New survey .. proposal .. Tiered Ticket Prices

[Marionnette]

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.

Which is why I think that those who are speculating that this price-tiering is somehow going to redistribute crowds by shifting attendance by cost-sensitive customers to the cheaper bronze dates are mistaken in their theory. I don't believe that there are enough "cost-sensitive" customers on any given day to make a dent in crowd sizes.

 

[Reddog1134]

Which is why I think that those who are speculating that this price-tiering is somehow going to redistribute crowds by shifting attendance by cost-sensitive customers to the cheaper bronze dates are mistaken in their theory. I don't believe that there are enough "cost-sensitive" customers on any given day to make a dent in crowd sizes.

I’m not 100% sure how the pricing would work (I guess no one is, at this point), but I think it COULD shift attendance. Not necessarily on a month to month basis. I think if you have someone that travels in July, they will continue to travel in July. But perhaps on a day-to-day basis.

If entering the park on a weekend will cost you more than entering on a weekday, then I think you WILL see a shift in attendance. If someone has 4 park days on a 7 day stay, many guests would be more likely to take their rest day or Universal day on the weekend if they know going to MK will cost them less if they go on Tuesday.

 

[ArwenMarie]

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.

Yeah that's true.

I really don't think most folks will catch the difference especially if it is bundled in a package. Or notice it enough to change their plans.

 

[larryz]

... it gives the consumer the feeling of being nibbled to death by ducks.

Ducks wearing NO PANTS!

 

[ArwenMarie]

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.

If they do something like this, I can't see how APs are left untouched. I could definitely see tiers of APs for non-Florida residents.

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?

No Penny Left Behind

 

[DizneyLizzy]

Are the only people receiving this survey people who have recently returned from trips? Or just anyone who is a registered MDE user. I would LOVE to take this survey

I wonder what will happen to No Exp tickets if something like this goes into place. I bought a couple before they got rid of them.

 

[JohnDaleswife]

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.

Totally agree 110%!!! There is no way they would do this. They would take the money and run.

 

[Disney Dynamite]

Presenting some convoluted ticket pricing seems like a questionable PR move when in reality, the tickets aren't significantly higher with the proposed pricing structure. (To be clear, I'm not advocating for Disney to raise the price of park tickets, and I realize that my version of something being not much more expensive is someone else's too expensive.) For example, we're going to Disney this September and purchasing six-day park hoppers. That breaks down to $325 for the base ticket and $64 for the hopper option, so $389/person not including taxes. That same week with the proposed tiered pricing falls within all bronze days, so it breaks down to $325 base ticket and $64 hopper option, so again, $389/person not including taxes. It's the same price.

Now, let's say we decided to move our dates to the middle of July during all gold days for some reason. With current pricing, we would pay $389/person for those six-day hoppers. Under the new pricing, we would pay $365 for the base ticket and $64 for hoppers, so $429. That's a difference of $40/person when you compare current pricing to the gold/top-tier proposed pricing. As others have mentioned, that's not a lot of money for people who are already spending thousands on Disney vacation packages, and I think Disney is well-aware of that fact. Sneaking an extra $100 in on a $2,500 vacation package would be easy for Disney to do, especially when you consider that price increases happen all the time.

From a PR standpoint, however, this is just screaming for bad press and negative responses from guests. It also gives guests one more thing to worry about, on top of ADRs, FP+ and so on.

 

[cigar95]

Which is why I think that those who are speculating that this price-tiering is somehow going to redistribute crowds by shifting attendance by cost-sensitive customers to the cheaper bronze dates are mistaken in their theory. I don't believe that there are enough "cost-sensitive" customers on any given day to make a dent in crowd sizes.

And *that* is one of the main reasons for a survey. If you're taking a survey for public consumption, then you want to get answers that will sound good in press releases. But if you're taking a survey for internal decision-making purposes, then you want to get information as accurate as possible.
So these questions are not intended to ask "do you like paying higher prices ore having more inconvenience"? The answer to a question like that is obvious.
But they are absolutely intended to find out "would higher prices or more inconvenience cause you to change your vacation"? So what Disney is obviously looking for here, in part, is whether a change to tiered pricing would cause much of a shift in the actual attendance patterns. Would this noticeably shift vacations from peak season to slower season? An obvious follow-up survey would be to test responses to that question at different price points. The prices we've seen in the example charts are pretty mild differences between the three levels. Ask the same question with larger differences and see how much the answers change.
Because the most important factor in a business plan is not whether your customers like your changes, but if your changes will cause a loss of business.

