No Codes - More Money for Disney???

[boomhauer]

I know alot of people feel as though Disney may not release codes for the summer for AP holders (I'm one of them.) What I seem to gather is that Disney isn't doing so because they feel room occupancy is high enough that they don't have to. Now I get that, but really, am I the only one that thinks Disney is making a VERY poor decision from a business standpoint?

Maybe I'm the only one, but I always considered the biggest perk to being an AP holder was the resort discount. I made 3 trips to Disney last year because of the AP discount saving me so much money. Without the discount, I won't bother, not only with an AP, but with making more than 1 trip per year.

So, Disney "loses" $30 a night, times let's say, 25 nights that I WOULD spend at a Disney Resort in a given year. That amounts to $750 that they're "losing".

I don't know about anyone else, but I spend a heck of alot more than $750 per trip. At least double that, on food and souveniers.

How is this a good business decision on Disney's part, if it is what they are thinking? I can't for the life of me think of any other reason they wouldn't release AP discounts.

 

[disneyfans4ever]

I totally agree with you. Not to mention those of us who willl no longer purchase AP's nor make multiple trips within a year. We are still wishing and waiting for June AP codes.

 

[keishashadow]

You can look @ this from Disney's corporate view (I am a stockholder) or a consumer's.

Before 9/11 WDW didn't need to discount the rooms so heavily. Evidently the tourism industry has rebounded to where they are confident & don't need to offer discounts on the rooms @ all times during the year....especially during peak periods.

Is their cup half full or half empty? WDW may not have you returning on AP tix that you've already paid for but, they can sell a room @ near rack rate & MYW tix/dining to another customer, ala churning more sales revenue.

BTW, there is a school of thought that 1st timers tend to spend more on souveniers, etc. in the parks than returning guests do...perhaps this is their strategy?

IMO, WDW can offer room discounts a month ahead of time & could probably fill any open rooms...if they get stuck, there's always Priceline.

 

[boomhauer]

Yeah, I understand the school of thought that they can sell the rooms at full price, so why sell at a discounted rate? But there's a flipside to that.

June and July may be booked solid, but I assure you, September and January certainly are NOT. And who goes during those slow months? AP holders, looking to take advantage of the great savings Disney DOES offer during that time of year to fill rooms. Now, with people not renewing AP's (such as myself), those rooms that would have been filled, and those restaurants that would have had guests in them, will not.

 

[keishashadow]

Personally, I'm surprised that the cost of gas hasn't put a crimp in travel. If it persists think people will keep their original plans for this summer but, think long & hard about second trips.

As for Sept. & Jan. low occupancy, I think WDW is going the route of having special promotions/theming in the parks themselves to bring in traffic (christian concert - sept; marathon - jan). Wouldn't be surprised for them to market Sept heavily to the pre-school crowd, many of the beach resorts do.

Additionally, they've picked up alot of convention bus. (and their families) from New Orleans area which, they'll probably have for some time.

I was so irritated about June's rates that I'm venturing off-site for the non-DVC portion for the 1st time during a WDW trip. Absolutely no way would I pay $100 night for the AS...AAA rates were sold out months ago for the nights we needed. Not sure if I'm in the minority or other die-hards will do the same.

 

[boomhauer]

I gave in and switched from Port Orleans to Riverside. It does irritate me to be paying $111 a night, when just 3 months ago, I paid $49 a night.

However, I actually love the Movies Resort.

That being said, I won't venture down anywhere near Disney in the next year without an AP.

 

[keishashadow]

My youngest DS is not very happy about "missing" the AS's this year but, Sheraton Vistana made me an offer I couldn't refuse (4 nights @ $49+tax w/o TS presentation). We're only going to stay 3 nights & it's an outstanding deal IMO.

Even debated purchasing the U. buy one, get one PAP....still might go for it even though we've got our WDW AP's until Dec.

Though I couldn't snag AAA rates anywhere I wanted in June, I was able to in mid October...now, if they'd only offer AP rates then

.

Think I'm part of the problem though. How many others are booking the rooms @ AAA or rack & hoping to "flip them". Assume WDW sees these as sold rooms & bases additional discounts on those projections(?).

