Good Story On Costs

[DisneyHead123]

Historical landmarks are visited specifically because of the historical significance of either the place itself, or what happened there. There is no relationship between that and a theme park/service type business.

“Historical significance” often just means “important because it’s old” though. Nothing particularly special happened in Victorian beach towns, they’re just old now, ergo have “historical significance”. Anything becomes old with the passage of time, including Disney rides. So I don’t think historical significance is a particularly meaningful term here.

 

[TalkToEthan]

Second, there is no needless or adverse effect on non-party goers.

Please don’t do that……
honesty counts.

Non party goers absolutely are affected: shorter hours and no fireworks for same admission price as non event days(assumes same pricing season)

 

[osian]

No narrative being pushed, just curious about why people would choose to fly farther for what I thought was significantly more expensive.

I did an analysis of the last time I went to DLP. This was in 2018, I also went to WDW the same year, obviously prices have changed a lot since then.

I distilled the cost down to price per night. Obviously the number of nights was hugely different, DLP being a much smaller resort and Orlando being the vacation capital.

Including flights and all miscellaneous costs (insurance, transport etc), but not souvenirs and out-of-pocket food/drink, it came down to:

WDW Pop Century: £314 per night (including Magical Express, one quick service meal per day, Memory Maker)
DLP Sequoia Lodge: £193 per night (including shuttle, and 4-nights-for-2 offer)

(Oh how I wish for those prices again!)

Both packages offered various discounts and perks as stated.

Obviously, a higher standard of room at DLP, but bear in mind I got that hotel for half price (4 nights for 2), there was no food or photos included, and the flight was about £800 cheaper (I went Premium to Orlando...), so night-for-night DLP could well have been more expensive than WDW, albeit with a better hotel. But the biggest difference in cost will be down the length of stay. Some people will choose to pay a higher price for an extended stay at WDW over a shorter stay at DLP because it's Orlando and WDW has four parks. It's not all down to cost, given that you can actually afford to go on holiday, it's a complex and personal formula based on value.

 

[Club Cooloholic]

Please don’t do that……
honesty counts.

Non party goers absolutely are affected: shorter hours and no fireworks for same admission price as non event days(assumes same pricing season)

And going non party nights just makes those nights more crowded when the majority of nights are holding a party.

 

[osian]

I'm under no illusion that UK parks can really match theme parks in the U.S., but a lot of parks throughout Europe do seem a lot more interesting to me. I feel like I could spend a few days at Europa Park and not be able to see it all.

Europa Park is an amazing park/resort, yes you could easily fill 2 or 3 days there. I've been several times, it's in my Top 10 worlwide theme parks list. I'd love to get back there again.

But...

It's not a destination for a big 14-day holiday, like WDW would be. I've only been there as part of a much larger club-organised theme park road-trip. It's awkward to get to from here, it's actually "easier" for me to get to Orlando from where I live, and my personal cost-hassle-benefit analysis says no to a trip specifically there. It has its own resort but there's nothing else of a similar ilk in the vicinity, like there would be in Orlando, that you could widen the trip too. It's not an easy "city break" for me and it's not going to fill a full holiday.

Again, you're trying to compare relatively small destinations (which are fantastic in their own way and well worth a visit) with a mega-destination like WDW and Orlando and getting hung up over how expensive a trip to WDW would be so why would you choose that over a smaller destination that has less to offer.

 

[JMcMahonEsq]

Please don’t do that……
honesty counts.

Non party goers absolutely are affected: shorter hours and no fireworks for same admission price as non event days(assumes same pricing season)

Non party goers get the ticket that they paid for, and the park hours they choose. These special ticketed events don't just pop up overnight without any warning. Disney is under no obligation to keep its park hours the same every single day of the season. They can fluctuate based on season, or based on activities of the park.

Disney is offering things so that both people who want exclusive extra price limited attendance events, and people who don't, can enjoy the park. If you don't want to attend MK on a day with the shorter hours, then don't go that day. But if you buy a ticket for something that is open 9-5, and that has a separate ticket for 5-10, you are not affected by that second ticket being offered for 5-10. YOU choose to buy the 9-5 ticket. If you wanted to stay that the park from 9-10, then you need to pay for that access.

 

[JMcMahonEsq]

And going non party nights just makes those nights more crowded when the majority of nights are holding a party.

