News Disney CEO Bob Chapek suggests price hikes are coming to the parks thanks to guest demand

[Vegas Disney Fan]

This is discussed here all the time, but I'm not sure I believe this. Why would Bob care about reducing crowds?

The less people that are in the parks means less cupcakes and t-shirts to sell. Bob is absolutely not concerned one tiny bit if the park is too crowded. Being too crowded apparently isn't keeping enough people away (that's a brain twister if you think about it) to reduce profitability. Again, Bob isn't focused on your experience .... he is focused on your wallet.

There is a sweet spot before you reach diminishing returns though. Unhappy people spend less, people will also skip shops, snacks, etc if they are too crowded and the lines are too long.

It isn’t just the rides that are currently overwhelmed, it’s the restaurants, shops, bathrooms, and everything else too.

I don’t think Disney wants to make massive crowd reductions, but if a park can only feed and handle 50,000 people there’s not much benefit to continue letting in 55,000.

Disney wants lines, they just want them a predetermined length that results in max spending, too short and too long both diminish returns.

 

[StantonZ]

The less people that are in the parks means less cupcakes and t-shirts to sell. Bob is absolutely not concerned one tiny bit if the park is too crowded. Being too crowded apparently isn't keeping enough people away (that's a brain twister if you think about it) to reduce profitability. Again, Bob isn't focused on your experience .... he is focused on your wallet.

There are aspects to this that speak directly to a metric I hear a lot in my line of business: customer experience. Obviously, the goal is a positive customer experience.
It's not hard to discover complaints about how crowded parks (or anything) contribute to a negative customer experience. And those crowds sometimes contribute to security/behavior problems, things that we never used to hear about and now seem to hear more about all the time. There are reasons fire codes specify "maximum occupancy" numbers for public venues...and that same concept affects the customer experience in the parks.

 

[el_super]

Just keep going and going and going…theory without actual experience, Wisdom, knowledge…
Bunny time

What theory... It's actual practice. It's what is actually happening in the parks today. Backed by evidence and statements from Disney. It isn't just theory or just wrong because it doesn't conform to your worldview.

How many more successful quarters do we have to keep enduring the baseless "Disney is failing" rhetoric? It's all just fantasy. Fan theories wrapped in wishful thinking.

 

[Smiley/OCD]

I dare this guy to show his face at D23.

Hence the beard…

 

[kingdead]

There is a sweet spot before you reach diminishing returns though. Unhappy people spend less, people will also skip shops, snacks, etc if they are too crowded and the lines are too long.

It isn’t just the rides that are currently overwhelmed, it’s the restaurants, shops, bathrooms, and everything else too.

I don’t think Disney wants to make massive crowd reductions, but if a park can only feed and handle 50,000 people there’s not much benefit to continue letting in 55,000.

Disney wants lines, they just want them a predetermined length that results in max spending, too short and too long both diminish returns.

This is waaaay long term thinking but maybe Chapek wants to squeeze every last penny out of the park because long term maintenance is unprofitable? Hotter weather and the accompanying climate events plus the political fray in the good state of Florida may mean that keeping up a big old park in Orlando may not be in a, say, 25-year interest.

Get the money now and start infrastructure elsewhere (or, more likely, start offering boutique experiences that can be "popped up" in different places and don't rely so much on set infrastructure).

Am I crazy? Ok, I am, but am I crazy about this one?

 

[Lilofan]

Hence the beard…

Ernest Hemingway look a like, annual event in Key West

 

[CaptainAmerica]

Again, Bob isn't focused on your experience .... he is focused on your wallet.

Lolwut? They're the same thing. Happy guests spend more. Happy guests return sooner. Happy guests upgrade to a Deluxe resort next time. Happy guests have brand affinity so they pay for Disney+ ad-free tier even when you raise the price. Happy guests plunk $40,000 down on DVC. Happy guests tell their friends and colleagues what a wonderful time they had.

Focusing on the guest experience focusing on your wallet are the same thing.

I'm not saying I agree that every decision they've made was best for the guest experience, but this caricature of Bob Chapek as a cartoon supervillain is just stupid.

 

[Smiley/OCD]

Disney pushed the needle and the tour sold out, 75 guests, 24 days, visit all parks around the world including landmarks like Taj Mahal in India, lodging, private plane with chef and doctor. $110K per person.

Sometimes I think I can see the same thing by riding Soarin’ ATW…it WAS cheaper, but if Chappie the bearded wonder has his way…

 

[CaptainAmerica]

This is waaaay long term thinking but maybe Chapek wants to squeeze every last penny out of the park because long term maintenance is unprofitable? Hotter weather and the accompanying climate events plus the political fray in the good state of Florida may mean that keeping up a big old park in Orlando may not be in a, say, 25-year interest.

Get the money now and start infrastructure elsewhere (or, more likely, start offering boutique experiences that can be "popped up" in different places and don't rely so much on set infrastructure).

Am I crazy? Ok, I am, but am I crazy about this one?

"Climate change is going to destroy Walt Disney World"? Yes, that's crazy.

 

[Smiley/OCD]

Oh absolutely.

Maybe they should rename it Bob World.

