New survey .. proposal .. Tiered Ticket Prices

[cakebaker]

Back on topic...

I don't think any reasonable person would expect that Disney will raise ticket prices 83%. I would guess it will be MUCH closer to the 10% number. I would be willing to bet on it.

I'd agree with this for the most part. It's a pretty out there idea that they'd increase anything close to a doubling in price.

I also think the idea that Disney is somehow making a complete about face and trying to get people to plan shorter trips is not reasonable. For months now a major complaint is that one of Disney's intents with FP+ and MDE in general was to lock people into longer stays. Now all of a sudden, this survey question is proof of the opposite. Just by default, at least one of those predictions has to be wrong.

 

[mesaboy2]

It's a pretty out there idea that they'd increase anything close to a doubling in price.

Wishes Dessert Party anyone?

 

[Barnabe]

I think Disney might be better served by introducing a 40-50% price increase across the board rather than going with the confusing new model.

IMO, I think the price hike will be 40-50% but it will be hidden in the dynamic pricing. Keep the guests confused.

 

[WillAustin]

Back on topic...



I'd agree with this for the most part. It's a pretty out there idea that they'd increase anything close to a doubling in price.

I also think the idea that Disney is somehow making a complete about face and trying to get people to plan shorter trips is not reasonable. For months now a major complaint is that one of Disney's intents with FP+ and MDE in general was to lock people into longer stays. Now all of a sudden, this survey question is proof of the opposite. Just by default, at least one of those predictions has to be wrong.

Lumping in all the different responses to various things and saying all of them make little sense together doesn't work. The people who said one thing aren't necessarily saying the other. I don't think they are trying to shorten trips. I could see them charging those who stay longer more because the "10%" demographic may fit. It also could push more people to APs that end up sitting a drawer, making Disney more money with no extra costs.

 

[cakebaker]

Wishes Dessert Party anyone?

An optional choice is a bit different from basic park entry- but one could also say that for a long time, the Wishes party was half price compared to the Illuminations party. I allow of course that there is liquor at Illuminations but there's also no chairs so.....

Still, not the same thing. No one has to do a dessert party to enter the parks.

Time will tell. We should all bookmark this and then those who guess wrong can fall on their swords and those who guessed right could claim victory.

 

[PirateD]

I listened to the WDW Today podcast discussion and found it very interesting. They mainly focused on the arrangement of the tiers on the calendar. Their main point was that is where they see the "money grab" by Disney--not so much in the increase in price but how Disney arranges the tiers. They basically say that the bronze level of pricing is an illusion because there is only one full week in September (Saturday to Saturday) and one week in January (Thursday to Thursday) where the bronze pricing would apply. I looked at the chart and it does appear to me that most of the time you are going to be bumped up to the next level of pricing as there are also very few solid silver weeks in there too. Disney has masterfully arranged the days so that the only pricing that has a consistent color scheme for week long stays is Gold.

I know PP have mentioned the above several times before, but thought I would highlight it again as I found it to be the most intruguing part of Len's analysis. As far as I know, the calendar is the same on both of the much discussed charts. I haven't analyzed them side by side, so there may be some differences.

Note: They also debate what should constitute a "Gold" day which I think is an interesting discussion as well.

 

[Barnabe]

I listened to the WDW Today podcast discussion and found it very interesting. They mainly focused on the arrangement of the tiers on the calendar. Their main point was that is where they see the "money grab" by Disney--not so much in the increase in price but how Disney arranges the tiers. They basically say that the bronze level of pricing is an illusion because there is only one full week in September (Saturday to Saturday) and one week in January (Thursday to Thursday) where the bronze pricing would apply. I looked at the chart and it does appear to me that most of the time you are going to be bumped up to the next level of pricing as there are also very few solid silver weeks in there too. Disney has masterfully arranged the days so that the only pricing that has a consistent color scheme for week long stays is Gold.

I know PP have mentioned the above several times before, but thought I would highlight it again as I found it to be the most intruguing part of Len's analysis. As far as I know, the calendar is the same on both of the much discussed charts. I haven't analyzed them side by side, so there may be some differences.

