Disneyland officially reopening April 30th

[Supreme Leader]

How come anytime I hit "select tickets" it takes me to a Know Before You Go guide? Am I this dumb?

 

[el_super]

People that had APs and went all the time will pay due to pent-up demand, yeah, and they won't do it forever.

Yeah but how long can they do it for? The assumption now is the park is running at a fraction of capacity and they are limiting supply, but they could technically do that for months if not years if they wanted to. Keeping the park open fewer hours reduces their operating costs and increases their margins on ticket revenue.

And a few months later when sales start to slow down, they can bring back the fireworks.

A few months after that, bring back Fantasmic.

And a few months after that bring back the parades.

Eventually they will have a new ride open.

This is the basic model they used for some 30 years before APs gave away admission for cheap. If they want to go with a non-AP model, they will have to keep adding attractions and entertainment to keep people paying that premium price. It can be done.

 

[the_rich]

People that had APs and went all the time will pay due to pent-up demand, yeah, and they won't do it forever.

Again, this is going on the assumption that only locals care to go to Disneyland. With no APs you now will see more vacationers go. It will shift from the paradigm of certain people going all the time to a wider spread of people going some of the time.

When #disneyland was trending on Twitter yesterday, there were a lot of out-of-state people jealous and angry that only Californians could go. Some were even trying to tell people that are out-of-state that they couldn't get tickets (and even hoping that those who do get in trouble) not understanding that buying tickets doesn't require California residency since tickets are good for over a year and a half, but that it's reservations and phisically going to the park that is limited to Californians.

They're going for the higher per person spending that out of towners are going to bring versus ap. So while admissions may go down spending will go up. That is what they're shooting for at least. Whether that actually happens or not is up for debate.

 

[Tamandua]

I hear that. I mean I just paid something like $850+ for 3x 2 day park hoppers. That used to be a Signature AP with parking included not too long ago. Right now most people are willing to pay because of the pent up demand due to the last year we had. This isn’t sustainable though. They will have to bring back some sort of discount or AP program.

Yeah. You also have to assume that they're not filling 100% of actual allowed capacity for all these dates and holding some back. I would assume that some availability will free up, and that whatever the demand level appears to be right now is somewhat misleading. I fully expect the AP program to be back this summer.

 

[CaptinEO]

I would say the JW Marriott is the most upscale currently, the Westin, when it opens, should be as nice as the JW Marriott.

Luxury Hotel Anaheim | JW Marriott, Anaheim Resort

Reserve accommodation at our luxury hotel in Anaheim, CA, and experience an array of wellness amenities as well as a rooftop bar at JW Marriott, Anaheim Resort.

www.marriott.com

Anaheim Convention Center Hotels | The Westin Anaheim Resort

Our Anaheim hotel near Disneyland offers an unforgettable stay. Enjoy family-friendly amenities close to the magic. Book your dream vacation now!

www.marriott.com

Thank you! Wrote these down for later.

 

[CaptinEO]

Yeah but how long can they do it for? The assumption now is the park is running at a fraction of capacity and they are limiting supply, but they could technically do that for months if not years if they wanted to. Keeping the park open fewer hours reduces their operating costs and increases their margins on ticket revenue.

And a few months later when sales start to slow down, they can bring back the fireworks.

A few months after that, bring back Fantasmic.

And a few months after that bring back the parades.

Eventually they will have a new ride open.

This is the basic model they used for some 30 years before APs gave away admission for cheap. If they want to go with a non-AP model, they will have to keep adding attractions and entertainment to keep people paying that premium price. It can be done.

Yep! If they adjust to demand, be it by dynamically adjusting pricing or adding things to generate demand, no need to ever have APs. They already have multiday admission tickets.

Can't fill the parks for 150 a ticket? Make them 130. Any business can do this.

The AP model ruined the parks. I'm glad it's gone. I hope it stays gone, surveys show they want "memberships" though.

 

[CaptinEO]

My friend sent me this.

View attachment 549366

For me I was there at 530 and finally was able to get reservations at 345ish.

 

[chadwpalm]

Yep! If they adjust to demand, be it by dynamically adjusting pricing or adding things to generate demand, no need to ever have APs. They already have multiday admission tickets.

Can't fill the parks for 150 a ticket? Make them 130. Any business can do this.

The AP model ruined the parks. I'm glad it's gone. I hope it stays gone, surveys show they want "memberships" though.

This exactly. It's already set up. They set up a 5-tier system with a range from $104 to $154 to handle the demand. They don't need to worry about dynamically adjusting prices up and down for demand, they only need to set which days get which tier. They just need to evaluate the trends year over year, and if there's a week or two for example that has low attendance and they want to pull bodies into the parks, they need only to lower the tier for those days and vice versa. Couple that with some discounts or incentives for low-demand days (like discounts for locals during off-season) and I don't think they'll have a problem spreading out the crowds and keeping bodies in the parks.

