Disney World Buries Its Controversial $149 After Hours Experiment

[momofmanykids]

I believe the Executives, namely Mr Igor and his Igortrons, found the place where *enough is enough*!

The guest just would not pay that much


Disney World Buries Its Controversial $149 After Hours Experiment
Disney After Hours wrapped up its seven-night run on Thursday, and the VIP experience doesn't seem as if it will be coming back.

Rick Munarriz
(TMFBreakerRick)
May 21, 2016 at 9:05AM

Image source: Disney.

Thursday was the final night of Disney's (NYSEIS) controversial Disney After Hours event. Guests paying as much as $149 a ticket had after-hours access to roughly two dozen of the Magic Kingdom's most popular attractions for three hours after the park closed to day guests.

Through six Thursdays in April and May -- and an seventh night on Mother's Day -- Disney was hoping that affluent theme park buffs would pay up for access to rides, attractions, and complimentary ice cream novelties and soft drinks with minimal wait times. The theme park giant lived up to the promise of exclusiveness, but largely because most park goers flinched at the stiff price tag.

That was probably by design, but two things happened to suggest that Disney overestimated consumer demand. The first sign that things were going to be bumpy was that it had to give away tickets to theme park bloggers, travel agents, and select Disney Vacation Club members to achieve a sellout on the first night. Disney often has previews for bloggers and travel pros of new events and attractions, but it's rarely on the same day as the actual grand opening.

That sellout was also suspect, as tickets that had been sold for about a month were still available the day before the inaugural night. Most social media reports from folks that did attend also commented on how empty the park was.

The second sign that things weren't going well came three weeks into the event when Disney buckled on pricing. The event was still listed at $149 for the public, but Disney park holders and members of the Disney Vacation Club timeshare program were being offered $75 tickets for any of the remaining nights.


One can also argue that a third sign of the event's failure is that it wasn't immediately extended following its six-week run, but that's not fair. Memorial Day weekend kicks off the busy summer travel season for the theme park operator. The parks close later on those nights, making an after-hours event more of a logistical challenge for the sake of attracting dawn-seeking night owls.

We'll know for sure if it won't be extended when the tourism lull returns in the fall, though it wouldn't be a surprise if the House of Mouse gives up on the event in its current form.

Good ideas can be bad for business
Disney After Hours may have seemed great on paper, but there are ramifications to publicly offering a VIP experience that only few fans can afford. The media giant has introduced double-digit percentage price hikes to its annual passes and one-day tickets in recent months, so even visiting during the day isn't as easy as it used to be. The notion of a $149 pass for three hours of near-exclusive access painted Disney as greedy, and the irony there is that there's a good chance that Disney After Hours wasn't profitable.

Having a couple thousand people paying $50 an hour may seem like a slam dunk, but keep in mind that there are a lot of staffing, utility, and maintenance costs associated with keeping a park open with more than two dozen attractions in operation. Disney may have calculated a modest profit with 5,000 people paying $149, but it's a far different model when you only attract roughly half as many people with many of those paying half as much.

Disney's theme parks will be fine. Attendance was actually lower at Disney World during the first three months of the year relative to the prior year's March quarter, but the media giant's operating profit exploded. We're also heading into the peak summer season and Disney has a couple of new attractions opening in the coming weeks that should prove magnetic to tourists.

Disney After Hours was a dud, but Disney after After Hours doesn't have to be. A strong summer at the theme parks could be just the ticket to push the stock back up to revisit last summer's all-time highs.

I have no problem with anyone wanting to attend this after hours event and feel it was worth the price to them.

What I think is the really point is that it fell flat on its face......people were just not willing to pay.....they could not even give the tickets away

I really beleive Disney has found a ceiling on what people are willing to pay.

After all the price increases people are saying enough.

I am sure the other parks like UNI are watching this and thinking. The other parks have been slowly raising their prices as well

AKK

It was amazing and magical! You don't know what you missed!

 

[RedSox68]

To me, it just looked desperate.

Desperate and greedy! Shame on Disney -- raising park ticket prices and then adding ANOTHER expense if you want after hours advantages. why don't you just keep the parks open and let people in who have paid for their original park tickets. Next thing they'll be charging extra if you go on each ride more than once!

 

[Josh Hendy]

It's like ... they created the MYW pricing model that comes out to around $58 per day. they use that money (and other revenue from food etc) to build, maintain and staff the parks. It's their model, not ours. They created free EMH not us.

