Are you averse to the 'new' 5-day pass only? Please read and comment...

[Susie63]

 

[larina]

...

 

[Sherry E]

Oh, I'm here. Don't you worry! And I'm sure Mary Jo is out there somewhere too - because this thread has been reported. So I am now in the process of going through it and deleting posts so that it doesn't have to be closed.

 

[jory29]

Oh, I'm here. Don't you worry! And I'm sure Mary Jo is out there somewhere too - because this thread has been reported. So I am now in the process of going through it and deleting posts so that it doesn't have to be closed.

Thank you, Sherry E and Mary Jo for your dedicated work to keeping this thread open!

 

[larina]

Sherry, and MaryJo, thanks for all your hard work.

Back on topic, I'm annoyed that as soon as we decide we might want to do a whole week and just take our time and enjoy every single thing, they cancel the tickets. I hope they reconsider this whole approach.

 

[Susie63]

Thank you Sherry E

 

[WebmasterMaryJo]

Like Sherry said, we're around.

Thanks guys, for helping.

 

[Sherry E]

Thank you, Sherry E and Mary Jo for your dedicated work to keeping this thread open!

Sherry, and MaryJo, thanks for all your hard work.

Back on topic, I'm annoyed that as soon as we decide we might want to do a whole week and just take our time and enjoy every single thing, they cancel the tickets. I hope they reconsider this whole approach.

Thank you Sherry E

Like Sherry said, we're around.

Thanks guys, for helping.

 

[Piglet99645]

We are from Alaska as well. I mentioned specifically that our family makes a big vacation out of Disney etc etc. I haven't received any response at all except the automated return receipt assuring me they would respond soon.

 

[MamaChelle]

I have emailed them also. A week ago already. No response yet... Waiting patiently.

Told them that travelling from Hawaii isn't cheap. It's a yearly trip, annual passes are not an option. Save all year for it, spend plenty of money in the parks... Meals, drinks, toys, souvenirs it all adds up. Disney is our main reason for travelling, vacationing for 10 days and limited because of price to spend an extra couple days in the park. I did say that we stay off-site becuase its very hard to save up to enough money for a Disney hotel. Very disappointed about the ticket decision and wish they would reconsider. That was just basic, it was more detailed than that.

Hope to hear some kind of response. Generic... Whatever. Just so at least I know they read my side.

 

[lurpee]

Why would this thread be closed?

 

[cyclenut]

Have been reading and following this discussion with some interest. I can understand why some of you are so upset as the long park hoppers were an especially good value. Disney has essentially increased the price for you. As an AP holder I was upset at my price increase too. Why I don't understand is why you expect Disney to change the policy and drop the price again. If you want 6 days, buy two 3-day hoppers. I know this drives your cost per day up. I get that. But it is still less than buying 6 tickets or an AP.

We are all upset about price increases, but the number of people buying the long hoppers wasn't very high. If everyone who bought them decided to never again return, it wouldn't be more than a blip on the attendance radar. If I am taking a week long vacation and I live far enough away I can make it out once a year or less, I am likely traveling for two of those 7 days, making a 5 day hopper just about perfect. That is how it seems Disney is looking at this anyway.

 

[originalkk]

Have been reading and following this discussion with some interest. I can understand why some of you are so upset as the long park hoppers were an especially good value. Disney has essentially increased the price for you. As an AP holder I was upset at my price increase too. Why I don't understand is why you expect Disney to change the policy and drop the price again. If you want 6 days, buy two 3-day hoppers. I know this drives your cost per day up. I get that. But it is still less than buying 6 tickets or an AP.

We are all upset about price increases, but the number of people buying the long hoppers wasn't very high. If everyone who bought them decided to never again return, it wouldn't be more than a blip on the attendance radar. If I am taking a week long vacation and I live far enough away I can make it out once a year or less, I am likely traveling for two of those 7 days, making a 5 day hopper just about perfect. That is how it seems Disney is looking at this anyway.

Let me give you my example to explain.

We visited DLR from the UK 2 years ago, stayed 7 nights at the Disneyland Hotel. Bought 6 day hoppers. We re-visited this summer, staying at Paradise Pier for 6 nights. Again bought 6 day hoppers, just before they were discontinued. In total we must have spent something like $7000 with Disney over these 2 trips, plus of course, the cost of air fare.

These trips, of course, also included visits to various other places in California (we spent a total of 16 days in California this summer). If Disney wants to make us pay the full (or even close to the) single day price for our sixth day (or buy 2 three day hoppers), we shall simply go somewhere else on that sixth day, and not stay on Disney property for that night also. This will cost Disney typically well over $300 in lost revenue for the hotel, meals etc. There is also the chance that we simply decide that a California vacation is already pretty expensive, so maybe we'll just give it a miss altogether, and go somewhere else.

