Is Variable Ticket Pricing coming to WDW?

[ParentsOf4]

Sunday's (November 18, 2012) Orlando Sentinel had a front page article suggesting that variable ticket pricing might be the wave of the future. For example, going to a theme park on Saturday would be more expensive than Tuesday. Going on Christmas Day would be more expensive than mid-September.

The article is based on a discussion panel at this year's IAAPA in Orlando; no insider information here.

Is this possibly one of the big price increases we might be facing?

 

[DisneyparkFreak]

I'm not sure how that would work at a multi-day resort. I see two things happening. 1. If ticket prices are increased for Friday/Saturday/Sunday then you may have guests booking shorter vacations. 2. What about the locals? It may cause them to visit less.

I would like to know how this affected WDW hotels when they went to this type of variable pricing. I know when I plan my vacations I try not to be there over multiple weekends and do my best to save the most money.

 

[Hakunamatata]

I could see them doing this on single day purchases.

 

[Vader2112]

I agree this would be possible on single day or blocking out all holidays from pass holders and multi day ticket holders and making Christmas Day a hard ticket.

 

[menamechris]

I don't know if Disney could get away with "day of the week" tiering - but I am personally surprised that they haven't started seasonal pricing of tickets concurrently with the dining holiday pricing. There will always be people who will feel it is worth it to pay more to be there during the holidays - or when the kids are out of school. And it will push the people with more flexible schedules to seasons that are not as busy.

I believe the article also mentioned that experts don't expect Disney to experiment with this sort of pricing first... However, I am sure Disney will be watching very carefully if Busch Gardens or Sea World tries it - and sees how it affects their numbers..

 

[Cmdr_Crimson]

It's like how they have rates for rooms..The weekends & holidays get pricey than other days..

 

[invader]

I would see them doing something along the lines of Fri - Sun being one set price, and weekdays being another. Holidays would then become about the same as the Fri-Sun price regardless of the day.

Fri - Sun: 100.00
Mon - Thurs: 89.00
Thanksgiving on Thurs: 100.00

Make sense?

 

[Brian Noble]

Universal does this with their multi-day VIP tickets. The price of the ticket is determined by the first day of use.

 

[flynnibus]

I'm not sure how that would work at a multi-day resort

It's no different then how people already pay for the hotels...it's already in use for things like uni's front of the line pass..

You already see it in Disney parks in a veiled form of hard ticket events.

 

[flynnibus]

I would expect seasonal pricing before you saw day differences.

It would mesh right in with the dining plan and hotel seasonal pricing

 

[Maerj]

They are making it harder and harder for some of us to return.

 

[bigeternity]

The wave of the future.

 

[Maerj]

The wave of the future.

Unfortunately, I may have to wave goodbye to them then. My future vacation memories may only exist with the words "Martin Smith Not for Sale" superimposed on them.

 

[dreamfinder]

I can't really see this working for multi day tickets. They can do it for hard ticket events as of now because those events are single use tickets. So there is no need to worry about overlap and the like. So maybe a tiered price plan for single day tickets.

 

[bgraham34]

You can certainly expect this to happen sometime in the future. Its going to happen its just a matter of time. I would just hate to see what the increase in an annual pass will end up being. I wish I had extra money to buy tons of park passes now, that way I would save thousands if I covers a 10 year period.

 

[flynnibus]

I can't really see this working for multi day tickets

Lots of ways you could do it.

Scenario #1 - Replace 'per day add-ons' with 'discounts'.
Imagine if every day had a price associated with it. The more # of days you buy, the greater than discount on the sum of each day you bought. Instead of 'day 7 being $5' you make it so 'monday-friday day costs $70, sat and sunday cost $85, but your length of stay discount is 65%, so your true ticket cost is (sum of days)*0.65' ... something like that.

Scenario #2 - Surcharges
Imagine if visiting the park on certain days had a surcharge in addition to your traditional decaying MYW pricing model.

Scenario #3 - Replace days with 'credit balance'
Imagine if an admission cost a certain number of 'points' and your ticket media carried a balance of points. Different days could cost different points. You could even do something like use across consecutive days means you get a real-time discount at the gate to emmulate the current MYW model.

These are just quick thoughts... I'm sure people who are paid to do this all day long could come up with better ones.

 

[alphac2005]

So, I guess the Sentinel's headline should have been "New Scheme for Theme Parks to Gauge the Customer Even More."

 

[PlaneJane]

Unfortunately, I may have to wave goodbye to them then. My future vacation memories may only exist with the words "Martin Smith Not for Sale" superimposed on them.

On the upside we can donate our money instead to Martin and he can give us some ultra quality videos. Steadicam?

 

[The MaD Hatter]

So, I guess the Sentinel's headline should have been "New Scheme for Theme Parks to Gauge the Customer Even More."

Yep. Let's be honest, there's no way Disney will actually LOWER the prices on tickets. So a sleepy Tuesday in September will, at the very least, be the same price as the current tickets. They will just add a "surcharge" for more popular days -- weekends, holidays, summer vacation, etc.

 

[hiptwinmama]

I agree... higher prices on the weekends may cause some families to shorten their trip or visit other Theme Parks.