Josh D'Amaro comments on rising prices and "additional" or removed services: "An inevitable result of progress"

[GimpYancIent]

Perks aren't needed because of exceptional demand.

Prices continue to increase, even past the point of the parking fees, because of exceptional demand.

Disney has to spend more, across the board, to service more guests, so it would make sense that Disney has to charge more because of that exceptional demand.

Please, , stop with the "exceptional demand" stuff. Demand is no greater or less than before COVID. Prices are up, services are down. Things keep going as they are there won't be any demand.

 

[el_super]

I'm not insisting anything -- I'm looking at the evidence and making a logical extrapolation. If they were tied together, the room rates would increase at a lesser rate because the parking fee revenue would now cover those costs. They would no longer need to include it in the room rate, and thus it actually would be a discount for resort guests.

That's not how it works. The room rates are determined by demand. Even if the intent was to prevent across the board prices increases in 2018, the rates would still go up if the demand was there.

Of course we can't know for sure without seeing Disney's internal numbers, but the evidence we do have contradicts what you're suggesting.

In this instance, I am literally just interpreting the words, PARKING FEE to denote that parking has been separated from the daily room rate. You are insisting, without evidence, that parking is still included in the room rate.

 

[el_super]

Yes, the CEO of the Disney Co. is on the National Board for the Make-A-Wish foundation. That applies to whoever is that position. As an organization Disney Co. still does not meet the philanthropic standards, just enough is done for show (P.R.), B.C. makes sure of that.

Bob Chapek was on the board of Make-A-Wish prior to being CEO. It does not come with the position.

 

[Sir_Cliff]

Rich person checking in here.

And not sure how to say this without sounding pompous, but I’m not even a 1% rich guy, but a .1% rich guy.

I don’t think they are trying to make the park exclusively for rich people at all. I’m a Disney fan with 8 & 12 year old daughters- and the place is becoming unbearable to me.

If I were designing a strategy to appeal to me, it would not be the current offering by any stretch.

The crowds are crushing. And having a chaperone in plaid to whisk me away through CM parking lots as the only means to escape them isn’t my idea of a good time, personally.
I’d rather rope drop and leave by lunch and come back for dinner at a different park.
It’s the crowds for me, not the waits.

And I cannot begin to mention the hotels that “my ilk” are accustomed to that Disney falls short on.
2-4x daily housekeeping is what I am accustomed to when I travel. Not 3x/week.
Not that I hate disney hotels, I rather enjoy them. But “Deluxe”, they are not.

So no- it’s not being designed for rich people, but for people with credit.
And social media has propped the Disney World tent-pole into a nearly undying beast as it’s simply a right of passage for middle-class American families.
Debt be damned.

As for rich people? They’ll continue spending their vacations abroad.
As for rich Disney people? We’ll continue resenting a more and more inferior product like the rest of you.

Yes, I really don't see Disney's strategy as being to go after a wealthier clientele. If they wanted to do that, they would also be providing a superior product, which they are clearly not. I'm not sure many of their defenders even argue that's the case. Disney's strategy instead seems to be to squeeze as much as they can out of their existing clientele whether they can afford it or not and offer as little as they can get away with.

I am not in the .1%, but I can still afford a Disney vacation and like to spend well on my vacations. Disney World is becoming about the last place I would spend that money right now, though, because everything is such a hassle and feels below the level of comfort and enjoyment I could get for the same money almost anywhere else. And I say that as a fan of their theme parks!

 

[Lilofan]

Yes, I really don't see Disney's strategy as being to go after a wealthier clientele. If they wanted to do that, they would also be providing a superior product, which they are clearly not. I'm not sure many of their defenders even argue that's the case. Disney's strategy instead seems to be to squeeze as much as they can out of their existing clientele whether they can afford it or not and offer as little as they can get away with.

I am not in the .1%, but I can still afford a Disney vacation and like to spend well on my vacations. Disney World is becoming about the last place I would spend that money right now, though, because everything is such a hassle and feels below the level of comfort and enjoyment I could get for the same money almost anywhere else. And I say that as a fan of their theme parks!

When you attract wealthier clientele you form partnerships with reputable upscale companies that deliver a superior product. When Disney forms a new partnership with Cici's Pizza which is probably the worst tasting pizza chain in the country what's that saying for attracting upscale clientele?

 

[Animaniac93-98]

So no- it’s not being designed for rich people, but for people with credit.
And social media has propped the Disney World tent-pole into a nearly undying beast as it’s simply a right of passage for middle-class American families.
Debt be damned.

Quoting this in particular because it so perfectly hits the nail on the head.

