Disney World Buries Its Controversial $149 After Hours Experiment

[cel_disney]

But a large part of "packaging" is the pricing. They just blew it here. The event may very well come back in the future. But if it does, it won't cost $149. That was a career ending decision for someone. They are now 0-for-2 in their most recent after hours events that are not "parties"; this one, and the one at Epcot. And price was the issue both times. For DAH, it was just too high. At Epcot, you just didn't get enough for the price you paid. Disney is doing great with its parties. People pay a lot for them. But they are buying unique experiences. DAH didn't buy you anything other than shorter waits. Much shorter than normal operating hours to be sure. But only marginally shorter than when EMHs extended out to 2:00 a.m. or 3:00 a.m.. If they turned DAH into a villain event in the BoG Ballroom and served beer, wine and some cocktails, this could sell out at $149. But not if they just keep the park open as if it were any other Saturday with EMHs.

I am not convinced that the price was all that out of line given the exclusivity. I paid 129$ for Club Villian which was 2 hours and included 4 characters and dinner in a themed room per person. It included drinks as well but many including my 2 children didn't have any yet still paid the price.

I think that the price just requires ACTUAL marketing! To get the right audience (who will pay that price) - those only attending MK for 1 day or planning to spend 2-3 days total at WDW.

 

[Mac30188]

I actually would love for this to work. Convince die hard obsessive Disney fans to attend during hours I have no intention of using seems like a win win to me. If they could sell 1-4AM that would be great.

 

[tlmadden73]

I think keeping all of MK open for the 3 hours after closing for 150 is wrong because you really didn't target a audience with a large enough demand. If they tweaked the event to have something more targeted and exclusive feeling, it would work. It actually seems like they were rolled out in opposite order of how they were thought up. EMM seems very tight in they saw the PPO popularity and demand, focused on what that audience wanted, charged a healthy price tag, and it was successful. After hours in many ways feels like an afterthought. If you added characters or focus to a different group or area, the can sell those hours at that very high price point. They just have to add more thought into it than just leave every ride open for 3 hours.

Right .. even though EMM doesn't seem to have as much "value" from a ride standpoint (only 3 rides) . .I think it IS and WILL be more popular because people dismiss the price because they get a breakfast included. I don't think "free ice cream" was enough of a draw for the evening event.
PLUS . .more people (families) are willing to get up early than stay late.

Like I said above I think both are tests to some sort of exclusive access to the NEW stuff as they come out.

I am surprised the haven't announced some sort of Early Morning Magic for Epcot.
Early access to Epcot, Breakfast at Askerhus, Frozen Ride and A&E Meet and Greet ... $69. Wouldn't that be sold out in a heartbeat? Especially when getting Frozen Fast passes may be a struggle.

 

[JimmyV]

I am not convinced that the price was all that out of line given the exclusivity. I paid 129$ for Club Villian which was 2 hours and included 4 characters and dinner in a themed room per person. It included drinks as well but many including my 2 children didn't have any yet still paid the price.

Just work backwards. First, you are starting out $20 cheaper. Your Villains ticket included food. By Disney's accounting, that is $40 right there. Offset that with the Mickey Bars that you got at DAH ($15), and you are now $45 cheaper. Now trade drinks for water and you are down another $15 to get to $60 cheaper. Now subtract out the fact that DAH offers no special characters and drop it another $10. By my count, DAH should have been $70 cheaper than it was, and $50 cheaper than the Villain event. I'd say that $149 is out of line with what should have been $79. $149 doesn't add up based on what I have just demonstrated.

Edit to add: I have no justification for the children's pricing other than to surmise that it is done to dissuade adults from bringing kids to events like the Villains party. They did the same thing with kids at the Epcot After Dark event with no discount for kids even though alcohol was included in the admission price, and they do the same thing with their New Years Eve dinner at the California Grill. They aren't going to say: "No children", but they make that point through egregious pricing.

 

[lugnut33]

This idea is not going to go away as evidenced by the people on here that are upset this is "going away". The ultimate idea is to get people to pay twice in one day for MK entry, and it will happen. The $149 price point may be gone, but trust me the next time they set this up people will flock to it in droves. It'll end up being a cash cow.

 

[Accident]

Not sure you need a ton of attractions. I still think 2 hours with TSMM, ToT, ST, and the Coaster would command an audience. In many ways it would be easier because less rides it is way easier to control crowds and cost.

I'd be out for that one.. there's nights where it's really dead and with the exception of TSMM you can run around like it was after hours at HS.

 

[JimmyV]

• trust me the next time they set this up people will flock to it in droves.
• It'll end up being a cash cow.

