New ticket system coming to WDW - Begins October 16th

[ShadeDK]

Tend to agree that the ticket calendar isn’t a sign of anything specific on SW:GE opening dates. Too many variables this far out.

As a potential target date? Sure - but that’s not saying much since the “late Fall 2019” official announcement only leaves a relatively small window of weeks it could be. A mid-December opening wouldn’t shock me - as it leaves November and the relatively quiet early December for soft opening and previews to get ready - as well as a couple of weeks after “official” opening for the holiday crowds to arrive.

 

[ninafeliz]

Right .. but that the same time .. with how busy it is .. if ticket prices were any lower, it simply would be a lot more crowded. Disney is just adjusting to us. We keep coming, so obviously they don't need to have any more economical options to tickets. This hopefully is their main goal though. Higher prices, which makes less crowds, which improves guest experience, which hopefully encourages future visits (or spread good word of mouth).

Disney does not want (especially in today's social media world) people on vacation (or coming back) and posting pictures of crowds and complaints how it wasn't worth the money .. etc.

Paying an arm and a leg and dealing with huge crowds and not being able to get the FPs and ADRs you want .. that will send people quickly to the competition.

Sure, there are so many ways to look at all of this. Plus, as you and everyone else says, people keep coming so they aren't messing up too much! Also, as you point out, I don't want cheaper prices and MORE people, it's already crazy! I would be fine with the increases if it actually meant less crowded parks and less lines - but it won't! They don't care what works best for my family, they want what will bring in the most people and revenue.

In actuality, I think I would like to have to pay a lot more but be guaranteed short/no lines - like DAH but for all of the parks all day. We would do each park one day, and if we wanted to save money we would skip a park for that trip. The problem is, I think that price would have to be so high that only the uber rich (think celebrities, headliner sports players, mega company CEOs) would be able to go - not just the well off (or even very well off) or those that save up for a trip. Plus scheduling and reserving would be a nightmare. So it's just a pipe dream. But it would be nice. Doesn't Discovery Cove at Sea World work something like that?

 

[rteetz]

In my opinion, that’s already the case. But they just keep coming.

That’s what is so interesting. People complain, get upset, talk about going to universal yet crowds stay the same or go up.

 

[mshanson3121]

That’s what is so interesting. People complain, get upset, talk about going to universal yet crowds stay the same or go up.

Have the actual guests been up however? I thought guest attendance has been down the last couple years? I know profit was up, but that was largely just because of increased costs.

 

[AllThingsMickey4]

I got a 7 day pass from UCT yesterday after Disney rolled out the price changes.
I got the confirmation and was able to link to MDE in less than 1/2 hour after i made payment.
The price was the same from last week when i checked.

And here I am over 24 hours since I purchased my ticket from UCT yesterday morning and still nothing I haven't been able to call them yet due to work, but I just emailed them for the second time after my last email went unanswered. Not impressed so far

 

[rteetz]

Have the actual guests been up however? I thought guest attendance has been down the last couple years? I know profit was up, but that was largely just because of increased costs.

Disney doesn’t release attendance numbers. According to the TEA numbers were up. AK was up about 15% in 2017 and that was only with a half year of Pandora or so. DHS I believe fell a little bit but the other parks made up for it. MK was stagnant for the most part.

 

[mshanson3121]

Yep .. I've been coming more frequently since 2015 (since I had kids). We go every 18 months or so .. and while I sheltered myself from the ticket price increases by getting the old no-expiration option tickets, you can't shelter yourself from the other price increases like food.

Disney has not only raised prices a significant amount in those four years they have slowly removed ALL the options we (the frequent, returning guests) could use to save money on tickets. No more no-expiration option (where tickets didn't have to be used all at once), all MYW tickets now expire in a year or two, increases in Annual Pass prices (about 10% increase JUST this year in two separate price bumps) and now tickets have to be used in a specific date range.

Obviously the increasing crowds say otherwise (and I am part of the problem), but you'd think that this much change/increase in such a short time will alienate your die-hard fans. The ones that spend a lot of money at the parks year over year and want to come back, but feels like we are being punished for our loyalty.

I just feel they need another option (besides Annual Pass) to give loyal, returning guests some sort of discounts on tickets. (Like bring back the old no-expiration option tickets).

We're a one-income household on a relatively small income at that, and we just absolutely cannot financially justify the cost of Disney. For us as Canadians, we're now talking $2300 (regular price) for tickets only. That is just absurd, and absolutely not worth it to us.

But, that said, I do feel that your income can influence your perceived value of something. If we had a greater income, then we would definitely go back. The question becomes, would we then feel that the $2300 was worth it? Or would we still feel it's not worth it, call it highway robbery, but just do it anyways because we're able?

