It's over: Give a day...

[Buried20KLeague]

Lol. Me neither. The reason I said I'm not sure they can write it off is because it's an admission with no actual cost value (i.e., it doesn't cost the company money to let a person in for fee).

Disney has to have a "cost per entry"... Even if they didn't NEED one, they would make one up (probably involving a monkey, a bottle of Jack, and a dartboard) for operations budgets, casting, refurbs, etc...

Dollar amounts can be assigned to virtually anything, even if there's no true "cost". Think about advisors. Or psychics. Or laborers.

In my case, one company charges the other companies "management fees" for various functions... All things that don't have a true "cost", such as accounting people calling on overdue invoices for one of the other companies, shared use of facilities, technology, meetings that require my time even though that's not the company I get my routine paycheck for, etc... We're actually FORCED to assign dollar amounts to these things. For tax reasons, obviously.

With how complex the tax code is, I'm positive they have calculated a "cost" for each ticket, and found a way to deduct.

And being one step removed from the charity doesn't matter, I don't believe... For example, I can give a set of one of my company's season tickets to the Cardinals to friend of mine to auction off in his friend's charity function, and I don't have to directly connect to whatever that charity is. (that's a very simplified example, and doesn't make a whole lot of sense as I re-read it, but still.) :lol:

 

[Mouse Detective]

Yoyo, any idea how many free tickets were given out for last year's Birthday promotion?

 

[WDW1974]

Disney has to have a "cost per entry"... Even if they didn't NEED one, they would make one up (probably involving a monkey, a bottle of Jack, and a dartboard) for operations budgets, casting, refurbs, etc...

Dollar amounts can be assigned to virtually anything, even if there's no true "cost". Think about advisors. Or psychics. Or laborers.

In my case, one company charges the other companies "management fees" for various functions... All things that don't have a true "cost", such as accounting people calling on overdue invoices for one of the other companies, shared use of facilities, technology, meetings that require my time even though that's not the company I get my routine paycheck for, etc... We're actually FORCED to assign dollar amounts to these things. For tax reasons, obviously.

With how complex the tax code is, I'm positive they have calculated a "cost" for each ticket, and found a way to deduct.

And being one step removed from the charity doesn't matter, I don't believe... For example, I can give a set of one of my company's season tickets to the Cardinals to friend of mine to auction off in his friend's charity function, and I don't have to directly connect to whatever that charity is. (that's a very simplified example, and doesn't make a whole lot of sense as I re-read it, but still.) :lol:

Who cares whether you make sense? Have you lost track of where you are?

Seriously, though, Disney can give tickets away like confetti. They don't have any value on them beyond what 'cost' Disney places on them, as you said above. There's a reason why the easiest thing to get free at WDW is admission.

That said, as a sometimes very vocal critic of what Disney does, I think this program was a fantastic idea and they deserve all of the positive pub they've gotten for it.

It's a win-win-win situation. Those are always the best!

 

[rsoxguy]

Seriously, though, Disney can give tickets away like confetti. They don't have any value on them beyond what 'cost' Disney places on them, as you said above. There's a reason why the easiest thing to get free at WDW is admission.

That said, as a sometimes very vocal critic of what Disney does, I think this program was a fantastic idea and they deserve all of the positive pub they've gotten for it.

It's a win-win-win situation. Those are always the best!

I agree.

 

[Wilt Dasney]

Seriously, though, Disney can give tickets away like confetti. They don't have any value on them beyond what 'cost' Disney places on them, as you said above. There's a reason why the easiest thing to get free at WDW is admission.

I had a similar thought reading about how much this promotion cost Disney. Giving away tickets isn't like giving away food, which Disney has to recoup costs on. There's no material cost associated with producing a ticket, aside from the material it's actually printed on. Any value is arbitrarily assigned by the company.

 

[_Scar]

OT, does someone want to help me and my family get free tickets then.

Seriously- 500 dollars later for 3 people for 4 day ticket. >.> WTH?

 

[stlbobby]

I think this was a major success. I think the point wasn't just to get 1 million days of volunteering, but to get people thinking about volunteering and connecting with a group or project they might stick with beyond the promotion.

This happened to me. I looked at the promotion when it started and it directed me to a database of local opportunities. I chose to start taking my dog to visit elderly people in a retirement center. We've been going regularly since mid-January and I don't see it ending any time soon. So it worked spectacularly in my case. Of course my dog, Murray, does all the work I just hold the leash.

Ironically, I never signed up with Disney, I just never got around to it, so I didn't even count in the million, but they got me volunteering. I think that counts as a success.

 

[Buried20KLeague]

I had a similar thought reading about how much this promotion cost Disney. Giving away tickets isn't like giving away food, which Disney has to recoup costs on. There's no material cost associated with producing a ticket, aside from the material it's actually printed on. Any value is arbitrarily assigned by the company.

Unless they give away enough tickets that causes crowd levels to rise enough to where they have to add hours, cast, etc...

That's why I think they're stopping at a million. I think they've done the math and they know at that level they can operate without increases. Otherwise, why stop??

 

[Mouse Detective]

I would think that they could continue to offer the fastpass option for the next 1,000,000 voluntEARS.

I hope those 1M people aren't in the fastpass line in front of me!

 

[Michael Hall]

I work for Wal-Mart and here people complain all the time and this is no different. Why cant you all be happy that Disney has been very gracios with this offer and except the rules. It was to help your local community as well. D o we have no kindness any more ?

