. wth would a 8 be?? Pure hell. And in their 'what we observed', they somehow called DL a 2 that day.. which is basically as low as they go. It has to be a math anomoly because experience wise, it wasn't any 2. I honestly felt I wouldn't want to be there if it was anything more than maybe 50% more than what I saw. We were there again on Sunday, which they again predicted as a 3 and observed a 2.. and it was FAR more enjoyable on Sunday. I know their stuff is based on observed numbers.. but their maths didn't match my experience in the park in general.

While return times were generally very short.. posted standby waits were not. Peter Pan was 30-50mins most of the day. HM was 45-60 all day long.. Tiana was like 45mins most of the time, etc. If this is a '2'? Count me out for any real crowded day. It was really apparent when even the FL attractions needed like 30min waits until the end of the night. Now obviously I used LL to manage this, and for the first time I really tried using TP's touring plans for like 90% of the scheduling.. but I had usability concerns with the TP lines app too which I guess I can save for later.

DL comments? First.. thank god there are benches still. Unlike WDW.. which purged them. I've had decades of back issues including multiple surgeries and extended standing really takes a toll on me.. and I need sitting breaks to prevent an overload. Thankfully DL has benches all over the place.

I do feel like a lot of the colors felt a little more sun bleached than in the past.. areas like IASW, and others kinda stood out to me. Show standards seemed good.. nothing really stood out to me as with with no obvious gaffs.

Photopass has always been a bit of a hodgepodge at DL vs WDW.. feeling like DL never really wanted to buy in.. and I'm sure giving it away in maxpass and now in other bundles undercuts it's direct revenue contribution too. But why doesn't DL put photopass cameras at most of the character meets?? And why after all these years are attractions like Buzz not updated for the attraction photos?

Photopass is one area where the DL app worked well for us.. and I do like the easy linking for both rides and photopass folks. That was a big positive.

An area where DL's app is weaker than WDW is dining, and specifically search and menus. Like, if a venue had mobile order, the app wanted to push you immediately to starting an order if you clicked on it from the map instead of just letting you have the option to browse the menu first. Also, while search did work for food options, search is global without filters so you can't easily search for say... pretzels and find DL locations with them.. you find all locations everywhere, and then have to scroll and then look at menus (or mobile order) to try to look at the matches. WDW's food search (at least in the past) was better.

The same goes for Merch. WDW had merch shopping more integrated.. meaning you could scan an idea, and find all stores that sold that item. Making finding other sources for something, WAY easier. While DL has mobile checkout which is nicely done.. I couldn't find how to search for items at different stores. Also, mobile checkout has some quirks. In DCA, we were in the store attached to the starbucks location... wife wanted a traveler mug they had.. so I used mobile checkout, scanned the item, and paid. But.. there was no mobile check desk.. Turns out, app only listed Elias & Co when I did mobile checkout. I didn't know the name of the store when I was inside it.. and I picked it, and it let me checkout. Well, that's not the store I was in I had to have a CM walk me across the street to get scanned over there. CM's couldn't handle the scenario at all in the first store, and were confused on why it let me scan and checkout.

I did successfully use mobile checkout a few times.. it seems useful. But I really miss what I could do in WDW last time, which was scan an item and find it in different stores. We had a really hard time finding any clothing in medium for women... that would of helped us know where else to look for an item when it wasn't available in the store you were in.

Mobile ordering is better than it used to be.. but locations that ONLY offered mobile order annoyed me. Plus, I found often just going to the counter was going to be faster than mobile order anyway. C+ score for mobile food ordering I think.

TIL a lot of merch functionality within the DW app

 

[truecoat]

I was just at a NFL game yesterday, one of the venues where you historically get raked over the coals because concessions are a HUGE part of the model.. yet, I had a $3.99 coke.. $5 beers.. $3.50 hot dog... That's CHEAP compared to Disneyland.

That's not the norm in NFL stadiums. I bought a cheap hot dog at an MLB game last year, and it was a waste of money. The hot dog had no taste, and seemed like I was eating just a bun. I only buy the better($$) ones after that.

 

[flynnibus]

That's not the norm in NFL stadiums. I bought a cheap hot dog at an MLB game last year, and it was a waste of money. The hot dog had no taste, and seemed like I was eating just a bun. I only buy the better($$) ones after that.

It is common - because many teams realized how insane pricing has become and launched initiatives to maintain affordable items on their menus.

Atlanta has been doing this at MB Field for a long time - recent example - https://atlantafi.com/mercedes-benz-food-menu-prices/

Ravens have been doing it since 2018 - https://www.baltimoreravens.com/news/ravens-mt-bank-stadium-flock-friendly-concession-pricing-2025

I'm not saying it's everywhere, I'm using it as examples to debunk this mentality that "oh, thats just everywhere, its not that bad..." - No, it is that bad, and doesn't have to be that way.

I'll say it again, DL has the potential to have the cheapest prices compared to the kinds of comparisons made. They operate 365, they have steady exposure, they have their own deep pool of labor, there is no middleman, they have economies of scale, they don't have leases or rent, they literally have better, more reliable foot traffic than anyone... Every factor that drives costs UP, Disney is advantaged compared to these other comparisons like baseball, movie theaters, etc. Yet.. Disney continues to basically lead the top edge...

 

[Parteecia]

I was just at a NFL game yesterday, one of the venues where you historically get raked over the coals because concessions are a HUGE part of the model.. yet, I had a $3.99 coke.. $5 beers.. $3.50 hot dog... That's CHEAP compared to Disneyland.

A more apt comparison might be SoFi and Angel Stadia, $9 hot dog or Dodger Stadium, $8.

 

[mickEblu]

A more apt comparison might be SoFi and Angel Stadia, $9 hot dog or Dodger Stadium, $8.

And if you compare to all other major theme/ amusement parks in Southern California California, DL has the cheapest food. Of course those parks cost much less get in but you re also kind of dead in the water without paying extra for line skipping.

 

[flynnibus]

A more apt comparison might be SoFi and Angel Stadia, $9 hot dog or Dodger Stadium, $8.

No, actually they aren't really better comparisons to justify things. They are just comparisons of other scenarios where customers have been fleeced for so long they just tolerate it.

None of the justifications for why prices are what they are at a stadium event really drive the prices the same as at Disney.