 

[CaptinEO]

This exactly. It's already set up. They set up a 5-tier system with a range from $104 to $154 to handle the demand. They don't need to worry about dynamically adjusting prices up and down for demand, they only need to set which days get which tier. They just need to evaluate the trends year over year, and if there's a week or two for example that has low attendance and they want to pull bodies into the parks, they need only to lower the tier for those days and vice versa. Couple that with some discounts or incentives for low-demand days (like discounts for locals during off-season) and I don't think they'll have a problem spreading out the crowds and keeping bodies in the parks.

You got it! That's exactly it. All they have to do is adjust, like you mentioned.

So many people take the approach of "they need annual passholders". And forget Disneyland existed 3 decades without any annual passes. It's a premium theme park, why do they have to sell admission in bulk?

The AP system later on in its life was used to fill the parks during off season. In the early / mid 2000s no one cared about Disneyland and the park was always so nice to visit.

My family bought annual passes for 100 dollars around this time. We never had crowding issues.

It seems like as demand for Disney grew their prices for Annual Passes (especially lower tiers) barely moved, while ticket prices always went up.

They pretty much were pushing people towards buying annual passes with the offensively high one day ticket prices. 175 for a one day park hopper vs 300 for an annual pass that lets you visit ALL YEAR - minus blackout dates.

 

[PiratesMansion]

So did they extend the expiration dates on tickets from what was listed on the website originally and/or should I expect them to?

Because right now what I found on the site says that for the tickets I purchased, they expire on December 16th of this year, and I'm a non-Californian, and while I understand that June 15th they will probably let non-Californians in, you never know what could happen and that doesn't seem like a particularly generous window on their part.

And, y'know, I paid for MaxPass too.

I'm hoping they're just behind and they'll update it later, but who knows?

 

[chadwpalm]

So after all of yesterday's craziness, I think the details of my trip are finally all set in place. Got my tickets, my park reservations, the time off of work, and hotel reservations.

I drive down on June 4th, will probably have dinner at DTD, then go to the parks Saturday and Sunday, and drive home Monday.

Since everything else was in place, I decided to get the Priceline Express Deal for my hotel, doing 3-star for $72/night. I don't usually like "non-refundable pay upfront" when booking hotels, but I ended up getting the Hilton Garden Inn which is great for that price.

Since I purchased my park tickets through Undercover Tourist, I didn't get to use my Disney Reward Dollars (even though I got a $7 discount), so I decided to just use my reward dollars on two parking passes. That way I don't have to worry about busses, shuttles, or rideshare. Since I got a good deal on the hotel I can live with that.

I'm so excited! It'll have been a year and a half since being at the resort. I get my Covid shots this Tuesday and three weeks after. I can then feel safe and focus on having fun.

 

[chadwpalm]

So did they extend the expiration dates on tickets from what was listed on the website originally and/or should I expect them to?

Because right now what I found on the site says that for the tickets I purchased, they expire on December 16th of this year, and I'm a non-Californian, and while I understand that June 15th they will probably let non-Californians in, you never know what could happen and that doesn't seem like a particularly generous window on their part.

And, y'know, I paid for MaxPass too.

I'm hoping they're just behind and they'll update it later, but who knows?

Yes. This was a big announcement back around March 25th:

"Unused non-promotional single-day tickets that expire on December 30, 2021 or March 31, 2022 will have the expiration date extended to December 30, 2022.

Wholly unused, non-promotional multi-day tickets that expire on January 12, 2022 or April 13, 2022 will have the expiration date extended to January 12, 2023. The ticket will expire 13 days after first use or on January 12, 2023, whichever occurs first.

Guests with multi-day tickets who used their first visit between February 28, 2020 and March 13, 2020 but did not reach their ticket’s maximum number of uses will have the 13-day expiration period of their ticket extended to December 30, 2022.

Expiration dates on eligible ticket(s) will be updated before the theme parks’ reopening."

Based on the last sentence the dates should get updated before the end of the month. As far as Maxpass goes, there's been nothing official announced (that I know of), but you might wanna call them and see what they say.

 

[Tamandua]

The queue wait time is now less than a minute. I guess the ticket demand has peaked.

 

[fctiger]

Yeah. You also have to assume that they're not filling 100% of actual allowed capacity for all these dates and holding some back. I would assume that some availability will free up, and that whatever the demand level appears to be right now is somewhat misleading. I fully expect the AP program to be back this summer.

It will definitely be back (in some form) but I don't this soon. I think Disney knows they have to keep capacity low for awhile, probably through the rest of 2021. Maybe the demand won't be there after a few months (which I'm predicting) if capacity is much higher but probably enough for them to be happy.

But yes once all of this covid nightmare is truly behind us, I expect Disney to go back to their old ways and pack as many in as they could all year. They are being very responsible and cautious for now, which is great, but I don't see this being the new normal forever, especially when they are competing with so many other parks in the areas who all does still have their APs and being more aggressive knowing there are tons of Disney fans who wants to go to theme parks all year round and now shut out.

