How long before this attitude from Disney devalues DVC.

[DisMagicMa]

I think the problem with this train of thought is, we mega-fans, AP holders, and DVC owners, over estimate our impact on the overall numbers. We are really just a blip. And the current administration has blatantly stated that they are courting the new and one-time "big-spender" guests to meet their bottom line.

Now if those guests start to dry up(as stimulus runs out, unemployment rises, inflation continues, another recession, etc.) then MAYBE our group will have some sway again. But maybe not. Not while there is a number cruncher running the show at least.

But wasn't Disney ALWAYS trying to court the one-time big spender? I learned about the mythical "mid-western family of four" from a Mouse Chat article that was published years ago. It makes sense when you think of how they what they've said about APs, "unfavorable" mixes of ticket holders, DLR local guests... I'm not sure how much revenue the tried and true Disney fans actually bring in, but it can't be LESS than the guests who come to Disney once in a lifetime.

 

[we"reofftoneverland]

Your claim is that you often spend more per day than many people who stay at Disney hotels, eat 3 meals on property and buy all of their souvenirs over the course of a single 4-7 day visit?
OK.

We never did this as non dvc guests. We used to stay at GF before buying dvc and we always brought pop tarts for breakfast, snacks for the room and parks, water bottles, Fanta and diet cokes for the room, and things like peanut butter and jam to supplement food. We generally ate one quick service meal per day. We buy the same amount of souvenirs now as dvc owners as we did then. We probably buy more meals on site now than we used to as non dvc guests. A lot of this is because we have more money now. I do think dvc owners have more money to spend than your average guest. It takes a certain amount of financial security to buy dvc. But having your own food isn’t just about money— it also gives you freedom. For example, when you can eat pop tarts in the room while everyone gets showered, you get to the parks sooner. No fool buys every meal on site unless they have the dining plan— and no one has that anymore.

 

[DVCsloth]

Maybe this explains why the passholder line to get into the parks always seems longer the ticketholder line. LOL!
Disney will need to keep some sort of value if they expect people to keep visiting. Weather its buying multiple day tickets or some sort of pass, they need to keep it a really nice experience or people will move on.

 

[dalerb]

Time to End the madness. We are AP holders, DVC members, and Florida Residents. We went to WDW 4-5 times a year before the Pandemic. We went during the pandemic. We had a resort only stay when the parks were closed (most relaxed vacation on Disney property ever!) We maintained our APs throughout all of the changes. We are still making our trips during our usual times (Spring, Summer, October and Thanksgiving week). However, with the increased cost of APs, lack of dining reservations, Genie+ and all its problems (We are power users of Genie+ and don't like it!) we are ending our trips to the parks indefinitely. We gave the post pandemic WDW a chance, but we can't justify the significant increase in the cost of going to the parks for the same ol' same 'ol. We have three more trips planned to use up our 2023 points and remaining time on our APs. After that, we will use our DVC points to stay at the resorts and go to other attractions in the area and Vero Beach. WDW is just not what it was. It's just doesn't have the same vibe.

 

[RivShore]

Some interesting monorail news on this site - Egypt is currently building a 60 mile long monorail, lots of links to details too. Also I forgot there's a relatively new one in Vegas.

Just noticed I forgot to link the site:

https://www.monorails.org/tMspages/Cairo2022.html

 

[RivShore]

Time to End the madness. We are AP holders, DVC members, and Florida Residents. We went to WDW 4-5 times a year before the Pandemic. We went during the pandemic. We had a resort only stay when the parks were closed (most relaxed vacation on Disney property ever!) We maintained our APs throughout all of the changes. We are still making our trips during our usual times (Spring, Summer, October and Thanksgiving week). However, with the increased cost of APs, lack of dining reservations, Genie+ and all its problems (We are power users of Genie+ and don't like it!) we are ending our trips to the parks indefinitely. We gave the post pandemic WDW a chance, but we can't justify the significant increase in the cost of going to the parks for the same ol' same 'ol. We have three more trips planned to use up our 2023 points and remaining time on our APs. After that, we will use our DVC points to stay at the resorts and go to other attractions in the area and Vero Beach. WDW is just not what it was. It's just doesn't have the same vibe.

Did you see my quick trip report earlier in this thread? We thought things really took a step towards pre pandemic Disney during our trip last week. A dip in crowds and a noticeable increase in CM's made for a much better experience. No need for extras like G+/LL, just got on mostly everything we wanted in under 40 minutes. Was able to do a TS walk up without much of a wait. Hopefully things keep going in that direction.

