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

[CaptainAmerica]

So a 60+ minute wait for no wait?

Again, you're extending your available touring time.

If the park is open from 9 to 7, you have 10 hours to tour. If you get in line at 9:00 and wait an hour, you have 9 hours left to tour.

If you get in line at 8:00, before the park is open, and wait an hour, you have 10 hours left to tour. You're waiting in line without consuming a constrained resource.

 

[Vegas Disney Fan]

I went to grade school in the 1970s , no school lunch , gym class everyday , played dodge ball at lunch everyday , I brought my GI Joe metal lunch box with bologna sandwich and an apple and no AC in school. The heat barely worked when it needed to be turned on. Different attitudes from 50 years ago to present time.

I still laugh that our nuclear war preparation was hiding under our desks. Up north it took a couple feet of snow and white out conditions to get a snow day but if it hit 90 the schools closed because they didn’t even have swamp coolers back then. High 80s just meant windows open with fans in the rooms to keep the air moving. Awe, the good old days.

 

[MrPromey]

Does anybody here secretely want these price hikes in the hopes that it will thin out park attendence? Would a less-crowded park make the parks a better experience for the ones left that pay a higher price?

Yikes....what a horrible thought that one is. I doubt anyone would even publically confess to dreaming of this....

Secretly?

You've obviously been skipping over a lot of posts.

It's no secret at all.

What's unbelievable (to me) is that many here seem to think that's what Disney's trying to do with current price increases as a result of a brief remark Bob 1.0 made nearly half a decade ago while trying to sell the "benefit" of variable pricing to guests just before the launch of that scheme.

Still waiting to hear back how much more magical the week between Christmas and New Years is due to that change, btw.*



*for the people in the park, I mean - not the shareholders.



_

 

[Sir_Cliff]

I agree about Pandora (and mentioned it somewhere); I also don't care about Avatar but really enjoy it.

I think the fact that it's essentially a natural area in a natural themed park makes it a bit different though. I think it's much easier to enjoy "nature" than a bunch of buildings that don't resonate with you, even when they are incredibly well done. Diagon Alley is one of the best theme park lands ever built, but even it has a fair number of people who say it didn't do anything for them because they don't care about HP.

I must sheepishly admit that I feel like that about Cars Land at DCA. The theming is pretty amazing, particularly in the way they've taken an area of DCA where you used to see the surrounding hotels and found a solution to create an attraction/berm of sorts to wrap around the land. Also love the Route 66 theme as a concept. The fact everything is built as though it's made by and for Cars as it in those films, though, takes away from it for me. Would love to step into a fantasy version of Route 66 on a similar scale and Radiator Springs Racers could easily still be the main attraction.

If you loved the films it might be different, but all the weird car-centric stuff just throws the land a little off-kilter for me such that it will never be as appealing as something like Frontierland.

 

[HauntedPirate]

Does anybody here secretely want these price hikes in the hopes that it will thin out park attendence? Would a less-crowded park make the parks a better experience for the ones left that pay a higher price?

Yikes....what a horrible thought that one is. I doubt anyone would even publically confess to dreaming of this....

Don’t worry. If attendance drops, so will staffing, so it will feel the same.

 

[Sirwalterraleigh]

With reports of rides, parks being barely maintained , if the parks close later and later how are the overnight teams going to have enough time to maintain and repair ? If a park closed at 11pm I’m pretty sure not every guest will vacate by then.

I think the problem is they’re cutting corners already…maybe more hours/strain will make it a problem you can’t kick dirt on?

 

[JustAFan]

Hmm we have more demand. We could increase supply (expand parks, add attractions, etc.) or raise our already ridiculous prices.

 

[Javier Antonio Nisa Avila]

Does anybody here secretely want these price hikes in the hopes that it will thin out park attendence? Would a less-crowded park make the parks a better experience for the ones left that pay a higher price?

Yikes....what a horrible thought that one is. I doubt anyone would even publically confess to dreaming of this....

I would like to be in a park less crowded. However, I think the result will be to pay more money for the same. As it has been said, many people are willing to spend money after the COVID.

Nevertheless , I don't know what will happen when all the world start the recession that is coming.

 

[LSLS]

With reports of rides, parks being barely maintained , if the parks close later and later how are the overnight teams going to have enough time to maintain and repair ? If a park closed at 11pm I’m pretty sure not every guest will vacate by then.

