What do you mean I can't add more days?!

[rramstad]

Originally Posted by Brian Noble

I should probably explain what I mean by "gate integrity".

There are two important numbers in measuring the economics of a theme park: daily attendance, and per-capita spending. The latter is the amount of money spent by each person in the park, on average, in a day, including admission revenue, food, merchandise, and games. The single biggest component of that is admission revenue. If you allow your per-day admission costs to go too low, you lose "gate integrity", and have to make it up by in-park food/merch/etc. sales. This used to be Six Flags primary strategy: "give away the gate", but make it back in over-inflated in park pricing.

Just as an aside, I think Six Flags still pursues this strategy. I recently went to a Six Flags park, and it seemed as though it was pretty easy to get an adult admission for $40 for one day, and a season pass for $60 (!) by using offers posted online on their web site i.e. not hard to find.

The prices for food and drink inside were ridiculously high, and they were hardcore about making sure no one was bringing in anything to eat or drink, making very close inspections of bags and purses, and I didn't see a single cooler of any size anywhere, people weren't even trying to get them in.

It's certainly a business model, clearly one very different from Disney.

[june@imsarc.com]

We were able to add a day to our 4 day hoppers this past July. We stayed at the GC and added the day at the front desk. No problem at all! We were told we just had to do it the last day of our ticket or prior, not after there were no days left

[miss.potatohead]

Originally Posted by TigerlilyAJ

Of course we here are not representative guests, but then they already know they have different types of guests, which is why there are special offers only for SoCal residents with particular ZIP codes of residence. As I've said before, there is no reason they can't reverse that idea and offer specials to people outside the "representative guest" zone. Even today, I believe Aussies can still get 8-day PHs from their Flight Centre (although they used to be able to get 14-day ones) because DLR understood that people coming across an ocean will want to stay longer.

I'm pretty sure that Australian's are still able to purchase 14 day tickets for around $290-$300 (but could be wrong)

[ballarinamom]

Just talked to the concierge at the Disneyland Hotel after reading that the GCH. He said they can upgrade any park hopper up to the 6 day. They do not have a 7+ day hopper (which is what they say on the phone too)>He said they can add to anything over 1 day as long as it is no more than 6 days.

[interstate70s]

Originally Posted by ballarinamom

Just talked to the concierge at the Disneyland Hotel after reading that the GCH. He said they can upgrade any park hopper up to the 6 day. They do not have a 7+ day hopper (which is what they say on the phone too)>He said they can add to anything over 1 day as long as it is no more than 6 days.

I wonder if this is why I got a positive response from my email from guest services. I indicated on the form we were staying at the GCH?

[ballarinamom]

Originally Posted by interstate70s

I wonder if this is why I got a positive response from my email from guest services. I indicated on the form we were staying at the GCH?

I don't think so. I wouldn't imagine GCH gets anymore preferential treatment over DLH.

[interstate70s]

Originally Posted by ballarinamom

I don't think so. I wouldn't imagine GCH gets anymore preferential treatment over DLH.

No, that 's not what I meant. I meant that maybe if you are staying in a resort hotel, they allow you to add a day past 5. The reason I 'm guessing this is because in emails posted on this thread, before and after the one I posted, all responses were no, but mine was yes. Ad as far as I know everyone 's phone call up until yours, has been no. So I'm just looking for the common denominator.(if there is one)

[ballarinamom]

I think it is more the number of days. They don't want to go more than a 6 day park hopper.

[interstate70s]

Originally Posted by ballarinamom

I think it is more the number of days. They don't want to go more than a 6 day park hopper.

Ok, I think I get what you 're saying, if you ask to add 1 day to a 5 day ticket. They'll say yes, but if you ask to add 2 days, they'll say you have to buy another ticket?

[ballarinamom]

Exactly! Such a drag!

[ValpoCory]

Originally Posted by ballarinamom

Just talked to the concierge at the Disneyland Hotel after reading that the GCH. He said they can upgrade any park hopper up to the 6 day.

That's excellent news. I hope it still is possible in 2013.

[Lomky]

Jeez, and I just asked again at the ticket office and they said no again. They even went on to talk about Internet blogs talking about upgrading days. At this point we are resigned to not being able to get more days. It's ok though, we went on 27 rides including radiator springs yesterday!

Maybe I will try again tomorrow, it is one of our non disney days. Any suggestions on where to ask?

[longtimedisneylurker]

Originally Posted by Lomky

Jeez, and I just asked again at the ticket office and they said no again. They even went on to talk about Internet blogs talking about upgrading days. At this point we are resigned to not being able to get more days. It's ok though, we went on 27 rides including radiator springs yesterday!

Maybe I will try again tomorrow, it is one of our non disney days. Any suggestions on where to ask?

Are you staying onsite? I would ask at the concierge desk for your onsite hotel. I think people are going to start having to accept soon that 6-day and 7-day tickets are a thing of the past though.

[Lomky]

No, not on site. Stating at carousel across the street. Nothing fancy, but they have been nice and it's clean.

[KAT4DISNEY]

Originally Posted by Brian Noble

Well, why does the 10th day at WDW cost $10.65, but the 11th cost $94.79-$128.80?

Pricing in the past had pretty much been that it would be more economical to buy an annual pass for WDW when you were going over the 10 day mark - with all things being equal to the pass so assuming park hopping. And at DL the pricing was set for fewer days than that. Just looking at the pricing now at both WDW and DL the price for a Deluxe AP is virtually equal to the longest length of stay park hopper plus the cost to add an additional 2 day park hopper.

Gate integrity can be much more affected by AP's (most especially at DL) so I'm not really able to reconcile with that idea.

And the reduction on ticket lengths does seem absolutely contrary to remarks from senior management about wanting to turn DL in to more of a destination stay.

And crowd control doesn't seem to hold up either since they've spent 10+ years trying to build crowds at DCA.

I do not hold with the thought of Disney always making analytically correct decisions and there are so many conflicting results by doing this. So maybe it really could have been someone seeing that not many 6 or 7 tickets were sold initially so they decided they could eliminate it from their computer menu.