A Terror-rific Spirited 13th (ToT fans have lots to fear)...

GiveMeTheMusic

GiveMeTheMusic

Well-Known Member
NearTheEars said:
View attachment 180314

So, I noticed this today while looking through the merch at DHS. The Christmas bulb necklaces were $15.02. What the heck kind of price is that. That's a perfect example of money grab right there. Tacking on 2 cents knowing most folks pay with some form of plastic anyway.

I typically don't complain (feel free to look at my previous posts with a glass half full of pixie dust) but I thought this was just silly.
Click to expand...

Do they include tax? That's the only explanation I can think of
 
brb1006

brb1006

Well-Known Member
Bolna said:
The lack of Germans at DLP has a multitude of reasons.

First, you are right, Germans love Disney. But for a long time, this was mainly a love of the Disney comic books. And maybe the original Jungle Book (still today the most successful movie that ever was shown in Germany). I would even venture to say that for most Germans Donald Duck is more Disney than Mickey Mouse because of the comic books featuring him and Uncle Scrooge as the main characters.

So, when Euro Disney opened, there was a strong disconnect between the expectations of German visitors and what they found. Reading everything I could find being published about the opening here in Germany, the recurring theme was: where is Entenhausen (Duckburg, I think is it's English name)?

Add to that a German economy in its worst recession since the 1940s when DLP opened, Germans preferring long vacations over short breaks (at least in the 1990s weekend breaks were not common at all), Germans' tendency to be very frugal with regard to most "luxury items", Euro Disney had a hard time to convince Germans to come from the start.

Then, I would say around the time WDS opened, the management obviously decided to just give up on the German market. Until then you would see marketing for DLP in Germany, but suddenly it vanished. It seemed that they decided to just concentrate the little money they had to spend on marketing on those markets that were easier. This caused the German visitor share to drop to incredible lows. Marketing returned, at least a little bit, about three years ago. But it still is not very visible. Especially considering how pushy Disney marketing has become in Germany, I am surprised that they do not use this better for cross promoting Disneyland Paris.

Finally, the local competition has not been lazy in the last 25 years. The two largest German amusement parks, Europapark and Phantasialand, have invested a lot of money in a better, more themed product. For a lot of Germans these parks provide a better product. Most people are less interested in how perfect the theme is. But they value lower entrance prices, being able to communicate in their own language (the proficiency in English has increased a lot in the last 25 years, but still a lot of Germans don't speak English well at all, or better, don't want to be bothered to have to try to speak it), yearly new additions and well maintained and clean parks are a plus for them. Both Phantasialand and Europapark have also copied the resort idea and offer very well themed hotels. Oh, and they are both in Western Germany as well, so they are closer than Paris for those highly populated areas in Western Germany.

So, while some things have changed by now within the German market, that should make it easier for DLP to get a larger share of the market, the local competition has moved in and is getting a lot of those people. R to come back to a term in a Spirited Thread a long long time ago: the ocean has turned dark red by now.

It will be interesting how they deal with the 25th and promoting it in Germany. I think it would be a great opportunity to get back some market share here. Germans love special events, so going to DLP for a celebration should be something that can be sold here easily. And with a revived and refurbished DLP, they might finally get more people convinced that then can tell their friends.
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Speaking of Donald and the Disney Ducks. I bet the DuckTales 2017 reboot might become popular in Europe since Donald gets tons of love over there.
 
peter11435

peter11435

Well-Known Member
NearTheEars said:
View attachment 180314

So, I noticed this today while looking through the merch at DHS. The Christmas bulb necklaces were $15.02. What the heck kind of price is that. That's a perfect example of money grab right there. Tacking on 2 cents knowing most folks pay with some form of plastic anyway.

I typically don't complain (feel free to look at my previous posts with a glass half full of pixie dust) but I thought this was just silly.
Click to expand...

It's not really a money grab. It's priced that way so that with tax it comes to exactly $16. This is done to make it easier for the guests and cast since this merchandise is usually sold from carts and walk around cast.
 
