News Round Up 2016

[rteetz]

@rteetz - If you have an iPhone, turn it "landscape," and you can see signatures, etc.

Now I'll know for the future thanks.

 

[OhioStateBuckeye]

Maybe he (maybe she) is just thankful that multiday tickets didn't go to tiering. I know I was. I can't ever see buying a single day ticket. I am wondering if/when they do go to seasonal pricing on multiday tickets, if APs will be even more advantageous, especially for multiple trips. The way it is now, it takes 2-3 trips to really pay for itself, depending on the number of days, but seasonal pricing on multiday tickets could push it closer to 2 trips or even long single trips during peak times. I am at least glad that they will release pricing far in advance, which I assume they will do with multiday, when they go to that. It's still a hassle though and really does lock you in to your plans even more so. However, with the difficulty trying to get some FP+ and ADRs closer to your trip, I pretty much don't switch my park days now.

Sadly, I feel the single day ticket tier pricing is just a test and practice to roll it out for all day tickets at some point.

 

[rteetz]

Photo Update

Animal kingdom photo update

http://www.orlandoparksnews.com/2016/02/animal-kingdom-update-pandora.html

 

[atricks]

Sadly, I feel the single day ticket tier pricing is just a test and practice to roll it out for all day tickets at some point.

I'd expect it before this year is over, to be honest.

 

[shakes]

I'll throw my 2 cents on the table. From what I saw on my trip in October the level of crowds being experienced in the parks is not because there's so many more people, it's that Disney is operating its parks at the same ratio of people to ride capacity. Example, MK is 100% full, space mountain is running at 100% capacity with enough CMs to make things run smoothly. MK is 50% full so they run the rides at 50% capacity and so on. So no matter how big or small the crowds get, with how the park is being staffed the amount of people and wait times are always the same. I tried for months to get a table at Akershus, finally got it and when I got there the restaurant was half empty, no wonder I couldn't get a table if they weren't using half the available seats! And the Halloween Party was so packed without dance parties and other things to spread the crowds out, people were at the Hub the entire night, we will never do a party again.

I agree with this. Not sure if I agree with others that Disney is worried about parks being at capacity or high crowd levels. I have a FL resident silver pass. Blackout period is almost all of June and July, Disney's busy time, yet they have a 35% off offer for deluxe hotels for FL residents that run just at that blackout period. I can stay at WL for $317 in early May or for $208 in June. Thought that was supposed to be the most expensive time to go? Either the deluxe's aren't selling well or Disney is trying to entice the FL silver passholders to upgrade to higher tier passes. Either way they are still trying to encourage more visitors. I think any price increase is just because they can.

 

[Eoghann]

This one's more about the structure change though. It ultimately gives them more flexibility to adjust prices at each level at different rates depending on crowd patterns. Before this it's just been flat increases that don't add incentives based on the date you travel. Whether or not it will work though is anyone's guess.

A guess yes, but not a blind one. We have years of historical data to look at on price increases, Disney's efforts to encourage people to come outside of Summer and attendance figures. There's nothing there that points to this working if the aim was actually to change people's vacation habits or drive them away.

Yes Disney PR is spinning that line, but they're also trying to tell you they're doing this to save you money. They're not.

 

[Fantasia79]

That logic just doesn't hold up for me. The amount their increasing it by isn't going to provide sufficient deterrent to actually reduce attendance given that those numbers have been increasing year on year. I don't think it will even keep them at the current level. And since the largest groups Disney World caters to (families) don't have flexible vacation schedules I very much doubt it will spread the load differently.

If Disney really wanted to handle the crowds better they'd simply implement more things for people to do (it doesn't all have to be expensive rides). This is simply about getting more money because they can.

Agreed, but this smells like a beta test.

 

[Mac30188]

Agreed, but this smells like a beta test.

Well or they are trying to "boil the frog". If you put a frog in boiling water, they hop out. If you slowly raise the temperature, he will stay until he is cooked.

If they deployed the tiered pricing increase exactly as sent out in the questionnaire with massive ticket hikes across the board. It would be front page news and some people would swear off Disney. However if you break that up into several small hikes and adjustments over time, you get minimal complaints. Each little hike of a few more dollars may not be welcome, but most people will say, "well I don't like it, but its not that much more than I was paying. Oh well."

 

[Eoghann]

Well or they are trying to "boil the frog". If you put a frog in boiling water, they hop out. If you slowly raise the temperature, he will stay until he is cooked.

If they deployed the tiered pricing increase exactly as sent out in the questionnaire with massive ticket hikes across the board. It would be front page news and some people would swear off Disney. However if you break that up into several small hikes and adjustments over time, you get minimal complaints. Each little hike of a few more dollars may not be welcome, but most people will say, "well I don't like it, but its not that much more than I was paying. Oh well."

Exactly, look at people's reaction on here. "Well that's not as bad as I expected."

There's a chart I need to find that shows just how extreme the price increases actually are over time.

 

[Eoghann]

WDW Magic has a post with all the new ticket prices. One detail that caught my attention:

Tickets expire 14 days from first use. Unused tickets expire on December 31 2017.

