Disney's Price Increases are obscene....

[TDC Nala]

The point you are missing is that it is not about " having our cake and eating it too". It is about a question of value. Many of us, maybe not all but many, would not be complaining if the value was still the same. IF the parks kept up maintenance, if rides weren't down and I'm not talking scheduled refurbs, if they weren't cutting length and creativity of parades and firework shows (think DHS and Illuminations), if the food quality wasn't hit and miss while prices increase, if there were still as many characters and photographers and "magical" extras, if you could count on a clean and well kept room, if you could have some of the specialties and variety back in the Concierge lounges, if the fast pass lines weren't so variable (presuming this is temporary though), and so on so forth then I would happily pay an increase. I may even be willing to shell out more if the value and quality were there and consistent. What takes the "magic" out of it for some of us is experiencing a trip full of the above issues all the while being asked to pay more for less.

If you experienced all of that during your trip, no wonder you don't want to go back. If I experienced all of that in one trip I wouldn't go back either. Yes they took away my favorite thing - but I haven't experienced much of the list above. Of course I don't visit characters much or have photos taken, and there are restaurants I no longer visit, but there are others to pick up the slack.

 

[TLSnell1981]

First rule of sales.....

Never sell something for what you think it is worth, sell it for what people are willing to pay.

People are continuing to pay, so why wouldn't Disney raise prices? They would be losing revenue if they didn't.

Well, not every business is allowed to set prices in that manner. They have fee schedules and are required to charge accordingly.

Disney gets much less from my family, the value and quality no longer meet my standards. We are DVC and receive a healthy AP discount, otherwise... We would be elsewhere.

I think there's more overlap in people who like Universal and Disney (and SeaWorld) than you realize -- if nothing else, maybe Disney's higher prices will encourage people to explore other options.

Disney only sets the price; we decide on the value.

Yep. Costco has a 3 day Universal pass, that doesn't expire for 3 years.. only $145. Looking better all the time.

You missed the fact that all of the park updates, well, they are to be expected! Disney should change all the queue lines every year, just to keep them fresh for those of us who go at least once a year!

Disney once maintained their properties, like their ships...on a daily basis (fresh paint, dead flowers removed, etc. ).

 

[CandleontheWater]

That is not all they are doing though. If you are expecting a massive amount of thrill rides, then I think you are doomed to disappointment.

To me, the new Dumbo and the whole themed area looks beautiful. As does the new Haunted Mansion queue. And the Pooh queue is pretty cool too. And I can't wait to ride the new 7 dwarfs roller coaster, or eat in the new restaurants, and shop in the new shops.....and that is just at MK.

I kinda have to wonder what they would do that could possibly impress you. You seem to be missing that so much of what make WDW special is the attention to detail, not whamming people in the face with new and bigger and better. Until next year, when you want something newer and bigger and even better. Plenty is new and improved but you can't seem to see it.

If themed play areas and queues really impress the guests then I guess Disney be justified on resting on their laurels. I never said I wanted thrill rides, but what I would like Disney to do is take the reigns again and develop innovative technology, and create immersive and cutting edge attractions for a family audience. Bigger is not a requirement, better IS! I think that queues and play areas are a waste of WDIs talent. They are cute and they are nice extras, they make riding more pleasant, but they are not the extent of their capabilities.

They money is coming in, I'd like to see them make good on it.

 

[goofy4tink]

During the 2008/2009 season the length was cut. I know when I went in August of 2009 they entire end section when the big crystal ball was rolled out was left out. I remember it vividly because I would always try and see what faces I recognized on the ball.

I have had messy rooms, and for me it's not the messy rooms.Its what happens when I complained about the messy rooms (nothing). Yes I totally admit to having high expectations at a 300'/night resort. When I tell you there are cigarette butts all over my balcony, it should not take 3 freakin days for you to clean it up and call me a whiner but if I have to ask 3 straigt consecutive days for it to be cleaned I'm asking for money back or a room change.
We stayed at the GF for our anniversay, every night there was a huge angry crowd at the valet parking desk. Ok, 1 night there are issues with staff but sorry, if you are running what is supposedly your "flagstaff" hotel, it should not take 40 mins to get your car from valet and the excuse we were given was "the company is not disney employees". I don't give a rats patooie. You contracted them out, they are representing your hotel. get it together. That's why many people say disney deluxes are 3 star hotels at best. the quality just isn't there.

I'm glad folks are still very happy with the product they receive, why would I want some one who spends 1000's of dollars to not be happy but I'm not crazy either when I say disney leaves a lot to be desired for what they charge.

as a share holder I guess it makes me happy that they are getting more with spending less. As a consumer though, I'm happily taking my dollars else where and not recommending disney as much. if some one ask me about a vacation at the world I don't lie either, I tell them the good and the bad. If they tell me about the food, I tell them it's mediocre at best. Good value if it's free, not so good if you are paying oop. same with the hotels. You are paying for being on site. If you are in a deluxe and you think you will get real world deluxe ammenities, you will be sorely disappointed.

