Ticket Price Increase - Feb 2014

[rudyjr13]

A bit more than 50 days. But then again, they also have the recouped costs of not paying Equity actors for the Ziti Sisters, Lion King, Push, Hyperspace Hoopla come May ... so it's a two-pronged attack.

Here's the 2.5 billion dollar question. If this is all a direct result of MM+ going off the rails, will we see a sudden change in product investment once the dollars are recouped? Or will all the things said above about Epcot and Push remain the same? If there was light at the end of the tunnel I would be less angry about what I am seeing.

 

[ParentsOf4]

In my opinion, the tickets for 5 days or more provide excellent value, so do the APs. Yes the APs are expensive, but assuming you get just 3 days a months use out of them - the AP is $17.60 a day and the PAP less than $21/day. IMO that's fantastic value!

Being able to use 3 days per month means physically being able to visit the parks 36 times per year (3 X 12), something that is entirely impractical for anyone who does not live near to WDW. Florida residents have been hit particularly hard with recent price increases.

Sorry but at current prices, most families cannot afford to vacation at WDW even once per year.

Since the introduction of the current Magic Your Way (MYW) tickets in 2005, a base 3-day ticket is up 60%, 7-day up 63%, and AP up 61%. And let's not forget the child category has been eliminated for AP so for the typical family visiting WDW, AP prices are up even more.

For perspective, Median House Household Income is up only 12%.

WDW has never been so unaffordable.

 

[rudyjr13]

I'll bring this up again. Is anyone willing to do a change.org petition? Or start and email campaign? I work in media advertising so I'm not willing to start it but will participate.

 

[bhg469]

God no! I can't think of anything worse then having no go back to DLP. I would rather save up for multiple years to go back to WDW or DL than being able to go DLP multiple times a year.



40% day tickets? I can't imagine for a minute that 1 day tickets are anywhere near as common, I would have though maybe 10-15% maximum.

I'd agree that the cost of a 1-day ticket is getting crazy. However, I think everyone is missing a crucial point. Disney doesn't want you for a day.....how could you possibly just want 1-day.....you couldn't see a fraction of the world in just a day. Someone buying a day ticket probably means they are planning to hit the non-Disney parks or not spend any more time in the parks at all.

Therefore Disney wants to convert these people to buying tickets for a long as you're in town - come every day. Once you get past the 3-day ticket, the price hardly changes and value keeps improving as you add the days.

To those here complaining about the price of the 1-day ticket, I have to ask how many of you actually buy a 1-day ticket and how often do you do so?

On my last trip, I wanted to see both WDW and Uni. Of course this cost me far more buying a 2-3 day Disney ticket and a 3 day Uni ticket.....yea I could have saved pretty much the entire price of the Uni ticket if I had chosen to spend those extra days with Disney.........and that's exactly what they want you to do.

Essentially, following this strategy Disney does not want to increase the costs of adding these extra days to the ticket, therefore it can only really increase the base cost of the day ticket. If you want to work out if Disney is value for you, you need to work out the rate you are paying.

In my opinion, the tickets for 5 days or more provide excellent value, so do the APs. Yes the APs are expensive, but assuming you get just 3 days a months use out of them - the AP is $17.60 a day and the PAP less than $21/day. IMO that's fantastic value!

I am buying a 1day and I don't care what they want from me. I want a top notch level of service. I'm buying the 1 day to go to 2 rides at each park at most and the other time I'll be walking in shops in Epcot. 1 day is plenty when you don't drink the kool aid.

 

[VIPguide_2030]

Has anyone posted a year to year attendance comparison? If attendance is staying consistent or even ticking up then why wouldn't they raise the prices? I was there in August and they certainly were not hurting for people, if they lower it then you would all be complaining about the parks being even more crowded. Supply and demand, I agree that they haven't done anything lately to justify the raises but the numbers must be telling them that this is something they can get away with. Another thing I was thinking about, how often do you hear foreign languages being spoken at the parks? All the time. With the value of the US dollar going down it makes a trip to WDW more affordable than ever keeping the turnstiles moving. Plus the bands are worth the extra cost alone (sarcasm).