The value to us of a sixth (or seventh) day, is not the same as for a single day. It is simple marginal value pricing, which Disney still recognises on tickets up to five days (the more days you buy, the less marginal cost per day).

I find it hard to believe that a corporation like Disney will knowingly pass up earning significant associated revenue, by making what appears to be a purely arbitrary and inconsistent decision on the pricing of multi-day tickets.

 

[cyclenut]

Let me give you my example to explain.

We visited DLR from the UK 2 years ago, stayed 7 nights at the Disneyland Hotel. Bought 6 day hoppers. We re-visited this summer, staying at Paradise Pier for 6 nights. Again bought 6 day hoppers, just before they were discontinued. In total we must have spent something like $7000 with Disney over these 2 trips, plus of course, the cost of air fare.

These trips, of course, also included visits to various other places in California (we spent a total of 16 days in California this summer). If Disney wants to make us pay the full (or even close to the) single day price for our sixth day (or buy 2 three day hoppers), we shall simply go somewhere else on that sixth day, and not stay on Disney property for that night also. This will cost Disney typically well over $300 in lost revenue for the hotel, meals etc. There is also the chance that we simply decide that a California vacation is already pretty expensive, so maybe we'll just give it a miss altogether, and go somewhere else.

The value to us of a sixth (or seventh) day, is not the same as for a single day. It is simple marginal value pricing, which Disney still recognises on tickets up to five days (the more days you buy, the less marginal cost per day).

I find it hard to believe that a corporation like Disney will knowingly pass up earning significant associated revenue, by making what appears to be a purely arbitrary and inconsistent decision on the pricing of multi-day tickets.

I can appreciate your example. While $7k is a lot of money, I am little surprised it is that low. Disney is an expensive place. All I was trying to say is that while I understand people being upset at the policy, it is a choice Disney made related to their admission price. They know exactly how many people bought the longer hoppers and at the price per day the longer hoppers worked out to, they must have felt it no longer made financial sense to offer them. They are taking a risk that people who had previously purchased these 6 or more day hoppers will make the choice you appear to be making and not return, but I don't think most of those people will make that choice. They will come for the 5 days and do something else with the extra time. One less day inside the parks isn't a deal breaker for those few that had previously purchased longer tickets. That extra day was so cheap by comparison, Disney was likely losing money on that day. Consider how many CMs you encounter just getting through the gates. Those people all need to be paid.

If you do skip Disney altogether as a result of this policy change, there is enough demand for the product that someone else will be there to fill the void.

It is really sort of an odd problem for DLR actually. They built DCA to capture a greater share of the SoCal tourist dollar. There is so much to do here that DL alone was maybe 3 days out of a trip. Guests would come to the park and then go off to Other parks in the area to round out their week. DL was not the vacation destination. People wanted to come to LA and while here, visit DL. DCA was created to try and change that. They wanted DLR to be the destination. That has been slow to come, hence the redesign of DCA. Now that they have this, they want to control the length of the stay a bit. It seems to me that their desired model is the one week vacationer. They can keep that person happy and engaged for the week and leave them wanting more. Enticing them back for another week on their next vacation. The most common model for a one week vacation is 5 full days in the parks with the other two being travel days. Now I know that when I take a week off work, I actually have 9 days off. I could very easily have 7 full days at my destination (hence the popularity of the 7 day cruise). Disney doesn't seem to want that vacationer. If they do get them, they want that vacationer to pay more for their tickets.

The 5 day hopper is $290. That is $58 per day. Yes, adding one more day means you either spend $290 plus $87 (one park) for a total of $377 of $62 per day, or go with another combination like two 3 days, which works out to substantially more per day. It is very easy to spend an entire day in just one park. For what amounts to an average daily cost of jus $4 more per day, I have a hard time understanding why a person would choose to skip Disney altogether over not offering a 6 day hopper. Did I do the math wrong?

 

[Susie63]

For me personally,I would need a 5 day hopper and add 3 extra days.I am staying at the resort for 12 days and will be taking a day off here and there to rest.I can't do it in 5 days as I have a mild disability and that kind of touring is out of the question.Heck...last time it took me two days just to see CA and that was before CL.I think the same applies for families with little ones.
Where the issue lies is that there is such a price discrepency between a five day and an AP which if you are staying longer than a week only makes sense.So now you are making the travelling tourist, who apparently are spending all the money in the parks and resort, on the same playing field with the residents of CA.I would love to be able to visit more than once a year but my flights are over $2000 for the 3 of us
I just wish there was some middle ground.
And there is still some debate whether this is a fraud issue or a money issue.

