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

[Animaniac93-98]

In other words, the best option is still buying an event party ticket for MK and spending the rest of the trip at Universal.

 

[CaptainAmerica]

Yes, but eventually you are going to start aliening customers and once that happens, it's hard to get them back.

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.

 

[Mike S]

And people CONTINUE to come in droves. What does that tell you? When you're priced well below market rates, you should absolutely keep raising your prices until the market pushes back (which it hasn't, fanboii outrage on the interwebz aside).

I'm no financial expert, but I don't think that's wise. Imo the prices should be kept below the point where people would start pushing back. But like I said I'm no expert.

 

[CaptainAmerica]

In other words, the best option is still buying an event party ticket for MK and spending the rest of the trip at Universal.

Haven't you heard?

"The best part about going to Walt Disney World just might be staying at a Walt Disney World Resort Hotel. From Royal encounters to royal rooms, and pirates to paradise. The magic never has to stop."

 

[CaptainAmerica]

I'm no financial expert, but I don't think that's wise. Imo the prices should be kept below the point where people would start pushing back. But like I said I'm no expert.

See my subsequent post. The push back doesn't happen all at once. Disney can read the tea leaves and when the scales start to tip, they can pull back before the drop-off accelerates.

 

[BoarderPhreak]

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.

 

[xdan0920]

My point is that the gap has nothing to do with price. If you love MK best, you'll love MK best whether you go for free or if you're paying hundreds of dollars. If you think MK beats DAK, you're going to think so regardless of how much it costs.

ETA: It's like... I much prefer Coke over Pepsi. If someone offers me a free soda, I'm going to choose Coke. I'm not more likely to choose Coke just because it costs $2.00 all of a sudden.

The value matters. For an example, a family with a 3 day trip. One day MK, one day Epcot, third day is the issue. If it's a gold day, and tix are $$$ instead of $$, I'm more likely to return to MK in order to get my money's worth.

 

[marni1971]

"If FP+ doesn't make the parks capacity manageable, try pricing them out of the park.."

 

[Kingoglow]

You clearly have no idea why people love DAK.


Just because Kingoglow perceives value based on ride count doesn't mean everyone does. If I had one day and only one day at Walt Disney World, I'd spend it in Animal Kingdom every single time, and pay gladly for the right to do so. Doesn't matter if I'm going with a CM friend's free passes or if I'm spending $120 for a single day ticket.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Utility

That's cool and all... but the fact remains that MK is the park that most families visiting WDW gravitate towards this system can only enhance the crowds at MK. For a majority of the population visiting WDW, their utility is found at MK.

I apologize if I somehow offended you by making it seem like DAK is somehow less than MK.

 

[hpyhnt 1000]

Haven't you heard?

"The best part about going to Walt Disney World just might be staying at a Walt Disney World Resort Hotel. From Royal encounters to royal rooms, and pirates to paradise. The magic never has to stop."

Such a stupid line. "Don't come for the world class rides or restaurants or shows! Come for the cramped hotel room with faded Mickey wallpaper and lumpy pillows!"

Although, given the current state of the parks, maybe they're not that far off in saying the hotel is the best part...

 

[Nubs70]

We had no problems at MCO.

I fly a lot. SWA Alist preferred. MCO is nothing compared to some other airports.

MCO is one of the better airports. It's the airports on the other ends that suck. SWA is also better than most, but the general flying experience is less than enjoyable. So call me perplexed why WDW wants to emulate the airline pricing model.

 

[Todd H]

Just saying, that for us, it's over. That's 7 people in two families that go twice a year that are not coming back. I am sure we aren't the only families thinking this way. Not saying this to be nasty or judgmental of everyone who WILL pay it, just that many people have reached their price point and it will show in time. (the nasty people can now say "good riddance to ya")

Yep the price increases have gotten to be a bit much for us. Our trip in a few days will probably be our last. We'll probably do three days at UO and a couple at the beach next year and still come out cheaper than a WDW trip.