For the life of me, I can't recall a crystal ball coming out during IllumiNations. Maybe I was just never there when it occurred?? Not sure.

I would be unhappy with a room not being maintained, especially after repeated attempts to get it done. If it had been me though??? I would have pushed all those butts off the balcony, with my foot, after an hour had passed without any visit from housekeeping!!!

There is always room for improvement, even at WDW. I just have had very few instances where I have been really unhappy. And when those instances occurred, I complained to management. Usually resolved to my satisfaction..usually.

 

[maxiesmom]

If themed play areas and queues really impress the guests then I guess Disney be justified on resting on their laurels. I never said I wanted thrill rides, but what I would like Disney to do is take the reigns again and develop innovative technology, and create immersive and cutting edge attractions for a family audience. Bigger is not a requirement, better IS! I think that queues and play areas are a waste of WDIs talent. They are cute and they are nice extras, they make riding more pleasant, but they are not the extent of their capabilities.

They money is coming in, I'd like to see them make good on it.

I'm sorry, but you still are not saying anything specific. Saying Disney needs to develop innovative technology sounds nice, but what are you specifically looking for? A cutting edge attraction? Again, specifically what would you consider cutting edge? You can verbalize what they are doing wrong, but can't specifically say what the should do instead?

Again you are missing the fact that it is the little things that draw people to WDW. Some of the most charming things are the smaller things. Not everyone needs "cutting edge" rides and attractions to be impressed. Bigger and fancier is not always better.

I want to add that a quick search shows that Disney has a lot going on as far as research and development goes. Lots of new things they are working on, just nothing that is park read yet. Maybe if you take a peak it will make you feel less mugged for your money.

 

[doris1976]

When will this garbage end. As far as I can tell, the economy is not getting much better and the mouse has always gotten more then his share of the pie. Pretty soon, the only people going there, will be .....

 

[TDC Nala]

When will this garbage end. As far as I can tell, the economy is not getting much better and the mouse has always gotten more then his share of the pie. Pretty soon, the only people going there, will be .....

I'll go with that when attendance at the parks takes a nosedive - right now that isn't happening, the parks are packed.

 

[Glenn]

If you think prices went up way to high this year just wait to next year. Over at the Orlando Sentinel All things Disney there is an article about this years large increase in AP. They basically said that with the new fantasyland they feel they will deserve another big increase for the new stuff.
So this just shows you, as others have said elsewhere, that Disney really doesnt value repeat customers that come back often. Come once or twice in your lives, spend a fortune & there is always lots of folks to replace you. I only know a few that are repeat visitors including DVC. They are all going less often, cutting out things that decreased in vaule & making it a much different vacation.

 

[Waltgirl]

That is not all they are doing though. If you are expecting a massive amount of thrill rides, then I think you are doomed to disappointment.

To me, the new Dumbo and the whole themed area looks beautiful. As does the new Haunted Mansion queue. And the Pooh queue is pretty cool too. And I can't wait to ride the new 7 dwarfs roller coaster, or eat in the new restaurants, and shop in the new shops.....and that is just at MK.

I kinda have to wonder what they would do that could possibly impress you. You seem to be missing that so much of what make WDW special is the attention to detail, not whamming people in the face with new and bigger and better. Until next year, when you want something newer and bigger and even better. Plenty is new and improved but you can't seem to see it.

Well, I can't speak for the poster you are responding to, however I pose a question to you....at what point would you stop being impressed with the window dressing? When the store is empty? It is true that nobody does the details better than Disney. But even if the resort looks stunningly beautiful, if the attractions are all old and they continue to break down frequently, at some point you would say to yourself this is not worth the money. Disney certainly has the capital and the know how and the personnel to create spectacular experiences, but the fact is there is a tipping point for everything. Why does Disney love first time visitors so much? They don't know any better! Everything they see is fresh and new to them, what's to complain about?

 

[TDC Nala]

I do agree that Disney doesn't much care about the annual passholders or frequent visitors. They want those trip-of-a-lifetime-splurge visitors who haven't seen it all. They claim to have done surveys and what people disliked most about WDW was "waiting in line." So theyre putting in new ride queues. And they're coming up with some kind of system where you can reserve your rides. So whenever they ask you to take a survey, say you want new, cutting edge attractions. That is if they acutally use the surveys and don't bring them up as excuses for other business decisions like they did for Pleasure Island.

I don't know, is it just a case of complaining because Disneyland got Cars Land and Universal got Harry Potter? didn't Disneyland's annuals go up even more than WDW's did?