 

[fctiger]

The queue wait time is now less than a minute. I guess the ticket demand has peaked.

Not surprising. It looks like DL itself is selling out the first few weeks, but there are still tons of tickets in June. This is not really bad at all, especially when they are only selling at 25% capacity. But we knew people who HAS to be in the park when it opened were going to be the first to do it. I think majority of fans are pretty patient and will just play it by ear. A lot of people are still not certain about going back to mass areas and I imagine others will just wait to get vaccinated first.

 

[PiratesMansion]

Yes. This was a big announcement back around March 25th:

"Unused non-promotional single-day tickets that expire on December 30, 2021 or March 31, 2022 will have the expiration date extended to December 30, 2022.

Wholly unused, non-promotional multi-day tickets that expire on January 12, 2022 or April 13, 2022 will have the expiration date extended to January 12, 2023. The ticket will expire 13 days after first use or on January 12, 2023, whichever occurs first.

Guests with multi-day tickets who used their first visit between February 28, 2020 and March 13, 2020 but did not reach their ticket’s maximum number of uses will have the 13-day expiration period of their ticket extended to December 30, 2022.

Expiration dates on eligible ticket(s) will be updated before the theme parks’ reopening."

Based on the last sentence the dates should get updated before the end of the month. As far as Maxpass goes, there's been nothing official announced (that I know of), but you might wanna call them and see what they say.

So I guess I'm in a gray area of some kind, because my tickets would have originally expired on January 12th of this year, which the website currently tells me would mean they expire December 16th.

Ah well. Hopefully they update it, and soon.

 

[the_rich]

It will definitely be back (in some form) but I don't this soon. I think Disney knows they have to keep capacity low for awhile, probably through the rest of 2021. Maybe the demand won't be there after a few months (which I'm predicting) if capacity is much higher but probably enough for them to be happy.

But yes once all of this covid nightmare is truly behind us, I expect Disney to go back to their old ways and pack as many in as they could all year. They are being very responsible and cautious for now, which is great, but I don't see this being the new normal forever, especially when they are competing with so many other parks in the areas who all does still have their APs and being more aggressive knowing there are tons of Disney fans who wants to go to theme parks all year round and now shut out.

They would rather less people in the park spending more money. 10,000 APers vs 2,500 1 day park goers. I can guarantee disney would rather the 2,500 because they'd make more money.

 

[fctiger]

They would rather less people in the park spending more money. 10,000 APers vs 2,500 1 day park goers. I can guarantee disney would rather the 2,500 because they'd make more money.

We've had this argument a million times. Yes if they could GET enough people like that a year. Every theme park would follow this same line. They can't and they know it. Even in lower seasons WITH APs the parks still gets much lower attendance.

And the reality is the APs are coming back, they are now being called 'memberships', right? So clearly they know they need to have APs of some kind. It may be more limited or restrictive though, we'll just have to see. But trust me, the second the crowds start dipping they will find all kinds of ways to get people coming back more. They been doing it for over 30 years now.

And again, people always miss the obvious: DCA! Even if DL can get filled without APs, I don't think DCA can and that is also the issue (that people oddly miss time and time again). Look at what is happening now with the reservations. DL is getting filled up, but DCA is wide open pretty much every day, including the first. The ONLY days you can't go to DCA is the first few days AC is suppose to open. But if you can't fill that park up like DL, then naturally they have to find ways to get people going to that park as well.

 

[ToTBellHop]

We've had this argument a million times. Yes if they could GET enough people like that a year. Every theme park would follow this same line. They can't and they know it. Even in lower seasons WITH APs the parks still gets much lower attendance.

And the reality is the APs are coming back, they are now being called 'memberships', right? So clearly they know they need to have APs of some kind. It may be more limited or restrictive though, we'll just have to see. But trust me, the second the crowds start dipping they will find all kinds of ways to get people coming back more. They been doing it for over 30 years now.

Sure, but the AP crowds were turning others away. I presume they want to see how many tourists they can get and then back-fill with more controlled APs, presumably focusing on a limited number of dates at a higher price point than in the past.

 

[Tamandua]

They would rather less people in the park spending more money. 10,000 APers vs 2,500 1 day park goers. I can guarantee disney would rather the 2,500 because they'd make more money.

What I don't understand about this whole "higher paying guests will come if we limit capacity" thing is... How are they going to convey that to the people who want to come but only if it's not crowded? Disneyland and Disney World are infamous for their overcrowding and long wait times. Are they going to advertise saying they limit capacity going forward? What does that even mean? They've never announced their capacity before, and because so many people just associate large crowds and long wait times (and high prices) with Disney parks, what's going to change where they let the word out to that crowd of would be higher paying guests? Every time crowds slip they lower the pricing tier or have a locals deal to bring crowd levels back up. I think believing that Disney is embracing lower crowds is naive. They're being forced to limit capacity now and so they're spinning that inconvenient fact the best they can, but they're never going to keep attendance artificially low.