Discounts - few and far between

[mwlillie]

I find it interesting that for this time of year, most of the discounts offered by Disney have either expired, or will expired by the end of August.

The reason I say this is that I'm seeing more and more discussion on people driving to Disney, or deciding not to visit the parks at all due to the ever increasing price of airline tickets. Talking to some friends of mine in Europe the price of tickets for a family of four to fly from Britain to Florida have risen over 20 percent (or an average of $250 US per person) in the last 90 days.

I understand that you can't count on the rampant discounting we have seen in the last few years, but considering that the economy is still sputtering along, and that airline ticket prices are becoming more expensive literally by the day, resort performance may suffer for the last quarter of this year.

That being said, and considering that Disney management has stated that the strategic direction for the company is to reduce the number and amounts of discounts offered, and the fact that competition from other parks and non-Disney hotels is as aggressively discounted as I ever seen, will we see additional discounts being offered?

I do hope so, because I have seen in the past that a low performing quarter for Disney usually results in a lowering of both infrastructure support (maintenance) and new attractions across all the resorts (DL, CA and DW). I’ve read a case study on Disney discounted that showed trending for increased profit as a result of discounting during financially strained times, which I hope that Management realizes is still out there.

 

[DisneyJoe]

Talking to some friends of mine in Europe the price of tickets for a family of four to fly from Britain to Florida have risen over 20 percent (or an average of $250 US per person) in the last 90 days.

When are they looking to travel? Most from the UK plan their August vacations usually 10-11 months in advance, that is why Disney usually offers Free Dining for UK residents FAR in advance of everyone else.

See http://www.mousemisers.com/2011/free-2012-disney-dining-for-uk-residents/ for example.

Historically, I am used to seeing Free Dining for UK Residents offered in September-November for the following August.

I own and operate a Disney focused travel agency, and I have seen no dropoff in bookings, in fact, we are having a record breaking year.

Other threads are mentioning the long park hours for June - due to high crowds.

Also, just because current offers expire at the end of August, doesn't mean that Disney has to wait until then to release new ones. There are room only discounts that are about to expire for travel dates through 8/13, we could possibly see more room only promotions - IF they are needed for October-December.

BTW, Disney's 4th Quarter runs July-September...

 

[danpam1024]

Haven't gotten a break from Disney in YEARS, but this past weekend, Hard Rock at Universal gave us 30% off our suite at check in just because we asked! Money we can put towards out Disney trip:lol:

 

[Pioneer Hall]

Discounts are offered as needed. Bob Iger did say nearly a year ago that it was their hopeful plan to not have to discount as much since they are seeing higher occupancy. If things were as bad as they a few years ago at the resort we would still see deep discounting. However, numbers have been improving so they aren't going to be giving things away quite as much as they had been.

 

[wizards8507]

I do hope so, because I have seen in the past that a low performing quarter for Disney usually results in a lowering of both infrastructure support (maintenance) and new attractions across all the resorts (DL, CA and DW).

First, Disney doesn't make long-term capital investment decisions based on a single slumping quarter. Second, this post categorically ignores the vast majority of the Walt Disney Company. When "Disney" has a low performing quarter, the percentage of such a slump that can be traced back to Walt Disney World and/or Disneyland Resort is miniscule. Parks and Resorts is only one division of the Company, and Domestic Theme Parks are only a portion of that division.

I've made this point several times before, but people around here always ignore the Cruise Line when they talk about management not spending on new projects. Do you realize that the Dream and the Fantasy each cost as much to build as Animal Kingdom? You might disagree with what projects get approved, but to say they aren't making those investments is false.

Another misconception that people around here have is that new theme parks, lands, and attractions are made to "draw people in" to the parks. While this is occasionally true, it's more often the case that these new investments are made to increase capacity when parks are already drawing huge crowds. Disney-MGM Studios wasn't built solely to draw more people to Walt Disney World. It was built because Magic Kingdom and Epcot were bursting at the seams and they saw opportunity to increase capacity.

Getting a little off topic, this applies to the FLE as well. They're not doing it to bring more guests into the Magic Kingdom. They're doing it because they're already getting a boatload of guests in the Magic Kingdom and they want to increase capacity. If a park wasn't drawing crowds, making huge investments in new attractions would be a waste.

 

[wdwfan22]

The parks and resorts continue to have a steady stream of guests flowing through them, until that stops there isn't really any reason for additional discounts to be offered.

 

[cinderellafan6]

Disney always has discounts for Florida Resident or annual passholders but they are getting smaller. Disney is just seeing a vast improvement in "traffic Flow" to the parks so they dont think they need all the discounts that they were offering before. And really the heavy discounts used the past couple of years were probably people that usually don't always go to WDW and go somehere else. IF people really love Disney and want to go...they will go no matter what.

 

[fosse76]

Disney-MGM Studios wasn't built solely to draw more people to Walt Disney World. It was built because Magic Kingdom and Epcot were bursting at the seams and they saw opportunity to increase capacity.

No, they saw competition coming down the road with the construction of Universal Studios Orlando. If Universal hadn't opened that park, it's highly unlikely DHS would have ever been built.

Getting a little off topic, this applies to the FLE as well. They're not doing it to bring more guests into the Magic Kingdom. They're doing it because they're already getting a boatload of guests in the Magic Kingdom and they want to increase capacity. If a park wasn't drawing crowds, making huge investments in new attractions would be a waste.

While there may be SOME truth to what you say, it's not entirely accurate. Disney has removed many attractions without having replaced them, and as such, the parks cannot reasonably accomodate guests. But FLE was sorely needed, not merely to increase capacity, but because Disney knew they were stagnating and needed something to bring in more guests.

 

[wizards8507]

Disney has removed many attractions without having replaced them, and as such, the parks cannot reasonably accomodate guests.

"Capacity" doesn't just refer to ride capacity. There's the practical concern of just too many people occupying not enough space. Even if guests aren't getting on more rides, they're more likely to stay in the park longer (and spend more money) if the park doesn't look like this:

FLE helps alleviate some of this problem by just introducing more walkways, shops, restaurants, and queues that will spread folks out.

But FLE was sorely needed, not merely to increase capacity, but because Disney knew they were stagnating and needed something to bring in more guests.

Attendance has been virtually even throughout the recession, and they're projecting dramatic increases for this summer, without any part of FLE ready to go. I'm sick of digging through the Financial Report for the data every time this comes up, but the oft-cited belief that attendance has been dropping is downright false. They don't need more guests (especially in the Magic Kingdom). They need the same amount of guests staying longer, eating more, and buying more crap, which means making them more comfortable with increased capacity.