Could Disney be thinking this about off-site guest?

[mom2mickeyfan]

I think Disney knows that many of their daily guest won't and/or can't stay onsite. So maybe they have been sitting around trying to figure out a way to get more of their money. So they set up a system to reserve your favorite rides before you leave home. But you have to purchase your tickets before you can do that. Got their money once. So you go to the website, order the tickets and well "Look honey! They have these cool bands we can buy that will work for our tickets. That will be easier to keep up with." Got their money twice. "Oh look what else we can do honey. We can link our credit card so we don't even have to worry about carrying a card while we at the park. All we will need is that cool band." Bam, now even off-site guest have a way to make those charges that don't really feel like charges and spending more money. Just like on-site guest.

I've seen some that have travelled to Disney for years comment how they didn't understand the big deal between the bands and the KTTW cards because they did the same thing. Now Disney has a way to get some off-site guest spending the same way. But they needed a way to get them hooked into buying tickets early and linking a credit card. Disney could say, "If you want to ride that favorite ride without a long wait. Better get those tickets early and let us show you all the other ways we can make your vacation easier."

Just an idea.

 

[dayvewc]

I think you have a point there, except I also think that the push for MB's is as an upsell. With the RFID cards, it will link to their MDE accounts which would still let them link a credit card for tap-to-pay and everything else.

But I believe an off-shoot of this is that off-site guests will need to be able to have the option to pre-book FP+ so they will have an incentive to buy tickets early and see all these wonderful new options that are being presented to them.

 

[RES1536]

Using your band as a charge card is optional. Guests have the option to utilizing it as a charge card or not. It's going to be optional just like the KTTWC.

Of course this is a way to get more money from guests, but I think it's more of convenience for guests than anything. If guests feel like this makes their lives easier at the parks, the more they want to book a vacation to Disney.

I'm not completely "filled in" on how they are going to accomodate day-by-day guests in terms of wait times, but I think there are limits in place to stop over-booking attractions in advance.

Definately look forward to the other posts.

 

[mom2mickeyfan]

I think you have a point there, except I also think that the push for MB's is as an upsell. With the RFID cards, it will link to their MDE accounts which would still let them link a credit card for tap-to-pay and everything else.

But I believe an off-shoot of this is that off-site guests will need to be able to have the option to pre-book FP+ so they will have an incentive to buy tickets early and see all these wonderful new options that are being presented to them.

That was the point I was making. When Disney comes out to the press and says one of the top goals is to lock guest into their parks before they leave home, it seems odd to think they were sitting gathered in a room trying to figure out how to get those on-site guest locked into their parks. But I can see them trying to figure out how to get those that stay off-site locked in instead of waiting until they get to town and see all those cool NEW rides going up down the road. How to do that??? Find a way to get them to purchase their tickets early. Get them to do that and you can pull them in with the other options to make your vacation easier. It would a total win for Disney. Get their ticket and MB money before they leave home and with a linked credit card, get them spending more in the parks.

 

[Squirlz]

Yes they ARE very smart business people! If guests are smart they can figure out what works best for them.

 

[dayvewc]

Using your band as a charge card is optional. Guests have the option to utilizing it as a charge card or not. It's going to be optional just like the KTTWC.

Of course this is a way to get more money from guests, but I think it's more of convenience for guests than anything. If guests feel like this makes their lives easier at the parks, the more they want to book a vacation to Disney.

I'm not completely "filled in" on how they are going to accomodate day-by-day guests in terms of wait times, but I think there are limits in place to stop over-booking attractions in advance.

Definately look forward to the other posts.

Yes, using the band as a charge card is optional, and will be marketed as a convenience. Especially since the studies show that people spend more when the money itself is removed from the transaction. The convenience of the charge aspect of the bands will allow more people to impulse spend more. Or at least that is what Disney is betting on.

That was the point I was making. When Disney comes out to the press and says one of the top goals is to lock guest into their parks before they leave home, it seems odd to think they were sitting gathered in a room trying to figure out how to get those on-site guest locked into their parks. But I can see them trying to figure out how to get those that stay off-site locked in instead of waiting until they get to town and see all those cool NEW rides going up down the road. How to do that??? Find a way to get them to purchase their tickets early. Get them to do that and you can pull them in with the other options to make your vacation easier. It would a total win for Disney. Get their ticket and MB money before they leave home and with a linked credit card, get them spending more in the parks.

I agree. It is one of the reasons I am so certain that off-site pre-booking will be an option eventually.

 

[jepperson1]

I think you're right, but the important part of your post is getting them to lock in early.

I run a live theater complex, and one of the things that's been plaguing the hospitality/entertainment industry over the last decade has been that people don't book things as much in advance anymore. People used to buy theater tickets 8 weeks out on average, now it's week-of. It's really hard to plan staffing, marketing, and discount offers now.

If Disney knows which park people are going to on which day, and gets more people to book earlier so they can lock in their fast passes when the window opens, they will be able to better decide changes in park hours, showtimes, bus schedules, etc. to save millions on their single biggest expense - staffing. With the ADR system they have been able to say, ok, for x day we have x reservations, and we know that 13% of diners order steak, therefore we need x number of steaks for the week. This will be the same, but for rides, attractions, ticket takers, parking lot attendants, bus drivers, etc.

Don't get me wrong, they're pretty good at estimating this stuff already, but this will allow a much clearer picture of the future for them.

 

[bastos]

I also think they are trying to eliminate the double up dipping.

