Water Park Fun and More Leaving

Otterhead

Well-Known Member
Even the bus advertisements are generic and do nothing more than say "hey these things exist".
I noticed a complete lack of water park ads this time around -- didn't see a single one on a bus during my whole visit. But as you say, they didn't even advertise specific parks or features, just "hey! water parks are a fun thing!"

My friends and I always make one day mid-week for a water park; it's a great way to relax after a few days of doing the main parks full-bore.
 

ShoalFox

Well-Known Member
In the Parks
Yes
Not that I ever got the WPF&M option, but interesting omission. I wonder if there's going to be a new, similar option that just hasn't been introduced yet?
 

TheOrangeBird01

Well-Known Member
Aw this makes me a little sad. My family usually gets this add on, just in case we have a little downtime and want to go to Disney Quest or a water park. Hopefully they add something similar, although I realize they're trying to phase out DQ as much as possible.
 

SorcererMC

Well-Known Member
I can't imagine that Volcano Bay is going to put a big dent in week long WDW vacationers.
Not by itself, no. In addition to USO and IoA, yes. A family could easily spend a week at UO now doing each park twice. Or do 3 days at UO and 3 days at WDW (MK+2 other parks). ETA: UO is offering 3-day ticket packages that start June 1, 2017.

Most of all though, I don't understand the forced "choose specific MK day" statements.
It's because of the crowds. The dynamic pricing that was introduced is designed to profit max during peak season (June-July) as well as distribute the crowds better throughout the year. The other way that they can distribute the crowds throughout the parks is using price differentiation per park, eg MK > AK>Epcot>DHS. (Putting AK before Epcot because of upcoming additions like RoL and Pandora).

I don't think 5 or more days has been the emphasis,
In 2012, a 4-day ticket was $256, with an avg per day of $64.
In 2013, a 4-day ticket was $279, with an avg per day of $69.75
In 2014?
In 2015, a 4-day ticket was $305, with an avg per day of $76.25.
In 2016, a 4-day ticket is $346, with an avg per day of $86.53.
A guest has to purchase the 5-day ticket in 2016 ($362.10) in order to get <$75/day 'value'; $75 appears to be a 'tipping point' in how they structure their pricing. (A 3-day ticket avg per day has been $80+ since 2012). They are trying to encourage longer stays, but from their pricing it looks like the WDW 3-4 day has become the trend. You are right that they front-loaded shorter stays already - a 2016 3-day is $308.85, with an avg per day of $102.95, which is close to the 2015 1-day base ticket of $105.
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As far as the Water Park Fun & More option going away, with a 2016 add-on of $68, guests may not be seeing the value in it since it approaches the avg per day price on 5+-day regular theme park tickets. It's too close to that $75 tipping point.
 
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admiral-ari-x

Well-Known Member
I saw this coming for a while, honestly. Mostly because of Disneyquest, of course, but the water parks are definitely gearing up for a bit more competition. Now, I haven't heard much about dq in the past few months: how close are they to shutting the place down?
 

Kman101

Well-Known Member
Yes, USO is going to make a dent in WDW over time. Especially with a third park. But the audiences are still a little different. WDW is stroller heaven, USO isn't. It's not geared towards a large chunk of the WDW target audience. Which is a good thing. But a significant amount of the audience will venture that way and start planning towards spending more time there. But I do think the impact it will make is a bit overstated on the boards here. USO is doing amazing great things but those rides aren't anywhere near the similar level of WDW for the most part (that is not knocking Uni rides, they're just very different and more thrilling in a lot of aspects, which isn't for little kids). Again, not a bad thing for either. (And for the record, I just upped my Universal pass and currently have none to Disney. And I have no kids of course ...)
 

Johnguelff

Active Member
Sad. I get this option every single visit.
On the other topic I wouldn't spend any days at Uni, but the wife, she loves Harry Potter. So I'II have no choice but for Uni to eat into my precious WDW time at 155/day. Fun. Though I am much more interested in VB than any other Uni parks. I have to check that out.
 
I'm a little confused by this whole thing.

Disney is going to try and increase the amount of people in the water park by taking away this option from multi-day tickets?

Or are they trying to discourage people from going to the water parks?

I'm a little confused.
 