 

[CohibaMan]

Swell.

 

[Mouse_Trap]

Being able to use 3 days per month means physically being able to visit the parks 36 times per year (3 X 36), something that is entirely impractical for anyone who does not live near to WDW. Florida residents have been hit particularly hard with recent price increases.

Sorry but at current prices, most families cannot afford to vacation at WDW even once per year.

Since the introduction of the current Magic Your Way (MYW) tickets in 2005, a base 3-day ticket is up 60%, 7-day up 63%, and AP up 61%. And let's not forget the child category has been eliminated for AP so for the typical WDW visitor, AP prices are up even more.

For perspective, Median House Household Income is up only 12%.

WDW has never been so unaffordable.

Ok, so my thinking was that only people who live pretty local and can visit frequently would be buying an AP.

My point though isn't that Disney is cheap, or even affordable to everyone, but instead that the longer length of tickets still offer good value - just maybe not as good as in years past.

Obviously, at the current price structures, you would need to be making three trips of 3 days or more to make buying an AP worthwhile, that would seem reasonable to me.

IMO the most expensive aspect are the on-site hotels. But these are easily avoided by using any of the plethora of cheap accommodation options all within a short drive.

 

[PhotoDave219]

Being able to use 3 days per month means physically being able to visit the parks 36 times per year (3 X 36), something that is entirely impractical for anyone who does not live near to WDW. Florida residents have been hit particularly hard with recent price increases.

Sorry but at current prices, most families cannot afford to vacation at WDW even once per year.

Since the introduction of the current Magic Your Way (MYW) tickets in 2005, a base 3-day ticket is up 60%, 7-day up 63%, and AP up 61%. And let's not forget the child category has been eliminated for AP so for the typical family visiting WDW, AP prices are up even more.

For perspective, Median House Household Income is up only 12%.

WDW has never been so unaffordable.

That's insanely ridiculous.

They are pricing out the middle class.

 

[ParentsOf4]

Has anyone posted a year to year attendance comparison?

Disney does not report WDW attendance. They do report domestic theme park attendance trends and also sometimes provide more information specific to WDW during the earnings calls.

Having examined their 10-K filings and read the earning transcripts, WDW attendance has been up-and-down 1-to-3% each year for the last 5 years. Some years it is up; some years it is down. Overall, it seems to be at a level comparable to 2009.

What has trended downward is hotel occupancy. Occupancy is down from 89% to 79%.

IMHO, more families are staying offsite in order to be able to afford WDW's higher ticket prices.

 

[wendysue]

Glad I got ours a couple weeks ago....

 

[Nemo14]

Disney does not report WDW attendance. They do report domestic theme park attendance trends and also sometimes provide more incite specific to WDW during the earnings calls.

Having examined their 10-K filings and read the earning transcripts, WDW attendance has been up-and-down 1-to-3% each year for the last 5 years. Some years it is up; some years it is down. Overall, it seems to be at a level comparable to 2009.

What has trended downward is hotel occupancy. Occupancy is down from 89% to 79%.

IMHO, more families are staying offsite in order to be able to afford WDW's higher ticket prices.

I know that I posted this before, but we have been in an off-site condo resort for the month and from the people that I've talked to, the overwhelming majority of the people here have chosen not to go to WDW because it is too expensive, or only geared to young children. And most of the families with younger kids, with few exceptions, mention how they can stay here (10 -12 minutes from the parks) for a week, in a beautiful gated community, where they don't have to share beds or bedrooms with their children or pay obscene prices for food,for what they would be paying for less than 3 days at a Disney resort.
I didn't have the heart to tell them today that ticket prices just went up again.

 

[jlsHouston]

Disney does not report WDW attendance. They do report domestic theme park attendance trends and also sometimes provide more incite specific to WDW during the earnings calls.