 

[tinkerjo]

My youngest DS is not very happy about "missing" the AS's this year but, Sheraton Vistana made me an offer I couldn't refuse (4 nights @ $49+tax w/o TS presentation). We're only going to stay 3 nights & it's an outstanding deal IMO.

Even debated purchasing the U. buy one, get one PAP....still might go for it even though we've got our WDW AP's until Dec.

Though I couldn't snag AAA rates anywhere I wanted in June, I was able to in mid October...now, if they'd only offer AP rates then

.

Think I'm part of the problem though. How many others are booking the rooms @ AAA or rack & hoping to "flip them". Assume WDW sees these as sold rooms & bases additional discounts on those projections(?).

I agree. I thought the same thing when I booked my room at AAA rates. I held off for quite awhile, but I am not flexable where I stay(or should I say DH is not flexable) so I needed to make my ressie or take a chance at losing out.

 

[nowellsl]

What I don't get is why they are accepting $36.00 bids on priceline for the allstars when they could make more on AP holders even with a discount. They can't be short of rooms at the allstars if they are offering them on priceline!

 

[java]

You know when I went to see if the Poly was still available for our trip timeframe it wasn't. So I guess it is booked? We have a room reserved at a AAA rate... but I was hoping for AP rate(like last year at the GF ooh laa laa) But I am thinking with the high occupancy I may be out of luck on the ap rate.

 

[LadyTrampScamp&Angel]

"but I assure you, September and January certainly are NOT. And who goes during those slow months?"

Mmmm, I think Disney's got September covered with the free dining promo. I didn't go during that time last year but as I remember people were reporting the parks were quite full. It must've worked as they are offering it again this year.

I really think they've got a handle on whether the number of AP's they sell each year significantly decreases, and how that affects their revenue. I agree that any lost revenue from ap sales, if even significant, is probably replaced by people coming in for the other promos, like free dining.

Basically they are making business decisions that seemed to work well for them (again free dining was very successful for example) and it's nothing personal.

I don't know, I've wanted to buy an AP but based my decision on whether the number of days I'll be at WDW, for parks admission, in a year would make it worth it - and that's the only factor I'm considering - anything else would be gravy. So far that strategy has worked for me. I wouldn't blame people for not buying AP's based on hotel discount availability at all.

 

[mickeyfan2]

I get the AP for the park entrance. The room discount is a plus. Not getting and AP will not stop me from returning to use my AP. What the AP discount usually does for me is upgrade my room. I always book a AAA discount and see if I can get an AP rate.

 

[speedyf]

I think...and this is just my opinion....that everyone is jumping the gun by assuming June / July rates won't be released. We are here actually breaking down the reasons why Disney isn't releasing codes....when, we don't even know if the codes will or will not be released.

If June 4th comes and no codes are released, then I guess we can "talk" about what Disney did or didn't do. Like I posted before....Disney has released a code as late as 7 days before the first booking date....back in 2003....released on 4/21 for 4/28 - 7/3. We are still a MONTH away! What do you think the people that were booked at the begining of May 2003 were thinking while waiting for the code to be released? It must have been mutiny on the high seas back then....

This year....since BRP was cancelled....it seems like they are trying to tweak the system a little. They split out May from June and July. Maybe they are waiting to see how many people move their trips to August / September for the free dining before deciding what codes/discounts to offer in June and July.....who knows? They may offer a code for June soon...and wait until June to offer the code for July.

Disney has not skipped over the entire months of June / July for AP or resident rates in the past several years....and I don't think they will this time. If they offered discounts during PEAK season....which is supposed to be the busiest season besides maybe holiday season....then, I'm still confident they will offer June / July discounts.

I don't think it's worth it to argue the "why's" and "why not's" when we still don't know whether the code will or will not be released.

Again...just my opinion. I don't have any inside info or anything...just don't want anyone to get too worked up yet about it.

Speed

 

[Brian Noble]

We can all speculate about whether AP discounts during times of high occupancy would eventually resort in more profit for the company or not.

However, one thing we know for sure is that Disney is fanatical about measuring their guests. I'm sure they know, to the penny, the money that the average AP holder brings in to the resort, and I'm sure they've surveyed the heck out of their AP population to see how important resort discounts are in the general scheme.