Note: They also debate what should constitute a "Gold" day which I think is an interesting discussion as well.

So Disney may use the dynanmic pricing to disguise their 50% price increase since everyone will be visiting when the days are golden for Disney. Cha-Ching!

 

[WillAustin]

I listened to the WDW Today podcast discussion and found it very interesting. They mainly focused on the arrangement of the tiers on the calendar. Their main point was that is where they see the "money grab" by Disney--not so much in the increase in price but how Disney arranges the tiers. They basically say that the bronze level of pricing is an illusion because there is only one full week in September (Saturday to Saturday) and one week in January (Thursday to Thursday) where the bronze pricing would apply. I looked at the chart and it does appear to me that most of the time you are going to be bumped up to the next level of pricing as there are also very few solid silver weeks in there too. Disney has masterfully arranged the days so that the only pricing that has a consistent color scheme for week long stays is Gold.

I know PP have mentioned the above several times before, but thought I would highlight it again as I found it to be the most intruguing part of Len's analysis. As far as I know, the calendar is the same on both of the much discussed charts. I haven't analyzed them side by side, so there may be some differences.

Note: They also debate what should constitute a "Gold" day which I think is an interesting discussion as well.

Nobody will ever know how many people fit into the bronze level of pricing except Disney. As mentioned before, it is similar to airline pricing. They can post the lowest price so it looks great, but if you want to travel on a busy day, have legroom, checked bags, or food, the price goes up. The survey mentions that if the levels overlap, you'd pay the higher price, so it does artificially limit how many days someone could use while still remaining on the lowest price level.

 

[Mikie]

Nobody will ever know how many people fit into the bronze level of pricing except Disney. As mentioned before, it is similar to airline pricing. They can post the lowest price so it looks great, but if you want to travel on a busy day, have legroom, checked bags, or food, the price goes up. The survey mentions that if the levels overlap, you'd pay the higher price, so it does artificially limit how many days someone could use while still remaining on the lowest price level.

Quite the mind games going around! Get the buying public to feel "Disney's not THAT bad, but I am stuck with higher prices because of my special circumstances" (don't we all like to feel special?). I have lost it in this long thread - have we in this discussion assumed that a ticket over several tiers would all be bumped to the highest level, or is it explicitly stated on the survey chart? I figure it could certainly be a blend, just as my average price per night is actually a blend of high weekend prices averaged out with lower weekday nights, but if the chart states otherwise. . .

I really wish I understood enough about marketing, PR, and customer surveys to understand the point of all this. If the more reasonable price chart ends up being used, it is a modest price increase (still high, don't get me wrong!) that could have been accomplished without really revealing this complicated structure and inviting scrutiny. As others have pointed out, package pricing is already cloudy and very difficult to isolate the prices of each element, and these demand-level bumps could have been similarly blended, I think. Perhaps a first step to split out different demand days at modest price increases, so that it becomes easier to tag those high crowd days for more significant price hikes in the future.

 

[SmithSmith]

I listened to the WDW Today podcast discussion and found it very interesting. They mainly focused on the arrangement of the tiers on the calendar. Their main point was that is where they see the "money grab" by Disney--not so much in the increase in price but how Disney arranges the tiers. They basically say that the bronze level of pricing is an illusion because there is only one full week in September (Saturday to Saturday) and one week in January (Thursday to Thursday) where the bronze pricing would apply. I looked at the chart and it does appear to me that most of the time you are going to be bumped up to the next level of pricing as there are also very few solid silver weeks in there too. Disney has masterfully arranged the days so that the only pricing that has a consistent color scheme for week long stays is Gold.

I know PP have mentioned the above several times before, but thought I would highlight it again as I found it to be the most intruguing part of Len's analysis. As far as I know, the calendar is the same on both of the much discussed charts. I haven't analyzed them side by side, so there may be some differences.

Note: They also debate what should constitute a "Gold" day which I think is an interesting discussion as well.