It is no where near the majority of nights that hold a party.

in 2024 there were i believe 38 Halloween parties, and 25 xmas parties, so 63 days out of the 356 days of the year.

Lets also not forget the parties are only at MK, not the 3 other parks at WDW (excluding Hollywood nights for this exercise.)

So out of the 1,460 park days of the year (365x4 parks) you have party nights effecting 63 of them, or 4%....no where close to anything like a majority.

or if you want to just focus on MK, it only effect 17% of the park nights.

 

[NickMaio]

Disney is unwilling to give up the revenue stream. Most guests hate paid FPs and/or are totally confused by it. Possible solution: Make a one time price increase across the board to account for the revenue from paid FPs and then do away with them. Go back to the old system. Then resume the regular annual or semi-annual price increases. Fans are happy, Disney makes the money, the elites can still get plaids so they can feel special. The parks remain democratized. Everyone is happy.

Yes. Yes. And yes

 

[Chef Mickey]

As far as your critiques of the city, I couldn't disagree more but that's ok. Some people like the beach while others would rather be in thee mountains.

Some of them were pretty objective. The city is extremely dirty and the transport is poor.

 

[Club Cooloholic]

Some of them were pretty objective. The city is extremely dirty and the transport is poor.

You found the transport poor? What were the difficulties you encountered with it? I ask as transporting a family of 4 with the two being children we navigated the city quite well. As for dirty, I found it pretty clean, especially if compared to many US cities.

 

[TalkToEthan]

Paris. It's dirty. Very dirty.

filthy!!! Even though the architecture is gorgeous the place is appallingly filthy—-the dirtiest 1st world country city I have ever been in.

The stench of urine—likely human, cat and dog and dog droppings, dead rodents are all over the city. And that river, that polluted Seine is one nasty waterway

 

[Chef Mickey]

You found the transport poor? What were the difficulties you encountered with it? I ask as transporting a family of 4 with the two being children we navigated the city quite well. As for dirty, I found it pretty clean, especially if compared to many US cities.

I'm shocked. The transport was on strike 2 of the days I was there and the other day, my train was 25 minutes late going from the airport to Gare de Lyon. Eurostar was also on strike in London and various parts of Europe as well. A hobo also tried to steal my luggage at Gare de Nord and only backed down when I told him in English that he'd better not try it.

I also used Taxi and was quoted 55 Euro and he charged me 120 on arrival, then acted like he didn't speak English and wouldn't let me leave without paying him. I ended up denying the charge and getting my hotel involved to credit me (they set up the Taxi).

Paris is not clean by almost any measure. The US has some dirty cities, but Paris is on a new level, IMO.

 

[Club Cooloholic]

I'm shocked. The transport was on strike 2 of the days I was there and the other day, my train was 25 minutes late going from the airport to Gare de Lyon. Eurostar was also on strike in London and various parts of Europe as well. A hobo also tried to steal my luggage at Gare de Nord and only backed down when I told him in English that he'd better not try it.

I also used Taxi and was quoted 55 Euro and he charged me 120 on arrival, then acted like he didn't speak English and wouldn't let me leave without paying him. I ended up denying the charge and getting my hotel involved to credit me (they set up the Taxi).

Paris is not clean by almost any measure. The US has some dirty cities, but Paris is on a new level, IMO.

I dunno, I have found Baltimore and Philadelphia to have much worse transportation and dirtier. It sounds like with the strikes you were not there in the ideal time.

 

[Chef Mickey]

I dunno, I have found Baltimore and Philadelphia to have much worse transportation and dirtier. It sounds like with the strikes you were not there in the ideal time.

2 horrible cities, agreed.

 

[Angel Ariel]

It is no where near the majority of nights that hold a party.

Over the course of the entire party season? Sure

Over a family's vacation? We're heading to WDW soon. We have 5 park days (Sunday-Thursday) Of those 5 days, 3 are party nights. It's a last minute trip due to some medical circumstances coming later this year, and there were no party tickets available (we would have bought them). We're not upset, we knew that was a possibility - but it is absolutely a majority of the dates we are there.

 

[JD80]

We've been down during the Christmas Party the last two years. Last year we even went to the party, had a great time.

I don't think I want to go during the party season for quite some time. In fact we're going down in a few weeks but only during the weekend between parties.