There are a surprisingly large number of guests who buy one-day tickets at the gate.
My favorite personal story happened a few years ago when I was staying at the Dolphin. I struck up a conversion with another family at the pool and we happened to get onto the subject of tickets. They explained to me that they were buying one-day tickets
every day. I repeatedly tried to explain to them that they were paying far more than if they simply bought a multi-day ticket but, no matter what a said, they were convinced that buying one-day tickets every day was less expensive.
Whether a single day, multiday, or annual pass, ticket price trends are consistent across the decades. Ever since the late 1990s, ticket prices have exploded. I tend to graph one-day tickets because that's the only ticket type that has existed for the entire history of WDW without significant changes in benefits.
Even a one day ticket is slightly confusing because WDW used to sell admission and rides separately. For example, in 1971, park admission cost $3.50 while a 12-ride Adventure Book (the most that WDW offered) cost $5.85. I've compensated for this by adding the two together in the graph. (Note that some attractions were included in the price of admission.)
The one radical departure in ticket pricing occurred at the very end of Eisner's tenure, when P&R was desperately trying to recover from a post-9/11 economy.
The Magic Your Way (MYW) ticket was introduced in 2005, offering a la cart pricing. Prior to that, WDW tickets tended to be all-inclusive. Most automatically included the 'park hopping' and 'water parks & more' options. Many also automatically included the 'no expiration' option.
The MYW offered a no-frills option: entry into one theme park per day at a significantly reduced price. It offered a low-cost option for visiting a WDW theme park and, not surprisingly, business improved after that.
The irony is that comparable all-inclusive tickets leaped in price that year. However, since most did not care about the 'no expiration' option while many others were willing to forgo the 'park hopping' and 'water parks & more' options, the price of a WDW vacation dropped for many. Furthermore, to encourage more visits, Disney practically gave away tickets after 4 days. (Only $4/day more for tickets longer than 4 days.)
With guests paying less for tickets, and much less for longer length tickets, guests were able to spend more on hotels. Along with the introduction of Disney's Magical Express (DME) in 2005, WDW's hotel occupancy leaped upward.
What Disney did in 2005 was make the
total price of a WDW vacation less expensive by offering lower ticket prices and free airport transportation. By doing so, Disney was able to capture a larger share of vacation dollars because guests were less likely to rent cars and stay offsite.
The goal was not to squeeze every penny out of guests. It was to provide a more affordable, more convenient,
longer stay vacation package that allowed WDW to ultimately capture a larger share of the market. MYW and DME gave paying customers real reasons to book longer onsite stays at WDW.
Ultimately, it produced a boom in WDW business that lasted until "The Great Recession".
In 2011, 2012, and 2013, the goal has been very different. It's been to squeeze every last penny out of guests. MyMagic+ along with its MagicBand gimmick simply reflects more of that same thinking.
Squeezing pennies out of paying customers is not the way to grow a business. Corporate Disney needs to be more creative, like they were in 2005.
