mickEblu
Well-Known Member
Translation: Don’t go buy annual passes with any of our competitors while we figure out what we’re going to do.
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Magic Key Renewals?
- Thread starter Sailor310
- Start date
Translation: Don’t go buy annual passes with any of our competitors while we figure out what we’re going to do.
Disstevefan1
Well-Known Member
My reasoning was DLR could survive with zero guests for all that time, to they really need to provide an annual pass to bring folks in?
Emmanuel
Well-Known Member
Welp *Hides Knotts Season Pass in wallet*
mickEblu
Well-Known Member
Lol. I bought a couple USH annual passes last month but I was going to buy them anyway for Super Nintendo Land
Vegas Disney Fan
Well-Known Member
Universal sure makes APs tempting, we’re doing 2 days at Universal Florida in Jan, after a week at WDW and a Disney cruise, and 2 day passes are $340 each vs $425 for the lowest tier AP.
IF we opt for the APs that almost guarantees another trip to Florida in 2023 but for Universal instead of Disney. For a couple who will be without Disneyland APs for the first time in a decade that’s a potential game changer.
Californian Elitist
Well-Known Member
Well, by the sound of the logic here, the DLR doesn’t need any guests at all for a certain amount of time, let alone APs. Many businesses survived without clients/guests, but that doesn’t mean said clients/guests aren’t needed.
I know you’re unfamiliar with the AP/MK system here, but it is quite valuable to Disneyland. I don’t believe it is comparable to WDW at all (the fact that I was never asked if I was an AP during my visit there is good proof). I would even argue that it’s cultural. I have an extremely hard time imagining Disney permanently getting rid of a pass system here, but we’ll have to wait and see.
MarvelCharacterNerd
Well-Known Member
Does anyone else think the reported removal of the Magic Key logo from the parks' embroidery machines give a pretty strong indicator that the Keys are not likely what people will be renewed into?
On the other hand, plenty of people will still have active Keys well into next year, so I think it's silly they're removing that option unless it's simply not selling.
On the other hand, plenty of people will still have active Keys well into next year, so I think it's silly they're removing that option unless it's simply not selling.
truecoat
Well-Known Member
Corporations like Disney are where most politicians get campaign funds. You can't bite the mouth that feeds you.
They survived with zero guests and minimal operating experiences, because 90% of the cast were laid off or were on leave without pay.
SoCalDisneyLover
Well-Known Member
How do you know this? Other than for the period of April 3, 2021 to August 24, 2021, following a 12 1/2 Month Covid Shutdown, when has Disneyland had a period of exclusively Day tickets?
During the non-travel times of year, who are these people crawling over each other to buy daily passes at $120+/day?
The fact they rushed out Magic Keys, is evidence that they can't eliminate AP's for an extended period of time. Perhaps they may hit the pause button, work their way through the remaining Dream & Believe Keys between now and November, and make do with the demand for Halloween Time & the Holidays.
But if they don't institute something by early 2023, they'll be as empty as they were in the first months of their 2021 re-opening, when capacity was being severely restricted.
SoCalDisneyLover
Well-Known Member
I assure you that Disney took full advantage of the many Covid Relief (Free Money) programs offered by the Federal & State Governments.
Disstevefan1
Well-Known Member
Agreed, they probably made more money than they would have actually selling tickets and having to serve guests in the park.
el_super
Well-Known Member
Disney doesn't need Annual Passes, but they certainly want to retain the customers. The goal here is to convert them to more limited media (like 2 or 3 day ticket specials). They need to convert those customers to higher average ticket prices. Either they start eliminating options and features of the Annual Passes (which they subtly tried with the Magic Key) or they significantly raise the prices on the current offerings.
They can't go back to the scenarios where the park is so overly crowded with Annual Pass holders that regular ticket holders decide to go elsewhere. That just ends up hurting the business.
shambolicdefending
Well-Known Member
They'd been slowly raising AP costs and chipping away at benefits long before the pandemic. The MKs just allowed them to accelerate the process and skip several iterations.
The challenge for the suits, though, will be seeing the long-term strategy through. It's going to take a while (as in multiple years) for Disneyland to shed the "too crowded" brand it's rightfully earned, and waiting that long for results doesn't always play well with the shareholders. It also won't be very effective if it just gets replaced by the "too expensive" brand, which seems to be growing in strength.
Phroobar
Well-Known Member
The fact they had a year and half to come up with a AP plan but didn't during covid is one flag. While it was being discussed in committee, Disneyland was packed with 1-day paying customers. Second, AP is always used to backfill crowds based on the reservation system. If I want a day ticket I can have it for any day mostly. An AP holder can't have the same spot until closer to the date. Since AP reservations are hard to get, they must not have very many spots to back fill with.
shambolicdefending
Well-Known Member
The question is how far into the future we can project what's happened in 2022. Most of us suspect the long-term patterns won't look quite the same as the short-term ones.
Ryan120420
Well-Known Member
The new CEO of Six Flags has said that his plan is to move the chain away from being the "discount" brand and towards a premium experience by pricing people out.
A 1-Day ticket online is $85 and $119 at the gate.
shambolicdefending
Well-Known Member
That's quite a bold strategy since the premium brand space is already pretty crowded. I wonder what the new "discount" brand will supposedly be (spoiler: It will still be Six Flags).