 

[maxiesmom]

Well, I can't speak for the poster you are responding to, however I pose a question to you....at what point would you stop being impressed with the window dressing? When the store is empty? It is true that nobody does the details better than Disney. But even if the resort looks stunningly beautiful, if the attractions are all old and they continue to break down frequently, at some point you would say to yourself this is not worth the money. Disney certainly has the capital and the know how and the personnel to create spectacular experiences, but the fact is there is a tipping point for everything. Why does Disney love first time visitors so much? They don't know any better! Everything they see is fresh and new to them, what's to complain about?

I was at WDW 3 months ago, and didn't experience one ride breakdown. Not one. And then there is the fact that Disney is now spending a lot of time and money refurbing rides too. So maybe I just don't see it as Disney is letting the place fall apart, and not doing anything about it. I see them as doing a lot, quite frankly.

 

[wbeem]

I'll go with that when attendance at the parks takes a nosedive - right now that isn't happening, the parks are packed.

Exactly, and that's why I can't take threads like this one seriously. Disney doesn't care how much people complain about prices while those same people are still paying the price.

When people vote with their money, not their complaints, then you may see change. Disney is a business. Money talks. If you're giving them your money, then your words don't really matter.

 

[wbeem]

I was at WDW 3 months ago, and didn't experience one ride breakdown. Not one. And then there is the fact that Disney is now spending a lot of time and money refurbing rides too. So maybe I just don't see it as Disney is letting the place fall apart, and not doing anything about it. I see them as doing a lot, quite frankly.

I was at DHS yesterday and the rides were working. However, there was no ice in the soda fountain. That sort of irked me on a hot day.

 

[Cheshire Figment]

My Cost of Living has gone up. I want my pay raise. So do the 61,999 other Cast Members at WDW. Where is the money coming from? Maybe a price increase?

 

[TLSnell1981]

I was at WDW 3 months ago, and didn't experience one ride breakdown. Not one. And then there is the fact that Disney is now spending a lot of time and money refurbing rides too. So maybe I just don't see it as Disney is letting the place fall apart, and not doing anything about it. I see them as doing a lot, quite frankly.

We were there 2 weeks ago. Splash mountain was down and we were escorted from Ellen's midway through the attraction. "Sorry, come back later".

Actually, Disney is trying to put Humpty back together again. Theyre playing catch up, while hiking prices and reducing value.

 

[TLSnell1981]

My Cost of Living has gone up. I want my pay raise. So do the 61,999 other Cast Members at WDW. Where is the money coming from? Maybe a price increase?

Disney reminds me of our government..slashing benefits, jobs and quality, but constantly wanting $$$$ more for less services.

I will bet Iger's the first in line for his $$$$$$$$.

 

[shalom]

You can enjoy something, but still be disappointed that it isn't living up to its full potential.

But nothing and nobody lives up to their "full potential" on every front, unless they've got very little potential to start with. Disney has the potential to create the greatest, scariest, wildest, most exciting thrill rides any teen has ever experienced -- but I don't think that's ever been a primary goal. And I'm dead sure their goal has never been to create a park so incredible and innovative that only a small portion of the population could even understand what they've accomplished! OTOH, if Disney's goal with the WDW parks is to get lots and lots of people coming there year 'round, they're doing a pretty good job at moving toward their full potential -- which in this case, would be full parks and resorts year 'round.

But to be honest, I don't expect a lot of technical innovation from Disney in the parks. Big corporations are not known for taking that kind of risk -- they're better at modifying and perfecting existing technologies. The last award Disney got for innovation that I know of was the Huntington Award -- for their brilliant Accounts Payable system.

Not laughing because there's anything wrong with that -- I'm not up on finances enough enough to know whether their innovation was "brilliant" in the sense of "really useful and helpful" or "brilliant" in the sense of "makes a bunch of people rich before leading to total financial collapse," but my money is on the former -- just laughing because it's not the sort of innovation most people associate with Disney. It is, however, typical of the kind of innovation Disney's been known for for a while.

Magical Express was innovative. Fastpass was innovative (and rapidly copied). Highway engineers study how Disney manages crowds. And so on. Disney is more innovative when it comes to money and crowd management because that's where they need to be innovative -- they don't need to come up with new rides to draw people in half so much as they need to find ways to keep the people they've got happy and to make things go smoothly when dealing with such large numbers of people.

Which is why Disney hardly ever appears in Popular Mechanics articles on the most innovative, most outrageous, most whatever theme park lists -- the only exception I can remember is Summit Plummet, which made their "World's Wildest Water Rides" list. And even that was in third place. When it comes to the parks, Disney doesn't have much motivation to be "on the edge" of innovation -- or on the end of much of anything else but crowd management -- because they get enough attention by just perfecting existing technology or theming it better than anyone.

