News Disney to launch new Vacation Planning site to help guests with date-based tickets

[Calmdownnow]

They lost me with the announcement of a Disney website being launched to help people navigate the complexity of booking. It held the same sense of impending doom offered by the famous quote: "I'm from the government and I'm here to help".

Glad that I've already opted out and my last DVC contract is going through ROFR, so 40 days and I'm gone.

 

[SteamboatJoe]

Funny how some of the rationale is, "this is how everyone else does it" as if that somehow makes it all OK. Fair or not I simply expect Disney to do things a little better than everyone else, including Universal Studios, and am disappointed when they don't. Acting like everyone else is a significant lowering of the bar in my opinion.

 

[Ciciwoowoo]

Just ran this by the family... The conclusion? Let's rent our Dvc points next year and go on a cruise instead. And no, we will not be taking a Disney cruise.

 

[lentesta]

Kudos to @lentesta for having this first.

Thanks. In a bit of irony, Media Relations called me while I was on a DCL cruise in Canada for this. I probably paid like $45 to hear they were switching ticket terms.

Home on Friday.

 

[GhostHost1000]

They lost me with the announcement of a Disney website being launched to help people navigate the complexity of booking. It held the same sense of impending doom offered by the famous quote: "I'm from the government and I'm here to help".

Glad that I've already opted out and my last DVC contract is going through ROFR, so 40 days and I'm gone.

Let’s be honest. Disney can launch all the websites they want...they won’t work because they’ll be down half the time

 

[sophie_the_pooh]

If you can get them now with a discount, I would. How long does the discount last, and is there any protection there (as in since it’s offered, they have to fulfill the terms of the offer)?

The discount is offered until March 15, but I'm worried that the prices will go up for June (end of June) with this new date-priced tickets situation...

 

[Nick Pappagiorgio]

What sort of "flexability" do you suppose people will get for the $100. Months? A year? No expiration?

 

[Lensman]

Am I right in thinking that they haven't implemented park-specific pricing yet, as they were originally rumored to be thinking about?
Edit: I see from the other thread that indeed, they're also eliminating park-specific pricing.

In addition to the "complication", I suspect this is also a simple money-grab (or revenue-enhancement, as I've called it at work) to enable price increases for high season while maintaining current pricing for low season. @CaptainAmerica, it may seem beyond the pale for Disney to increase prices by 20%, but I suspect they could do that or more for spring break and Christmas week.

Looking at my DVC point chart, I see that those weeks are 70% more expensive that "Adventure Season" (or 60% more expensive than average pricing). Do your point about discounted off-season, Note that "Adventure Season" is about 10% cheaper than average pricing. Magic Season pricing during summer vacation is about 20% higher than average pricing.

Raising ticket prices for spring break and Christmas Day to New Years by 50% *would* be umm, "bold" (or some other word that starts with a "b").

I could see them *not* lowering off-season pricing in the first year, but just having it flat for a couple of years. This would make people who bought tickets before the pricing scheme from experiencing remorse. OTOH, I could also see them lowering off season prices by, say, 5% to be able to say that some prices have gone down while others went up. My bet would be on long-term summer pricing 20% higher than average and off-season pricing 10% lower than the average. All bets are off for Christmas and Spring Break.

Given that this seasonal pricing is anticipated to change the seasonality preference behavior for guests both on and offsite, I wonder if it will mean that the seasonal pricing for DVC and onsite resorts will be lessened? I'm thinking that the seasonal ticket pricing will contribute to more DVCers wanting to visit during off-season, so off-season DVC pricing would adjust to follow that demand.

 

["El Gran Magnifico"]

Man.....this is going to make the future "budgeting" threads...a hoot.

Can't wait.

 

[SteamboatJoe]

It feels like we are mere steps away from tiered pricing not only based on seasons or individual days but attractions. Want to ride those E tickets? Cough up some extra cash to unlock all the magic! It's a great way to save for those that just want to take it a little slower at Walt Disney World Resort!

 

[MuteSuperstar]

It feels like we are mere steps away from tiered pricing not only based on seasons or individual days but attractions. Want to ride those E tickets? Cough up some extra cash to unlock all the magic! It's a great way to save for those that just want to take it a little slower at Walt Disney World Resort!

