A fitting quote for the current WDW?

[heartse]

We are getting that same Busch Gardens ticket... $120, good for the whole year, and easier drive for us. (We are in Northern VA, and BG is only 2 hours away). Love Disney, but don't like the way it has been going lately.

 

[*disgal*]

We are getting that same Busch Gardens ticket... $120, good for the whole year, and easier drive for us. (We are in Northern VA, and BG is only 2 hours away). Love Disney, but don't like the way it has been going lately.

Oh, man, we LOVE BG williamsburg!! That's quite a deal!

I think theirs was only for the FL one? It included Seaworld.

 

[heartse]

Oh, man, we LOVE BG williamsburg!! That's quite a deal!

I think theirs was only for the FL one? It included Seaworld.

There's another tier up that will give you tickets to the BG in FL and Seaworld as well, but I don't know that that would be worth it for us... might think about that a bit more though. Right now we don't have any trips to Florida planned... don't want to waste the $150 (over three tickets) or whatever the price differential is.

 

[king kamehameha]

I thought this was interesting from Shark Tank's Mark Cuban and his thoughts today on the NFL. It seems fitting in how it relates to my recent thoughts on WDW.

"So the conclusion?" Cuban wrote.

"It's the same thing I tell my businesses and would tell every business. You shouldn't try to get every last second of a person's attention or every last penny that you can squeeze from them.

"There is a big difference between optimizing the relationship you have with your customers and maximizing short term revenue. Building customers for life is about building relationships and anticipating customer wants and needs.

"Customers/Fans/Advertisers know when they are being pushed. They know when they are being squeezed. It always ends up costing the business in the end."

Great post. We have been very loyal to Disney for over a decade. I know they don't owe us anything , but The love is just gone. The last trip really drove home the point that Disney is only about money and not what people want. Moving on to cruises to Bermuda and other family places. Such a shame. Glad I never got suckered into DVC.

 

[FlipHipster]

Spot on quote for dis and any business.

What I would love is for dis to start promoting and enhancing the "resort" aspect of a stay there. Not just come and shove everyone into the theme park. Our vacations have become so much better since we started doing things like renting watercraft and other resort specific things It's a shame to hear some of the Sammy's are closing bc I find it a more well rounded vacation.

Everyone wins by taking 100% focus off the parks--lines are shorter, other aspects thrive, attention is paid to the beautiful resort properties, etc. but I'm sure the spreadsheets say otherwise.

They've been doing this. If you watch the Disney resorts infomercial on the Destination channel, there's plenty of talk about experiencing Disney outside of the parks. Go parasailing, golf etc. Problem with that is, if you push guests out of the parks and they aren't locked into a Disney resort, you have no control over where they go. All those extracurricular activities add cost to an already expensive vacation. I wonder how many people staying offisite will say, the parks are too crowded lets go to a Disney resort and spend some more money?

 

[gonnago]

A very wise statement from Mr.Cuban and a lot of businesses would benefit from that statement Disney included.

 

[3smithboys]

We feel the same way and changed our summer Disney trip to Universal this summer. We will not be spending our $$$ until we feel that we are getting value back and waiting in long lines is not what we want to do! We've always been meaning to try Universal, and this was just the push we needed.

I'm not saying that we are never going back to Disney - we really want to - but for the 5 of us it is a lot of money to go - and we can only go during Winter Break or summer.

 

[robinb]

I thought this was interesting from Shark Tank's Mark Cuban and his thoughts today on the NFL. It seems fitting in how it relates to my recent thoughts on WDW.

"So the conclusion?" Cuban wrote.

"It's the same thing I tell my businesses and would tell every business. You shouldn't try to get every last second of a person's attention or every last penny that you can squeeze from them.

"There is a big difference between optimizing the relationship you have with your customers and maximizing short term revenue. Building customers for life is about building relationships and anticipating customer wants and needs.

"Customers/Fans/Advertisers know when they are being pushed. They know when they are being squeezed. It always ends up costing the business in the end."

Disney lost my Spring Break business because of incessant price hikes and FP+. I took my $1500+ to Norwegian Cruise Line and we're visiting Honduras, Belize & Mexico instead of WDW. Frankly, I'm looking forward to something new and not feeling like I have Mickey's four fingered death grip wrapped around my wallet.

 

[Meeky Mouse]

We agree as well.

We used to be able to visit 3-4 times per year. Unfortunately our financial situation changed a few years ago and we had to save & sacrifice to make it there once a year. But that one trip was always well worth it - until our last trip in November. It was our first experience with the FastPass+ system and we did not like it all - not before we went and not while we were there. It was far too restrictive and demanded far too much pre-planning. It made the whole experience very stressful - the exact opposite of how we want our vacations to be. We loved the Magic Bands, however - very convenient and easy to use.

Our trip was nice, but it definitely lacked the Disney Magic that we'd always felt in the past. Sadly, I think we'll be changing our vacation destination this year.

 

[WillAustin]

Spot on quote for dis and any business.

What I would love is for dis to start promoting and enhancing the "resort" aspect of a stay there. Not just come and shove everyone into the theme park. Our vacations have become so much better since we started doing things like renting watercraft and other resort specific things It's a shame to hear some of the Sammy's are closing bc I find it a more well rounded vacation.

Everyone wins by taking 100% focus off the parks--lines are shorter, other aspects thrive, attention is paid to the beautiful resort properties, etc. but I'm sure the spreadsheets say otherwise.

If you watch their recent advertising, this is obviously their marketing goal. Try to make it not all about the parks.

Not that they are actually enhancing the resort experience, just adding more DVC.

 

[Wendybird55]

Just to play the devil's advocate here..why does Disney put movies into the vault for so many years...why do they keep certain rides that seem old, outdated and tired (especially to their repeat visitors), why do they keep running the same parades and fireworks shows for what seems like many years?...simple answer....every 5-7 years there is an entirely brand-new audience for Disney so when/if the "faithful repeat guests" go away there's always a new batch to take their place.

Kids are born every day and when they get to that magical age of 3 to 6 they want to go to Disney and many parents feel they should at least take their kid once to Disney. And if the oldest went when he/she was 5 and then there are younger brothers and sisters..well time to go again.

There will always be kids who never went to Disney World and parents that will take them. Not to say Disney wants to discard their repeat guests, but they do have an ever plentiful source of new guests.