Interesting Disney Parks Survey Question I got Today - Tiered Ticket Pricing by Season

[wdisney9000]

First off, there is nothing wrong with your analysis per se, but this type of analysis is the anithesis of what Walt stood for. And, not to turn this into a what would Walt do, but Walt's mantra of delivering the best product possible worked very well for Disney.

Exactly. While I agree that @DisneyCane 's analysis makes complete sense from a business standpoint, I often think that all the financial strategies such as "price elasticity of demand" or "revenue maximizing equilibrium" are just fancy ways of saying "charge more for the same thing".

Dont get me wrong, I know there are mathematical studies behind these strategies which prove they work, but in the end, the consumer is still an actual person, not just a number on a piece of a paper. Through surveys like these and the others they offer at the parks, Disney knows more about their consumers now than they ever have. They know what we will eat, what we will drink, how much we may spend, how many people in our family, where we go, what time we go there, and how long we will stay, etc. But its funny, as much information as they have learned over the years, I feel they actually know us less. The company no longer has a soul.

They would probly bleed us all dry and shutter the parks before they considered actually doing what made the company great in the first place and that is simply offering quality products with quality service. All the bottom line maximization quantifying equilibrium blue ocean dynamic streamline gold silver tiered magic your way synergy cross stream integrated financial planning is NOT what Walt was thinking about as he sat on that old, dirty park bench watching his daughters at the playground.

 

[MaxsDad]

Hopefully ... leaving a class of guests who demand reinvestment in the park and routinely refreshed entertainment

If reading this board is any indication, the guest mentioned above are already revolting and leaving.

 

[MichWolv]

ust saying, that for us, it's over. That's 7 people in two families that go twice a year that are not coming back.

But it hasn't happened. It might happen, but we always knew it might happen.

 

[CaptainAmerica]

Don't feel bad. To be lashed out at or talked down to by @CaptainAmerica is a rite of passage for many of us around here since he joined.

Lol u mad bro?

 

[MichWolv]

I often think that all the financial strategies such as "price elasticity of demand" or "revenue maximizing equilibrium" are just fancy ways of saying "charge more for the same thing".

They are fancy ways of saying "charge more for the same thing". They aren't "just" that, because they take into account actually analyzing the effects of charging more for same thing, but they are certainly fancy ways to describe it.

 

[anchorman314]

I don't really have a problem with the idea of tiered ticket pricing in general. But this particular tiered scheme is just too complicated. I do get why they would choose to bump up the tier. Trying to enforce a split-tier ticket at the gate would be nearly impossible. And since multi-day tickets don't need to be used on consecutive days (or specific days), pre-paying for a split-tier ticket would also be impossible.

 

[MichWolv]

Don't feel bad. To be lashed out at or talked down to by @CaptainAmerica is a rite of passage for many of us around here since he joined.

I haven't had the rite yet. Darn.

 

[Arthur Wellesley]

I haven't had the rite yet. Darn.

Just say something he disagrees with.

 

[Todd H]

I'm sorry, but this is a giant pain in the ASCII. It's bad enough we have to plan a whole WDW trip including reservations 180 days ahead of time. Throwing this into the mix (for little savings, in the grand scheme of things) is just too much. The most you'll save is $40 on a ten-day ticket! Totally not worth it unless you have a large group going for many days.

This could lead to crowding the parks up on the "cheap days" because everyone wants to save a buck... Of course, this is good for Disney as it'll even out attendance and boost the parks on slower days (at least somewhat).

Let's keep WDW a vacation - and not turn it into an accounting job.

That reminds me of a picture someone posted a year or two ago showing the difference between UO and WDW. Disney was like reading the small print of a contract with a magnifying glass while UO was just a picture of a fire breathing dragon from HP. Wish I could find that picture I'd post it again.

 

[MichWolv]

Just say something he disagrees with.

I have. And he told me. And we had a nice back and forth.

 

[danlb_2000]

The alienation isn't a cliff, it's a slow burn. They'll see signs before anyone starts leaving them en masse.

Note that DVC is a (brilliant) built-in insurance policy against that very thing.

You have far more faith in the current management then I do.

 

[Lucky]

Exactly. While I agree that @DisneyCane 's analysis makes complete sense from a business standpoint, I often think that all the financial strategies such as "price elasticity of demand" or "revenue maximizing equilibrium" are just fancy ways of saying "charge more for the same thing".

All the bottom line maximization quantifying equilibrium blue ocean dynamic streamline gold silver tiered magic your way synergy cross stream integrated financial planning is NOT what Walt was thinking about as he sat on that old, dirty park bench watching his daughters at the playground.

These aren't new concepts, and it's not rocket science. If Disney didn't follow a simplistic Econ 101 pricing strategy in the past it's not because they were ignorant of basic economics. It's because they had different, longer-term goals than current management does.