 

[greeneyedchick]

MCO is not a monorail.

I guess it's technically a "people mover." https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orlando_International_Airport_People_Movers

 

[Brett Wyman]

But wasn't Disney ALWAYS trying to court the one-time big spender? I learned about the mythical "mid-western family of four" from a Mouse Chat article that was published years ago. It makes sense when you think of how they what they've said about APs, "unfavorable" mixes of ticket holders, DLR local guests... I'm not sure how much revenue the tried and true Disney fans actually bring in, but it can't be LESS than the guests who come to Disney once in a lifetime.

Sure they were. And Ive said this in several threads, but the difference back then was Disney could take your money AND make you feel like family. Chapek just takes your money and makes it all feel cheap and sorted.

 

[matt and beth]

We sold DVC about six years ago. Everything was just stale. Parks were just blah. CrowdEd. We travelled to a lot of other destinations and had a blast. However, after the hiatus we started to crave it a lot. Came back just for a super short visit and bought DVC again. The magic is still there but sometimes with your DVC and ALL your vacations being there it gets stale. Absence makes the heart grow fonder. Try other places. Check out Europe for your Disney prices. Come back when you can enjoy it again instead of feeling like a chore.

 

[MillauFr]

Sure they were. And Ive said this in several threads, but the difference back then was Disney could take your money AND make you feel like family. Chapek just takes your money and makes it all feel cheap and sorted.

Nope. Just got back from Disneyland and they made us feel like VIPs as always. Going to Napa Rose is always like a family reunion. A meal there takes 3 hours + because we spend so much time chatting with all of the staff. Even several guests at the Tiki Room came up and admired my son's enthusiasm for the show.

 

[RivShore]

I should do a proper trip report but just wanted to say for this thread that we spent last week at BWV and CCV and all the parks and I must say that it almost felt like pre-pandemic! Crowds were moderate most of the week except as the labor day weekend approached. We experienced not a single ride being down. We did not have our heads buried in our phones, did not use LL, G, or G+. We did do the 7AM thing for Guardians and got a good mid-morning time. Otherwise we just kept an eye on wait times and got on 90% of the rides we wanted with no more than a 40 minute wait. The CM's were noticeably more friendly and a few went above an beyond for us. QS wait times were all reasonable and we were able to do a walk up at resort TS when rain prevented us from getting to a park TS reservation. And this was even with the app saying "the walk up list is full" (or something like that). Also it seemed like most of the entertainment so many said was never coming back, was back. Parades in full force. Random street entertainers. Random character visits to hotel lobbies. And YeeHa Bob too!

It really felt like there were more CM's in general at all locations - parks, restaurants, resorts. Maybe staffing has finally picked up or maybe the slight drop in overall attendance meant customers and staff were better balanced. Whatever it was I hope you all experience the same on your next visit.

A little followup to my little trip report that shows things may be slowly getting back to the normal we all miss - We stopped by WL today because we think we left a pair of headphones in the room last week and, even though they were very busy, we were helped immediately by a friendly person at the bellhop area by the store. While she went in the back to check on our missing item, no less than 4 other CM's asked if they could help us, including a manager. And the lobby was packed with all of the desks busy. That kind of thing just wasn't happening the last year or two.

Unfortuantly no luck on the headphones but since we are local, we will be checking back and we did file a lost and found report online.

 

[Unclelude]

We’ve been DVC members for over 15 years. Since the pandemic (or should I say Chapek) prices have sky rocketed, guest magic is gone and down time for the rides have increased. Genie+ and lightening lane in my opinion are just a joke and way for them to pocket more money. I’ve mentioned the great disappoint with my DVC rep and stated how we will not be visiting or spending our money at Disney. His response was that we could resell back our 5 contracts. I flat out told them I would never resell to Disney because we bought into them at such a low price that they would resell at twice we paid and they would just make more money. I’d rent my points out before I ever gave them more.

Interesting! Rent out of spite. I kind of like that.

I sent an email to my guide in the last year as well...( Expressing my discontent for the 'fringe stuff'. ) She was very empathetic, and came as close to agreeing with me as she could ( on a recorded line ).

They are sales... So I take it with a grain of salt, but she assured me my voice was being heard. She follows up after a stay and from time to time to see how things are... Again, sales, but also customer service.