Agree on the first point, especially if it picks up where it ended, which was $79

As to the second point, we don't know enough about overhead to determine if it will be a cash cow or a dead duck. It might be that they will have to boost attendance well above 5,000 to make this profitable. Or not. Either way, even at 7,500 people, the park would seem "empty". One of the problems that I see was Disney's attempt to make this an event in a "dead empty" park, when most people would gladly pay $79 for an event in a really, really uncrowded park.

 

[MinnieSweetheart]

I think keeping all of MK open for the 3 hours after closing for 150 is wrong because you really didn't target a audience with a large enough demand. If they tweaked the event to have something more targeted and exclusive feeling, it would work. It actually seems like they were rolled out in opposite order of how they were thought up. EMM seems very tight in they saw the PPO popularity and demand, focused on what that audience wanted, charged a healthy price tag, and it was successful. After hours in many ways feels like an afterthought. If you added characters or focus to a different group or area, the can sell those hours at that very high price point. They just have to add more thought into it than just leave every ride open for 3 hours.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but the gist of it is that they didn't offer enough, right? Because if you didn't offer enough for the $150 price tag, how is that different than saying the $150 price tag was too high? That's where I'm confused.

 

[Accident]

This ..

The whole thing felt like a test .. and I too thought it was a test to see what they could set the price point at.

Oh it absolutely was a test.. I think they tried 3 things with this.. 1: what will people pay for lower crowds. 2: what will people pay and what is the reaction to a night party at this price (and not cutting into normal hours). and 3: is there something from the past we can bring back and charge much more money for...

Personally, this only "failed" in my mind because the site was horrible, there was no warning this was coming so nobody arriving within 2 months knew about it, and nobody really knew what the event was about.. There is still people here that think you only got 3 hours in the park.. What I am seeing is there is demand now that peopel know what it is and had time to learn more and think about if they would pay for it but it ended too soon for them. So I don't think the $150 was wrong, I think they just didn't advertise this right or give enough time when everything else at disney you plan at least 4+ months to do..

 

[cel_disney]

Oh it absolutely was a test.. I think they tried 3 things with this.. 1: what will people pay for lower crowds. 2: what will people pay and what is the reaction to a night party at this price (and not cutting into normal hours). and 3: is there something from the past we can bring back and charge much more money for...

Personally, this only "failed" in my mind because the site was horrible, there was no warning this was coming so nobody arriving within 2 months knew about it, and nobody really knew what the event was about.. There is still people here that think you only got 3 hours in the park.. What I am seeing is there is demand now that peopel know what it is and had time to learn more and think about if they would pay for it but it ended too soon for them. So I don't think the $150 was wrong, I think they just didn't advertise this right or give enough time when everything else at disney you plan at least 4+ months to do..

I really wish I had one of those giant LIKE button graphics to paste here!

I'm sure the price point was easily payable and desires by many! They just needed KNOW about it and be able to PLAN for it!

 

[MinnieSweetheart]

I really wish I had one of those giant LIKE button graphics to paste here!

I'm sure the price point was easily payable and desires by many! They just needed KNOW about it and be able to PLAN for it!

If that's the case, then why did they as @HopperFan show us lower the price rather than do a marketing blitz?

 

[cel_disney]

Just work backwards. First, you are starting out $20 cheaper. Your Villains ticket included food. By Disney's accounting, that is $40 right there. Offset that with the Mickey Bars that you got at DAH ($15), and you are now $45 cheaper. Now trade drinks for water and you are down another $15 to get to $60 cheaper. Now subtract out the fact that DAH offers no special characters and drop it another $10. By my count, DAH should have been $70 cheaper than it was, and $50 cheaper than the Villain event. I'd say that $149 is out of line with what should have been $79. $149 doesn't add up based on what I have just demonstrated.

Edit to add: I have no justification for the children's pricing other than to surmise that it is done to dissuade adults from bringing kids to events like the Villains party. They did the same thing with kids at the Epcot After Dark event with no discount for kids even though alcohol was included in the admission price, and they do the same thing with their New Years Eve dinner at the California Grill. They aren't going to say: "No children", but they make that point through egregious pricing.

There are SOOO many ways to do this math - I look at it very different. Here is another look.

CV - 2 hours, $65/HR minus food/drink =$30/HR for exclusive Disney Atmosphere (2 attractions per hour plus a dance party)

To get to DAH pricing =
3 exclusive hours = $90
Mickey Bars/Soda =$20/night
Access 3-4 hours prior to exclusive = $10/HR
Total= $140-$150

*******
Another way ...

For CV:
CV = $130 minus food/drink = $60.
$60 = 5 experiences (4 villians and a dance party) = $12/experience

DAH = 3 exclusive hours with 4 attractions/HR = $144 add in Mickey Bars/Soda and 3-4 hours before getting in and $150 is a steal!

There are a lot of ways to skin this cat - but I think that the price point still makes sense for a sizeable portion of the population who are short trip visitors (they just aren't all here on the dis and needed to be advertised too!)

