Seasonal Multi-Day Ticket Pricing Coming Soon

Kman101

Well-Known Member

monothingie

Evil will always triumph, because good is dumb.
Premium Member
Therein lies the problem. They're disconnected and man does it show.

"The are trying to control capacity"

Bingo. Nailed it. They are STILL trying to control capacity. They must absolutely hate having to build new attractions and rides.

To have guests select the parks they're going to, this furthers the 'control capacity'. Instead of, you know, expanding capacity like they should have been doing for the last 20-15 years. Instead they take away, replace, finally add a bit back (because they have to) but they still have their old mind-frame. And it shows.

Two observations:
First, while they are building attractions and rides, they are not adding capacity because it replacing previously existing attractions and rides. From a crowd control perspective, this is the worst possible thing to do, because it has the opposite effect. It makes an already crowded park more so.

Second they are hesitant to do another gate because of the enormous risk involved. Historically Disney has added a new gate or more about every decade through 2000. Since the 9/11 attack and economic downturn in 2009, they have been extremely conservative in expansion. Building hotels is low risk, building new gates is not. Disney seemingly doesn't have the intestinal fortitude to do the later. **at least in this country**
 

Kman101

Well-Known Member
Two observations:
First, while they are building attractions and rides, they are not adding capacity because it replacing previously existing attractions and rides. From a crowd control perspective, this is the worst possible thing to do, because it has the opposite effect. It makes an already crowded park more so.

Second they are hesitant to do another gate because of the enormous risk involved. Historically Disney has added a new gate or more every about every decade through 2000. Since the 9/11 attack and economic downturn in 2009, they have been extremely conservative in expansion. Building hotels is low risk, building new gates is not. Disney seemingly doesn't have the intestinal fortitude to do the later. **at least in this country**

Everyone needs to read the first part over and over again. Because it's true. And we see that. We did hear something recently from Martin (@marni1971) about them maybe finally understanding the capacity thing but that could be years off from them really addressing it in new attractions. They just don't seem to care, and they need to. Again, it's that disconnect.

I had been beating that first part to death with the DHS "re-do". It's just a nicer attempt at "replace" instead of adding. They're just adding back capacity they took away but they're not really helping capacity any. I say it all the time but "they don't get it". Walt Disney Studios getting a lake and two lands, folks, THAT is an expansion. We may be getting six attractions, but in reality we're probably up two attractions. That's sad. (I know "ride"/"attraction", they're different but in this case, I'm comparing experiences, not separating ride from attraction, they're all "attractions")

They've been running the place with their old 2001/2009 mind-frame of "we're going out of business" which couldn't be further from the truth. I get these things they do are not cheap but maybe they should stop all the crap that causes the costs to go up. Get that under control instead of giving us "budget friendly" projects like Pixar Pier.

I've had the same observations as you. I don't think we're wrong. It's clear how they do things.
 

drizgirl

Well-Known Member
I had been beating that first part to death with the DHS "re-do". It's just a nicer attempt at "replace" instead of adding. They're just adding back capacity they took away but they're not really helping capacity any. I say it all the time but "they don't get it". Walt Disney Studios getting a lake and two lands, folks, THAT is an expansion. We may be getting six attractions, but in reality we're probably up two attractions. That's sad. (I know "ride"/"attraction", they're different but in this case, I'm comparing experiences, not separating ride from attraction, they're all "attractions")

Exactly that. They are replacing what they closed (and saved a lot of money not operating over an extended period of time) but will reopen with far increased demand. They will actually have lost ground. But I'm sure they'll be happy with the bottom line so that's what we'll continue to get.
 

Kman101

Well-Known Member
Exactly that. They are replacing what they closed (and saved a lot of money not operating over an extended period of time) but will reopen with far increased demand. They will actually have lost ground. But I'm sure they'll be happy with the bottom line so that's what we'll continue to get.

Another spot on post. You're absolutely correct. I mean, the backlot sat untouched for what, two years?

I'm happy they realized they *have* to invest in WDW but locally they still seem to have the same mindframe they have had for the last two decades. So they make short-term decisions. I know many defend them spending money and what they're adding, I'm not against most of it, but let's not act like they're doing it out of the goodness of their heart.
 

Jon81uk

Well-Known Member
As long as people change plans, they will need ticket windows. And with such a convoluted and confusing system, I'm standing by my recommendation for staffing up.

