News 2021 Theme Index

[el_super]

Get rid of AP's? I mean, that's what some people think needs to happen, right?

Absolutely.

You know what that is? It's a win-win for me and thousands of others, because we then have no reason to spend money at Disney theme parks anymore.

You will be back. And you may even pay more to visit. Converting people from once a week visitors to once every year or once every five years is good for Disney.

Consumers will never expect to not wait in line if they add real, meaningful ride capacity. Where do you dream this nonsense up? And Bob has already been quite successful in changing consumer behavior. Just look at how many people buy Genie- and ILL's.

Yeah... so go back to waiting 5 hours for a single attraction just because it's new. Terrible plan.

People are buying into those services because they expect to skip the lines.

 

[UNCgolf]

Building more capacity doesn't solve the issue, because the guest expectation will always be to not wait in line. The fervent anger displayed at the removal of free Fastpass and the continuing price increases in Genie+ show that, above other changes at the parks, not waiting in line is a crucial part of the experience now.

Changing the expectation in guest behavior is going to be rough, but it's probably necessary. Their biggest issue right now seems to be that skipping the line is so crucial to the experience, that people are willing to pay gobs of money to keep skipping the lines, even as Disney is raising the prices and trying to discourage it. If the percentage of visitors buying into Genie+ remains high, the prices will have to keep going up.

Line skipping not being free though, may be better for the long term success of the park, but it will put a tremendous pressure on the "value" of existing attractions that may need to be replaced.

That ties in with it being their own fault -- they set an expectation that you wouldn't have to wait in line for at least a few attractions every day when they started the whole program, and then made it worse by expanding it to basically everything in the parks.

If they'd kept it to a small number of attractions and left the rest standby only, things wouldn't be as bad, but now there are numerous guests who are used to not waiting in line ever for anything.

It's compounding bad decisions that have left things in the current state.

 

[Casper Gutman]

That ties in with it being their own fault -- they set an expectation that you wouldn't have to wait in line for at least a few attractions every day when they started the whole program, and then made it worse by expanding it to basically everything in the parks.

If they'd kept it to a small number of attractions and left the rest standby only, things wouldn't be as bad, but now there are numerous guests who are used to not waiting in line ever for anything.

It's compounding bad decisions that have left things in the current state.

This is exactly right. The idea that you shouldn’t expect to wait in lines at theme parks is very, very much a creation of WDW, one they have spent a great deal to perpetuate, via endless ad and PR rhetoric as well as a very expensive and lengthy process of fundamentally reconfiguring the parks themselves. The expectation of lineless parks has never, ever been close to reality, but Disney became convinced the expectation benefitted them.

 

[el_super]

That ties in with it being their own fault -- they set an expectation that you wouldn't have to wait in line for at least a few attractions every day when they started the whole program, and then made it worse by expanding it to basically everything in the parks.

I don't entirely disagree, but I think fault is not the right word. It's just something they have to try to manage now. They had their reasons for advertising fastpass and prioritizing attendance-at-all-costs in the ten years after 2008. Looking back at the attendance run up and realizing it was unsustainable isn't the same thing as thinking the last ten years was a complete mistake.

 

[lazyboy97o]

This is exactly right. The idea that you shouldn’t expect to wait in lines at theme parks is very, very much a creation of WDW, one they have spent a great deal to perpetuate, via endless ad and PR rhetoric as well as a very expensive and lengthy process of fundamentally reconfiguring the parks themselves. The expectation of lineless parks has never, ever been close to reality, but Disney became convinced the expectation benefitted them.

What people perceive and what people actually experience are not the same thing. There is an amount of waiting that is not perceived as waiting. How people wait also impacts their perception of waiting. All of which is built into the standard design day model.

 

[UNCgolf]

I don't entirely disagree, but I think fault is not the right word. It's just something they have to try to manage now. They had their reasons for advertising fastpass and prioritizing attendance-at-all-costs in the ten years after 2008. Looking back at the attendance run up and realizing it was unsustainable isn't the same thing as thinking the last ten years was a complete mistake.

Disney also built very little (and actually closed some things without replacement) during part of that period while ramping up attendance -- that is their fault. They then went on a building spree when they realized their mistake, but they'd already a deficit to appear and have essentially been fighting upstream ever since.

 

[HauntedPirate]

Absolutely.

You will be back. And you may even pay more to visit. Converting people from once a week visitors to once every year or once every five years is good for Disney.

Yeah... so go back to waiting 5 hours for a single attraction just because it's new. Terrible plan.

People are buying into those services because they expect to skip the lines.

I'd wager that my next vacation dollars go outside of WDW.

Right, because there'd be 5 hours waits for a C-ticket attraction, or a theater, or a whole host of other capacity improvements that aren't headliners?

People buying Genie- and ILL with the expectation that they are skipping the line are either ill-informed or delusional. Anyone saying those are "skip the line" schemes are lying.

Use the Lightning Lane entrances offered through Disney Genie+ service and save time waiting in line.​

I say, go ahead and double the price on everything. The subsequent dumpster fire will be quite enjoyable to observe. Those who believe that revenue wouldn't be affected one bit can use the dumpster fire to roast the crow they'll be eating.