If offering discounts eventually makes them more money, they will offer them. If not offering discounts makes them more money, they won't. We might wish that the company made the most money with policies that happen to benefit us individually, but as sad as it is to say it: wishing doesn't make it so.

 

[lovewdwdvc]

What is the you buy one you get one PAP. sound right up my alley.

 

[keishashadow]

AAA south offices are offering Universal Pref. annual Passes buy one (year), get one free.

Approx. $179 ($5 disc. if you're a AAA member); otherwise anyone can stop @ one of their offices & purchase before end of July. Must activate by Sept (?)...details on their site.

What is the you buy one you get one PAP. sound right up my alley.

 

[CarolA]

Once again, this is not a PERSONAL attack by Disney on YOU!

Disney has to go with CURRENT revenues not revenues you may or may NOT choose to give them. And to be honest, I have read way too many of these "IF Disney doesn't give me a discount I am not going back this year" threads to consider them a threat....

The truth is that if people like my friend go ONCE instead of you going three times on your AP, they may still make MORE money.

My friends went for two weeks starting this week. Booked about 1 month in advance.

Here we go... Rack Rate at Poly and AKL Savannah View 7 nights each
12 day tickets with park hopper and water park options 1 child two adults (Actually this was six days on each room)
14 days of meals (and they will eat well) No DDE discount.

Etc..... Do the math... Disney has made MORE then the $750 the OP just took and went home with.....

IF Disney chooses not to release discounts it is because they think there are enough of those travelers to fill the rooms. And they did release the Free Dining for the fall. I have also read enough on here to know LOTS of AP holders took advantage of that discount by getting the "1 day base" ticket option only with thier free dining... In that case the folks got the MAIN benefit of the AP. ADMISSION!

 

[PamNC]

Of course I know that being an AP holder doesn't guarantee room discounts, but just like the OP, we consider the room discounts of great importance when deciding to purchase/renew APs. I'm going in a little over a week and I did get an AP rate. I wanted to go in June instead, but due to the lack of codes, we're sticking with May. If we could wait until June, we could go a few days longer. And, we would have more money to spend.

If Disney continues to offer less and less in the way of AP room discounts, we will certainly reconsider renewing our AP. I guess we need to hurry because ours expire 7/2/06. We haven't decided if we're going to renew or not. We really have to look at it this way. Is it worth the $399 renewal rate per person (just me and DH). We have to determine how many days we think we will visit within the year time frame, compare it to a MYW ticket with the Park Hopper Option (I have to have that option or I would be miserable) and just do the math.

We typically go 2-3 times a year an on average we spend 14-18 days a year. That said, the AP's do save us a little money. I did the math once and I just can't remember the numbers right now. The reason we go so often is because of the AP's. So I for one think this isn't a good business decision on Disney's part. It doesn't make sense. Once we enter the property we don't leave. We spend a boatload of money and we keep coming back. Repeat customers are a staple of any successful business. I think they should continue to offer discounts on rooms no matter what! We folks will come back and back and back. Newbies may not ever step foot again on Disney property.

But, it doesn't matter what we think because they will do what they will do and honestly we will all still go. And, like another poster said, we're assuming there will be no codes for the summer. That may not be the case.

PamNC

 

[DaisyD]

What would you want Disney to do if it has its rooms booked up? Disney is not going to discount rooms it doesn't have. As a large stockholder and also AP holder I do think they have to watch the bottom line.

 

[Sammie]

The rooms offered to Priceline are gap dates. Bascially that means they might have 5 rooms on a certain date they offer to Priceline and only at 2 value resorts.

If they offer AP rates they will be property wide. So the situation at Priceline has nothing to do with offering Annual pass rates.

Disney offers annual pass rates to fill large blocks of rooms. They don't have to be at 100% to make money. When AP rates became so plentiful some Disney resorts were running at 35% occupancy. Occupancy is really up right now so they might not offer then for the summer. They might offer them very last minute, or only for a certain month.

I have an Annual Pass for ticket admission. I get more than my money's worth for that alone. I don't expect anything else.

I don't base my purchase of my ticket on whether they offer them. I buy my ticket and if they offer them, and I am going then, I will try to book one.

CarolA has a very good point too, in describing the friend's trip. You don't have to fill all the rooms if you are filling them at rack rate.