Change of plans is more of a guest relations thing. I am expecting the multiple windows in the plaza to go and get replaced with a smaller number windows to one side of the turnstiles, this might not happen soon but given the changes in retail to online shopping it seems inevitable that ticketing will be mainly done online in the future too. Also if the changes are to add on a day or change to park-hopping there is no reason they can't make that available online and on the app.
 

monothingie

Evil will always triumph, because good is dumb.
Premium Member
The key is forecasting and growth strategy. Their current levels shield TWDC from adverse risk in the event the economy sours, and I think that's what their strategic development group probably fears the most is another downturn. When your primary corporate directive is bowing before the shareholders and settling for the status quo because it is the most risk averse, instead of growing your business, innovating, and expanding like was done in the 80's and 90's, this is what you get, and can expect to get for the foreseeable future.
 

drizgirl

Well-Known Member
Change of plans is more of a guest relations thing. I am expecting the multiple windows in the plaza to go and get replaced with a smaller number windows to one side of the turnstiles, this might not happen soon but given the changes in retail to online shopping it seems inevitable that ticketing will be mainly done online in the future too. Also if the changes are to add on a day or change to park-hopping there is no reason they can't make that available online and on the app.
I get what you're saying. But I don't see Disney IT ever functioning well enough for them to downsize in-person help with a ticket scheme like this.
 

Ninja Mom

Well-Known Member
Two observations:
First, while they are building attractions and rides, they are not adding capacity because it replacing previously existing attractions and rides. From a crowd control perspective, this is the worst possible thing to do, because it has the opposite effect. It makes an already crowded park more so.

Second they are hesitant to do another gate because of the enormous risk involved. Historically Disney has added a new gate or more about every decade through 2000. Since the 9/11 attack and economic downturn in 2009, they have been extremely conservative in expansion. Building hotels is low risk, building new gates is not. Disney seemingly doesn't have the intestinal fortitude to do the later. **at least in this country**
And don't forget, building hotels is the low hanging fruit. Cookie cutter, hospital style hotel rooms require no creative muscle and are profitable upon opening.

I see a day when Disney is going to throttle access for off site guests after the hotel expansion AND price points reach a sustainable point for throttling. Just like you have black out dates for certain annual passes I'm wondering if Disney will consider black out dates for Star Wars Galaxy's edge and limit access to onsite hotel guests. Case in point: they have opened up 60 day FP and EMH to certain Disney Springs Hotels that were willing to pay the ransom. That's a quick way to get your hotel room numbers up to throttling points.

And yes.... I know the number of resort rooms pales in comparison to park capacity. Think of throttling as a way to "reduce over crowding" read: prices not in line with demand. You can extort hotels to pay for special Disney access: EMH, 60 day fast pass and access to popular lands. What hotel wouldn't want to pay the ransom and drive up their occupancy rates if Disney is throttling access.

If the economy turns (and it will) Disney doesn't have the empty hotel rooms in their inventory plus all of the problems associated with ownership. Added bonus, People would be forced to pay exorbitant room rates to gain access to the parks.

Remember, everything at Disney is about the stock price and doing the minimum and charging the maximum. No one at Disney is interested in reducing over crowding. That's a public relations statement to 'justify' unpopular higher pricing. Crowds mean money. Crowds are good, and the more you can charge and the more crowded it is the more money you will make.

~NM
 

Lensman

Well-Known Member
My guesses:
  • Each park will have its own "seasons". This will allow DHS to charge more around the debut of MMRR and SW:GE, of course, but also Epcot during festivals, etc. Any time a park has something new, more can be charged there. Other parks can charge less, to take off some of the crowds.

  • You'll have to say "I'm going to this park on this date" to get the cheapest pricing.

  • There will be a more expensive "go to any park any day during your trip" option.
The people I've spoken to say that the new ticket ordering process is very complicated - something like 7 to 9 steps per ticket. That may delay implementation a bit, as third-party vendors try to figure out how to integrate.
1. Do you think the "go to any park any day during your trip" option will be in addition to the park-hopper option as a lower tier? Or will they just have the current park-hopper option be the "go to any park any day during your trip" option?
2. It seems to me that it would be simpler to have the date-driven aspect just be driven by a few options like: season of the entire multi-day pass, limited number of admissions to MK, maybe MK admissions only on weekdays or one weekend.
3. Alternatively if date-specific passes are inevitable, I could see that the ticket purchase process would need to be integrated into the fastpass reservation system in that your park selections should be optimized for what fastpasses you can get on each day. In this process of mine you'd set up your fastpass reservations, then that would imply what park passes you need to purchase.
4. Another interesting, but unlikely option I see is for a multi-day pass to actually be a certain number of "points", then each park admission would use up some of those points. So a 10-day pass would be 20 admission points, but MK on Friday or Saturday would be 3 points. I consider this a less likely outcome because although it would influence behavior as a form of yield management, it wouldn't get them predictive information on attendance, which they probably also want.
 