 

[ninafeliz]

When boardwalk ticketing took all of their tickets down last night, park savers showed sold out, and UCT temporarily took down all of their e-tickets I bought a 4 day ticket from The Offical Ticket Center. I did get an email confirmation from them, but it said I would get an email that my order has been processed within 24 hrs. It’s been that, and it’s well after business hours, so I doubt I’ll get it tonight. I guess I’ll have to call in the am, hope there won’t be a problem Has anyone here used them? I’ll get the code to link the pass to MDE and make FPs when I get the processing email, right? I would have just bought UCTs hard ticket, but it expired sooner and wasn’t going to come until after our FP day (and paying for faster shipping would have defeated the purpose of buying third party for the discount). If I’d known for sure they would have the tickets back up I would have just waited for them, but I was getting panicked that I would have to buy under the new pricing and bought from where I saw availability at the time! Do you think they are just backed up with orders, or are they always a bit slow to get the linking confirmation?

ETA - ironically I decided to check my email one last time before going to bed. I had one new message, and I saw it was from the official ticket center! However, when I opened it it’s an email asking me to rate their service and give them 5 stars lol! They shouldn’t send that when they haven’t sent my linking code yet, and they missed the time frame they say to give them!

Quoting myself to say that I called them this morning and they said my order was processed and I would get an email today, and I did get the email with the code to add to MDE just a bit ago. So it worked out fine, just took longer than the 12 hrs they say it takes (and 24 hrs to get the email). She said they were swamped with orders, which i don't doubt, so I'm sure that's why. Of course, when I went to add the ticket to MDE account I ran into problems, it won't let me sign in on Chrome to see my itinerary to even try to add the ticket, and on the app it says there is an error and to try again later. I'll clear cookies and try again, but it's always something

 

[Mackenzie Click-Mickelson]

That’s what is so interesting. People complain, get upset, talk about going to universal yet crowds stay the same or go up.

That's because of first time visitors or people who aren't in the know or go too little so comparisons between trips may not mean much or in certain cases they cave and go back.

 

[Roxyfire]

We're a one-income household on a relatively small income at that, and we just absolutely cannot financially justify the cost of Disney. For us as Canadians, we're now talking $2300 (regular price) for tickets only. That is just absurd, and absolutely not worth it to us.

But, that said, I do feel that your income can influence your perceived value of something. If we had a greater income, then we would definitely go back. The question becomes, would we then feel that the $2300 was worth it? Or would we still feel it's not worth it, call it highway robbery, but just do it anyways because we're able?

I agree it all depends on where you're standing. For tickets alone that's absurd for any working-class family. For that amount (plus whatever you'd pay for transportation and lodging) you'd have an outstanding vacation in many other locations.

 

[QueenElinor]

We're a one-income household on a relatively small income at that, and we just absolutely cannot financially justify the cost of Disney. For us as Canadians, we're now talking $2300 (regular price) for tickets only. That is just absurd, and absolutely not worth it to us.

But, that said, I do feel that your income can influence your perceived value of something. If we had a greater income, then we would definitely go back. The question becomes, would we then feel that the $2300 was worth it? Or would we still feel it's not worth it, call it highway robbery, but just do it anyways because we're able?

We might as well be Canadians- we're in Montana
It's a major investment just to get to WDW. This year I'm trying to combine it with a visit to NC where my daughter is graduating from college, so at least the airfare is doing double duty. Because of the cost of 5 airplane tickets, I've become a bit sanguine about the prices. I guess we haven't hit our "not worth it" mark yet, but making reservations at this point is... trying, to say the least. And I'm a reasonably intelligent person, I can barely navigate this. It's far easier to plan a multi-country visit to Europe, I must say.

So I think it is a question of value, which includes getting to do, see and eat what we came for. If we spend a bundle on a vacation we darn well better get pretty close to what we want. That's what aggravates me. You can spend a ton and the experience can still be very iffy- this must be why CL is already sold out at the resort of my choice. I can't think of another type of vacation where this is the case, unless it's due to an act of God- which Bob Iger certainly is not.

 

[M SH]

And here I am over 24 hours since I purchased my ticket from UCT yesterday morning and still nothing I haven't been able to call them yet due to work, but I just emailed them for the second time after my last email went unanswered. Not impressed so far

yea definitely call them! it shouldn't take that long.
mine was almost instant.

If you go on their website, in your account, does you online order (on their website say complete or processing?).
just wondering if the email didn't go through that you might see the etickets online from your account.

 

[AllThingsMickey4]

yea definitely call them! it shouldn't take that long.
mine was almost instant.

If you go on their website, in your account, does you online order (on their website say complete or processing?).
just wondering if the email didn't go through that you might see the etickets online from your account.

It's been saying "processing" since I purchased them. The $500 ticket charge and an authorization charge is pending on my credit card account. I provided them with the amount of the authorization charge in my email and I got no response

 

[SaintsManiac]

We're a one-income household on a relatively small income at that, and we just absolutely cannot financially justify the cost of Disney. For us as Canadians, we're now talking $2300 (regular price) for tickets only. That is just absurd, and absolutely not worth it to us.