It also explains why people are not only willing to pay whatever but put up with the games and restrictions Disney puts in place just to go and be there.

 

[ladybat2]

For me its not really that I'm angry about the price increases. I'm used to those. In my younger years it would take me at least a year or two of skimping and saving every tiny extra penny I could to have enough money to take my girls on a week long WDW vacation and that was when we lived with in possible driving distance from it. I would not have been able to do it at all had I needed air fare too. But every time I managed to do it which was every so many years I never felt that I did not get my money's worth. I did not regret a single penny spent there but that is not the case any more. I am able to afford better vacations to Disney now without having to do the skimping. But I absolutely no longer feel that I am getting my money's worth at all. Especially since they began the fast pass system and now this horrid genie thing. In the 90s we did rope drop. Half the park one day the other half the next. We did half the walking and rode more attractions. The lines were long yes but since it was only one line for all those lines constantly moved and did not stop so it was always just a slow walk up to the attraction. It is not like this any more. Having to run from one end of the parks to the other and having to stay on your phone competing with thousands of other people on line trying to get a place in a line that causes the stand by line to stand still. Its horrible! Walt would be mortified at all of this. I know we have to pay high prices for it all but we understood that we got something for it and we understood that more would be coming because Disney used to use that money for bringing us more wonderful dreams and memories. Walt himself never really lived like a super wealthy person. He was obsessed with taking the money and putting it back into his art to keep making it better and better. Now there are way to many hands in the Mouse's pocket and they are keeping the money for themselves and not putting enough of it back into the happiest place on earth. No empire lasts forever. History has proven that time and again. Disney better remember that.

 

[ladybat2]

This is next level pixie dust.
If G+ was a better product, I’d completely agree.
But it’s not. It’s a hot mess in its current (and former) iterations.

I think 95% of us would rather they just kept FP+ and charged for it vs what we got. And that % is probably low.


Rich person checking in here.

And not sure how to say this without sounding pompous, but I’m not even a 1% rich guy, but a .1% rich guy.

I don’t think they are trying to make the park exclusively for rich people at all. I’m a Disney fan with 8 & 12 year old daughters- and the place is becoming unbearable to me.

If I were designing a strategy to appeal to me, it would not be the current offering by any stretch.

The crowds are crushing. And having a chaperone in plaid to whisk me away through CM parking lots as the only means to escape them isn’t my idea of a good time, personally.
I’d rather rope drop and leave by lunch and come back for dinner at a different park.
It’s the crowds for me, not the waits.

And I cannot begin to mention the hotels that “my ilk” are accustomed to that Disney falls short on.
2-4x daily housekeeping is what I am accustomed to when I travel. Not 3x/week.
Not that I hate disney hotels, I rather enjoy them. But “Deluxe”, they are not.

So no- it’s not being designed for rich people, but for people with credit.
And social media has propped the Disney World tent-pole into a nearly undying beast as it’s simply a right of passage for middle-class American families.
Debt be damned.

As for rich people? They’ll continue spending their vacations abroad.
As for rich Disney people? We’ll continue resenting a more and more inferior product like the rest of you.

Andy no truer words ever said! Your post hit every single nail right on the head! Especially the Debt part. Its for people with credit until they don't have it any more because their WDW drug addiction is driving them to bankrupting themselves chasing childhood memories and dreams that just do not exsist any more no matter how hard and how much money they spend chasing it. Excellent written post by you. I wish someone with clout at Disney happens to read it!

 

[dreday3]

Andy no truer words ever said! Your post hit every single nail right on the head! Especially the Debt part. Its for people with credit until they don't have it any more because their WDW drug addiction is driving them to bankrupting themselves chasing childhood memories and dreams that just do not exsist any more no matter how hard and how much money they spend chasing it. Excellent written post by you. I wish someone with clout at Disney happens to read it!

Or....no.

 

[LSLS]

That's not how it works. The room rates are determined by demand. Even if the intent was to prevent across the board prices increases in 2018, the rates would still go up if the demand was there.




In this instance, I am literally just interpreting the words, PARKING FEE to denote that parking has been separated from the daily room rate. You are insisting, without evidence, that parking is still included in the room rate.

Except, disney announces the rack rates for the upcoming year in June. They announce this in April, 2 months before they raise the rates for 2019. Since the rack rates for the year were already in place (and 2018 had a pretty big raise i believe), the price of parking was baked into that cost already. The fees did not lower the rack rate for the rest of 2018. For your theory to work, disney would have had to have forgotten to include parking in the price model that raised the 2018 rates, realized it 4 months in, and added an arbitrary parking fee that charges more based on the resort you are at. My alternative is they had the parking fee baked into the hotel cost, and found a way to raise the rates mid year on top of the annual raises.

