Bear with the length of this one...
I hadn’t posted on the forum in a while. Then after rambling through this thread; I felt it was time. We have all read threads where we have felt so passionate on a subject and watched someone else just crash and burn with their arguments on the same subject. A subject that one feels is un-debatable because of obvious reasons.
When I saw the topic of this thread, I assumed the poster was being sarcastic. I am VERY PRO-‘Florida Residents receiving a special discount’. I take this stand as a Disney Stockholder, a former cast member, a resident in a city whose main industry is tourism, and a life long fan of Disney.
I think everyone who agrees with me has already posted out the many reasons why the Florida Resident discount is excellent for Disney. The rest of my post will group the two types of arguments against the discount and my dissection of a poster’s comments who felt strongly about the subject. I apologize in advance for the length of this post, but I promise if you read it all the way through you will understand my angle.
I will briefly class what I believe the two roots are behind the people who are Anti-‘Florida Residents receiving Special Treatment’. Some ‘special’ people can fit in both.
GROUP A – People who believe that discounts should be given equally across the board. Their logic being, ‘If I don’t get the special rate, no one should get a special rate.’ These are the people who tried to twist and drift this thread from ‘talking about a special benefit to the whole state of Florida’s residents’ to ‘Disney World should be much cheaper across the board – It is to expensive.’ Look at the names in these posts and do a search. These are the same people who constantly complain how WDW is getting thrifty with their budgets on new projects. These people apparently mix-up an illusion that WDW is a government run national treasure (federally funded) and the fact that the Disney Co. is a Forbes 100 business. Emphasis is on the BUSINESS.
GROUP A Example:
“If Disney does not want to extend the discount to everyone, you would think that they would at least offer it to repeat customers. Say someone who comes every other year or something like that.” -- Mase
(If you are Disney, Why reduce your profit on repeat customers? Repeat customers apparently are ok with and think you are doing something right to begin with. Hence repeat. )
GROUP B – People who are so immature in logic and so completely jealous of the fact that Florida residents living so close to WDW. They don’t think Florida residents need a discount because the already benefit from being to magically get up and go whenever they want. These people are so far into Neverland, that they believe these residents are also so privileged to begin with because they are able to get Disney Paraphernalia whenever they want.
Group B Example:
‘I'm not saying that residents don't spend their fair share of money, but you live there and have to deal with Mouse merchandise 24/7. You can buy most of it any time you want.’ -- Mase
Anyone sense a little bit of jealousy to Florida Residents?
I am now going to reflect more on Mase’s posts:
“Now I know that I'm not always the sharpest tool in the shed… Your oh-so-friendly advice is greatly appreciated.” --Mase
Well, I will try my best.
“But tourism really cascades into the heart of the Florida economy…. So all in all, I'm just trying to say that the tourists may help the economy in more ways than initially meets the eyes.” --Mase
Mase, Shhh! keep it down. We don’t want the people of Florida to know that tourism is their #1 industry. Just kidding, I get the hunch they already have an idea on how much tourists’ money means to their economy.
“When tourism is hitting on eight cylinders, the current system might be OK.” –Mase
Is being ranked one of the Top 100 successful businesses in the World, ‘OK’? I think over the last 30 years, WDW was able to sweat it out enough in Orlando to keep their heads above water and maybe stay a little out of the red. I’m sure they don’t have to go to the extreme to hire say “accountants” to figure out what works and what doesn’t. At least not yet. *** Lots of Sarcasm
“Disney would be smart to provide discounts to families like mine who would otherwise not be able to make the trip…. We were there at this time last year for our honeymoon, and we REALLY wanted to go this year too.” --Mase
You know what my greatest memories of mine working at WDW are? Well, I am going to tell you. When you see a mom and dad with about 6 kids wearing their home made Disney t-shirts, their generic autograph books, and their matching packs they got from home. Then you see the look of the satisfaction and content on Mom and Dad’s face who busted their a$$ for you don’t know how long to afford this experience. Some of us are so spoiled with our many visits, I think we forget how special and unique an experience it is at WDW, and the pride a family has to tell everyone back home that they were able to make this experience. To these families every penny they had to save and every hour of overtime was worth while. I think Walt Disney World is still very much affordable to the average family in the US. You are married now. Sometimes you have to make sacrifices. So you aren’t able to afford to go to Orlando every year. Grow up.
“I wasn't ready for the heavy heat in early April, so I ended up purchasing a bunch of clothes as well. Not to mention sunscreen, sunglasses, tennis shoes, and everything else I forgot to bring with me.” --Mase
This is so irrelevant to anything. You not packing tennis shoes to go to a theme park can not be blamed on unexpected climate. Next time you should look on the Internet and get a weather forecast before you go. A poncho, maybe. Tennis shoes, no. This is no one’s fault but your own. No pity for you.
In conclusion, I hope this helps you all understand where I am coming from on these arguments. I decided to take a different approach to explain that this shouldn’t even be a topic for debate. I tried to show some ‘behind the magic’ of people’s logic on this topic. We all know why the Florida Resident Discount is great marketing and business.
I’ll leave you all with this:
“Guess I need to go back to business school and start over.” --Mase
No, I would just ask for a refund and call it a day.
-----Snoballego