But, that said, I do feel that your income can influence your perceived value of something. If we had a greater income, then we would definitely go back. The question becomes, would we then feel that the $2300 was worth it? Or would we still feel it's not worth it, call it highway robbery, but just do it anyways because we're able?

Of course there isn't value in it for everyone. I don't know how a family of 5 can do it on a single income or even 2 middle class ones. You have to save and save, which is what we do. But we are a family of 3 and now financially in a position to do it. At some point we probably won't be and that's ok, too.

Disney trips have been worth it to us. Every family has their own feelings of what is worth it and what isn't.

 

[fla4fun]

In actuality, I think I would like to have to pay a lot more but be guaranteed short/no lines - like DAH but for all of the parks all day. We would do each park one day, and if we wanted to save money we would skip a park for that trip. Doesn't Discovery Cove at Sea World work something like that?

Yes, basically they have a premium product that they price at a premium rate and then they have a hard limit on the number of people that are allowed in each day. It’s also a much smaller, more intimate park, compared to Sea World, so lower operating costs for labor, etc.

But for Disney to do that it would have to be priced for the wealthiest of the wealthy and even then there would be more people wanting to get in than openings. DAH and EMM work for Disney because they are double/triple dipping into the attendance pool. They have the normal average Joes like us during regular operating hours and the people willing to pay a premium on top like the cherry on a sundae. I don’t think having a DAH or EMM size crowd all day would be a sustainable business model for the size of their parks.

Maybe it’s me, but when I was looking at the calendar for random tickets, I wasn’t seeing the large differences between what was peak season vs. value or regular season. The difference was more marked in the smaller tickets (say, a five day vs a ten day) but if they were wanting to spread the crowds out more evenly I would have expected a larger variance. The discount would have to be substantial for me to jump through hoops and visit at a less convenient time. People go when they go because it works for them to go at that time. Whether it’s work restrictions or school restrictions or whatever, to go at a different time may involve a lot of aggravation.

 

[Searc]

But, that said, I do feel that your income can influence your perceived value of something. If we had a greater income, then we would definitely go back. The question becomes, would we then feel that the $2300 was worth it? Or would we still feel it's not worth it, call it highway robbery, but just do it anyways because we're able?

Personally speaking, we can afford the price increases, but I still feel the worth and perceived value are no longer there.

 

[Searc]

It's been saying "processing" since I purchased them. The $500 ticket charge and an authorization charge is pending on my credit card account. I provided them with the amount of the authorization charge in my email and I got no response

I would contact UCT. I purchased tickets from them a few weeks ago and didn't receive a confirmation email or the tickets. I did a web chat and found out my email domain has a known issue with receiving email from UCT. The email was resent as a pdf and I got it within a few minutes. It was resolved quickly and I had no issues linking the tickets.

 

[QueenElinor]

Of course there isn't value in it for everyone. I don't know how a family of 5 can do it on a single income or even 2 middle class ones. You have to save and save, which is what we do. But we are a family of 3 and now financially in a position to do it. At some point we probably won't be and that's ok, too.

Disney trips have been worth it to us. Every family has their own feelings of what is worth it and what isn't.

Right. It somewhat depends on income, but not entirely. It's like buying a car or house, or renting an apartment- even if you can afford more you may not necessarily want to (something salespeople don't readily grasp, I've found). On the other hand, people take out loans for vacation, too, which is not something most financial advisors would recommend. But hey, I'm not living their lives. It's up to each individual to decide if it's worth it to them.

 

[jtowntoflorida]

Personally speaking, we can afford the price increases, but I still feel the worth and perceived value are no longer there.

ITA. Especially when we look at vacations we can take to other destinations for the same--or even less!--money. I also feel like the value proposition is less now that our kids are a little older. When we first started going when they were 5 and 2, Disney was great because it was such an easy vacation to take with kids. Now that it is 7 years later and the kids are easier to take anywhere, generally, I have a harder time spending Disney-level money on just Disney vacations.

 

[QueenElinor]

Yes, basically they have a premium product that they price at a premium rate and then they have a hard limit on the number of people that are allowed in each day. It’s also a much smaller, more intimate park, compared to Sea World, so lower operating costs for labor, etc.

But for Disney to do that it would have to be priced for the wealthiest of the wealthy and even then there would be more people wanting to get in than openings. DAH and EMM work for Disney because they are double/triple dipping into the attendance pool. They have the normal average Joes like us during regular operating hours and the people willing to pay a premium on top like the cherry on a sundae. I don’t think having a DAH or EMM size crowd all day would be a sustainable business model for the size of their parks.

It's true that, unless one is crazy-rich, there is always someone with more money, or at least someone who is willing to spend it more freely. Last time we stayed on-site at YC and we felt on top of the world, with FP+ just coming out and all the onsite perks. This year, we're doing the same thing and I feel like we're halfway up into the cheap seats. But CL is already sold out for my dates- nine months in advance. I think they are having some success aiming for the 1%.