They didn't have issues keeping things updated years ago when the parks were regularly open that late (or later). And it's not like they have more rides to maintain now than they did

 

[erasure fan1]

Don’t worry. If attendance drops, so will staffing, so it will feel the same.

Ding ding ding! We have a winner!

Disney isn't in this for the guest experience. They are in it to milk as much money as they possibly can. So Less people coming to the parks will equal less staff, less entertainment, less places to eat, rides being closed and shorter hours. All for the wonderful 50% extra cost.

 

[Javier Antonio Nisa Avila]

Don’t worry. If attendance drops, so will staffing, so it will feel the same.

More layoffs?

 

[Javier Antonio Nisa Avila]

Ding ding ding! We have a winner!

Disney isn't in this for the guest experience. They are in it to milk as much money as they possibly can. So Less people coming to the parks will equal less staff, less entertainment, less places to eat, rides being closed and shorter hours. All for the wonderful 50% extra cost.

Well, this is the idea of Bob Chapek. More layoffs, less hours and pay much more for less. He is cutting corners in order to get money and say that it is really exclusive. However, many people will think they are privileged.

 

[Sirwalterraleigh]

Again, you're extending your available touring time.

If the park is open from 9 to 7, you have 10 hours to tour. If you get in line at 9:00 and wait an hour, you have 9 hours left to tour.

If you get in line at 8:00, before the park is open, and wait an hour, you have 10 hours left to tour. You're waiting in line without consuming a constrained resource.

Again…you’re making excuses for bad management that lead to this nonsense. And allowing them to overuse staff for this benefit.

It’s a bit Hard-o too.

 

[JMcMahonEsq]

Again…you’re making excuses for bad management that lead to this nonsense. And allowing them to overuse staff for this benefit.

It’s a bit Hard-o too.

No you just have nothing to logically argue against his point, so you start rambling.

Rope dropping allows for more usable time in the park…period.

 

[Sirwalterraleigh]

I still laugh that our nuclear war preparation was hiding under our desks. Up north it took a couple feet of snow and white out conditions to get a snow day but if it hit 90 the schools closed because they didn’t even have swamp coolers back then. High 80s just meant windows open with fans in the rooms to keep the air moving. Awe, the good old days.

This is still one of the greatest things I’ve ever seen:

 

[Sirwalterraleigh]

No you just have nothing to logically argue against his point, so you start rambling.

Rope dropping allows for more usable time in the park…period.

Sitting on the concrete to get in line is wasting your time. Period.

Now i think I hear somebody calling you for dinner?

 

[Vegas Disney Fan]

Sitting on the concrete to get in line is wasting your time. Period.

Now i think I hear somebody calling you for dinner?

We usually show up at least half an hour before rope drop, we find early arrival exhilarating, everyone’s so amped and excited for the day ahead and there’s a buzz in the air, we also know if we can get 2-3 major rides done in the first hour it sets the whole day up to be so much more relaxing and fun.

Waiting is waiting but somehow rope drop feels different. I‘d give anything for the MK show to return, the train rolling in to start the day was probably the most magical thing ever at Disney and was worth every second of lost sleep.

 

[Sirwalterraleigh]

We usually show up at least half an hour before rope drop, we find early arrival exhilarating, everyone’s so amped and excited for the day ahead and there’s a buzz in the air, we also know if we can get 2-3 major rides done in the first hour it sets the whole day up to be so much more relaxing and fun.

Waiting is waiting but somehow rope drop feels different. I‘d give anything for the MK show to return, the train rolling in to start the day was probably the most magical thing ever at Disney and was worth every second of lost sleep.

I’m not saying “don’t do it”….but it is waiting in the equivalent of a line to “avoid the line”…it’s a different type of queue.

If you walked straight in…that wouldn’t be the case. But you cannot do the things people claim you can strolling in. So that’s disingenuous…at best.

 

[Sir_Cliff]

They didn't have issues keeping things updated years ago when the parks were regularly open that late (or later). And it's not like they have more rides to maintain now than they did

Exactly. When they started closing earlier the maintenance did not get better because they had more time to fix and clean things. The reverse happened because the parks closing earlier was due to the same management philosophy that cuts back on non-essential maintenance.

 

[Sirwalterraleigh]

More layoffs?

Maybe not layoffs…

But wdw - specifically - has run more on the college and international programs…and that pipeline has been completely disrupted by Covid.

Until they get what they want - huge numbers of those - there will be “short staffing”. Just a hunch of mine.