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Free Dining for the Fall tied to crowd predictions?
- Thread starter draybook
- Start date
matt9112
Well-Known Member
i called to double check my rate and when we booked it was pre star wars prices. the gentleman on the phone said our same accommodations with the promo are about 100 dollars more than my non promo rack price pre sw price change.
See I’m kinda confused by this because the rack rates have not changed. Depending on when you’re going weekends and select days are excluded from the discount.
Missyrosek
Member
Tickets went up, and adding the discount triggers the new price on a package.
bubbles1812
Well-Known Member
The funniest part about this is that the room discounts that came out today were *just* enough to get me to book a short weekend trip Sept 20-Sept 22. And it's not because of SWGE but honestly because I was looking for an excuse to come say goodbye to Illuminations, which is my favorite Disney show. [I played the score in marching band in high school and it's always held a soft spot for me]. I may stop over to DHS to look at the land and ride a few rides as it seems foolish not to take advantage of the crazy EMH hours but my mom and I already had a planned trip for December that [by sheer dumb luck - we start the trip Dec 7] will allow us to experience the entire land then. But it's no sweat off my back, nor a particular hard draw to make sure I experience all of SWGE this time.
Ahh make sense. I’m always looking at it from a room only perspective.
lentesta
Premium Member
Those Coronado Club Level rooms are pretty good in comparison to other CL offerings. The summer discount rate on them was ~$305/night with tax, at least $150/night better than the next-cheapest CL room.
@lentesta how do you think these promos move the needle on crowds?
Tom P.
Well-Known Member
Apples and oranges.
Amazon has an almost unlimited supply of product to sell. They can always make more sales and, hence, more profit. So even if they are having their best year ever, it makes sense for them to still offer promotions so that they can sell even more.
Disney resort hotels have a fixed supply of product to sell. There are only so many hotel rooms available on property. Once they are filled, that's it, there's no more product to sell. So in that case, if Disney is filling their rooms, they have no reason to offer further promotions.
bUU
Well-Known Member
Not at all. Amazon offers discounts to move inventory. If the inventory will sell at full price, then why would they start cutting people discounts?
Discounts that recur year after year become part of the business model. The business then uses them like they use any other feature of the model, strategically and with sensitivity analysis governing how much.
Disney enjoys very high load levels, but always has tried to leave enough inventory available to be strategic as well as tactical.
It is a natural part of yield management.
I think people need to keep in mind that business management is a science more so than it is an art.
Jon81uk
Well-Known Member
and that is a major reason why people think crowds are low recently, why do a 2019 trip at all, when you can do a 2020 trip and know that all of SWGE is definitely open.
ToTBellHop
Well-Known Member
This is just silly.
Of course the deals are linked to bookings, which are lower than Disney expected for fall.
Bob Iger is literally on record confidently proclaiming that they wouldn't even have to market SWGE and people would show up in droves. That is not happening and does not seem likely in WDW, either. WDW won't be dead this fall, but it will not be slammed as they expected. And when you spend as much as they are on SWGE, you expect the parks to be slammed. These deals are somewhat meager as they anticipate they will be enough to get guests to pull the trigger. We will see if they are correct. If not, they'll tack on an extra 5% discount and beg APs and FL-residents to come.
Summary: they did not expect or want to offer discounts starting August 29. But they will anyway. Apparently opening one ride with middling reviews is not enough for us rubes. Maybe management will stop looking down on the bulk of guests but I doubt it. Unfortunately for them, merely marketing VIP events to the <5% of guests who are super wealthy does not actually turn significant profit when you alienate the rest of guests who are merely booking $700/night hotel rooms, buying $130 park tickets and $8 pretzels with plastic cheese (errr...$75/night dining plans...). So we will get a small discount on the over-inflated hotel rack rates or "free dining" where our perceived value is significantly more than what it actually costs Disney. $75/night LOL...I still can't wrap my brain around the idea that people actually buy that out of pocket.
Of course the deals are linked to bookings, which are lower than Disney expected for fall.
Bob Iger is literally on record confidently proclaiming that they wouldn't even have to market SWGE and people would show up in droves. That is not happening and does not seem likely in WDW, either. WDW won't be dead this fall, but it will not be slammed as they expected. And when you spend as much as they are on SWGE, you expect the parks to be slammed. These deals are somewhat meager as they anticipate they will be enough to get guests to pull the trigger. We will see if they are correct. If not, they'll tack on an extra 5% discount and beg APs and FL-residents to come.
Summary: they did not expect or want to offer discounts starting August 29. But they will anyway. Apparently opening one ride with middling reviews is not enough for us rubes. Maybe management will stop looking down on the bulk of guests but I doubt it. Unfortunately for them, merely marketing VIP events to the <5% of guests who are super wealthy does not actually turn significant profit when you alienate the rest of guests who are merely booking $700/night hotel rooms, buying $130 park tickets and $8 pretzels with plastic cheese (errr...$75/night dining plans...). So we will get a small discount on the over-inflated hotel rack rates or "free dining" where our perceived value is significantly more than what it actually costs Disney. $75/night LOL...I still can't wrap my brain around the idea that people actually buy that out of pocket.
DisneyOutsider
Well-Known Member
Okay.. I'm glad you changed your tune and now agree with me, but what you posted above is a complete 180 from what you posted here:
The fact is Disney was hoping and planning to not offer room and dining discounts, because they were anticipating a full house of guests for Galaxy's Edge.
esskay
Well-Known Member
I wouldn't read too much into that. Disney have been artificially screwing with availability all year, at least when you tried to book from The UK > US. It could even be tested earlier this year. Switching to a US based VPN instantly brought back a ton more availability. Really not sure what their goal was there. I was under the impression international visitors stayed longer and spend more money.
Jon81uk
Well-Known Member
I don't think this can be confidently said until 4th December in WDW and 17th January in DLR. SWGE isn't completely open and I think a lot of guests have been put off by the staggered opening. I think we will see higher crowds in summer 2020 compared to summer 2019.
Its like if Universal announced that Diagon Alley was opening without Gringotts coaster being open, the vast majority would have waited until the land and the ride were both open.
ToTBellHop
Well-Known Member
The parks and resorts segment does not think that far ahead. They look at the current and next quarter, and they are deeply concerned at summer and fall numbers. I agree that next year will likely be more crowded (if RotR is actually good and they can open MMRR and Rat at some point).
WWoHP could have opened with just Ollivander's and there would have been a line out the park gate. Disney seems to have over-estimated the current level of Star Wars obsession and I believe it was a misfire to focus on the sequel trilogy and to largely build locations that are not iconic in the films. When you build a land based upon a beloved series, people show up to visit places that were previously only imagined on screen. It is as if they built WWoHP but had us visit the Beauxbatons Academy of Magic. The switch from Hogwarts to Beauxbatons would move the avid fan from "OMG! They built it and it looks so real and we will book it yesterday and we will spend $4000 and we will get robes and wands and owls and butterbeer!" to "oh, cool. I'd like to see that some day. I bet it's neat."
Rista1313
Well-Known Member
LOL. Thanks for posting that.
Just as an aside... typing "deets" is just as much work as typing "detail:"...
Rista1313
Well-Known Member
Yes, but it doesn't sound as hip.
matt9112
Well-Known Member
no i am a pass holder i did not buy tickets with my package room only. my stay is first week of September. i will look when i get home i am in an area with garbage service. i just did rough math (dividing days by cost) and i got 181 a night and i assume that includes taxes etc as i broke down the amount i actually paid physically. this is for coranado standard room.