Now they're saying, ok we really can't satisfy a lot of guests with our business model - and maintain adequate profits. But we can make up for the poor-value pricing model by making the normally priced product "even worse". Reduce normal park hours and eliminate EMH on selected (read: as many as possible) evenings and soak the well-heeled but dissatisfied customers for a cool $150 for a product with lots of rides but a lot less of everything else like shows and characters.

Because the only thing better than one unsatisfactory business model ... is TWO unsatisfactory business models. Combined!

I think there are much bigger things going on here than meet the eye. The upheavals in the US and world economies and on the stock market are what has broken the WDW business model and caused them to pursue even more desperate models. Worst of all, they have a legal and moral obligation to shareholders to try every possible desperate strategy in order to squeeze as much as possible from the lemon. Disney is now taking the Kobayoshi Maru test.

 

[tlmadden73]

I think it was just a horrible price point that MOST people saw very little value in.

They probably could have halved the price and it would have been much better received and much better attended probably.

The problem is .. I don't know how much money Disney NEEDS to charge and how many people need to attend to make keeping the park open (and paying all those cast members) worth it.

 

[mco65]

Based on when MNSSHP and MVMVP tickets came out (shortly after the ap/dvc discount of after hours) I think this was just an experiment on if crowd size was enough of a draw and what the market would bear for those fall parties.

I loved it personally no matter what anyone else would think. I like zero crowd and don't mind paying for it. Seems I'm not the majority though. I also think that price at the timing of so many other things going up was really bad timing (or should have been lower from the start and just a crowd experiment).

I like zero crowds... and I don't mind paying for it.. but there is that number that is not the same across the board for everyone.. $150 - nope.. half that, maybe..

 

[tlmadden73]

I went Thursday. Long weekend trip. This was my "one day ticket" and it was only $80 that night. This was not a discount ticket. Great value as far as I was concerned.

See .. THAT is the price point I think everyone would have been happy with from the beginning.

 

[rteetz]

Desperate and greedy! Shame on Disney -- raising park ticket prices and then adding ANOTHER expense if you want after hours advantages. why don't you just keep the parks open and let people in who have paid for their original park tickets. Next thing they'll be charging extra if you go on each ride more than once!

Never say never. Disney did charge you more if you wanted to more than once. It was called ticket books.

 

[Mac30188]

While there is a great deal of hoping and wishing that Disney's value has peaked, I believe the zest to call disney magic hours a failure is premature. I do believe the reports that Disney After Hours was not thought out well and therefore will not return, however Disney Early Morning Magic could actually turn out to be a big success. They recognized the huge popularity of PPO reservations were often for other reasons and capitalized. If EMM truly sold out every session, there is a big chance it will return. Further Disney will learn why one worked and one did not work and market more of these events in the future. I certainly do not have first hand knowledge, but I just do not see evidence that this is proof that Disney has hit a price point limit. They just failed to package the after hours version successfully.

 

[Accident]

I think this type of event would have worked really well if kids were almost nothing to get in. because you basically stayed together I don't think a family of 4 would have impacted the lines much different. coasters were never really full when they started, rides like pirates you ahd your own boat. a family group would have taken up the same amount of space as a solo traveler on most rides.. I think this would have been more palatable if it was say $99 for adults, $10 for children. Now the free beverages/ice cream that gets messed up a little but I think you get the idea that this can be tweaked to be profitable and have it more available for families to afford at the same time.

 

[JimmyV]

They just failed to package the after hours version successfully.

But a large part of "packaging" is the pricing. They just blew it here. The event may very well come back in the future. But if it does, it won't cost $149. That was a career ending decision for someone. They are now 0-for-2 in their most recent after hours events that are not "parties"; this one, and the one at Epcot. And price was the issue both times. For DAH, it was just too high. At Epcot, you just didn't get enough for the price you paid. Disney is doing great with its parties. People pay a lot for them. But they are buying unique experiences. DAH didn't buy you anything other than shorter waits. Much shorter than normal operating hours to be sure. But only marginally shorter than when EMHs extended out to 2:00 a.m. or 3:00 a.m.. If they turned DAH into a villain event in the BoG Ballroom and served beer, wine and some cocktails, this could sell out at $149. But not if they just keep the park open as if it were any other Saturday with EMHs.

 

[cedricandsophie]

As a DVC member and at half price we would have done it. Still less than the very merry xmas tickets I bought for November. And cheaper than a day ticket but we never use a day ticket when we go to one of the special parties. We just go to park as soon as we can get in. I wish they did it for Hollywood.

 

[RedSox68]

Never say never. Disney did charge you more if you wanted to more than once. It was called ticket books.

