News Round Up 2020

[tlmadden73]

I also just thought about another thing:
Depending on how much volume they get with people buying tickets the day of entry or a few days prior, they can sell individual park tickets i.e. AK ticket or a Epcot ticket at cheaper prices that come with a reservation that get people to spread out more.

Oh . .I wonder if this reservation thing will just turn into "dynamic" pricing for tickets. They already have that with their day-to-day pricing now ...instead of Christmas Day being $X more than some day in September (and that price being locked in all year) .. I could easily see that price for any given day slowly creep up as the reservations get more filled up --- thus encouraging people to visit other parks on other days. This would also encourage EARLY bookings to "lock in" your reservation and ticket price early before it fills up (just like hotels, airlines, etc. etc.).

I'm struggling to see how this plays out well.

Right now "aimless" guests (preCovid) can just show up after purchasing their ticket. Even the ones who purchase tickets in advance or already have tickets or got them through third parties. No FP is required. I don't know the percentages of aimless guests vs educated ones, but I have to imagine it is bigger than I think. Can't imagine the mess this would create at the turn styles.

Disney definitely seems to value the "data" over the "impulse park attendee" or "day guest" .. and until COVID .. they had the attendance numbers to "force" people to plan 180-60 days in advance where they wanted to be on a particular day. They may not have that luxury for the next year.

I just don't know if the Orlando tourist area will bounce back that quickly .. and this reservation system MAY not play well for them .. especially if they have days where the park is "sold out" and guests have to be turned away at the turnstiles.

I've run into that issue on a recent vacation due to COVID restrictions. We wanted to go to a tourist attraction that was maybe 30 minutes from our first destination .. but I didn't want to pre-buy my "reservation" time because I wasn't sure when my previous activities would be done and I didn't want to be too late or too early for the reservation. I waited until I knew when we were going to leave our first destination and voila .. because of limited capacity, there were no spots available for this attraction unless I wanted to sit around and wait for 3-4 hours (which was too late in the day) .. so I skipped that attraction and they didn't see our money. We spent it elsewhere.

Not everything can (or should) be planned months in advance for a vacation.

 

[dlavender]

Your second paragraph seems fairly some to me - really similar to log on to look for a new FP or to mobile order

Will be just "something else" for those that don't want to use their phone/aren't able to/don't know - but maybe the net impact will be less of that if this coincides with a reduction to FPs so you don't need to "pound the app" for that as much

.... Maybe I am overly optimistic but just feels like something there will be a lot of grumbling about at the beginning and then within 12 months people will be used to it and it will be no big deal

That's true. I grumbled hard about FP+ and eventually just accepted it.

I'm sure it's not really a hassle to decide to hop and on the way out just log into MDE and hit "reserve".

Right now it seems annoying, but I'm sure when doing it it won't actually be that bad. Unless I forget and get the blue light or whatever when I try to scan into the next park, lol.

 

[Tigger's ally]

Right now it seems annoying, but I'm sure when doing it it won't actually be that bad. Unless I forget and get the blue light or whatever when I try to scan into the next park, lol.

Might help if there was one exit lane at each park for hoppers to use with dedicated wifi tunnel where you walked out and were able to do it right then......

 

[dlavender]

Might help if there was one exit lane at each park for hoppers to use with dedicated wifi tunnel where you walked out and were able to do it right then......

They would be a good idea...

I also wonder too if perhaps after a certain time, they aren't concerned about reservations? So hopping after a certain time you wouldn't need one? Its fun to get into the weeds of things that haven't happened yet. Best use of the internet I can think of, lol

 

[Tigger's ally]

Its fun to get into the weeds of things that haven't happened yet. Best use of the internet I can think of, lol

Especially when working from home and have an extremely slowwwwww dayyyyyy

 

[dlavender]

I wonder if doing this gives them another advantage when it comes to the genie roll out.

Perhaps people who don't have park hoppers, can make a wish to "get me outta here" and pay a fee to get a reservation to park hop.