WDWdream97

WDWdream97

Well-Known Member
Bolna said:
The lack of Germans at DLP has a multitude of reasons.

First, you are right, Germans love Disney. But for a long time, this was mainly a love of the Disney comic books. And maybe the original Jungle Book (still today the most successful movie that ever was shown in Germany). I would even venture to say that for most Germans Donald Duck is more Disney than Mickey Mouse because of the comic books featuring him and Uncle Scrooge as the main characters.

So, when Euro Disney opened, there was a strong disconnect between the expectations of German visitors and what they found. Reading everything I could find being published about the opening here in Germany, the recurring theme was: where is Entenhausen (Duckburg, I think is it's English name)?

Add to that a German economy in its worst recession since the 1940s when DLP opened, Germans preferring long vacations over short breaks (at least in the 1990s weekend breaks were not common at all), Germans' tendency to be very frugal with regard to most "luxury items", Euro Disney had a hard time to convince Germans to come from the start.

Then, I would say around the time WDS opened, the management obviously decided to just give up on the German market. Until then you would see marketing for DLP in Germany, but suddenly it vanished. It seemed that they decided to just concentrate the little money they had to spend on marketing on those markets that were easier. This caused the German visitor share to drop to incredible lows. Marketing returned, at least a little bit, about three years ago. But it still is not very visible. Especially considering how pushy Disney marketing has become in Germany, I am surprised that they do not use this better for cross promoting Disneyland Paris.

Finally, the local competition has not been lazy in the last 25 years. The two largest German amusement parks, Europapark and Phantasialand, have invested a lot of money in a better, more themed product. For a lot of Germans these parks provide a better product. Most people are less interested in how perfect the theme is. But they value lower entrance prices, being able to communicate in their own language (the proficiency in English has increased a lot in the last 25 years, but still a lot of Germans don't speak English well at all, or better, don't want to be bothered to have to try to speak it), yearly new additions and well maintained and clean parks are a plus for them. Both Phantasialand and Europapark have also copied the resort idea and offer very well themed hotels. Oh, and they are both in Western Germany as well, so they are closer than Paris for those highly populated areas in Western Germany.

So, while some things have changed by now within the German market, that should make it easier for DLP to get a larger share of the market, the local competition has moved in and is getting a lot of those people. R to come back to a term in a Spirited Thread a long long time ago: the ocean has turned dark red by now.

It will be interesting how they deal with the 25th and promoting it in Germany. I think it would be a great opportunity to get back some market share here. Germans love special events, so going to DLP for a celebration should be something that can be sold here easily. And with a revived and refurbished DLP, they might finally get more people convinced that then can tell their friends.
Click to expand...
Thank you for this! For myself, being from the US often shuts me off from the cultural on goings in Europe. This helps to add insight to the Disneyland Paris woes.
 
MagicHappens1971

MagicHappens1971

Well-Known Member
NearTheEars said:
View attachment 180314

So, I noticed this today while looking through the merch at DHS. The Christmas bulb necklaces were $15.02. What the heck kind of price is that. That's a perfect example of money grab right there. Tacking on 2 cents knowing most folks pay with some form of plastic anyway.

I typically don't complain (feel free to look at my previous posts with a glass half full of pixie dust) but I thought this was just silly.
Click to expand...
Probably answered already, but last year they were $14. and some weird amount of change and the Made with Magic stuff is like $28.76 or some weird number, it's so that it comes out to an even amount for CM's working carts.
 
NearTheEars

NearTheEars

Well-Known Member
peter11435 said:
It's not really a money grab. It's priced that way so that with tax it comes to exactly $16. This is done to make it easier for the guests and cast since this merchandise is usually sold from carts and walk around cast.
Click to expand...

Yep, after doing the quick math, you are correct. I wonder why that's not the case for all items. Everything else at this store seemed normal, except this display.
 

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