We try to save our non-expiring passes for when we really need them. If we were doing a primarily non-park trip but staying at our DVC - we would have done this. We just would have planned in advance to have a low key late start the day of and the day after. We would have even paid full price if this was our park entry for the day on a non park heavy trip.

 

[tlmadden73]

Oh it absolutely was a test.. I think they tried 3 things with this.. 1: what will people pay for lower crowds. 2: what will people pay and what is the reaction to a night party at this price (and not cutting into normal hours). and 3: is there something from the past we can bring back and charge much more money for...

Personally, this only "failed" in my mind because the site was horrible, there was no warning this was coming so nobody arriving within 2 months knew about it, and nobody really knew what the event was about.. There is still people here that think you only got 3 hours in the park.. What I am seeing is there is demand now that peopel know what it is and had time to learn more and think about if they would pay for it but it ended too soon for them. So I don't think the $150 was wrong, I think they just didn't advertise this right or give enough time when everything else at disney you plan at least 4+ months to do..

Right .. this seemed doomed for failure when you announce it within a month or so of the first event and only have it last two months total before it is canned. How many guests who already paid for their vacation would go "hey .. let's pay an extra $150/person to go to MK at night". But if they knew about during their planning phase (like the fall parties), then I am sure a lot more people would have tried it out.

The actual dollar value doesn't matter .. look at what people pay for all the other extras at WDW .. $150/person is a drop in the bucket for some people's WDW vacation budget.

I think they found the right price for the Early Morning Magic (and probably why they had both of them happening during this "test" period).

Probably from Disney's perspective the EMM is more profitable than the Late hours thing.
1) Only 3 rides are open instead of ALL of them
2) Getting people to overpay for a buffet breakfast (without characters)
3) Only an extra hour open (less time to pay for cast members)
4) A better price point that people are more willing to consider it. (I mean .. at $150 I didn't even consider the night thing .. the morning thing? Sure).

 

[lockedoutlogic]

The contention that this didn't cut into normal park hours is flat wrong.

The crowd levels at mk the last few years justify a 12 am close nearly every single day...

...somehow we've convince ourselves that it hasn't ALWAYS been the way they've done things and that they are actually extending the hours...which they are not.

The first time you see a 10 pm close in July and an after event - you can remember this post

 

[glvsav37]

As a DVC member (AP too but that's not an every year thing for us), there is a lot of drama in the DVC world because of a recent decision to exclude all resale buyers after April 2016 from ALL perks. In exchange - they have claimed they will be offering additional bigger/better perks for those members who buy DVc direct. Ticket discounts are probably the most desired DVC perk that they could offer. I don't quite understand the low party discounts for DVC, but my theory here before MNSSHP was announced was that these types of things help DVC build their case for convincing people to spend incredibly high prices for direct points. I don't think that this will be the last of the DVC discounts that we see!

Funny you mention DVC perks. As a DVC member, I just bought tickets to the DVC only showing of Aladdin on Broadway. They were 1/2 off the normal price of.....get this....$150/each. And that's for a 2 hour show. But as a NY'er I guess i'm use to seeing tickets to entertainment on the higher end.

I did see the value in the After Hours Event. But I think the rub for many is that it wasn't realistic for many people. However, it was a victim of its own design. If you want 'exclusive' it means at least 1 of 2 things...High cost (filter out those who can't afford it) or highly limited ticket sales (lower price but harder ticket to get). Either situation will cause uproar among a lot of people — too expensive vs too hard to get.

That said, I'm kinda glad its gone. Even if it fell while I was there, I don't think I would get a ticket mainly b/c the actual time is too unpredictable for my kids. I couldn't count on them to stay awake enough to enjoy it at 1am. But otherwise, I just don't like the recent rise all of the uncharge events. IMO I think it has gone too far.

 

[Mac30188]

Right .. even though EMM doesn't seem to have as much "value" from a ride standpoint (only 3 rides) . .I think it IS and WILL be more popular because people dismiss the price because they get a breakfast included. I don't think "free ice cream" was enough of a draw for the evening event.
PLUS . .more people (families) are willing to get up early than stay late.

Like I said above I think both are tests to some sort of exclusive access to the NEW stuff as they come out.

I am surprised the haven't announced some sort of Early Morning Magic for Epcot.
Early access to Epcot, Breakfast at Askerhus, Frozen Ride and A&E Meet and Greet ... $69. Wouldn't that be sold out in a heartbeat? Especially when getting Frozen Fast passes may be a struggle.

Yep. This is more likely just the beginning than the burying of a failed experim

Correct me if I'm wrong, but the gist of it is that they didn't offer enough, right? Because if you didn't offer enough for the $150 price tag, how is that different than saying the $150 price tag was too high? That's where I'm confused.

