Disney Raising Prices AGAIN ?

[BeachyMouse]

http://time.com/3901243/disney-surge-pricing/
Just when you though it was safe to go back to the parks.....lol Now Disney is looking at raising price of admission to select parks on Peak Days. Are you kidding me. this is getting out of control now. Does that mean they will lower prices to $50 on dismal, unbusy, rainy days? I doubt it.

 

[smitch425]

http://time.com/3901243/disney-surge-pricing/
Just when you though it was safe to go back to the parks.....lol Now Disney is looking at raising price of admission to select parks on Peak Days. Are you kidding me. this is getting out of control now. Does that mean they will lower prices to $50 on dismal, unbusy, rainy days? I doubt it.

This is all based on survey questions and may very well never see the light of day. Only time will tell. There are several threads about this.

 

[rteetz]

There are other threads already on this topic. It is based on a survey question in the parks so that doesn't mean it would be happening anytime soon.

 

[fishermouse]

guess they are trying to get a handle on crowds, this is the only way to do it. I don't normally go during peak times so not a problem.

 

[Dariansue]

OMG!!!!!

 

[lockedoutlogic]

10 years of hardly any expansion/reinvestment would Also be a culprit here.

 

[oddman]

http://time.com/3901243/disney-surge-pricing/
Just when you though it was safe to go back to the parks.....lol Now Disney is looking at raising price of admission to select parks on Peak Days. Are you kidding me. this is getting out of control now. Does that mean they will lower prices to $50 on dismal, unbusy, rainy days? I doubt it.

The last ten years Disney has been aiming to change the customer profile to skew to those on the wealthy side. It used to be that Disney was a reasonably affordable destination. But over the last ten years or so it has become more expensive in REAL dollars. Today is cost TWICE as much in inflation adjusted dollar to spend a day at Disney than it cost circa 2000-2002. TWICE as much of your tax paid money to get through the gates. And at the same time the lines are the longest they have every been. The ratio of available seats on rides to number of clients is getting worse for visitors.

Disney is feeling less and less like the Disney that Walt built and more and more like Universal studios... It is becoming less of a magical happy place and more of money grabbing cater to the wealthy place. For the record I am somewhat wealthy and have about 40 days on Disney's ships and easy well over 100 or park days..

But the last few years it feels like Disney is more interested in wealthy clients and less interested in average income folk. In fact I don't feel comfortable suggesting to my friends to have joint family trips to dis, because I know it costs too much for the average income folk these days.

Tiered pricing is going happen unless Disney hears howls of discontent.

 

[Drfate102]

Disney prices are a great example of supply and demand model at work. The parks are crowded, that means the price is in market norms. I am far from wealthy(but I haven't checked last nights lottery numbers yet), and we are annual passholders, but we still keep going. As for the tiered pricing, it already happens in almost everything else. And if Disney does do it, so will every other non seasonal theme park. I don't think they will yet, but in 10 years maybe.

 

[Simba77]

movie before noon: $10
same movie at 8 pm: $15
same movie 4 months later at the dollar theater: $2

I'm honestly surprised it hasn't worked its way into theme parks yet. Hotel rooms (Disney and otherwise) are already more expensive during peak season. I feel bad for the people who can only visit during peak season!

This probably won't happen for some time, though. I think Disney's main concern would be confusion over ticket tiers, and people showing up at the gates with tickets that aren't eligible for that day. Or people who have tickets that are good one day, but the next day is considered a higher tier day, and then the tickets can't be used unless they're upgraded or whatever. It could cause a lot of headaches for guests and CMs both. And what if you buy passes with a room package, like a 10-day ticket? What if you're staying on 8 "normal" days and 2 "peak" days? Would they charge you for 10 peak days? Or would the hopper ticket be "mixed" pricing? Another layer of complexity to the ticket-buying process might not be the greatest idea.

 

[Josh Hendy]

The complexity can go much deeper ... if they let it. That is, if they really let their spreadsheet nerds run wild. How about charging more to ride on Splash Mountain which is a great ride at any time, but MUCH more to ride it between 11am and 5pm, and MUCH MUCH more to ride it anytime on a statutory holiday ... than to visit Hall of the Presidents. This is simple market logic and it is indisputably more fair. Likewise, why do MK and DHS cost the same?

Given that a great park like MK has an imbalance between 5 or 6 great rides and a lot of really old ... um .. classics ... and an imbalance between the perceived quality and entertainment value of their entire parks, the only fair thing is to crunch the numbers and find out how much your customers will pay to either ride or avoid certain attractions and parks.

Or, Disney could try harder to make the theme park experience even and fair by upgrading parks, upgrading attractions, adding attractions, balancing opening hours, and so on, in order to maintain a simple price structure but also ensure approximately equal guest experience no matter which park is visited on any day of the year. And relatively stable profit levels year round. That would be fair, it would be perceived as being fair by their customers, and we wouldn't be having this debate.

But they're clearly going down the path of greater complexity, by offering unbalanced, unequal experiences for unequal amounts of money. And the motivation isn't "to ensure a better guest experience", it's because of financial priorities which have something to do with keeping capital expenditures to an absolute minimum. Unless the capex involves condominiums or conglomerations of franchise stores and restaurants (what some would call a glorified strip mall).

 

[TheDisGuy]

The complexity can go much deeper ... if they let it. That is, if they really let their spreadsheet nerds run wild. How about charging more to ride on Splash Mountain which is a great ride at any time, but MUCH more to ride it between 11am and 5pm, and MUCH MUCH more to ride it anytime on a statutory holiday ... than to visit Hall of the Presidents. This is simple market logic and it is indisputably more fair. Likewise, why do MK and DHS cost the same?

Given that a great park like MK has an imbalance between 5 or 6 great rides and a lot of really old ... um .. classics ... and an imbalance between the perceived quality and entertainment value of their entire parks, the only fair thing is to crunch the numbers and find out how much your customers will pay to either ride or avoid certain attractions and parks.

Or, Disney could try harder to make the theme park experience even and fair by upgrading parks, upgrading attractions, adding attractions, balancing opening hours, and so on, in order to maintain a simple price structure but also ensure approximately equal guest experience no matter which park is visited on any day of the year. And relatively stable profit levels year round. That would be fair, it would be perceived as being fair by their customers, and we wouldn't be having this debate.

But they're clearly going down the path of greater complexity, by offering unbalanced, unequal experiences for unequal amounts of money. And the motivation isn't "to ensure a better guest experience", it's because of financial priorities which have something to do with keeping capital expenditures to an absolute minimum. Unless the capex involves condominiums or conglomerations of franchise stores and restaurants (what some would call a glorified strip mall).

Indeed I worry that this kind of stuff really could happen ... they seem to have been letting the "spread sheet nerds" run wild of late. Thats really what FP+ and MM+ are, a way to try and squeeze more out of the guests, and to maximize ride usage across the board, crowd control if you will.

I hope that stuff like this doesn't happen, but they seem to be much more concerned about profit margins than guest experiences and accessibility than anything else of late, which is very disappointing.