Why hasn't everybody started fussing about the upcoming ticket price increase?

[Californian Elitist]

No

I didn't think so. Based on your answer, I don't think I need to keep going back and forth with you.

 

[flynnibus]

you also need to consider... AP holders going more often than those that just vacate once every few years (or a lifetime) at Disney not to mention maybe the most important factor all together...and that is those that have spent ALOT of money for their week-long Disney vacation may not be as open with spending money once they are there (since they have spent so much already) than those AP holders that go more often and doesn't find it as painful to eat table service meals or buy a new souvi this time, etc.

Having an AP or not doesn't increase your discretionary spending money. It's all about how much of your money is disney going to get vs you spending it elsewhere.

A guy who spent all his money to get to DL.. so he skimps on table service.. still spent all his money (with most of it likely going to Disney). If he was a lifestyle visitor, he wouldn't have more money.. and the money he did spend would have been at less margin than the vacationer due to discounts.

A lifestyle guy spends or not on a whim... a vacationer only has a limited opportunity and therefore is more likely to spend and pay higher prices than normal.

Lifestyle visitors always say 'but they want my money' - sure they do.. but if they could replace you with a vacationer 1 to 1? They'd replace your spot in a heartbeat. Do I want the same guy visiting 10 times with only a budget of X, supporting all those 10 visits.. or do you want 10 different people each with their own budget to spend.. and the opportunistic pressure to spend it?

You'd take the vacationer every time...

 

[misterID]

Disney has and will always raise it's prices. That's the way the business works. But unfortunately, not everyone is getting a raise at work to go along with Disney's price raise. I know once our trip is September is over we may not head back to the world until next fall. It's just getting way too expensive. And people will disagree with me on this and everyone is entitled to their own opinion, but it seems like Disney is charging more and giving less. Maybe they should consider taking some of the bonus money the CEO's and upper management receive and put it towards fixing the parks up. With FLE and BTMR refurb, they are taking a step in the right direction, but for a family who can only go in the summer to WDW, they're going to be paying peak rates for everything and spend hours waiting in line. I hardly see how its worth it anymore. Crowds are INSANE there somedays. I can see now why some first time visitors come home and decide to never go again.

We bought an AP last year and will have used 20 days by the time it expires. Definitely the best deal for us and saved us a LOT of money but if we hadn't already had a trip planned for this spring, I don't know if we would have taken that extra trip last fall or if we would take the extra trip coming up this fall. We may have chosen to go elsewhere and with the way things are going, I potentially see us doing that in the future instead of Disney. Heading to other places, other parts of the country instead.

Great post, exactly what I was talking about. Thanks for sharing that, and I agree about paying more for less.

And being in tourism for a good portion of my life (not anymore, thank God), I can tell you, the difference between what tourists spend compared to locals isn't even close. Not by a long shot. That's why WDW stopped catering to locals a long time ago. And believe it or not, locals were just as big as DLers were. DL will be getting more tourists, who will be spending much more money in the parks (I'm sorry, but they will) and I'm sure the people in charge don't want the parks shut down because of locals, keeping the cash spending happy tourists out. If DL was a bigger resort, maybe it wuld be different. They just have real capacity issues. They're trying to cash in. They are a business as people keep pointing out. At the same time, I'm not sure I'm confident they are the model to maintain the tourist-first park model that WDW is.

 

[Vader2112]

I blame John Carter :animwink:

Too Bad the Avengers did not save us.

 

[dcibrando]

ok so for stupid comparision sake (haha) let's look at it this way:

Would you want 1 person to spend $1,000 to get into the park or 1,000 people to spend $1 to get in the park. My thinking is you need both... once they are "in" they are spending money one way or another (some more than others sure)... but in my personal experience.... I spend more money at disney now as an annual passholder (during 1 trip) than I did when I went every couple of years for a standard package (during 1 trip).

Again in my personal experience, the more I go the more I find things I want to try (foods, events, souvis, etc.)

 

[lazyboy97o]

That said, I agree that this must be the first time a Disneyland ticket price is equal to or greater than a WDW ticket. I remember trips to WDW in the 1980's and 90's and noticing that ticket prices in WDW were always a noticeably higher than whatever was the going rate for Disneyland. But now, we've got a different scenario with Disneyland's new ticket prices.

This also makes me wonder if Disneyland may top the 2011 and/or 2012 TEA/AECOM Theme Park Attendance Estimates.

 

[dcibrando]

This also makes me wonder if Disneyland may top the 2011 and/or 2012 TEA/AECOM Theme Park Attendance Estimates.

it very well might... carsland looks like it was done amazingly well - would be nice if they brought that to the backlot tour area at HS

 

[twistedmickey]

inching closer and closer to $100 a day.... :hurl:

 

[linn9431]

Does anyone know how much the new WDW AP will be when it is increased this month?

 

[dcibrando]

I wonder if they would ever have certain parks admission cost more than others?

 

[flynnibus]

ok so for stupid comparision sake (haha) let's look at it this way:

Would you want 1 person to spend $1,000 to get into the park or 1,000 people to spend $1 to get in the park. My thinking is you need both... once they are "in" they are spending money one way or another (some more than others sure)...