That. Disney customer service... to me *Is* the core of the magic... If that goes to crap, I'm gone, or maybe renting.

 

[WilsonFlyer]

Disney's attitude is devaluing Disney.

 

[Philsfan77]

At some point, there will be a breaking point...but in the grand scheme of everything, I don't know how close it is. Most of the folks that are upset, are upset because they know better, and know what Disney used to be, or what they used to get. We are newish DVC members, and we bought in about 7 years ago, so what we've seen disappear/change isn't as substantial as say friends of ours who bought in and are original OKW owners and still talk about things like the grandslam pass and things of that nature. We also tend to look at the cost, based on what we know things used to cost, but that first time guest or even 2nd time guest, simply isn't as aware, or simply don't think its that much more expensive than say doing anything else. I work part time as a travel agent, and can tell you that across the board, costs of trip destinations everywhere have skyrocketed. A friend of mine went to Punta Cana last year for spring break, booked in mid October, and it ran them about $5000 for the week for their family of 3 at one of the better resorts down there. They wanted to go back this year and that same trip and same resort, booking at the same time is now running about $7000 (various factors including airfare impacting that). I recently priced out a trip for Cancun for another family of 5, and for 4 nights at a mid-level all-inclusive in August it was going to run them between $6-$7K. Priced out Disney for them with airfare and they could stay at Port Orleans or Caribbean Beach for $5K for the same date range, and Boulder Ridge or Boardwalk for about $5800. Leaving them around $1200-$2000 to spend on food and any extras. I've sent a handful of first time families to Disney in the past year, and all come back hooked after a great trip and 3 have gone down the DVC exploration path, knowing we are DVC members and asking us questions. Some of the things that bother me/my family like paying extra for genie+, didn't bother them because the theme parks where we live (in PA, we have 7 within 2 hours of us) either don't even offer a front of line option, or the cost for it is extremely high (Hershey Parks express pass for instance starts at $50 and can run as high as $150 a person for 1 day and the unlimited version of it runs from $70-$200 a person). They also never experienced Disney where fast pass was free and you got to make 3 selections before you went. What they experienced, was still simply put, far superior to what we experience at any of our theme parks up here, and the price point for tickets and genie+ is cheaper than the price point for tickets and express pass at a number of our parks near us.

I don't say any of this to necessarily defend Disney, or imply that I am fine with these increases or offering less for more money, because I know better. However, for the first time guest or even second time guest, who doesn't know any better, the overall feedback i'm getting from people is Disney is still awesome and some of these people are seriously considering DVC.

I can't help but think that people who used to go religiously in the 80's-90's started looking back at things in the mid 2000-2010 range and going they've taken so much from us. However, the next generation, who didn't know any differently, kept coming and filling the void. Now that group are going I can't believe how much we've lost or stuff we are missing that we used to get for free, but the next genreation who don't know any differently still seem to keep coming.

 

[bobbiwoz]

@Philsfan77 very interesting. I appreciated knowing the cost increases for other vacations.

 

[AdamsMum]

We sold DVC about six years ago. Everything was just stale. Parks were just blah. CrowdEd. We travelled to a lot of other destinations and had a blast. However, after the hiatus we started to crave it a lot. Came back just for a super short visit and bought DVC again. The magic is still there but sometimes with your DVC and ALL your vacations being there it gets stale. Absence makes the heart grow fonder. Try other places. Check out Europe for your Disney prices. Come back when you can enjoy it again instead of feeling like a chore.

I just returned from Europe, and as for the prices, wow. You're right about that. However, the economy in Europe is a much different thing than in the U.S. Businesses in Europe have been dealing with high energy and food (and other) supply costs forever. We, in North America, have been living in an economic bubble. We've had relatively low energy costs, food and just general cost of living for the last 40 years, while Europe has been exhorbitantly expensive. Those European businesses have high costs because of their high costs. Chapek is just raising prices as a strategy to line his own pockets, and thin out the crowds, he isn't dealing with the economic situation that European businesses have to manage. Prices have always been ever increasing at Disney, but I felt that I was always getting a superior experience for my hard earned dollars. Not so much any more.

I'm hanging in there as a DVC owner, because I do love going to Disney and I love staying in a great resort with some of the conveniences of home. But now that ME is no longer available, I might go back to my old habits, rent a car and explore more of the area. ME kept me onsite because of my deep seated need to save money LOL.