OPINION time because, frankly, only Bob, Tom, Jay, Meg and even lowly retail Georgie K know what they feel or think.
That said, I think it's a combo deal of the following:
1.) We are Walt Freaking Disney World. We have always been No. 1 and we always will be No. 1 (I won't point out in this thread how many great name in American business and industry thought this way and are either history or shells of what they once were);
2.) We have those 25,000-plus hotels and timeshare captive guests;
3.) The more people who come to O-Town, the better it is for all of us;
4.) We can use schemes like DDP/DME and, now, MM+ to keep guests on property;
5.) No one can market style and nostalgia over substance like we can.
Add those all up and I think you have why Disney feels and reacts the way it does.
Ok, let's assume that the ruse behind MM+ is a means of keeping guests on property. Comparatively, since the Next Gen project began, Universal has spent their money refreshing their parks with new marquee attractions and upgrades. This brings me to my upcoming trip where I am staying offsite, except for two days at Lowe's Royal Pacific. I let my $950+ Premier Annual pass expire in January and I'm looking at a length of stay park hopper for September because we don't know that we'll be returning to Florida within a year. Between the hotel and park tickets, it's conceivable that Universal will be getting anywhere between 40-60% of the money we spend at theme parks on our upcoming trip. This is while we will likely be spending 7 days at Disney and 2 days at Universal. Simply put, the perks of staying on site at Universal, as well as the relative cost are more favorable.
This goes into what it would take for Disney to get more people to stay on site. Beyond the simple answer of reducing the price, they need to offer more. Increasing Extra Magic Hours would help. Improving attraction access in the form of additional Fastpass+ reservations would also help, however the number of attractions vs. existing hotel rooms doesn't make this as feasible without significantly hurting the value for non-resort guests.
According to
TouringPlans.com there are 30,405 hotel rooms at Disney World.
I come up with 4200 hotel rooms at Universal (Portifino-750, Royal Pacific-1000, Hard Rock-650, Cabana Bay-1800).
Currently there are 64 Fastpass+ attractions at Disney World. Prior to the Fantasyland expansion there were 23 Fastpass attractions in Disney World. Currently, Universal has 32 attractions with Express Pass.
I would argue that Universal's employment of Express pass is as liberal as Fastpass+ (meaning they put it where it doesn't belong).
It's not an exact science, but in order for Disney to give resort guests the same "Unlimited access" perk given to Universal guests, they would have to add 168 more Fastpass+ attractions to Walt Disney World. We know full well that's not going to happen. However, in order to fully take advantage of Fastpass+, the attraction lineup still needs to increase quickly. Even with an increased roster of attractions, the issue of education still remains with Fastpass+. Express Pass is access that doesn't require a reservation. You show up, you get in a shorter line. Variants of Fastpass+ could include the following:
- Elimination or addition of tiers of attractions
- Increased Fastpass+ access based on hotel price point
- Increased lead time for when Fastpass+ reservations can be made
All of those further complicate the benefit. Here's a much simpler solution that will require building additional attractions, but eliminate the confusion of the ever evolving system.
- Return to previous Fastpass rules and distribution. Same day only for all guests. 40-120 minutes between when a guest can acquire an additional Fastpass depending on popularity. Utilize the new infrastructure and it's an advantage over the previous system.
- Give DVC and deluxe guests 2 any time/any attraction access FP per day
- Give moderate resort guests 1 any time/any attraction access FP per day
- All resort guests get access to morning or evening extra magic hours. EMH increased to at least 1 morning or 1 evening per day.