Goofyernmost

Well-Known Member
You are speculating (as you usually do). @lentesta as his track record proceeds him is reporting on solid information.
Still speculation until it happens. Has it happened yet? NO! Is it news now? NO! It is speculation and an iffy one at that. The complexity of that type of thing is beyond comprehension and would require everyone to set a date of arrival before buying a ticket. What about ticket purchased as a gift? If it does happen it will just be one more nail in the Disney coffin. Let's worry about everything while we are at it. If it happens I'm sure they will let us know officially and not through the Orlando Sentinel and then it will be news. However, they did make single day tickets seasonal, so there you have your news part of it. But even that is history and not news according to you guys. I don't know first hand, I don't buy one day tickets I only know about what I see from you guys here.
 
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Goofyernmost

Well-Known Member
He was guessing *how* it would be implemented, not guessing that it would be. I'm sure it's no doubt an idea they've had. We'll see if it happens. Could easily be put off or not happen but I wouldn't outright dismiss it. You do you though. To be fair you're not entirely wrong that it's a rumor. But this is a "rumors" forum after all. Why do people forget that?
There are headings for rumor and news... they should be used otherwise people think that it is a done deal and we will see it soon. We might, but, I really doubt it. What will be, will be.
 

mikejs78

Premium Member
Another spot on post. You're absolutely correct. I mean, the backlot sat untouched for what, two years?

I'm happy they realized they *have* to invest in WDW but locally they still seem to have the same mindframe they have had for the last two decades. So they make short-term decisions. I know many defend them spending money and what they're adding, I'm not against most of it, but let's not act like they're doing it out of the goodness of their heart.
Eh, backlot was very underutilized. They closed it and a show, and are replacing it with two new e-tickets, a D coaster and a C flat ride. The only real "rip and replace" attraction I see here is MMRR for GMR.

In Epcot you have Guardians (replace), Rat (new) and possibly Poppins (new). In MK whatever replaces Stitch (which no matter what it is will be a net positive) and Tron (new). In AK, they just added Pandora (new). So over the next few years, new attractions are equal to or more than rip and replace.

The problem is demand will increase faster than capacity due to SWL. So while they are making an effort to build, it's not enough, so they are doing things to manage capacity. One can argue that they should and could do more (which I think is the case), but to say they aren't doing anything to add capacity is simply not the case.
 

Kman101

Well-Known Member
There are headings for rumor and news... they should be used otherwise people think that it is a done deal and we will see it soon. We might, but, I really doubt it. What will be, will be.

I'm with you on "what will be will be" and I do see what you were trying to point out. We all sort of just run with things, and it's not official yet. But then I think people forget this is also a rumors forum and sometimes we just get carried away because "that's what we do."

I also think people trust when certain people give out information so it's treated as "official". I know some think it's blind, and I'm not saying you were questioning the source at all, just explaining why some maybe treat it like it's officially a thing when it hasn't been officially announced yet.
 

Kman101

Well-Known Member
Eh, backlot was very underutilized. They closed it and a show, and are replacing it with two new e-tickets, a D coaster and a C flat ride. The only real "rip and replace" attraction I see here is MMRR for GMR.

In Epcot you have Guardians (replace), Rat (new) and possibly Poppins (new). In MK whatever replaces Stitch (which no matter what it is will be a net positive) and Tron (new). In AK, they just added Pandora (new). So over the next few years, new attractions are equal to or more than rip and replace.

The problem is demand will increase faster than capacity due to SWL. So while they are making an effort to build, it's not enough, so they are doing things to manage capacity. One can argue that they should and could do more (which I think is the case), but to say they aren't doing anything to add capacity is simply not the case.

I don't disagree with your first two paragraphs. But you're looking at it from a "what I'd rather do" perspective. Rides are always better but not don't always help with capacity. I realize what was seen as wasted space is now rides that are fun, but it really hasn't "helped" the park (on one hand, on the other, it does "appear" as if it helps).

I'm sure someone can explain the capacity thing better than I can. I'm not saying it won't improve, but it's not right now. And they aren't addressing it like they should. They're adding new things because they have to. Guardians is replacing an attraction. Wonders of Life is still empty for now. Rat and Mary are indeed gains and much needed.

You just look at it a different way, nothing wrong with that. I don't think you're getting the point we're trying to make though and I'm terrible at explaining it ... lol

This is a great start. I'm not disputing it. I know we aren't supposed to criticize because they're finally spending money but this all very long overdue. It's a fantastic start, a lot of it helps ...
 

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