You're focusing on the wrong aspect that would reflect on their spending habits and that's why such a theoretical question really gets you no where.

1 person vs 1000 people doesn't tell you anything about how much money the people have and how willing those people are to part with it.

What matters for Disney is the total guest spend.. and getting as much as possible of that guest's total discretionary spending.

The more real question is...
Does Disney want 1,000 people who visit 20 times, and spend $100 each time.
or
Does Disney want 20,000 people who each visit once, but spend $200 each.

It's not about 1 lifestyler vs 1 vacationer. It's about replacing each lifestylervisit with a vacationer.

Disney can't replace every AP visit with a tourist today.. if they could.. there would be no APs to start with! But it's not an all or nothing deal, and the more of the vacationer visits they have, the better they are. It's about weening yourself off the high volume, low spend, and converting to more spenders with less frequency.

It's why you see the key metrics reported by Disney are actually guest spending... not simply gate clicks.

 

[JimboJones123]

HOW COULD THEY DO THAT TO ME?

Yeahh..About that..I just saw this posted on a few sites just in the past few days..

Still beats the $600 that Uncle Sam wants to steal out of our pockets just to skip up into Canada for a few hours to visit thHockey Hall of Fame.

Passports are stupid expensive for nothing.

I can still justify $850. At least 1 for the hotel discount at DL.

 

[Brian Noble]

Passports are stupid expensive for nothing.

Nonsense. Passports are your gold-plated excuse to go out and see the world. You had better get more use out of them than one quick trip to Toronto, or I shall be sorely disappointed.

 

[Rob562]

Nonsense. Passports are your gold-plated excuse to go out and see the world. You had better get more use out of them than one quick trip to Toronto, or I shall be sorely disappointed.

And if you're only going to be going into Canada with your passport, better to save money and just get the cheaper passport cards. They're like $45 per person.

-Rob

 

[JimboJones123]

Nonsense. Passports are your gold-plated excuse to go out and see the world. You had better get more use out of them than one quick trip to Toronto, or I shall be sorely disappointed.

The results are golden. Scamming $600 from a family of four to border cross is insane.

 

[WDW1974]

inching closer and closer to $100 a day.... :hurl:

Perhaps, they should just jump the gun and raise it to (or above) that barrier?

They want to. They have a timeline for when it will happen. Hell, they probably have the PR ready to go to cover their arses.

Maybe they should just do it and see how many people really need Pixie Dust that badly.

''Egregious' was the word one person used to describe the increase on this a.m.'s talk shows (it wasn't GMA!)

I just don't think Disney cares how greedy it looks with these increases.

 

[71jason]

Perhaps, they should just jump the gun and raise it to (or above) that barrier?

They want to. They have a timeline for when it will happen. Hell, they probably have the PR ready to go to cover their arses.

Maybe they should just do it and see how many people really need Pixie Dust that badly.

I wouldn't be shocked to see them do that. In a way, it would be like rising restaurant prices in the wake of the Dining Plan...it would make the multiday tickets look like that much of a better deal. (People that can afford to drop $85 on a one day ticket aren't really going to bat an eye at $100, that has to be a small segment of the market.)

The question I have is would Universal and Sea World follow suit. Although at this point Sea World 1-day passes are de facto annual passes for Floridians, so they might.

 

[ScoutN]

I wouldn't be shocked to see them do that. In a way, it would be like rising restaurant prices in the wake of the Dining Plan...it would make the multiday tickets look like that much of a better deal. (People that can afford to drop $85 on a one day ticket aren't really going to bat an eye at $100, that has to be a small segment of the market.)

The question I have is would Universal and Sea World follow suit. Although at this point Sea World 1-day passes are de facto annual passes for Floridians, so they might.

With the high volume if Platinum passes being bought at all SWP&E parks their pricing is rather interesting. The Platinums are all ten parks for two years; yet if you buy it here in VA it is over $100 cheaper than it is in Orlando. San Antonio might be even cheaper. That is a bit baffling.

 

[markc]

The results are golden. Scamming $600 from a family of four to border cross is insane.

Scamming? I dont think you understand passports if you are complaining about a reasonable $150 per person. The cost to maintain databases, security information, linking up and maintaining information amongst all the countries in the world, is part of the reason that there is a $150 fee (not to mention the processing/manufacturing cost to create a passport which cant be counterfitted). Beyond that, they're good for 10 years, so thats only $15 per year. Hardly a scam or a rip-off. As somebody mentioned earlier, if you are purchasing these just to go to Canada...you're buying them for the wrong reason.

Now $850 for a Premiere Passport is a rip off. The value of that pass is now completely gone.

 

[Rob562]

The results are golden. Scamming $600 from a family of four to border cross is insane.

Example passport fees for residents in other countries (exchanged into US Dollars):

Germany: $75
Canada: $107
France: $112
UK: $136

I may have missed processing fees for Germany and France, so they may actually be higher.

-Rob