Are any Disney guests average income people?

[rangerxenos]

I found this article interesting:


How Walt Disney World went from $3.50 a ticket to becoming a ‘luxury-priced destination’

 

[GAN]

I found this article interesting:


How Walt Disney World went from $3.50 a ticket to becoming a ‘luxury-priced destination’

Interesting. The answer is the first couple paragraphs. $20 in 1971 is the same as $140 today. And that's using discounts -the ticket prices are a slightly misleading comparison. The simple fact is -Disney prices have risen with inflation ...your salary has not.

 

[Sakiki]

There used to be Florida resident 3 day tickets that wouldn't expire for a year. It was awesome. Grab a 3 day ticket and 3 times I could make the 3 hour drive and spend a Saturday wandering Disney. Once they did away with those I started going less and less. Not because of money, but because I get bored easy I guess. If I have 21 days in a row for a vacation (or is it sabbatical) I wouldn't spend all of it in one spot. That's a personal thing though as I never in my adult life have had 21 days off, even when my kids were born. And I think I'd go insane if I was at Disney for 21 days.

You are right though that overseas visitors tend to have the time and money as just getting to Florida is quite the ordeal I'd imagine.

That 3-day ticket sounds pretty good! I still have a pair of ‘these will never expire’ multi-day tickets with one day left on each somewhere, a legacy of our trip in either 1997 or 1999 (when we rather quaintly had to show our passports at the same time as presenting the tickets at the gate)…

21 days really is a vacation (in the UK at least). 6 months or longer (usually a year) is a sabbatical. And I agree, I wouldn’t/couldn’t spend 21 days at WDW - which is why we have a car and normally stay offsite.

And yes, international long haul travel can be a real pain. I’m long enough in the tooth to remember flying pre-9/11 and the dreadful hassle since then; I haven’t had the pleasure yet of flying post-Covid and it will be interesting to see how that shapes up by the time of our next (hoped for) trip to Orlando in November 2022…

 

[katmu]

Interesting. The answer is the first couple paragraphs. $20 in 1971 is the same as $140 today. And that's using discounts -the ticket prices are a slightly misleading comparison. The simple fact is -Disney prices have risen with inflation ...your salary has not.

That was an interesting article. My salary has not kept up with inflation but I wonder if that would hold true for Bob Chapek and most other CEOs?

I also blame Duffy.

 

[DLgal]

Or, they may add a reservation system that limits the amount of APs allowed into the park at any given time......

Which they "adjust" almost daily to allow more passholders in when the days don't get booked up by day ticket holders.

 

[CanadaDisney05]

Which they "adjust" almost daily to allow more passholders in when the days don't get booked up by day ticket holders.

Exactly...... "when the days don't get booked up by day ticket holders"

 

[DLgal]

Exactly...... "when the days don't get booked up by day ticket holders"

The point being, NOT ENOUGH people are buying day tickets. The NEED the passholders. How are you not getting this? If they didn't have them, or there were less, the parks would be empty most days.

 

[CanadaDisney05]

The point being, NOT ENOUGH people are buying day tickets. The NEED the passholders. How are you not getting this? If they didn't have them, or there were less, the parks would be empty most days.

Nobody ever suggested they wanted to eliminate APs 100%. It's not an all or nothing scenario. If they did, their would be no APs. I am only saying that they want to drastically reduce the amount of passholders in the park on any given day because passholders bring in a lot less revenue than typical vacationers. It's nothing personal.

 

[DLgal]

Nobody ever suggested they wanted to eliminate APs 100%. It's not an all or nothing scenario. If they did, their would be no APs. I am only saying that they want to drastically reduce the amount of passholders in the park on any given day because passholders bring in a lot less revenue than typical vacationers. It's nothing personal.

I'm not taking it personally. I just don't agree that is their current strategy. It seems like it might be what they WISH was the case, but clearly they can't get away with that right now.

 

[JodieJRanch]

That was an interesting article. My salary has not kept up with inflation but I wonder if that would hold true for Bob Chapek and most other CEOs?

I also blame Duffy.

Chapek's decisions can cause the corporation to sink or swim. Chapek has goals he has to meet. If he doesn't, he'll be replaced. So far, with the completely unforecastable catastrophic pandemic, he as well as most CEO's have earned every penny they make. Most corporations freeze and/or reduce executive compensation during down periods. They in lieu give incentives through stock options, subject to price targets that executives can exercise if they meet their targets. Don't know for sure, but I believe Disney did the same when the pandemic hit.

 

[Starport Seven-Five]

Chapek has goals he has to meet. If he doesn't, he'll be replaced.

And receive a golden parachute greater than the daily operating cost of one of their theme parks.

 

[katmu]

Chapek's decisions can cause the corporation to sink or swim. Chapek has goals he has to meet. If he doesn't, he'll be replaced. So far, with the completely unforecastable catastrophic pandemic, he as well as most CEO's have earned every penny they make. Most corporations freeze and/or reduce executive compensation during down periods. They in lieu give incentives through stock options, subject to price targets that executives can exercise if they meet their targets. Don't know for sure, but I believe Disney did the same when the pandemic hit.

That situation isn’t new though just for CEOs since the 1970s was my point. CEOs have always been responsible for the success or failure of the corporation.

 

[Ikaikalani]

We have an average income, work hard, and have no kids. I admit we've fed the Mouse a lot of money over the years. We love Disney, travel extensively, and have always woven Disney into our travel plans. For us it has nothing to do with "we're the poor people now and cant afford it." Instead, we're the folks who look for value, not discounts. We're the people who know when they're being charged more but getting less. And we're the ones who speak with our wallets. We've been fortunate enough to have sailed all 4 ships and visited Disney parks around the world. We have a cruise booked/paid for this coming February. After that, we're taking a Disney hiatus for a few years as, for us, the value just isn't there. We've found there are incredible people all across the world, exotic places abounding with joy and wonder, experiences almost unbelievable, and most don't involve an over hungry mouse. Thailand here we come!!!