 

[gkrykewy]

The value of our dollar is shrinking

No, it really isn't. The dollar is at about a five year high against the Euro, and getting back up to a ten year high against the pound.

Don't believe the hyperbolic nonsense of certain news outlets.

 

[CandleontheWater]

But nothing and nobody lives up to their "full potential" on every front, unless they've got very little potential to start with. Disney has the potential to create the greatest, scariest, wildest, most exciting thrill rides any teen has ever experienced -- but I don't think that's ever been a primary goal. And I'm dead sure their goal has never been to create a park so incredible and innovative that only a small portion of the population could even understand what they've accomplished! OTOH, if Disney's goal with the WDW parks is to get lots and lots of people coming there year 'round, they're doing a pretty good job at moving toward their full potential -- which in this case, would be full parks and resorts year 'round.

But to be honest, I don't expect a lot of technical innovation from Disney in the parks. Big corporations are not known for taking that kind of risk -- they're better at modifying and perfecting existing technologies. The last award Disney got for innovation that I know of was the Huntington Award -- for their brilliant Accounts Payable system.

Not laughing because there's anything wrong with that -- I'm not up on finances enough enough to know whether their innovation was "brilliant" in the sense of "really useful and helpful" or "brilliant" in the sense of "makes a bunch of people rich before leading to total financial collapse," but my money is on the former -- just laughing because it's not the sort of innovation most people associate with Disney. It is, however, typical of the kind of innovation Disney's been known for for a while.

Magical Express was innovative. Fastpass was innovative (and rapidly copied). Highway engineers study how Disney manages crowds. And so on. Disney is more innovative when it comes to money and crowd management because that's where they need to be innovative -- they don't need to come up with new rides to draw people in half so much as they need to find ways to keep the people they've got happy and to make things go smoothly when dealing with such large numbers of people.

Which is why Disney hardly ever appears in Popular Mechanics articles on the most innovative, most outrageous, most whatever theme park lists -- the only exception I can remember is Summit Plummet, which made their "World's Wildest Water Rides" list. And even that was in third place. When it comes to the parks, Disney doesn't have much motivation to be "on the edge" of innovation -- or on the end of much of anything else but crowd management -- because they get enough attention by just perfecting existing technology or theming it better than anyone.

What I think you don't understand is that you can be innovative without being a thrill ride. You guys aren't thinking big enough. Innovative is what Disney used to do best. Think about 3D movies. Disney took an obscure medium that was used for "B" level horror flicks, improved the technology, created amazing movies (starting with Magic Journeys and up through Philharmagic) and in large part created a huge resurgence of the medium. Now you see 3D everywhere- why?- because of Disney. There is nothing about Philharmagic that is a thrill ride- but it was an innovation and something that Disney brought to the forefront and caused other parks to stand up and notice and add to their line-ups.

Another good example is simulators. They were the HOT theme park addition back in the 90s- why?- because Disney took the technology, improved upon it, developed immersive experiences and it became a huge hit. We wouldn't see motion simulators in other parks or being used in other rides without Disney's work on Star Tours and Body Wars. Other parks had to jump in and copy what Disney developed.

If you look throughout the parks, you'll find lots and lots of examples of this.

Heck- even the modern dark ride was a Disney innovation. They took the fun house carnival model, and created the amazing worlds we see in Pirates and Haunted Mansion.

To give you an example of what I would not count as innovation would be the Little Mermaid attraction. Is it a lovely attraction, certainly worthy of the Disney brand, however there is nothing ground-breaking about it. Lets think a little about the living character initiative, and some of what we have seen coming out of that sector of WDI. Now, take some of that cutting edge technology, add it to a traditional dark ride- and you have dark ride 2.0. Something different and spectacular, something innovative and new, something that will make other theme parks stand up and notice. The type of ride that will be copied or at least attempted in other theme parks.

You have taken a technology and really plussed it, the way Disney used to do! Then you can add a themed queue and gift shops and you are getting something REAL for your price increase.

I think you are mistaken in that it is not the little details that make Disney. Little details without substance mean nothing. What Disney is built on is a solid foundation of innovation and creativity, the pinnacle of family entertainment. The little details are the icing on the cake, not the cake itself.

I think that with the price increases we've seen in the past 5-10 years, that the guests deserve that kind of excitement, that kind of innovation, and the type of family entertainment that Disney made their name on, not just icing.

 

[Pmctn]

No, it really isn't. The dollar is at about a five year high against the Euro, and getting back up to a ten year high against the pound.

Don't believe the hyperbolic nonsense of certain news outlets.

Please tell us how the dollar is not shrinking. Current inflation data shows an approximate 3% inflation rate. In the past 5 years the cumulative inflation rate is approx. 13%.