I don't think the 150 is the problem nor the amount. It is what they offered was not imaginative or targeted. For example, Davey Jones Adventure every Saturday night with PoTC, BTM, Splash Mountain, and Haunted Mansion open. Vendors with special pirate grog and Jack Sparrows rum drinks out of Tortuga tavern for sale with special limited edition souvenir mug. Free pirate themed cupcake for all attendees. CMs in pirate gear. Special Characters Davey Jones, Jack Sparrow, and Barbosa. Lone Ranger and Tonto at BTM. 150 for 3 hours, this summer only.

 

[MinnieSweetheart]

I don't think the 150 is the problem nor the amount. It is what they offered was not imaginative or targeted. For example, Davey Jones Adventure every Saturday night with PoTC, BTM, Splash Mountain, and Haunted Mansion open. Vendors with special pirate grog and Jack Sparrows rum drinks out of Tortuga tavern for sale with special limited edition souvenir mug. Free pirate themed cupcake for all attendees. CMs in pirate gear. Special Characters Davey Jones, Jack Sparrow, and Barbosa. Lone Ranger and Tonto at BTM. 150 for 3 hours, this summer only.

So they didn't offer enough to be valued at $150. That means the price was too high.....

In my head it's like I'm saying "I can't believe they priced the new Jetta at $60,000. That's way too high!" and you said "$60,000 isn't too high, if they had made it like a Ferrari, it would be worth $60,000." OK But I was talking about the Jetta and you're talking about a Ferrari.

Fair enough that the way fancy bells and whistles night time experience is worth $150 (which we've been saying since it started by the way), but Disney After Hours was NOT worth $150 because the market couldn't bear it. No one on this thread believes people won't pay for $150 for a Disney event, they just didn't believe (and were RIGHT) that people wouldn't pay $150 for this particular event.

I like your idea by the way and I've been saying the price didn't match the event since the beginning. I thought Disney would offer more to the event rather than lower the price, but wrong I was and it became an $80 event which is very telling of if they felt the price was too high or not....

 

[Shanti]

Yep. This is more likely just the beginning than the burying of a failed experim


I don't think the 150 is the problem nor the amount. It is what they offered was not imaginative or targeted. For example, Davey Jones Adventure every Saturday night with PoTC, BTM, Splash Mountain, and Haunted Mansion open. Vendors with special pirate grog and Jack Sparrows rum drinks out of Tortuga tavern for sale with special limited edition souvenir mug. Free pirate themed cupcake for all attendees. CMs in pirate gear. Special Characters Davey Jones, Jack Sparrow, and Barbosa. Lone Ranger and Tonto at BTM. 150 for 3 hours, this summer only.

Please stop giving them these terrible ideas.

 

[racefans44]

I would like to add my 2 cents' worth here. I actually went to the After Hours event on May 12 and I paid the full price for my daughter and myself. I felt that based on what everything else costed on this trip, $149 was not really that excessive. It was something new and I thought it would be fun to try it.
We arrived at the park around 7pm, although we had park hopper tickets with our package. After the fireworks the park emptied out pretty quickly. It was exciting to walk around trying to spot people with the lanyards. We started riding a little before 11pm and we were able to ride everything we wanted to, and some things we didn't before the event ended. We took some time to eat Mickey bars and take photos. The Photo Pass photographers were plentiful in front of the castle and we were able to get some beautiful shots minus other people. It did seem that there might have been more people at the May 12th event than I've seen from earlier events, but there were no lines for any attraction. Everything was a walk-on, even the Princess and Anna/Elsa meet and greet, as well as 7 Dwarfs Mine Train. The only wait we had for the whole night as to meet Mickey on the way out, but I think everyone there had the same idea. It was probably 10 minutes in line. We had the option to stay on several attractions. We had our own boat on Splash Mountain. These are all experiences that seem to be extinct as of late with increasing crowds. There are even lines at Extra Magic Hours.
Walking around that park with no crowds was a truly magical experience that I have never had before. Most of the people I talked to that night were more hard-core Disney fans, which made the whole event a lot of fun. If this event returns, I would recommend it to anyone that can swing the ticket price. I'm not really sure if this event was a failure or not. No one really knows for sure what the ticket limit was or how many tickets were sold. I hope Disney keeps this event, but not as a replacement to Extra Magic Hours, and I hope that they keep the low attendance limits. I believe that if Disney keeps this event, they will be selling it out soon. It seemed like many guests were not aware of this event, and as people attend then go home and tell others how wonderful it is, the event would begin selling out. If the After Hours event does not return, I am glad that I was able to attend during its limited engagement.

 

[Mac30188]

Please stop giving them these terrible ideas.

LOL. I wouldn't worry. I am just another opionated armchair general who posts like he has a clue, but really doesn't know his **** from a hole in the ground. Isn't that the point of a message board?