Every business is in the business of making money. If they aren't, they don't make money anymore. Or, are the government.

Does this infuriate some? Most assuredly. But I will try it out first - and see how it works.

 

[DetroitDisney]

Yes, those evil disney execs, trying to make my life more convenient when I'm booking my disney vacation!!! #shakefist

If you don't want to/can't afford to stay on site, you lose some minor benefits. It doesn't break the parks. Simmer down.

 

[disneyderns]

I saw a post on wdwmagic yesterday that seemed to indicate an eventual expansion to offsite guest. Click here to read the post.

I agree that it only makes business sense to get those off-site guests to lock in their days. I'd even be happy to be able to select my FP+ 24 hours ahead!!

 

[maybeecatlady]

I saw a post on wdwmagic yesterday that seemed to indicate an eventual expansion to offsite guest. Click here to read the post.

I agree that it only makes business sense to get those off-site guests to lock in their days. I'd even be happy to be able to select my FP+ 24 hours ahead!!

Me, too!

 

[kidd_freeper]

One of the most cogent threads on the subject that I've read.

It would be foolish for Disney to NOT use this existing technology for offsite guests.

Eventually, they're going to want to reduce the staffing for the kiosks by letting offsite guests make adavance FP+ reservations.

 

[Huff]

While I agree that Disney wants to get off-site guests to spend more $'s, I don't think they're going to do so at the expense of reducing incentives to stay on-site.

For me, I really hate the idea of having to wear MB's. I'd much prefer RFID cards. Many other facilities such as ski resorts use them and they work great.

 

[ArwenMarie]

Isn't the problem still that they wouldn't know that an offsite guest was coming for certain? By limiting it to offsite, they sort of control for that variable. I think the other question they are still trying to figure out is what to do with APs, which kind of presents the same problem.

If they want maximum availability at 60 days for their onsite customers (so they pay the big bill at 45 days!), do they need to limit prebooking for everyone else? Maybe there are enough FPs that they don't have to, and staffing etc becomes the main goal. On the other hand, clearly there are restricted numbers of rides like Soarin, TT and TSMM, never mind the 7DMT when it comes on...I think they are going to want to make sure all of their onsite customers get those prebooked prior to the big bill coming due.

It will be interesting to see what happens for sure.

 

[disneyderns]

The way I see it here are the on-site perks...

DME to and from the airport
resort transportation system
Extra magic hours
dining plan (This one is debatable as a perk )
60 day FP+ booking
extended ADR booking period (I think this is only for onsite)
MM+ adjusting of FP+ at any time (again some may debate this one)

I think that allowing basic access to MM+ and even a slight ahead of time FP+ booking to off-site guests does not diminish the perk of staying on-site. Again, just my opinion.

As an off-site visitor this March I will watch the "testing" with anticipation

 

[mattsdragon]

There seems to be a lot of threads dedicated to how the changes with MDE and MB's don't seem to be taking off-site guests into account.

Currently, this entire system is being beta tested, and the easiest way to do that is for Disney of offer this to on-site visitors.

I think that there will eventually be advantages given to on-site over off-site guests, that just makes good business sense. Keep people on site with their debit cards and credit cards and cash. But they aren't going to exactly go out of their way to discourage off site visitors either.

My biggest belief that they will still encourage people to visit from off site. . .Money.

Parking is a huge money maker for WDW. They charge what? $15 bucks per car right now. And really the overhead for parking is minimal. So the more cars they put in the lot from off site puts a lot of easy money in Disney's coffers. They don't want to lose easy money, they will make sure that people are still putting cars in their lots in addition to heads on their pillows.

 

[mom2mickeyfan]

I've said once that if Disney was filling rooms when they had paper FPs that were a first come first serve for all, why would pre-booking FP+s need to be on-site perk?

 

[JosieMouse]

I would like this as well.

 

[JosieMouse]

I've said once that if Disney was filling rooms when they had paper FPs that were a first come first serve for all, why would pre-booking FP+s need to be on-site perk?

That's easy to answer. Disney know for your that on site guest will be there and they can make sure that they are not abusing it. Disney has been getting alot of attention lately because of some people were abusing the old GAC system. If they let any one with a MDE account pre-book FP+, people would just make mutiple accounts, so they could get as many FP as possible. I wish they would let off site guest that buy tickets from them in advance pre-book them. They would be able to keep track of them by the ticket number.

 

[mom2mickeyfan]

That's easy to answer. Disney know for your that on site guest will be there and they can make sure that they are not abusing it. Disney has been getting alot of attention lately because of some people were abusing the old GAC system. If they let any one with a MDE account pre-book FP+, people would just make mutiple accounts, so they could get as many FP as possible. I wish they would let off site guest that buy tickets from them in advance pre-book them. They would be able to keep track of them by the ticket number.

The only way to do this is to buy multiple tickets. A lot of money to put in for 3 extra FP+s. Nothing it place in the past prevented someone from buying 2 or 3 tickets, going in and out of the park to activate each ticket and pull paper FPs with each of those tickets. I don't think Disney would care that much if they get 3 separate tickets from someone. And staying on-site would not keep someone from doing the same thing. Travel with 4 adults, each one get a package with all 4 in each room. Get 4 separate MBs and get 3 FP+s for each MB. That would be 12 FP+ for each adult a day. If you wanted to put that kind of money into Disney to get this. I find it hard that Disney would turn the money away.