Having examined their 10-K filings and read the earning transcripts, WDW attendance has been up-and-down 1-to-3% each year for the last 5 years. Some years it is up; some years it is down. Overall, it seems to be at a level comparable to 2009.

What has trended downward is hotel occupancy. Occupancy is down from 89% to 79%.

IMHO, more families are staying offsite in order to be able to afford WDW's higher ticket prices.

I guess they decided making the rooms a bit more affordable with what's available off-site, thereby possible grabbing back that 10% will not reflect increased profit.

I guess they have decided that allowing on site guests to pre-select FP's prior to arrival is going to increase the resort occupancy rates.

Park Ticket increases over the years have just added profit and TWDC knows this, plus the price of all theme parks tickets in Orlando are hovering within dollars of one another...nobody is trying to compete on pricing.

Yes I agree, families still go to WDW, but more and more afford it by staying off site.

 

[Gabe1]

Saw this tweet and just had to laugh. First two for those who are not aware Orlando Sentinel reporters and retired Disney Producer the final person.

1. Desiree Stennett ‏@Desi_Stennett 16h
   #Disney park prices to jump again Sunday http://www.orlandosentinel.com/news/local/breakingnews/os-disney-tickets-price-hike-20140223,0,4181646.story…
   
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2. Jason Garcia ‏@Jason_Garcia 5h
   Jumping out in front of Universal this year RT@Desi_Stennett: #Disney park prices to jump again Sunday http://www.orlandosentinel.com/news/local/breakingnews/os-disney-tickets-price-hike-20140223,0,4181646.story…
   
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3. 
   E. Cardon Walker ‏@ECardonWalker 4h
   @Jason_Garcia New and exciting ways to wait in line for stale, poorly maintained attractions is well worth a price hike
   

 

[tirian]

There's less to do at WDW now than in 1998, and the prices are higher than ever. It's pathetic.

 

[71jason]

Saw this tweet and just had to laugh. First two for those who are not aware Orlando Sentinel reporters and retired Disney Producer the final person.

1. E. Cardon Walker ‏@ECardonWalker 4h
   @Jason_Garcia New and exciting ways to wait in line for stale, poorly maintained attractions is well worth a price hike

Correction: fake account taking the name of a deceased Disney producer. Welcome to Twitter ...

 

[unkadug]

And yet the parks are just as crowded.

Disney will continue to increase ticket prices to the to the line of what the market will bear.

 

[Hakunamatata]

Disney has become more known for its greed now versus its services, creativity and uniqueness. Rather unfortunate.

Although not too happy about the price increase, I am still amazed at how fast society throws the greed card in to these types of conversations. I know it's cool to go along with the corporate hate group and all, but dang.

 

[note2001]

I agree Disney is edging up on pricing out middle class families. Stress on "families".

There once was a man named Walter (I forget his last name) who had a dream of creating a playground in which families could play with their children. He wasn't targeting the upper class. He had no dreams of bringing in Brazilian tour groups to fill the pathways of this dream world. Rather, he was focused on ordinary average people: the middle class, and *gasp* perhaps even the ordinary everyday working class who bust their backs every day of the year just to provide a roof and food for their families.

It's a shame his dream never came to fruition.

 

[DManRightHere]

So you save half the price per day if you get a 7 day ticket? I wonder how many people actually buy one day tickets.

I think most people only get single day passes.

Some people on these forums think nearly everyone in the parks are resort guests as well, but I think it's really 10-20% of their total daily guests.

 

[ParentsOf4]

And yet the parks are just as crowded.

Disney will continue to increase ticket prices to the to the line of what the market will bear.

Right.

Conversely, WDW's hotels haven't seen an occupancy rate this low since the abysmal post-9/11 years of 2002 and 2003 when they were just begging people to come visit.

Any chance Disney will lower their hotel prices to reflect "what the market will bear"?