LilWalt

Active Member
I can see them going to a pick your park option when booking. The FP+ has somewhat already made it that way. I believe this will also limit the amount of single day passes purchased based the amount booked for that day at each park. I can also see them limiting which parks you can hop to on certain days of your stay or having to predetermine which parks you will hop at booking.
 

pvtim

Member
I can see them going to a pick your park option when booking. The FP+ has somewhat already made it that way. I believe this will also limit the amount of single day passes purchased based the amount booked for that day at each park. I can also see them limiting which parks you can hop to on certain days of your stay or having to predetermine which parks you will hop at booking.

They have already tested this in a way with their ticket offer of 4 days at 4 parks.
 

DisneyJoe

Well-Known Member
I'm a little confused by this whole thing.

Disney is going to try and increase the amount of people in the water park by taking away this option from multi-day tickets?

Or are they trying to discourage people from going to the water parks?

I'm a little confused.

I believe it is a way of increasing Water Park revenue. The cost of the Water Park Fun & More option is roughly the cost of a single water park entrance, but gives you the benefit of multiple days of admission, but I bet that most rarely use it more than once or twice on a trip. Removing this option would force guests to purchase multiple single day admissions, or perhaps a different water park combo ticket...
 

Otterhead

Well-Known Member
Aw this makes me a little sad. My family usually gets this add on, just in case we have a little downtime and want to go to Disney Quest or a water park.
Same here. The extra cost was an easy sell in the past, as we'd always hit a water park (or two) as well as DisneyQuest. One time we even hit one of the miniature golf courses, which are also included. But if DQ goes away the add on cost would be hard to justify.
 

HauntedPirate

Park nostalgist
Premium Member
I'm a little confused by this whole thing.

Disney is going to try and increase the amount of people in the water park by taking away this option from multi-day tickets?

Or are they trying to discourage people from going to the water parks?

I'm a little confused.

Just my best guess - TDO wants to get more full-price paid admissions to the water parks instead of people going to the water parks from their "Water Parks Fun and More" theme park ticket option. Even if water park attendance drops a little, the bean counters figure it'll get made up for in revenue from the full-price admissions. They already have their test case with MK pricing - attendance was down a little but revenues were up.

@21stamps : To answer your question as to why (the royal) we are thinking Disney is going to start having people declare, if you will, how many days they are going to spend at MK when purchasing their MYW tickets - Because they need to get people into the other parks one way or another. Obviously, TDO management has no plans to increase ride capacity at MK anytime this decade. They had their chance with the Fantasyland expansion to really increase ride capacity in the park. They utterly failed, instead choosing quick and easy money-makers over additional rides and attractions. If one needed a more glaring example of designing-by-spreadsheet (If the original DCA wasn't enough), the Fantasyland expansion should do the trick. One C-ticket and one C/D-ticket attraction, but two M&G's, plus several food and merchandise locations on a HUGE plot of land. And if you include the former Mickey's Toontown Fair, it looks even worse.
 

Wendy Pleakley

Well-Known Member
he cost of the Water Park Fun & More option is roughly the cost of a single water park entrance, but gives you the benefit of multiple days of admission, but I bet that most rarely use it more than once or twice on a trip.

It's $64 to add to a multi-day ticket, but only $26 if you also pay for the park hopper option.

A single day water park admission is $60 (or $55 for a ticket with summer block out dates).
 

DisneyDreamer08

Well-Known Member
Why? It's cheaper than a single water park admission. Your customers never visit the water parks?

We've never been to a water park in our 5 trips since 2007. There's just so much to do in Disney and the water parks aren't really worth the extra money and time away from the parks (to us). Plus we have two little girls who can't do or aren't interested in most of what's there. When they're older we will hopefully check one out.
 

flynnibus

Premium Member
We've never been to a water park in our 5 trips since 2007. There's just so much to do in Disney and the water parks aren't really worth the extra money and time away from the parks (to us). Plus we have two little girls who can't do or aren't interested in most of what's there. When they're older we will hopefully check one out.

You're missing out IMO. The water parks are one of the few areas Disney still does much better than most competition. The wave pool, lazy river, and kid areas are still plenty to keep even the small children occupied. And for a park hopper, its like $30 for the water park, disney quest, and more. When people are paying so much for so little elsewhere in the parks, it's certainly one of the few value priced things around anymore.
 

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