 

[snikki]

We are above income but we live in NJ so it doesn’t mean much. We don’t do Disney every year. It’s a pricey vacation and always has been. We go every 2ish-3ish years. We go other places in the off years. Usually 2-3 vacations for the price of one Disney vacation. We feel we get more bang for our buck elsewhere but we do love and enjoy Disney so go every few years.

All vacation prices have gone up. Everywhere. A 3 bedroom condo in wildwood at the Jersey shore is easily 3k for w week and that’s on the low end. Include food, boardwalk entertainment, rides, etc and you can easily be 5k++ for a week trip. To me that’s crazy so we only do day trips (hour drive for us) and weekend every few years if friends are going down. Even all inclusive prices have gone up. I remember doing a family of 4 in Mexico with flights for 2800 all in for a week. Now I pay around that for a couple.

 

[Jonfw2]

Nobody ever suggested they wanted to eliminate APs 100%. It's not an all or nothing scenario. If they did, their would be no APs. I am only saying that they want to drastically reduce the amount of passholders in the park on any given day because passholders bring in a lot less revenue than typical vacationers. It's nothing personal.

But they clearly do not want to do what you're saying, because if they did, they could. And they're not.

And your binary thinking (more revenue vs less revenue) remains a very poor and inaccurate argument.

 

[Miffy]

Out-of-state AP here. I do not own DVC nor do I have children. My sister, also an AP holder, and I usually do two WDW trips a year. We did zero trips in 2020 and are hoping to do 2 this year, including the May trip we already did.

We hardly used our last APs before we renewed them, so WDW definitely made money on us there.

But we both did renew, and there's still a 15% discount for renewing an AP. If WDW really wanted to get rid of AP holders, they'd stop offering a renewal discount or they'd stop offering APs altogether.

WDW must like repeat visitors. I say this because they continue to sell DVC, creating an entire group of repeat visitors.

 

[Jonfw2]

Out-of-state AP here. I do not own DVC nor do I have children. My sister, also an AP holder, and I usually do two WDW trips a year. We did zero trips in 2020 and are hoping to do 2 this year, including the May trip we already did.

We hardly used our last APs before we renewed them, so WDW definitely made money on us there.

But we both did renew, and there's still a 15% discount for renewing an AP. If WDW really wanted to get rid of AP holders, they'd stop offering a renewal discount or they'd stop offering APs altogether.

WDW must like repeat visitors. I say this because they continue to sell DVC, creating an entire group of repeat visitors.

Of course this is correct.

 

[C&Jx2]

People forget that vacation, let alone a theme park vacation with all of the perks of being onsite, FastPasses, extra hours etc…is a luxury.

 

[CanadaDisney05]

But they clearly do not want to do what you're saying, because if they did, they could. And they're not.

Well thats simply not true. In the past year they have both increased prices on AP's (above normal inflationary increases), and for the first time ever, implemented a crazy convoluted reservation system which limits the ratio of AP holders to day guests on any given day. Add in the fact that the CEO pretty much came out and flat out said it.

All of this is evidence that supports the theory that Disney wants to significantly reduce the ratio of APs to Day Guest/resort guests in the parks.

And your binary thinking (more revenue vs less revenue) remains a very poor and inaccurate argument.

This is literally the opposite of what I have said. Your argument was that APs flooding the parks was good for business because although they don't bring in added ticket revenue everytime they enter the park, they do spend money on food and merch. In other words, some revenue is better than no revenue. This is a contradiction to what you suggest above.

My argument is that although you are correct and their is added revenue, their is also added cost. More guests require more staff, more ride maintenance, etc... their is also the opportunity cost of crowds caused by an over abundance of AP holders scaring off higher margin guests from coming.

In other words, more revenue does not equal more profit if the added costs outweigh the added revenue. Again, a contradiction to what you are suggesting my argument is.

At no point in this thread did I suggest that Disney's main priority is to eliminate 100% of passholders with the goal of increasing revenue. That is a completely illogical statement.

 

[LovesTimone]

In Disney mind, "Locals-day trippers-annual pass holders", do nothing but clog the parks and detract from the experience of their "on property guest".
[/QUOTE]


I total disagree with your line of thinking here...

How do you get that, or were would you get a idea such as this... ?

Is this more a personal judgement or personal opinion on local's, do you feel we clog up the parks?

Do you think that the locals are not as good as or beneath a guest that comes from out of town once or twice in a life time.?

When they opened back up who do you think went back into the parks first? who were the first to sit down at a table service, shop at Disney Springs... splash around at the water parks... Stay in the resorts..... Locals that's who....

We are the people who bring friends and family into the parks... take our guest to dinner at Disney Springs, suggest water parks for a great way to spend the day...

If this is the case, why would they offer Locals or Florida Residents discount tickets or special resort pricing, which is separate from Florida AP holders... just because we are locals doesn't mean we don't stay at the resorts... I can tell you first hand that we do... maybe not 10 day in a row... which is in our case, but over a years time we spend anywhere from 10 to 15 nights a year... and that not counting when we just go into the park for dinner, or to check out a new ride... or shell out for a hard ticket event... Florida Resident Annual Pass are a big bucks for Disney...

No we don't clog up the parks, we keep them going... Local's in and around the theme parks here in Orlando and Florida resident support the House of the Mouse... That you can be sure of.... !!!!