News Disney's Magical Express to end after 2021

[CaptainAmerica]

The part of this that is uniquely stupid may seem trivial, but... car seats. Car seats are going to be a MAJOR problem.

I'm a pretty typical Disney family, my kids are 6, 3, and 1. For at least another year, I'm going to need one booster seat, one forward-facing car seat, and one rear-facing car seat. For two years after that, I'll still need two car seats but minus the booster. You currently *cannot get* an Uber or Lyft with two car seats, let alone three. Uber with even a single car seat is difficult to find and usually very expensive.

 

[flynnibus]

I think the problem of Uber/Lyft/cabs existing was there even with ME in place. I suspect that by this point most WDW guests have experienced using a ride share service and are comfortable enough with it that they could already use it to leave property.

I'd wager a very high percentage of people (especially those over the age of 35) haven't used lift/uber. For many at WDW, I bet minivans was their first exposure to lyft.

You can't discount the value of 'breaking the seal' either. The idea that once you have left site, doing it more than once isn't a big deal. But if you've not left site because of some barrier... that resistance to breaking the pattern is even higher.

IMO the real issue is rental cars. I suspect that the parking fees are now viewed as a sufficient disincentive to rent a car, when comparing the residual marginal revenue from a captive audience vs. the cost of the service.

Be it rentals or ride-share... all roads here lead to customers being kicked to the 3rd party curb and Disney leaving people on their own. Just can't see how they sell this is anything but a reduction in service.

 

[MisterPenguin]

View attachment 523426

And it won't be free...

I wonder how much Mears' "Parks Enchanted Express" will be?

 

[CaptainAmerica]

I'd wager a very high percentage of people (especially those over the age of 35) haven't used lift/uber. For many at WDW, I bet minivans was their first exposure to lyft.

You can't discount the value of 'breaking the seal' either. The idea that once you have left site, doing it more than once isn't a big deal. But if you've not left site because of some barrier... that resistance to breaking the pattern is even higher.




Be it rentals or ride-share... all roads here lead to customers being kicked to the 3rd party curb and Disney leaving people on their own. Just can't see how they sell this is anything but a reduction in service.

There's no viable 3rd party option for families of multiple car seat aged children.

I wonder how much Mears' "Parks Enchanted Express" will be?

The weird thing is that they used to offer one at Disneyland for a fee, and that was discontinued as well. Completely.

 

[monothingie]

Reading between the lines of the blog post, I'm guessing the logic went something like this:

"Even when we give people DME, they're still going to Universal and off-site restaurants and off-site shopping because they can get to those places easily via Uber and Lyft. Therefore, we've lost our 'captive guest' advantage, which was the whole reason for offering DME for free in the first place."

Of course the reality of what they're missing is that USO has upped their game, while Disney at best has been flat. Disney needs every little differentiator it can get. Too bad the junior MBA with fancy degrees looking for their next job interview doesn't even know what business they're in.

 

[Stitch826]

How difficult would it be for Disney to operate their own bus system to and from the airport rather than paying Mears? Like I wrote before, I’m sure most guests would even pay for it.

 

[flynnibus]

Another factor is that there seems to be a replacement product rumored to be offered but probably at a cost (and tied to "Genie"). I could easily see how they would use this wrapped into Disney Genie to make that a most robust offering and better "value". But in order to sell that upcharge, you need to get rid of the included perk first.

But even if it's a transition to a paid product... you don't throw everyone off the boat... let them bob around in the water some.. and then offer to pick them up in your new paid boat. You offer a seamless transition. Even if Disney didn't have pricing/etc locked in for some reason, you would say DME would be replaced by a new service with some perks to make it SEEM better and a price to be named later.

This 'cut them off and dump them in the ocean' is not how you transition people to a new product.

 

[marni1971]

The part of this that is uniquely stupid may seem trivial, but... car seats.

Not at all. Only last week MCO put out a PR blurb about the new terminals baggage system. Has some of the biggest baggage buckets in the industry since the airport compared to elsewhere deals with massive amounts of golf clubs and... car seats.

 

[CaptainAmerica]

Of course the reality of what they're missing is that USO has upped their game, while Disney at best as been flat. Disney needs every little differentiator it can get. To bad the junior MBA with fancy degrees looking for their next job interview doesn't even know what business they're in.

I genuinely don't know how much little logistical decisions like this impact the guest. Obviously the online "fan community" is hyper-sensitive to it, but that's because we all pay way too much attention. The best Disney experience you can have, arguably anywhere in the world, is Aulani. They charge $40 per day for parking and there's not airport transportation available. Doesn't bother me one bit.

 

[WDWYankee15]

My parents were always car renters, so my first MDE experience was our honeymoon in 2014 and we fell in love with the idea of being "safe" in Disney's hands from MCO to MCO. What did Mears' service look like pre MDE?

Luckily, my wife and I have pretty much decided to do auto-train for our next trip - so this is moot for us. But it really does begin to kill the idea of flying to WDW versus doing Amtrak for future trips.

In 1998 and 2000 my girlfriend (now wife) took Mears as there was no DME yet and we were too young to rent a car, also college students on a budget. It was essentially the same as you see DME now, except you got your own luggage. You would take your luggage to the area were DME is now and there was a "Mears" loading area. You showed your ticket (which is similar to what you did for DME prior to magic bands) and would board a bus to your resort. Same thing on the way home. You would have to arrange the time with Mears, it wasn't like now when DME schedules you.

Essentially Mears was a shuttle service, but often used large buses as opposed to vans like you would see with a "Super Shuttle" type operation. They could do this because volume and regularity of customer flow allowed them to do so to maximize profit.