 

[rteetz]

News

https://blogmickey.com/2020/08/disn...-of-blog-post-and-play-disney-parks-app-game/

 

[firefly_ris]

Your second paragraph seems fairly some to me - really similar to log on to look for a new FP or to mobile order

Will be just "something else" for those that don't want to use their phone/aren't able to/don't know - but maybe the net impact will be less of that if this coincides with a reduction to FPs so you don't need to "pound the app" for that as much

.... Maybe I am overly optimistic but just feels like something there will be a lot of grumbling about at the beginning and then within 12 months people will be used to it and it will be no big deal

I really hope so. I just don't want to stare at my phone at WDW, I want to immerse. So all the push lately for phone phone phone (look at your phone in line on PlayDisney! Look at your phone while you're walking and hit refresh 40,000 times to get a FP! Look at your phone to unlock your room! Look at your phone at this upcoming Genie app! Stoooppp) I've not been crazy about. Not planning to return until 2022 regardless, so I'm just nervously observing as all of this has been developing. This along with the paid FP rumors... maybe it won't be so bad, but I dunno. I'll just keep watching.

 

[rteetz]

https://twitter.com/x/status/1299017079417442313

 

[rteetz]

https://twitter.com/x/status/1299014466785476608

 

[rteetz]

News
https://d23.com/exclusive-imagineer...-the-star-wars-galaxy-directly-to-fans-homes/

 

[tlmadden73]

News

https://blogmickey.com/2020/08/disn...-of-blog-post-and-play-disney-parks-app-game/

This maybe blows holes in the theory that they just announced the re-theme for a timely political statement. I guess this still MAY move forward -- or maybe just hitting the low-hanging fruit to continue to show progress?
Still seems pretty crazy they are going to spend money on a re-theme of a perfectly good and popular ride during these economic down times.

Why scrubbing the music is felt as necessary right now (while the attraction is still in operation) is just weird .. I would bet that a vast majority of people don't even tie that song to "Song of the South" until all this news makes people aware of it. Like a self-fulfilling prophecy.

 

[rteetz]

https://twitter.com/x/status/1299023756761890822

 

[dlavender]

I really hope so. I just don't want to stare at my phone at WDW, I want to immerse. So all the push lately for phone phone phone (look at your phone in line on PlayDisney! Look at your phone while you're walking and hit refresh 40,000 times to get a FP! Look at your phone to unlock your room! Look at your phone at this upcoming Genie app! Stoooppp) I've not been crazy about. Not planning to return until 2022 regardless, so I'm just nervously observing as all of this has been developing. This along with the paid FP rumors... maybe it won't be so bad, but I dunno. I'll just keep watching.

Yes! Thank you.

Especially when you have 3 young kids with you. Not that fun to be looking at your phone. You miss too much of the actual experience of being there.

I'm all for getting rid of the phones. I know it ages me but I'd be more than happy with paper FP's and playing I spy......

 

[firebringer]

I think it's too early to conjecture how "Park Day Pass" would mean for long-term, but I'm going to do it anyways.

What's weird about this concept is it doesn't make a lot of sense in a fast pass world. I can understand that they might want to have an idea where the majority of people are planning to go on a given day...but if I have to book my 3 fastpasses in a certain park first, generally Disney knows that this is the park I am going to. I suppose some people go to a park in the morning and use their FP later in the day at a different park - but as a general rule I don't think that is the case.

So why in the world would you need park pass reservations if you have FP - when you know the parks aren't going to fill. In other words, this makes me think they might get rid of FP.

 

[rteetz]

So why in the world would you need park pass reservations if you have FP - when you know the parks aren't going to fill. In other words, this makes me think they might get rid of FP.

Exactly, what if they don’t have FP?

 

[rteetz]

News

https://disneyparks.disney.go.com/blog/2020/08/fall-fun-at-magic-kingdom-park/

 

[chicagoshannon]

News

https://disneyparks.disney.go.com/blog/2020/08/fall-fun-at-magic-kingdom-park/

ooh looks like I'll get my wish of part of my trip being "regular" and the other Halloween. Fun!

 

[rteetz]

News

https://disneyparks.disney.go.com/b...ts-at-walt-disney-world-resort-parks-edition/

 

[rteetz]

https://twitter.com/x/status/1299062548210229248