lockedoutlogic
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Apr 26, 2007
Because half day parks fit into their "plan" for their guests. Half day parks means you're either going to Downtown Disney to spend money, you're buying admission to a water park, or you're heading out to a fancy dinner (likely on property). The "we always have to be doing something" mentality of MOST WDW vacationers means Disney can spend less on the 1/2 day parks...and push guests to higher profit areas before/after that visit.
There are people that are going to KILL me, now, because I'm ruining the magic and being mercenary. But, just like your local grocery store is set up for a very specific reason (milk and bread as far from the front doors as possible, high profit (either directly or via "shelf place" kickbacks) items on eye level shelves, etc), Disney does things for specific reasons. We might not know what they are...because we don't have their data...but I promise you there are people in a room discussing the effect of moving DHS from a 1/2 day to full (or 3/4) day park. And they're discussing minutae that most of us wouldn't even consider.
All of which I know (or at least strongly suspect) that you know...but still.
LOL...i post this - almost verbatim - on one thread or another on a weekly basis.
Are you sneaking into my head when i'm not watching?
But the reality is this - and we have it on this thread - when we get the "cars land..or whatever...is DEFINITELY coming to WDW"...they are missing the fundamental truth. And that is that neither MGM, nor AK are meant to entertain for the day - they are meant to redirect/ funnel.
There's no economic reason to put 500 million bucks into DHS...and that's why its not gonna happen. sorry, folks.
AK...however...I believe...was cut and slashed to become a funnel. I don't think that was the original intent or what they had planned. Mainly because animals are WAY too expensive to be justified as a funnel on the ledger sheet.
AK was the first in the eisnerian budget cut disasters that highlighted his exit form TWDC. Cut it and get it open, try to trump another opening across town, say "that's good enough"
If you look at it objectively, Disney built exactly one full concept park in Eisner's entire tenure - and it was the legendary Eurodisney.
Eurodisney is a fantastic park - it really is - probably my favorite "magic kingdom"...but all the bad press was too much for eisner's ego. So he never did it again. That, combined with the "Disney's America" debacle...was enough for him. It became strict cost accounting/ revenue stream generation from there on out...and we saw four bad parks built (excluding DisneySea...but the reality is that they didn't pay for it...it was like imagineers playing roller coaster tycoon in sandbox mode...free money)
would give my I teeth to get a hold of the data showing how many of AK's and DHS's guests are on one day park tickets (so actually paying full gate price), as opposed to multi-day passes (because when it works out to paying $35-ish per day...the value quotient jumps dramatically). I have a strong suspicion which one is (by far) the most used.
Ak and DHS have always been "it's there...so we might as go" for many travelers...but because they're on park hoppers doesn't mean they are getting ripped off.
The problem is that they are on vacation...and their brains didn't make it through the airport scanners most of the time.
BUT...big but...the costs of those tickets and associated costs are increasing very rapidly when framed against the economic realities of the world/ united states.
Its no secret that the majority of ...americans at least...have not seen a raise and actually lost money from their pockets for over 30 years...so as they feel crunched with their stagnant earnings...does it then become necessary to start to gripe at the sacred vacation temple for not earning your money?
For the first time? Finally?
It used to be that whatever disney did was good enough and there was no question...but the world is changing, theres more out there and more people can do "cool" things outside of WDI...
When does the scale tip? Ten years ago i didn't think it was possible that it could...now...well...i'm not so sure.