This is what I've been interested in, but I didn't come up with the same blocks of time that you indicated. Maybe there's yet another chart? Anyway, the charts I know of look the same to me, however, I've stared at them for so long that they're starting to look like a game of Tetris, so I may be wrong.

Here's the chart with the "Multi-day tickets crossing two or more seasons must be purchased at the highest season’s price" stipulation:



Here's the chart without that stipulation:



Correct me if I'm wrong, but the only 2 blocks of time I'm seeing where a guest could hold a 7 day bronze ticket is: April 27-May 8 & September 2-19. Right?

 

[MKMomma]

Wishes Dessert Party anyone?

LOL Some people have short memories.

 

[WillAustin]

Correct me if I'm wrong, but the only 2 blocks of time I'm seeing where a guest could hold a 7 day bronze ticket is: April 27-May 8 & September 2-19. Right?

I think you're right.

 

[wisblue]

If I understood those 2 examples correctly, in the one with the much higher increases, each day would be priced separately, so you could have a trip with tickets in more than one category during your stay. In the other one, every day would be priced at the rate for the day in your stay that is in the highest tier. That doesn't appear in the charts themselves, but in some additional information I saw, I think in the WDWMagic and Touring Plans articles. Someone can correct me if I'm wrong.

But, to me, the important thing in the first chart listed above is that the difference between the Bronze and Gold tiers is not that great. So, an all Gold trip would not be that much more than an all Bronze trip. Again, using the example of the 7 day hopper, the all Gold would only be 10% higher than all Bronze. Nothing in that chart would produce anything remotely close to a 50% increase, much less an 80% increase.

I don't believe for a second that Disney is going to be able to fool anyone by obscuring much higher prices with a tiered pricing concept. First time or infrequent visitors don't care how much prices have increased, they just want to know what they are NOW. And then they can decide what they are willing to pay. And I'm sure Disney knows that increasing any prices 80% from their current levels is going to affect buying decisions for a lot of potential visitors.

 

[WillAustin]

I think cherry-picking the numbers from any of the charts would be the wrong way to go. It's almost certainly going to be somewhere in between. 10% is too low and 80% is too high. They will tier the tickets and it will cost more.

 

[Angel Ariel]

I think cherry-picking the numbers from any of the charts would be the wrong way to go. It's almost certainly going to be somewhere in between. 10% is too low and 80% is too high. They will tier the tickets and it will cost more.

As I understood the chart on TP, the price increases were a range of %, it wasn't 80% across the board, but a range of increases from something like 10% to 80%, depending on the length of the ticket.

I don't have thr article in front of me, though, so I could be remembering wrong.

 

[momof2n2]

Maybe it's already been asked but why are the dates what they are? They are incorrect.

 

[WillAustin]

Maybe it's already been asked but why are the dates what they are? They are incorrect.

How are they incorrect?

Edit: I see Wisblue's post below. I guess that's what you mean.

 

[wisblue]

Maybe it's already been asked but why are the dates what they are? They are incorrect.

It says it's a 2014 calendar. These are obviously more for illustrative purposes than anything else.

 

[larryz]

Do you really think there is some sort of conspiracy by posters on this message board in combination with all of the moderators, the owners of this site and Disney to censor comments?

No, I don't think Disney is involved--although, if their Facebook site is any clue to their behavior, then maybe it's ALL Disney.

 

[jodifla]

So last year with all the FP+ technical troubles we decided to skip Disney. The planning was just too much of a hassle. Instead, we stayed at our DVC but went to Universal and on a Disney cruise with our DVC points. It ended up being an economical vacation and we had a fabulous time without ever stepping foot in a WDW park. As I look at this tiered pricing, it makes me think there's a lot more non WDW park trips in our future.

I wonder how this will work with DVC. At some point, it's going to be hard to get people to buy in an the very high prices -- almost triple what I paid 18 years ago -- when buyers know they are going to have to pony up thousands for each park ticket.

And let's not forget that it only takes one national tragedy or bad economic turn to really shut down the travel industry. Disney should be careful they don't poison their relationship with their fans. They are asking about "being greedy" for a reason.