Need your thoughts, Heard Disney actually looses money entertaining some guests

[LuluLovesDisney]

Why do you think that Disney was losing money on them? They didn't cost Disney anything during a visit and didn't even use the rides so they didn't even reduce ride capacity. I'm also quite sure they were very neat and cleaned up after themselves so anything they paid with profit for Disney.

Disney's overhead is extremely high- light and power, water, cast members, etc. It is practically impossible to estimate a per person cost based on these things, though, because there are so many variables and every guest is different. Disney doesn't operate all that as a goodwill gesture, everything is up and running to get people to pay for tickets, merchandise, food, etc. It doesn't really "cost" Disney much to have an extra guest, unless they are at capacity and a non-spending person inside prohibits a big spender to enter.

For the record, I certainly felt that I had gotten more than my money's worth when I had an annual pass and made 3 trips that year (August, November and August again)

I'd be surprised to find Disney losing money, on the whole, on any subset of guests, especially those buying tickets at public prices.

But even if we were to assume that the resident annual pass holders (at least some significant subset) were net losses for Disney, they'd still be worth it. There are other things that don't necessarily show up directly on the balance sheets that are affected by happy locals -- such as zoning, tax, and infrastructure issues. You can't point out the value of each of these variables on a per-local-guest basis, but they can affect the political climate around WDW that in turn affects Disney's bottom line.

I agree with this. There is nothing wrong with Disney not making a profit off some guests, they make huge profits off others. It all evens out- it is Disney's job to make sure it does! This is just like how companies have huge sales on one item and have others overpriced. The profit margin of one unit is not as important as the whole.

In conclusion- I hope to be one of those old ladies getting my last dime's worth of my Florida Resident Pass someday. Heck, I'm hoping for a senior discount on meals by then