 

[CaptainAmerica]

Such a stupid line. "Don't come for the world class rides or restaurants or shows! Come for the cramped hotel room with faded Mickey wallpaper and lumpy pillows!"

Yikes, what Disney hotel has cramped rooms with faded Mickey wallpaper and lumpy pillows. Oh, right... none of them.

It's a commercial for a 30% room-only offer. Of course they're going to focus on the hotels.

 

[surfsupdon]

I was unhappy to see pricing tiers. It hurts the working class teacher families, who really only vacation over school breaks.

Hoping this does not happen.

The give and take was that a NYE Week at Disney World Parks cost the same as the slowest week of the year, but they were giving me longer hours and more entertainment in the park because I will be on much less rides than during that slowest week. And I was okay with that. But now they'd like to charge me more, when I will be getting on less? Yikes.

 

[BrianV]

Way too complicated. Obviously this is just a way to get more on days that people are going to come anyway. On a day with a closing due to max capacity, they could have charged double and still been pretty crowded.

I'm beginning to feel glad that we bought som non-expire tickets before they stopped selling them. We have plenty of days for the next 10-20 years locked in in price. Unless they start changing how old tickets are handled...I guess never say never. My universal pass feels like a pretty good deal now.

 

[sunshine]

Bumping your entire vacation to the higher tier price if any days on your vacation are a higher tier is not something that hotels or restaurants normally do. This would be incredibly annoying and makes the tier system seem disingenuous. Even if the price difference were (relatively) small, the annoyance and "hey, I'm getting ripped off here" feelings would linger for me. Especially if, as others noted, parks close early for hard-ticket events on some days.

I feel tiering in general would be adding another layer of unnecessary complexity to an already complex process.

 

[WDW1979]

Another issue I see with these rapid increase in prices would be for people to jams themselves into MK even more. Vacationers want value for their dollar. With EPCOT's vision lost, and DAK's entertainment value based on a couple of shows and three rides and the absolutely rotten state of HS we already see overcrowding at MK. The higher Disney raises the prices the more guests will allocate all of their time into the only park with a decent number of attractions. Everything that they are doing (FastPass, high hotel prices, higher ticket prices) is forcing more and more people to spend their entire vacation in the Magic Kingdom because it is where all of the value is at.

I agree. Our family used to visit all four theme parks in WDW, then we dropped off Disney Studios, then Animal Kingdom, then eventually Epcot (the restaurant park). Now it's MK only for us at WDW. And for the first time in more than a decade of annual trips to Disney, this year we visited Universal Studios. For our next Florida trip were are leaning toward a Universal Studios focused trip, and we may not visit WDW at all.

Disney is free to raise its prices and let all parks except MK slide, and I am free to take my money elsewhere. Others will surely differ, but we will make our choice.

 

[Arthur Wellesley]

I apologize if I somehow offended you by making it seem like DAK is somehow less than MK.

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.

As for this whole system, as much as I think it stinks, I get it. Working in a growing tourist town myself, we gauge our prices (hotels, restaurant menu's, you name it) during seasons of overpopulation. Tourists pay it though.

Knowing what I know now, I would never again travel over major holiday weekends or peak tourism seasons.

 

[asianway]

Can you explain to me what you think is so great about double digit price increases and more complicated ticketing system?

Hopefully the people who get priced out are the lowest tier who accepts and embraces the current quality of WDW offerings leaving a class of guests who demand reinvestment in the park and routinely refreshed entertainment

 

[MaxsDad]

Bumping your entire vacation to the higher tier price if any days on your vacation are a higher tier is not something that hotels or restaurants normally do. This would be incredibly annoying and makes the tier system seem disingenuous. Even if the price difference were (relatively) small, the annoyance and "hey, I'm getting ripped off here" feelings would linger for me. Especially if, as others noted, parks close early for hard-ticket events on some days.

I feel tiering in general would be adding another layer of unnecessary complexity to an already complex process.

The survey referenced movie pricing (Matinee's (sp?)).

Under this model, you would pay full ticket price for an afternoon movie if the movie ended after 6pm. Yea, that makes sense.