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

[dreday3]

Our (Gurnee) Six Flags had pretty much a drive-by shooting in the parking lot last night.

 

[GimpYancIent]

Interesting announcement today by CEO of six flags (are you allowed to put outside links here?) stating they are going to be raising prices across board and move to attract more affluent customers. They are looking to price out discount attendance with people latching on to sales and turning parks into "teenage day cares." Since start of program park spending per captia has increased since last year due to higher ticket prices and more sales of single day tickets.

Too true but deceptive. People do not want to pay more; people are not clamoring to hand over more money, the organizations operating the various parks are simply charging more. It does not mean more people are going to parks just that those that do go fork over more money.

 

[Jrb1979]

Too true but deceptive. People do not want to pay more; people are not clamoring to hand over more money, the organizations operating the various parks are simply charging more. It does not mean more people are going to parks just that those that do go fork over more money.

While true Six Flags does have the cheapest season passes out there. I got the cheapest one for this year and it was $8 a month. Compare that to my Cedar Fair platinum pass which gets me into all the parks. It's going up in price to $240 a year.

 

[Patcheslee]

Maybe demand is dropping?
We are going week after Easter week and I was looking at hotels this morning (as one does at work on a Monday morning) and every hotel is available with every room type available except for some deluxe theme park views. That's crazy to me!

Admittedly we normally always go in October, but 8 months out it's usually booked pretty solid in quite a few resorts, especially deluxe ones.

I'm not mad at this.

Dec 24th-31st 14 hotels available. Aren’t they usually full by now?

 

[networkpro]

FTFY

Touché! It's all about the Federal Government spending tax dollars in favor of supporting their contributors/bases. If any real benefit gets to their constituents, it's purely by happenstance. The majority of the funds are soaked up by either management or bureaucracy.

 

[Sirwalterraleigh]

Boeing and Raytheon Technologies are relocating their headquarters to Arlington in 2022 with the ruling party in DC not the one that drapes themselves in the flag. The NDAA gets bigger every year and never faces real challenge. Don't know what you're on about.

Ummm…

They pay for both parties indiscriminately and have since Korea…so “rhetoric” is simply that

It’s a well oiled machine…

So says the Lockheed research plant on the edge of my town in this “unionized, socialist, overtaxing, bleeding heart, tree hugging, ultra liberal, anti-freedom” state

 

[Sirwalterraleigh]

Dec 24th-31st 14 hotels available. Aren’t they usually full by now?

Used to be…but people now avoid the “crazy” times by making the times that aren’t supposed to be worse…

Remember the upcharge too…it’s rather bad.

You know…I might actually go this year?

 

[Patcheslee]

The buying Disney Gift cards at Target for the 5% discount was particularly cute.

I don't know using my Swagbucks account with 1% to purchase giftcards from Sam's Club using my 2% rewards CC. Then trading my Swagbucks points for Mastercard GCs at 5% off seems easier lol

 

[networkpro]

Boeing and Raytheon Technologies are relocating their headquarters to Arlington in 2022 with the ruling party in DC not the one that drapes themselves in the flag. The NDAA gets bigger every year and never faces real challenge. Don't know what you're on about.

Boeing was just getting away from Inslee and the political climate/taxes in Washington State. Raytheon has nothing to lose from moving from Waltham, MA to Arlington and lots to gain. If you've ever driven in that area during the daytime, traffic in DC is a breeze. My perspective is from someone who works for a Seattle Area company for several decades plus and the previous employer was, ironically enough, located in Waltham, MA.

 

[Patcheslee]

Used to be…but people now avoid the “crazy” times by making the times that aren’t supposed to be worse…

Remember the upcharge too…it’s rather bad.

You know…I might actually go this year?

Ah Dec 24th-Jan 4th is triple time pay for me. Usually bank 1/4 of a Disney trip that week. So in the end it would cost me twice as much to go then lol.

 

[Br0ckford]

Our (Gurnee) Six Flags had pretty much a drive-by shooting in the parking lot last night.

Used to buy summer passes there every year. Such a shame.

 

[zombiebbq]

Interesting announcement today by CEO of six flags (are you allowed to put outside links here?) stating they are going to be raising prices across board and move to attract more affluent customers. They are looking to price out discount attendance with people latching on to sales and turning parks into "teenage day cares." Since start of program park spending per captia has increased since last year due to higher ticket prices and more sales of single day tickets.

Which is dumb. Six Flags is not on the radar of the affluent. That ship sailed long ago. It's bare bones carnival style entertainment for the masses. (And I love a good roller coaster so it's not a knock from me, just stating the obvious).

 

[Sirwalterraleigh]

Which is dumb. Six Flags is not on the radar of the affluent. That ship sailed long ago. It's bare bones carnival style entertainment for the masses. (And I love a good roller coaster so it's not a knock from me, just stating the obvious).

The only commonality of “affluent” an amusement” is that they both start with an A

 

[Jrb1979]

Which is dumb. Six Flags is not on the radar of the affluent. That ship sailed long ago. It's bare bones carnival style entertainment for the masses. (And I love a good roller coaster so it's not a knock from me, just stating the obvious).