 

[cyclenut]

For me personally,I would need a 5 day hopper and add 3 extra days.I am staying at the resort for 12 days and will be taking a day off here and there to rest.I can't do it in 5 days as I have a mild disability and that kind of touring is out of the question.Heck...last time it took me two days just to see CA and that was before CL.I think the same applies for families with little ones.
Where the issue lies is that there is such a price discrepency between a five day and an AP which if you are staying longer than a week only makes sense.So now you are making the travelling tourist, who apparently are spending all the money in the parks and resort, on the same playing field with the residents of CA.I would love to be able to visit more than once a year but my flights are over $2000 for the 3 of us
I just wish there was some middle ground.
And there is still some debate whether this is a fraud issue or a money issue.

You can get your combination of park hoppers at $67.50 per day average cost (a 5 plus a 3 is a little cheaper than 2 4-day). That is almost half off the regular admission price. Still expensive, yes, but most people jump at a half off sale. I know it is more than it used to be, but so are all admission prices, especially annual passes. Your total cost for 8 days is still less than an annual pass.

I am not trying to enter into a debate. I just seem to be missing the point of the outrage. If the complaint is simply the price increase, I get that. I haven't had to pay the $650 yet as I renewed mine just before the increase. I might not. But $67.50 a day for over 16 hours of high quality entertainment each day, isn't off the mark.

 

[Susie63]

I wouldn't say that I am outraged....mildly annoyed would be better.I just wish that DL had a PH rate scale like WDW.
For my family of 3,it will be $202 every day we walk through that gate.Over 8 days it will be cheaper for us to buy AP's.However, there is noooo way we could make 2 trips in one year.
We also choose to go in Feb when the parks are open for 10 hours through the week,but that is just because it is easier for me.

 

[Mary09]

I've never bought more than a 5-day so I wouldn't have noticed. But I generally buy a day longer than I think we'll need because it's so cheap for that insurance. I didn't know I could upgrade at the park. So I've been buying an extra day for years, and wasting that money 90% of the time. Which is fine, I guess. But I just did it again yesterday.

 

[originalkk]

The issue to me is simply one of a huge price increase for anyone travelling very long distances who wants to spend more time at DLR. It seems designed to discourage such longer stays, despite Disney recently hyping DLR as more of a multi-day resort destination (presumably to get more guest for their hotels).

We purchased 2012 6 day hoppers for $251 just before the price increases.

The option to add a 1 day hopper ticket to a new 5 day hopper would bring the total 6 day cost to $415, a 65% increase over the old 6 day price. This is a $656 increase for a family of 4. Buying a pair of separate 3 day tickets would cost $500 each.

A 65% increase is double that of APs, for tickets that still can only be used for 6 days, and is getting close to a deluxe AP price at $469 (which gives potential 300+ days access, but of course has weekend black out dates during the summer - not much use when travelling several thousand miles across the ocean).

 

[cgh]

The outrage is more because of not being able to change things as needed and generally changing how we would explore the park. Yes, I suppose I can plan on 6 days, but I won't now. Spending an additional $360 or so out of the gate for something makes us just 'make do'. When I originally planned our trip for August, it was easy to get DH to say 'sure' let's extend (he's not a big Disney person) with the additional per day cost.

When we were there, on our 5th day, we wanted to see the Pixar play parade which I thought was at 5. After nap, we rushed in to see it and it was changed to 2. We spent time in the park, and then I figured I'd do the shopping in World of Disney on our last day. I tried to upgrade and couldn't. So, we had to buy the sign DS wanted (which wasn't available at World of Disney) on ebay. The pixar play parade? Didn't do it. When we travel, we like to go at a leisurely pace without worrying that we weren't going to do what we wanted.

Really, what I'll skip in future years is shopping. Because those leasurely strolls through the stores won't happen. For me, our Disney trip ended on a sour note-cancelled parade and really only an option to pay $250 (or $200) to see it). It also runs counter to the 'spend time here' campaign. If its a fraud issue, I wish they would counter act that. If it is a revenue per day issue, then I wish they would just increase the incremental costs.

I also don't appreciate that they make a decision - oh coming from Australia-you'll spend 14 days here, but if you are from anywhere else and hop on a plane you will only spend 5 days. I would think that if you were coming from Australia for a once in a lifetime trip that perhaps you'd do more then Disney where families taking a typical 1 week trip might commit more to Disney. I mean, last time coming from Chicago we got there at 10:30 am and stayed for 6 nights. We went to another hotel for 5 nights to do other things.