 

[JMcMahonEsq]

Except, disney announces the rack rates for the upcoming year in June. They announce this in April, 2 months before they raise the rates for 2019. Since the rack rates for the year were already in place (and 2018 had a pretty big raise i believe), the price of parking was baked into that cost already. The fees did not lower the rack rate for the rest of 2018. For your theory to work, disney would have had to have forgotten to include parking in the price model that raised the 2018 rates, realized it 4 months in, and added an arbitrary parking fee that charges more based on the resort you are at. My alternative is they had the parking fee baked into the hotel cost, and found a way to raise the rates mid year on top of the annual raises.

You act like fees and costs are intrinsically linked, and that fees for a certain item only go towards the costs of that item. Even assuming Disney had some number built into the hotel rate prior to the charging for parking, for parking, which there is no evidence of is there really any doubt that over Covid profits were down across the board or that shipping issues and inflation has raised prices for everything across the board? So as a business you look to increase revenue to offset costs. It doesn’t matter what revenue stream it comes from. So you add parking charges to offset cost. It doesn’t matter if it’s parking costs or not

 

[Sir_Cliff]

You act like fees and costs are intrinsically linked, and that fees for a certain item only go towards the costs of that item. Even assuming Disney had some number built into the hotel rate prior to the charging for parking, for parking, which there is no evidence of is there really any doubt that over Covid profits were down across the board or that shipping issues and inflation has raised prices for everything across the board? So as a business you look to increase revenue to offset costs. It doesn’t matter what revenue stream it comes from. So you add parking charges to offset cost. It doesn’t matter if it’s parking costs or not

When do you think Covid struck?

 

[LSLS]

You act like fees and costs are intrinsically linked, and that fees for a certain item only go towards the costs of that item. Even assuming Disney had some number built into the hotel rate prior to the charging for parking, for parking, which there is no evidence of is there really any doubt that over Covid profits were down across the board or that shipping issues and inflation has raised prices for everything across the board? So as a business you look to increase revenue to offset costs. It doesn’t matter what revenue stream it comes from. So you add parking charges to offset cost. It doesn’t matter if it’s parking costs or not

Man, disney has some amazing modeling to predict covid 2 years before it happened.

But, I mean, aside from me laughing at the idea of a multi-billion dollar company just rough guessing their costs instead of building out specific models, you kind of make my point. That fee has nothing to do with charging for parking, it was a cash grab.

 

[Andrew C]

If this is the reaction around here for parking fees, I hate to see it if they ever do a resort fee.

 

[build_it]

If this is the reaction around here for parking fees, I hate to see it if they ever do a resort fee.

They already have that, it’s called your admission ticket

 

[Lilofan]

Please, , stop with the "exceptional demand" stuff. Demand is no greater or less than before COVID. Prices are up, services are down. Things keep going as they are there won't be any demand.

Fyi- per guest spending is better than before. The ways to extract from the current guests is working .That's exceptional.

 

[MrPromey]

When you attract wealthier clientele you form partnerships with reputable upscale companies that deliver a superior product. When Disney forms a new partnership with Cici's Pizza which is probably the worst tasting pizza chain in the country what's that saying for attracting upscale clientele?

And bananas in the wild aren't edible. They look like this:

 

[MrPromey]

Fyi- per guest spending is better than before. The ways to extract from the current guests is working .That's exceptional.

Exceptional for who, exactly?

Not for guests paying more.

Not for stock holders they stopped providing dividends to and who have been looking at the value of their stock drop over the last year+.*

Who is this exceptional for?

Perhaps people who's income is based on certain metrics of performance within the company? People like - I don't know - senior executives?

Yeah, I guess it's good for them.




*Yeah, I'm one of those and if I sell now I sell well below the price I paid.

 

[Lilofan]

Andy no truer words ever said! Your post hit every single nail right on the head! Especially the Debt part. Its for people with credit until they don't have it any more because their WDW drug addiction is driving them to bankrupting themselves chasing childhood memories and dreams that just do not exsist any more no matter how hard and how much money they spend chasing it. Excellent written post by you. I wish someone with clout at Disney happens to read it!

In regard to the debt part we are a "slaves to debt " society and mindset. And sad to say that the USA average life expectancy I heard in the news recently has dropped 2 years , it's now 76 years.

 

[andysol]

In regard to the debt part we are a "slaves to debt " society and mindset. And sad to say that the USA average life expectancy I heard in the news recently has dropped 2 years , it's now 76 years.

We still dropped even with the smaller portions?