Less Than Impressed

[707MickeyGirl]

I wish they would make it prohibitively expensive for the majority. $500 for a single day hopper $2,000 for a 5 day hopper. No annual passes. That should take care of the crowds! Just cater to the top 5%...

Haha. The top 5% don't worry about crowds. They do VIP tours for over $330 per hour and go on whatever rides they want, whenever they want. I'm not in the top 5% but I'm going to splurge on a VIP tour and see how the top 5% lives.

 

[CrazyDuck]

Haha. The top 5% don't worry about crowds. They do VIP tours for over $330 per hour and go on whatever rides they want, whenever they want. I'm not in the top 5% but I'm going to splurge on a VIP tour and see how the top 5% lives.

I don't think the VIP tours get you to the front of the line...

 

[707MickeyGirl]

I don't think the VIP tours get you to the front of the line...

They do for most things. The VIP guide acts as a "human fast pass". Someone posted a TR all about it. You also get reserved seating for parades, shows, WoC, fireworks and Fantasmic.

 

[DarthMole]

The flaw in many of these arguments is they are focused only on the income side of the equation. Sure, Disney may bring in more income in a calendar year from the sale of an AP plus food and merchandise when compared to someone visiting once a year with a day ticket, but Disney has to expend more in expenses catering to a visitor going 20-30 times a year compared to someone visiting for 3-5 days. Take into consideration the average daily revenue from the AP vs. the one time guest because I can assure you that is an important factor their are considering.

Do this when considering why they no longer offer a 6-day ticket too. Adding days past a certain point just spreads out a typical vacation budget while lowering the daily average. The extra days may even hurt the average even more if money is reallocated to good neighbor hotels for extra nights. I don't believe the whole "security" reasoning behind the lack of a 6-day or longer ticket. It's all about maximizing how much they can get from their visitors in as short a time as possible. They thrive on turn-over.

 

[HydroGuy]

The flaw in many of these arguments is they are focused only on the income side of the equation. Sure, Disney may bring in more income in a calendar year from the sale of an AP plus food and merchandise when compared to someone visiting once a year with a day ticket, but Disney has to expend more in expenses catering to a visitor going 20-30 times a year compared to someone visiting for 3-5 days. Take into consideration the average daily revenue from the AP vs. the one time guest because I can assure you that is an important factor their are considering.

Do this when considering why they no longer offer a 6-day ticket too. Adding days past a certain point just spreads out a typical vacation budget while lowering the daily average. The extra days may even hurt the average even more if money is reallocated to good neighbor hotels for extra nights. I don't believe the whole "security" reasoning behind the lack of a 6-day or longer ticket. It's all about maximizing how much they can get from their visitors in as short a time as possible. They thrive on turn-over.

Not sure I agree with the 6 day pass idea, but otherwise I think you are right.

 

[DarthMole]

Not sure I agree with the 6 day pass idea, but otherwise I think you are right.

The old 6-day ticket was only $5 more than the 5-day ticket ($271 vs. $266). Right off the bat the daily revenue is peanuts on the 6th day compared to the prior five days ($5 vs. $53.20)

Now consider all the spending you do on a trip. Merchandise spending will probably go up very little on that additional day as most budget a certain amount for pins, gifts and souvenirs for an entire trip and is not dependent on the number of days. Food spending will probably be average or below as big ticket meals will most likely happen at some point during the trip regardless of that extra day. On top of this, you still need to overcome that almost $50 difference in revenue on the ticket.

In 2012 we had 6-day tickets and actually added two more at the ticket booth for an additional $5 per person ($2.50 per day). It was then that I started thinking about the math of these extra days and how each day just shrunk the daily average, thus making it easier to justify the total expense of our trip. On our 7th day (we didn't use our 8th) we had a few snack items in the park but ate offsite and were staying at HoJos. Our family of four rode a ton of rides, used various facilities, used our PP+, and basically took up space for about $25 total that day.

If they can keep the on site hotels at or near capacity, they stand to make more money elsewhere on more frequent guest turnover than letting people linger around stretching their budget.

 

[HydroGuy]

The old 6-day ticket was only $5 more than the 5-day ticket ($271 vs. $266). Right off the bat the daily revenue is peanuts on the 6th day compared to the prior five days ($5 vs. $53.20)

Now consider all the spending you do on a trip. Merchandise spending will probably go up very little on that additional day as most budget a certain amount for pins, gifts and souvenirs for an entire trip and is not dependent on the number of days. Food spending will probably be average or below as big ticket meals will most likely happen at some point during the trip regardless of that extra day. On top of this, you still need to overcome that almost $50 difference in revenue on the ticket.

In 2012 we had 6-day tickets and actually added two more at the ticket booth for an additional $5 per person ($2.50 per day). It was then that I started thinking about the math of these extra days and how each day just shrunk the daily average, thus making it easier to justify the total expense of our trip. On our 7th day (we didn't use our 8th) we had a few snack items in the park but ate offsite and were staying at HoJos. Our family of four rode a ton of rides, used various facilities, used our PP+, and basically took up space for about $25 total that day.

If they can keep the on site hotels at or near capacity, they stand to make more money elsewhere on more frequent guest turnover than letting people linger around stretching their budget.

I did not realize they were so cheap for more days. That is similar to how WDW does it. It is like just a few dollars a day after you get up to 6 or 8 days. But they have all the hotels and resort to capture money from folks which DLR does not have at the same level.

But I was more talking about the 6 days being an issue for security of the ticket. If it was only or mostly because the incremental cost was so small, they could have just bumped that increment higher.

 

[DarthMole]

But I was more talking about the 6 days being an issue for security of the ticket. If it was only or mostly because the incremental cost was so small, they could have just bumped that increment higher.

I don't know if they could change the increment enough when you consider all the other spending that gets watered down the longer one stays. I think they're looking at the big picture.

I'm sure part of it had to do with security and limiting ticket resellers, but as many have pointed out, the picture taking process has all but killed resellers, yet they keep the max days at five for a single ticket purchase.

When the parks were slower having a cheap extra day didn't mean too much as it allowed them to capture a bit more money out of their guests. With low attendance issues being a thing of the past, the lingering guest ends us being a bit of a liability, just as having too many SoCal passes seems to have become a liability.