Oh I forgot about those "old days". That was our pre-Disney days.

 

[MinnieSweetheart]

I bet if they added 2-3 exclusive characters it would sell out...at the $150 price point.

Absolutely! I've been saying all along how I'm completely shocked there is no characters. In my humble opinion, the entertainment division is what truly sets Disney apart which is the point a PP was trying to make. People want UNIQUE entertainment options and that's why the holiday parties do so well.

Riding a bunch of rides without crowds is not worth $150 to me. I don't enjoy ice cream bars and I've ridden all of those rides enough times to be satisfied. We don't even hit every ride on each trip and I don't go home saddened.

I think what Disney is missing here as compared to early morning magic, is that late night people aren't just staying for shorter lines. Yes, the short lines can make an evening fun. What makes it for night owls is the LOVE of the atmosphere. It's like the local fair, but 100x better. Everything is lit up gorgeously, the music is playing and you can hear it better at night, you can get a yummy "midnight" snack from Casey's or the ice cream parlor (again feels like the fair) and just enjoy being in a gorgeous place.

 

[Accident]

. I wish they did it for Hollywood.

I can see a starwars after hours and pandora after hours coming out in the future.. (hopefully with rest of park). HS/AK/EPCOT realyl don't have enough attractions to support an after hours event with the exception of events like hamabre nights (I'm sure I spelled that wrong)..

 

[MinnieSweetheart]

I can see a starwars after hours and pandora after hours coming out in the future.. (hopefully with rest of park). HS/AK/EPCOT realyl don't have enough attractions to support an after hours event with the exception of events like hamabre nights (I'm sure I spelled that wrong)..

I thought they were making a large part of Harambe nights part of the new AK nights. Obviously not the included appetizers and drinks, but the entertainment options seemed the same to me.

I am good for special after hours events, but I wish they had a different price point than Disney After Hours and included something different than ice cream bars and soda.

 

[Mac30188]

But a large part of "packaging" is the pricing. They just blew it here. The event may very well come back in the future. But if it does, it won't cost $149. That was a career ending decision for someone. They are now 0-for-2 in their most recent after hours events that are not "parties"; this one, and the one at Epcot. And price was the issue both times. For DAH, it was just too high. At Epcot, you just didn't get enough for the price you paid. Disney is doing great with its parties. People pay a lot for them. But they are buying unique experiences. DAH didn't buy you anything other than shorter waits. Much shorter than normal operating hours to be sure. But only marginally shorter than when EMHs extended out to 2:00 a.m. or 3:00 a.m.. If they turned DAH into a villain event in the BoG Ballroom and served beer, wine and some cocktails, this could sell out at $149. But not if they just keep the park open as if it were any other Saturday with EMHs.

Yep. We are in agreement. I just think there is a big difference in, they did it wrong and the market won't pay 150 for a few hours.

 

[Mac30188]

I can see a starwars after hours and pandora after hours coming out in the future.. (hopefully with rest of park). HS/AK/EPCOT realyl don't have enough attractions to support an after hours event with the exception of events like hamabre nights (I'm sure I spelled that wrong)..

Not sure you need a ton of attractions. I still think 2 hours with TSMM, ToT, ST, and the Coaster would command an audience. In many ways it would be easier because less rides it is way easier to control crowds and cost.

 

[MinnieSweetheart]

Yep. We are in agreement. I just think there is a big difference in, they did it wrong and the market won't pay 150 for a few hours.

Can you clarify where you stand for me? You think the market will pay $150 but they did it wrong? Where are you thinking they went wrong?

 

[tlmadden73]

I can see a starwars after hours and pandora after hours coming out in the future.. (hopefully with rest of park). HS/AK/EPCOT realyl don't have enough attractions to support an after hours event with the exception of events like hamabre nights (I'm sure I spelled that wrong)..

This ..

The whole thing felt like a test .. and I too thought it was a test to see what they could set the price point at.

Frankly for brand NEW rides and experiences for new lands, this WILL be a hot commodity IF they set the price right.

 

[Mac30188]

I think keeping all of MK open for the 3 hours after closing for 150 is wrong because you really didn't target a audience with a large enough demand. If they tweaked the event to have something more targeted and exclusive feeling, it would work. It actually seems like they were rolled out in opposite order of how they were thought up. EMM seems very tight in they saw the PPO popularity and demand, focused on what that audience wanted, charged a healthy price tag, and it was successful. After hours in many ways feels like an afterthought. If you added characters or focus to a different group or area, the can sell those hours at that very high price point. They just have to add more thought into it than just leave every ride open for 3 hours.