IMO what he was implying is they need to get away from being the discount chain if amusement parks. Right now the lowest tier of season pass is $8 a month. That's way too cheap and a big reason why they have become a teen hangout. Personally I think they should be more on par with Cedar Fair.

 

[zombiebbq]

IMO what he was implying is they need to get away from being the discount chain if amusement parks. Right now the lowest tier of season pass is $8 a month. That's way too cheap and a big reason why they have become a teen hangout. Personally I think they should be more on par with Cedar Fair.

The teen hangout stuff can be fixed a la Knott's new policy. Although I have to admit I wish my parents had me on a loose enough leash to send me to Six Flags alone for the day as an under 18 year old . I guess my point is the perception of discount amusement park is so embedded in the Six Flags experience they aren't going to win trying to move away from it.

 

[DLR92]

If price does up more…other choices for me to travel and stay.

 

[Cliff]

I don't really think there's any way for guests to game the system and make Disney operate the way they prefer through strategic mealtimes or anything like that. This is such a volume business that 4 or 5 families a day buying dinner a few hours later isn't going to do anything.

I think it's more that they are trying to maximise profits in a way that minimises benefits for guests beyond what they feel is necessary to keep them happy and spending. In this case, they figure out how many hours they need to give guests for them to experience X number of attractions which they believe results in a sufficient level of satisfaction and plan accordingly. After a certain point they see it as diminishing returns and increasingly judge the cost-benefit equation is not favourable enough for them.

The only thing that will change any of that is a major shift in guest sentiment and behaviour. As the recent quarterly results have shown, they can shrug off people here and there deciding to stop visiting at the moment because they have more demand than they can handle. My suspicion is this management approach will eventually cause problems because they seem to have taken it to such an extreme degree in trying to micromanage and monetise almost everything in the interests of efficiency in a way that seems almost oblivious to the how this feels for the guests actually visiting the parks. That said, I've been around Disney forums for enough years to have seen many tipping points that weren't.

You are right. We cant beat Disney at this game. Why?...because we as guests could never band together enough to influence their calculations.

The parks are crowded and flooded with "casual" fans and people that just simply outnumber all the "super fans" or the people that are in this forum.

In a way, we all here are passionete "activest" type fans that REALLY pay attention to the parks experience and the DETAILS. But we are a minority. A giant portion of these crowds are just happy to be there and dont over-analyze their day the way we do. They watch the fireworks, ride the rides and are just in wonder of everything. They are NOT "Disney snobs" or "critics" the way WE all are here. They dont hold a high bar the way WE do. They just dont pay close attention or know the history the way we do.

Disney's metrics and decision making is dominated and influenced by THESE guests....not us.

 

[Sirwalterraleigh]

You are right. We cant beat Disney at this game. Why?...because we as guests could never band together enough to influence their calculations.

The parks are crowded and flooded with "casual" fans and people that just simply outnumber all the "super fans" or the people that are in this forum.

In a way, we all here are passionete "activest" type fans that REALLY pay attention to the parks experience and the DETAILS. But we are a minority. A giant portion of these crowds are just happy to be there and dont over-analyze their day the way we do. They watch the fireworks, ride the rides and are just in wonder of everything. They are NOT "Disney snobs" or "critics" the way WE all are here. They dont hold a high bar the way WE do. They just dont pay close attention or know the history the way we do.

Disney's metrics and decision making is dominated and influenced by THESE guests....not us.

This is one of my favorite takes ever…

Very astute. In a way…we diehards are the customer equivalent of Greenpeace…
We love it…our intentions are generally “pure”…but apathy drowns us out.

 

[Dan Deesnee]

The park reservation system is key, it is the canary in the coal mine. If the reservation system goes away, that means attendance is down and you can kiss any new rides or the 5th gate goodbye. If it stays, however, I think it will be the trigger that leads to lots of new attractions and possibly a 5th gate.

To understand why it's simply to look at the economics. Right now each park has a sweet spot of attendance that makes them the most money. That number of guests is based on Park capacity (rides, restaurants, shops, etc.). The ONLY way to keep revenue growing is to increase that sweet spot number and you do that with new rides, shops, restaurants, etc.

Although I despise the reservation system, it just may be the catalyst that gets us lots of great new stuff in the parks.

 

[Chi84]

You are right. We cant beat Disney at this game. Why?...because we as guests could never band together enough to influence their calculations.

The parks are crowded and flooded with "casual" fans and people that just simply outnumber all the "super fans" or the people that are in this forum.

In a way, we all here are passionete "activest" type fans that REALLY pay attention to the parks experience and the DETAILS. But we are a minority. A giant portion of these crowds are just happy to be there and dont over-analyze their day the way we do. They watch the fireworks, ride the rides and are just in wonder of everything. They are NOT "Disney snobs" or "critics" the way WE all are here. They dont hold a high bar the way WE do. They just dont pay close attention or know the history the way we do.

Disney's metrics and decision making is dominated and influenced by THESE guests....not us.

But you can’t discount the fact that there are a great number of passionate super fans who pay close attention and know the history, but still “watch the fireworks, ride the rides and are just in wonder of everything.” Those things are not mutually exclusive.