I get you...this debate has been unusually “charged” for what it actually is. There are two pretty discernible sides/angles to this....this isn’t tough. People can have an opinion and move on.
...Or I can just make a useless smiley meme
Yes, most Disney resorts were much less expensive 16 years ago ~ and very much so after 9/11 when tourism dropped to record lows (and POFQ was shuttered for a time.) The recession beginning in 2008 also brought great deals ~ the pay for 4 days, get 3 days free for example.
OMG, a normal person with a sensible and pragmatic point of view!
WDWmagic can close down the site now.
from 99-2003...seems to think that in fact occupancy was low all of 2001 (check your calendar) post millennium before bottoming out in 2002. The fact is also the 2000 bookings were locked in before the tech crash could take a cut. So maybe there was a little more going on.
But I think the gist of Tuvalu's original post was that prices for rooms went down due to low occupancy (whatever the reason), and that prices are way up from there as demand (for whatever the reason) has gone up. And thus this price increases aren't arbitrary and capricious, but merely the requisite short-term corporate greed/responsibility to shareholders in response to market forces.
No...my point is that the BASE prices have skyrocketed...regardless of the larger economic picture/climate. That’s not really a reflection of demand - it more a reflection of Igerian blue ocean price model. Fish out the sea.
I am confused. I became an annual passholder in october of 2002 and seriously started to be addicted to the world. At that time, Hotels were priced on, as I remember, 3 season prices.
I didn't mention "value" once. I don't really care about it except in some kind of sympathy with people who are priced out of the experience.
Based on Economics, if the price is too high demand will fall and the resorts would be empty if they were over priced. However during the 2008 to 2016 period the stock market and the rich did very well. The middle class and poor did not. But Disney and Universal dont care about the middle or bottom. They go after the top 20 percent. Even Six Flags, Cedar Fair and SeaWorld fo after the top 40 percent. If you only base you view that prices are too high high on how middle and the poor are doing then you need to study economics more. Tourism is completely different than the general economy. Disney and Universal have done very well and so has the Orlando Economy. They only area that has done better and never had the recession is the Washington DC metro area.
Then you probably shouldn't have quoted me and started your reply with "No, ...". I find your dissembling disingenuous.
I didn't ask about value. So to my confusion you didn't seem to be directly answering my questions at all. I'm not saying that I disagree with you as your statement that "as price increases, value decreases" is to a first approximation a truism. I still don't see what your point is in apparently disagreeing with Tuvalu, Tony and me when I think the main point that the three of us are trying to make is that prices have gone way up from 2001 and that some of that is from inflation, some from prices coming up from a discounted price due to the recession, and some of it is regrettable profit increases from people continuing to book even though prices keep going up. And that these increase are probably the response of management maximizing short-term profits.
I'm less personally affronted and more confused by the mechanics of your communication. If you don't disagree with me, don't quote my entire post and start with "No" or quote Tuvalu and Tony and say "Except...there’s a lot of false assumptions there...". I worry that you're missing the main points - and Tony's humor at how a lot of folks here take it as a personal affront that the "underpriced" days are over. And I don't mention these things to criticize, but merely to try to increase your and everyone else's enjoyment of this wonderful community!
I don't know that any public company can truthfully say that they "care" about people in the same way that you and I do. They only care about you to the extent that they'd like you to continue to buy their product. They can position themselves in the market as a "value" product and this could be mistaken as forwarding some humanitarian goal of providing a low cost product for people who need it. But unfortunately for us "early adopters", our "great product" has been "discovered" by the mass affluent and Disney has discovered this and is eking out additional profit by raising prices. At least, that's the slightly less popular narrative. (Note: The popular narrative is that Disney used to care about providing great service at value prices and doesn't anymore.) Actually, it sounds like some horrible economic video game where you build up your brand by providing a great product at value prices to build up market share and loyalty and then have the ability to exploit this to get windfall profits by raising prices and not improving your product as much. The danger of doing this to an extreme is that you end up eroding your brand value and ultimately have to work to build it up again. Or so it goes in the video game.
