New survey .. proposal .. Tiered Ticket Prices

[anniemae]

I'm answering a survey question, I have no idea what they would or wouldn't do.

They want MORE people in the parks. If they could, they would have the parks at capacity every day. Quantity over quality IMO.

 

[ArwenMarie]

It seems no matter what Disney does, everyone gets in a tizzy (think magic bands, fp+, closing Malestrom for Frozen ride, Avatarland, closing beloved snow white ride etc.) But in the end, everyone still flocks to Disney and the crowds are more insane than ever, no more slow time.

I think the decision makers will keep upping the ante by finding crazy ways to raise prices and fill their pockets until they see attendance drop off. But it seems no matter what they do, people continue to go to Disney in droves and the hotels and parks are filled, which is what they want.

I agree. I don't know about the other parks, but if you look at MK most days of the year, based on how crowded it is, it seems that they haven't hit the ceiling on what people are willing to pay for a ticket. Maybe they are looking for that ceiling, which from a business perspective makes sense.

 

[ArwenMarie]

Do you honestly think they would lower the crowds? Really?
There is no way in heck they would ever do that. They make maximum profit when parks are at full capacity.

Yeah there is no way I believe this is an effort to lower crowds. I think that was some sort of bait and switch effort to make the survey come out on a positive note.

 

[Dizlvr]

They want MORE people in the parks. If they could, they would have the parks at capacity every day. Quantity over quality IMO.

The survey isn't about what they want though, its about what their guests might want. I would pay more per ticket if it meant guaranteed lower crowds. Does that mean I believe that they are going to do any of this, nope, it just means I answered a question.

 

[amylevan]

Also, under this pricing structure, there would only be 2 small windows of time to hold a 7+ day ticket at the Bronze level price: 18 days in Sept & 12 days at the end of April/Beginning of May. That doesn't seem right considering most of the fall is subject to shorter hours because of hard ticket events.

It seems to me that this would actually penalize guests who book longer stays. Not cool, Disney.

This is the part I don't understand. For most of the year, they'd be pushing their guests to come to the parks less days - essentially sending their customers to the competition on weekends. To go from a 6-day bronze to a 7 day silver is $30pp. For that money, we'll head to Universal.

 

[Marionnette]

Yeah there is no way I believe this is an effort to lower crowds. I think that was some sort of bait and switch effort to make the survey come out on a positive note.

I think that the question was stylized to manipulate the answers to yield positive data for the survey takers. How much is "more" for a ticket? How many customers can go through the gates and still have the park feel "less crowded". The question is intentionally ambiguous.

 

[ArwenMarie]

This is the part I don't understand. For most of the year, they'd be pushing their guests to come to the parks less days - essentially sending their customers to the competition on weekends. To go from a 6-day bronze to a 7 day silver is $30pp. For that money, we'll head to Universal.

Yeah, but if the difference is $30 pp in ticket sales, maybe they would prefer that you stop at a 6-day vacation in your example so they can give those FP spots to another visitor starting their vacation?

I'm also not sure most people are going to analyze this as closely as people who post on here.

 

[JanaDee]

The survey isn't about what they want though, its about what their guests might want. I would pay more per ticket if it meant guaranteed lower crowds. Does that mean I believe that they are going to do any of this, nope, it just means I answered a question.

Their surveys are explicitly designed to get the answers Disney wants so they can say "see, this is what the people want!"

The Disney surveys are a joke and are a way to manipulate guests answers into saying whatever they want them to say.

 

[DonaldDuck77]

So glad we bit the bullet and got 10 day NE PH WPM tickets right before they went away forever.

 

[Networth]

After reading this whole thread all that keeps coming up is supply and demand. You have a red hot product that people are willing to pay more and more, and more. It would be fiscally stupid to not atleast touch the ceiling. They can claim it as a test and if they don't like the results revert.

I do wonder how they plan to build APs in to this. They could always start offering annual(gold) seasonal(silver), and weekday(bronze) etc to non Florida residents like they do now to current Florida residents like myself.

Than again I have heard nothing about this beyond this one set of surveys so who knows if it will ever see the light of day.

 

[DisneyBabies]

Here's a screenshot of the pricing, courtesy of WDWMAGIC

Ok. Let me see if I understand this right.

Right now I pay $345 per adult and $325 per child plus $64 per person for park hopping for 8-day tickets for dates Sept 27 - Oct 5 (comparable dates for our next trip) and this includes at least 4 MK days. Under this new system I would pay $230 for 2 Silver MK days and $210 for 2 Bronze MK days plus $305 for 4 Other park days and $64 for park hoppers which totals $809 per adult and $728 per child.

$3155 for park tickets.

Please tell me I am adding wrong and need to go back and study 3rd grade math because the room is only $2596 (without any discounts) and paying more for tickets than a hotel room is blowing my mind. Those tickets are almost double what we pay now . . . I'm just hoping I am misunderstanding this cause . . . I'm thinking we may be priced out pretty soon . . . if they really do implement this, hopefully we can get the baby's birthday trip in before it happens.

 

[amylevan]

Ok. Let me see if I understand this right.

