New survey .. proposal .. Tiered Ticket Prices

[Dan Murphy]

6.5%

 

[JacknSally]

Maybe this will be the push to get us to go to Europe instead of Disney on our next vacation!

 

[NjMamaMouse]

Disneyland Paris FYI already has the tiered pricing.

So the Disneyland Paris pricing has some obvious differences though.
1) the lowest tier is 85/75
2) highest tier is 115/105
3) all tickets only good for one year from purchase
4) all tickets good at 2 parks, so a park hopper!
5) the difference between adult and child is only $10

 

[TwinPrincessMermaids]

This pay more for less crowds things sounds like a new level of elite. Sheesh. So much for the little guy or everyone can be a dreamer and all their dreams can come true. Your dreams can come truer if you pay more.

 

[larryz]

This pay more for less crowds things sounds like a new level of elite. Sheesh. So much for the little guy or everyone can be a dreamer and all their dreams can come true. Your dreams can come truer if you pay more.

"A dream is a wish your accountant makes..."

 

[larryz]

public service bump...

 

[cyb]

What happens if you're a FL res seasonal weekday passholder?

 

[gschon]

I never knew so many people didn't understand the concept of Supply and Demand. If the price goes up a little, fewer people will attend. Disney will make the same money from fewer people. This means they can maintain the same level of staffing , and the level of service will be slightly better. And, the line for the rides will be 45 minutes instead of 55 minutes!

 

[Colleen27]

Unfortunately, it's not a good picture, but there are at least a couple of versions of of the survey question. The version on Orlando United suggests tiered pricing only on 1 day tickets. http://www.orlandounited.com/forums/showthread.php/9531-Seasonal-Ticket-Price-Structure

I find this one even more interesting, especially the bolded bit above the chart. Talk about complicated - pick a one-day ticket for each day of your trip based on season and let Disney calculate your multi-day discount from there! So for my upcoming trip, I'd need 2 MK days @ $115, two other park days @ $105, and then they'd add it all up and discount the total by 15%. Doing some rough math that looks like a price increase of about $80 on a 4 day base ticket, because in addition to the per-ticket price increase they're also reducing the discounting of multi-day tickets.

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.

More likely, they'll raise the price of the bronze tickets and sell them as "guaranteed less crowded" on those days when there was no chance that the parks would be anywhere near capacity anyway. So you'd be paying more for a guarantee that it won't be Christmas-crowded in September and they're not losing a thing because the "new, lower capacity" would be in line with typical attendance for those times of year.

 

[erin1715]

It looks like this is a serious possibility with people.com running an article on it...

 

[Ava]

I haven't read through the whole thread, but that chart looks impossibly complicated. I tried to figure out what the price would be for the tickets we'd need on our upcoming trip and got stumped. What if you hop between MK and another park on the same day? Do you calculate it at the MK price? We also have some bronze days and some silver days throughout our 10-day trip. Would we pay the higher silver price for all of our days, or would we calculate the silver price for only the silver days and bronze price for the rest? It sounds like this would also force you to choose park days well in advance so Disney can calculate the right price for your tickets.

 

[Planogirl]

I never knew so many people didn't understand the concept of Supply and Demand. If the price goes up a little, fewer people will attend. Disney will make the same money from fewer people. This means they can maintain the same level of staffing , and the level of service will be slightly better. And, the line for the rides will be 45 minutes instead of 55 minutes!

I don't think that Disney wants less people. If anything they want even more but they do want to spread people out as much as they can.

 

[Shadowcat70]

I didn't read through about half of this, so I am not sure if it's already been mentioned, but isn't that what the tiered resort room pricing is for already? The rooms are already vastly different prices depending on what time of the year, and day of the week you go. Why bring ticket pricing into it as well? Unless they are aiming this money grab for Florida/California locals who don't have annual passes? We live in the northwest, and can only afford to go to WDW every couple of years in the cheapest times for hotels. So when we do go, we stay for 7-10 days because the airfare is the same whether we stay for 3 days or 10 days. We stopped going to Disneyland just because since they started offering the dirt cheap California annual pass payment plan, it's always been very crowded any time of year. Not to mention, hotels in the DL area are much more expensive than hotels in the WDW area. We love to go to WDW, but it takes us about a year to save up. Maybe they are trying to phase out people like us? I just don't know.

 

[smjj]

I am literately sicken that Disney would even consider this as an option. I have watch Disney over the years move more and more away from the way Walt would have done it and this is just beyond me. The people at Disney are now just looking at all of us as nothing more than cash cows and looking for more way to milk us dry...smjj

 

[ArwenMarie]

I am literately sicken that Disney would even consider this as an option. I have watch Disney over the years move more and more away from the way Walt would have done it and this is just beyond me. The people at Disney are now just looking at all of us as nothing more than cash cows and looking for more way to milk us dry...smjj

Yep, it's just a blatant, massive money grab. There's really no other way to look at it.

 

[Praying Colonel]

IMHO Disney's already been in the frog-boiling business for a few years now. Looks like they want to know what we amphibians think about upping the temperature a few more degrees....

 

[maxiesmom]

Yep, it's just a blatant, massive money grab. There's really no other way to look at it.

Yeah. And opening a park with water fountains that didn't work, and charging on a per ride basis wasn't.

Walt wasn't a saint who ran the parks free of charge. But people act like he was.

 

[DisneyDoc5]

So, we would have to know exactly what our schedule for the week would look like, what parks, hopping? At least fp+ had a little bit of flexibility, sort of. Will I have to schedule our bathroom breaks and which side of the bed I plan to sleep in too....jeez. This is getting ridiculous Disney, I hope they don't do this! Walt wouldn't like this, but I don't think anyone in charge asks themselves this question any more...

 

[maxiesmom]

So, we would have to know exactly what our schedule for the week would look like, what parks, hopping? At least fp+ had a little bit of flexibility, sort of. Will I have to schedule our bathroom breaks and which side of the bed I plan to sleep in too....jeez. This is getting ridiculous Disney, I hope they don't do this! Walt wouldn't like this, but I don't think anyone in charge asks themselves this question any more...

What I am getting is that they charge more for the tickets when you go during peak times. Your trip overlaps peak and non peak, you pay the higher price.

As far as What Would Walt Do, Can you be sure what he would do? Walt opened the parks, and didn't charge admission. He just charged more for the better rides. So maybe they are indeed asking What Would Walt Do. And taking it to the next step. As the parks no longer charge per ride grouping, they are taking it to the next level and charging more for going during peak times. Not such a big leap from What Walt Did.

 

[DisneyDoc5]

I see your point, well said. Any speculation over Walt's opinion of the business direction of his parks is of course just that, speculation, so obviously my answer to your question is no, I cannot be sure of his thoughts and actions. From reading multiple biographies about Walt, I recall many stories about his focus being on entertainment, family time, guest experience, while Roy had to often bring him the reality of finances. What I am sure of is his original vision for the parks. I am also aware of Disney's financial growth and earnings, which are published, so they are already making plenty of money in their parks division, with clear evidence of continued growth under the current ticket pricing structure. The complicated nature of this proposed tiered system just frankly bums me out, I'm sick of everything having to be so complicated and pre planned.