Bob IS one less letter than Walt…

 

[Lilofan]

Sometimes I think I can see the same thing by riding Soarin’ ATW…it WAS cheaper, but if Chappie the bearded wonder has his way…

A frequent fellow guest I know visiting WDW for many years went to Europe for the first time. When she went to see the landmarks when visiting Italy she remarked “ wow they look like just like in Epcot !”

 

[Vegas Disney Fan]

Lolwut? They're the same thing. Happy guests spend more. Happy guests return sooner. Happy guests upgrade to a Deluxe resort next time. Happy guests have brand affinity so they pay for Disney+ ad-free tier even when you raise the price. Happy guests plunk $40,000 down on DVC. Happy guests tell their friends and colleagues what a wonderful time they had.

Focusing on the guest experience focusing on your wallet are the same thing.

I'm not saying I agree that every decision they've made was best for the guest experience, but this caricature of Bob Chapek as a cartoon supervillain is just stupid.

I 100% agree with your first 2 paragraphs but I don’t think Chapek does so I have to disagree with your third paragraph, he is a supervillain.

 

[UNCgolf]

It could happen.

It's incredibly unlikely. People just aren't going to pay $30 for a hot dog or hamburger at a Disney QS location (or at least not enough people will to make up the difference).

Unless, of course, they also dramatically increase the quality of those items, but then costs also jump and they're making less money again.

 

[CaptainAmerica]

Again - They CANNOT make as much off of fewer people via ticket prices. They would have to double prices on everything to make the same amount of revenue on fewer gate taps. It ain't happenin'.

I think you guys are missing the key piece here. They don't want fewer people. They want to chop off the peaks and fill in the valleys of demand. They don't want Christmas visitors to cancel their trips, they just want to price some of them out and convince them to come in September instead.

 

[UNCgolf]

I think you guys are missing the key piece here. They don't want fewer people. They want to chop off the peaks and fill in the valleys of demand. They don't want Christmas visitors to cancel their trips, they just want to price some of them out and convince them to come in September instead.

Absolutely, but some people are arguing they actually want to significantly lower attendance.

 

[Lirael]

I think you guys are missing the key piece here. They don't want fewer people. They want to chop off the peaks and fill in the valleys of demand. They don't want Christmas visitors to cancel their trips, they just want to price some of them out and convince them to come in September instead.

The problem is that it isn't that simple. Spring break, Christmas and July tend to be peak seasons because that's when most have enough free time to go, especially if you're going with kids, which is most of the disney crowd, since kids have specific holiday times. So even if they price out families from a Christmas visit, that family will not necessarily be able to simply shrug and switch to September instead.

 

[CaptainAmerica]

The problem is that it isn't that simple. Spring break, Christmas and July tend to be peak seasons because that's when most have enough free time to go, especially if you're going with kids, which is most of the disney crowd, since kids have specific holiday times. So even if they price out families from a Christmas visit, that family will not necessarily be able to simply shrug and switch to September instead.

They're okay with losing those people because they people they keep in the peak (i.e. expensive) times have deeper pocketbooks. It's classic yield management. You sell premium times to your premium guests, but you better make sure they have a great experience because they expect it. Then you let the bargain-seekers fill in the gaps with what's left.

 

[Disstevefan1]

The problem is that it isn't that simple. Spring break, Christmas and July tend to be peak seasons because that's when most have enough free time to go, especially if you're going with kids, which is most of the disney crowd, since kids have specific holiday times. So even if they price out families from a Christmas visit, that family will not necessarily be able to simply shrug and switch to September instead.

I agree. Disney is trying to force folks to the less crowded times with tiered pricing, PPRs and they can force some, but as @Lirael says, families are basically forced to go at particular times since kids have specific holiday times. This was as true 50 years ago as it is now.

 

[CaptainAmerica]

I agree. Disney is trying to force folks to the less crowded times with tiered pricing, PPRs and they can force some, but as @Lirael says, families are basically forced to go at particular times since kids have specific holiday times. This was as true 50 years ago as it is now.

You're drastically underestimating the relative percentage of parents willing to take their kids out of school, especially if there's financial incentive to do so.

 

[CaptainAmerica]

This is relevant. TL;DR - Six Flags has been raising prices to weed out poor people.

Six Flags revealed it has shed nearly 2 million customers during the past year – a drop that came partly because of an initiative to weed out “rowdy teenagers,” according to the company’s CEO.

The Arlington, Texas-based theme park’s shares tumbled 18% to $21.12 on Thursday after it disclosed that attendance at its 27 parks was down 22% from a year ago to 6.7 million in the quarter ended July 3.

The drop came partly because Six Flags has been steadily hiking ticket prices after offering too many discounts this year, Chief executive Selim Bassoul told analysts on a Thursday earnings call.

“So, we only got the discounter or we became a day care center for teenagers,” Bassoul said. “It was a cheap day care center for teenagers during breaks and the summers.”

In response, Six Flags has been hiking prices to reduce the numbers of “rowdy teenagers running around,” he added.

Six Flags CEO: ‘We became a cheap day care center for teenagers’

Last month, a teen was arrested for aggravated assault of a police officer at Great Adventure in Jackson Township, NJ.

nypost.com