Could this actually be code for losing vacation days to Uni and other attractions, because with MYW tickets shorter stays can mean much larger average ticket prices?
(Edited to fix formatting)
Last edited:
-
Welcome to the WDWMAGIC.COM Forums!
Please take a look around, and feel free to sign up and join the community.
Spirited Spring Break News, Observations & Thoughts ...
- Thread starter WDW1974
- Start date
(Edited to fix formatting)
jlsHouston
Well-Known Member
Please I wanted everyone just to pretend we didn't read that admission of his because I think he is better than that singular action he admitted to would make him appear. Well I hope he is. Why is your ink blue?
Rodan75
Well-Known Member
LoL. I saw the praise so I unblocked and read.
jlsHouston
Well-Known Member
You are silly . You need to re read his posts. The discussions he posts are about value and good business practices and long term strategies for profits that will sustain P&R for decades to come. It has nothing to do with bashing unless analysis and critique is defined as bashing.
I have to get to bed. Tomorrow is Wednesday and I have had the most unprofitable week. I wish I had brand following and I could just raise my profits and put some cash in the account right now
Pumbas Nakasak
Heading for the great escape.
It is funny the number of ubber loyalists who favour the lalalalalal Im not listening approach for fear of the pixie dust being dampened.
ParentsOf4
Well-Known Member
There's a difference between what I want WDW to do as a customer vs. what WDW should do as a business.
As a customer, I'm looking forward to the free theme parks tickets.
danv3
Well-Known Member
Because they can.
ParentsOf4
Well-Known Member
Back in the old days, WDW vacationers used to book 6 months or more out. More recently, that period has been reduced. I don't remember when but this was discussed at one of the investor calls some years ago. (By the way, Disney is not the only vacation destination to notice this trend.) With the advent of the Internet, busier schedules at home, and constantly changing airfares, vacationers have gotten into the habit of planning vacations fewer months in advance than they once did.
This year's arctic blast might explain why WDW and Uni theme park attendance was relatively strong for the quarter despite some major additions coming this summer. It doesn't necessarily explain why more guests stayed onsite.
Remember, people can book a good offsite room for $80/night or a WDW Moderate Resort for $200/night. That's a big price difference that needs to be overcome in the minds of vacationers. Disney needs to drive value into its hotels to justify its price. It appears that the advantage offered last quarter by MyMagic+ helped justify the cost differential in the minds of many vacationers.
Using some simple numbers, a 6% increase in occupancy based on roughly 2.3M available room nights at WDW for the quarter equates to an additional 140,000 room nights. I realize the 7-day vacation is practically dead in America but using that as a number, this means roughly that an additional 20,000 families opted to stay onsite for the quarter. In the scheme of things, 20,000 families is not a huge number for Disney.
What is a huge number for Disney is that rather than spend that money elsewhere at another hotel, those families spent all of it at a WDW hotel; a big win for Disney.
I went waltzing through some of the old 10K and 10Q filings. A 6% jump in occupancy is unparalleled. Something highly unusual happened in 2Q2014
Last edited:
ParentsOf4
Well-Known Member
"Higher average ticket prices" is something Disney reports pretty much every quarter, even before the opening of WWOHP.
In recent years, the trend has been to decouple ticket prices from cost and charge "whatever the market will bear" or, as Iger likes to call it, price leveraging. It's a completely valid business strategy for non-essential goods & services as long the total number of sales doesn't decline too much.
In recent years, WDW attendance has been resilient to the higher prices.
Last quarter's 4% increase in Per Capita Guest Spending (PCGS) (i.e. money spent per person at the theme parks) is half of what it has been averaging in recent years. The previous low since 2010 was 6%. It's increased by double-digits some quarters.
Theme park prices have increased by more than double the 4% since last's year's second quarter. Therefore, the very small PCGS number suggests that guests are starting to buy less food, beverages, and merchandise at the theme parks.
It might be an indication that Disney needs to start looking for a strategy other than "whatever the market will bear".
Last edited:
Andyjshort
Member
Last year I stayed 21 nights at POR figuring that the free dining would be worth the extra room price.
After 21 days of QS dining, most days 3 meals a day because we spent 7 days at Uni, SW and BGT, I now never want the restrictions of the dining plan again. I'll stay off site and eat where I want.
If we had been allowed to go Table Service and pay the difference I would have been a lot happier. Although I wouldn't have minded eating at Sunshine Seasons every day.
The food at POR was pretty good but with 3 kids wanting different foods from different counters it took forever to get served.
It would take some big price reductions and not just a few FP+ to make me stay on site again.
Having been "squeezed" into Sci Fi to find it 20% full kind of says otherwise.
Would it be fair to say its a bit of both?
GoofGoof
Premium Member
I think it's some of both. I wonder if we will see less empty seats now that they implemented the charge for missing an ADR. I know I missed a few in my day.
You'd hope so. They so desperately need to move away from discounts for this, free for that. It is an unsustainable model. But they've possibly gone too far down the road now.
PhotoDave219
Well-Known Member
If it was a handful of tables I would agree with you.
If it's 10? That's different.
Funmeister
Well-Known Member
There were times when guests would try to attempt to book multiple restaurants on property so they could decide which one to dine at later on and not cancel the other reservations/priority seating. I told them we could not do that and refused to do it for them. People would be amazed how much guests abuse(d) the system because they were lazy or indecisive.
lazyboy97o
Well-Known Member
Yes, he is.
PhotoDave219
Well-Known Member
So in an attempt to make the short term look better, they screwed up the long term.
Lovely.
It can be fixed but you're going to need management that is willing to build an audience through investing rather than making their numbers look good.
doctornick
Well-Known Member
Like the silly Olaf/Sven trailer for Frozen. What was up with that?
Crazydisneyfanluke
Well-Known Member
Why don't they lower the prices at certain locations and get rid of the discounts. People would then choose to actually spend the money because they are getting a good deal for the food.
But it wont happen.