Does this make any sense??

[raidermatt]

The AP pricing structure is unfair...period.

No its not. Period. If you don't like it, you don't buy it. That's fair. There is no spin, no BS. You have a choice in how you spend your family's entertainment dollars, and you made your choice.

Didn't Hitler try to make that argument? That's Disney's new line?..."Come to Disneyland and pay full price for a kid...Life's Not Fair!!"

Forgetting how distasteful the Hitler comment was...

Full price is $43 per day. Neither you nor your daughter are paying that. You all have unlimited admission to two parks, one of which you hate and the other you advise nobody visit, for $199 each. Its a great deal and you know it, which is why you purchased the APs. If it wasn't a great deal, you'd have bought just the adult APs and single day tix for your daughter.

Once again, you are asking people to agree with you on something that your own actions disagree with. Its a free country and you can do whatever you want, but you shouldn't be surprised when you are called on it.

 

[roymccoy]

a discounted AP for children at WDW. Disney has a discounted price for children tickets at DL, DCA, DL Paris, etc. They even have discounted child tickets to most of their shows. It's unfair to have a 25% discount for children on a one-day pass to DL/DCA and have no discount for an AP to the same parks. WDW has a child's AP and DL used to have a discount for a child's AP but now they are the same price. Doesn't make any sense and it is not fair. Why does Disney charge less for a one day child's pass? Well, when I called them they told me "because kids can't utilize everything in the park and we want to give the parents a little break." Well, carry their own explanation over to AP's. Why are kids all of the sudden the same as adults? Their pricing structure isn't fair.

Roy Roy Gump

 

[raidermatt]

Once again, by your definition, there are three ways to make the pricing structure "fair".

1- Do what you suggest and lower child's AP.
2- Raise adult AP, leave child's at $199.
3- Eliminate all other children's discounts, such as single day child's discount

All would be "fair" by your definition, but would you be happy with #'s 2 or 3?

Disney offers children's discounts for business reasons, not out of fairness. So where they offer them and where they don't is also a business decision.

Certainly you've seen discounts for various items from various companies that say "Cannot be combined with any other discounts or promotions". Isn't this the same thing? An AP is already a discounted ticket. It's a very common business practice to not allow further discounts. They CAN if they want to, but fairness is not the reason. WDW probably does it because their APs cost more. Its more difficult to convince someone to spend $400 per child than $200. Even though there is more to do at WDW, $400 is still a bigger chunk out of a budget than $200.

Another example is a movie theatre. Why do they charge less for matinee's than they do for evening shows? It's the same movie. For that matter, why do they charge less for a child? The child takes up the same number of seats as the adult does, and sees the same movie. (Hint- both are Business Decisions, not fairness)

 

[roymccoy]

and the lady in admissions said that they have received MANY comments and complaints about there not being a child's price for annual pass when there is a child's price for everything else that Disney does. I registered my feelings on the matter with her and she said that she would pass them along. She said that it "obviously hadn't been thought through too well because it didn't seem right to her either." She thinks maybe it was an oversight. She said that they had similar problems when they first introduced the DL/DCA AP. That makes me feel a little better. At least they are getting some calls about it and even the employees can see the inconsistency. We'll see.....

Roy

P.S. I asked if I would get a refund of some sort IF they did implement some sort of child's AP and she said that
"she didn't know for sure but it has been done before with other AP changes."

 

[year2late]

An oversight, that is funny! Of course it was not! That statement alone leads me to believe she was 'handling' you.

Calling and writing to Disney is productive to a point.

I think that in the end, Disney will make a financial decision - were people (adults and children) buying them at a sufficient rate? If they were not buying them at sufficient rates Disney will make other decisions.

 

[Floydian]

1) Express your concerns to Disney in the hopes that somehow, someone there will think it's something that needs to be looked at, which you've already done.

2) In many ways, it is a business decision, and whether one person likes it or not isn't going to have a tremendous impact. If they are selling things at a whatever their "target rate" might be, then why change it? If they're selling things faster than expected, I'd expect to see a price increase. If they're selling them slower than they wanted, then I'd expect to see some kind of discount. That's just the business side of hings, and MAY be what the thinking is of the executives there, whether you or I disagree with it or not.

3) By the way, I don't like the policy either. I think it's inequitable, and seems to go against every other pricing policy they have in effect. Thus, one can only hope that some kind of change will be made to "fix" the problem. One thing that also has to be considered by those same execs (assuming they're paying attention) is any possible "image problems" that might arise from this situation. Maybe they're selling tickets just fine. Maybe they don't really care if someone doesn't like the pricing structure, especially when that person buys the product anyway, despite their disaproval. But, if that person voices an opinion, and others voice the same opinion, and a number of people begin to agree that something isn't right, even if they are generally fine with the actual costs and value, then the execs might see a possible public relations problem brewing, and make a change JUST to protect an already tarnished image.

4) How would it be done? It seems that almost everyone with experience agrees that paying $199 for the childs AP is a good value, and i seems that they are not exactly having problems selling those. So, why should they lower the price on them? It also seems that those same people feel that the $199 for the adult AP is a TREMENDOUS value, and hint that they'd be willing to pay more if they had to, because it is such a great value. Well, if I were a Disney Exec. and had to do something with all of this information, there would be only one decision for me.

Beginning June 1, 2002 (or whenever "seasonal rates" go up), the new price for an Adult Premium AP will increase to $249. Thank you and have a nice day.

I agree that the lack of different pricing makes absolutely no sense whatsoever. I agree that they seem to have made a mistake when changing the prices and hving adults and kids costing the same. But I also see only one solution, andmy guess would be that adult prces would go up. I'm not sure if you want that or not. But it would at least satisfy this particular complaint.

 

[year2late]

Originally posted by Floydian
I agree that the lack of different pricing makes absolutely no sense whatsoever. I agree that they seem to have made a mistake when changing the prices and hving adults and kids costing the same. But I also see only one solution, andmy guess would be that adult prces would go up. I'm not sure if you want that or not. But it would at least satisfy this particular complaint.

Which is why I was satisfied when Disney gave us a good thing. Greed backfires on ya sometimes.