 

[lugnut33]

For those of you saying not significantly higher, keep in mind there will be a price increase and then possibly this new structure. Could see prices increase quite a bit from double hit, but yes when compared to overall money being spent on vacation to WDW most people won't care.

 

[Tarheel girl 1975]

And *that* is one of the main reasons for a survey. If you're taking a survey for public consumption, then you want to get answers that will sound good in press releases. But if you're taking a survey for internal decision-making purposes, then you want to get information as accurate as possible.
So these questions are not intended to ask "do you like paying higher prices ore having more inconvenience"? The answer to a question like that is obvious.
But they are absolutely intended to find out "would higher prices or more inconvenience cause you to change your vacation"? So what Disney is obviously looking for here, in part, is whether a change to tiered pricing would cause much of a shift in the actual attendance patterns. Would this noticeably shift vacations from peak season to slower season? An obvious follow-up survey would be to test responses to that question at different price points. The prices we've seen in the example charts are pretty mild differences between the three levels. Ask the same question with larger differences and see how much the answers change.
Because the most important factor in a business plan is not whether your customers like your changes, but if your changes will cause a loss of business.

Might explain why there have been reports of the survey with different price points for the different tiers.

But as a pp pointed out, even though the price difference may not actually be a lot, the chart seems over complicated and unnecessary.

 

[Tarheel girl 1975]

For those of you saying not significantly higher, keep in mind there will be a price increase and then possibly this new structure. Could see prices increase quite a bit from double hit, but yes when compared to overall money being spent on vacation to WDW most people won't care.

I could see them not increasing the price of the bronze tickets. That way Disney could say they were "affordable."

 

[larryz]

Maybe they should just post a sign at the ticket counter: "Hand us your wallet. We promise not to hurt you too badly."

 

[cornflkgrl]

ETA: I am wondering if there is going to be some difference in price between on-property guests and day-only passes? Maybe this was already covered, but that chart there actually HURT my eyes.

For us this would just shift us into being unable to go -- depending on how it is applied. Disney is mostly out of our budget anyhow and we can't fly because our kids can't fly so we have to use 4 days of our vacations for driving and dh has a set amount of vacation a year. I, for one, would be really bummed if they implemented this because even though this is our first trip with our kids, we were hoping to eventually go back as a family, assuming it goes okay. I can't see us having to take them out of school in order to afford it though. The schools where we live penalize heavily for non-doc-excused missed days. Heck, we got a truancy notice on one of my kids this year for MEDICAL-related absences. Ugh.

Hope I get this survey so I can fill it out!!!

 

[DisMomof2Princesses]

The survey I just filled out had a section asking if I agreed with a list of statements-
One of the statements was
"Disneyworld Resort is too greedy"
Another statement was " disneyworld resort is too expensive"

So... How did you respond?

 

[cornflkgrl]

And something is kind of disturbing to me about "guarantee lower crowds" Just doesn't sit right. I just don't see how they can make that promise without turning the thing into something like the process of getting box seats for a big game or concert tickets for a sold out concert. Yuck.

 

[Lisa loves Pooh]

And something is kind of disturbing to me about "guarantee lower crowds" Just doesn't sit right. I just don't see how they can make that promise without turning the thing into something like the process of getting box seats for a big game or concert tickets for a sold out concert. Yuck.

They do what Sea Workd does with Discovery Cove. Price it very high and cap attendance. So people will go for an exclusive feel and Disney still profits. I have no idea how they can feasibly change their business model to accommodate that, though.

 

[anniemae]

I have a question. The term "guaranteeing lower crowds" keeps coming up in this thread. Was that wording on the survey?

 

[larandtra1990]

Prior to overreacting to a survey, its best to see what actually happens

 

[amylevan]

They do what Sea Workd does with Discovery Cove. Price it very high and cap attendance. So people will go for an exclusive feel and Disney still profits. I have no idea how they can feasibly change their business model to accommodate that, though.

They'd almost need to create a 5th gate where that was the business model from the get-go. And they'd better have something worthwhile (ie swimming with dolphins) to draw people in.