So in the early 2000's Disney essentially contracted with Mears to keep doing what they were doing, but do it for all their resort guests. They wrapped the yellow Mears buses in Disney Magical Express graphics, added the luggage transfer option, and marketed it as a wonderful new perk of a resort stay. It gave incentive to stay on property and kept customers on that property once they got there. Remember that Universal had recently opened Island of Adventure around this time and there was a desire to keep vacation dollars spent at Disney.

Now with ride sharing, it is a lot harder to keep customers on property, regardless if they rent a car or not. Additionally there is a strong desire for customers to go to Universal. If customers want to go to Universal, they are going to go. So Disney is probably losing more money on their DME contract with Mears than it is getting them in their failing effort to keep people on property to monopolize their vacation dollars.

Lastly, WDW resorts (pre-COVID) were often full and so were the parks. Stopping DME is an expense (probably a large one), that they likely think is not helping contribute to their profits. They probably calculate that it is a net loss currently. They do not operate transportation for their other "resorts" world wide. While WDW is the only true "campus" type setting and likely why it garnered a reason to keep the people on the "campus" at one time, however that captive state no longer exists unless one choose to do so for "Disney emergence" or "convenience" purposes.

 

[DCBaker]

 

[monothingie]

I genuinely don't know how much little logistical decisions like this impact the guest.

The part of this that is uniquely stupid may seem trivial, but... car seats. Car seats are going to be a MAJOR problem.

I'm a pretty typical Disney family, my kids are 6, 3, and 1. For at least another year, I'm going to need one booster seat, one forward-facing car seat, and one rear-facing car seat. For two years after that, I'll still need two car seats but minus the booster. You currently *cannot get* an Uber or Lyft with two car seats, let alone three. Uber with even a single car seat is difficult to find and usually very expensive.

 

[Bender123]

How difficult would it be for Disney to operate their own bus system to and from the airport rather than paying Mears? Like I wrote before, I’m sure most guests would even pay for it.

We already pay for it...Whether they line item it out on your bill or not, this was never a "free" service. What you are getting now is a straight up "we keep the money, you get less service."

 

[jpeden]

Wow....

 

[aliceismad]

There's no viable 3rd party option for families of multiple car seat aged children.

Also car seats are a PITA to travel with. I've done it twice but only with one kid. She's been twice to WDW and twice on a (non-Disney) cruise, and man those busses were so appreciated.

 

[flynnibus]

I'm waiting for the real fire sales to start when they realize summer 2021 ain't shaping up the way they expect.

I know... people were all laser focused on crap like 'park percentage of capacity' being available.. and I was worried more about 'the park product itself'. I think this is just the tip of the iceberg in terms of how the parks will be reshaped to fit the new norm.

 

[JoeCamel]

There's no viable 3rd party option for families of multiple car seat aged children.


The weird thing is that they used to offer one at Disneyland for a fee, and that was discontinued as well. Completely.

Try Tony, let him know your needs and he will accommodate as needed, not as much as Mears and much more personal. Never heard a bad word about him or his services.

Tony Hinds

aobh607@gmail.com

407 406 9093

 

[Sir_Cliff]

Penny wise, pound foolish.

The DUMBEST thing they’ve done by killing what is arguably one of the smartest moves they’ve made in the 21st century.

That's my impression. As far as I understood, DME was a massive success that tangibly helped create the whole bubble they were aiming at without having to pay to give people more things to occupy their time.

From my point of view, I already felt after my last trip that WDW was tipping over into being too expensive and not good enough value relative to other potential destinations. This firmly underlines that judgement for me, twice.

One thing that might be different about this cut relative to others is how integral DME has become to the WDW resort experience and how heavily they have promoted it as a perk to help justify their excessive prices. Once this is gone, there really aren't that many perks beyond proximity. They're even stripping back theming on their newer hotels. Rather than be dazzled by the prospect of 30 extra minutes, I think that offer is only going to have returning guests asking "wait, so Extra Magic Hours has also been cut?"

 

[icc2515]

But again, I'd be surprised if MDE cost disney more than $1-2 Mil a year. (if even that much)

I think your numbers are way way off. According to this article:

How Much Does It Cost to Purchase and Operate a Bus?

Bus systems have significant capital and operating costs that must be taken into consideration when designing public transit systems.

www.liveabout.com

It costs on the low end $100 per hour to run a diesel bus including labor. Those buses run 24 hours, but lets say on average they only run 12. Thats $438,000 per year that it costs Mears to run 1 bus not including the $550,000 that it costs to buy the bus. How many buses are they running. I know in the summer you would see at least a dozen at the airport, plus all the ones on the road. They would show up every 30 mins at the resorts. I bet they had 50 buses running. That's about 25 million in costs plus the 25 million to buy the buses. Now they have to mark it up to Disney. I be it cost Disney 75 million a year to run the ME. You have to figure in the cost of the Disney employees at the airport, plus all that space at the airport is not free. The airport rent is probably millions a year.

 

[HansGruber]

You can't discount the value of 'breaking the seal' either. The idea that once you have left site, doing it more than once isn't a big deal. But if you've not left site because of some barrier... that resistance to breaking the pattern is even higher.

This.

As a kid, we went to Universal and Seaworld one time over 20-something years mostly because we flew down every time and Ubers weren't a thing.

Now that I have my own kids, we split the vacation between Disney and one of these parks. In addition, if I have my car, I go off-campus at night to a casino or OTB. I certainly have no qualms about exploring the Orlando area further. I didn't even know the area directly south of AKL even existed until a couple years ago.