Lightning Lane at Walt Disney World

[Brooklin Disney Dad]

Why does Disney offer a discounted rate for FLA residents? Was this an agreement made pre 1971 when D received tax $ to build DW?
In Ontario Canada, my local tourist attractions don’t have an elevated price hike for tourists. I wonder how many parks outside of FLA do this. Can recall if Hershey Park or Cedar Point Sandusky had lower admission rates for state residents.

 

[Weather_Lady]

Why does Disney offer a discounted rate for FLA residents? Was this an agreement made pre 1971 when D received tax $ to build DW?
In Ontario Canada, my local tourist attractions don’t have an elevated price hike for tourists. I wonder how many parks outside of FLA do this. Can recall if Hershey Park or Cedar Point Sandusky had lower admission rates for state residents.

Disney does the same in California, and I think Universal does state-resident discounts for its California and Florida parks as well.

As far as smaller parks (which probably rely far more on locals), I think they offer their own version of "local discounts," that aren't necessarily state residency-specific. For example, I don't believe Hershey Park offers PA resident discounts, but it does offer an annual pass that, for obvious reasons, would only be feasible to use regularly if you didn't live too far away.

 

[HauntedPirate]

Why does Disney offer a discounted rate for FLA residents? Was this an agreement made pre 1971 when D received tax $ to build DW?
In Ontario Canada, my local tourist attractions don’t have an elevated price hike for tourists. I wonder how many parks outside of FLA do this. Can recall if Hershey Park or Cedar Point Sandusky had lower admission rates for state residents.

There is no "discounted rate" for Florida residents on daily tickets. The only thing exclusive to Florida residents is a cheaper Annual Pass with lots of blackout dates. And FL resident deals when TDO is desperate to get people into the parks and into rooms.

 

[monothingie]

Why does Disney offer a discounted rate for FLA residents? Was this an agreement made pre 1971 when D received tax $ to build DW?
In Ontario Canada, my local tourist attractions don’t have an elevated price hike for tourists. I wonder how many parks outside of FLA do this. Can recall if Hershey Park or Cedar Point Sandusky had lower admission rates for state residents.

A Disney trip for out of state visitors is usually not a spur of the moment decision, it is often booked months out and extensively planned.

Locals are much more flexible to take an off the cuff visit or stay a couple of days at WDW. Which is why Disney offers targeted discounts or specialized passes to capitalize on that flexibility. This is especially true when there are forecasted gaps in attendance that need to be filled.

Locals and AP are a necessary evil for TDO and it's a very abusive and/or contentious relationship with their most loyal customers who they often take for granted.

 

[HauntedPirate]

A Disney trip for out of state visitors is usually not a spur of the moment decision, it is often booked months out and extensively planned.

Locals are much more flexible to take an off the cuff visit or stay a couple of days at WDW. Which is why Disney offers targeted discounts or specialized passes to capitalize on that flexibility. This is especially true when there are forecasted gaps in attendance that need to be filled.

Locals and AP are a necessary evil for TDO and it's a very abusive and/or contentious relationship with their most loyal customers who they often take for granted.

I ARE THE MAGIC!!!

 

[el_super]

Why does Disney offer a discounted rate for FLA residents?

Unsold capacity and yield optimization. If the park can hold 60,000 people and you can only sell 45,000 full-priced tickets, you offer a discount on the remaining 15,000. Those discounts get progressively steeper (all the way up to $0 for CM admissions) until you hit 60,000 in order to receive the maximum yield from your capacity outlay.

Their general problem now is that they have more people willing to pay full price and so they've been trying to squeeze out the local discounts, which ultimately erupted in fan complaints. Disney seems to have relented a bit and offered up annual passes again (tho limited) as an olive branch to their "biggest fans."

 

[John park hopper]

Bob's theme song ------I want to take the prices higher

 

[Purduevian]

Why does Disney offer a discounted rate for FLA residents? Was this an agreement made pre 1971 when D received tax $ to build DW?
In Ontario Canada, my local tourist attractions don’t have an elevated price hike for tourists. I wonder how many parks outside of FLA do this. Can recall if Hershey Park or Cedar Point Sandusky had lower admission rates for state residents.