Right now I pay $345 per adult and $325 per child plus $64 per person for park hopping for 8-day tickets for dates Sept 27 - Oct 5 (comparable dates for our next trip) and this includes at least 4 MK days. Under this new system I would pay $230 for 2 Silver MK days and $210 for 2 Bronze MK days plus $305 for 4 Other park days and $64 for park hoppers which totals $809 per adult and $728 per child.

$3155 for park tickets.

Please tell me I am adding wrong and need to go back and study 3rd grade math because the room is only $2596 (without any discounts) and paying more for tickets than a hotel room is blowing my mind. Those tickets are almost double what we pay now . . . I'm just hoping I am misunderstanding this cause . . . I'm thinking we may be priced out pretty soon . . . if they really do implement this, hopefully we can get the baby's birthday trip in before it happens.

No, you'd still buy a 8 day ticket, but it would need to be silver since some of your days are silver - So, $365 per person + $64 for park hoppers.

 

[Lisa loves Pooh]

Ok. Let me see if I understand this right.

Right now I pay $345 per adult and $325 per child plus $64 per person for park hopping for 8-day tickets for dates Sept 27 - Oct 5 (comparable dates for our next trip) and this includes at least 4 MK days. Under this new system I would pay $230 for 2 Silver MK days and $210 for 2 Bronze MK days plus $305 for 4 Other park days and $64 for park hoppers which totals $809 per adult and $728 per child.

$3155 for park tickets.

Please tell me I am adding wrong and need to go back and study 3rd grade math because the room is only $2596 (without any discounts) and paying more for tickets than a hotel room is blowing my mind. Those tickets are almost double what we pay now . . . I'm just hoping I am misunderstanding this cause . . . I'm thinking we may be priced out pretty soon . . . if they really do implement this, hopefully we can get the baby's birthday trip in before it happens.

Upthread, they said if your stay crosses levels for the dates, the prevailing rate would be the highest level for all dates.

So you would just buy a gold level ticket for your entire stay. This would be $385 plus $64 for park hopping.

ETaa: My bad, silver--$20 less.

 

[amylevan]

Yeah, but if the difference is $30 pp in ticket sales, maybe they would prefer that you stop at a 6-day vacation in your example so they can give those FP spots to another visitor starting their vacation?

I'm also not sure most people are going to analyze this as closely as people who post on here.

From a bean counter's perspective, you never want to encourage your customers to spend less days at your park. Your missing their food and souvenir money on top of entrance fees. Plus, you risk them leaving your hotels a night earlier also. All so someone else has a FP+ opportunity? No.

And the few families that I have helped plan have all asked how much tickets cost per day when looking to plan their vacations, so I would think even a casual, 1 time only guest would catch a $30pp upcharge to a Saturday.

 

[DisneyBabies]

No, you'd still buy a 8 day ticket, but it would need to be silver since some of your days are silver - So, $365 per person + $64 for park hoppers.

Upthread, they said if your stay crosses levels for the dates, the prevailing rate would be the highest level for all dates.

So you would just buy a gold level ticket for your entire stay. This would be $385 plus $64 for park hopping.

ETaa: My bad, silver--$20 less.

So there is no buying separate days for MK. Thank goodness! I really thought I read that somewhere and couldn't believe it!

I still think this is a bad idea. Does EVERYTHING have to be tiered? Rooms, FP's, dining? Just give us a break on the tickets already; after all, don't they put out a rate increase on tickets (and rooms and dining) each year anyway?

 

[DisneyWishes14]

IMHO, in looking at the chart, I really don't see such a huge price differential that this is going to make a huge difference to people who are already spending thousands on a WDW vacation. We've been there 3 times this year. DS and I have AP's, but have traveled with people who needed tickets. In looking at the price chart for the dates we've traveled, yes, we could save money by trying to stick with bronze days, but really not that much to make a huge difference. For example, we went April 10 - April 17 with 7 park-hop days. Those dates fall within both bronze and silver periods. I could try to save some money and buy a 4-day bronze hopper for $369 plus tax and find something else to do the other 3 days or, to cover all of our days, spend $419 plus tax for a 7-day, silver hopper. For $50 more I get three more days in the parks. That's less than $20 per day for those 3 additional days. That's a no-brainer. I'll go with the 7-day silver.

 

[momof2n2]

I'm already just on the fringe of still even wanting to go to WDW. This would be the nail in the coffin.
Why, oh why, can't they just go back to innovating rides and attractions?

 

[momof2n2]

I would like to put out a another point............Is planning a WDW vacation, getting to be just to complicated/restrictive??

Unequivocally, yes.

 

[Dizlvr]

Their surveys are explicitly designed to get the answers Disney wants so they can say "see, this is what the people want!"

The Disney surveys are a joke and are a way to manipulate guests answers into saying whatever they want them to say.

I didn't answer the actual survey, I answered their question here, so no need to worry my answer won't mean anything anyway

 

[Jennasis]

Before I could answer the million dollar question on that survey which is "would you be willing to pay more per ticket for guaranteed lower crowds", I would have to know what "more" was and exactly what "guaranteed lower crowds" is.

Disneys idea of low crowds may differ from mine.