The 14 day thing has always been there, but this December 2017 thing, is that new? Are they going to put an expiration date on all tickets now?

http://www.wdwmagic.com/other/magic...icket-pricing-and-tier-date-range-details.htm

 

[linzbear]

WDW Magic has a post with all the new ticket prices. One detail that caught my attention:

Tickets expire 14 days from first use. Unused tickets expire on December 31 2017.

The 14 day thing has always been there, but this December 2017 thing, is that new? Are they going to put an expiration date on all tickets now?

http://www.wdwmagic.com/other/magic...icket-pricing-and-tier-date-range-details.htm

That is going to backfire for Disney. It will force everyone to resell on ebay, etc, if they can't use the ticket, and then they don't have an unused ticket burning a hole in their pocket so why bother going. It also generates bad word of mouth advertising.

 

[Limes96]

What I notice about the new tiering system is very few value dates. Mainly September, January, and February and that's mostly it. October and November used to be lovely times to go, but Food and Wine plus the free dining promos have made those months crazy crowded too!

 

[Disneymom1126]

WDW Magic has a post with all the new ticket prices. One detail that caught my attention:

Tickets expire 14 days from first use. Unused tickets expire on December 31 2017.

The 14 day thing has always been there, but this December 2017 thing, is that new? Are they going to put an expiration date on all tickets now?

http://www.wdwmagic.com/other/magic...icket-pricing-and-tier-date-range-details.htm

And....THANK YOU RTEETZ...this thread saved me almost $70...and that's just for a family of 2...

 

[skier_pete]

WDW Magic has a post with all the new ticket prices. One detail that caught my attention:

Tickets expire 14 days from first use. Unused tickets expire on December 31 2017.

The 14 day thing has always been there, but this December 2017 thing, is that new? Are they going to put an expiration date on all tickets now?

http://www.wdwmagic.com/other/magic...icket-pricing-and-tier-date-range-details.htm

I'm not 100% but I think the expire thing has been there since they got rid of the non-expire option - but I could be wrong on that. Disneyland tickets always expire at the end of the same year purchased (currently December 31,2016) so they are at least giving you a little longer - or at least they have been doing that for several years.

Looking at the new tiered pricing - the it's pretty crazy thinking what a 1 or 2 day ticket costs someone.

2-day ticket is $202 + tax - Up $10 - this used to be $87 to $95 more than a 1 day ticket, now it is $80 - $105 more, depending on the 1-day ticket and pricing season.

It's still the case that the longer tickets are a much, much better value. Disney doesn't seem to like looking at it this way, but this is the calc now:
Add 3rd day - $88 + tax (Up from $83 + tax)
Add 4th day - $35 + tax (Up from $30 + tax)
Add 5th - 10th day - $15 + tax (up from $10 previously - big change here)

The hopper add-on:
Add hopper to 2 or 3-day = $55 + tax (not sure what it was before)
Add hopper to 4 day = $69 + tax (up from $64 + tax)

The WP&M add-on:Consistently $64 add-on for 2 day or above. (This stayed the same - loss of Disney Quest?)

WP&M PLUS hopper: $95 + tax (Up from $90 + tax)

 

[skier_pete]

Another point - looking at Disney's pattern, they raise prices at the same time of year for three years in a row, then they raise prices again in roughly 9 months. So, according to that, we can expect the next price increase in November of this year. (Note that this is when they raised APs last year, so expect APs and all other tickets to raise together this fall!)

 

[Eoghann]

I'm not 100% but I think the expire thing has been there since they got rid of the non-expire option - but I could be wrong on that. Disneyland tickets always expire at the end of the same year purchased (currently December 31,2016) so they are at least giving you a little longer - or at least they have been doing that for several years.

I may be mistaken but I thought no-expire applied only to the 14 day thing.

It's still the case that the longer tickets are a much, much better value. Disney doesn't seem to like looking at it this way,

I think the calculation there is that people who stay multiple days are likely to spend far more on food and merchandise (which are the biggest moneymakers anyway).

 

[Madteaparty001]

I'm not 100% but I think the expire thing has been there since they got rid of the non-expire option - but I could be wrong on that. Disneyland tickets always expire at the end of the same year purchased (currently December 31,2016) so they are at least giving you a little longer - or at least they have been doing that for several years.

I would really like to know this for sure because I bought tickets for my family last month for a spring 2018 trip so that we wouldn't be trapped by any sort of tiered or money grab scheme once the new lands start opening up. If it expires before then I'm going to have to move some money and vacation days around.

 

[beer dave]

News

It's a small world movie in the works...

http://variety.com/2016/film/news/disney-small-world-movie-writers-1201716098/?cid=8851

I hope they play the song for the entire 2 hrs.

 

[Eoghann]

I would really like to know this for sure because I bought tickets for my family last month for a spring 2018 trip so that we wouldn't be trapped by any sort of tiered or money grab scheme once the new lands start opening up. If it expires before then I'm going to have to move some money and vacation days around.

So far I can't find any reference to a date expiration on Magic Your Way tickets other than the "14 days after first use" one. I think this is a change of the new tickets. I'm not even clear yet if it applies to all of them or just the one day tickets.

 

[ColoradoDreamin]

See the DVC tickets site is still same prices just no option to buy 1 day. Those prices didn't go up. So either they are keeping the 25 year ticket promotion the same price for DVC members till April or somehow this website hasn't been completely updated.