 

[wogwog]

I got this survey but based on how I answered my demographics up front I was not chosen to complete the survey. That said, note that the bronze pricing is closest to today's pricing (for a 1-day ticket anyway). Silver and Gold are premiums. This nickel and diming is getting ridiculous. And, how many times will people buy the wrong tickets for when they arrive? And, how upset will people be when their trip has 1 day in Gold and they have to buy the total 7-day package at gold?

This is getting far too complicated.

Spawn of MM+ and ADR. Train them and get all their money. Lab animals.

 

[BernardandBianca]

I was thinking that maybe, just maybe, they shouldn't stop with day of week/seasons pricing differentials, but extend it even more. How about, in addition to the pricing in the survey, you also:

1. Vary the price to enter by the time of day you arrive. Say, the day price plus 40% if you enter within three hours of park opening, day price plus 20% if you enter after three hours of opening until three hours before park closing, and regular day price if you enter within three hours of park close. I mean, if you enter the park earlier, it provides you with the opportunity to do more attractions, so you are getting a premium and should pay more for the opportunity. That way, you can decide how much you want to ride (or have an opportunity to), and pay accordingly.

2. Vary the price based on how many attractions you do. You pay the day price to enter the park, and get a number (say 10) of attraction entrances. This is easily accomplished with the MM+ bands. So you get to attend ten attractions, and if you want more, then you can pay to add more entrances to your band. Of course, too many people would want to go on the same attractions all the time (ten rides on Splash, for example), so you'd have to allocate the attractions you could ride. Maybe something like a system where all of the rides in WDW/MK are assigned a ranking (say A to E), and your ten rides are allocated by two each of attractions A-E. Then you can pay to add specific rankings to your band. This also has the benefit of forcing people to ride the lesser attractions if they want to maximize their use of the ticket media.

Oh, wait.......

 

[Kingoglow]

What if they were to put this system in place and combined it with the fastpasses?
Bronze level tickets get 2, silver 3 and gold 4
If you travel during the busy season, you get an extra fastpass for your dollar.

Would that change anyone's opinion? They wouldn't do it of course... better to hold back the option of extra fastpasses to sell them like park hoppers.

 

[WDF]

If this 'tiering' gets applied to the annual passes, anything that isn't a 'bronze' day may be lifestyler free...

Annual Passes already have "tiering"...that's why there are Weekday Select Passes, Epcot after 4 Passes, and Seasonal Passes...at least for Florida residents.

 

[Nemo14]

I was thinking that maybe, just maybe, they shouldn't stop with day of week/seasons pricing differentials, but extend it even more. How about, in addition to the pricing in the survey, you also:

1. Vary the price to enter by the time of day you arrive. Say, the day price plus 40% if you enter within three hours of park opening, day price plus 20% if you enter after three hours of opening until three hours before park closing, and regular day price if you enter within three hours of park close. I mean, if you enter the park earlier, it provides you with the opportunity to do more attractions, so you are getting a premium and should pay more for the opportunity. That way, you can decide how much you want to ride (or have an opportunity to), and pay accordingly.

2. Vary the price based on how many attractions you do. You pay the day price to enter the park, and get a number (say 10) of attraction entrances. This is easily accomplished with the MM+ bands. So you get to attend ten attractions, and if you want more, then you can pay to add more entrances to your band. Of course, too many people would want to go on the same attractions all the time (ten rides on Splash, for example), so you'd have to allocate the attractions you could ride. Maybe something like a system where all of the rides in WDW/MK are assigned a ranking (say A to E), and your ten rides are allocated by two each of attractions A-E. Then you can pay to add specific rankings to your band. This also has the benefit of forcing people to ride the lesser attractions if they want to maximize their use of the ticket media.

Oh, wait.......

That was basically my DH's response when I told him about this this morning.

 

[wdisney9000]

They are fancy ways of saying "charge more for the same thing". They aren't "just" that, because they take into account actually analyzing the effects of charging more for same thing, but they are certainly fancy ways to describe it.

Of course, but what is the offset of time and money poured into "analyzing effects" and implementing all these financial systems to make more money versus just doing what they were once best at which is building great theme parks? The very same theme parks that actually made them all this money they now have which they choose to spend on financial charts and graphs instead of quality products.

 

[Mike S]

That reminds me of a picture someone posted a year or two ago showing the difference between UO and WDW. Disney was like reading the small print of a contract with a magnifying glass while UO was just a picture of a fire breathing dragon from HP. Wish I could find that picture I'd post it again.

I think I remember that too. Maybe it was @HTF or @Disneyhead'71 who posted it.

 

[WDF]

I don't really have a problem with the idea of tiered ticket pricing in general. But this particular tiered scheme is just too complicated. I do get why they would choose to bump up the tier. Trying to enforce a split-tier ticket at the gate would be nearly impossible. And since multi-day tickets don't need to be used on consecutive days (or specific days), pre-paying for a split-tier ticket would also be impossible.

Why would it be impossible? You have X number of Gold days on your ticket and Y number of Silver. Sort of like dining plan entitlements. You show up on a Gold day and all your Gold days have already been used, you don't get in without upgrading your ticket. The system should utilize whichever is the lowest tiered applicable day still available on your ticket.