Cedar point does offer Michigan resident discounts on occasion... although they are located in Ohio. My guess is Michigan is just far enough that many people don't have annual passes, but have the flexibility to make a spur of the moment day trip.

 

[Tha Realest]

As an out-of-stater I don't know much about this topic, so I ask purely out of curiosity: if Disney wants to discourage locals and incentivize guests who are coming further distances (and thus staying longer, and on-site, and spending more), which does make some logical sense, then why do they offer discounted ticket and hotel rates to Florida residents? Is that something the state requires Disney to do, or is it just a relic of a former, more local-friendly policy?

If I had to guess: out of staters need more ramp up time to book a trip. The locals discounts are to nudge those within driving distance and fill rooms and the parks with unused capacity that the more desirable customers haven’t booked.

 

[doctornick]

There is no "discounted rate" for Florida residents on daily tickets. The only thing exclusive to Florida residents is a cheaper Annual Pass with lots of blackout dates. And FL resident deals when TDO is desperate to get people into the parks and into rooms.

Maybe they don't any more, but I though they had something like a 3 day pass that you could use over 3 or 4 months or something for Florida residents. And don't Florida residents get cheaper rates for "regular" park tickets?

 

[HauntedPirate]

Maybe they don't any more, but I though they had something like a 3 day pass that you could use over 3 or 4 months or something for Florida residents. And don't Florida residents get cheaper rates for "regular" park tickets?

There was a 4-park ticket deal like that last summer, I think.

I stand corrected - There is currently an up-to 30% off 3 day and up-to 40% off 4 day ticket deal (non-Park Hopper) for FL residents. Not that it makes pricing all that attractive when you can get a Pixie Dust AP for the same price.

I've said it before and I'll say it again - ticket prices are the biggest barrier to entry that Disney refuses to budge on. When a 6-day PH is $200 cheaper than a Sorcerer Pass, something's wrong. Not that their pricing schemes aren't a major problem right now anyway. Just look at what Genie- has done - Constant revenue stream that they are now dependent on, so downtime becomes a bigger problem but needed downtime for maintenance is almost impossible to justify because of the financial hit taken.

 

[GhostHost1000]

There was a 4-park ticket deal like that last summer, I think.

I stand corrected - There is currently an up-to 30% off 3 day and up-to 40% off 4 day ticket deal (non-Park Hopper) for FL residents. Not that it makes pricing all that attractive when you can get a Pixie Dust AP for the same price.

I've said it before and I'll say it again - ticket prices are the biggest barrier to entry that Disney refuses to budge on. When a 6-day PH is $200 cheaper than a Sorcerer Pass, something's wrong.

Speaking of ticket prices, I saw today in an email where I purchased 10 day tickets in 2018 for a friend for $445 and today I purchased 3 day tickets for an upcoming business conference for $458.

 

[HauntedPirate]

Speaking of ticket prices, I saw today in an email where I purchased 10 day tickets in 2018 for a friend for $445 and today I purchased 3 day tickets for an upcoming business conference for $458.

That's...

 

[GhostHost1000]

That's...

Well obviously they offer so much more now and things are so much better since 2018 right?

 

[Tha Realest]

Speaking of ticket prices, I saw today in an email where I purchased 10 day tickets in 2018 for a friend for $445 and today I purchased 3 day tickets for an upcoming business conference for $458.

Now do that math with G+ and ILL factored in

 

[Brian]

Well obviously they offer so much more now and things are so much better since 2018 right?

Incredible new activations like this one aren't going to pay for themselves:

 

[SourcererMark79]

Incredible new activations like this one aren't going to pay for themselves:


View attachment 772453

This looks out of place on Grand Ave, Why?

 

[DCBaker]

The Multiple Parks option is no longer available for new purchases today.

 

[el_super]

The Multiple Parks option is no longer available for new purchases today.

It's still such a foreign concept to me to PLAN to park hop this way. This just requires so much work.

 

[wdwmagic]

Magic Kingdom and Multi-park Genie+ option sells out at Walt Disney World​

Magic Kingdom and Multi-park Genie+ option sells out at Walt Disney World

Magic Kingdom and Multi-park Genie+ option sells out at Walt Disney World

www.wdwmagic.com