 

[Jay & Sue]

We were in WDW last week and saw a few guests wearing there volunteer buttons. IMO, through this promotion Disney, voluntears, and many organizations will all benefit. After the Disney number crunchers consider the success of this promotion as best they can, might it be that this promotion becomes an annual thing?

 

[kimmychad]

OT, does someone want to help me and my family get free tickets then.

Seriously- 500 dollars later for 3 people for 4 day ticket. >.> WTH?

lol are you serious? sure I'll help you and everyone else get free tickets

 

[DABIGCHEEZ]

OT, does someone want to help me and my family get free tickets then.

Seriously- 500 dollars later for 3 people for 4 day ticket. >.> WTH?

Lol Here is a novel idea... save up and go next year. :brick:

I amaze myself with my thinking sometimes!!!

 

[ImaYoyo]

However if you were just recouping costs, you wouldn't be a very good business. Recouping costs would cause you to break even, making you either a not-for-profit, non-profit or just a doomed company.

Sure, coca-cola could give everyone a free coke, but then coca-cola wouldn't be around very long!

Absolutely, it's easy to give tickets away, but as others have mentioned, there IS a cost. Even if only 1/10 of these people had originally planned to purchase a 1-day ticket, that's millions in potential revenue lost.

You've got to draw a line somewhere, and in this instance it was transparent where the line would be drawn. Warnings were even given at 600,000.


And someone above asked how many b-day tickets were given out. I'm not sure about actual admissions, but 1.2 million people registered for the promotion. But that includes the fastpass, merchandise cards, ect.

I had a similar thought reading about how much this promotion cost Disney. Giving away tickets isn't like giving away food, which Disney has to recoup costs on. There's no material cost associated with producing a ticket, aside from the material it's actually printed on. Any value is arbitrarily assigned by the company.

 

[Wilt Dasney]

However if you were just recouping costs, you wouldn't be a very good business. Recouping costs would cause you to break even, making you either a not-for-profit, non-profit or just a doomed company.

Absolutely. I certainly wasn't implying that giving away tickets and charging exactly what they paid for physical product would be a good business strategy. My point was simply that the idea that they've lost money by giving away tickets strikes me as dubious.

Putting aside the issue of crowd levels affecting staffing (which I'm sure becomes legitimate at some point), you have to know for certain that someone who attended on a free ticket would have otherwise bought a ticket to say that you actually lost money by giving that ticket away.

The same can't be said for giving away a million cookies or a million bottles of Coke, each of which the company had to pay some amount for (however small) and each of which would undeniably represent a real financial loss.

Hope that clears up my intent!

 

[Gucci65]

why cap it at a million? thats lame.

I'm late to this party and have NOT read all 9 pages, but I would like to point out how much money Disney $$$$ donates to this program. One million free one day tickets at a cost of $85.00(approx). Do the math and the numbers are huge.

 

[Buried20KLeague]

I'm late to this party and have NOT read all 9 pages, but I would like to point out how much money Disney $$$$ donates to this program. One million free one day tickets at a cost of $85.00(approx). Do the math and the numbers are huge.

You might wanna skim the last couple pages at least. :wave:

 

[nibblesandbits]

I'm a little late to the party, but I want to congratulate Disney on getting 1 Million volunteers so quickly! It really is amazing that less than 70 days into the promotion, it would be "over."

That being said...I too am in the camp that is surprised they didn't extend it, a little bit. They would have gotten more publicity out of the deal and of course, caused more people who maybe weren't otherwise thinking of a) volunteering and b) planning a Disney trip to do so. (Therefore potentially increasing the amount of money brought in because of the promo...since as others have point most people would have spent money to get more than 1 day park tickets, food, souvineers, and for many either lodging or parking fees.)

Keep in mind, I don't fault Disney at all for not extending it...they did give warning that the promo was quickly getting to the 1 Million mark, weeks before, and of course, those of us in the Disney community heard rumblings it was ending a few days before it actually did. I'm just still a tad bit surprised about the whole thing.

Kudos to Disney though. It's so great that people who maybe wouldn't have even thought of volunteering before are now...and hopefully it will convince them to continue even after recieving a free ticket.

 

[ImaYoyo]

I certainy understand but just because there's not a brand name product or "ingedients" doesn't mean costs don't rise.

In addition to staffing, you have to consider other things like additional tissues, napkins, tp, waste removal, electricity, sewage, transportation costs, and so many other things.

There is actually an average daily operational cost per guest and it's higher than many people would think.

But I do understand your point, I just want to reiterate running a theme park is not inexpensive. Ask Six Flags about that one! Haha.

Absolutely. I certainly wasn't implying that giving away tickets and charging exactly what they paid for physical product would be a good business strategy. My point was simply that the idea that they've lost money by giving away tickets strikes me as dubious.

Putting aside the issue of crowd levels affecting staffing (which I'm sure becomes legitimate at some point), you have to know for certain that someone who attended on a free ticket would have otherwise bought a ticket to say that you actually lost money by giving that ticket away.

The same can't be said for giving away a million cookies or a million bottles of Coke, each of which the company had to pay some amount for (however small) and each of which would undeniably represent a real financial loss.

Hope that clears up my intent!

 

[Wilt Dasney]

ingedients" doesn't mean costs don't rise.

In addition to staffing, you have to consider other things like additional tissues, napkins, tp, waste removal, electricity, sewage, transportation costs, and so many other things.

There is actually an average daily operational cost per guest and it's higher than many people would think.

Fair enough. I was really just trying to push back against the idea that you can multiply the cost of an admission ticket by 1 million and say that's how much money Disney lost on this promotion.