 

[erasure fan1]

Funny how some of the rationale is, "this is how everyone else does it" as if that somehow makes it all OK. Fair or not I simply expect Disney to do things a little better than everyone else, including Universal Studios, and am disappointed when they don't. Acting like everyone else is a significant lowering of the bar in my opinion.

Man do I hate the everybody else is doing it argument. I expect more from Disney than, lots of places have parking fees, so lets charge them too. It's sad that at one time Disney set the standard, now they just settle for mediocrity. Doing things like everyone else is just about the most un-Disney thing they can do.

 

[DABIGCHEEZ]

You have 7 days to use a 4.

This is the only problem I really have with this. I get the date-based pricing. But we are DVC and since we drive in from NJ when we go, we have to take one longer stay(10-12 days) rather than a few shorter stays. Some members get a 4 day ticket and others get a 2 day... now planning is going to be a much bigger headache to schedule what parks we all go to together when. Also we usually spread park visits out over at least 10 days... which we will not be able to do. This may just make us chose elsewhere to use our points and not buy any park tickets at all. Been visiting less and less because of crap like this over the last 5 years or so.

 

[tabby1222]

Thought experiment:

If you're random Joe Guest who visits once every ten years and you go to WaltDisneyWorld.com to book a trip, you enter your dates and your resort and the thing spits out a price. That's it. You're not visiting WDWMagic or MouseSavers or TouringPlans to figure out that Fall Season 2 has rack rates that are 18% above the lowest of the year. You don't know that your quoted rate is based on a 25% off stay-and-play package. You just say when you're coming and who's in your family, and there's a price at the end.

WE make it complicated because WE are the planners and researchers and deal-finders and vacation engineers. But I think we largely bring it on ourselves.


That's a very narrow and specific subset of guests.

A broader subset that's getting shafted are the teachers.

Teachers....... The only time we can go is during summer, spring break, or Christmas break. Luckily for me, we have AP's, since my mom lives an hour away. Still sucks when two nights at POR are $600 with AP discount. So no matter how you look at it, teachers are screwed. And don't even get me started on the crowd levels when we can go......

 

[DABIGCHEEZ]

If you’re there more than 10 days its more effective to just buy an AP.

What if we stay at the resort for 10 or more days, but only want to go to the parks for 4 days... I do not need an AP for that.

 

[CoasterSnoop]

Because launching an entire service to help people with a different bizarre, confusing service is much easier than making things accessible and easily-understandable right at the start.

 

[Much-Pixie-Dust]

They’ve totally shafted (politest wording I could think of ) those who want to visit the parks before and after a cruise.

Say you book a 5 or 7 day cruise and want to add a night before at POP and a couple of nights after at POFQ. The tickets won’t be valid for the whole time, so you don’t get the benefit of the longer ticket; instead you’ll have to buy a 1 day ticket and a separate 2-3 day ticket.

This! So now I will end up going to Sea World day before and at Uni afterward.

 

[Patcheslee]

Teachers....... The only time we can go is during summer, spring break, or Christmas break. Luckily for me, we have AP's, since my mom lives an hour away. Still sucks when two nights at POR are $600 with AP discount. So no matter how you look at it, teachers are screwed. And don't even get me started on the crowd levels when we can go......

Same boat with a school district that doesn't excuse family vacation. Between that and my work has overtime all but maybe June, it's expensive. Guess I know what the OT is going to.... And thank you for being a teacher it's a job that requires special people to do.

 

[Notes from Neverland]

It's surprising to me that no one, or at least no one in a position of power, noted that if there needs to be a website to explain and help guests with a change, it may not be a good change. Keep things simple. People already felt they had to jump several hurdles just to go to Disney World and now there's an entirely new barrier to entry.

 

[Macca250]

Anyone else absolutely hate the term “vacation planning” now? Sure elements of MM+ (the app, MagicBands etc) are excellent but you can easily see through it’s flashy exterior. And this ticket pricing is another example of corporate micromanagement being forced onto guests, but dressed up as something that’s been created in the guest’s favour.

I love Disney and as a Brit these changes don’t even impact me, but I am getting more and more worried about the amount of communications coming out of WDW that focus on terms like “Vacation Planning” which benefits their business rather than “hey look at this new attraction we’ve built for you, our loyal guests”.

Come on Disney, the world needs WDW now more than ever. Carry on making tonnes of money as usual, just not at the expense of guest spirits